I am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter. New York, Basic Books 2007 412pp. ISBN-13-978-0-465-03078-5
Hofstadter is one of those intellectuals (perhaps geniuses) that are so “out there” that are allowed a wide berth in what they say. They are granted with some authority and with fewer questions. Reading along and enjoying these various thought games posed by the author I continued to wonder “so what”. What is there about understanding a fascination of the perpetual mirror effect, sound feedback or a circle of people sitting on each other’s lap (and not requiring a permanent leg) that informs of me of anything.
We have been sated by the popular press for centuries with stories of the unexplained, the odd and the hard to believe. This suggests that we enjoy that sort of thing. Perhaps there is an evolutionary value to this and since complexity theory is a strong proponent of that theory, it is explained within. Hofstadter only gives lip service to evolution.
This book is a series of one interesting concept after another. It seems that the anecdotes are designed to remind us that there is a method of examination that is non-linear. It is my fear that so much of Complexity theory and its predecessor, Chaos theory are tailored to show how science fails to represent all options as it lays in its linear thinking and its reductionist methods.
This reader fails to see the paucity of the results of linear thinking and reductionist methodology. This reader also sees no reason not to examine phenomena from a perspective that is non-linear but to use it as valuable only when it represents material data that is subject to a concrete test.
The book was a curious read but not a convincing story to have this reader re-think scientific methodology.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Ouch, we zinged by Taibbi
The Great Derangement by Matt Taibbi. New York, Spiegel and McGraw 2009 317pp. ISBN-978-0-385-52062-1
Matt Taibbi, the Rolling Stone columnist and television regular has shown us a few sides of his thinking here. He despises stupidity like Susan Jacoby; like Thomas Frank he wonders why people are so easily deluded by culture wars; he is absolutely baffled by the motivations of humanity (or at least Americans) like me.
Ninety years ago Antonio Gramsci wrote from an Italian prison, about the rise of something he found very troubling. He named it “Cultural Hegemony” and often referred to it as “Fordism” after America’s Henry Ford. Essentially what Gramsci was talking about so long ago was an ever present effort by industry and its “spinners” to sell anything to the population by convincing the people that they need the item. This mesmerizing effort overflows from simple capitalism to a political hegemony that keeps the vox populi in line. This hegemony redirects people’s attention away from harsh realities that they may face and towards another “enemy” or “problem”. Today this may be called the “Culture Wars”.
Folks facing unemployment because their jobs are being moved to another country due to NAFTA, take their wrath out on immigration, gay marriage, Christmas terminology or abortion to name a few hot button issues. These issues do not typically involve these foot soldiers directly, but the loss of a job does. Too many people aim their energies towards these peripheral issues rather than attend to matters that affect their lives.
Taibbi sees this peculiar phenomenon and expounds on it from a couple of perspectives. One that is included in every other chapter is his story about becoming a member of John Hagee’s Cornerstone Church. This was a covert effort whereby he used a false name but actually got baptized and went out to proselytize. Having some experience in this realm, I know about the excitement and the fear of discovery that this posing causes. He recounts stories of fellow members of the congregation and how they naively accept the formulaic nonsense tossed at them by their clergy, their leaders.
Taibbi also faced the conspiracy theorists regarding 9/11. The Cornerstone Church folks were blinded to reality by a series of right winged, fundamentalist ideology. When ideology is the generator of actions the results are generally pretty disastrous. There is no distinction between the left and right; by democrats or republicans. Ideology usurps our ability to be analytical and to understand that the world is not a black and white. In fact there is no simple us v. them condition. When that is the playing field then we can expect people to act against their own best interests.
It is not simply the absurd notions of Christian fundamentalists versus leftist people seeking the “truth” about 9/11 that makes this book. Taibbi also echoes Thomas Frank by addressing the misguided thinking that prevails in America.
Basically as a population, we do not use critical thinking but rather make our decisions based on emotions. Gayness is seen as an apostasy and requires our ire and our actions. Moving our jobs off shore is an aspect of the capitalist system but we only consider that system. We may lose our job and remain un (or under) employed; we may not be able to assist with the college education of our children; but the fact that abortion still exists may be a more compelling call for our attention. We know from experience that if abortions were criminalized they would continue to occur.
The problem of national “Derangement” is not that there are neo-cons or immigrants; it is not that there are fundamentalist Christians and global warming scientists. The problem is that the citizens of this nation by and large, prefer to have someone else do their thinking for them. We prefer demagogues and bumper sticker slogans to our own voice. We prefer the power of authority to analysis.
