Symbol Thinking

Solving the Chicken or Egg Causality Dilemma

2008-05-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

(or: Why the egg came first)

For thousands of years, philosophers have pondered on the question "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" If one follows the idea of Fractal Pantheism answering this question is quite easy: The egg came first.

Why?

Fractal Pantheism assumes that life is a recursive process. Douglas Hofstäder described the key-property of life as a strange loop--a loop, however, with feedback, meaning: being of recursive nature. So there is not one egg that creates, but life itself is always some kind of egg (so to speak).

And the picture gets a lot clearer when we begin to assume that humans are also some kind of egg. If we further reframe our orginal question as "which came first, the human or the Internet?" We know that the human came first and created the Internet, indicating that the egg had to evolve as organism in order to create the chicken. Many people, however, seem to believe that human inventions are not part of nature, but I disagree, simply for the reason that human beings are as alien to biological cells and DNA as the Internet or any other human invention is to us.

A Modeling Language for Psychic Transformations

2007-11-13T16:30:00.000-08:00

For some time I have been wondering how one could combine Beebe's Archetypes with alchemical operations (represented here in form of Edinger's Operations [Edinger 1985]), as the roles laid out by Jungian Archetypes seem to be orthogonal to alchemical operations, which revolve around transformations.

Beebe has given elaborate accounts for how one can imagine the developments of characters in films as differentiating consciousness in an individuating psyche. For illustrating my idea, I will use his full-blown essay on the characters' interactions and developments in the The Wizard of OZ [Beebe 2000] and map them to Edinger's alchemical operations.

This is how Beebe ordered the characters in the film according to their archetypes [Beebe 2000, p80]:

The Wizard of OZ is about a vauntingly empathic heroine, Dorothy, learning to take care of her own heart. Initially she cannot understand why Aunt Em wants to send away Toto for biting their neighbor, but by the time she becomes aware of the Ruby slippers' power to fulfill her own wishes, she also realizes that she needs to keep her own home in order too ("There is no place like home"). According to Beebe this stands for Dorothy (the Heroine) initially killing her Opposing Personality by falling into coma and gradually coming to terms with in the film. [p76:2]

Here I attempt to chart out the psychic developments mathematically by specifying alchemical transformations as coordinates in the charts that Edinger supplied for each of his operations [Edinger 1985]. Mapping transformations this way raises questions as to which level of detail should be attained to or what operations represent certain interactions correctly. Still, while I am not exactly thrilled about some of the mappings I also believe that modeling this way can be valuable.

Heroine

Mortificatio

Opposing Personality

Mother

Coniunctio

Solutio

Hero

Heroine

Coniunctio

Animus

Trickster

Coagulatio

Puer Aeternus

Heroine

Separatio

Puer Aeternus

Witch

Mortificatio

Calcinatio

Heroine

Demonic

Mortificatio

Heroine

Solutio

Witch

Trickster

Coagulatio

Puer Aeternus

Heroine

Sublimatio

Opposing Personality

Bibliography

Beebe, John (2000) "The Wizard of OZ -- A vision of development in the American political psyche", The Vision Thing -- Myth, Politics and the Psyche in the World: 62-83.
Edinger, Edward F. (1985) Anatomy of the Psyche -- Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy.

A Notation for Edinger's Alchemical Operations

2007-08-22T05:26:00.001-07:00

I find it handy to have a symbolic notation for alchemical processes. According to The Philsopher's Stone Dom Pernety first associated processes with signs of the zodiac in the eighteenth century. Alas his twelve alchemical operations are in no way compatible with the seven which Edward F. Edinger applied to Jungian Psychology in Anatomy of the Psyche. Hence I've made my own notation for Edinger's processes:

	Calcinatio: Intense heating of a solid in order to drive off water and all other constituents that will volatilize. Only fine, dry powder remains.
	Solutio: Turns a solid into a liquid. The solid seems to disappear into the solvent as if it had been swallowed up.
	Coagulatio: Turns something into earth.
	Sublimatio: Transforms earth into air; a fixed body is volatilized.
	Mortificatio: Killing, experience of death. (Synonymous with Putrefactio.)
	Separatio: Discriminates composite mixtures of its component parts.
	Coniunctio: Two substances come together and create a third with different properties.

