Joe Velikovsky's Blog, page 13

DySoc webinar: Marta Lahr (Feb 2021)

DySoc webinar: Marta Lahr (Feb 2021)

So I attended this great webinar:

(I think, maybe that hominid [in, the slide] is: Asking his Tattoo-Artist to: Put a tattoo, right there!)

The webinar was part of this great series: 

Dysoc Webinar Series: Human Origins and Cultural Evolution

Celebrating the 150th anniversary of The Descent of Man

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Source: http://www.dysoc.org/dom_webinars#Lahr

& Below FYI is my Scribbled Notes I took down, during the webinar. (Velikovsky)

(DISCLAIMER: Though, sometimes, I can't read my own writing... 

So, I wouldn't take the below as `fully formal', or anything :) 

(...I may have made some transcription errors. Or even: Lots! - JTV)

The old Q in the 1980s was: Multi-Regional, or Single, origin out of Africa..?Bu things have changed (evolved)Neanderthals & Homo Sapiens (modern humans) are: sister clades!Denisovan mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)...Homo Erectus made it: Out of Africa.(JTV note to self - OUT OF AFRICA is a so-called `meme' (i.e., a unit of culture, an idea, process or product) with several referents. Think: Meryl Streep. (Or don't?) Interesting dispersal of units.)mtDNA of Denisovans is different to us, but Neanderthals' mtDNA is: similar to usDenisovans also have a different Y-chromosomeMode 3 Technology300 kya, dispersal of these biological units from Africa to Western EurasiaArcheological (1) Tool-artifact evidence; (2) Skeletal (bone) Fossil evidenceEvidence from Israel, 80-90 kya. Also - (1) Homo naledi - a small-brained hominid, but is a bit of a remix:(2) Naledi has Australopithecene shoulders & clavicles, and the like (so, a bit weird?!)(3) Naledi has modern hands!200 kya = Modern Humans!(JTV - think about tool/unit of culture: `dispersal', & `interbreeding' of units of culture)Human life-history is different to apes & Australopithecenes (& unique): eg (1) a long childhood, and (2) a menopause!So humans have a (relatively) long, slow childhood/juvenile stage, (slow maturation)ie Much LONGER ONTOGENY  !(JTV - note to self - A wonderful phrase, used by Marta: "So in my view, [insert: view], which is consistent with [insert: other important accepted evidence]. Must use this format sometime.)Marta notes: Major Outstanding Issues: Model 1 vs Model 2. & where were the Denisovans? & Which specific LCA are we looking for?Regional & Social BoundariesGreat conclusion by Marta; So I will leave you with a summary of the: (1) Elements consistent with new data (2) New insights (3) Points of debate ("controversies" :)So what's unique about Homo Sapiens? (1) Brain shape (2) Life history!It also would appear: Neanderthals went to Siberia, but kinda (JTV says - hey! Kinda like the Donner party, from Kubrick's The Shining, and: they all got inbred and collapsed. (This is the same problem in the end of The Midnight Sky. Spoiler alert!)This is a recurring pattern (obviously) - oscillating expansion and collapse. (JTV - hey this reminds me of this) Chris asked a great question about LUNG POWER in Neanderthals. Marta said: Yeah! Imagine with Neanderthals, a `child' of 7-10 years, the size of an adult(!) ie Energy. Someone phrased a great Q: "I wonder if you have any material on..." (a great way to phrase: Have you read: X?) Marta: We're all waiting on a great paper from China. (JTV - So I asked: Tell me more :)JTV - Marta used a great phrase, & which scientists (honest people) use a lot: "I know very little about ____." The Moral: If you don't know, just say it. You don't have to be a religious `guru' who `knows all' or whatever. Sheesh!Marta: "Positive selection of hybrid forms..." (JTV: HEY! This is Darwin's `hybrid vigor'! And the: Velikovsky's Universal Algorithm for Creativity in both Biology and Culture! i.e., Combine parts of 2 old things to get a new thing and it works better than the competition. i.e Creative (new, useful, surprising) artifacts have: Hybrid Vigo(u)r. Hey & check out the `u' there.)Vivek asked a great Q, & Marta mentioned energetics & bodysize; Island dwarfs & giants; (JTV - Aha! YES! Cost/benefit ratios in Design by Natural Selection! Also, Sexual Selection)Interpersonal vs Intergroup violenceMarta: Social networks go beyond (nullify) the geographical distance (of local populations). e.g. Exchanging wives & husbands, exchanging objects (cultural artifacts, units of culture, tools)Someone asked a Q, Re: Those new (er, very old) Chinese skulls? Marta: I've seen pictures but not studied the skulls myselfSomeone asked a Q I can't recall, and, Marta: Establishing that boundary is like chasing an impossible target (Darn, wish I hadn't missed that point - JTV)Marta (great point): If only one population survived, do we mark that as the origin of a new species?JTV: The `fossil record' of `archived culture' (as opposed to canon) is in our old (now, `unheard of'/mostly unknown) books, documents, tools, etc. [End of my Scribbled Notes - JTV]Anyway, great webinar! 

