Archive for the ‘philosophy’ Category
SETI, Life and the Rate of Change of Entropy
Here’s a reasonable working definition of life – a process which produces localised entropy decrease. Intelligent life doubly so. Think about it like this: light from the sun hits the moon and turns to heat. No life involved. Light from the sun hits Venus and creates an enormous amount of turbulence in the atmosphere, also [...]
In: philosophy, science, theory
A Cosmologigram
I firmly believe in the present. There literally is no past and no future, just the changing now. Sure, it contains evidence of things that have been, other circuits of the Earth around the Sun. We can be pretty certain at some point, some other now, there are even more such circuits engraved and erased [...]
In: philosophy, science, theory
Calling out the fey
The introduction is here. Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. For I have known them all already, known them all: – Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; Wonder Language is constructed [...]
In: philosophy, theory, world
All the things I wrote in 2008 and 2009.
Introduction With a rare exception or two I haven’t written here for several years. Various things have intervened – moving to a new country, starting a new business, and preceding all that some formal study. What I’d like to do is go through here and edit things, weed out the crap, format it nicely, and [...]
In: environment, philosophy, science, society, theory
The joy of violence
This is a very thoughtful, if jokey, consideration of non-violence from someone who understands violence a lot better than pacifism. Here, she’s exactly right: Pacifism as a concept kind of pisses me off. Still, non-violence intrigues me, not least because of its power to frustrate the violently inclined. The central paradox of terrorism—we will hurt [...]
In: philosophy, society · Tagged with: humanity, politics, satyagraha
The myth of selfishness: Part 3 – A new gift economy
If society is in tune with human proclivities it works better, because people enjoy what they do. You only have to look at small boys playing “hunting”, or notice the difference between the incentives necessary to get people to sit in an office shuffling papers compared with those required to get people to dance and [...]
In: philosophy, society, theory
The myth of selfishness: Part 2 – The Rise of Capitalism
Much of this has a European focus, and I apologise for that, especially because colonialism and its devastating effect on the world are consequently not given proper attention. The focus of the article is narrow and designed as a contrast to the situation described in Part 1 – Ancient Economics. By the way, I’m no [...]
In: philosophy, society, theory
The myth of selfishness: Part 1 Ancient Economics
This article is the first in a series. I’m leading up to something and it takes quite a long time to get there, but it’s generally about my idea that people are far less self-interested than it appears. NB: In the following I have used the term “traditional culture” to refer to the ancient and [...]
In: philosophy, society, theory
The Tao te ching
From Trace elements: Our culture is based on control, codification, and the application of force to achieve the ends we desire. We live in a world composed of resources and subject to analysis, and we’ve reached a point where the problems inherent in this approach are becoming clear, from global warming to the greed which [...]
In: observations, philosophy
Living the decaf life…
Following a post by Robin Warner, a rant on decaf. You see, I have a guiding principle which steers me away from decaf. It’s based on the idea that fun is temporary – nothing lasts forever and you can have too much of a good thing. So when you enjoy something, really enjoy it. Don’t [...]
In: philosophy, society
w00t!
Everywhere that desire throws off the heavy armor of lack and expresses its own joyful plenitude, it quickly finds itself captured as an image and offered back to itself as representation. Thus the strategy for any desire that would arm itself with its own self-unfolding is to create for itself a vector outside of commodification, [...]
In: observations, philosophy
Principles of freedom
Positive and negative freedom Suppose a person is on their way to an appointment, and they reach an intersection where they can go left or right. There are several possible reasons why they might choose to go one way or the other, and these reasons relate to the person’s freedom: If the road is open [...]
In: philosophy, society
Bodhichitta
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.  – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry When I was about six years old I received the essential bodhichitta teaching from an old woman sitting in the sun. I was walking by her house one day feeling lonely, [...]
In: observations, philosophy
Submission to the Tasmanian Human Rights Project
What follows is my submission to the Colin Brown Human Rights Project. This is a community consultation process carried out by the Law Reform Institute of Tasmania, at the behest of the Tasmanian State Government. The project is described here in more detail. It will culminate in a recommendation to Parliament for human rights legislation. [...]
In: law, philosophy, society
This is what you shall do
This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing [...]
In: observations, philosophy
Rootlessness
A touching scene from a television documentary this evening: a family celebrates orthodox Easter in procession with candles. They stop at intervals, shielding the candles from wind, as the priest intones the ritual. The child’s face shows boredom but he’s comfortable in the traditional environment – the bosom of a hundred generations of his family. [...]
In: philosophy, society, theory
Keep off the grass
Australia is probably typical of the English speaking west in that it’s citizens are being buried in an avalanche of red tape. The litigious society meets the risk-averse society and the answer seems to be bureaucracy. We have occupational health and safety (OH&S); a whole raft of accounting related to the goods and services tax [...]
In: law, philosophy, society
At the crossroads
In: philosophy, society, world
The ethics of altruism
The Ethics of Selfishness was always intended as an introduction to this article, which broadly speaking deals with altruism. I wanted to outline a proposal for a system of public ethics which was sufficient in scope to provide a useful framework for legislation of society, business, and government – even between nations – but at [...]
In: law, philosophy, society
The destroyer of worlds
Sixty one years ago the human race left behind the unconscious cruelty of children to demonstrate a studied and mature capacity for evil. Seventy five thousand lives were snuffed out in an instant, and as many again died more slowly and horribly over the years. This was the penultimate act in a grinding tragedy which [...]
In: observations, philosophy
