Can it be that this a generation thing? I mean, the question used to be "How are you?" and then one started discussing the weather. This "what is happening to you/ to others" has this artificial dualism to it, which I understand Molly doesn't appreciate either. And the next generation's question is, where is the link to the stream.
On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 1:40 PM, archytas <[email protected]> wrote: > Pat might just be interested in this - > http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-collapse/ > - which is very clever stuff on physics I found I could only handle in > parts. My brain is much less capable in both maths and being bothered > with deep riddles these days. I play only as an amateur. There's > some sort of argument in this stuff that allows a realist view of > macroscopic space-time - i.e. that the moon is where it is without > anyone looking and our old chestnut tree crashes to the ground as > likely when we aren't looking - that is consistent with quantum-level > theorising. > I'm a tropical fish realist - if I want to know about, say, India on > the ground, I'd ask Vam or people with direct experience I've actually > worked with. If more than interest was at stake, I'd go. Even > reading, incidentally, indicates that standard 'white people's > histories' I soaked up from Hollywood-BBC are false. I tend to like > my climate science from climate scientists, not the guff from > Hollywood-BBC. It's hard to get stuff from the 'horse's mouth', and > of course even when one can, there remain problems of knowing enough > to understand - as a minute with the link above will indicate. I > often find little to distinguish the academic and presumably accurate > material and, say, some of the barking on Epistemology. I tend > towards the experts in science. > > This general attitude of mine does not extend to politics and > economics. Here I find the experts vapid, generally untrustworthy and > speaking in code or some sort. The dominant dross in economics since > I started teaching it has been broadly neo-classical and so vapid it's > models ignored debt. You can find the criticism and a more realistic > model in the work of Steve Keen who puts his work out free. This is > the model I teach - though I take a more narrative-behavioural line > based on the question 'what's happening to you'? Quite a few of my > undergrad and postgrad students find this so unusual that they start > to look like shock and awe victims. > > The follow up question (the first is more difficult than any quantum- > waffle) is 'what is happening to other people'? Towards the end of > 101 we might get to whether current economics as actually described in > textbooks in a manner similar to that in books about keeping tropical > fish describe how to keep the fish. Such matters can broaden out into > how a science research programme has a core and periphery (Lakatos, > Kuhn) and allows evidence and explanation to change these. > > One can point to much information that demonstrates economics only > works for a small proportion of people, but the idea is to let people > get on with their own enquiries. You may be surprised how few respond > well to this. Steve Keen's lectures are all available free on line I > tell them - why waste £9K a year getting them from a bum like me? > Some of the kinder answers involve me being a teacher, but teaching > people to think for themselves. Some of them turn me into a very good > teacher. I fail with loads. They demand instruction. You'd think > more people would want to explore knowledge,but there don't seem to be > many. And I have to say, on first sight of me, most struggle with > both the first questions. I'll repeat them in that patronising manner > of teacher training: > > 1. what is happening to you? > 2. what is happening to others? > > I can, of course, put the answers in statistical form. > > 1.you're being screwed. > 2. they're being screwed. > > Comments by free thinkers more than welcome! >
