Entries by tag: ignorance
To learn which questions are unanswerable,
and not to answer them:
This skill is most needful in times of
stress and darkness.
— Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Left Hand of Darkness.”
and not to answer them:
This skill is most needful in times of
stress and darkness.
— Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Left Hand of Darkness.”
"...growing up in church desensitizes you to logical inconsistencies, and that opens up large numbers of people to manipulation tactics employed by individuals and institutions keen on controlling groups of people for their own self-serving purposes."
—Neil Carter in How Faith Breaks Your Thinker
APRIL 10, 2018
SOURCE: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessindixie/2018/04/10/how-faith-breaks-your-thinker/
Excellent resource on logical inconsistencies:
https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/
"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby."
--Henry Louis Mencken in 'Notes On Journalism' in the Chicago Tribune (19 September 1926)
--Henry Louis Mencken in 'Notes On Journalism' in the Chicago Tribune (19 September 1926)
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
--H.L. Mencken
One fifth of the people are against everything all the time.
--Robert Kennedy
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant threat winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
--Isaac Asimov
Democracy if four wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
--Ambrose Bierce
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
--Winston S. Churchill
The main problem in any democracy is that the crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage and whip their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy -- then go back to the office and sell every one of the poor bastards than the tube for a nickel apiece.
--Hunter S. Thompson
Quotes from page 18 of the Funny Times, September 2017
--H.L. Mencken
One fifth of the people are against everything all the time.
--Robert Kennedy
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant threat winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
--Isaac Asimov
Democracy if four wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
--Ambrose Bierce
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
--Winston S. Churchill
The main problem in any democracy is that the crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage and whip their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy -- then go back to the office and sell every one of the poor bastards than the tube for a nickel apiece.
--Hunter S. Thompson
Quotes from page 18 of the Funny Times, September 2017
The Union of Concerned Scientists is just that, concerned. They've created a system by which any government-funded scientist can report the situation or the data if their science is challenged by politics. The UCS is not partisan, they are simply interested in maintaining this process by which we approach the truth in an objective manner. They want to see science continue in spite of the increasingly anti-science culture of our nation. Anyone who is not science trained is increasingly likely to have a negative opinion of science. Scientists in general are working to understand how things work which allows us to develop medicines and technologies that improve our lives. But television appears to be more entertaining when the doctor is the devil.
Recently my partner and I have watched almost two seasons of a series on Netflix called The 100. The premise is that a nuclear holocaust has occurred on earth, and the only humans surviving are the residents of the space stations that were in orbit when the earth was irradiated. The leaders there decide to send 100 (young and beautiful) criminals down to earth's surface ("the ground") after 200 years of waiting for the radiation to dissipate. The pretty criminals are outfitted with bracelets that transmit vital medical data back to the Ark (a composite of many space stations), so that those who stay in orbit can tell if they are dying of radiation poison or something else. It turns out there are some humans who've survived the radiation and are living on the earth's surface. There are also a set of humans who've survived because they are inside a radiation-sheltered palace underground. The evil elites living underground have been surviving by tapping the blood of the "grounders" who survive outdoors, and by enslaving them by way of addiction. The violence escalates as these groups all battle for dominance, rendering the show almost unwatchable by yours truly. I have never been habituated to bloodshed. I don't want to be.
The evil elites in their underground palace use science and medicine to live well, with infinite hydropower, delicious food, and vicious defenses from the humans on the surface. They only care about themselves, and consider that they have a right to the planet. They do not care about human suffering or life. Captured humans are either "harvested" for their blood or bone marrow or converted into slaves called "reapers" who do the work of fetching more humans to be harvested. The reapers are also cannibals, disposing of the harvested bodies. The medical scenes have two sides. One side of the wall shows white sheets and fluorescent lights like a hospital, and the other side of the wall is inhumane, with people in cages waiting to be used, giant needles penetrating people's necks and limbs, bone marrow being harvested without pain management or concern for the survival of the source person, and humans being scrubbed down like animals before a slaughter so that they can be hung upside down and drained of blood. It is utterly sickening.