(We had a tiny technical glitch at the start, but who cares, the whole thing was brilliant, and Eric & Sergey the gang did a great job of: fixing it!)

Also, at the end, I asked a question about that picture in the background of the image, there. 

& The answer Marta gave was lovely!! 
Also, as an aside, some particularly-terrific graphics, in Marta's presentation, just in my view: (among other subjects, I studied Graphic Design for my Communication B.A. so I often tend to notice, when graphics are: outstanding, or even: (great)... also, see this great paper by Larkin & Simon)




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Also, a few links that were very kindly & helpfully shared by Eric Carr:
From nimbiosconference@tennessee.edu to Everyone:  03:59 AMDySoc's Youtube channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLMG_vDVdY-g1STiIQKF1nA
&
From nimbiosconference@tennessee.edu to Everyone:  04:39 AMThe spring seminar playlist (Last week's is published):  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB49ENb5C6RqykusJ6SK_5R9wzhZBMWih
e.g.: 
DySoC Seminar Series Welcome: The Descent of ManSee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EL7c...
And...

The secret of our success - Joe Henrichhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3k34...

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And actually, I also blogged about Joe Henrich's great one from last time, here. 


Also, if perhaps of interest - blogged on TVoL's (great) Evolutionary Sociology series, here.
Also blogged on Andy Norman's (great) TVoL Examined Lives series, here.
Anyway - here's the summary of DySoc's current (great) series:
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http://www.dysoc.org/dom_webinars​

The Center for the Dynamics of Social Complexity is happy to announce a series of free webinars for Spring 2021 on Human origins and cultural evolution: Celebrating the 150th anniversary of The Descent of Man. This series is a continuation of the Fall 2020 Dysoc/NIMBioS Webinar Series on Cultural Evolution. Organizer: Sergey Gavrilets (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Mathematics, DySoC Director, NIMBioS Associate Director for Scientific Activities, University of Tennessee) Co-organizer: Peter J. Richerson (University of California, Davis) The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex is a book by English naturalist Charles Darwin, first published on February 24, 1871, which applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, a form of biological adaptation distinct from, yet interconnected with, natural selection.
The book discusses many related issues, including evolutionary psychology, evolutionary ethics, differences between human races, differences between sexes, the dominant role of women in mate choice, and the relevance of the evolutionary theory to society. (See Wikipedia)

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...All great stuff!!!

So, that's great.

Anyway, I'm currently writing a book about the new Science of Evolutionary Culturology

so, this stuff all helps me, a LOT (!)

Am also presenting on the book, at this (great) AppEEL webinar, March 19th 2021:

March 19th, 17h (5 pm) Lisbon time (GMT 0)

URL: tba | Password: tba

* David Sloan Wilson on Atlas Hugged

* Dean Keith Simonton on Creativity as Blind Variation and Selective Retention: Campbell’s BVSR as Philosophy and Psychology

* JT Velikovsky on his book: Principles, Protocols, and Practices of Evolutionary Culturology

...So; there's that.

--------------//--------------- 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

DySoC webinar: Joe Henrich - The Secret of Our Success (Feb 2021)

 DySoC webinar: Joe Henrich - The Secret of Our Success (Feb 2021)

So this was a great webinar:

Joe Henrich - The Secret of Our Success (Feb 2021)

Here's a few Notes I took:

Sergey & Franz de Waal have a special edited issue of Evolutionary Human Sciences coming out soon. 

Sergey mentioned these 3 books:

Sergey introduced Joe:

Joe's talk:

 

Joe spoke about: (among many other things - watch the whole video at the DySoC site!)

Burke & Wills (Lost European Explorers)Wheels are hard to invent! They were only invented in Eurasia. About 6k years ago.Zero was invented twice, by the Mayans and in Indiab and d are hard to learn: lateral mirror invariant"techno-units" = separate parts (of a machine, invention, etc) - measures of complexityDominance status vs Prestige statusWe benefit from pre-solved cultural problems (cultural inheritance)Culture definition: Information stored in our brains that got there via a learning process Bio/Cult ev tradeoff - We humanimal-apes lost our strong jaws and sharp teeth as we invented cutting tools, in solving problems of eatingMore education selects against having more babiesImmigration = Innovation (let in more folks and you get more patents)Language solves co-ordination not cooperation per se

Anyway, great webinar! 

--------------//---------------

 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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3 papers by the great Mike Bradie (1986, 2011, 2014)

3 papers by the great Mike BradiePhilosopher Mike Bradie recently gave a great presentation at the AppEEL Webinar series, on: An update on the EEM/EET (i.e., Evolutionary Epistemology Mechanisms, vs. Evolutionary Epistemology Theories) distinction). See this 1986 paper by Mike if you don't know it.AppEEL Webinar #1 (Jan 2021) - Michael Bradie & Anton V. SukhoverkhovMike also mentioned this (1994)

TVoL's Examined Lives: Why are people religious? (Jan 02021)

 TVoL's Examined Lives: Why are people religious? (Jan 02021)

See: https://thisviewoflife.com/examined-lives/

A blog post by Velikovsky of Newcastle.

