14 NOV 2014 by ideonexus
Concepts from Accelerando
agalmics: A form of economics concerning the "study and practice of the production and allocation of non-scarce goods," primarily via free-market trading, open-source initiatives, and flexible standards for intellectual property. Consult Robert Levin's "The Marginalization of Scarcity" for more information.
anarcho-capitalism: A political philosophy which proposes the replacement of governments with the free market. For more information see wikipedia:anarcho-capitalis... 1 
notes
notes21 JUN 2014 by ideonexus
The Rate of Change of a Rate of Change
In scientific thought we adopt the simplest theory which will explain all the facts under consideration and enable us to predict new facts of the same kind. The catch in this criterion lies in the word 'simplest'. It is really an aesthetic canon such as we find implicit in our criticisms of poetry or painting. The layman finds such a law as dx/dt = K(d^2x/dy^2) much less simple than 'it oozes', of which it is the mathematical statement. The physicist reverses this judgment, and his statement ... 1 notes
notes30 APR 2014 by ideonexus
Bottom-Up VS Top-Down Method for Finding Laws
Broadly speaking, to discover new regularities and laws we either follow top–down or the bottom–up approach (Fig. 1). In the top–down approach, the search begins with an external observation e.g., Newton’s laws of motion. The observer intuitively imagines a set of elements, a set of interactions and a mathematically expressible form to connect the two. Components are weaved into a mental map and experiments are planned to verify or nullify the model. If the experimental observations r... 1 notes
notesFascinating explanation for why laws are harder and harder to find as we move into macroscopic sciences.
30 APR 2014 by ideonexus
Laws in Biology
In scientific jargon, law describes a true, absolute and unchanging relationship among interacting elements. Unlike in some fields, social customs and authorities do not determine the establishment of laws in science. Given that laws are derived from empirical observations, it implies that laws symbolize regularities endorsed by a majority opinion. People also use terms like rules and principles to describe consistent relationships expressed by mathematical equations e.g., Heisenberg uncertai... 1 notes
notesThere are fewer and fewer laws as we move from fundamental sciences, like mathematics and physics, to more complex and chaotic sciences, like chemistry, biology, and climatology.
12 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Selections From a Memetic Lexicon
Auto-toxic
Dangerous to itself. Highly auto-toxic memes are usually self-limiting because they promote the destruction of their hosts (such as the Jim Jones meme; any military indoctrination meme-complex; any "martyrdom" meme). (GMG) (See exo-toxic.)
bait
The part of a meme-complex that promises to benefit the host (usually in return for replicating the complex). The bait usually justifies, but does not explicitly urge, the replication of a meme-complex. (Donald Going, quoted by Hofstadte... 1 notes
notesThe most useful and interesting terms.
17 MAR 2013 by ideonexus
There is No "Up" and "Down"
This flat conceptioning is manifest right up to the present in such every¬ day expressions as "the wide, wide world" and "the four comers of the Earth." As mentioned before, "up" and "down" are the parallel perpendicu¬ lars impinging upon this flat-out world. Only a flat-out world could have a Heaven to which to ascend and a Hell into which to descend. Both Christ and Mohammed, their followers said, ascended into Heaven from Jerusalem.
Scientifically speaking (which is truthfully speaking...
1 There is only "in" and "out." The Sun does not go "down," but rather the Earth revolves us away from it.
01 FEB 2012 by ideonexus
The Origin and Evolution of Scientific Terms
It is interesting to note how many fundamental terms which the social sciences are trying to adopt from physics have as a matter of historical fact originated in the social field. Take, for instance, the notion of cause. The Greek aitia or the Latin causa was originally a purely legal term. It was taken over into physics, developed there, and in the 18th century brought back as a foreign-born kind for the adoration of the social sciences. The same is true of the concept of law of nature. Orig... 1 notes
notesHow terms migrate from science to science, changing their meaning as they go.
23 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Technical Terminology Raises the Bar to Entry into a Subject
The increasing technicality of the terminology employed is also a serious difficulty. It has become necessary to learn an extensive vocabulary before a book in even a limited department of science can be consulted with much profit. This change, of course, has its advantages for the initiated, in securing precision and concisement of statement; but it tends to narrow the field in which an investigator can labour, and it cannot fail to become, in the future, a serious impediment to wide inducti...Folksonomies: terminology lexicon
Folksonomies: terminology lexicon
1 notes
notesBut the advantage is that it makes it easier for those working in the subject to be more precises.
19 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
How Culture Influences Scientific Metaphors
If you believe the cosmos is made up of
omelette, you build instruments specifically designed to find traces
of intergalactic yolk. In that paradigm you reject phenomena like
pulsars and black holes as paranormal garbage. In an omelette
cosmos, the beginning of the universe becomes a chicken and egg
problem, doesn’t it?
Now, this definition of terms (like omelette universe) happens
all the time. The reason that we today refer to electricity in terms
of current is because in the eighteenth ...Electricity has a current because Franklin thought it flowed like water, mal-aria is named after "bad air" because people thought it was caused by that, and we define the Universe it terms of clockwork or information depending on the cultural innovations of the time.
19 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
The Term "Higher Animals"
So glibly do the phrases 'higher animals' and 'lower animals' trip off our tongues that it
comes as a shock to realize that, far from effortlessly slotting into evolutionary thinking as one
might suppose, they were - and are - deeply antithetical to it. We think we know that chimpanzees
are higher animals and earthworms are lower, we think we've always known what that means, and
we think evolution makes it even clearer. But it doesn't. It is by no means clear that it means
anything at all. Or...Is meaningless and confuses people.