Our Unconscious Religion: Fractal Pantheism

2007-06-28T18:56:00.000-07:00

If we weren't to unconsciously believe in Fractal Pantheism, some movies wouldn't be more popular than others because we wouldn't see ourselves in them. We would not be intrigued by some of our dreams. We would not be interested in Astrology. Eastern medicine would not assume that our body somehow represents our soul. Youngsters wouldn't pick flower leaves to find out if the person they desire is in love with them as well. There would be only pictures; no art.

Stories like Gulliver's Travels, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, or The Matrix would not be fascinating at all.

Many people are probably aware that life goes on on different levels. In superstring theory, after all an attempt to understand the world, they defined ten physical dimensions for describing the world.

But why should there be only ten dimensions?

Well, just judge yourself which of these pictures you find a more attractive image for understanding the world:

The Calabi-Yau Manifold

or the Mandelbrot set:

Questions to Ponder

2007-06-19T04:43:00.000-07:00

Is it true that people think great ideas in parallel, whereas misunderstandings are individual?

Do chimpanzees also believe that human beings are smarter than them?

Mosquitoes' metabolism dissolves HIV, how does it do this?

Is logic really a universal value or rather cultural?

Is there a Big Bang theory in terms of thought processes?

Why isn't there a popular religion that could be classed as fractal pantheism?

Do nuclear bombs feel guilt?

Holacracy

2007-05-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

Ideas taken from: Agile Methods + Ken Wilber + InterStrength(tm) = Holacracy

I've found this interview illuminating, listed here.

The World According to Cultural Orientation

2007-05-12T18:53:00.000-07:00

External Information

Likely to accept world views different from their own.

Information Processing

Associative: Rote learning teached in schools

Focus

Matters may be viewed from a universal or particular level.

Evidence

Either subjective feelings, scientific facts, or religious faith are accepted as evidence in negotiations.

Data are based on Conway and Morrison: "Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands", 2nd edition

The Myth of Communication Systems

2007-04-29T16:19:00.000-07:00

In this posting I try to combine Scott Adams' critique of communication with the concept of Jungian Archetypes.

In "God's Debris" Scott Adams notes that humans can be differentiated from other living organism by having elaborate communication structures, that, by this day and age, allow us to communicate with each other regardless where we are.

One could assume that our increased ability to communicate also helps us to protect ourselves better than other organisms, but yet at times it seems as if all this even gets in our way. For example, animals don't have artificial communication systems, and yet they are better than us to recognize environmental threats like earth quakes or tsunamis. Each year many scientists work together hard on a new vaccination against seasonal flu viruses, but still many times those simple creatures are smarter to recognize how they can avoid termination.

I would say that our communication systems are a little too inefficient to be just for exchanging information, and yet very few people question communication, begging the question whether we just perceive communication systems to be a great idea. Or, saying it in Jungian terms: Communication systems are cultural complexes that are most attractive to our psyches rather than giving us a real benefit.

This all leads to concepts related of the Jungian Archetypes which argue that there is a raw, unconscious, and unstructured way of communication. On top of this I would add that for most living organisms archetypal communication is probably quite natural and only for us humans it is not easy to perceive. Maybe this is one of the reasons humans had to invent communication systems in the first place.

49 Killing Fantasies

2007-03-25T09:42:00.000-07:00

Some pictures of this worthwhile exhibit.

Mindmap of Beebe Archetypes

2007-03-18T16:11:00.000-07:00

Clare Howard has kindly made a mind map based on my notes of John Beebe's Memphis workshop and also extended them a little.

(You need the OpenSource software FreeMind to view the file.)