So - attended this great webinar!

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Why Are People Religious?TODAY, January 21st, 12-1 ESTSession Five of Examined Lives with Andy Norman. 

Date and Time: January 21st, 12-1 EST


Why Are People Religious?
For some, the answer is obvious: because one religion—their religion—is deeply, obviously right. If we wish to understand religiosity generally, though, we need to understand the role it plays in peoples’ lives. What benefits does religious devotion confer? What is it about (most) human minds that make religious belief so compelling? Did religiosity confer evolutionary advantages? Is religiosity a by-product of other evolutionary adaptations, or was it selected for directly? Can a scientific understanding of religion help us bridge the ideological chasm between religious and nonreligious worldviews?

Learn the basics:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_science_of_religion

Take a deeper dive by reading books by:

D.S. Wilson, Darwin’s Cathedral
D. Dennett, Breaking the Spell
N. Wade, The Faith Instinct
P. Boyer, Religion Explainedhttps://thisviewoflife.com/examined-lives/

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Below FYI is my Scribbled Notes I took down, during the webinar. (Velikovsky)

(Though sometimes I can't read my own writing... 

So, I wouldn't take the below as `gospel', or anything :)

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My Scribbled Mtg Notes :

Someone suggested - Would be good to see a biological (evolutionary) explanation of the 2021 Inauguration & attack on the US CapitolAndy (Norman) mentioned The Varieties of Religious Experience (James 1902) [on: the psychology of religious feelings]Andy covered the main competing scientific hypothesis (models) that aim to explain  Why some people are religious : 

Is Religion a cognitive byproduct of evolution? (Adaptation, or Spandrel?) 

Is it explained by the notion of MCCs (Minimally-Counterintuitive Concepts) ? 

Is it due to: a HADD - Hyperactive Agency Detection Device? (Memes that "capture & compete for attention / `catch on' as `viral' ideas, more than their epistemic merits justify?)

Is it caused by: Pro-Social Adaptation? (...Social "glue"?) Trust Enhances Co-operation? 

Is it caused by: Costly Signaling? (Someone we admire is religious, so we copy it/join in)

Is it: Dual Inheritance (a `Biology->Culture->Biology->Culture, etc' positive feedback systems loop) ?

Other topics mentioned:  

What's the definition of Religion we're all agreeing to?(Andy suggests: it's often a case of `family resemblance' rather than an exact list of characteristics/criteria, as, some religions have some - but not all, shared - characteristics)Someone noted that - Key Elements of (all) Religions, tend to include:  (1) A Cosmology, (2) an Ethical System of practises, (3) a Foundation StorySomeone suggested: It's (Religion) an act of faith; a mystery, not subjectable to scientific/rational enquirySomeone mentioned: Fukiyama's The Origins of Political OrderExcerpt from Wikipedia on the above text:

`Challenge of tribes on the road towards the state 

The next step was to escape beyond tribalism and the "tyranny of cousins", to join tribes into larger coalitions[9] towards states, again due to the advantage of larger armies. 

This was done with the aid of religion.[13] This was because as groups grew in size, maintaining cooperation became more difficult as face-to-face interactions with much of society became difficult. Religion offered a way of providing a combining social force to hold society together .[18] 

For example, Fukuyama cites Mohammed as an example of what Weber labels a "charismatic leader" because he used the idea of an 'umma' (community of believers) to bind together the territory that he ruled over .[19] This challenge to transcend tribalism partly remains today in many parts of the world that is outside Western civilization, for example in Afghanistan and in Somalia.[13] (Source: Wikipedia)

More NOTES I took:

Religions' origins as: Ancestor-Worship...Sage mentioned Credibility Enhancing Displays (CEDs) - eg other CEDs (outside religion per se) include "The invisible hand" or "Greed is good" (CEDs are used to `fit in' with a group)Proximate Causations (e.g.: Why is Bob religious, and Achmed, not?) vs Ultimate Causations (Why religion, at all?)David Hurst: DesCartes (solitary solipsism) vs. Vico (a more social view of the self)The Search for Explanations (Science) vs. Meaning (explaining Why are we here, What's our purpose; What's anything's/everything's purpose/meaning, etc - using: some non-science view)Pascal Boyer: "aggregate relevance"Minimal Cognitive Units (cost/benefit ratios)Religion as a `hyper-prime': where the hierarchy of `primes', is:Fundamental BeliefsLanguage/Thought/PhilosophyTools used in order to `bind' free energy in the mind (e.g. Schroedinger: What is Life?) A Religion is multivalent (can apply to/"explain away" anything & everything)Karl Friston on The Free Energy PrincipleSomeone noted: Devout Muslims learn the Q'ran (by heart) by age 12; The word `religion' can be interpreted as (linguistically) meaning: "re-read"

