Clarke’s Law of Revolutionary Ideas: Every revolutionary idea – in science, politics, art, or whatever – seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases:
— Arthur C. Clarke
(1) “It’s completely impossible – don’t waste my time”;
(2) “It’s possible, but it’s not worth doing”;
(3) “I said it was a good idea all along.”
An interesting piece describing that Mother Teresa apparently lost her faith in the end. Charity Without Religious Belief: Mother Teresa | Cosmic Variance Unfortunately, Mother Teresa seems to have despaired of her work because of that too: she should not have done so – helping other living beings is a means in itself; one does [...]
LOL – this makes for a good laugh (which is somewhat a relief, because most of the time when reading about creationists I am not very happy): Measured Against Reality: The dumbest creationist quote ever Technorati Tags: humor, philosophy of science
One of the weirder things in Star Trek which I didn’t quite buy were life forms that developed in outer space. But it looks as the others of ST may not have been so far off after all – physicists have found structures in plasma (!) which have properties similar to DNA – so maybe [...]
Just a link, as so often these busy days: Rational Atheism: Scientific American Technorati Tags: philosophy
Nice and controversial: the Pinker List on “taboo” questions and some remarks by Gelman: What is a taboo question? I think these questions (and others) must be asked and discussed in free societies. Technorati Tags: bias
A wonderful post by Elizier Yudkowsky on how he argues with somebody who thinks only God can make a soul (intelligence, emotional being, whatever . Overcoming Bias: Bayesian Judo http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/475590/20459112 It just shows what I have come to realize lately: that most people don’t actually hold opinions because they think (emphasis important) they’re right, but [...]
Hmmm – in German speaking countries this is old news – that laser printers have dangerous emissions is known for seven years or more, indeed there is legislation that printers may not be put into unventilated rooms at offices. But it seems the anglo-saxon world has to discover everything for itself, yes? Is Your Printer [...]
The Sentient Developments blog visits the deeply troubling Fermi Paradox once again. The Fermi Paradox is actually quite simple: if intelligent life exists in the universe, why aren’t they here yet? If life could develop easily, it would certainly have done so millions of years ago in other parts of the galaxy. Enough time should [...]
As I don’t have time to comment at the moment I would just like to recommend this read: Gene Expression: Intercourse and Intelligence Technorati Tags: pointer
