Joe Velikovsky's Blog, page 11
April 24, 2021
AppEEL webinar #4 (April 2021)
So we had AppEEL webinar #4 of 2021.
It was great!!! (Just like AppEEL webinars #1, #2 and #3)
By the way, this post you're now reading isn't the Official Page for the AppEEL webinars.
This is just: my NOTES... (by Velikovsky of Newcastle)
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The video, from AppEEL webinar #4
(featuring AppEEL Director, Nathalie Gontier -
& speakers: Ian Tattersall, Alessandra Chiera, Francesco Ferretti, Ines Adornetti, & Robert DeSalle)
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& The Program, for Webinar #4:
Webinar # 4 (April 23rd) - In collaboration with the Cosmic Lab* Ian Tattersall on The Pensive Primate: Emergence of Modern Human Consciousness
* Alessandra Chiera, Francesco Ferretti, Ines Adornetti, on Narrative pantomime: a protolanguage for persuasive communication (to be published in Lingua)
* Robert DeSalle on Troublesome Science: The Misuse of Genetics and Genomics in Understanding Race
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And just in passing, a few items of News, etc:
A new open access journal launched this month: https://journalofcontroversialideas.org/Earth Day short story competition (if, you like that kind of thing?) https://sapiensplurum.org/A great book on `Flow Theory': https://www.amazon.com.au/Flow-Mihaly-Csikszentmihaly/dp/0061339202--------------
& for more about AppEEL, see also:
The Applied Evolutionary Epistemology Lab
------------//------------Anyway, another terrific AppEEL webinar - I learned a lot! & met lots of great people/scholars.
What's not to like-?
--------------//---------------
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a blog-post by: Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D
(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle)
Information Scientist
& Systems Scientist
& AI Researcher & Enthusiast
& Evolutionary Culturologist
More information:
Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia.edu page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
Researchgate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
JTV's ouvre... etc etc.
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
& Forthcoming book P3 of EC (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379
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& please stay tuned, for more: AppEEL webinars !
& Thanks for reading!
April 13, 2021
TVoL Evolutionary Sociology webinar #7 (2021)
TVoL Evolutionary Sociology webinar #7 (2021)
See: https://thisviewoflife.com/evolutionary-science-and-sociology/
-----------
So we had the TVoL Evolutionary Sociology webinar #7 of 2021.
30th March 2021
& it was great!
---------------------
Some random screenshots I took:
Erin's talk, (& see her great TVoL essay on it here)
---------------
And Alexandra's talk:
And see Alexandra's great essay (on TVoL), here
-----------------------
And here's some Notes I took, &/or made, &/or scribbled during the mtg/webinar:
(...who knows, what they all mean? Not me, always. Some of them may even be totally: wrong. I can't even read my own writing, sometimes.)
---------------------------Speakers:Dr Erin EvansDr Alexandra Maryanski
Q for Dr Maryanski: in your (great!) TVoL essay, you note: "Early Homo sapiens appeared about 300,000 years ago *but, for reasons unknown*, experienced a population bottleneck so ominous that it reduced the surviving human population to less than a few thousand individuals." So, no advances on the (controversial) `Toba supereruption' theory? (as cause of the genetic bottleneck)? ie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_ca... (Just curious.)
More a comment, re: `Speciesism' (as Dr Evans noted), 2 great articles by Mike Bradie on `The Moral Life/Lives of Animals': https://on-writering.blogspot.com/2021/01/3-papers-by-great-mike-bradie-1986-2011.html
A Question for both speakers (Dr Maryanski & Dr Evans), Yuval Noah Harari (in `Sapiens' 2014) suggests agriculture was a mistake, for human happiness/wellbeing (and, for the suffering of farmed animals)... Do you agree, or, have a strong view on this? (And, any suggestions for solutions?)
--------------
Some of the Zoom-chat:
02:23:24 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : The point about weakly tied community structure is important.02:28:48 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : The first and most important design principle for efficacious groups identified by Elinor Ostrom is a strong sense of identity and purpose for the group. If the group doesn’t see itself as a community with respect to its objectives, it will not work well as a group. Fortunately, people are very good at establishing a strong sense of community in a highly contextual fashion.02:30:09 From Corvin Rick to Everyone : To Dr Maryanski:The nuclear family is not a primate universal and virtually absent in great apes - except humans. But isn't it still the core unit of human societies in particular? That is: Isn't the evolution of the nuclear family one of the most important thresholds in the evolution of homo sapiens sociality? And if that is so: Why is it wrong to think of the nuclear family as a 'natural' social unit for our species, probably bound by evolved behavioural propensities.02:33:55 From Kathleen Hart to Everyone : Relative scarcity of resources in chimpanzee-land vs. bonobo-land seems to explain the greater collectivism of bonobos.02:34:53 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : Richard Wrangham discusses the differences between chimpanzees and bonobos in his book The Goodness Paradox.02:36:38 From Kurt Johnson to Everyone : Quick comment on 2 books on community by same author that have won Nautilus and Gold Axiom awards and one of them being championed (latter published by by Google Inc). Both are books NOT from the scientific community but from the spiritual/transformative community (author is a Yale Divinity School graduate) BUT THE POINT IS the DEFINITION of community in both these books is that degree of “real community” (experienced community?) is directly related to the actual DEGREE OF CARING by the “community” for it’s members, as metric’ed by the members themselves….02:36:45 From Gregory to Everyone : Erin Evans: Re: slide titles -> “Evolving food systems, Evolving food industries” Question: How do you distinguish the terms “evolution”, “development”, and “change”? Do you largely use them synonymously? In common parlance, we “develop” policies according to design & planning methods, rather than typically saying that we “evolve” policies, as if without foresight or aim, or as if "thinking biologically about policies" don’t we? I’m having trouble understanding why you use “(naturally) evolving” for human-made systems, when more effective, forward-looking & purposeful language is available.02:41:01 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : Check out Social Baseline Theory, developed by James Coan at the University of Virginia. The thesis is that the one constant of the ancestral environment was for individuals to be embedded in small and for the most part highly cooperative group. This means that social resources were always available to individuals, in addition to their personal resources. Our brains and bodies evolved against this background, which means that if you isolate individuals from a small cooperative group setting, it puts the brain and body into a stress zone.02:43:12 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone : A Question for both speakers (Dr Maryanski & Dr Evans), Yuval Noah Harari (in `Sapiens' 2014) suggests agriculture was a mistake, for human happiness/wellbeing (and, for the suffering of farmed animals)... Do you agree, or, have a strong view on this? (And, any suggestions for solutions?)02:43:48 From Luiz Lopez to Everyone : It appears that the evolution of highly social species of bees and ants had caused a geological documented loss of diversity of species of solitary species of bee and ants. Eusociality creates endospeies diversity in terms of castes and labor division but reduces external diversity. Now we humans are facing the same evolutionary challenge of how to create more internal social diversity without destroy other species diversity02:44:37 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone : Q for Dr Maryanski: in your (great!) TVoL essay, you