We may be on a pendulum swinging away from the neo-con disaster of the last 15 years but it is a pendulum and it will swing back because the vast majority of Americans are loathe to have and to share an independent thought.
Matt Taibbi, the Rolling Stone columnist and television regular has shown us a few sides of his thinking here. He despises stupidity like Susan Jacoby; like Thomas Frank he wonders why people are so easily deluded by culture wars; he is absolutely baffled by the motivations of humanity (or at least Americans) like me.
Ninety years ago Antonio Gramsci wrote from an Italian prison, about the rise of something he found very troubling. He named it “Cultural Hegemony” and often referred to it as “Fordism” after America’s Henry Ford. Essentially what Gramsci was talking about so long ago was an ever present effort by industry and its “spinners” to sell anything to the population by convincing the people that they need the item. This mesmerizing effort overflows from simple capitalism to a political hegemony that keeps the vox populi in line. This hegemony redirects people’s attention away from harsh realities that they may face and towards another “enemy” or “problem”. Today this may be called the “Culture Wars”.
Folks facing unemployment because their jobs are being moved to another country due to NAFTA, take their wrath out on immigration, gay marriage, Christmas terminology or abortion to name a few hot button issues. These issues do not typically involve these foot soldiers directly, but the loss of a job does. Too many people aim their energies towards these peripheral issues rather than attend to matters that affect their lives.
Taibbi sees this peculiar phenomenon and expounds on it from a couple of perspectives. One that is included in every other chapter is his story about becoming a member of John Hagee’s Cornerstone Church. This was a covert effort whereby he used a false name but actually got baptized and went out to proselytize. Having some experience in this realm, I know about the excitement and the fear of discovery that this posing causes. He recounts stories of fellow members of the congregation and how they naively accept the formulaic nonsense tossed at them by their clergy, their leaders.
Taibbi also faced the conspiracy theorists regarding 9/11. The Cornerstone Church folks were blinded to reality by a series of right winged, fundamentalist ideology. When ideology is the generator of actions the results are generally pretty disastrous. There is no distinction between the left and right; by democrats or republicans. Ideology usurps our ability to be analytical and to understand that the world is not a black and white. In fact there is no simple us v. them condition. When that is the playing field then we can expect people to act against their own best interests.
It is not simply the absurd notions of Christian fundamentalists versus leftist people seeking the “truth” about 9/11 that makes this book. Taibbi also echoes Thomas Frank by addressing the misguided thinking that prevails in America.
Basically as a population, we do not use critical thinking but rather make our decisions based on emotions. Gayness is seen as an apostasy and requires our ire and our actions. Moving our jobs off shore is an aspect of the capitalist system but we only consider that system. We may lose our job and remain un (or under) employed; we may not be able to assist with the college education of our children; but the fact that abortion still exists may be a more compelling call for our attention. We know from experience that if abortions were criminalized they would continue to occur.
The problem of national “Derangement” is not that there are neo-cons or immigrants; it is not that there are fundamentalist Christians and global warming scientists. The problem is that the citizens of this nation by and large, prefer to have someone else do their thinking for them. We prefer demagogues and bumper sticker slogans to our own voice. We prefer the power of authority to analysis.
We may be on a pendulum swinging away from the neo-con disaster of the last 15 years but it is a pendulum and it will swing back because the vast majority of Americans are loathe to have and to share an independent thought.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Descartes' Secret Notebook by Amir D. Aczel. New York, Broadway Books 2005 273pp. ISBN-0-7679-2034-1
Who’d a thunk? Not me that’s for sure. The image I mistakenly had of Rene Descartes was always as some professorial type sitting in the 17th century version of an ivory tower. I pictured the deep thinker worrying about existential notions of existence and pondering mathematical equations and their tweaking.
Instead he was likely a Rosicrucian and therefore something of an intellectual subversive and cultist. Upon completion of his education at a young age he pursued initially a life of adventure in Paris where he was known as a partying hell raiser and sometime swashbuckler. According to Aczel the Roman Catholic Descartes twice volunteered for Protestant armies but was not compelled to do anything he did not want to do. As a soldier he studied mathematics. His "secret notebook" was a coded story including philosophy and math that like much of his other works was deciphered and translated by Gottfried Leibniz.He lived a life making many enemies and friends and died in his early 50s in mysterious circumstances.
Aczel perhaps salted this intriguing story especially about Descartes medical treatment as he feverishly wasted away in the end. Perhaps on the other hand, Descartes was simply a man of mystery who spent a life time writing interesting philosophy and mathematical equations on the side.
This is a short book, well written and referenced and very entertaining to read. I hope it is fairly accurate as that would make the story even more fun to imagine.