The good people in the series are the "grounders"--barbarians who hack at each other with swords--and the "sky people" who crashed to earth and didn't die because they were smart and found a stash of guns. This series creates a world in which the educated are hateful and the barbarians and criminals are reasonable. It is a populist story without the overweening power of big business, and without the inquisitive media. The only media in sight is the television series itself.
This series is targetted at the young, and it is perpetuating a worldview in which science and medicine are evil and bad. Education is not valued except for the mandatory techie in each group who saves the day by being smart. Heartless "strength" is valued over and above love. This is the kind of television that sets us up culturally for longterm rebellious ignorance. If this one series has this perspective, how many more are there?
Recently my partner and I have watched almost two seasons of a series on Netflix called The 100. The premise is that a nuclear holocaust has occurred on earth, and the only humans surviving are the residents of the space stations that were in orbit when the earth was irradiated. The leaders there decide to send 100 (young and beautiful) criminals down to earth's surface ("the ground") after 200 years of waiting for the radiation to dissipate. The pretty criminals are outfitted with bracelets that transmit vital medical data back to the Ark (a composite of many space stations), so that those who stay in orbit can tell if they are dying of radiation poison or something else. It turns out there are some humans who've survived the radiation and are living on the earth's surface. There are also a set of humans who've survived because they are inside a radiation-sheltered palace underground. The evil elites living underground have been surviving by tapping the blood of the "grounders" who survive outdoors, and by enslaving them by way of addiction. The violence escalates as these groups all battle for dominance, rendering the show almost unwatchable by yours truly. I have never been habituated to bloodshed. I don't want to be.
The evil elites in their underground palace use science and medicine to live well, with infinite hydropower, delicious food, and vicious defenses from the humans on the surface. They only care about themselves, and consider that they have a right to the planet. They do not care about human suffering or life. Captured humans are either "harvested" for their blood or bone marrow or converted into slaves called "reapers" who do the work of fetching more humans to be harvested. The reapers are also cannibals, disposing of the harvested bodies. The medical scenes have two sides. One side of the wall shows white sheets and fluorescent lights like a hospital, and the other side of the wall is inhumane, with people in cages waiting to be used, giant needles penetrating people's necks and limbs, bone marrow being harvested without pain management or concern for the survival of the source person, and humans being scrubbed down like animals before a slaughter so that they can be hung upside down and drained of blood. It is utterly sickening.
The good people in the series are the "grounders"--barbarians who hack at each other with swords--and the "sky people" who crashed to earth and didn't die because they were smart and found a stash of guns. This series creates a world in which the educated are hateful and the barbarians and criminals are reasonable. It is a populist story without the overweening power of big business, and without the inquisitive media. The only media in sight is the television series itself.
This series is targetted at the young, and it is perpetuating a worldview in which science and medicine are evil and bad. Education is not valued except for the mandatory techie in each group who saves the day by being smart. Heartless "strength" is valued over and above love. This is the kind of television that sets us up culturally for longterm rebellious ignorance. If this one series has this perspective, how many more are there?
...modern science differs from all previous traditions of knowledge in three critical ways:
a. The willingness to admit ignorance. Modern science is based on the Latin injunctioin ignoramus - 'we do not know'. It assumes that we don't know everything. Even more critically, it accepts that the things we think we know could be proven wrong as we gain more knowledge. No concept, idea or theory is sacred and beyond challenge.
b. The centrality of observation and mathematics. Having admitted ignorance, modern science aims to obtain new knowledge. It does so by gathering observations and then using mathematical tools to connect these observations into comprehensive theories.
c. The acquisition of new powers. Modern science is not content with creating theories. It uses these theories in order to acquire new powers, and in particular to develop new technologies.
The Scientific Revolution has not been a revolution of knowledge. It has been above all a revolution of ignorance. The great discovery that launched the Scientific Revolution was the discovery that humans do not know the answers to their most important questions.
