Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Saturday night distinguished lecture, documentary & interview series, here is Daniel Dennett, Austin Fletcher Professor of Philosophy and co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University, presenting his talk: Can We Know Our Own Minds? (23:45).
Last week, Jeff Hawkins stood on the shoulders of our previous physics and genetics shows and started taking a look at our neo-cortex and how the modern human brain works. Now hold on to your seats: in tonight's talk, Dan notes that not only don't we understand our own consciousness, but that half the time our brains are actively fooling us. As Dan says: "Your consciousness is not quite as marvelous as you may have thought it is [...] consciousness is a bag of tricks". Of course, tonight's show wouldn't be complete if I didn't at least slightly disagree with Dan, in the sense that I think said bag of tricks is, indeed, marvelous.
Your Reader Tricks, er, Tips, are, as always, welcome in the comments.
(note from Kate - for some reason, Vit's post didn't auto-publish last night as scheduled. I'm republishing it now, for your morning enjoymen.)
Daniel Dennett? Thanks for the inspiration -- I'm going to put something at my blog by someone who regularly kicks Dennett's rear end.
"No thanks, says Gretzky, who doesn't even plan to attend the Olympics as a fan."
"99 reasons to skip Olympics"
http://calsun.canoe.ca/Sports/Hockey/2009/02/15/8399256-sun.html
As I looked out my window last night and saw the Olympic flags waving in the breeze, lit up from below in some well done dramatic lighting, I thought to myself "I sure hope all those Olympic whiners, bitchers and complainers just stay home at this time next year and keep all their negativity away from the party".
It is going to be great and if we get weather lke we are having now, the world is going to be blown away with images of the most beautiful place on the planet.
"Satellite tracker feels Siberian crash proves need for his service
When two satellites collided for the first time over Siberia earlier this week, Michael Earl was more than a little interested.
The Brockville resident has been trying to sell his services as a satellite tracker, and was even told by one firm in the industry that satellites would have to collide in orbit before anyone would be interested in his proposal.
On Tuesday, that's exactly what happened, some 800 kilometres over Siberia, when a derelict Russian satellite designed for military communications and a working U.S. Iridium satellite, serving commercial customers and the U.S. Department of Defence, were involved in the first-ever orbital smashup.
"I can only say it unfortunately proves my point," Earl said Thursday.
Earl, 38, who also teaches astronomy at St. Lawrence College's Brockville campus, runs a one-man company called Canadian Satellite Tracking and Orbit Research (CASTOR), and is currently trying to drum up business tracking satellites and offering consulting services for building satellite tracking facilities.
In fact, Earl even e-mailed Iridium in December soliciting work, to no avail.
Iridium spokesman Elizabeth Mailander said Thursday the firm is not looking at any contracts with new service providers.
"We have what we believe to be sufficient information, notwithstanding an unfortunate event that occurred," she said.
But that unfortunate event has now thrust satellites - machines we have all come to take for granted - very much into the spotlight, said Earl.
"I believe that this type of work is going to be one of the most lucrative businesses of the 21st century," he said, adding there are enough talented astronomers in the world to track the orbits of the larger satellites, providing information that could avert another collision."
http://recorder.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1436609
http://www.castor2.ca/
Camille Paglia Blisters Fellow Democrats For Supporting "Fairness Doctrine":
http://en.sevenload.com/videos/VXZTSBd-Fairness-Doctrine
Finally, a Democrat I can agree with.
Hmm..a few thoughts on Dennett's talk. I'll be open and admit I'm not a fan of Dennett, both because of his biological reductionism and his 'memetics'.
First, consciousness and cognition are two different processes. Dennett was primarily talking about cognition in this lecture.
Then, Dennett is working on a premise that our cognition is isolated and individual. My own premise is that cognition is both individual AND networked. It's a premise; I can't prove it. But Dennett's view, also a premise, means that he locates all cognitive activity in the 'actual' or individual material realm while I add a 'potential' or 'virtual' realm.