Who’d a thunk? Not me that’s for sure. The image I mistakenly had of Rene Descartes was always as some professorial type sitting in the 17th century version of an ivory tower. I pictured the deep thinker worrying about existential notions of existence and pondering mathematical equations and their tweaking.
Instead he was likely a Rosicrucian and therefore something of an intellectual subversive and cultist. Upon completion of his education at a young age he pursued initially a life of adventure in Paris where he was known as a partying hell raiser and sometime swashbuckler. According to Aczel the Roman Catholic Descartes twice volunteered for Protestant armies but was not compelled to do anything he did not want to do. As a soldier he studied mathematics. His "secret notebook" was a coded story including philosophy and math that like much of his other works was deciphered and translated by Gottfried Leibniz.He lived a life making many enemies and friends and died in his early 50s in mysterious circumstances.
Aczel perhaps salted this intriguing story especially about Descartes medical treatment as he feverishly wasted away in the end. Perhaps on the other hand, Descartes was simply a man of mystery who spent a life time writing interesting philosophy and mathematical equations on the side.
This is a short book, well written and referenced and very entertaining to read. I hope it is fairly accurate as that would make the story even more fun to imagine.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Some Field Guides are better than others...
Forbidden Fruit: The Ethics of Secularism by Paul Kurtz. Amherst, New York, Prometheus Books 1988 (2008 edition) 325pp. ISBN-978-1-59102-666-2
This book held far more promise than it was able to deliver. Explaining the philosophy and ethics of humanist thinking could make for rich reading. Too bad this book was one of those attempts to do such.
Kurtz has established himself as perhaps the lead voice of secular humanism in the US and perhaps the world. Secular Humanism does merit some advertisement as it is a philosophy that is the whipping boy of fundamentalist Americans. Kurtz’ final result is an explanation but one might wonder what audience it was addressed to. Was Kurtz simply providing details for the choir? On the surface it seems that way.
In Forbidden Fruit, Kurtz’ presentation of a humanist ethic could have been equally effective in a pamphlet. His case is that humanists do not need a doctrine and a supreme being to dictate morality or to punish the lack of it. Secular Humanists take the mantle of morality as their personal responsibility. The logic is simple. With finality to our existence, we want the world to be a better place for our descendants. We want the world to provide us with all of the good things that humans can provide. We want a symbiosis with our fellow living things. We want life to be as good as it can be for the time we are here. Kurtz addresses this but he does it about one hundred times.
Each chapter reaffirms the previous one by (more or less) saying the same thing. The redundancy of his notions was so profound that it felt like I was reading the same story over again every thirty pages or so. The point here is that the book could have done as well as a pamphlet. That is not all that was problematic.
This might be my problem rather than the book’s, but Kurtz simply preached. It seems that the elegance of Secular Humanism lies in its logical sophistication. We do ethical things not because we are told to, but because it makes sense. It seems that were we to a build a team of individuals with a plan to solve a problem we would never use an ad hominem rational to rule someone out. We would want to select our members from the best pool of talent available; we would want to listen to them and weigh their advice. Our humanistic notions would compel us to draw from the largest pool of talent and we would not need any sort of didacticism to help us decide.
There were too many instances of Kurtz waving that finger of “high road morality” that were not compelling. How would this sit with a reader who was not already in the pack? How would “High Road” morality convince an interested outsider? Will a heavy handed assertion that one ought to do (or believe) certain things because they are morally superior convince anyone?
Kurtz’ book was disappointing because the possibilities for presenting a Secular Humanist ethic abound. It is a sensible lifestyle that does not require anything except wanting to do what is best for our self, our loved ones and society at large. Expressing the value of humanist practice just does not require preaching. It could be told so eloquently that chapter by chapter repetition does not do the job.
This book held far more promise than it was able to deliver. Explaining the philosophy and ethics of humanist thinking could make for rich reading. Too bad this book was one of those attempts to do such.
Kurtz has established himself as perhaps the lead voice of secular humanism in the US and perhaps the world. Secular Humanism does merit some advertisement as it is a philosophy that is the whipping boy of fundamentalist Americans. Kurtz’ final result is an explanation but one might wonder what audience it was addressed to. Was Kurtz simply providing details for the choir? On the surface it seems that way.
In Forbidden Fruit, Kurtz’ presentation of a humanist ethic could have been equally effective in a pamphlet. His case is that humanists do not need a doctrine and a supreme being to dictate morality or to punish the lack of it. Secular Humanists take the mantle of morality as their personal responsibility. The logic is simple. With finality to our existence, we want the world to be a better place for our descendants. We want the world to provide us with all of the good things that humans can provide. We want a symbiosis with our fellow living things. We want life to be as good as it can be for the time we are here. Kurtz addresses this but he does it about one hundred times.
