Part I While reading Paul Rosenbloom’s excellent “On Computing” I feel as though I’ve glimpsed the outlines of something big. In the book Rosenbloom advances the argument that computing should be counted among the ‘Great Domains’ of science, instead of being considered a mere branch of engineering. During the course of advancing this thesis he […]
Category: Science
Is History a Science?
People twist themselves into knots on the question of whether or not history is a science. I’m not prepared to defend the claim that history is *always* a science, but it certainly can be. As we all know arguably the most important defining feature of a science is that it is ‘falsifiable’ — it makes […]
Explaining Things To Your Grandmother
Einstein supposedly once said that you don’t really understand a thing until you can explain it to your grandmother. While I think we can all agree that Einstein was reasonably bright this advice, in its unexpanded form, is fairly stupid. It encourages people to digest shallow metaphors, maybe memorize a factoid or two from Wikipedia, […]
Profundis: “Sapiens”, by Yuval Harari
Harari’s “Sapiens” is a quality work of popular science. As is usually the case with books of this sort most of the material will be review for anyone who has been paying attention to evolutionary biology, anthropology, and religious and economic history. But “Sapiens” nevertheless manages to be an engaging and thorough treatment of these […]
Profundis: Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
(What follows is a reposting of a few short essays I wrote for Scott Young’s bookclub in response to the perennial classic ‘Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’): ___ Near the end of chapter 3 the narrator makes a number of epistemological and metaphysical claims which confused me for a long time and confuse […]
A Science Podcast?
I had an idea for a podcast the other day exploring plausible, radical alternatives to accepted scientific theories which are carefully supported by available evidence. For example, Julian Jaynes famously argued that the ancient Greeks were not conscious in the way that you and I are. Instead, they were more like automatons occupying one part of […]
Two Transhumanist Experiments
Here is a sketch of two Transhumanist experiments I’d like to try in the future: (1) A company called ‘SenseBridge’ manufactures belts made of cellphone batteries which constantly vibrate in the direction of true North. This is superior to simply wearing a compass because after a while the vibrations weave themselves into your phenomenal field […]