Imagination v Synesthesia

2007-03-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

Both aesthetics and psychology have tried to deal with the confusion of the two senses in terms of "synesthesia" and the relation between poetry and painting (ut pictura poesis). Synesthesia is not only a puzzling quirk in certain sensitive persons for whom numbers are colors, colors tastes on the tongue, or musical tones present sculptural forms. Synesthesia--confusion, interpenetration of one sense with another--goes on all the time in our common speech when we talk imaginatively, or of imagining. Evidently, synesthesia is how imagination imagines. What this does is transform the singleness of any one sense out of its literalness. It brings us to new sense of the senses, making metaphor of sense perception itself. Consequently, synesthesia plays a special role in the arts because it helps art's own intention--metaphorical insight, awakening of sensibility--freeing it from depiction and representation.

(Excerpt from James Hillman: Image Sense, 1979)

Thinking in Sketches: EN

2007-03-14T06:31:00.000-07:00

Beebe Movies

2007-03-10T07:09:00.000-08:00

Some people have requested that I compile a list of movies that John Beebe refers to in his lectures--this is what I could come up with:

Ang Lee: Brokeback Mountain
Bill Condon: Gods and Monsters
Buster Keaton: The Haunted House
Charlie Chaplin: City Lights
David Frankel: The Devil Wears Prada
David Lynch: Blue Velvet
Errol Morris: The Fog of War
Hal Hartley: Henry Fool
Harold Lloyd: The Freshman
Harry Langdon: The Strong Man
Hitchcock: Marnie (DVD chapters 1 and 14)
Hitchcock: North by Northwest (DVD chapter 8)
Hitchcock: Notorious (DVD chapters 6, 7, 8)
Hitchcock: Strangers on a Train (British version; DVD chapters 1 to 4)
Hitchcock: The Lady Vanishes
Hitchcock: Vertigo (DVD chapter 21)
James L. Brooks: As Good as It Gets
James L. Brooks: Broadcast News
John Dahl: The Last Seduction
John Huston: African Queen
Michael Curtiz: Casablanca
Percy Adlon: Bagdad Cafe
Quentin Tarantino: Pulp Fiction
Stanley Donen: Two for the Road
Stephen Frears: The Grifters
Stephen Frears: The Queen
Victor Fleming: Wizard of Oz

Double Binds in Paintings

2007-03-03T13:36:00.000-08:00

Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

2007-01-30T16:29:00.000-08:00

The guys at visual-literacy.org have done a nice job of mapping out available visualization methods. (Thanks to Elizabeth for mentioning this to me.)

Thinking in Sketches: IN

2007-01-25T16:57:00.000-08:00

Computers to Beat Humans in Go Game?

2007-01-25T12:49:00.000-08:00

The Economist features an article on how computers could beat humans in the game Go by using Monte Carlo Simulation.

Some Symbols for the Self Across Cultures

2007-01-13T05:28:00.000-08:00

Willard Foxton on his Worst Debating Experiences

2007-01-11T04:56:00.000-08:00

A very funny video from the World Universities Debating Championships 2007 in Vancouver featuring Willard Foxton's worst debates he has ever been involved in:

2006 Interesting Debating Motions

2007-01-07T14:42:00.000-08:00

This house believes that developing nations should nationalize their energy resources.
This house would criminalise the payment of ransom.
This house would impose sanctions against states which tolerate female genital mutilation.
This house would make prostitutes available to the disabled on the NHS
This house believes all serious crimes should be tried by jury.
This house believes that economic growth is the solution to climate change.

(Sources: World Debating News and British Debate Mailing List)

Fabrizio Plessi Virtual Gallery

2006-12-16T05:43:00.000-08:00

Eventually Fabrizio Plessi has an online gallery of his "most interesting" works.

Mapping Jungian Archetypes on Cognitive Processes

2006-12-10T16:00:00.001-08:00

"John Beebe (1, 2) is a genius!" is a thought I had during the last months each time I pondered about Beebe's idea of mapping Jungian Archetypes on Cognitive Processes.

What follows is my very own summary of his proposed model to map Cognitive Processes on Jungian Archetypes that he explained in detail in a four day workshop (Big thanks to Type Resources for organizing this).

