"akin to FRACKING" - to hell with bloody auto spell correct
K On 01/02/2013, at 7:48 PM, Kim Jones <[email protected]> wrote: > The other thing is, there may well be other fora and lists to discuss posts > someone wishes to define as "metadiscussion" but that does not mean that > there exists the same quality of thinkers on those other lists and fora as > there do on this particular one with whom you might have insightful > exchanges, as we do here. So often, topics like religion, politics, > education, belief, gun control etc. are the province of the merely > opinionated and never get a chance to be skilfully considered from a range of > viewpoints by those with a bit of training in the business of real thinking > as opposed to the fluff and phlem of opinionising. There are many things to > talk about. Do we have to invent a special chat room for every bloody thing? > It seems to me an overtly tight-arsed academic viewpoint to restrict people's > self-expression in this way. As for Wei Dai's description of the aims of his > list: when was the last time Wei Dai opened his mouth on his own list? > > One must realise that the natural behaviour of the system we call "mind" is > that it will instantly link-up any input it is presented with, with some > other already-established pattern of recognition already IN the mind. This is > another way of saying "you cannot know from which direction new knowledge > will arise." A good thinker will take a diversionary post and see it as "a > random word" in a discussion and will take value from that provocation. An > off-topic post is indeed a provocation. There is a great need for this, lest > those who continually voice a confidence in their thinking fail to see the > other perspectives. In a meeting of Exxon-Mobil top execs in the early 80s > Edward de Bono was invited to listen in to some of their deliberations and > was asked to teach them one creative thinking technique that would result in > "leverage". He listened as requested and reports that at a certain point in > the meeting, a deadlock was reached concerning the yield from a certain type > of vertical drilling. The room went silent and everyone looked at de Bono who > simply said "earthworm". This raised a few eyebrows and a few chuckles were > heard, but the result of the meeting was that a new way of drilling > horizontally (akin to "tracking") was invented after people allowed > "earthworm" to penetrate their minds and allowed it to mate up with other > things. > > > K > > > > On 31/01/2013, at 7:53 AM, Russell Standish <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Might I remind everybody that the purpose of the everything-list is to >> discuss ensemble theories of everything. If you want to know what that >> is, please consult Wei Dei's description >> http://www.weidai.com/everything.html >> >> Granted, this does touch on a lot of topics, ranging over fundamental >> science, philosophy and even aspects of religion, but is not relevant >> to the current gun control debates, or a move to assert moral values >> in our households (whose morals?), just two of the topics discussed >> this morning on the list. >> >> The list is deliberately left free-ranging and unmoderated. That has >> been its strength, and the list has been remarkably troll-free. But >> can I please ask everybody to keep the discussion more or less on >> topic, so that the list remains relevant. >> >> Cheers >> >> -- >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) >> Principal, High Performance Coders >> Visiting Professor of Mathematics [email protected] >> University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Everything List" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