note: "Early Homo sapiens appeared about 300,000 years ago *but, for reasons unknown*, experienced a population bottleneck so ominous that it reduced the surviving human population to less than a few thousand individuals." So, no advances on the (controversial) `Toba supereruption' theory? (as cause of the human genetic bottleneck)? ie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_ca... (Just curious.)02:48:49 From Steve Gilbert to Everyone : Psychologist Michele Gelfand’s book “Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World” for a good explanation of why some countries did better than others in responding to the pandemic.02:48:57 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : The Nordic studies are also vibrant market economies but in a way that shapes markets for the common good.02:49:25 From Luiz Lopez to Everyone : Last week it came to my mind: did someone has measured and compared cortisol between bonobo and chimps in natural conditions. I find that someone actuakky did and found not surprisingly (to me) that bonobos population in the wild present low levels of cortisol compared to chimps.02:49:36 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : Yes! Michele Gelfand rocks and is on the Board of Prosocial World!02:51:19 From Rosemary Hopcroft to Everyone : Individualism as an intellectual approach goes back to Smith and Locke and the Scottish "moralists"02:52:11 From Kathleen Hart to Everyone : Habermas on separation of public & private/private domestic spheres02:53:33 From Rosemary Hopcroft to Everyone : In Sociology it didn't help that Parsons (a structural functionalist) was a Nazi sympathizer02:53:55 From Steve Gilbert to Everyone : Perhaps we should thank Freud for the rise of a focus on the individual?02:57:17 From Gregory to Everyone : "We need to bring it back … yet few people listen to us". - Maryanski. No, we don't need that. There's already a better way forward. Last session I mentioned that there is an easy way to respond to critics of "evolutionary sociology": face the criticisms directly. I asked: "are only pro-evolutionary sociology voices allowed? It would seem hearing the resistance and reasons against evolutionary sociology should at least eventually be heard in this group." The need to listen to criticisms of "evolutionary sociology", especially given only 1% of sociologists consider themselves as "evolutionary sociologists", was seconded by Andrew Atkinson - "Yes - I think that would be interesting." D.S. Wilson responded: "very happy to air more critiques. We can even arrange an extra session." Wilson asked: "Would you like to lead it?" Is this still on the table? I would be willing to participate in or lead such a session. Does this group wish to face criticisms, or rather prefer to avoid them as much as possible or entirely?02:59:08 From Rosemary Hopcroft to Everyone : Of course we would like to face criticisms02:59:31 From Rosemary Hopcroft to Everyone : We do (or at least I do) all the time03:00:24 From Rengin B Firat to Everyone : Re Gregory: Yes, would absolutely love to hear the critiques. Personally and scholarly, I go through a process of reflection and critique in my own work and actually started my career in critical theory. So, I am very much in favor of that. I know that many of my colleagues are also very reflexive in their research. Perhaps David S. Wilson can organize a future session around that.03:01:06 From Marion Blute to Everyone : Hamilton's article on the selfish herd is relevant here.03:01:52 From Rosemary Hopcroft to Everyone : I would hope Gregory you could lead a session on this03:02:14 From Gregory to Everyone : Fair enough, Rengin. Thanks. Be welcome to suggest the opportunity for that in due time.03:02:21 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : To Gregory—we will make good on your offer to lead a session on critiques of evolutionary sociology. In the meantime, check out the lead article on TVOL on the legacy of R.A. Fisher.03:02:55 From This View of Life Magazine to Everyone : https://thisviewoflife.com/ronald-fis... From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : This has been a great series of discussions and we will be soliciting ideas on how to follow up on it.03:04:51 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : What Luiz calls attention to is a major theme of E.O. Wilson in his book The Social Conquest of Earth and his “Half Earth” initiative. Half the earth for humans, half for the rest of nature.03:05:51 From Erin Evans (she/her) to Everyone : Understanding the path dependency of policy regarding environmental protection, and the evolution of that policy, is important for understanding what policy is facilitating that destruction of biodiversity.03:06:19 From Gregory to Everyone : Thanks for the offer. I believe the sociologists here will realize that "palaeo-sociology" isn't going to help us with covid-19 much at all. When an alternative to "evolutionary sociology" is actually available to consider, it changes the conversation considerably. I've seen it happen before. Most sociologists reject "evolutionary" thinking as largely irrelevant to today's "demands of the day". It helps to be cautious against exaggerating the uses of "evolution" where it doesn't fit, as good scholarship should be.03:08:58 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : There was a time when evolutionary biologists could be accused of genetic determinism because they had little to say about culture. But now the study of evolution has been expanded to include multiple mechanisms of inheritance. This is a game changer for the field of sociology.03:09:17 From Gregory to Everyone : Policy doesn't evolve. It develops. It's intentional. Path dependency shouldn't be captured to biologistic thinking where randomness & blind foresight rules.03:09:41 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : You’re implying that evolution can’t be an intentional process…There is much to discuss!03:09:53 From Gregory to Everyone : " This is a game changer for the field of sociology." Said by a non-sociologist, doesn't carry much value.03:10:05 From Gregory to Everyone : The Hyper-Evolution Institute03:10:28 From Gregory to Everyone : Taking evolutionary biology into sociology … but nicely, not hegemonically ; )03:11:20 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone : Brilliant series, thanks all for it!03:11:42 From Gregory to Everyone : It's just a problem if it's leading people down the wrong path with "evolutionary sociology", when better alternatives are already available for those not wishing to biologize sociology.03:11:51 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : To Gregory—you mean I’m not a member of your tribe? :)
------------------------
[ ...To Be Continued...! ]
When I go to the next great Ev Soc TVoL webinar.
(or whatever it evolves into! :)
--------------
Anyway, great meeting. I learned a lot. (JTV)
& Met lots of great people/scholars.
...What's not to like?
--------------//---------------
END CREDITS
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a blog-post by:
Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D
(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle)
Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist & Filmmaker & Writer & Artist & Actor & Muso & Rugged Frontiersman & Random Guy
(and, also The StoryAlity Guy)
aka Humanimal
(or, The Artist formally known as Dr J T Velikovsky)
More stuff:
Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
Music: Texas Radio & Zen Stupidity
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
Researchgate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
My ouvre... etc etc.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
Forthcoming book (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379
March 30, 2021
TVoL Evolutionary Sociology webinar #6 (2021)
TVoL Evolutionary Sociology webinar #5 (2021)
See: https://thisviewoflife.com/evolutionary-science-and-sociology/
-----------
So we had the TVoL Evolutionary Sociology webinar #6 of 2021.
30th March 2021
& it was great!
Some random screenshots I took:
Rosemary's talk
Steve's talk-----------------------
And here's some Notes I took, &/or made, &/or scribbled during the mtg/webinar:
(...who knows, what they all mean? Not me, always. Some of them may even be totally: wrong. I can't even read my own writing, sometimes.)