Useful Links that were shared:

https://henrich.fas.harvard.edu/files... fictions)https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/jonath... Sacks and Our Binocular Mind david-k-/?trackingId=5zMHksOAFU2XWR7yjj6n7A%3D%3Dhttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/jonath... meets American Pragmatism.  https://www.pragmaticinquiry.org/zhij... Trump as god? See: https://davidkhurst.medium.com/democr... Friston - free energy principle. In book: The Brain has a Mind of its own (Holmes 2020)Jonathan Sacks’ book https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo... https://thisviewoflife.com/examined-lives/ & https://thisviewoflife.com/join-us/ & Please share XLives with your friends and colleagues and help support TVoL and this discussion forum by donating within your means

Possible Topics for next time:

MatteringRealism, Optimism, or both?The US insurrection of Jan 6th 2021The rise of Christian Nationalism

 #3 won the popular vote. (Like: Hilary & Joe Biden.)

Also:

Sage mentioned, this (classic) book: The True Believer (Hoffer 1955) (So now I've added it to my reading list) (...Wait for my Death Notice in the news: Velikovsky of Newcastle dead: Ceiling-height reading-pile of books next to bed fell over on him. ) :)Sage also mentioned, this great TVoL article, on cultural evolution by Whitehouse (2017). And, this great book:  Scale  (West 2017) (I am already a big fan of this one... (West 2017)...! Not least as, my (2016-2020) HOLON/parton scientific model of the units & levels of cultural evolution is all about: scale ...) ...am currently expanding the (2016-2020) chapters out, into a textbook on it... (& there's a chapter in my book on Religion, which probably explains my great interest in this particular XL webinar topic!)

...I actually view Religion (scientifically) as: a unit of culture; (aka a `meme'), & a HOLON/parton. For the `Case Studies' section of the book, the chapter-headings are: 

Part 4–Case Studies (Practice) applies these new scientific models of cultural evolution to various domains in culture: mathematics, stories (narratives / narremes), languages, movies, books, videogames, plays, music, poems, jokes, paintings, RELIGIONS, conspiracy theories, science, ideologies, inventions, art, and values. The final chapter of Part 4 includes some speculations on the future.

(Anyway so, Scale (2017) is indeed a great book... Gotta love: the dendritic [fractal!] structure of: river-deltas, veins, tree branches... & HOLON/partons [units of culture, units of biology/systems] & whatnot.)

&
&...
Some thoughts I had during the webinar discussion are below - I didn't get around to sharing any of them, at the time (Note to self - assuming the self is not an illusion, like Dennett suggests - must participate better next time! It was all too fascinating; I got hypnotized by all the: information/opinions/views.)

I'm a big Science/Rationality/Enlightenment/Critical Thinking fan, so, am (just personally!) not at all: religious - am openly secular. (Backstory... Was raised Catholic & Methodist till age 7, then my Catholic parents divorced, so we all got excommunicated :) ...Am also a very big: Evolution/Darwin/etc. fan...   Good to use Tinbergen's 4 Q's to examine Religion: Function, Mechanism, History, DevelopmentFor an interesting (& amusing) perspective, see, Bill Maher doco: Religulous (2008).Since slavery is now internationally outlawed, in the future (or even, right now?) is it possible, humanimals will, at some point, see `Religion' as: Mental Slavery...(?)(I don't have an opinion, just asking / posing, the Philosophical Q...)Dawkins might agree, as he suggests Religion is: child abuse...?& (in light of Bradie (1986) Assessing Evolutionary Epistemology) - see, the 1955 play (& 4 movie adaptations) of `Inherit The Wind' (1955) . 
Trailer: Inherit The Wind (1960 movie)
As an interesting side note, on that specific unit of culture (that movie - `Inherit The Wind'): 

On the Cultural Evolution of `Inherit The Wind' (1955) 

(Culture is defined here as: ideas, processes, products; Evolution is defined as the evolutionary algorithm - of Selection, then Variation, then Transmission [SVT] - operating on any unit, whether in culture or biology).
The play Inherit The Wind (1955) was adapted into movies, 4 times - in: 1960, then in 1965, 1988, and 1999. 

Each time, the original (1955) play was Selected, Varied (e.g. different actors, & director, etc.) and Transmitted, in culture. 

So: a classic example of Cultural Evolution, in action. 

(Noting also, the authors of the original (1955) play: selected, varied [fictionalized], and transmitted, the true events of the Scopes Monkey Trial, in their 1955 play.)