Each chapter reaffirms the previous one by (more or less) saying the same thing. The redundancy of his notions was so profound that it felt like I was reading the same story over again every thirty pages or so. The point here is that the book could have done as well as a pamphlet. That is not all that was problematic.
This might be my problem rather than the book’s, but Kurtz simply preached. It seems that the elegance of Secular Humanism lies in its logical sophistication. We do ethical things not because we are told to, but because it makes sense. It seems that were we to a build a team of individuals with a plan to solve a problem we would never use an ad hominem rational to rule someone out. We would want to select our members from the best pool of talent available; we would want to listen to them and weigh their advice. Our humanistic notions would compel us to draw from the largest pool of talent and we would not need any sort of didacticism to help us decide.
There were too many instances of Kurtz waving that finger of “high road morality” that were not compelling. How would this sit with a reader who was not already in the pack? How would “High Road” morality convince an interested outsider? Will a heavy handed assertion that one ought to do (or believe) certain things because they are morally superior convince anyone?
Kurtz’ book was disappointing because the possibilities for presenting a Secular Humanist ethic abound. It is a sensible lifestyle that does not require anything except wanting to do what is best for our self, our loved ones and society at large. Expressing the value of humanist practice just does not require preaching. It could be told so eloquently that chapter by chapter repetition does not do the job.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Biogeography and Extinction...what could go wrong?
The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction by David Quammen. New York, Scribner 1996 (2004 edition) 702pp. ISBN-0-684-82712-3
Quammen always delivers and this tome deserves more words than it will get in this venue. The author’s ability to take a scientific notion and examine it thoroughly is widely known. He does this through his essays in periodicals like National Geographic to get the public interested in natural history. A genuine interest in that subject makes it much easier to understand the details of biogeography, the thriving of new generations and the facts of extinction.
Quammen reminds us that “we are all in this together”. Every flora and every fauna plays its individual role to enhance its own survival and in turn we really need to assist each other in having that occurrence happen.
In Dodos Quammen spends 700 pages describing the facts of species extinction. He addresses the various theories (i.e. Equilibrium Theory) that address the systematic issues that lead to the species loss that we see today. In this review neither the politics nor the details of that occurrence will be dealt with. Suffice it to say that in this 13 year old book, Quammen suggests that it is man made. The case has been made enough that there is no reason to belabor it here.
The book deserves more than it will get here: It is an alluring book to read, it is profoundly informative, it makes the efforts of highly trained scientists understandable to the avid amateur.
Understanding the mechanism of extinction is critical to all ecologists in their determination and ability to be pedagogic. You have to know what you are talking about and Quammen gives you the fuel to do that.
Quammen always delivers and this tome deserves more words than it will get in this venue. The author’s ability to take a scientific notion and examine it thoroughly is widely known. He does this through his essays in periodicals like National Geographic to get the public interested in natural history. A genuine interest in that subject makes it much easier to understand the details of biogeography, the thriving of new generations and the facts of extinction.
Quammen reminds us that “we are all in this together”. Every flora and every fauna plays its individual role to enhance its own survival and in turn we really need to assist each other in having that occurrence happen.
In Dodos Quammen spends 700 pages describing the facts of species extinction. He addresses the various theories (i.e. Equilibrium Theory) that address the systematic issues that lead to the species loss that we see today. In this review neither the politics nor the details of that occurrence will be dealt with. Suffice it to say that in this 13 year old book, Quammen suggests that it is man made. The case has been made enough that there is no reason to belabor it here.
The book deserves more than it will get here: It is an alluring book to read, it is profoundly informative, it makes the efforts of highly trained scientists understandable to the avid amateur.
Understanding the mechanism of extinction is critical to all ecologists in their determination and ability to be pedagogic. You have to know what you are talking about and Quammen gives you the fuel to do that.
Friday, April 17, 2009
An Economic book that is not about economics
ObamaNomics:How Bottom-Up Economic Prosperity Will Replace Trickle-Down Economics by John R. Talbott. New York, Seven Stories Press 2008 218pp. ISBN-978-58322-865-4
The original intent of reading this book was to use an economic theory and compare it in light of complexity theory. The individuals presenting that theory include Economists and it was my intention to review it form there.
Well it didn’t really work. In the first place I did not scrutinize the book well enough; since it cost $3.98 at a discount store I was allured more by the price than the potential content. Ironically that may be one of the butterfly effects to the sales of this book. That is another issue altogether.