Then, he refers to 'stream of consciousness' or, more correctly, cognition. But in this section, I think what is going on here is not cognition as such, but a linear processing of MEMORY. Those images in the mind are there because of past references or input of those words and images. This focus on individual memory fits into Dennett's premise that cognition operates only within an actual individual.
And of course, defining a complex system by referring to reductionism, i.e., to cells, won't work. A complex system is irreducible. Dennett's work ignores this and focuses on reduction.
What was missing, I think, in this lecture was an outline of various hypotheses about 'what is cognition'; that is, how the cognitive process works.
You get input data, all that sensual stuff, and you end up with an output cognition, an interpretation. How do we get from input to output?
My own view is that this is an irreducible triad, rather like a function where x(f)=y, or input is MEDIATED to result in an output interpretation. Attention ought to focus on that cognitive process of mediation that transforms the sensual data to the reasoned interpretation. Is it just a transference or is it a transformation?
What is interesting is that ALL systems, physical and biological, in our universe may operate in this triadic manner, of transforming input to output via some mediative system.
And, this mediative system operates by rules, by normative habits. If it didn't, our universe would be chaotic.
Some rules are genetic; some are learned.
Dennett's work ignores this mediative process; well, he reduces it to memory. And, of course, he rejects emotion as having any mediative causal force.
Similar to the lecture from last week, this was a focus on a mechanical view of life; I think that there is more going on than this.
Oh, and as an aside, I cannot abide memetics.
But thanks, vitruvius. Now, what's up for next week? This is a fascinating series.
Irwin:
Listened to the clip and she's bang-on.
There is no conspiracy involved when somebody puts out their rants on the radio airwaves and they get the top ratings.
It's the marketplace of ideas and most of the liberal effetes, er, elites do show fascist tendencies hatched from the 30s as the points out.
She put it in such a succinct way. Highly recommended, everybody.
Promotion: Students for Concealed Carry on Campus
Paglia is right; the so-called 'fairness' doctrine has nothing to do with openness of perspective but with silencing perspectives that are unwelcome to the left. In other words, silencing criticism. There's a basic fault in the fairness argument as well, for it suggests that each argument has one and only one opposite view.
Victor Davis Hanson has a nice article suggesting that with Obama and the Democrats we may be entering an era more in line with Hobbes Leviathin than with American democracy.
The Leviathin promoted what can only be called a totalitarian government under an absolute Sovereign. The people give up all rights, not merely of rebellion, but of disagreement.
There are no universal truths, such as the fundamental rights of 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'. No common values. No, good and evil are defined only by the subjective view of the individual. And you even give up your right to evaluate anything and hand it over to the Absolute Sovereign who makes all decisions - and you cannot contradict him.
Notice how this fits in with Obama's rejection of those who criticize him. He's almost obsessed with Hannity and Limbaugh because they critique him.
And Obama's notion of bipartisanship doesn't mean that he listens to the objections of the Republicans or that he changes policies with their input. No, it means only that they must agree with him. That's Absolute Sovereignty.
I just put the Daniel Dennett ass kicking up at my blog. Bet you can't kick just one.
the Atlantic on Canadian economy
An undeniable eye opener.
Compare the allegations against Geert Wilders in inciting violence to this so-called 'moderate Kuwaiti professor' imploring Muslims, during a University lecture, to genocide in America and to wipe Jews from the face of the earth as proscribed by Allah. He is loudly applauded by a large audience with each murderous word.
Geert Wilders produced a film, distributed on the internet. This filth was broadcast on Al Jazeera.
Why isn't this person (*cough*) immediately placed under arrest? Why is this film not brought to public attention and branded as incitement to genocide by the governments of Europe, the UN, the world court? How is it that Al Jazeera remains on the air?
Kuwaiti Professor Abdallah Nafisi Fantasizes about Genocide:
Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar) - February 2, 2009 - 00:09:05
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a7a_1234700204
arctic unicorns
quote of the day:
illegal aliens are actually "going back" because there are no jobs "here".