You may want to first read John Beebe's introduction to his model.

There are probably people out there who are more knowledgeable than me to write a summary, but there isn't much published yet, so I hope to make a start.

Besides John Beebe, there are quite some people I feel thankful to for sharing their thoughts with me which in one way or another influenced my summary (but who won't necessarily agree with all I am writing): Linda V. Berens (Please write more on Cognitive Dynamics!), Dario Nardi, Vicky Jo Warner, Robin Wiley.

UPDATE, as people found it confusing: A quote is referring to what someone with the function in that role might say.

UPDATE II: These notes are now also available as mind map.

EN (Extraverted Intuition)

Hero:	Remarkable inferences
Father/Mother:	Opportunity in tragedy
Puer/Puella Aeternus:	Take things up for a while: Kanasta, Mahjong
Anima/Animus:	"I am usually very opinionated when I see new information by comparing it to prior experience. At one point, however, I am open to new ideas, although I find this difficult."
Opposing Personality:	Punching holes in proposals
Witch/Senex:	"I accept it, but please shut up!"
Trickster:	"Are you single? Yes, I am but really not." Stellan Skarsgård in "Breaking the Waves"
Demon/Daemon:	"What's new about that idea? It's not going to help anything."

IT (Introverted Thinking)

Hero:	Intellectual clarity
Father/Mother:	Explaining to others using a reasoning process, naming for others
Puer/Puella Aeternus:	Collecting wise quotes; being pedantic at times.
Anima/Animus:	"As much as I want harmony with others, at times I need to make a tough decision."
Opposing Personality:	"Of course you can think everything through until death"
Witch/Senex:	"Principles are not a sufficient means to describe things." Movie: Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada"
Trickster:	Deliberately misunderstanding a point
Demon/Daemon:	Messy principles

EF (Extraverted Feeling)

Book: "Lectures on Jung's Typology": The Feeling Function by James Hillman

Hero:	Harmony, subconscious knowing
Father/Mother:	Being asked by others, censoring oneself
Puer/Puella Aeternus:	Divine affection; easily hurt
Anima/Animus:	"As my logical statements do appear harsh at times, I need to reassure others of my affection." Movie: Cary Grant in "Notorious"
Opposing Personality:	chit-chat: exhausting, game Cordelia in the very first scene of "King Lear"
Witch/Senex:	"come to my house so I can eat you" (Hensel&Gretel)
Trickster:	"Let me assist you to make us both feel uncomfortable" Movie: Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain"
Demon/Daemon:	Disregarding other peoples feelings, being manipulative Movie: Linda Fiorentino in "The Last Seduction"

IS (Introverted Sensing)

Hero:	Memento, Recognition of the natural order of things
Father/Mother:	Remembering things for others
Puer/Puella Aeternus:	Collecting memorabilia; can be wearisome.
Anima/Animus:	"Constantly having new ideas may turn things into a chaos, so at times I need to get things in order again."
Opposing Personality:	"Don't bother me with all that detailed information that's not relevant to what's happening now."
Witch/Senex:	Remembering something that really pokes you.
Trickster:	Recall inaccurately: "Didn't we agree that ...?"
Demon/Daemon:	forgetting peoples names, unorderliness, hallucinations, Others ask:"Have you been in this body for long?" Movie: "The Lady Vanishes"

IN (Introverted Intiuition)

Hero:	Vision, one line image, demanding, regarded scary
Father/Mother:	There are other ways to do things for others
Puer/Puella Aeternus:	Imagining what could be a trend next year, sometimes hopeless about the future
Anima/Animus:	"After considering all the facts, I eventually realize what it's about."
Opposing Personality:	"There have to be alternative futures"
Witch/Senex:	Deflate dreams
Trickster:	"That's just superstition!"
Demon/Daemon:	This idea is trying to ruin us very badly; God speaks to us

ET (Extraverted Thinking)

Hero:	Telling others what to do that really helps movie: Katharine Hepburn in "African Queen"
Father/Mother:	Generative thinking for others
Puer/Puella Aeternus:	Enjoying diagrams, sometimes confusing objectivity with being blunt
Anima/Animus:	"I am able to establish rules or make plans to achieve what I consider as important."
Opposing Personality:	"This is a cheap shot, not well thought through." Albert Brooks in "Broadcast News"
Witch/Senex:	Rebel against structure and schedules.
Trickster:	Misguidance in organizing things more efficient.
Demon/Daemon:	Having a hard time to tell others bad news.