  

On Religion see also Marcus Gibson's brilliant (`Da Vinci Code'-style) thriller novel:  The Dead See (Gibson 2011)

`New York is rocked by a terrorist attack even more devastating than 9/11. Risk analyst Bob Travis sets out to end terrorism once and for all... by ending religion. As he descends into the deadly coils of corrupt religio-political power, Bob stumbles upon a 5000-year-old secret, and the greatest conspiracy in history.
'The Dead See’ is a conspiracy thriller unlike any other.
The story is based on discoveries made by the author while studying theology, and a further 20 years of research. Where other novels in the genre deal with minor controversies surrounding details of first-century faiths, ‘The Dead See’ ventures deep into the origins of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, and the resulting conflicts that still plague the modern world.
'The Dead See’ begins in New York on September 11, 2012, with a terrorist attack in an East River subway tunnel, more devastating than anything the world has ever seen. The Manhattan subway system is flooded, crippling the city.
Bob Travis is a successful Risk Analyst leading a peaceful life in Cape Ann. When Bob is hired to conduct a seemingly routine Risk Analysis on Fundamentalist Terrorism, Bob begins a dizzying descent into the coils of corrupt religio-political power. Inspired by clues in his murdered father-in-law’s effects, and the subsequent terrorist attack on New York, Bob hatches a plot to end terrorism by undermining all forms of religious Fundamentalism at their very foundations.
An enigmatic killer begins systematically torturing and murdering those with knowledge of a dark secret. In the tragic events that follow, Bob is catapulted on a journey to the far side of the the world, and into the cradle of civilisation. There, in the ancient ruins where the name 'god' was first whispered, Bob uncovers a 5000-year-old secret, and the greatest conspiracy in human history.' 

(The Dead See, Gibson 2011)

...Anyway - as I say, I have a chapter on " RELIGION"  in my forthcoming book (Nov 02021), so, this was all a very informative & educational webinar for me... 
So - Thanks again so much to Andy, Sage & everyone, for the very illuminating & insightful discussion...! 
Here's also a great YouTube video (featuring Andy Norman) from a few years back:

Am really looking forward to Andy's new book: Mental Immunity (due out: March 2021) 

Mental Immunity  (due out: March 2021)


(& I notice, you can pre-order it now on that Amazon link, above... & I did ! )

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So: great webinar. 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

TVoL Evolutionary Sociology webinar #1 (2021)

TVoL Evolutionary Sociology webinar #1 (2021)

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So we had the TVoL Evolutionary Sociology webinar #1 of 2021. 

It was great!

Like I said here: StoryAlity - News (allow me to Select, Vary and (re) Transmit a post from my PhD blog's News page), below...

January 02021

Attended a great Evolutionary Sociology webinar, provided by TVoL.

Session One (2021): “Systemic Explanations of the Pandemic’s Social Impact” with Jonathan H. Turner and Doug Marshall. (Great stuff!)

—-//—-

And here's some Notes I made/ scribbled during the mtg: (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.) 

JTV Q (for Dr Turner): What's the standard textbook in Ev Soc? Is it your (2018)? (& What % of Sociologists are currently: `Evolutionary Sociologists'?) & What about Handbook of Ev Soc (2015). Is that considered a Textbook? (in: Ev Soc)
JTV Q: For either Dr Turner or Dr Marshall - Has there been a:  First International Conference for Ev Sociology, yet...(?) (...I like to `track' these things, for all `Domains/Disciplines', in: Culture)
ie William James is the "Founding Father" of Psychology, & Comte the FF of Sociology, but, when (what year) exactly did it (officially) turn "Evolutionary"? (Sociology).
Zoom Note: Shortcut to put your blue hand up is ALT Y on pc. 
Russell Schutt (EmCee):individualsgroupscommunityorganizationinstitutionsocietygovernment (eg State, & National/Federal)The World
...Hey! Cowabunga! This list (hierarchy? HOLARCHY/partarchy ??? ) totes reminds me of: the cover (& ideational/text-content by DSW) of:  Atlas Shrugged
(Possible... Spoiler Alert? For that great novel by DSW) that I liked so much, I reviewed it twice...(!!) 

JTV - And both (Schutt's great List/ HOLARCHY/partarchy & DSW's Atlas Hugged novel cover image / symbol) also totes reminds me of, my 2016-2020 diagrams/book chapters on HOLON/partons... (?!)
So maybe I'm on to something...? (Or not.)

