It has taken me quite a while to read this – and this is just the abridged version. This is one of those books that I have been intending to read for years and, in many ways, I now wish that I had gotten round to reading it sooner.
Systems Thinking
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.
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.
Clueless
Normally I put the entire title in the subject line – including any subtitle – but this time the subtitle is just a tad long
New research uncovers the story of two extraordinary financial mysteries, massive investor losses, and a brilliantly straightforward blueprint to achieve huge profits from investment funds
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!!
The Long Cosmos
The next (and last) step (so to speak) in this rambling exploration of parallel worlds. Plenty of food for thought in the whole series – as long as you don’t require ‘answers’. Not that the reading date of this is approximate as I can’t remember precisely when I read it.
Biocentrism
Another ‘serious book’ – and one that was interesting for quite different reasons. I still don’t know what consciousness is – how it comes about, but this book gives an interesting – if perhaps slightly biased – view which attacks the mainstream physics view
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.
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)
Faking It
There is a bit of a furore about the perceived influence of so called fake news on the result of the US election. On the one hand this strikes me as extremely funny – on the other it is rather worrying (on a number of levels).