Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Saturday night contemporary music show, here is Sade (also known as Helen Folasade Adu, OBE) performing Smooth Operator (1984, 3:35). Gosh she’s sweet.
Speaking of smooth operators, let’s talk about deception. It can be reasonably argued, and the following article does, that deception is one of the highest accomplishments of H. Sapiens Sapiens, because it allows us to work together collectively for the common good.
Meanwhile, it turns out that in practice there is a subset of us who aren’t so good at deception, and it’s not a matter of axiology: it’s a matter of brain structure. Strangely enough, perhaps, it also tends to turn out to be the case that such pathologically honest people are way better than average at systematizing and abstracting forms. (Disclaimer: I am what them there head-shrinkin’ folks call a high-functioning aspergian, don’cha know.)
The path to maximal utility is for our various subsets to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of each perspective, and to work together to synthesize both over-arching and under-girding solutions that mitigate the worst misbehaviours of each particular perspective.
Unfortunately, the focus of some humans, perhaps far too many humans, is on the fight or flight response. You notice how rare it is to hear (at least in the market served by those who are selling the fight or flight response) of the: “oh, calm down, hang around, we’ll work something out” response. Funny how that works. Which market are you in?
Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, here, for those who are interested in this sort of neurostructural dimension to our existence, is Simon Baron-Cohen’s essay I Cannot Tell a Lie – What People with Autism Can Tell us About Honesty at in character magazine. Here’s the money quote:
It is not that the neurotypical brain or the autistic brain is more evolved than the other: each has evolved differently, one to empathize and master the social climate, the other to systematize successfully so as to master the physical niche. The unique qualities of human intelligence are characterized not just by the capacity for mind-reading (and deception), which has enabled humans to work in coordinated activity unusually well, but also by the capacity to systematize, which has enabled humans to understand how things work, and to develop innovative technology par excellence. People with autism, who can perceive patterns better and concentrate better than their peers, are also more honest. Rather than regarding autism as a “disease,” we should recognize it as a difference that deserves our respect. Some features of it, like a learning or language disability, may benefit from treatment. But other features, like remarkable attention to detail and utmost honesty, are valuable human qualities.
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
Were Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, George Orwell and H G WellsLudwig van Beethoven, Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus, Andersen Hans Christian and Kant Immanuel., high functioning aspergians?
A famous psychiatric, Michael Fitzgerald from Trinity College, Dublin has claimed that many geniuses in the fields of science, politics and the arts have achieved success because they had Asperger’s syndrome(AS), a mild form of Autism.
Michael Fitzgerald said that lots of geniuses showed autistic traits, such as Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, George Orwell and H G Wells. According to the diagnosis after death, these people had Asperger’s syndrome: Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus, Andersen Hans Christian and Kant Immanuel.
At a meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Academic Psychiatry, Fitzgerald argued that the gene linked to Asperger’s syndrome were the same as those associated with creativity and genius. “Psychiatric disorders can also have positive dimensions. I’m arguing the genes for autism/Asperger’s, and creativity are essentially the same. We don’t know which genes they are yet or how many there are, but we are talking about multiple genes of small effect. Every case is unique because people have varying numbers of the genes involved.”
“Asperger’s sufferers can be so successful mainly because they are more focused and persistent, they do not get distracted and they are not interested in outside society.” he added.
Michael Fitzgerald compared the charateristics of 1600 autism patients to some geniuses and found they have many traits in common. His book “Genius Genes: How Asperger Talents Changed the World” was pubilshed at the end of last year.
But there are also different opinions. Amanda Batten, of the national autistic society, said it is important to avoid stereotypes of people with autism as geniuses. Anyway, it is estimated that for every 10,000 people, there are 60 to 120 people with autism, and the percentage of genius is definitly less than that.
Resource:
http://www.autism-world.com/index.php/2008/03/02/aspergers-and-genius-share-same-characteristics/
Thank you Vitruvius for the link. As the parent of a mid twenty’s non verbal autistic son I thank you for the light that the shines on the “difference” in our abilities in this article.
Hmm, I’m confused, vitruvius.
On the one hand, (fight or flight), you seem to be rejecting the Either-Or logical template, which does come in handy when one is observing reality. Either it’s a murder or an accident. I think the difference is crucial.
Synthesizing commonalities may be counterproductive in such a situation.
As for the inability to lie, I’d say that’s a fascinating inability to use ‘symbols’. The symbol, as an arbitrary sign, depends on intention and context for its meaning. When intent and context change, the meaning changes. An autistic child seems to use only what are called ‘indexical’ and ‘iconic’ signs, which are not arbitrary and which cannot change their meaning.