IF (Introverted Feeling)

Book: "Lectures on Jung's Typology": The Feeling Function by James Hillman

Hero:	Self-supervising, understand in depth ourself, others
Father/Mother:	Charisma, hearing secrets, "I wish you had told me sooner"
Puer/Puella Aeternus:	Listeing to music, writing poetry, sometimes stating strong value judgements
Anima/Animus:	"Telling others what to do may appear bullying at times but actually I have a soft core of important values." Humphrey Bogart in "Casablanca"
Opposing Personality:	"Moral questions keep bugging me"
Witch/Senex:	"How are moral question going to help ME anyway?"
Trickster:	"As this discussion has now arrived at a point of no return, why shouldn't I do now what you regarded important earlier?"
Demon/Daemon:	"Manipulating others goes against everything that I am"; neglecting fundamental values; not valuing your health Albert Brooks v William Hurt in "Broadcast News"

ES (Extraverted Sensing)

Hero:	Seeing opportunities for action in the here and now
Father/Mother:	Meticulously doing things for others
Puer/Puella Aeternus:	Enjoying activity, sometimes overworking
Anima/Animus:	"It's very easy for me to get a detailed vision by considering just some tiny bits of information, but at times I need to check whether all my assumptions are actually true in reality."
Opposing Personality:	"I am not really good at doing two things at the same time"
Witch/Senex:	Blocking others' proposed actions
Trickster:	Repeatedly dressing up badly for a job interview
Demon/Daemon:	"Things magically break in my presense." "I happen to ignore the facts and rely on my interpretation of things." Movie:Thomas Jay Ryan in "Henry Fool"

Beebe Archetypes

2006-12-10T15:53:00.000-08:00

My summary of the Archetypes (along with references to books) as used by Dr. John Beebe, based on the workshop "Dynamics of Type" which was held in Memphis in June 2006 (Kindly organized by Type Resources).

Archetypes are patterns of human behavior that appear when they are required.

UPDATE: These notes are now also available as mind map.

Hero

- Unconscious competence
- moneymaking

Mother/Father

- Helping others, not easy to use for oneself
- movie: Marianne Sägebrecht in "Bagdad Cafe"

Puer/Puella Aeternus

- Inflating, deflating
- Never grows out
- Pure
- book: "Puer Aeternus" by Marie-Louise von Franz

Anima/Animus

- Inferiority Complex
- black hole
- Bridge to the unconscious
- blackmail, creative, giving power
- libido
- puer is much more primitive
- movies: Hitchcock's "Vertigo", Miike's "Odishon"
- Book: "Lectures on Jung's Typology": The Inferior Function by Marie-Louise von Franz

Opposing Personality

- Hensel & Gretel: Not enough food -> send them off to starve
- self sabotage

Witch/Senex

- Effect on others: control the behavior of other people
- anxious -> itchy - witchy
- "I wish this idea would just go away!"
- critical, in your gut

Trickster

- Double-binds, crude
- Puts its nose at the collective

Demon/Daemon

- Least domesticated
- Least preferred process
- nightmare

R-Sig Finance Mailing List

2006-12-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

Good to see that there are other people doing what I am doing: R-Sig Finance Mailing List.

Imagining the Tenth Dimension

2006-11-24T16:03:00.000-08:00

For all of those of you who might have had difficulties of imagining more than three dimensions, there is an animated explanation (uses flash). (You have to click below the helix to the right to enter the area where you can select the animations.)