Or compressed (& thank you the great Claude Shannon, a giant whose shoulders I try and clamber up on to, pretty regularly), the above looks like this:

& How come, more folks haven't heard of it yet. Maybe I need to improve my "sales-pitch" for it all, or something. BTW it's free. ("Gifted, not sold!") (I just now borrowed that `phrase/meme', from DSW)So that's SVT (a: cultural evolution algorithm, in action) 
...Dang. Gotta work on that "promotion" part. (of, the WHOLE) thing.Get the message: out there....Before I die (or, worse)...It might help somebody, some day.Who knows. 
Well, enough: `Notus Interruptus'...
More Notes I scribbled down, apparently? (during: this great webinar): 
Schutt notes: 
EVERY UNIT (in, that `list' / HOLARCHY/partarchy) HAS AGENCY...
i.e. (So - just to recapitulate, as Darwin once said in `Origin')
Russell Schutt (this great webinar 's, great EmCee):individual/sgroup/scommunity/iesorganization/sinstitution/ssociety/iesgovernment/s (eg Local)government/s (eg State)govt/s (...the Feds :) (i.e. National)The whole dang: World !!!(If I understood him rightly. Communication can go: off the rails. Message-sent does not always equal message-received. See: Claude Shannon, on all of that.) 
And yes - I agree! THEY (each level & unit, there) DO HAVE AGENCY!!!
See: `Agency & Structure' (`Structuration Theory') in my PhD, eg Giddens, Archer & whatnot. Gotta love Structuration Theory, & it also (well; kinda?) "solves" the problem of free will. 
Rosemary (Hopcroft) mentioned (sorry I'm paraphrasing, can't recall her exact words): Culture doesn't necessarily evolve, does it? It's just an analogy with biological evolution, right?
JTV - Well, I didn't get to say this in response to Reosemary's great point - as, there wasn't time (but I think, maybe Ed saw me: squirming to comment on it :) LOL... 
...But I think, both culture AND biology (literally, DO) evolve, & using the same algorithms. (e.g.: SVT, VST, BVSR, etc)...? Evolutionary Algorithms are: substrate-neutral. (They don't care if the units are in Biology, or in Culture, or even in both)
But - see my book ( P3 of EC: Principles, Protocols & Practice of Evolutionary Culturology ) for details - whenever it happens. (in: Nov 2021... 
...well, unless I die first (of say, COVID, or in a random accident / car-crash), or whatever. 
As, that's also a thing that can happen to you, in: Life. :) 
Man I sure hope I get it ( P3 of EC ) done in time (July 2021: then gotta send it out for peer-review. Yikes... Vewy-Scawy. Then published, in Nov 2021. Apparently. We shall see.) 
Anyway I could be wrong (and often am) but I think: evolution is an algorithmic process. (eg, SVT, or VST, or BVSR, etc)
And - works on both: units (in the HOLARCHY/partarchy, ie - DSW's MLS) in Biology, AND also, in Culture. 
Systems (i.e., HOLON/partons) are a good way to `find' biological: units. And, just use The 3 Laws of H/ps to find (fractal!) units in (external & internal) Culture... (But that's just me. Could be crazy. Might even be so crazy it just might: work? 
...But is is: New Useful Surprising? i.e. Creative?) 
Well... Not (`new & surprising') to me, as: I've been thinking on it, a loooong time. But - it may be/prove: useful...? (To me, and to: others.) 
...It all sure helps me fill the pages of this book I'm supposed to write, so: that's useful? (...for me) anyway.  
Anyway - more NOTES I TOOK / MADE / scribbled on a pad, etc:
Doug: Rational vs Adaptive (e.g. adaptivefictions, eg Harari, eg `money', `God', etc)
"Maximizer/Optimizer vs. Satisficer" 
(Hey! Good ole Uncle Herbert Simon! I cited him on this, in my PhD... Evolution [those: algorithms] "in the wild", is/are a satisficer, not an optimizer.) (As DSW says: Evolution [by Natural Selection] does not make everything: nice :)
Indeed! Unless, you can somehow `grab it by the [er, a certain bodypart?]' and optimize it... (Predict & CONTROL it) via Intentional Selection... ie Artificial Selection by: (say) us humanimals. Using: the ole SVT algorithm... (e.g. redesigning wolves into lots of different breeds of dogs over 10k years... &/or, redesigning ideas into: an Ideology, or, a Science, etc yada-yada Yoda-Yoda...) 
Or even: re-recording a song, until you get it: less-worse. (Or "right") - But see, even that is satisficing (for the creator/artist of the song) as, there is no `perfect song' (or `perfect' movie, or book, or whatevs.) ...You could always make them better (or: less-worse) if you had infinite time to work on it. But these things have "Release Schedules". (Argh. Deadlines. Bane of my life :) 
Ok - enough of my musings on Evolution, & back to the SCRIBBLED MTG NOTES I took:
"Tribalism" (!)
Durkheim - intermediate groups
Unity/conflict are wedded... (Conflict CAUSES Unity.)
JTV: Yes! See the 3 Laws of HOLON/partons. eg: for units on the same (scale) level, there is - Competition/Co-operation/Co-opetition . (See DSW on: a healthy organism! e.g. see This View of Life, the book - or Atlas Hugged, the book, etc) 
JTV: Note - Curing Cultural Cancer / Fighting Fake News
JTV Q for Dr Marshall - So, in line with Harari, & "fighting fake news", can the social media algorithms (Twitter, FB, etc) be seen as a good solution? (eg A `Twitter Fake News Detector' that then labels a Tweet from - say, the Twit-in-Chief, with (say): 

"Science has disputed this claim by the SCROTUS. In fact - it's just a flat-out LIE... In fact it is official LIE #20,992, from that guy, so far... & ...Why does anyone ever even listen to this liar, in the first place? Who elected this guy? What were they thinking? Wait, WERE they: thinking? Shouldn't people have to get a license to vote, like we force people to get a license to drive, so that the roads [and running a country, say] are actually: semi-safe?)

