Hi Nick: Well, I practice IP/Patent Law in Silicon Valley and I am rather frequently exposed to libertarian-drivel about how social problems can be solved by applying the principle of liberty and drowning the government. Not unusually, the proponents of these views are quite bright, contentious and have the life experience of, well, and under-30 programmer.
Programmers, especially the really good ones, get used to creatively solving any problem that is thrown at them with applied logic. And they often fail to realize that the overwhelming majority of their architecture challenges are thin problems, wherein all relevant influences and underlying principles can be assumed or quickly ascertained. In contrast, most social-legal problems of our technological society exist precisely because these problems are thick problems and can seldom be successfully addressed with empirical analysis of applied alternate solutions. One example of a failed libertarian approach in criminal justice is to attempt to extract payments from the "users" of the criminal justice system to fund the police force, al a Ferguson, where frequent fines were promiscuously issued with the explicit purpose of generating revenue. In particular, the Ferguson police officers were given increasing ticketing quotas and were conditioned to see citizens as ATM machines, especially the less empowered citizens. So I can now cite the article's noting of rationalist/empiricist approaches in physics (a discipline that nerds generally hold to be sacred and inviolate) as a basis for saying, "so first we may want to find a country where you ideas have been actually applied . . . like Somalia or Indonesia . . . " ----- Pat On Sun, Dec 27, 2015 at 5:51 AM, Nick Thompson <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Patrick, > > > > I didn’t altogether follow you here. > > > > Can you say a bit more? > > > > N > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > > Clark University > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > > *From:* Friam [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Patrick > Reilly > *Sent:* Saturday, December 26, 2015 10:13 PM > *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group < > [email protected]> > *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Physicists and Philosophers Debate the Boundaries > of Science | Quanta Magazine > > > > Hi Tom: > > > > Thanks for turning me on to this article. It's valuable to known that we > are likely 10 EE15 degrees away from observing the true fundamentals of > physics. > > > > On another note, the discussion of the "rationalists" v. "empiricists" > crystallized in me how to best argue against Libertarian-hacks and Marxist > fops; the imagined "principles" of political and economic dynamics empowers > empiricists to promise candy mountains when we are better off observing the > actual effect of actually instantiated policies and laws. The US used to be > the world leader in social pragmatism . . . > > > > Great article! > > > > --- Pat > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Sun, Dec 27, 2015 at 3:59 AM, Tom Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: > > Something to keep you occupied until New Years Day. > > > https://www.quantamagazine.org/20151216-physicists-and-philosophers-debate-the-boundaries-of-science/ > > =================================== > Tom Johnson - Inst. for Analytic Journalism > Santa Fe, NM > SPJ Region 9 Director > [email protected] 505-473-9646 > =================================== > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > > > > > -- > > The information contained in this transmission may contain privileged and > confidential information. It is intended only for the use of the person(s) > named above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby > notified that any review, dissemination, distribution or duplication of > this communication is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended > recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies > of the original message. To reply to our email administrator directly, > please send an email to [email protected]. > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > -- The information contained in this transmission may contain privileged and confidential information. It is intended only for the use of the person(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination, distribution or duplication of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message. To reply to our email administrator directly, please send an email to [email protected].
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