---------------------------
Rosemary: Evolved tendencies are just tendencies...& see Joe Whitmeyer's essay in Oxford Handbook of Evolution, Biology, and Society (ed: Rosemary L. Hopcroft 2018)See also George Homans (1910-89) US sociologist 'Bringing Men Back In' (1964) - his Presidential Address to the American Sociological Association
DSW: We study genes in biological evolution... but Evolution is: Any process of Variation, Selection, Heredity eg DIT - a cultural stream of inheritanceBiologists examine differences, not similarities in speciesCultural Variation (Asian vs Western, WEIRD [Joe Henrich] vs Cultural Diversity)Q is...How do we explain (Cultural) Variation?Via, a TOOLKIT from genetic ev, involving niche construction (social construction)Evolution is: genetic, cultural, and personal; We have to keep all the timescales in mind
A Good Q raised by Steve H: What counts as a `niche'? eg: Academic Sociology Faculty?
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Some selected Zoom comments
03:08:57 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : This series of TVOL essays titled “The Cultural Evolution of Social Pathologies” by Anthony Biglan is germane to our conversation today, as I will try to highlight during my comment. https://thisviewoflife.com/the-cultural-evolution-of-social-pathologies/
03:19:09 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : B.F. Skinner’s 1981 article “Selection by Consequences” made the point that genetic evolution, multigenerational cultural change, and individual open-ended change all share something in common as variation/selection/replication processes. This permits the same evolutionary mode of reasoning.
03:29:03 From Diane Sunar to Everyone : Donald Brown, "Human Universals"
03:32:00 From Diane Sunar to Everyone : Christopher Boehm, Hierarchy in the Forest
03:33:35 From Diane Sunar to Everyone : Curry et al. Morality as Cooperation
03:34:43 From Andrew Atkinson to Everyone : Some provocative comments this week. Conference needed and friendly discussion!
03:35:34 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone : That Joe Whitmeyer chapter, that Rosemary just mentioned: https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190299323.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780190299323-e-9
03:40:01 From Diane Sunar to Everyone : Carl Degler, In Search of Human Nature, about the relation of sociology/anthropology and evolutionary thinking
04:00:34 From Diane Sunar to Everyone : Gregory - I suggest "Not by Genes Alone" but also DS Wilson's Darwin's Cathedral
04:01:30 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : To Gregory: There is indeed a strong intentional component to cultural evolution, but that does not prevent the process from being evolutionary! Much more to discuss. And to you newest comment—very happy to air more critiques. We can even arrange an extra session. Would you like to lead it?
04:01:47 From Gregory to Everyone : E O Wilson is not a sociologist. And Not by Genes Alone is not helpful to sociologists who are resistant to "evolution for everyone" ideology being applied in sociology. Anthony Giddens, Piotr Sztompka & other sociologists are against evolutionary sociology. Shall we not speak about this too?
04:03:16 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : We can use this same venue. Short essays and online discussion.
[ ...To Be Continued...! ]
When I go to the next great Ev Soc TVoL webinar.
--------------
Anyway, great meeting. I learned a lot. (JTV)
& Met lots of great people/scholars.
...What's not to like?
--------------//---------------
END CREDITS
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a blog-post by:
Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D
(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle)
Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist & Filmmaker & Writer & Artist & Actor & Muso & Rugged Frontiersman & Random Guy
(and, also The StoryAlity Guy)
aka Humanimal
(or, The Artist formally known as Dr J T Velikovsky)
More stuff:
Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
Music: Texas Radio & Zen Stupidity
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
Researchgate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
My ouvre... etc etc.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
Forthcoming book (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379
March 24, 2021
ICCC 2020
ICCC 2020
11th International Conference on Computational Creativity (2020)
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Keynotes (2020):
ICCC'20 Keynote 1 – Emilia Gómez Human & Machine Intelligence: Music Information Retrieval&
ICCC'20 Keynote 2 – Simon Lucas
& see also
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& see the forthcoming:
ICCC2021 (September 2021)
[image error]
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...Exciting stuff!
Maybe see also:
The Robo-Raconteur Artificial Writer
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ROLL CREDITS.
--------------//---------------
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a blog-post by:
Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D
(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle)
Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist & Filmmaker & Writer & Artist & Actor & Muso & Rugged Frontiersman & Random Guy
(and, also The StoryAlity Guy)
aka Humanimal
(or, The Artist formally known as Dr J T Velikovsky)
More stuff:
Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
Music: Texas Radio & Zen Stupidity
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
ResearchGate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
My ouvre... etc etc.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
Forthcoming book (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379
March 19, 2021
AppEEL webinar #3 - March 2021
So we had AppEEL webinar #3 of 2021.
It was great!!! (Just like AppEEL webinar #1 & #2)
By the way, this post you're now reading isn't the Official Page for the AppEEL webinars.
This is just: my NOTES... (by Velikovsky of Newcastle)
--------
The Program, for Webinar #3:
March 19th, 17h (5 pm) Lisbon time (GMT 0)#1 - David Sloan Wilson on Atlas Hugged
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#2 - Dean Keith Simonton on Creativity as Blind Variation and Selective Retention: Campbell’s BVSR as Philosophy and Psychology
#3 - JT Velikovsky on his (forthcoming) book:
Principles, Protocols, and Practices of Evolutionary Culturology
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& if of interest,
Here's the Youtube video of my presentation on P3 of EC (30 mins)...
`P3 of EC' (forthcoming book)
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& see, also:
& for the full year's AppEEL webinar Schedule/Program, see: here!
------------//------------
Anyway - great webinar. I learned a lot. Met lots of great people/scholars. What's not to like?
--------------//---------------
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a blog-post by:
Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D
(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle)
Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist & Filmmaker & Writer & Artist & Actor & Muso & Rugged Frontiersman & Random Guy
(and, also The StoryAlity Guy)
aka Humanimal
(or, The Artist formally known as Dr J T Velikovsky)
More stuff:
Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
Music: Texas Radio & Zen Stupidity
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
Researchgate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
My ouvre... etc etc.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
Forthcoming book (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379
------------------------------------------
Post Script:
There's also actually a 1-hour version (`Director's Cut') of my talk:
1-hour `Director's Cut' of P3 of EC
Also there's this:
Top-Down & Bottom-up causation in HOLON/partons
& this...
Ev Cult - Book Case Study
& for more videos on Ev Cult, see: Evolutionary Culturology presentations.
