24 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Science Should Settle Policy
The most important scientific concept is that an assertion is often an empirical question, settled by collecting evidence. The plural of anecdote is not data, and the plural of opinion is not facts. Quality peer-reviewed scientific evidence accumulates into knowledge. People’s stories are stories, and fiction keeps us going. But science should settle policy.
1 Susan Fiske on the truth of assertions and opinions as being testable.
06 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Check Your Privilege
Learn to Listen Rather Than Speak
This one is a lot harder than it sounds, and I say this as someone who loves speaking and voicing her opinion on things. One of the greatest things we, as privileged people, can bring to a discussion being held by non-privileged groups is our closed mouths and open ears/minds. When you enter a minority space, you need to realize that this is their soapbox, not yours. Your privilege gives you many other soapboxes that you can take advantage of, so when p... 1 
notes
notesFrom the article that inspired the use of this term in debate.
13 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
AI Fails Because it Uses the Wrong Kinds of Computers
My own opinion is that AI has failed to fulfill its promise because we are using the wrong kind of computers. We are using digital computers, and the human brain is probably analog rather than digital. So my guess is that AI will succeed only after we move from digital to analog computing. This is a tough intellectual problem that cannot be solved just by spending a lot of money. Human brains are analog, computers are digital.
02 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
Stand Alone Complex
Laughing Man: Who knew that copies could still be produced despite the absence of the original? If you had to give a name to this phenomenon, what would you label it?
Motoko: It would be "Stand Alone Complex"
Laughing Man: Yes, it's the stand alone complex. From the start the very nature of our current social system has contained the mechanisms to trigger such an amazing occurrence. Personally however, I feel this marks the beginning of a new era of despair. What's your opinion?
Motoko: I ... 1 notes
notesThe concept of many people getting the same idea, giving the appearance of either coordination or copycat behavior, but there is no originating even to copy.
08 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
George Washington Promotes Science and Literature
Nor am I less persuaded, that you will agree with me in opinion, that there is nothing which can better deserve your patronage than the promotion of Science and Literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness. In one in which the measures of Government receive their impression so immediately from the sense of the Community as in ours it is proportionably essential. To the security of a free Constitution it contributes in various ways: By convincing those who are...As the keys to happiness and to preserve liberty.
01 AUG 2012 by ideonexus
A Liberal Decalogue
Perhaps the essence of the Liberal outlook could be summed up in a new decalogue, not intended to replace the old one but only to supplement it. The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:
1.
Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2.
Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3.
Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
4.
When you...Folksonomies: philosophy virtue
Folksonomies: philosophy virtue
Bertrand Russel's 10 rules to live by for those who love truth and knowledge.
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Deducing the Original Arrangement of Chemicals
The chemists who uphold dualism are far from being agreed among themselves; nevertheless, all of them in maintaining their opinion, rely upon the phenomena of chemical reactions. For a long time the uncertainty of this method has been pointed out: it has been shown repeatedly, that the atoms put into movement during a reaction take at that time a new arrangement, and that it is impossible to deduce the old arrangement from the new one. It is as if, in the middle of a game of chess, after the ... 1 notes
notesFrom a compound is like trying to figure out the history of a chess game from the positions of the pieces on the board at present.
31 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Scientific Revolution
Although few expressions are more commonly used in writing about science than 'science revolution,' there is a continuing debate as to the propriety of applying the concept and term 'revolution' to scientific change. There is, furthermore, a wide difference of opinion as to what may constitute a revolution. And although almost all historians would agree that a genuine alteration of an exceptionally radical nature (the Scientific Revolution) occurred in the sciences at some time between the la...Folksonomies: scientific revolution
Folksonomies: scientific revolution
1 notes
notesWhat is a revolution? What causes it? When did it begin? Scholars disagree on these matters.
28 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Science and Art, the Few and the Many
In science, address the few; in literature, the many. In science, the few must dictate opinion to the many; in literature, the many, sooner or later, force their judgement on the few. But the few and the many are not necessarily the few and the many of the passing time: for discoverers in science have not un-often, in their own day, had the few against them; and writers the most permanently popular not unfrequently found, in their own day, a frigid reception from the many. By the few, I mean ...Folksonomies: communication two cultures
Folksonomies: communication two cultures
Interesting way to frame a difference between the two as they relate to their audiences.
15 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Heat Makes Solids Fluids and Fluids Gases
The opinion I formed from attentive observation of the facts and phenomena, is as follows. When ice, for example, or any other solid substance, is changing into a fluid by heat, I am of opinion that it receives a much greater quantity of heat than that what is perceptible in it immediately after by the thermometer. A great quantity of heat enters into it, on this occasion, without making it apparently warmer, when tried by that instrument. This heat, however, must be thrown into it, in order ... 1 notes
notesBlack believes there is more heat going into ice that turns to water than is registered on a thermometer.