In Soviet Canada health care plan: don't get sick!
Which report from Buffalo, New York is smattered across the MSM?
The betrayal of the dhimmi MSM: if she bleeds, it doesn't lead.
...-
"Plane landed flat on Buffalo house" (canoe)
...-
"Headless body in gutless press [Mark Steyn]
Just asking, but are beheadings common in western New York? I used to spend a lot of time in that neck of the woods and I don't remember decapitation as a routine form of murder. Yet the killing of Aasiya Hassan seems to have elicited a very muted response.
When poor Mrs Hassan's husband launched his TV network to counter negative stereotypes of Muslims, he had no difficulty generating column inches, as far afield as The Columbus Dispatch, The Detroit Free Press, The San Jose Mercury News, Variety, NBC News, the Voice of America and the Canadian Press. The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle put the couple on the front page under the headline "Infant TV Network Unveils The Face Of Muslim News".
But, when Muzzammil Hassan kills his wife and "the face of Muslim news" is unveiled rather more literally, detached from her corpse at his TV studios, it's all he can do to make the local press - page 26 of Newsday, plus The Buffalo News, and a very oddly angled piece in the usually gung-ho New York Post, "Buffalo Beheading: Money Woe Spurred Slay".
Oh, really? He beheaded her for some goofy clause in the insurance policy? Not exactly:
An upstate TV exec who set up a channel promoting Muslims as peace-loving people was stressed about his failing business in the days before he allegedly chopped off his estranged wife's head, a friend of the couple said today.
Ah.
"He was worried about the station's future," said Dr. Khalid Qazi, a friend of the couple and president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Western New York, who last spoke to the Hassans a week ago..."
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWVlZDFkN2RmOGE1YWMzMmY5YjBiZThkYTIxN2Q5ZDU=
Interesting read from 1998.
The Boomers are an archetypal Prophet generation, a type born after a secular crisis, just in time to create another one. Get the image of a grim elder, with a well-defined vision of what's right and wrong, calling down wrath, and laying down the law for a troubled nation in chaotic times. That's the type of person who tends to lead countries into wars, as well as through them. Interestingly, the Boomers in America have their counterparts abroad today, especially in China, where they grew up during the Cultural Revolution. Two ideologically driven, righteous groups running two such powerful and alien cultures is almost a guaranteed formula for a millennial-sized crisis. Which should appear, coincidentally, sometime shortly after the millennium. (We're right on schedule.) ............
In any event, the way the current generations line up relative to historical analogs, an excellent case can be made the U.S. is approaching another time of secular crisis, a Fourth Turning, with an expected due date of 2005 -- seven years from now -- plus or minus a few years in either direction. The Stamp Acts catalyzed the American Revolution, the election of Lincoln catalyzed the Civil War, the Crash of '29 catalyzed the Depression/WW II era. What might precipitate the elements now floating in solution? The answer is, practically any random event that's sufficiently traumatic. Any of the theses of current disaster/action novels and movies will do nicely. Perhaps the accidental or intentional release of a super plague vector. The crashing of an airliner into the Capitol during a joint session. (Close, but not quite.) An all-out assault on the IRS computers by an armed group -- or perhaps the computers just melting down due to the Year 2000 Problem. Perhaps a financial disaster that cascades into the Greater Depression. In any of these, or a hundred other scenarios, the federal government would almost certainly act precipitously and with a heavy hand, which would bring on a whole other set of consequences
http://www.investorsinsight.com/blogs/john_mauldins_outside_the_box/archive/2008/12/29/foundations-of-crisis.aspx
"Dissident blogger Xu Lai, aka ProState in Flames, is stabbed in Beijing
One of China’s most famous bloggers was stabbed at the weekend.
Xu Lai, the writer behind ProState in Flames, was speaking at the One Way Street bookshop in Beijing on Saturday afternoon when he was attacked, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported. He had been speaking for a couple of hours and was answering questions when a fracas erupted.