And maybe see also:
StoryAlity #137 – Culturology – and, the CES (Cultural Evolution Society)StoryAlity #138 – Darwin on the evolution of words and languagesStoryAlity #138B – Cultural Analytics, and yada yada yadaStoryAlity #139 – On the evolution of Darwin’s `Tree of Life’ DiagramStoryAlity#140 – The Evolution of the Systems Model of Creativity (Csikszentmihalyi 1988-onwards)StoryAlity #141 – The StoryAlity-Theory `Robo-Raconteur’ artificial-writerStoryAlity #142 – Our StoryAlity so far – random Technological MarvelsStoryAlity #143 – All of life is doing scienceStoryAlity #144 – The structure of the meme, the unit of culture (in: The Encyclopedia of Information Science & Technology, Velikovsky 2017)StoryAlity #145 – Five views of the monomyth (Velikovsky 2017)StoryAlity #146 – Flow Theory = Evolutionary TheoryStoryAlity #147 – Transmedia @ the ANZCA2017 Communication ConferenceStoryAlity #148 – Why is Movie Screenwriting So Tricky, Anyway?StoryAlity #148A – Evolutionary CulturologyStoryAlity #149 – Karl Popper on creativity and problem-solvingStoryAlity #149B – The Tree of CultureStoryAlity #161 – `Technology – Memes: Units of Culture’ in: Encyclopedia of Creativity (3rd Edn, 02020)StoryAlity #163 – The 5-C Model of CreativityStoryAlity #164 – i=PStoryAlity #165 – The HOLON/parton Structure of the Meme [5 x book-chapters]P3 of EC (forthcoming book)
March 18, 2021
TVoL's Examined Lives: Are We Humans Fundamentally Selfish? (Session 7)
TVoL's Examined Lives: Are We Humans Fundamentally Selfish? (Session 7)
(Webinar of: March 18th 2021)
See: https://thisviewoflife.com/examined-lives/
A blog-post by Velikovsky of Newcastle
--------------
So - I just attended this great webinar!
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The idea that we humans are profoundly selfish has deep roots. The view makes an appearance in Plato’s Republic, where it provokes an inquiry into the nature of justice. The idea was incorporated into Christian theology and shaped the dominant institutions of Medieval Europe. Then Enlightenment thinkers like Thomas Hobbes picked it up and built the conceptual frameworks that underlie what we call modernity. And more recently, of course, Richard Dawkins has argued that we are built by selfish genes.
New developments in the biological sciences, though, suggest that we might have underestimated human niceness. It now appears that prosociality—friendliness—is also deeply human. Join us as we examine some profoundly influential pictures of human nature. Suggested reading“Scientific Orthodoxy Upended? A Review of Rutger Bregman’s Humankind“
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And am happy to report, we solved all the world's problems, in that great webinar.
THE END.
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So, I wouldn't take the below as `True News', or anything :)
Could all be: Fake News. You be the judge.
------------
My Scribbled Mtg Notes :
Are we mostly selfish? No... See: Altruism / Group Selection & MLS!!Andy's review of Bregman's `Humankind' - reminds me of quote from the book Prosocial (2019) "Our view of human nature not only changes what we do personally, it changes the forms of governance we design and implement." (p. 27) [...This means, it changes how you VOTE !!! ] As an aside, David Sloan Wilson & Dean Keith Simonton are talking at an event tomorrow at 1pm - re: Multi-Level Selection, Atlas Hugged etc (I'll put the link in the chat): March 19 AppEEL webinar @1pm Bregman's (`Humankind') urging us all to see Human Nature as basically good / decent, is rather like Dan Dennett on free will; it's actually, a Moral Imperative...(!) ("If you build/believe it, they will come" :)Also, reminds me of the "good" side of tribalism - in hunter-gatherer societies, re: decisions/action, it's all about the good of the tribe, & not: the individual/person...& some of the Zoom-chat:
03:20:04 From David Hurst to Everyone : Absolutely - it’s context dependent. John Dewey: “I should venture to assert that the most pervasive fallacy of philosophic thinking goes back to neglect of context.”
03:24:41 From Diane Sunar to Everyone : What are humans fundamentally?
03:24:59 From Ron Nahser to Everyone : What was the name of the movie?
03:25:34 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone : Diane: suggest - humans `fundamentally' are: bio-psycho-socio-anthro-cultural systems (?)
03:25:54 From David Hurst to Everyone : John Dewey ref is “Context and Thought” one of his later writings but very difficult to get in digital format
03:28:18 From Diane Sunar to Everyone : Fundamentally we are a group-living species. So we are fundamentally "moral" (other-regarding). We are fundamentally competitive as well. We are also fundamentally formed by culture and our choices are conditioned by context. Both biology and culture can evolve, and possibly co-evolve.
03:31:43 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone : Just FYI all, a free webinar, 1pm tomorrow, on MLS/`Atlas Hugged'/ & Creativity (David Sloan Wilson, Dean Keith Simonton, & me): https://sites.google.com/view/appeel/events/webinars
03:33:00 From hankblumfarb to Everyone : Comment and Question: David Sloan Wilson has suggested that from an evolutionary biology perspective the basic organism manifests a perfect homeostasis where the fundamental building block is not necessarily selfish but harmonious. Any thoughts= Hank
03:33:13 From Steve Gilbert to Everyone : Selfish or selfless? Human nature means you're both https://theconversation.com/selfish-or-selfless-human-nature-means-youre-both-155528
03:34:08 From David Hurst to Everyone : Joe Henrich “The Secret of Our Success” is to be able to cooperate in groups much larger than the family but "Over time, history suggests that all prosocial institutions age and eventually collapse at the hands of self-interest, unless they are renewed by the dynamics of intergroup competition." p 170
03:34:14 From Steve Gilbert to Everyone : Capitalism and communism answered this question differently. Which system of incentives worked best?
03:40:03 From Steve Gilbert to Everyone : Not surprise — redirect them them into cooperative behavior
03:40:07 From Steve Gilbert to Everyone : supress
03:40:13 From David Hurst to Everyone : @Andre South African concept of “ubuntu” is African humanism. It is often translated as ‘I am because you are’. It means that what makes us human is our connectedness with each other and the empathy that flows from that. The standard Zulu greeting is sawubona – “I see you.” The response is sikhona – “I am here.” Humanity is a quality we owe to each other.
03:40:33 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone : Great point Steve on capitalism vs communism. (Seems a middle-ground is best? eg Scandinavian countries?)
03:41:20 From Borislav Ignatov to Everyone : It seems that capitalism is more successful and aligned with human nature and because it promotes selfish behaviors, it is evident that people are fundamentally selfish.
03:43:25 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone : @ David, great point re `ubuntu', also reminds me of xenia as a moral imperative... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenia_(Greek) which Brian Boyd talks about in `On the Origin of Stories' (2009)
03:43:55 From Simon Bowden to Everyone : Isn't the issue that in social species Status matters in sexual selection and we show status by selflessness? The "handicap Principle" by the Zarharvi brothers?
03:49:20 From David Hurst to Everyone : Best video on fairness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg
03:49:36 From Kathleen Hart to Everyone : Yes and that would be selfish.