Berlin Ranks 23rd in British University Debating Rankings

2006-11-21T05:31:00.000-08:00

After 9 events, my old debating society ranks 23rdin this year's British University Debating season. Patrick and Daniel (with whom I used to debate in a team in Britain) are very successful this year, I am very proud of them!

Oh, and a debating team unknown to me from Cologne (from Tilbury House) has won the renowned Oxford IV ESL Final--congratulations to them as well! It's the first time a German team has won that competition.

Programming and Philosophy

2006-11-21T02:14:00.000-08:00

I just noted how many of the methods in Java's Date class are about to expire.

Google Codesearch: Who Needs Documentation If You Have Code?

2006-10-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

Ruby: lang:ruby inject
Lisp:lang:lisp format\s+T
JavaScript:lang:JavaScript setInterval

... plus many other languages

“We must embrace nuclear power to solve global warming”

2006-10-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

A thought-provoking debate (audio) hosted by The Economist on nuclear power as an answer to global warming.

The Economist Podcast

2006-09-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

It's quite interesting to hear the voices of the authors of The Economist's articles and fortunately their podcast seems to be updated now more regularly.

C G Jung Documentary

2006-09-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

I found a wonderful documentary exploring C G Jung's work on the meaning of dreams: 1, 2, 3.

Enjoy!

Dario Nardi on Socialbot

2006-09-10T02:40:00.000-07:00

When I met Dario Nardi earlier this year he told me he prepared a video for Frontiers of Interaction II on socialbot as he couldn't be there in person.

Now some kind soul has uploaded his talk on youtube (Part 1, Part 2).

AFAIU socialbot is a little like Eliza but not aiming at being a therapist, rather than that it imitates cognitive behavior by showing aspects of memory, inference and animated gestures; and it uses speech recognition as well. When used in a seminar with students interaction sessions get logged and are used as a harness to further development of socialbot's behavior.

JavaScript Memoization and Dependencies

2006-09-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

I've extended Oliver Steele's appealing implementation of memoization in JavaScript to use a different dependency mechanism which also works with complex variables such as arrays or hashes by introducing a dependencies callback that returns a string or other simple datatype.

Function.prototype.memoize = function(options) {
  var fn = this
  var cache = []
  return function() {
    var dependencyFlags = options.dependencies.apply(this, arguments)
    var cacheHit = cache && cache[0] == dependencyFlags
    if (cacheHit) {
      return cache[1]
    }
    cache = [dependencyFlags, fn.apply(this, arguments)]
    return cache[1]
  }
}

Here is some code that shows how memoize() can be used to specify dependencies both on function arguments and global variables.

var sortOrder = 0;
getSortedModel = function(user) {
  // ... some lenghty calculation
  alert("Performing Lengthy Calculation for " + user)
  return [1, 2, 3, 4]
}.memoize({ dependencies: function(user) { return user + ":" + sortOrder }})

Take a look here if you're not familiar with the concept of Memoization.

(Thanks to Stephan for mentioning Oliver's post.)

A Dedication to "King Lear"

2006-09-08T22:50:00.000-07:00

O bridal world of sunshine dreams
colour me brutish
wicked eyes
violently in lust
trifle life
God's horror hath a place
in the bluntness of
a serpent-like man

Cordelia,
our mildness
once, strong
is thy prison
of eyeless love

Random Sampling from a Search Engine's Index

2006-08-31T18:09:00.000-07:00

A highly interesting talk by Ziv Bar-Yossef on how to benchmark search engines, i.e for comparing the size of their indexes. Also includes a very interesting discussion on how to implement a Monte Carlo simulation.

...

2006-07-23T18:16:00.000-07:00

Everything in the universe can fit into this blog entry.

Prediction of the Future: Intelligent Life

2006-07-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

2063-05-13, Madrid, 10:14 local time

Leading worldwide scientists report they have unravelled one of humankind's greatest mysteries, the question about intelligent life in the Universe. What people fascinates most: They discovered it on earth!