His wife said that two men forced Xu Lai into the men’s toilet. She chased after them and found that one was holding a vegetable knife and the other a dagger. The men escaped, leaving Xu Lai on the ground with a cut to his stomach.
Mr Xu is recovering in hospital."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5739768.ece
"ulianov", aka Vladimir Ulyanov, aka Lenin:
"Kulak: Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article
According to Marxism-Leninism, the kulaks were a class enemy of the poorer peasants. .... encouraged the formation of collective farmsCollective farming ...
www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Kulak"
ulanov CWB outperformed..how about the producers had they the option of free will? Perhaps the would sell more near the peak if it was up to them? Perhaps.
I just received an e-mail from the Jerusalem Post with the results of a poll that they recently took. It seems that about 62% of those polled would like to see the electoral system of proportional representation in Israel changed. Food for thought for those misguided Albertans (a small minority I hope) who would like to see proportional representation implemented here.
What's GeorgeBush-Harper up to now?
Control freak! Beastly O.
BTW, Aunty-American is hitchhiking to Ottawa for the duration. Honk when you go by.
...-
"Toronto Star - 8 hours ago
OTTAWA - When the president and the beast come to town Thursday, the scene will be right out of a Hollywood movie. There will be a specially made limo - "the beast" - black SUVs, rooftop police snipers, US Secret Service agents talking into their ..."
...-
"Harper's new black SUV is Bush league, MP says
22 May 2006 ...
www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=512ce3d4-6691-4751-a89f-7be506595c6a"
When the entire world is in crisis and looking for solutions from the United States and countries like Canada what do you think Ignatieff will want to discuss with Obama?
From today's Ottawa Sun:
"The Opposition leader will also try for a sense of Obama's approach to business, so that, should Ignatieff one day be prime minister, there will be a foundation on which the two men can build. They might, for instance, jaw about their time at Harvard or discuss books."
Not to mention, Ignatieff has bragged that he has old cronies from Harvard insiders with Obama's new team - actually bragging that he would use personal friendships and influence peddling with the new US administration.
How very Liberal of him.
keep em guessing with barrack of olay.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090215/axelrod_stimulus_090215/20090215?hub=TopStories
Follow the yellor brick ... to IggyO's "connections".
...-
"Intellectual pols are back in favor
By A. James Memmott
Is this a trend?
The U.S. just elected a real author as president, a man with two books that he actually wrote himself.
Sometime this year, Canadians could choose a writer to be their prime minister.
But unlike Barack Obama, Michael G. Ignatieff is an author who has done nearly all of his writing - 13 non-fiction works, three novels, and hundreds of magazine pieces - while living outside of his native land."
"Hint: Click in map to explore connections
Story continues below interactive map
Click to activate this MucketyMap"
http://news.muckety.com/2009/02/10/intellectual-pols-are-back-in-favor/11241
Good news for Canada's Aunty-American: Buy American.
It can now resume it's Aunty-American rants.
Sample rant: Those Ammuruicans ... I h**e those bghgghgs*.
And, O's new job number is a Numbers/Shill Game.
...-
"He also defended controversial Buy American provisions contained in the legislation, which call for the use of American iron ore and steel in infrastructure projects that are funded by the bill."
"Obama adviser admits job creation figure a 'guess'"
urlm.in/brdk
(*H/T Carolyn Parrish, ex-Liberal MP)
Although the title suggests that another leftist is playing Whack-A-Rand, the words therein contain some wisdom:
"Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor: recession may be jolt that selfish Britain needs
It's possible that this has already been posted, but there is an interested 'audio' interview with Geert Wilders being chastised by a BBC reporter just after he was banned from the UK last week. He managed to get in a few words about PM Brown.
http://www.womanhonorthyself.com/?p=5339
And the west thinks it's got problems with nukes in Iran?
"Pakistan imposes Islamic law in Taliban stronghold,"
by Saeed Shah in The Guardian, February 15:
Pakistan is to impose Islamic law in a vast region of the north-west called Malakand in an attempt to placate extremists, even as President Asif Zardari warns that they are "trying to take over the state".
