Ming the MechanicAn old rigid civilization is reluctantly dying. Something new, open, free and exciting is waking up.The Universe as God- May 16, 2008 How wonderful. Stuart Kauffman, theoretical biologist and complexity theory pioneer, talks about reinventing the sacred, getting over reductionism, appreciating the awesome wonder of existence, and redefining God to be essentially the creativity of the universe. You just can't explain the complexity of the universe by reducing it all to physics that all were pre-determined. There's an article in New Scientist: "Why humanity needs a God of creativity", there's his excellent entry at Edge:...http://ming.tv/flemming2.php/__show_article/_a000010-001926.htm Kriss Hammond wants to change my financial status- May 14, 2008 It took me a moment to remember the story... See, I did this posting in 2005: Jetsetters wants to sue everybody, which was about this fellow, Kriss Hammond, who said he wanted to launch a 10 million dollar lawsuit against me, because I had reposted some articles related to his outfit, Jetsetters Magazine. Articles written by some of his affiliates, specifically with a license to repost freely, with attribution. I don't know why they do that, if they don't want the articles to actually be used...http://ming.tv/flemming2.php/__show_article/_a000010-001925.htm Why Denmark is the world's happiest country- May 8, 2008 It's an article on Tim Ferriss' excellent blog: "6 Reasons to Visit the Worlds Happiest Country". Makes me feel good about being Danish. 4. The people are beautiful but seem unaware of the fact.As Bill Bryson once observed: you could cast a Pepsi commercial here in 15 seconds.Right up there with Argentina, Denmark has a jaw-dropping number of gorgeous people. The truly beautiful part, and unusual differentiator, is that appear blissfully unaware of the fact. There is little LA-style pretension.http://ming.tv/flemming2.php/__show_article/_a000010-001924.htm Why Pigs Dont Have Wings- May 7, 2008 Decoherence on Metafilter: Rutgers professor of philosophy Jerry Fodor created a bit of a stir last October when he wrote an article for the London Review of Books arguing that natural selection may not be such a great theory after all, and that a "major revision of evolutionary theory... is in the offing." Not many fellow philosophers and academics agree, it seems. Fodor responds to his critics here and here. Six months later, it's still not entirely clear whether his argument is, as Justin...http://ming.tv/flemming2.php/__show_article/_a000010-001923.htm Why can't we stick to our goals- May 6, 2008 L.A. Times: "Does your brain have a mind of its own" - Why can't we stick to our goals Blame the sloppy engineering of evolution. How many times has this happened to you You leave work, decide that you need to get groceries on the way home, take a cellphone call and forget all about your plan. Next thing you know, you've driven home and forgotten all about the groceries.Or this. You decide, perhaps circa Jan. 1, that it's time to lose weight; you need to eat less, eat better and exercise more..http://ming.tv/flemming2.php/__show_article/_a000010-001922.htm |