During every election season there are a plethora of books pumped out at a moments notice to hail or to excoriate the candidate. They are quickly written for a couple of reasons. There may be a hero worship or a personalized vitriol for the candidate. There may be the simple venality of sales recognition and there may be hopes of some political largesse tossed the author’s way.
I suspect that the latter helped to drive ObamaNomics but I am no shrink. At any rate the book was a quick and snappy read with a dearth of detail and plenty of admiration for our new president. Well I like the Commander in Chief reasonably well and would perhaps enjoy the company of the author. I am also glad I found the book for the price of a magazine. I was not really informed of much.
The original intent of reading this book was to use an economic theory and compare it in light of complexity theory. The individuals presenting that theory include Economists and it was my intention to review it form there.
Well it didn’t really work. In the first place I did not scrutinize the book well enough; since it cost $3.98 at a discount store I was allured more by the price than the potential content. Ironically that may be one of the butterfly effects to the sales of this book. That is another issue altogether.
During every election season there are a plethora of books pumped out at a moments notice to hail or to excoriate the candidate. They are quickly written for a couple of reasons. There may be a hero worship or a personalized vitriol for the candidate. There may be the simple venality of sales recognition and there may be hopes of some political largesse tossed the author’s way.
I suspect that the latter helped to drive ObamaNomics but I am no shrink. At any rate the book was a quick and snappy read with a dearth of detail and plenty of admiration for our new president. Well I like the Commander in Chief reasonably well and would perhaps enjoy the company of the author. I am also glad I found the book for the price of a magazine. I was not really informed of much.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Nonlinear problem solving
Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos by M. Mitchell Waldrop. New York, Touchstone Books 1992 380pp. ISBN-0-671-87234-5
Waldrop provides an interesting history of the development of what is known as Complexity Theory. This is a distillation of the notion of Chaos Theory and the two could easily be conflated into one. Complexity and its adherents are looking for a method of studying material and social phenomena from a perspective other than reductionism. Rather than see events as able to be understood in terms of simple laws of nature, they look at the grand details of circumstances. They look at how systems grow, adapt and become more complex.
There are many theoretical notions used to assist in understanding how systems are interrelated and how understanding one system in biology (for instance) can help to understand an economic problem. Some of the key words to understanding complexity include adaptation, self regulation, autocatalysm, and connectionism. These terms are used to assist the reader in understanding the how complexity is used.
In total Waldrop presents more a history of the personalities that have created the Santa Fe Institute and its Complexity think tank. This is a common sort of book and unfortunately makes it more biased in favor of its subject. Waldrop is somewhat star struck in his descriptions of the individuals. They are an impressive collection of minds but they are not without subjective motivations. As Waldrop appreciated these intellectuals he has made some of the mistakes that those who write pseudo science do. Since complexity is not pseudo science it is a shame. On several occasions Waldrop made grand presumptions as if they were a priori and skipped on to other subjects. He also on occasion indicated that complexity ideas and papers were not accepted because the establishment did not want their feathers ruffled. The latter is very egregious and deters from an otherwise interesting book.
What Waldrop did do was give the reader plenty of ideas to ponder and to look at how to continue researching. It has its merits and is not a great book. I enjoyed it though.
Waldrop provides an interesting history of the development of what is known as Complexity Theory. This is a distillation of the notion of Chaos Theory and the two could easily be conflated into one. Complexity and its adherents are looking for a method of studying material and social phenomena from a perspective other than reductionism. Rather than see events as able to be understood in terms of simple laws of nature, they look at the grand details of circumstances. They look at how systems grow, adapt and become more complex.
There are many theoretical notions used to assist in understanding how systems are interrelated and how understanding one system in biology (for instance) can help to understand an economic problem. Some of the key words to understanding complexity include adaptation, self regulation, autocatalysm, and connectionism. These terms are used to assist the reader in understanding the how complexity is used.
In total Waldrop presents more a history of the personalities that have created the Santa Fe Institute and its Complexity think tank. This is a common sort of book and unfortunately makes it more biased in favor of its subject. Waldrop is somewhat star struck in his descriptions of the individuals. They are an impressive collection of minds but they are not without subjective motivations. As Waldrop appreciated these intellectuals he has made some of the mistakes that those who write pseudo science do. Since complexity is not pseudo science it is a shame. On several occasions Waldrop made grand presumptions as if they were a priori and skipped on to other subjects. He also on occasion indicated that complexity ideas and papers were not accepted because the establishment did not want their feathers ruffled. The latter is very egregious and deters from an otherwise interesting book.
What Waldrop did do was give the reader plenty of ideas to ponder and to look at how to continue researching. It has its merits and is not a great book. I enjoyed it though.
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