Time to ditch falsifiability?

Related to my last two posts, and our discussion, Sean Carroll turned in an answer to the "What Scientific Ideas Are Ready for Retirement?"  His answer?  Falsifiability. Modern physics stretches into realms far removed from everyday experience, and sometimes the connection to experiment becomes tenuous at best. String theory and other approaches to quantum gravity … Continue reading Time to ditch falsifiability? →

What scientific idea is ready for retirement? | Science | The Observer

Each year a forum for the world's most brilliant minds asks one question. This year's drew responses from such names as Richard Dawkins, Ian McEwan and Alan Alda. Here, edge.org founder John Brockman explains how the question came into being and we pick some of the best responses via What scientific idea is ready for … Continue reading What scientific idea is ready for retirement? | Science | The Observer →

Taking your time with decisions

Steve Fleming has an interesting article at Aeon on the advisability of sometimes taking your time with making decisions. Whether lingering too long over the menu at a restaurant, or abrupt U-turns by politicians, flip-flopping does not have a good reputation. By contrast, quick, decisive responses are associated with competency: they command respect. Acting on … Continue reading Taking your time with decisions →

Why You Should Upload Yourself to a Supercomputer

We're still decades — if not centuries — away from being able to transfer a mind to a supercomputer. It's a fantastic future prospect that makes some people incredibly squeamish. But there are considerable benefits to living a digital life. Here's why you should seriously consider uploading. via Why You Should Upload Yourself to a … Continue reading Why You Should Upload Yourself to a Supercomputer →

Interview of Ara Norenzayan on Inquiring Minds podcast

As I mentioned before, I have a big backlog of podcasts that I'm working through on my lunch walks.  Many of you have probably already heard this, but just in case you haven't: If you enjoyed my review of Ara Norenzayan's book, 'Big Gods', then you'll probably also enjoy this interview of him by Chris … Continue reading Interview of Ara Norenzayan on Inquiring Minds podcast →

Rationally Speaking: What virtues, and why?

At any rate, what I’d like to do here is to explore a bit more of my own preferred framework for ethics, neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics (the “neo” prefix should alert the reader that I’m not about to defend everything Aristotle said, but rather discuss an updated version of the idea, based of course on his … Continue reading Rationally Speaking: What virtues, and why? →

This View of Life: The Evolution of Fairness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOtlN4pNArk Brosnan and de Waal’s finding of fairness in the capuchin monkey has settled the long-standing question of whether animals have a sense of fairness and further blurred the line between humans and other animals in a new territory: the sphere of morality. *** The questions now are how fairness works and why it evolved. … Continue reading This View of Life: The Evolution of Fairness →

Is our tech making the world too complex? – Samuel Arbesman – Aeon

For centuries, humans have been creating ever-more complicated systems, from the machines we live with to the informational systems and laws that keep our global civilisation stitched together. Technology continues its fantastic pace of accelerating complexity — offering efficiencies and benefits that previous generations could not have imagined — but with this increasing sophistication and … Continue reading Is our tech making the world too complex? – Samuel Arbesman – Aeon →