Having been an avid podcast listener the last few years and always an eager reader, I now have a feeling that topics, debates, and conclusions are being recycled over and over again. Also the mix of podcast topics (science, politics, world affairs, philosophy) and selection of podcast guests have started to converge beween the podcasts.
Science
Why so many lies?
Why do lies emerge in such huge numbers and why do lies have such long half-lives?
Inquiry cures ignorance
We are not always great at learning from each other, together with each other, from history, or from other documented bodies of knowledge. We too often subject too poor models too soon to reality. An important reason is that we seem to have an aversion to inquiry.
Open and closed loop learning
Closed-loop learning is almost a law of nature. It is applied by all sustainable natural systems and in most successful human endeavors.
Despite the obvious benefit or even need of closed-loop learning, we fail to implement it in many contexts that would clearly benefit from it.
No limits
Everything that is not forbidden by the laws of nature is achievable, given then right knowledge.
A boring truth
A boring truth seldom taught in success seminars is that clear, logical thinking and simply plodding ahead with a plan are great tools for success in life Richard Brodie. Virus of the Mind.
What’s science?
A PhD course I took way back was about defining what science was. We read about Popper, Kuhn, Feyerabend, Lakatos and others. My lasting impression from the course was that “science” was pretty much defined as whatever the “scientific community” of a particular time defined as science. I use a Continue Reading
150 years of controversy
Darwin’s ideas were, and obviously are to this date, controversial despite the mountains of evidence supporting them.
The blind watchmaker and the blind hen
10^500 ways to configure the universe.