Letslunch.com matches interesting people for informal lunches
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
2001 a space odyssey
What an awesome film! Amazing how modern the computers seem.
The pacing is slow. Voyages are slow, that is the point. Time to reflect and think. You immerse yourself in this film. The graphics are stunning.
Story one- early man, weak, scared, vulnerable. So strongly portrayed, including limited access to water (because the neighbor monkey troop doesn't like to share). Until the monolith. Until the idea of "club", first to kill game for food, then the other troop. The epic moment, after the victory of the waterhole, casting up the bone club, which, as it falls, turns into a spaceship. 100000 years of evolution in one gesture.
And space, he makes it so clear that it is all a long, long fall. Everything is falling at unimaginable speeds.
Much more to say, but no time. Too bad!
The pacing is slow. Voyages are slow, that is the point. Time to reflect and think. You immerse yourself in this film. The graphics are stunning.
Story one- early man, weak, scared, vulnerable. So strongly portrayed, including limited access to water (because the neighbor monkey troop doesn't like to share). Until the monolith. Until the idea of "club", first to kill game for food, then the other troop. The epic moment, after the victory of the waterhole, casting up the bone club, which, as it falls, turns into a spaceship. 100000 years of evolution in one gesture.
And space, he makes it so clear that it is all a long, long fall. Everything is falling at unimaginable speeds.
Much more to say, but no time. Too bad!
"how the west was lost"-- Dambisa Moyo
Not the happiest book, and the author misses some essentials.
Her points: look at "the 3 factors" labor, capital, and productivity. In all three, Asia looks good.
Labor- includes their skills and the competative advantage. In the west, it is supposedly our technical skills. The US and UK are really messing up here. I guess she has never heard of Germany.
Capital- In the west, it is diffuse. In China, it is all controlled by the government. So if they want to deploy it to fix a problem, they can. She is overly relying on central planning. Not that this is totally wrong, but diffuse does not mean not available
Productivity-- Economists say that productivity growth is the biggest single thing driving economic growth. Asia is making huge gains, the west only small gains. She then argues that the "Is this because "they" are using our technology?" argument is irrelevant. She is correct. Who the heck cares where the gains are coming from. Most of the tools I use to increase my productivity weren't made by me, that is the nature of social specialization
Her points: look at "the 3 factors" labor, capital, and productivity. In all three, Asia looks good.
Labor- includes their skills and the competative advantage. In the west, it is supposedly our technical skills. The US and UK are really messing up here. I guess she has never heard of Germany.
Capital- In the west, it is diffuse. In China, it is all controlled by the government. So if they want to deploy it to fix a problem, they can. She is overly relying on central planning. Not that this is totally wrong, but diffuse does not mean not available
Productivity-- Economists say that productivity growth is the biggest single thing driving economic growth. Asia is making huge gains, the west only small gains. She then argues that the "Is this because "they" are using our technology?" argument is irrelevant. She is correct. Who the heck cares where the gains are coming from. Most of the tools I use to increase my productivity weren't made by me, that is the nature of social specialization
Monday, May 30, 2011
Morning drive
The Master of the Hirmitoto, a character sketch of a bartender in Japan, told via one scene/setting/visual description (3rd person), followed by two incidents (1st person). The author is a social anthropologist. The punchline is that he hadn't realized a basic fact about japanese culture; that if you don't know someones name you call them by a nickname determined by their job.
Caffeine tracker
An app for addicts. Tracks consumption and approximate blood levels. Add nicotine, alcohol, chocolate.
Lets you set target level & uses alerts to help you maintain it.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Is the west history -- Niall Fergusson
Niall wrote "the ascent of Money"
In this talk he gives what he was thinking when he wrote his latest book, Civisation. The premise is to remedy flaws in British teaching of history by presenting 6 killer apps which allowed the West to dominate the last 500 years.
The talk is from Friday 4 March 2011
The killer apps are:
competition
science
property owning democracy
modern medicine
the consumer society
protestant work ethic
In this talk he gives what he was thinking when he wrote his latest book, Civisation. The premise is to remedy flaws in British teaching of history by presenting 6 killer apps which allowed the West to dominate the last 500 years.
The talk is from Friday 4 March 2011
The killer apps are:
competition
science
property owning democracy
modern medicine
the consumer society
protestant work ethic
An intelligent earth
Tim Flannery and Redmond O'Hanlon discuss evolution etc. on Thurs, 10 March, 2011
Tim Flannery is an Australian naturalist who has discovered many species, and was almost there when the Floris hobbits were discovered (he knows the team that did it)
He makes many analogies to fire ants, which by changes in two genes have lost all aggression towards other fire ants. This allows a lone fire ant to walk from florida to Vancouver without being molested (by other ants)-- a superorganism.