Pakistani Taliban militants who are in control of the Swat valley in the region announced a ceasefire tonight, reacting to the government's agreement to bring in sharia courts.
Malakand is part of North West Frontier province, a regular part of Pakistan, not the wild tribal area, which runs along the Afghan border.
Critics warned that the new sharia regulations represented a capitulation to the extremists' demands, and that it would be difficult to stop hardliners elsewhere in the country from demanding that their areas also come under Islamic law.
"This is definitely a surrender," said Khadim Hussain of the Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy, a thinktank in Islamabad. "If you keep treating a community as something different from the rest of the country, it will isolate them."
Javed Iqbal, a retired judge, speaking on Pakistani television, said: "It means that there is not one law in the country. It will disintegrate this way. If you concede to this, you will go on conceding."...
ulianov, the CWB just like a blind squirrel finds an occasional acorn. Just don't trust it to provide for its charges in perpetuity.
"Capitalism is reinventing itself
As the recession deepens, people across the ideological spectrum declare that capitalism has failed. Almost every economic news report carries words like 'crisis' and 'disaster'. Yet, recessions are not aberrations of capitalism but an intrinsic part of it.
Markets create boom and bust cycles, arising from human tendencies to swing from euphoria to fear and back. A bust is an occasion for cleaning out deadwood and failed experiments, and re-inventing capitalism.
In my youth, the Communist Party politburo would meet after every recession and declare "capitalism is now in its final death throes." In fact, capitalism re-invented itself and grew constantly stronger, while the recession-free communist system collapsed."
urlm.in/brdy (timesindia)
Camille Paglia Blisters Fellow Democrats For Supporting "Fairness Doctrine":
http://en.sevenload.com/videos/VXZTSBd-Fairness-Doctrine
Finally, a Democrat I can agree with.
Posted by: irwin daisy at February 15, 2009 10:50 AM
I've always maintained a great deal of respect for Ms. Paglia. While she self-identifies as a liberal, her world view has always seemed to be guided by firmly rooted common sense and pragmatism, not rhetoric and talking points.
ulianov, you are wanted over at www.agri-ville.com
They are now doing the autopsy on the present CWB annual report and it ain't pretty.
Lost sales, lost over $300 million dollars on speculation, and lost the respect of more western farmers.
Little to no explanation for the most vital information.
Why it's so bad that none of the CWB huggers have even shown up to defend the Enron Wheat Board.
Its only the naive MSM that swallows the CWB Be Happy pablum.
And you, of course.
CanPress says IggyO said, westerners are not stupid; the Liberal Party is dumb.
Did Ralph Goodale get to the brunch? The last time at Dionky's brunch Ralph looked sort of woo-zy.
Notice >>> "Igantieff". It's a bad omen for IggyO.
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"Igantieff tries to woo western Canada, saying it's dumb to run against it
Liberal Party Leader Michael Ignatieff speaks to party supporters at a community brunch in Saskatoon, Sask., Saturday, Feb. 14, 2009.
REGINA - Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff admits the party has made mistakes in Western Canada.
(canpress)
To:bluetech at February 15, 2009 3:58 PM,
Thanks for the link; Geert Wilders is hero. The interviewer is a typical low-caste media wannabe, doing what she believes will further her career. Apparently the MSM is quite satisfied to have low-level wannabes interviewing international heroes.
The last time at Dionky's brunch Ralph [Goodale] looked sort of woo-zy
During the election, Ralph's website had nil, zero, nada, pictures of Ralph with Dion. There were some of Ralph and the Mayor of Regina, but none with Dion.
Intellectual prophylaxis prevents me from visiting Ralphs website today, but I wonder how identified he’ll be with the LPC.
A sad picture collection of Islamic honour killing victims and their stories at Atlas Shrugs:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/02/losing-our-heads-.html
This is one of the greatest and most tragic issues in history. Islam and its shariah adherents must be indicted once and for all. It is the ideology of beasts from hell.