03:50:24 From andre to Everyone : We are fundamental adaptable and other cosmovitions give insight to understand the reductionist context of Science. i suggest this native Brazilian thinker. https://www.amazon.com/Ideas-Postpone-World-Ailton-Krenak/dp/1487008511
03:50:53 From David Hurst to Everyone : Doesn’t this call for a dual-process view of cognition? See short blog here: http://www.davidkhurst.com/jonathan-sacks-1948-2020-jewish-wisdom-and-our-binocular-minds/
03:52:25 From hankblumfarb to Everyone : The Mattering Instinct = There may be competition amongst humans around who matters more in the context of the Cosmos. Rebecca Newberger Goldstein. Hank
03:52:44 From David Hurst to Everyone : Isn’t all reasoning is “motivated”
03:53:14 From Simon Bowden to Everyone : We favour "our group" versus "outside our group" - in group empathy is the same thing as out group antipathy - that mitigates against looking at us as one organism
03:53:44 From Steve Gilbert to Everyone : I would define an organism as an entity that ceases to exist when it dies. That is not a social group.
03:54:48 From Diane Sunar to Everyone : Level of outgroup antipathy depends on the relationship between the groups
03:54:55 From Eric Harrington to Everyone : Is it possible that our definition of our group tend to expand as our awareness and understanding of the "other" increases?
03:55:03 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone : My talk tomorrow @ 1pm (March 19) is about: a mathematical proof (scientific theory) of how it's: `groups all the way down & up'... https://sites.google.com/view/appeel/events/webinars
03:55:41 From Andrew Brady to Everyone : Steve, a human body is made up of more non-human cells than human cells. Not only that, but the cells are dying and being created continuously. So who “you” are today is technically different cells than “you” from a few years ago or a few years from now. Same with social groups…people are coming and going, being born or dying.
03:56:13 From Simon Bowden to Everyone : Selection can only occur at an individual level - albeit moderated by culture - Dual Inheritance
03:56:47 From David Hurst to Everyone : The “savages” were less savage than we can be: http://www.davidkhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Cautionary-Tales-from-the-Kalahari-1991.pdf
03:59:00 From hankblumfarb to Everyone : Lisa Feldman Barret talks to Regulating The Body Budget for the individual; the social brain requiring mutual body regulation. What about the competition between the multiple social brains? Hank
04:00:46 From Diane Sunar to Everyone : All human groups are hierarchical! That is why we have to be competitive.
04:01:51 From David Hurst to Everyone : Distinguish between hierarchies of control and hierarchies of constraint
04:03:06 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone : David Hurst - yes! Agency & Structure! (`Structuration Theory' - eg Anthony Giddens, Margaret Archer, etc)
& Andy (Norman) rounded out proceedings with a great (& thought-provoking) quote:
"If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If I am not for others, what am I?
And if not now, when?"
...So, all truly great stuff !!!- Rabbi Hillel
-----------------
And - am really looking forward to Andy's new book: Mental Immunity (due out: May 2021) !
Mental Immunity (due out: May 2021)
(& I notice, you can pre-order it now on that Amazon link, above... & I did ! )
--------------
So: great webinar. I learned a lot. (JTV)
& Met lots of great people / scholars.
...What's not to like?
(Hey - and I also blogged on the previous one, here .)
THE END
ROLL CREDITS.
--------------//---------------
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a blog-post by:
Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D
(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle)
Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist & Filmmaker & Writer & Artist & Actor & Muso & Rugged Frontiersman & Random Guy
(and, also The StoryAlity Guy)
aka Humanimal
(or, The Artist formally known as Dr J T Velikovsky)
More stuff:
Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
Music: Texas Radio & Zen Stupidity
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
ResearchGate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
My ouvre... etc etc.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
Forthcoming book (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379
March 17, 2021
Pathways to Ethical Culture Pt. 1 (NYS4EC)
Pathways to Ethical Culture Pt. 1 (NYS4EC)
So, went along to Pathways to Ethical Culture Pt. 1 (@ NYS4EC).
17th March 2021
& it was great!
See: https://ethical.nyc/events/pathways-to-ethical-culture-online/
-----------
From the NYS4EC's website:
`Ethical Culture is a humanist community that esteems ethics as its core precept, human worth and dignity as its central value, and community, sustainability and freedom as its principal goals. Where did Ethical Culture come from? What does it say to us today regarding the human condition? What is its unique contribution for our lives and our future?
Join us for a five part program that explores the origins, the history and the values of Ethical Culture – from its founding a century-and-a-half ago to the 21st Century. The topics will be:
The social and intellectual roots of the Ethical Culture Movement.Felix Adler’s philosophical challenge – How to prove inherent worth of the human being in a harsh and precarious world when one abandons traditional reliance on God and the supernatural?Ethical Culture’s rich social justice history in the age of reformation and the modern era.The NY Society and Ethical Culture’s place in today’s world of modern humanism.Living Ethical Culture – How it offers a life of meaning, growth and authenticity.Pathways is facilitated by the Society’s Leaders, Dr. Joseph Chuman and Dr. Richard Koral, and meets for one hour on the 3rd Wednesday of each month, March through July at 2:00 p.m. on Zoom.'
See: https://ethical.nyc/events/pathways-to-ethical-culture-online/
----------------------
Here's a diagram (or, digital handout?) that Joe (Chuman) kindly explained...
And, a screenie:
And, a groupie: (as opposed to, a selfie)
-----------------------
And - here's some Random Notes I took, &/or made, &/or scribbled during the mtg/webinar:
(...who knows, what they all mean? Not me, always.
Some of them may even be totally: wrong. I can't even read my own writing, sometimes.)
---------------------------
Joe Chuman talked (great speaker! very engaged, and fun to listen to) about:Historicism – (movements that `grow out of' their time, and couldn't have happened earlier in history)Ethical Culture – Felix Adler (@ age: 26!)Other `Religions of Humanity’… were around at the time...E.C. was a response to: the social oppressions that came with the Industrial Revolution (!)...The era of the robber-barons - Rockefellers & Carnegies, etcPeople were living in tenementsPublic health was a major issueProstitutionCrime, opium addictionThe Late 19th century was a mess (no unions, crappy work conditions, unregulated hours, no guaranteed wages, child labour, no mandatory education, etc)Huge wealth gap!Masses were: enslavedA period of massive urbanization, post Civil War, movement from rural to cities (thus overcrowding!)Most of it was aristocratic - and top-downRoosevelt was a racist & imperialist – but - broke up the huge monopoliesThere are 3 tenements created by NYS4EC - still extant!Walter Rouschenbush – social gospel movement (tenets of Liberal Protestantism)When it came to Labour, Adler supported both sides!He was critical of Capitalism - He was not a socialist nor Marxist, he developed his own `Third Way’Henry Moscowitz was very close to the workers and labour (and doesn’t get enough credit)The Social GospelSocial JusticePart of the Labor movement...The era ended around WW1 - but laid the groundwork for the New DealThe US is an oligarchy, that has moved towards a plutarchy (ie the current huge wealth gap)Reaganism and `trickle-down economics’ has been: a yuge failureEC = Judaism minus the monotheism!What was Transcendentalism? – a huge movement – eg Emerson, Thoreau (environmentalism), Alcott Fuller, Theo Parker, etcJoe S suggests: Think of Emerson as, `the original New Ager’!! 😊
------//-------
Anyway, great webinar. I learned a lot!
& Met lots of great people/scholars...
...What's not to like?