Tim expands the Gai hypothesis to add that thanks to us, the earth has an intelligence and a nervous system. He likens it to an infant, since the systems are not well connected.
Also the importance of cooperation, which the social darwinists got wrong.
Darwin changed man's place in the world. Pre-D: a loving caring God made a stage for a morality play which allows us to prove ourselves. Post-D: an uncaring and mostly malicious process produced us and it is a mad never-ending battle for survival.
My question: what comes next?
Tim Flannery is an Australian naturalist who has discovered many species, and was almost there when the Floris hobbits were discovered (he knows the team that did it)
He makes many analogies to fire ants, which by changes in two genes have lost all aggression towards other fire ants. This allows a lone fire ant to walk from florida to Vancouver without being molested (by other ants)-- a superorganism.
Tim expands the Gai hypothesis to add that thanks to us, the earth has an intelligence and a nervous system. He likens it to an infant, since the systems are not well connected.
Also the importance of cooperation, which the social darwinists got wrong.
Darwin changed man's place in the world. Pre-D: a loving caring God made a stage for a morality play which allows us to prove ourselves. Post-D: an uncaring and mostly malicious process produced us and it is a mad never-ending battle for survival.
My question: what comes next?
Monday, May 23, 2011
How do we know the rapture didn't happen?
Lots of people saying the world didn't end last weekend, which is leading to some dissapointment. But wait a minute, how do we know that the rapture was postponed? What if the rapture happened, but only 10 or so people qualified and no-one else noticed?
Let’s look at some of the events forcast for the post-rapture world
Wars (check)
plagues (check)
famine (check– or at least higher food prices/shortages)
increase in poverty (check)
Great earthquake (check, plus the Iceland volcanos are up again)
Mark of the beast, anyone?
Look, just because you are chosen as a prophet doesn't mean you make the cut. It's happened before.
Let’s look at some of the events forcast for the post-rapture world
Wars (check)
plagues (check)
famine (check– or at least higher food prices/shortages)
increase in poverty (check)
Great earthquake (check, plus the Iceland volcanos are up again)
Mark of the beast, anyone?
Look, just because you are chosen as a prophet doesn't mean you make the cut. It's happened before.
Some app ideas
I.P. dog-based social networking tool. Users p to leave a message, and sniff to read messages. Messages show user id, status, and a word cloud. Messages fade logrithmically
Augmented Reality Pac-Man. Uses googlemaps to play pac-man in real life on city streets. You choose bike or walking mode.
Hammer. An app to let you use your phone as a hammer. Not for the gifted
Augmented Reality Pac-Man. Uses googlemaps to play pac-man in real life on city streets. You choose bike or walking mode.
Hammer. An app to let you use your phone as a hammer. Not for the gifted
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Where do good ideas come from --Steven Johnson
This is actually the bit which convinced me to put all my reading into my blog. Apparently, in Darwin's time, it was common for scientists to keep a diary of the ideas they were reading and/or thinking about. They could then review the diary.
Why this matters? It is the flow/connection of ideas which leads to their genius. Scenius, as it were, is the only thing.
Here is a quote from Johnson's book:
"This is not the wisdom of the crowd, but the wisdom of someonein the crowd. It’s not that the network itself is smart; it’s that the individuals get smarter because they are connected to the network"
My thoughts exactly on the 'wisdom' of the crowds.
OH, and a meme which has appeared in several of the talks. Pre-human, evolution was a matter of genes. In humans, we also have cultural evolution.
Now I am not sure than other animals don't have culture, in fact there is quite a bit of evidence that they do, but I still get the point.
Why this matters? It is the flow/connection of ideas which leads to their genius. Scenius, as it were, is the only thing.
Here is a quote from Johnson's book:
"This is not the wisdom of the crowd, but the wisdom of someonein the crowd. It’s not that the network itself is smart; it’s that the individuals get smarter because they are connected to the network"
My thoughts exactly on the 'wisdom' of the crowds.
OH, and a meme which has appeared in several of the talks. Pre-human, evolution was a matter of genes. In humans, we also have cultural evolution.
Now I am not sure than other animals don't have culture, in fact there is quite a bit of evidence that they do, but I still get the point.
Why the West Rules -- for now Ian Morris
"Combining history, anthropology and social science, Stanford historian and archaeologist Ian Morris looks afresh at our global past, present and future."
He wrote a history of the world, and concluded that geography is destiny, but as we achieve a destiny, we change how geography is important.