This is the Title of this Posting

2006-07-09T11:17:00.000-07:00

This is the first sentence of this posting. This is the second sentence which is absolutely unnecessary and adds no interesting information at all. This sentence is solely intended to increase tension and expectation in the reader's mind -- a concept borrowed from Greek tragedy. This sentence introduces a link to an interesting story written in a style similar to this posting, which the author wishes to recommend for reading: This Is the Title of This Story, Which Is Also Found Several Times in the Story Itself.

This is the last sentence of this posting and pays attribution to A. D. Barncord.

Memes, an Ethical Problem?

2006-07-05T12:23:00.000-07:00

Could it be unethical to destroy a Meme because it is wrong?

New Tufte Book: Beautiful Evidence

2006-06-17T09:30:00.000-07:00

It has been announced to be published for quite some years so I am delighted Beautiful Evidence is out now eventually. [Via lemonodor.]

Nice Talk about Three Cool Features in Common Lisp

2006-05-20T02:26:00.000-07:00

Peter Seibel gave a nice overview over three cool features in Common Lisp: multiple dispatch, conditions, and macros.

Replacing Layout Tables with Divs

2006-05-17T15:41:00.000-07:00

A great tutorial that explains how to make a page layout without using tables:
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/holygrail.

Today's Internet Companies are becoming more like Countries

2006-05-07T16:45:00.000-07:00

Since Internet companies today become more and more social and by that more entrenched in our society, it's becoming more significant what values a company does stand for. Some may now think for example of Google's infamous "don't be evil" motto. However, the problem with it's motto is actually how one does define evil! In principle there are two models when approaching values: Universalism and Relativism. Universalism says all values are the same everywhere and Relativism says they are relative to the cultural context. With Yahoo and Google being currently under public strutiny regarding their behavior in China because they helped to identify a human rights activist (Yahoo) or because they filter search results in accordance with the Chinese government (Google) it becomes clear that these companies have a relativistic stand on values. This is the case with most internationally active companies as it's the one that goes perfectly well with making profits in foreign countries. Nevertheless, even traditional multinational companies today ask themselves about Corporate Social Responsibility, and even though CSR usually is just hot air, the need to stand for a certain sets of values becomes the more necessary the more a company is becoming a part of everyday life.

A country, and many of you will agree, is not a company. Even though it's structure is similar for one. A country usually has people, it has a culture, it has a law, and a language. And, as most countries, it has signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and thereby officially acknowledging that it stands for a Universal set of values (although some countries don't stick to it). A traditional company needs employees and profits to survive. Today's Internet companies also need users, because users/people are the commodity of the Internet age. However, broadening the definition of what a company needs also means to include culture and some aspects of law into the company. And then at this point it becomes obvious that sticking to a relativistic set of values is not enough any more. And I believe that today's Internet companies will have to make a commitment to a Universal set of values in the future.

Yay Google Tech Talks!

2006-05-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

As Ovidiu Predescu noted a while ago there are tech talks available on Google Video which used to be internal to Google. There are a lot of interesting topics covered, many of which I haven't thought much of before, like: Biofuels, Drug Discovery with OpenSource, Hacking the brain, A new Bill of Rights and Clustering Aggregation. Thanks to Google and Ovidiu!

The WTO and the Kyoto Protocol

2006-04-26T15:27:00.000-07:00

I wonder whether members of the WTO could make a case at the WTO Court in reference to GATT Article XX which exempts from certain obligations if "necessary to protect human, animal, or plant life and health" in order to pressure USA, China, and India to sign the Kyoto protocol. Especially since today scientific evidence is mounting that greenhouse emissions are responsible for climate change and those three countries together are the biggest producers of greenhouse gases.

Develop better Web Applications with Tamper Data

2006-04-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

I really like firefox's Tamper Data plugin. It let's you edit your browser's HTTP requests before they get sent to the server. You may also replay requests.