So, a ‘normal’ (oh, gosh, here comes the HRC) person would readily assert that ‘I am eating the chocolates’ to himself, and when confronted with the owner of those chocolates, can easily slip into the symbolic change of context and intent, and deny any contact with the chocolates.
The autistic individual can’t do this; he can’t use symbols.
Patterns, by the way, aren’t symbols. ah well, mustn’t go too far along these lines…it’s too late in the day.
Bill Whittle over at EjectEjectEject.com has an excellent article posted on his first experience attending some PC sensitivity/harrassment training seminars. The article is called “Training Day”, dated November 21st, 2008.
What, you’re confused, ET? Hell, I’m confused that you’re confused, already! Yet seriously, consider the tone. You have a position, you’re adamant, and you’re unanimous in that. I understand, so does Mrs. Slocum, and let’s be honest, sometimes that’s my perspective too.
But not tonight. Tonight I’m interested in the story and lessons of Sade’s Smooth Operator, and realizing that the situation is not as simple as mere facade or landscape architecture, that is to say, the interesting phenomena are structural, I thought I’d just throw Simon’s essay in as a riff on the theme.
Remember, I come here to think, not to argue, and that’s because, in fact, my two favourite things are thinking and sleeping. Which reminds me…
Let me put it another way, ET. You said: Either it’s a murder or an accident. Um, well, no, actually, it might have been self defense, which is neither a murder nor an accident. Look, at the end of the day, bottom line, when all is said and done, and one has run out of cliches, never forget Wolfram’s Rule 30.
British may ban ‘happy hour’ as drink deaths rise
Britain is considering a ban on “happy hour” discounts at bars and restaurants to curb drinking, a spokesman said Saturday, as health advocates warned that a rise in liver-related deaths among young people may signal a future epidemic.
Health officials will decide on whether to ban the happy hours – designated times for discount drinks – once an independent policy review is published in coming weeks, a health department spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity.
More at: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081122/D94K34B01.html
The other day, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a company (St. Lawrence Cement, in this case) can be held liable for polluting an area even though it complied with regulatory guidelines.
Now, that may not actually be a bad ruling, because the circumstances of each case have to be considered, and blunt regulations usually don’t take the specifics into consideration.
But it also means that the regulations themselves are worthless. This is not the first such ruling. In Nov. 2001, in Cooper v. Hobart, for example, the SCC ruled that even though the Registrar of Mortgage Brokers did nothing for over a year about a financial institution in B.C. that it knew was in trouble, thus causing investors to lose most of their money, the registrar and its employees could not be held in any way responsible; it did not owe a “duty of care”.
But if Canadians cannot trust government employees to protect them, which is the alleged purpose of regulation, and if companies can be held responsible for their actions (which they should be) even though they are in compliance, then we might as well not waste the time and effort in enacting regulations at all. Let the courts make the decisions based on the situation in each case, and let the bureaucrats find productive jobs in the private sector asking customers if they want fries with that.
nv53’s comment was well taken (at least until he got to the obsequious “…want fries with that” comment [rolling eyes icon]). The courts regularly chide government for not following up on regulations in a timely matter. Nowhere, however do the courts address the issue that bureaucrats don’t make the regulations, parliaments do (yes, I know, the bureaucrats craft and advise on the regulations, but the regulations a priori flow from legislation, entirely a parliamentary feature).
As is generally the case, laws are made, regulations crafted, with little practical consideration for the manpower and fiscal resources to enforce them. Indeed, parliamentarians tend to be smug about their legislation, as if it and of itself was the end of the story. Quit blaming the bureaucrats and the civil service. Look instead to parliamentarians and wannabes who will take a platform of reducing the count of laws on the books, not add to them. Good luck with that.
Reduction of the size of government doesn’t start with simply laying off civil servants, or worse, failing to staff necessary positions for programs already committed. It must come from removing unenforceable laws that pander more to ideology than true collective quality of life.
Having regulated the hell out of ordinary physical existence, the next series of parliamentary brainfarts seems to be toward the regulation of morality. What once a single pastor could do, will now take a new army of insufficient, underfunded, over-regulated civil servants to enforce, which, of course, they won’t be able to do.
Parliamentarians need to be reminded that there is a ying and yang to their legislative mandate – not only to construct good legislation, but to destruct bad.
“China: More photos from Longnan Riot in Gansu”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2136910/posts
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“Chinese riot as financial crisis hits home”
http://preview.tinyurl.com/574nz2
‘Parliamentarians need to to be reminded …. not only to construct good legislation, but to destruct bad.’ – Skip
That is a really good and important observation.