(Also, what about, going one step further & A.I. `tagging' each word/sentence/claim in: everything online. So that, folks can read, and see (as they read), exactly what's (tagged as): `True' or `False' [or even:  Semi-True , etc, etc.]) 
So - as a random Concept / Design Example:


...We already have tons of these (great) Social Media fact-checker algorithms. ...& it's also a "hot/tranding topic" in a journal that I review for: IJCINI ... (& see also this. Or don't.) ...So, bring it on. More of THAT, pls!!! (More: Fake News Flaggers!)
Anyway - maybe see my P3 of EC book, whenever it happens/comes out.  
In answer to one of my Q's, Dr Turner mentioned: Spencer. [presumably, Herbert.] 
(Which I think, was, in reply to my Q: When did Ev Soc officially "start"? ...I gotta watch the video of the webinar again, and listen more closely. [I am a dude, so I can't take notes and listen at exactly the same time, apparently...? Why did Evolution design dudes to be so single-(laser)-focussed? What's up with that... Females of the same species seem to be able to talk and write [on 2 different subjects] at once. Now, I am jealous of that skill. Multitasking. Amazing! How do they even do it?])
Ok, I think that's all I've got. As far as `MY SCRIBBLED NOTES' goes.  
Hey & I bet nobody but me ever actually reads them. 
(And probably: not even me? Reads them.)
And so, as our time here draws to a shut (I mean, a CLOSE) -- to Select, Vary (not by much) and [re]-Transmit, a `meme' - a unit of culture - (a: catchphrase?)

[ ...To Be Continued...! ]

...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 will be so annoying if I die before this P3 of EC book comes out.

But on the bright side, I bet, it's hard to be annoyed (or even do: anything) when, you're dead. Must check into it.

