Usandthemism
Maybe its not a real word - but it is perhaps a description of a 'disease' that seems to be increasingly threatening our stability all around the world. This, perhaps, is nothing new - whether it was sectarianism in Ireland or racism in the USA or apartheid in South Africa or countless other instances throughout history the disease of usandthemism has never worked out well. Perhaps it is all in our imagination, but it seems to be thriving in the current climate with plenty of people/groups happy to open themselves up to infection.
Categories: News, Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Complexity, Worldview, ----------
From Little Acorns
It is only a few posts back that I asked (rather tongue-in-cheek) what was the purpose of spiders. Last night I watched a programme that - whilst not answering that question - did illuminate rather well the whole interconnectedness theme that permeates many of my posts in this blog. What is more, it also went beyond the focus that I tend to have - i.e. the way in which we are connected to others - to illustrate that this interconnectedness is really widespread across species.
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Complexity, Worldview, ----------
It's Not Just Me
This blog is predicated on the fact that there is a huge amount of 'stuff' that I don''t know - the quotation from Einstein sort of sums it up and I find it proven almost daily. Even so it is always comforting when there is some sort of independent corroboration in the form of someone else saying similar things - even if that does rather smack of confirmation bias.
Categories: Philosophical, Learning, Worldview, ----------
A Matter of Perspective
I was watching TV the other evening and switching between a few channels to see what was on and came across something on BBC4 which was described as "A spectacular aerial journey following the world’s longest monument ... in slow-TV style". I have watched bits of other programmes which were "in slow-TV style" and generally they are, actually, rather attractive - in that they draw you in to watch what is, often, not very much!! This one was the same - although actually compared to the journey along a canal this was not quite so slow as it was more like 'highlights' than true "slow-TV". Doing the maths they were in effect travelling at over 1500km/hr - hardly slow.
What Are Spiders For?
Can I just start this by saying that nowhere in this post will you find a definitive and precise answer to the question posed in the title. The poor spiders are chosen for investigation not because they are particularly relevant, nor because they have a great and mysterious purpose, but rather because there is one that has been web building outside our kitchen window for weeks and every time I do the washing up I am staring at it!!
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Complexity, ----------
To Forget
There have been plenty of posts in this blog about our selective memory - the way we remember some things but not others - the way we find it difficult to distinguish between reality and fiction when looking back at past events - the way we tend to exaggerate, one way or another, those memories that we retain - the way that something someone else says or does will trigger a memory, sometimes even triggering a memory that is fictitious.
Categories: Philosophical, Worldview, ----------
To Forgive
This post is the result of my thinking being triggered by a very specific piece of "news" (its not really news since the actual event happened many years ago - but has only recently become public knowledge). I was very unsure of how to react to this particular story - so this blog is me thinking it through.
Categories: Philosophical, Worldview, ----------
Everyone Knows
I've said it before - and I will probably say it again - it is really good when you get unexpected confirmation of things that you have written. In my recent post Tell Me About It I tackled the ever more prevalent problem of what is known as the "illusion of explanatory depth" with regard to our knowledge.
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Complexity, Cognition, Worldview, ----------
All In The Presentation
"Its all just ones and zeroes" - not sure whether that quote comes from a single identifiable source, but it is often used as a way of breaking down the complexities of most computer systems to something "understandable". The problem is that although we understand "ones and zeroes" in their own right it requires rather more to interpret the meaning of all those "ones and zeroes".
Categories: Complexity, Decision Making, Cognition, Worldview, ----------
Tell Me About It
One thing that has informed my worldview over recent years was the discovery that there exist a whole host of cognitive biases that cause us to mis-perceive everything we see, hear and think. In a previous post I linked to an article that listed no less than 58 of these - and I have a poster on my desk which lists 20. (note that these both originate from the same website)
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Complexity, Cognition, Worldview, ----------
