Modern Geekery

Philosopher Daniel Dennett contributed an essay to the John Brockman edited collection What Are You Optimistic About? about the role that modern information technology might have on the growth of rationality and consequently, an increase in secularism and atheism. The essay, like most of the essays that Brockman solicits, is thought-provoking. Alas, the first thought it provoked for me was something along the lines of, “Clearly, Dennett has no faith in humanity’s ability to be stupid with greater speed and efficiency than before!”

The existence of technology will no more prevent religious fundamentalists of either the Muslim or Christian stripe from acting irrationally, anymore than the technology of the first Industrial Revolution caused an expansion of Enlightenment rationality as the 19th century positivists believed.

I recently read Ian Ayres’ excellent book, Super Crunchers. For folks who read and enjoyed Freakonomics, this book is a must-read, covering more cases where clever statistical analyses have uncovered interesting and useful results. The goal in writing the book, according to Ayres, was to encourage people to learn to think statistically. On the other side of the link is a discussion of some errors in experimental design, why their treatment in Ayres’ book frustrates me and why the average person should care.

Continue reading ‘Review and commentary on “Super Crunchers” by Ian Ayres’ »

If you’re an SF geek like me and you haven’t heard of them, I highly recommend the io9 blog and Steve Eley’s Escape Pod podcast.

Escape Pod, in particular, is worth your time because Steve has a really keen eye for picking good fiction for the podcast, a keen ear for picking great readers for the stories, and a really great attitude about SF and podcasting.

Technorati Tags: escapepod, io9, SF

I’ve been reading “What We Believe but Cannot Prove”, by John Brockman. Its a compilation of short essays by some of the world’s leading thinkers, covering that eponymous topic. One of the best responses comes from Seth Lloyd, professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT.

I believe in science. Unlike mathematical theorems, scientific results can’t be proved. They can only be tested again and again until only a fool would refuse to believe them.
I cannot prove that electrons exist, but I believe fervently in their existence. And if you don’t believe in them, I have a high voltage cattle prod I’m willing to apply as an argument on their behalf. Electrons speak for themselves.

Technorati Tags: edge, thirdculture