All Entries Tagged With: "Science"

Nature’s Taskmaster

If the messages embedded in folklore mean anything, then until very recently humans were terrified of the natural environment. In many cases, the scariest part of folk tales involves foolish individuals–often kids, in order to emphasize the cautionary nature of the tales–who wander into situations where they fall prey to the many terrors that lurk [...]

Timothy McGettigan | May 08, 2013 | Comments 1

Race: The World’s Deadliest Social Disease

Racism is a socially-constructed disease of the mind. Racism is an infectious disease that is caused by a specific form of ignorance: a groundless, pre-scientific belief that race is based in fundamental biological differences among humans. Nothing could be further from the truth. When it comes to biology, humans are all like (Gregor Mendel’s) peas [...]

Timothy McGettigan | Apr 30, 2013 | Comments 2

Judging from the human infatuation with canines of every size, shape and color--not to mention zoos, conservatories, and pet stores stocked with every imaginable critter--it is safe to conclude that humans are perhaps the world's most enthusiastic supporters of, with one caveat, genetic diversity. Of course, that one caveat is highly consequential. Remarkable as the human enthusiasm for diversity may be among non-human species, among our own species, humans tend to deplore diversity. That is, to put it mildly, a rich irony.

Racism and Hypocrisy: Celebrating Diversity–Just Not Among Humans

As Darwin pointed out in the The Origin of Species (1859), species often exhibit enormous variation. Darwin was a pigeon breeder and described at length the astounding variation that, with the help of artificial selection, pigeon breeders had succeeded in cultivating in an otherwise humdrum bird species. Similar forces operate on Canis familiaris and, if anything, have [...]

Timothy McGettigan | Mar 07, 2013 | Comments 2

Albert Einstein believed that the universe was governed by a rational god who would never dream of playing dice with his precious creation. Yet, if scientists have learned anything over the past century, it is that the universe is anything but rational. Thus, a word to the wise: if there is a god, he does play dice. Further, scientists who don't wish to crap out would be well advised to wise up to the increasingly bizarre rules of his game.

Feynman’s Cosmic Onion

Albert Einstein believed that the universe was created by a rational god; a god who would never presume to play dice with his precious creation. Einstein’s belief in a rational, knowable universe was rooted in a “clockwork” scientific philosophy that comprised the very bedrock of Enlightenment science. This perspective was most famously summed up by [...]

Timothy McGettigan | Feb 04, 2013 | Comments 1

Determinists explain everything that occurs in the universe as an outcome of an infallible master narrative: if an apple falls from a tree, or a star explodes in the Andromeda Galaxy, then determinists will insist that those events transpired precisely how and when they did because an insuperable chain of causality preordained each outcome. The magic of this type of deductive thinking--which, once again, is predicated on a dogmatic allegiance to an "infallible" master narrative--is that it can be used to explain anything and everything. However, as Karl Popper articulated so convincingly, deductive theories that purport to explain everything in fact succeed in explaining nothing scientifically.

Elementary My Dear Watson! The Beauty (and Baloney) of Being Right about Everything

Fate is the most potent weapon in a the arsenal of determinists like Stephen Hawking. To contend, as determinists plainly do, that the outcomes of events are pre-determined is essentially the same as saying that the ebbs and flows of history are all dictated by fate. Actors, whether animate or inanimate, have no control over [...]

Timothy McGettigan | Nov 16, 2012 | Comments 0

Frankenstein underestimated the threat that was posed by the monster he had created. Ray Kurzweil believes that AI - or "Frankentelligence" - will be humanity's greatest achievement. I think it is fair to say that Kurzweil's perspective is distorted by the same blind spot that clouded Dr. Frankenstein's thinking.

It’s Alive!! Ray Kurzweil, AI, and Frankentelligence

If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. Morpheus in The Matrix. Ray Kurzweil is obsessed with artificial intelligence (AI). Kurzweil has written a series of bestselling books–most recently How to Create a Mind–in which he advances the argument that machine intelligence [...]

Timothy McGettigan | Nov 14, 2012 | Comments 1

Many Worlds, but only One Reality: Stephen Hawking and the Determinist Fallacy

One can hardly broach the subject of agency without acknowledging the long-standing and unresolved philosophical debate regarding the agency vs. determination dichotomy. To provide an illustration of the extent of disagreement over this dualism, determinists, such as Stephen Hawking have argued that agency and free will are nothing but an illusion: …the molecular basis of [...]

Timothy McGettigan | Nov 05, 2012 | Comments 3

Academic Education – A Waste of Space, Mind, Money and Time?

Academic communities and higher learning facilities like universities are the places where great knowledge is born and passed on with the purpose of ‘enlightening’ our societies for the better. Or is it? Aren’t academies and universities about socialization into The System and indoctrination into ideas that support hierarchy, exclusion, etc. According to Anna Brix Thomsen, its both. Universities are useful and do make a [technological] improvement in things, but usually only for the primary benefit of the elite. Trickle down benefits there may be, but its ultimately about maintaining the status quo and further enriching those who are already with privilege.

Anna Brix Thomsen | Nov 11, 2010 | Comments 8