Interesting read at www.financialsense.com/editorials/quinn/2009/0210.html
"Boomers - Your Crisis has Arrived"
'There is a mysterious cycle in human events.
To some generations much is given.
Of other generations, much is expected.
This Generation has a rendezvous with destiny.'
- FDRoosevelt 1936
I've always loved Paglia. She was the first literary/cultural critic who (horrible expression) "spoke" to me when I was young and impressionable. I mean, in the early 90s she was something else. Lately I had resigned myself to dismissing her as boring and repetitive - Ancient Greece this, Femme Fatale that, Gay yadda yadda - but now I believe she's back with a vengeance. Honestly, I think a crush on Sarah Palin may have started her up again.
She can define herself as she likes, (and certainly I disagree with a good half of everything she has to say), but if she's a liberal than liberal's not an insult.
So, Brava! And I hope that wasn't too off-topic.
To: rockyt at February 15, 2009 6:15 PM
The author is a "chartist". It doesn't work in economics or the stock market, and it certainly can't be used to predict societal events.
A Culture of Passivity
"Protecting" our "children" at Virginia Tech.
By Mark Steyn
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YzEzYzQ0Y2MyZjNlNjY1ZTEzMTA0MGRmM2EyMTQ0NjY=
KEEP OMAR KHADR AND OTHER TERRORISTS OUT OF CANADA: PETITION TO PM HARPER
Sign the petition/letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/canada-must-support-us-trial-of-omar-khadr/sign.html
Since Feb 12th, nearly 900 have already signed the petition.
Let's make it as many as possible...
Don't leave it up to the Hard Left and the CAIR-Can and other extremist groups!
I followed bud link and there is an article about another book: The Next 100 Years
The Next 100 Years
"Pictured: The supergun that kills from a mile - and the camouflaged crackshots using it against the Taliban
British Army snipers call it 'the Silent Assassin' and it is the weapon the Taliban fear the most.
It is the British-made L115A3 Long Range Rifle which, in recent weeks, has killed scores of enemy fighters in Afghanistan.
In a new initiative on the front line, the Army is using sniper platoons to target the Taliban and 'The Long', as the snipers call it, can take out insurgents from a mile away."
"The L115A3 Long Range Sniper Rifle - based on a weapon used by the British Olympic shooting team - weighs 15lbs, fires 8.59mm rounds and has a range of 1,100-1,500 yards."
urlm.in/brej
Iraq and California: same land area.
Will O invade California?
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*"Cash crisis forces California to free 55,000 prisoners"
urlm.in/brek
...-
""Saddam Frees Prisoners in Iraqi Jails - TalkLeft: The Politics Of ...
Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news."
www.talkleft.com/story/2002/10/20/545/44139
I have made a note when I get back to Canada I am sending the link for the petition. KEEP OMAR KHADR AND OTHER TERRORISTS OUT OF CANADA! Thanks for providing the link
This is funny:
http://www.ihatethemedia.com/global-warming-drives-people-insane
Re: "not only don't we understand our own consciousness, but that half the time our brains are actively fooling us"
This unfortunately sounds far too much like Kant's we-are-blind-because-we-have-eyes schtick that leads to mysticism, which is what has caused so much of the bloodshed of the past century.
Re: Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said ... "Capitalism needs to be underpinned with regulation and a moral purpose."
Capitalism has a moral purpose: to raise the standard of living. What does he think has been going on for the past couple of hundred years? It is only since government and regulation got out of hand that we are having problems. I saw in the paper the other day that Ontario has 500,000 regulations on the books, so it doesn't exactly need any more, does it? Even I'm not opposed to a few rules for safety and the environment, but I bet 490,000 can be tossed. Even then, given the Supreme Court rulings in 2001 and 2008 on the subject of regulation, they're all pointless even if they are useful.
So the Elliot Wave theory is a pig in a poke then glasnost?
And Kondratieff was just drunk?