Agriculture spread very fast across Asia and Europe, but didn't do too well in Mesopotamia, because they needed irrigation to ease out weather patterns. But since irrigation takes societal organization, they became the cradle of civilization.
The next important geography was rivers, which allow trade.
The next bit which I remember was the Atlantic. It is small, especially with sailing ships (good wind/waves), compared to the Pacific, so it was easy for Europe to conquor/colonize America, and this powered everything up to the industrial revolution.
Now the Pacific is small, which has powered another change.
He wrote a history of the world, and concluded that geography is destiny, but as we achieve a destiny, we change how geography is important.
Agriculture spread very fast across Asia and Europe, but didn't do too well in Mesopotamia, because they needed irrigation to ease out weather patterns. But since irrigation takes societal organization, they became the cradle of civilization.
The next important geography was rivers, which allow trade.
The next bit which I remember was the Atlantic. It is small, especially with sailing ships (good wind/waves), compared to the Pacific, so it was easy for Europe to conquor/colonize America, and this powered everything up to the industrial revolution.
Now the Pacific is small, which has powered another change.
The Future of Mobile -- Lee Epting
The best comment came at the end, a Brian Eno idea claiming that Genius is being replaced by scenious. This lead me to Kevin Kelly's blog http://kk.org/, and we will revisit it in "Where good ideas come from" in a future post.
KK quotes Eno's definition of scenius as: "Scenius stands for the intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. It is the communal form of the concept of the genius."
Lee is head of content for Vodaphone. She talked about M-Pesa, small-change mobile banking for Africa (transactions less than 10$) and how it was transforming things.
Also mobile health, which allows low-trained caregivers to do routine medical tasks, but use their mobile phone to deal with anything serious which they run across.
This reminds me of the people who developed the microscope to attach to a cell phone camera, alowing fieldworkers to pass along diagnostic details to physicians.
From the commetns part: 3g is better than wifi since it doesn't drain the battery so hard. The digital wallet would be nice.
Facebook moves privacy forwards (or is it backwards) by continually crossing the boundary by two steps and then retreating by one. Just like Google and copyright.
KK quotes Eno's definition of scenius as: "Scenius stands for the intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. It is the communal form of the concept of the genius."
Lee is head of content for Vodaphone. She talked about M-Pesa, small-change mobile banking for Africa (transactions less than 10$) and how it was transforming things.
Also mobile health, which allows low-trained caregivers to do routine medical tasks, but use their mobile phone to deal with anything serious which they run across.
This reminds me of the people who developed the microscope to attach to a cell phone camera, alowing fieldworkers to pass along diagnostic details to physicians.
From the commetns part: 3g is better than wifi since it doesn't drain the battery so hard. The digital wallet would be nice.
Facebook moves privacy forwards (or is it backwards) by continually crossing the boundary by two steps and then retreating by one. Just like Google and copyright.
Future Minds-- Richard Watson
Richard Watson talks about how screens (smartphones, computers, etc) are changing the way we think.
Observations we have all had, but nicely laid out.
Screens encourage hunt/pursuit activity, but not deep thought.
Observations we have all had, but nicely laid out.
Screens encourage hunt/pursuit activity, but not deep thought.
Pathfinders, the golden age of Arabic science (Jim Al-Khalili)
"Award-winning broadcaster and physicist Jim Al-Khalili highlights the rich Arab heritage in our understanding of science today."
I think I would really like this guy, but no major new insights for me. I did finally learn what algebra means in Arabic, the first book which discussed the topic was called 'the compendious book on calculation by completion and balancing'
wikipedia has it at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Compendious_Book_on_Calculation_by_Completion_and_Balancing
some other themes of the talk. Anyone who finds a path is a pathfinder. If the path is later forgotten, the original finder is still a pathfinder, and the person who rediscovers it is also a pathfinder.
It was the birth of cities which allowed the mathematics to flourish. And the center was Baghdad.
The Arabic renaissance started by translating greek texts into arabic. Then the researchers started to add their own insights and developments.
I think I would really like this guy, but no major new insights for me. I did finally learn what algebra means in Arabic, the first book which discussed the topic was called 'the compendious book on calculation by completion and balancing'
wikipedia has it at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Compendious_Book_on_Calculation_by_Completion_and_Balancing
some other themes of the talk. Anyone who finds a path is a pathfinder. If the path is later forgotten, the original finder is still a pathfinder, and the person who rediscovers it is also a pathfinder.
It was the birth of cities which allowed the mathematics to flourish. And the center was Baghdad.
The Arabic renaissance started by translating greek texts into arabic. Then the researchers started to add their own insights and developments.
the Royal Society
Thank God for the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA),a cradle of enlightenment for over 250 years.