(...& very interesting, how Felix Adler was able to get the "captains of industry" onside. Wonder who's the `modern equivalent' of Felix? ...David Sloan Wilson, maybe?)
& all very helpful, re: The EthiSizer
--------------//---------------
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a blog-post by:
Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D
(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle)
Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist & Filmmaker & Writer & Artist & Actor & Muso & Rugged Frontiersman & Random Guy
(and, also The StoryAlity Guy)
aka Humanimal
(or, The Artist formally known as Dr J T Velikovsky)
More stuff:
Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
Music: Texas Radio & Zen Stupidity
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
Researchgate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
My ouvre... etc etc.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
Forthcoming book (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379
The EthiSizer - (A Design Sketch)
The EthiSizer
(A rough Design-Sketch)
by
Dr. J T Velikovsky
18th March, 02021
--------------//---------------
What is: The EthiSizer ?
Well - imagine if you will, a computer program that does, this:
Figure 0. The EthiSizer.
A five-step process:
1) At the onscreen-prompt, you enter the intended action. (Say, for example: (a) build a road in a certain location; or (b) erect a factory; or (c) start a company that creates good &/or service [X], or even (d) vote for a certain politician... etc.)
2) If more detail is required (and almost always will be), the computer then asks you to answer a set of Questions, that detail, the exact design specifications of the proposed action...
3) You then press the "Analyze the Ethics!" button, of the program...
4) The computer then: gathers up all of the latest, most relevant, most up-to-date, accurate, scientific data (e.g.: using GPS coordinates, Google Maps, population statistics, affected ecosystems, various databases) and it runs a simulation (an Agent-Based Model) of such a proposed action...
5) The computer then finally delivers, an (1) Executive Summary, and also, (2) A Detailed Report, on the Ethics of the action. (Including, all the effects and impacts, on all the connected bio-psycho-socio-anthro-cultural systems, and, ecosystems.)
----------
So... in a nutshell, the EthiSizer's Executive Summary Report looks something like, this:
Figure 1 - A design-mockup, of an `Executive Summary Report', by: The EthiSizer.
The report (Figure 1 above) shows the beneficial (good!) and deleterious (bad!) ethical effects on various units and levels of the system... Namely, our planet's Ecosystems, i.e., life (plants, animals, humanimals), cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, organisms, families, groups, states, nations, and, the whole planet - all considered as one whole unit. (In fact, as one HOLON/parton.)
Also, I suppose it helps to know:
The 3 Laws of HOLON/partons...
which govern the levels and units of the whole system...
And, these 3 Laws can be used as a tool...
Examining a FAMILY UNIT via the 3 Laws---------
So - we have:
More info at P3 of EC
------------
Okay, so now some questions.
Q: Why is it called: The EthiSizer?
A: It sizes up the Ethics of the planned: action.
------------
(Or - as the great Andy Lord says - it's an: Ethics SyntheSizer).
(Andy's a genius at ACRONYMS, and, names for things,
see his great CLIOLOGY website, for more...)
---------
So The EthiSizer algorithm (computer program) itself has Ethics & Morals programmed into it.
...This is important, so it's not a (flawed, biased, prejudiced) human, making the Ethics analysis...
...It's: objective.
Not subjective.
And - it's not even a human, (or even a group of them) doing the Ethical Analysis...
Rather, it considers: all points of view (of all units, and levels) in the system...
And of course - an army of experts on Evolutionary Ethics and Morality have informed the design, engineering, and architecture, of The EthiSizer software... (Before it was even built.)
(And obviously, the very first test - in, the very-very-many trials, and alpha- and beta-tests, is: to run an analysis on itself, and decide, if The EthiSizer program is, itself: Ethical, and Moral...!)
As, (again, to repeat) this way, it's not a human (or even a dictator, or, a demagogue) deciding what's Ethical, at all levels of the global HOLON/parton systems...
...It's: A computer.
Very Big Data.
So - at first - it's just an online app. (Like say, The Moral Machine. See maybe this article for more.)
So that, in a harmless `sandbox environment', you can `punch in to' The EthiSizer, any hypothetical action you'd like to take, in the world...
And - see how it `scores'...!
Look out for the
RED STUFF in the report
... Red means: Bad. (...Unethical.)----------
So... See any red statistics in the Report? (see: Figure 1)
If so, then: Houston, we have a problem.
And so, you can then see, how you need to tweak (or even, totally redesign) the planned action, so that, it's Ethical.
(The EthiSizer will help, and, can make recommendations for these tweaks.)
You can run the program, over and over - and, with different inputs - to compare the results.
And of course, you need to keep: Humans In The Loop (HITL)
(Its operation needs to be totally transparent, at all times.)
...And, the AI is `Explainable AI',
So The EthiSizer can show you exactly how (and, why) it arrived at
all those exact Ethical decisions/judgments.
------------
And so, what sort of Ethics, and Moral frameworks are programmed in (in The EthiSizer) - ?
Namely, partially in the words of a great Moral Philosopher, how to address these wicked problems?
...Is there a "true" (mathematical, objective, unbiased) solution to complex ethical dilemmas?
...How to assess: very-large-scale action plans? (On micro, meso, and macro levels?)
...Could a human (or a team of them) even do it? Given, complex, evolutionary, bio-psycho-socio-anthro-cultural ecosystems...?
And given, the current limits of human cognition? (see, for example, G A Miller (1956), and, a depressingly-long list of human cognitive biases, let alone, cognitive distortions...)
As another example of the `kind of thing' The EthiSizer is, see maybe:
So - for the kinds of (evolutionary) Morals and Ethics programmed into The EthiSizer, see some of these works, for example...
Harris, S. (2011). The Moral Landscape: How science can determine human values (1st Free Press paperback ed.). Free Press.
Pinker, S. (2018). Enlightenment Now: The case for reason, science, humanism, and progress. Penguin Random House UK.
Sunar, D. (2018). The psychology of morality. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture 2(1). https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1012
Singer, P. (2011). The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress (1st Princeton University Press pbk. ed.). Princeton University Press.
Bradie, M. (1994). The Secret Chain: Evolution and Ethics. State University of New York Press.
Boehm, C. (2012). Moral Origins: The evolution of virtue, altruism, and shame. Basic Books.
Wilson, D. S. (2020). Atlas Hugged. Redwood Publishing, LLC.
Wilson, D. S. (2019). This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution (First edition. ed.). Pantheon.
Wrangham, R. W. (2019). The Goodness Paradox: How evolution made us both more and less violent (First edition. ed.). Profile Books Ltd.
Atkins, P. W. B., Wilson, D. S., & Hayes, S. C. (2019). Prosocial: Using evolutionary science to build productive, equitable, and collaborative groups. Context Press.
Gibney, E. (2012). Evolutionary Philosophy. & see: https://www.evphil.com/
Greene, J. D. (2013). Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap between Us and Them. Penguin Press.
Henrich, J. P. (2020). The WEIRDest people in the world : How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous. Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Bostrom, N. (2014). Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (First edition. ed.). Oxford University Press.