We send our brightest and best people to make our laws for us (ok maybe not all the time).
It is imperative that they pass only good laws to have happy citizens.
Because we all know that people eventually just ignore the bad laws.
And then the real danger is that after people start ignoring the bad laws, they will also start ignoring the good laws too.
Because if the brightest and best law makers cannot distinguish between good laws and bad laws, why would they ever expect us lowly less educated plebians to be able to distinguish between them?
Richard Alleyne, Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to get life saving anti-sniper device
British and American forces fighting the guerilla insurgence in Iraq and Afghanistan could soon be protected by an anti-sniper device that can pinpoint the position of the shooter within a fraction of a second…
After roadside bombs, snipers have been the biggest cause of the 301 British fatalities in both wars, and army chiefs are convinced the device could save dozens of lives…
vitruvius – and good morning to you. With regard to your death by self-defense, this doesn’t change the linear exclusivity of the Set, where you move along a line from Murder OR Accident OR Self-Defense.
Adding another subset to the Set, which still operates in an exclusive manner (Select only one of the whole Set)changes nothing.
As for Rule 30 and the emergence of complexity, I think that you have to have a collective, i.e., a network, rather than an individual line, for this to emerge.
That doesn’t mean that with indexical or iconic Relations (in a collective) that you can’t have complexity; of course you can. The busy interactions of molecules shows that. But, I wonder if . when you move into an ability to have Symbolic or arbitrary relations, the complexity increases..and you get the ability to change time and space – not possible with Indexical or Iconic Relations – and thus ‘lie’.
A chameleon isn’t lying; it is in an indexical Relation with the current leaf on which it is resting.
But, more wondering…I wonder if this Rule 30 can explain the emergence of similar organisms in different parts of the world – an emergence obviously not due to linearity of time (evolving from a single ancestor) or space (diffusion).
Now, that’s more interesting than Murder Or Accident Or Self-Defense….
And just as unsolvable.
nv53 – aren’t your two examples of SCC decisions contradicting each other?
In one case, the St. Lawrence Cement, the court ruled that the company had the ‘duty of care’ even though it had followed regulated duties. In the other case, with the mortgage regulator, the court ruled that the company did not have the ‘duty of care’ even though it knew that there were problems.
As for rules and regulations, it is extremely difficult to both define and control the future. You cannot determine, now, the full effects of your actions on the envt, on others, etc. That is not only because you cannot predict the future, but each action doesn’t exist on its own but in interaction with many other acts from other sources.
Our assumption that we can control all future effects, eg, of a drug, of a chemical, of a new medicine, of building construction, are untenable.
Charles, I think that is a perfect anology between the military and government.
In the military, i.e. the anti-sniper device, was an idea to meet a serious need, then developed, tested and if it meets all the required criteria goes into general use. It is now mass tested in real warfare to see if it meets any unforseen criteria causing it to fail. It not critical it is adjusted and perfected. If it really fails it is discarded no matter how much political pressure may be applied because the soldiers no longer trust it and will work around it if it is forced on them.
Compare that to government where many ideas are developed in isolation to meet mostly feel-good instances, i.e. the gun registry or black schools. Though these ad hoc solutions may be impractical and ultimately useless the military real-time analysis is never applied and these political programs take on an expensive life of their own in the real world and never die or have a long slow costly demise.
Jews and Muslims: United We Stand.
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“Furor over Proposed Ban of Circumcision in Denmark
Jews and Muslims in Denmark are in an uproar about a bill to ban circumcision for boys under the age of 15, according to Yediot Ahronot. The country’s National Council for Children and Ethics Council have both endorsed the proposal and only the parliament’s medical committee can prevent it from being heard.
The National Council for Children argued that, “Circumcision is the irreversible damage to a child’s body before he is given the chance to object.” It also said the ban was a matter of equality, in the wake of a five-year-old ban on female circumscion.
Denmark’s Chief Rabbi Bent Lexner – who is also a certified mohel (circumciser) in the community – told Yediot Ahronot, “The comparison between circumcision and the intentional mutilation of the female sex organ in certain societies is simply complete nonsense.” He added, “If the law forbidding circumcision is ever passed in Denmark, Jews will have to leave the place they have been living in for hundreds of years.””
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2136999/posts
Weather underdown.
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“Queensland battered by new storms”
“a shower of giant hailstones.”