They produce a podcast series of great conversations; an author of a current work is invited to give a 20-30 summary of their book, followed by 30 minutes of questions. From really insightful people. Great stuff:
http://www.thersa.org/about-us
and a great way to spend my commute time.
They produce a podcast series of great conversations; an author of a current work is invited to give a 20-30 summary of their book, followed by 30 minutes of questions. From really insightful people. Great stuff:
http://www.thersa.org/about-us
and a great way to spend my commute time.
What makes a civilization great
Many things.
Today I want to look at the educational values it stresses. What do we teach our children to become?
And I must admit to being a bit out of date on this one. I have read, some, of the frustration over ever-mounting piles of homework being assigned to children, of the extreme competition to get into good colleges, etc. All of this argues against my thesis (which I present in the next paragraph). So I admit that I might just be wrong on this one.
Still, when I look at what kind of people our society celebrates, what do I see? Entertainers are near the top of the list. OH, I very much know and appreciate the sense of victory a winning sports team gives to its fans, a sense which carries over into everything they do. Sports are valuable in that respect. As a fitness nerd myself, I also see the great benefit that athletics offers to any activity.
But sports stars do not build a society.
Movie stars. They give us the power of dreams, opening our hearts to new horizons.
But they do not build a civilzation.
We should give more credit, more hero-worship to the skills which do. Math, science, engineering. People who solve real problems, who can help us meet our energy needs, live in better houses, create the foundation upon which we can enjoy our life and liberty.
Today I want to look at the educational values it stresses. What do we teach our children to become?
And I must admit to being a bit out of date on this one. I have read, some, of the frustration over ever-mounting piles of homework being assigned to children, of the extreme competition to get into good colleges, etc. All of this argues against my thesis (which I present in the next paragraph). So I admit that I might just be wrong on this one.
Still, when I look at what kind of people our society celebrates, what do I see? Entertainers are near the top of the list. OH, I very much know and appreciate the sense of victory a winning sports team gives to its fans, a sense which carries over into everything they do. Sports are valuable in that respect. As a fitness nerd myself, I also see the great benefit that athletics offers to any activity.
But sports stars do not build a society.
Movie stars. They give us the power of dreams, opening our hearts to new horizons.
But they do not build a civilzation.
We should give more credit, more hero-worship to the skills which do. Math, science, engineering. People who solve real problems, who can help us meet our energy needs, live in better houses, create the foundation upon which we can enjoy our life and liberty.
health care-- a right
Is health care a basic human right?
It isn't in the constitution, but then again, health care didn't really exist for the first 100 or more years of our country. No wonder the founders didn't mention it, it didn't exist.
Yet the same principles which underly the other fundamental rights (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness) also apply to health, and one can easily argue that poor health makes the fundamental rights difficult.
So an express purpose of government is to make sure that the people governed have a basic level of health care. This is a fact which is recognized by most of the world, but strangly not the US.
And that, my friend, is the end of the story.
It isn't in the constitution, but then again, health care didn't really exist for the first 100 or more years of our country. No wonder the founders didn't mention it, it didn't exist.
Yet the same principles which underly the other fundamental rights (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness) also apply to health, and one can easily argue that poor health makes the fundamental rights difficult.
So an express purpose of government is to make sure that the people governed have a basic level of health care. This is a fact which is recognized by most of the world, but strangly not the US.
And that, my friend, is the end of the story.
end prohibition/decriminalize drugs
Drugs are bad. This is not a pro-marijuana post. I know the medical literature and how damaging the substance is. Most other drugs are worse.
But criminalizing them is worse. Currently the world is (rightly) upset at Gadaffi for making war on his own people. A government should not make war on its people-- so who is the enemy in the 'war on drugs'?
Drug abuse is a medical problem. Why do we try to treat it with the criminal justice system?
If you are a believer in small government, or in market forces, then how do you justify using immense police powers to regulate one of the largest markets in the US (in terms of sales)? The market is real; criminalizing it is only an extreme form of market regulation.
What in the Constitution gives the government the right to tell people what they can or cannot put in their bodies? What they can or cannot eat, drink, smoke?
Look also at the harm caused by criminalization. Organized crime was created in the US during the alcohol prohibition. The ongoing criminalization of drugs provides a major source of income for criminal gangs, which is then a gateway for its members into serious crime. Not to mention the utter destruction of societies south of our border.
Criminalization of intravenous drugs means that the addicts have a much harder time seeking treatment, making it much harder to get them off the drug. It also leads to needle-sharing and other risky practices which increase the spread of disease. Why should you care? Because it is our police, our emergency medical techs, our heros, who get infections when they have to go rescue some junkie. Happened to a friend of mine.
