For the Love of Wisdom
chaoticutopia | May 10, 2008Both philosophy people and Beatles people should enjoy this one...
I was studying for my final exam in predicate logic, while simultaneously browsing through the Flickr "Song Chart" Pool (thanks to Of Two Minds.) The next thing I know, I’m trying to work out this proof:
Click the image for the a larger version, with the solution spelled out. If you still don’t get it, just enjoy this instead:
When part one ends, links to the other parts should appear at the bottom of the player.
chaoticutopia | January 14, 2008A new concern arose around the turn of the 21st century, among the advancements in technology and science: what is the future of our planet's climate? This is a bold question, considering traditional problems with predicting the future. We have no evidence of future events, due to the asymmetry of time. It is difficult even to reconcile different interpretations of present conditions, because of epistemological flaws in our methods of observation. In the face of such uncertainties, and with fortunetelling abandoned along with magical thinking many years before, can science provide useful…
chaoticutopia | December 1, 2007
If you’re in the Denver area this weekend, with nothing better to do, then come check out the Rocky Mountain Roots Camp. I'll be giving a presentation on climate change and defending predictive science today at 1:30 pm in the chapel room of the First Unitarian Church in Denver (at 14th & Lafayette.) It should be fun!
If you can't make it (I know this is a little last minute) just check back soon; I'll post my presentation later.
In the meantime, I'll try to get this week's fractal up...
chaoticutopia | November 27, 2007I last left this blog on an ambiguous note. Followed by another unannounced absence, this might have seemed strangely ironic. It was for me--that post was written the day before my Thanksgiving break, and I had absolutely nothing planned--except to write. That, as you might have guessed, is exactly what I didn’t do. Hence the ironic part: I’ve been obsessing over prediction lately (that’s what I had intended to write about) yet I can’t seem to even predict my own behavior. Can we hope to predict anything, let alone global changes? That’s the big question.
Now, while I didn’t exactly write, I…
chaoticutopia | November 10, 2007All these sets of knowledge were laid out before me, like packages tied in brightly colored papers and curling ribbons, each as enticing as the last. These weren’t just ideas, like the pictures on the pages of catalogs, but complete structures; laws and theories and all the understandings that led to their constructions. Bright packages of knowledge, each a puzzle unto itself--how was I to choose among them?
To open them all would be certain madness--yet how could I resist? Oh, to be no longer limited to catalog poses, to grasp the real thing. If I opened them all at once, would I be…
chaoticutopia | July 13, 2007I sometimes wonder if people who are unfamiliar with science are afraid to learn about it. It seems ridiculous, on the surface--"I don’t know much about science, so I’m not capable of learning about it"--but I suspect it is a common attitude. (It’s even worse when it comes to philosophy, but I’ll get to that later.) Why are people afraid to learn science? I used to feel that way, and I love the subject. I spent 10 years thinking I shouldn’t go to college because I wasn’t prepared.
That misconception started with my math education. I gave up on math back in high school, in the middle of…
chaoticutopia | April 20, 2007The Perfection of Wisdom: A Fractal:
A layered fractal, incorporating a Lissajous curve
(For Melinda)
The Perfection of Wisdom: An 11th Century Illuminated Manuscript:
A page from the illuminated manuscript, Astasähasrikä Prajñäpäramitä (The Perfection of Wisdom)Created on pattra pages in a Tibetan monestary during the late 11th century (Pala age)
And thus Sariputra says:
The perfection of wisdom gives light.
I pay homage to the perfection of wisdom!
She is worthy of homage.
She is a source of light,
She removes darkness, and leads
Away from the blinding darkness
Caused by a…
chaoticutopia | April 12, 2007
Shalini at Scientia Natura has bestowed upon me the Thinking Blogger Award. I'm honored. I've always thought I probably think too much, so it's nice to receive some accolades for it. (Normally, I see it more as a curse.) Fortunately or unfortunately, this 'award' looks suspiciously like a meme:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative…
chaoticutopia | December 11, 2006
The other day, in response to a meme, I confessed to being a theist. I seem to have chosen a good time to do this, as many of my (non-theistic) fellow ScienceBloggers are discussing the matter. (Here and here are just a few examples.) I suppose I should explain. Since the holidays are approaching and, whether you are religious or not, there is a surplus of stress about, I'm going to try to keep it on the lighter side.
My brother, Tristan, ran across this quiz a few months ago, which attempts to match a person with the nearest spiritual beliefs. I'm usually rather skeptical about web-based…
chaoticutopia | August 17, 2006Sometimes, inspiration and insight can come from the strangest places. This post, gathered from a series on my old site, describes my experiences with the classic symbol for morality: The apple (as in, the fruit of knowledge of good and evil.) It started with a dream that some would consider blasphemous, a journey into the world of myth and metaphor, and ended up with some of the ideas I wrote about last week. I've condensed it all into one post, so you'll have to forgive me if it is a bit more tangential than usual-or if I'm relaxing in a hot spring somewhere, rather than editing it.
The…
chaoticutopia | August 16, 2006The following is a short story-a work of fiction-or is it an epistemological metaphor? You decide.
Paper Dolls
By Karmen Lee Franklin
Leila has this collection of paper dolls. Some of them are tattered and yellow; those she keeps tucked away safely, so that she may later pull them out and fondly recall the times, long ago, when she played with them as they were new. She has new ones as well, all fresh and sharp; these she'll touch with a smile, and picture the way they should dress, or imagine how they would act, or where they will go together.
She delights in each one, seeing each unique cut…
chaoticutopia | August 9, 2006Why can't we picture a fifth dimension? One, two, and three seem so easy to grasp. We can even see how one leads to the next: a line, composed of points, is a component of a shape on a plane, which in turn is a component of a spatial object. Consider that object with an additional aspect, enduring through time, and you can almost envision a fourth--a curving sense of endurance, relative to our space. So, why not imagine another dimension, not just curved, but twisted or spun, which consists of the aspects of time, present, future and past, relating to one another? Ok... don't picture it too…
chaoticutopia | August 8, 2006When I last left off, I was describing the relationships between values and matter, and how they fit together to form information or a three-dimensional thing. But something seemed missing. Do we really live in something as simple as a three dimensional world? As I mentioned earlier, the string theorists don't think so, and neither do I. For one, things change. My study of Colorado history has given plenty examples of that. Look at Church Ranch, then versus now, or Lillybridge's studio, and the freeway that sits there today. What makes the difference in forms of these places? Time, naturally…
chaoticutopia | August 8, 2006The title makes this sound like a post about utopia. That wasn't my intention, but maybe, in some ways, it is. When Jose Garcia over at Meme Therapy asked me for a quote about achieving utopia, I discussed the same issues, although just briefly. Here, I'm going into greater detail. In the last post, I talked a bit about the difficulties of defining a solid value to a single sunflower. If we have trouble with something as simple as a flower, then how can we expect to judge anything more complex, like the garden or ecosystem around it? How about the whole changing environment on this planet, or…
chaoticutopia | August 7, 2006Sometimes, reading philosophy is a lot like medieval torture. For some reason, talking about things like objectivity in ethics or the meaning of existence requires numerous dry definitions and explanations. This process causes the reader to be overwhelmed and confused. I'd rather not do that, here. Still, I'd like to approach the subject of values. I've spent the last few days trying to decide the best way to do that. So, instead of diving into semantics and logic, I figured I'd just start with a sunflower.
A sunflower seems simple enough, right? It's pretty enough to show up on dresses and…