“the state capital Brisbane endured its worst storm in a quarter of a century.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7741957.stm
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“Snow bonanza for Australian skiers
New South Wales in Australia has experienced unseasonably heavy snowfall, as summer approaches on the continent.
The weekend’s cold snap has provided the best snowfall of Australia’s ski season, which is now drawing to a close.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7744609.stm
Elmasry pontificates about the racism of it all at the NP. Claims victory like a union rep.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=983139
Dave: Indeed.
Maz2: But if circumcision is beneficial or even critical in sub-Saharan Africa, is it not good enough for Europe?
Apologies in advance for the length of the post. Both pieces bring focus to a inchoate feeling I’ve had for a very long time concerning one aspect of our decadent culture: the feminized male.
Victor Davis Hanson: Ten Random, Politically Incorrect Thoughts
6. Something has happened to the generic American male accent. Maybe it is urbanization; perhaps it is now an affectation to sound precise and caring with a patina of intellectual authority; perhaps it is the fashion culture of the metrosexual; maybe it is the influence of the gay community in arts and popular culture. Maybe the ubiquitous new intonation comes from the scarcity of salty old jobs in construction, farming, or fishing. But increasingly to meet a young American male about 25 is to hear a particular nasal stress, a much higher tone than one heard 40 years ago, and, to be frank, to listen to a precious voice often nearly indistinguishable from the female. How indeed could one make Westerns these days, when there simply is not anyone left who sounds like John Wayne, Richard Boone, Robert Duvall, or Gary Cooper much less a Struther Martin, Jack Palance, L.Q. Jones, or Ben Johnson? I watched the movie Twelve O’clock High the other day, and Gregory Peck and Dean Jagger sounded liked they were from another planet. I confess over the last year, I have been interviewed a half-dozen times on the phone, and had no idea at first whether a male or female was asking the questions. All this sounds absurd, but I think upon reflection readers my age (55) will attest they have had the same experience. In the old days, I remember only that I first heard a variant of this accent with the old Paul Lynde character actor in one of the Flubber movies; now young men sound closer to his camp than to a Jack Palance or Alan Ladd.
Ed Kaitz, American Thinker:The Testosterone Crisis
The ancient Chinese thinkers would have called my local park a microcosm of nature — a dynamic reciprocity between the forces of feminine yin and masculine yang. It is as natural for the moms to be overly concerned about the bumps and bruises as it is for the fathers to be encouraging independence and self-reliance. Yin and yang represent two complementary energies in nature, the balance of which determines the health and harmony of a marriage, a family, a village, and even a nation. These same Chinese philosophers warned however that unhealthy families, like unhealthy nations, are usually the victims of an overabundance of either the feminine yin or the masculine yang.
Chinese emperors for example attempted to head off this underlying and menacing threat of imbalance by castrating their ministers. Why? Too much yang testosterone in the palace would lead to dangerous factions and competition. More eunuchs around the court meant the palace would be a better reflection of the harmony in nature. Imperial concubines would also be sheltered from potential male rivals of the potentate, but this was entirely incidental to the theory.)
———————————
While an excess of yang energy was considered explosive and dangerous, what happens in a country like contemporary America when there seems to be a dangerous oversupply of feminine yin?
While an excess of yang energy was considered explosive and dangerous, what happens in a country like contemporary America when there seems to be a dangerous oversupply of feminine yin?
Posted by: Me No Dhimmi at November 23, 2008 1:23 PM
You get a he-whore like Slimy Willie Clinton elected hegemon — twice! — on the strength of the “soccer mom” vote. Then, after a brief return to sanity, you get a post-partisan, post-gender, post-American, charismatic shaman spado elected to the same post. God help us!
Charles*, has Taliban Jack Layton (NDP) been converted yet? His head exploded in Montreal, he said.
Should be OK for Allah/Mo.
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“Constant pressure planned for Taliban this winter, Canadian military says
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Canadian and international troops plan on a continued campaign of harassing the Taliban in southern Afghanistan during what traditionally have been the slow winter months.
The Taliban generally use the winter to reload for the busy fighting season which begins in the spring.
Their fighters are ill-equipped to handle Afghanistan’s harsh winter climate and often members of the leadership return home to their families in the larger cities or in Pakistan.
But that will not be the case this year.
Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson, commander of Task Force Kandahar, is taking the approach that the best defence is a good offence.
There have been a number of operations, both big and small in the volatile Zhari, Panjwaii and Arbhandab districts in the regions surrounding Kandahar city in recent months.