Many studies show that intravenous drug users contribute greatly to the spread of HIV-- which costs you money, because we all pay to treat this.
And guess what, immunocomprimised people (i.e. HIV positive) who lead unstable lives and engage in risky behavior (i.e. drug users) are much more likely to pick up new diseases, say from animals, which would otherwise not be able to pass into humans.
But back to the US. My grandfather, a admiral in WWII, spent the 50s and 60s fighting the evil that was the soviet union. One of their worst crimes was how they locked up so many of their citizens. The US today jails a larger percentage of its citizens than the russians did, and the majority of these are drug 'crimes' (i.e. possession).
If the purpose of the government is to secure the rights of the people, how can that same government keep over 1% of the population in jail for 'crimes' with no victim other than the perp?
What is the other argument for criminalization? Ah, yes, that drugs are wrong (agreed), and the law is an expression of the morality of the people. The problem with this is that our last three presidents have all used drugs; our current president has even admitted it. We are not talking about a fringe behavior here.
Look, I just agreed that drugs are wrong. But taking them isn't immoral, just stupid. Addiction is not a moral failing, it is a medical issue.
Prohibition of drugs is against the principles of the constitution/declaration of independence. It is expensive. It is extremely harmful to society. And it doesn't work. Time to put the madness to an end
But criminalizing them is worse. Currently the world is (rightly) upset at Gadaffi for making war on his own people. A government should not make war on its people-- so who is the enemy in the 'war on drugs'?
Drug abuse is a medical problem. Why do we try to treat it with the criminal justice system?
If you are a believer in small government, or in market forces, then how do you justify using immense police powers to regulate one of the largest markets in the US (in terms of sales)? The market is real; criminalizing it is only an extreme form of market regulation.
What in the Constitution gives the government the right to tell people what they can or cannot put in their bodies? What they can or cannot eat, drink, smoke?
Look also at the harm caused by criminalization. Organized crime was created in the US during the alcohol prohibition. The ongoing criminalization of drugs provides a major source of income for criminal gangs, which is then a gateway for its members into serious crime. Not to mention the utter destruction of societies south of our border.
Criminalization of intravenous drugs means that the addicts have a much harder time seeking treatment, making it much harder to get them off the drug. It also leads to needle-sharing and other risky practices which increase the spread of disease. Why should you care? Because it is our police, our emergency medical techs, our heros, who get infections when they have to go rescue some junkie. Happened to a friend of mine.
Many studies show that intravenous drug users contribute greatly to the spread of HIV-- which costs you money, because we all pay to treat this.
And guess what, immunocomprimised people (i.e. HIV positive) who lead unstable lives and engage in risky behavior (i.e. drug users) are much more likely to pick up new diseases, say from animals, which would otherwise not be able to pass into humans.
But back to the US. My grandfather, a admiral in WWII, spent the 50s and 60s fighting the evil that was the soviet union. One of their worst crimes was how they locked up so many of their citizens. The US today jails a larger percentage of its citizens than the russians did, and the majority of these are drug 'crimes' (i.e. possession).
If the purpose of the government is to secure the rights of the people, how can that same government keep over 1% of the population in jail for 'crimes' with no victim other than the perp?
What is the other argument for criminalization? Ah, yes, that drugs are wrong (agreed), and the law is an expression of the morality of the people. The problem with this is that our last three presidents have all used drugs; our current president has even admitted it. We are not talking about a fringe behavior here.
Look, I just agreed that drugs are wrong. But taking them isn't immoral, just stupid. Addiction is not a moral failing, it is a medical issue.
Prohibition of drugs is against the principles of the constitution/declaration of independence. It is expensive. It is extremely harmful to society. And it doesn't work. Time to put the madness to an end
Foundational principles
The point of my next few posts is to put to rest a conversation I have had several times. I am not very pleased with my homeland, the United States, and would like to lay out my case. These are my foundational principles
I love my country with all my heart. My family built her, bled for her, have been a part of her since before her founding-- my US ancestory goes back to the 1600s, on both sides. We signed the Constitution, fought for her independence, ..
America is special because it is a country founded on the principles of the enlightenment. It is these principles which make her special. To reduce it to on sentence, this is the claim that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (or property, depending on the version).
That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
I love my country with all my heart. My family built her, bled for her, have been a part of her since before her founding-- my US ancestory goes back to the 1600s, on both sides. We signed the Constitution, fought for her independence, ..
America is special because it is a country founded on the principles of the enlightenment. It is these principles which make her special. To reduce it to on sentence, this is the claim that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (or property, depending on the version).
That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)