Tegmark, M. (2017). Life 3.0: Being Human in the age of Artificial Intelligence (First ed.). Allen Lane.
Harari, Y. N. (2017). Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. Vintage Digital.
...And so on, and so forth.
Side Note: I became a pescatarian, (stopped eating farmed meat) after I read Harari's 3 (brilliant) books... (Even though as a human, eating fish is a strange loop.)
(Anyway - there's a lot you can read, on all of this... a guy called Kant had a lot to say, on: Ethics.)
See, also: the Stanford Encyclopedia, on Virtue Ethics, & what-not.
(The 3 `main' Moral theories are: deontology, consequentialism, and virtue ethics...)
And, so on.
Or, maybe if you're brand-new to the study and contemplation of Ethics & Morality, maybe even, try:
Blackburn, S. (2003). Ethics: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.
And, maybe also even see, these blog-posts:
and
and
An Agent-Based Model of the global film industry as a system
...and so on, and so forth...
...You could even see a satirical short story I wrote a while ago, vaguely-about, all of this...
And maybe even see: My Worldview.
But - the humans involved in creating The EthiSizer shouldn't be relevant to the final program itself.
(...Trust the Science, not the Scientists.)
i.e., My own worldview (and, Ethics) aren't those of The EthiSizer.
Those are decided by: an army of highly-qualified Ethics Experts & Philosophers.
(...Which, I'm not :) [~JTV]
-------------
...Anyway, so - that's a rough sketch of: The Design for The EthiSizer...
...(& I don't care who makes it, just as long as it's: Ethical!)
-------------
Also -
...It would then go around, judging corporations and groups and individuals, for their: Ethics.
And, Morals.
!
--------------
...There could even be a global competition, to see: who can make,
The best-&-fairest, EthiSizer program...?
(Would likely be a better - & more ethical - use of global resources than: making videogames? :)
-------
So... yeah.
I'm just "putting the idea out there", for now... :)
(I've been called "An Ideas-Guy", at times.)
So - in a nutshell, that's the idea of: The EthiSizer.
...Food for thought, perhaps-?
...& whether anyone goes through the process or making it (as a final: product), remains to be seen.
But, I think the whole world is crying out for such a tool...?
(...Just sayin'. :)
One possible solution to E O Wilson's very wise point:
`The real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology. And it is terrifically dangerous, and it is now approaching a point of crisis overall.' (E O Wilson, 2009)
As we seem to need, a Global/Planetary Conscience.
Which currently, seems: urgent, and lacking...? :)
------------
TL;DR: (too long, didn't read) Summary:
We need a computer-program, so that, anyone could simply ask it:
"Hey - here's an idea (or, process, or product)...? Does it pass the Ethics-test, for all units and levels of the HOLON/parton (from cells, up through people, up to, the planet)?
Yes or No?
& If `No' - what exactly would need to change, about the idea/process/product, so that it would pass the test..?
As in short - we'd then be able to simply ask the counsel of, some kind of: all-knowing, all-wise, all benevolent, Ethical `God'.
(i.e. a computer program :)
(And then - on demand - have it print out all of the data [`show your working'], to show why - so that, in our own sweet time, we could read `the long answer' / follow the logic.
And, we'd understand: Exactly, Why... :)
--------------//---------------
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.You have been reading / viewing a great blog-post by:
Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D
aka:
`Velikovsky of Newcastle'
aka
`The (great) Velikovsky'
Evolutionary Culturologist & Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist & Filmmaker & Writer & Artist & Actor & Muso & Rugged Frontiersman & Random Guy
(and, also The StoryAlity Guy)
aka Humanimal
(or, The Artist formally known as Dr J T Velikovsky)
More stuff:
Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
Music: Texas Radio & Zen Stupidity
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
Researchgate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
My ouvre... etc etc.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
Forthcoming book (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379
March 16, 2021
TVoL Evolutionary Sociology webinar #5 (2021)
TVoL Evolutionary Sociology webinar #5 (2021)
See: https://thisviewoflife.com/evolutionary-science-and-sociology/
-----------
So we had the TVoL Evolutionary Sociology webinar #5 of 2021.
16th March 2021
& it was great!
Some random screenshots I took:
Russ's Intro
Andrew's talk
Lukas's talk
(Lukas' model, including: `habitus')-----------------------
And here's some Notes I took, &/or made, &/or scribbled during the mtg/webinar:
(...who knows, what they all mean? Not me, always. Some of them may even be totally: wrong. I can't even read my own writing, sometimes.)
---------------------------
03:06:05am - From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : Here is an important TVOL series of print conversations and podcasts relevant to today’s subject, titled “Evolution, Complexity, and the Third Way of Entrepreneurship”: https://thisviewoflife.com/third-way-2/
03:08:43 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : Also, this new TVOL article titled “Greek Democracy as a Major Evolutionary Transition”: https://thisviewoflife.com/greek-democracy-as-a-major-evolutionary-transition-a-conversation-with-josiah-ober/
03:14:47 From Rosemary Hopcroft to Everyone : What is your response to your old professor's statement: Anything you can explain I can explain (to a group selectionist from a gene centric traditional biologist)?
03:17:48 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : This article is of interest, which treats sacred texts as cultural genomes..https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2153599X.2016.1195766
03:19:07 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : And his one titled “The Nature of Religious Diversity: A Cultural Ecosystem Approach: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2153599X.2015.1132243
03:21:24 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : The “Third Way” series cited above includes an episode on Pragmatism.
03:23:53 Question from Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone : Q: Lukas, (great model of top-down/bottom-up FX!) …Could you maybe explain Bourdieu's "habitus" theory (or, just the term `habitus') for the non-Sociologists?
03:34:38 From Someone to Everyone : see ‘Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking’ Cecilia Heyes
03:35:33 From Someone to Everyone : & ‘The Enigma of Reason’ Sperber Mercier
03:37:20 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone : Everyone here may also be interested in DSW's upcoming talk (March 19): https://sites.google.com/view/appeel/events/webinars
03:38:23 From Someone to Everyone : Selfish gene theory does not necessarily imply selfish organisms! (or selfish organs :) )
03:45:26 From Someone to Everyone : The latest Atlantic article: “Private Schools are Indefensible”
03:46:15 From ? to Everyone : Have you compared indigenous religions (natives, first people) against other religions in terms of environmental views?
03:46:21 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : There is so much to say…multiple perspectives are celebrated in sociology and cultural studies, as if the more the better. But in “hard” science there is more of a right and wrong. Mountains existed before people and if you disagree you’re just wrong. An empirical claim with a right and wrong is that higher-level selection is invariably weaker than lower-level selection. Or, in selfish gene parlance, groups are almost never vehicles of selection. That claim has been empirically disproven. The selfish gene theorist can still speak his/her language, but must acknowledges that whole gene-plexes exist.
03:47:31 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : I meant meme-plexes, of course.