(He goes on to discuss how the premodern religious traditions of the world all assert that we already knew everything that we needed to know, and tamped down inquiries.)
-p250-251 in Sapiens
a. The willingness to admit ignorance. Modern science is based on the Latin injunctioin ignoramus - 'we do not know'. It assumes that we don't know everything. Even more critically, it accepts that the things we think we know could be proven wrong as we gain more knowledge. No concept, idea or theory is sacred and beyond challenge.
b. The centrality of observation and mathematics. Having admitted ignorance, modern science aims to obtain new knowledge. It does so by gathering observations and then using mathematical tools to connect these observations into comprehensive theories.
c. The acquisition of new powers. Modern science is not content with creating theories. It uses these theories in order to acquire new powers, and in particular to develop new technologies.
The Scientific Revolution has not been a revolution of knowledge. It has been above all a revolution of ignorance. The great discovery that launched the Scientific Revolution was the discovery that humans do not know the answers to their most important questions.
(He goes on to discuss how the premodern religious traditions of the world all assert that we already knew everything that we needed to know, and tamped down inquiries.)
-p250-251 in Sapiens
The administration says the American people want tax cuts.
Well, duh. The American people also want drive-through nickel beer night. The American people want to lose weight by eating ice cream. The American people love the Home Shopping Networkd because it's commercial-free.
--Will Durst (quoted in the Funny Times 4/16)
Well, duh. The American people also want drive-through nickel beer night. The American people want to lose weight by eating ice cream. The American people love the Home Shopping Networkd because it's commercial-free.
--Will Durst (quoted in the Funny Times 4/16)
Does it mean, if you don’t understand something, and the community of physicists don’t understand it, that means God did it?... If that’s how you want to invoke your evidence for God, then God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance that’s getting smaller and smaller and smaller as time moves on.
--Neil DeGrasse Tyson
I am an agnotologist, no doubt. That is to say, I am fascinated with all that we do not know, with the gray areas and uncertainties of life, death, and everything. Agnostic = Doesn't Know. Agnotology = Study of Ignorance. Science depends on us being very clear about what we do not know yet, so that we can devise ways to try to find out.
( Great article here from the NY TimesCollapse )
( Great article here from the NY TimesCollapse )
Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon
by Tom Myers and Michael Ghiglieri
This book logs all the mistakes you can make at the Grand Canyon. There's an interview with the authors here. There have been some changes since the first edition. There are more environmental deaths, climbing deaths down in the canyon, and suicides than when the book was written. There are fewer deaths overall and fewer falls from the top of the canyon. Perhaps the park has improved safety and access to cliff tops to cause this change.
SOURCE
http://azdailysun.com/news/local/canyon-deaths-and-counting/article_ba588a05-e816-55be-87f6-80f15b76f744.html
by Tom Myers and Michael Ghiglieri
This book logs all the mistakes you can make at the Grand Canyon. There's an interview with the authors here. There have been some changes since the first edition. There are more environmental deaths, climbing deaths down in the canyon, and suicides than when the book was written. There are fewer deaths overall and fewer falls from the top of the canyon. Perhaps the park has improved safety and access to cliff tops to cause this change.
Q: What are common risk factors for death at the Canyon?
A: "Men, we have a problem," Ghiglieri said to an audience at NAU's Cline Library this winter, displaying a graphic with a skull and crossbones.
Being male, and young, is a tremendous risk factor, he and Myers found.
Of 55 who have accidentally fallen from the rim of the canyon, 39 were male. Eight of those guys were hopping from one rock to another or posing for pictures, including a 38-year-old father from Texas pretending to fall to scare his daughter, who then really did fall 400 feet to his death.
So is taking unknown shortcuts, which sometimes lead to cliffs.
Going solo is a risk factor in deaths from falls, climbing (anticipated or unplanned) and hiking.
Arrogance, impatience or ignorance also sometimes play a part.
SOURCE
http://azdailysun.com/news/local/canyon-deaths-and-counting/article_ba588a05-e816-55be-87f6-80f15b76f744.html
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