My favorite Principles from Yes Minister

2006-04-16T09:15:00.000-07:00

Sir Humphrey's system for stalling a minister's policy proposal, called Creative Inertia

Stage One: Administration is in its early months and there is an awful lot of other things to get on with.

Stage Two: I quite appreciate the intention, it certainly ought to be done - but is this the right way to achieve it?

Stage Three: This is not the time, for all sorts of reasons.

Stage Four: The policy has run into difficulties - technical, political and/or legal.

Stage Five: We're getting rather near to the run-up to the next general election - so we can't be sure of getting the policy
through.

Government procedure for suppressing unwanted reports

Stage One: The public interest:

1) You hint at security considerations.

2) You point out that the report could be used to put unwelcome pressure on government because it might be misinterpreted.

3) You then say it is better to wait for the results of a wider and more detailed survey over a longer time-scale.

4) If there is no such survey being carried out, so much the better. You commission one, which gives you even more time to play with.

Stage Two: Discredit the evidence that you are not publishing

You do it indirectly, by press leaks. You say:

Points (a) to (d) are bound to be true. In fact, all of these criticisms can be made of a report without even reading it. There are, for instance, always some questions unanswered - such as the ones they haven't asked. As regards (e), if some of the main conclusions have not been questioned, question them! Then they have.

Stage Three: Undermine the recommendation

This is easily done, with an assortment of governmental phrases:

These phrases give comfort to people who have not read the report and who don't want change - i.e. almost anybody.

Stage Four: If stage three still leaves doubts, then Discredit the Man Who Produced the Report

This must be done OFF THE RECORD. You explain that:

The five standard excuses of the Civil Service

1. The Anthony Blunt excuse

There is a perfectly satisfactory explanation for everything, but security prevents its disclosure.

2. The Comprehensive Schools excuse

It's only gone wrong because of heavy cuts in staff and budget which have stretched supervisory resources beyond the limit.

3. The Concorde excuse

It was a worthwhile experiment now abandoned, but not before it provided much valuable data and considerable employment

4. The Munich Agreement excuse

It occurred before important facts were known, and cannot happen again. (The important facts in question were that Hitler wanted to conquer Europe. This was actually known; but not to the Foreign Office, of course)

5. The Charge of the Light Brigade excuse

It was an unfortunate lapse by an individual which has now been dealt with under internal disciplinary procedures.

The future of the dollar

2006-04-03T14:45:00.000-07:00

This article from 2004 by The Economist analyzes the economic influences on the dollar very well.

Thanks to Stephan Schmidt for his recommendation!

Fascinating Atoms

2006-04-03T11:46:00.000-07:00

From ``A Short History of Nearly Everything'' by Bill Bryson:

Atoms are very abundant. They are also fantastically durable. Because they are so long-lived, atoms really get around. Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several starts and been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you. We are so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms - up to a billion for each of us, it has been suggested - probably once belonged to Shakespeare. A billion more each came from Buddha and Genghis Khan and Beethoven, and any other historical figure you care to name. (The personages have to be historical, apparently, as it takes the atoms some decades to become throughly redistributed; however much you may wish it, you are not yet one with Elvis Presley.)

So we are all reincarnations - though short-lived ones. When we die, our atoms will disassemble and move off to find new uses elsewhere - as part of a leaf or other human being or drop of dew. Atoms themselved, however, go on pratically for ever. Nobody actually knows how long an atom can survive, but according to Martin Rees it is probably about 10^35 years - a number - a number so big that even I am happy to express it in mathematical notation.

Interview with Hugo de Garis

2006-04-01T05:09:00.000-08:00

Find it here (Thanks to Eugen Leitl for setting it up!)
De Garis gives his views on the future of AI, the Artilect, Cosmics vs. Terrans, building artificial brains.

Views on the Meaning of Life

2006-03-27T12:50:00.000-08:00

God's Debris: Scott Adams' socratic dialogue. Interesting ideas on the Big Bang, explaining gravity, and probability.

An interview with Freeman Dyson who argues there is not only a consciousness in human beings - but also on quantum level and in the Universe.