03:49:10 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone : To ?'s (great) point about: the mathematical rigor of `genes' vs `units of culture' models, maybe see the (rigorous :) maths in: Wang, Y. (2015). `On the Mathematical Theories and Cognitive Foundations of Information.' International Journal of Cognitive Informatics and Natural Intelligence, 9(3), 41-63. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJCINI.2015070103
03:49:09 From ? to Everyone : Surely selection at the level of the group is much rarer than lower level selection. My understanding is that you can only get selection at the group level in very specific circumstances
03:53:54 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : No! That is a meme that refuses to die! Darwin’s Cathedral is an extended argument for group-level cultural adaptations and has withstood the test of time!
03:54:22 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : Humans are so groupish that MLS theory can appear obvious in retrospect.
03:54:29 From David Sloan Wilson to Everyone : Peter Turchin’s Ages of Discord diagnoses booms and busts in inclusiveness and polarization in American history.
03:55:47 From ? to Everyone : Does anyone work with Max Weber and the famous Protestant Ethic and the Rise of Capitalism.
03:55:58 From Ron Nahser to Everyone : And also the rise of the of the Axial Age?
03:55:59 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone : To Diane's point on MLS, my talk is also on MLS, on March 19: https://sites.google.com/view/appeel/events/webinars
03:56:29 From ? to Everyone : I think the core difficulty here is that the issues of interest to everyone are subject to examination by so many different disciplines. Biology, Psychology, Sociology, Cognitive Science… None of us can be expert in all of them but sadly we are all blind to aspects of fields that are all themselves moving fast. There is no quick route to ‘injecting’ evolutionary ideas into the social sciences
03:57:30 From ? to Everyone : YES to what Peter Griffith’s said; I have that problem all the time!
04:03:28 From ? to Everyone : People made “moral choices” before consciousness, they just did not know they were doing so.
04:03:44 From ? to Everyone : Jo Henrich is interesting on his
04:04:04 From Andrew Atkinson to Everyone : "I think the core difficulty here is that the issues of interest to everyone are subject to examination by so many different disciplines. Biology, Psychology, Sociology, Cognitive Science… None of us can be expert in all of them but sadly we are all blind to aspects of fields that are all themselves moving fast. There is no quick route to ‘injecting’ evolutionary ideas into the social sciences" (Correct, Peter, in my opinion!)
04:05:13 From peter griffiths to Everyone : It will be the end of the century :)
04:06:11 From ? to Everyone : Read Atlas Hugged
04:06:52 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone : And see David's talk on Atlas Hugged ! :) https://sites.google.com/view/appeel/events/webinars
----------------------------
DSW also mentioned:
Dewey's book - The Ethical Republic
&...a Whole-Earth ethic ...(a Holarchy / partarchy ethic? JTV :)
& The silo-ing of the Disciplines (DSW: The `Ivory Archipelago'!)
...& it will be the end of the f***ing century (before this unity happens) at this rate (We don't have that long!): Catalysis is needed!
Group Selection / Multi-Level Selection.
Society as an organism!!!
JTV - If this MLS stuff is of interest, see also my (forthcoming) book: P3 of EC
...Probably?
When I go to the next great Ev Soc TVoL webinar.
(Well; Unless, I miss it, or, die in the meantime, or whatever, as: that's also a thing that can happen to: folks like me. Or, anyone, I guess.Note To Self - It sure will be annoying if I die before this P3 of EC book comes out...?)
--------------
Anyway, great meeting. I learned a lot. (JTV)
& Met lots of great people/scholars.
...What's not to like?
--------------//---------------
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a blog-post by:
Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D
(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle)
Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist & Filmmaker & Writer & Artist & Actor & Muso & Rugged Frontiersman & Random Guy
(and, also The StoryAlity Guy)
aka Humanimal
(or, The Artist formally known as Dr J T Velikovsky)
More stuff:
Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
Music: Texas Radio & Zen Stupidity
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
Researchgate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
My ouvre... etc etc.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
Forthcoming book (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379
-----PS - Hey this is all probably all a satire & a parody anyway, knowing me....Unless it isn't?Not sure.
March 4, 2021
Systems Thinking For Wicked Problems (Midgley 2021)
Systems Thinking For Wicked Problems (Midgley 2021)
Went to this great webinar:
"An Introduction to Systems Thinking for Tackling Wicked Problems"
by Professor Gerald Midgley (& thanks to Sadaf Salavati for chairing!)
4th March 2021
There were about 260 people in there...
(That's a lot of Systems Thinkers!)
The recorded seminar will be put online at some stage...
(and I will add it here...)
Also there's a similar (& equally great!) talk, here:
An Introduction to Systems Thinking by Gerald Midgley (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYyTU...
Also, see:
Peter Checkland on Soft Systems Methodology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA2i1...
And see this book by Peter Checkland.
And (thanks to the Zoom chat) see:
The Vensim software package (free for personal use): https://vensim.com/
The University of Hull offers a PhD in Systems Thinking. Further information can be found on the Centre for Systems Studies website: https://www.hull.ac.uk/work-with-us/r...
00:57:55 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone : A wonderful book on Systems Philosophy (Laszlo 1972): https://storyality.wordpress.com/2013/08/11/storyality-70c-systems-philosophy-laszlo/
A Systems Thinking Group on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2639211/
See: https://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory...#
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Ja...
Syntegration (Synergy and Integration) system method: https://www.malik-management.com/mali...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemi...
Ilias Kastritis to Everyone : another good book to ignite futures thinking while thinking in systems that help a participatory exploration of plausible futures and thus shared aspirations that might influence the direction of systemic interventions to change that can stick https://www.wiley.com/en-au/The+Sixth...
From Rita Hattemer-Apostel to Everyone : A wonderful book is also 'The Systems Thinking Playbook' - offers a wealth of tools and exercises. https://www.amazon.de/Systems-Thinkin...
Some great Systems Theory/Science/Thinking books also here:
On Systems Theory & Evolution
StoryAlity #70 – Key Concepts in Systems Theory, Cybernetics & EvolutionStoryAlity #70A – The (StoryAlity) SystematizerStoryAlity #70B – The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision (Capra & Luisi 2014)StoryAlity #70C – Systems Philosophy (Laszlo 1972)StoryAlity #70C2 – General Systems Theory: Problems, Perspectives, Practice (Skyttner 2005)StoryAlity #70D – The Evolving Self (Csikszentmihalyi 1993)StoryAlity #70E – On Human Nature – and Evolutionary PsychologyStoryAlity #71 – On Consilience in the Arts / Humanities / CommunicationAnyway, a terrific webinar!
Thanks again to Prof Midgley & Sadaf!
--------------//---------------
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a blog-post by:
Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D
(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle)
Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist & Filmmaker & Writer & Artist & Actor & Muso & Rugged Frontiersman & Random Guy
(and, also The StoryAlity Guy)
aka Humanimal
(or, The Artist formally known as Dr J T Velikovsky)
More stuff:
Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
Music: Texas Radio & Zen Stupidity
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
Researchgate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
My ouvre... etc etc.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
Forthcoming book (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379
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