The latest Canadian-led operation in the Zhari district involved a battalion of British Royal Commandos, a mechanized brigade from the Royal Canadian Regiment and troops from the 22 Infantry from the United States.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2137038/posts
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*MacDonald:
History of the MacDonald Clan
Macdonald Lord of the Isles Macdonald of Clanranald The largest of the Highland clans, the Gaelic first name “Domnuill” was anglicised to “Donald”. …
http://www.rampantscotland.com/clans/blclanmacdonald.htm
Mr. Brain, will this ever happen to Gaiiiiaaaa? Will AGW run out of air?
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“Solar Wind Rips Up Martian Atmosphere”
“”It helps explain why Mars has so little air,” says David Brain of UC Berkeley”.”
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/21nov_plasmoids.htm
Re: the feminized male. Me No Dhimmi at November 23, 2008 1:23 PM
I dunno. I wouldn’t characterize Gov Arnold as feminized, for example. Or Rosie O’Donnell for that matter, but I digress. But, yeah, John Wayne does seem somewhat Neanderthal these days. I do believe there has been a move towards an American society that is less rigid in it’s sexual identification and more tolerant of “metrosexuality” than in the forties and fifties.
I don’t know why, but I think it’s generally a good thing. I’m in my 50’s too, and I admit I had a hard time looking at pictures of the pregnant “man” in the news recently (a female-to-male transexual who decided to take advantage of her, ahem, equipment to become pregnant). I was overwhelmed by feelings of disgust. Maybe in years to come that will be normal, but, thankfully, by then I won’t be around.
In addition to the many reasons you’ve given above, I’ve heard some speculation as to the increased prevalence of certain hormones in our food chain.
Interesting debate.
Not a story:
“”polar bears not drowning after all – as snow falls over large parts of Britain”.
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“Stubborn glaciers fail to retreat, awkward polar bears continue to multiply
Second only to the melting of the Arctic ice and those “drowning” polar bears, there is no scare with which the global warmists, led by Al Gore, more like to chill our blood than the fast-vanishing glaciers of the Himalayas, which help to provide water for a sixth of mankind.
Recently one newspaper published large pictures to illustrate the alarming retreat in the past 40 years of the Rongbuk glacier below Everest. Indian meteorologists, it was reported, were warning that, thanks to global warming, all the Himalayan glaciers could have disappeared by 2035.
Yet two days earlier a report by the UN Environment Program had claimed that the cause of the melting glaciers was not global warming but the local warming effect of a vast “atmospheric brown cloud” hanging over that region, made up of soot particles from Asia’s dramatically increased burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.
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Furthermore a British study published two years ago by the American Meteorological Society found that glaciers are only shrinking in the eastern Himalayas. Further west, in the Hindu Kush and the Karakoram, glaciers are “thickening and expanding”.
Meanwhile, all last week, ITV News was running a series of wearisomely familiar scare stories on the disappearing Arctic ice and those “doomed” polar bears – without telling its viewers that satellite images now show ice cover above its 30-year average, or that polar bear numbers are at record level. But then “polar bears not drowning after all – as snow falls over large parts of Britain” doesn’t really make a story.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/11/23/do2310b.xml
Maybe in years to come that will be normal, but, thankfully, by then I won’t be around.
– Jimbo
LOL. In fact, that’s been my rationale of late. Doc tells you you’ve got 6 months; you’re initially shocked and saddened, and then you go, hmmm, on the other hand ….
One of the commenters to the VDH piece broke me up: he said it we don’t have those deep voices ‘cos we don’t smoke now!
there’s a big game today…
Hey Lance! er how do I put this politely?
are you on board my wagon… ?
CODEPINK goes shopping – in Iran!
“Reflecting on the days’ events, I was struck by how much more open Iran is than I had thought. Yes, we have to wear headscarves and long coats, but that seems so unimportant …”
http://codepinkdc.blogspot.com/2008/11/medeas-blog-day-1-iran-citizen.html
1)Michael Jackson converts:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1039906.html
2) Bahraini prince who was suing him settles
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/081123/entertainment/centertainment_us_jackson_court
Re the feminized male: I’ve often wondered about the same thing.
A few years ago, there was an article in the G&M (in the days when I bought it on Saturdays) that said that the sexual characteristics of fish in the Great Lakes were getting all mixed up.
You know that expression, it must be something in the water? There’s obviously some truth to it.
Give me John Wayne or Arnie over a metrosexual or homosexual any day.
whoooo!~ Calgary wins the Grey Cup
Hey Troove – from one (semi-high) functioning A to another (although high) – cheers!
Vit:
Simon Baron-Cohen? I much prefer the musings of Sacha Baron-Cohen, don’t you?