-------------
And... here's the (public) Zoom-Chat text of this great webinar:
(I edited out the [Private] Direct Messages, to/from: moi - JTV.)
04:02:21 (A.M. in Australia) From  David Sloan Wilson  to  Everyone : My new novel, Atlas Hugged is gifted, not sold, at www.AtlasHugged.world :)
04:03:14 From  John Crisp  to  Everyone : Hi. Is it ok to record?
04:03:23 From  dougmarshall  to  Everyone : yes by me
04:03:35 From  Rengin B Firat  to  Everyone : yes by me, too
04:03:37 From  Sage at TVOL  to  Everyone : Sure! We are recording it already however as you can see at the top
04:03:50 From  John Crisp  to  Everyone : Ok. Great. Thanks.
04:03:50 From  Sage at TVOL  to  Everyone : These sessions will be posted on thisviewoflife.com/webinars
04:04:47 From  Eric Johnson  to  Everyone : All essays in the series Evolutionary Science and Sociology can be found here: https://thisviewoflife.com/evolutionary-science-and-sociology/
04:14:09 From  Russell Schutt  to  Everyone : Submit your questions in the chat.
04:15:58 From  Rosemary Hopcroft UNCC  to  Everyone : My problem is with the idea that sociocultural systems evolve. They do evolve, but not the way living organisms do. Sociocultural systems are no subject to evolution by natural selection like organisms are, because when the organism dies all its components die, when a system dies, the components (individuals) don't all die.
04:16:00 (AM) From Velikovsky of Newcastle  to  Everyone : Question For Dr Turner - is your `The New Evolutionary Sociology' (2018), the `founding textbook' for Evolutionary Sociology? (Or - are there prior "founding textbooks"? eg Barkow (2005) 'Missing the Revolution')
04:16:34 From  Rosemary Hopcroft UNCC  to  Everyone : Sorry my question was for Dr Turner
04:17:24 From  Simon Bowden  to  Everyone : Isn't it the case that humans and human sociology must have evolved in parallel (dual inheritance) and you can't separate the two systems? Basically Tooby & Cosmides
04:17:43 From  Jill LaPlante  to  Everyone : Q for Dr Marshall: How do you define rationality?
04:18:02 From  David Sloan Wilson  to  Everyone : I’d like to make a comment on the adaptation vs. rational distinction made by Doug.
04:20:13 From  Steve Gilbert  to  Everyone : For Dr. Marshall: How does society counter the epistemic attack being waged against science?
04:20:14 From  Simon Bowden  to  Everyone : Are adaptioned mechanisms irrational?
04:20:34 From  Simon Bowden  to  Everyone : adapted
04:25:06 From  Luiz Lopez  to  Everyone : It is about to be rational or about  be "sincere" with others about  evidences. "Sincerety" implies in cooperation among the actors. In a explotation/competition game  is more adaptative  fool others and favour irrationality.
04:25:27 From  Velikovsky of Newcastle  to  Everyone : Q for Dr Marshall - So, is Harari right to say, we can happily be "culturalists" [`culturists' ~JTV]? (ie There are some "bad" units of culture: ideas, processes, products) eg: misinformation, disinformation, anti-Science ideas, etc ?
04:26:32 From  David Sloan Wilson  to  Everyone : There is a second major point I’d like to make about postmodernism and social constructivism within the discipline of sociology.
04:28:39 From  Luiz Lopez  to  Everyone : the watchers
04:30:56 From  Gregory  to  Everyone : Doug Marshall said, “Just because something's natural doesn't mean it's inevitable.” Is evolution both natural and inevitable in human societies? If not, when don't societies evolve or what stops their evolution? Isn't the non-evolution of society a major question here also? It seems a frustration is being expressed here that “society hasn't evolved” in certain ways.
04:31:04 From  Velikovsky of Newcastle  to  Everyone : Q for Dr Turner - What (approximate) percentage of Sociologists are (currently): Evolutionary Sociologists? [As, whatever it is, I'd like to see it: grow! To encompass: all Sociology :) ~JTV]
04:32:37 From  Jill LaPlante  to  Everyone : My understanding of rationality is that it is "merely" the ability to arrange actions towards a particular goal (system 2), in contrast to merely reacting according with our emotions/impulse (system 1). Typically when we call something "irrational", it is due to misinterpreting the goal. The person being accused of irrationality is pursuing a different goal, with bounded rationality
04:33:01 From  Marcel Harmon  to  Everyone : I understand Dr. Turner's frustration, but I wouldn't say that the non-academic world is completely ignoring behavioral scientists. I'm an anthropologist and not sociologist, but there's a whole world of applied behavioral scientists that I live in. I'm often frustrated on a day-to-day basis, but I and my fellow colleagues in the applied world have also gotten some people to listen.
04:34:17 From  Patricia’s iPad  to  Everyone : more of a comment than a question..I am reading “This Changes Everything” by Naomi Klein which speaks to the decimation of of public infrastructure and deregulated capitalism as it applies to climate change. Even though the book was published pre pandemic there are many common themes with this discussion. The issue is as the previous speaker mentioned is that “who is listening” We have had this information for years about climate change and sociological infrastructure. It does feel like we are often preaching to the choir
04:35:28 From  Robert Kadar  to  Everyone : Except when people actually believe in their lies, DSW.
04:37:55 From  Robert Kadar  to  Everyone : How do you divorce someone of socially maladaptive fictions? That’s an area of research I haven’t seen much work on.
04:38:55 From  Luiz Lopez  to  Everyone : Increase in world "authoritarism" appears to spike some years after world economical crisis. Does economical crisis works like ecological stress  that make social systems retrocede back at least partially. But it appears  that the long trend (200 years) favor more "rational" pro social societies.
04:38:56 From  Marcel Harmon  to  Everyone : DSW can address this much better, but I disagree that social/cultural systems aren't adaptive or subject to the forces of natural selection. Culture is part of the extended phenotype and impacts the fitness levels of individuals as well as groups.
04:40:44 From  David Sloan Wilson  to  Everyone : TVOL’s series on Advice to an Aspiring Economist affirms what Jonathan just said about the economics profession.
04:41:42 From  Eric Johnson  to  Everyone : Advice to an Aspiring Economist series can be found here: https://thisviewoflife.com/advice-to-...
04:42:07 From  Sage at TVOL  to  Everyone : Cultural Attraction Theory helps distinguish forms of cultural evolution that evolve according to social adaptation vs. the many, many other “biased transformations” that select upon the cultural tokens that are actually seen vs. the infinite variety that could exist.
04:43:11 From  Sage at TVOL  to  Everyone : Five Misunderstandings of Cultural Evolution and Four Misunderstandings of Cultural Attraction Theory cover the field (California and Paris schools, respectively)
04:45:44 From  John Crisp  to  Everyone : I'm a translator from French. Sociology is one of the academic subjects that I do a lot of work in - every sociological article coming out of French universities at the moment adopts a specifically "Foucauldian" perspective.
04:45:53 From  Simon Bowden  to  Everyone : I wonder how natural selection selects for truth?
04:47:04 From  Jill LaPlante  to  Everyone : The anti-scientific rhetoric from within our discipline is strong!
04:47:51 From  Ed Gibney  to  Everyone : Finland has been fighting Russian disinformation for a long time. They have a program in all their schools to counter it. Has anyone studied the details there?
04:47:53 From  Ed Gibney  to  Everyone : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/28/fact-from-fiction-finlands-new-lessons-in-combating-fake-news
04:50:31 From  Robert Kadar  to  Everyone : Perhaps market the discipline differently such as “Scientific Foucauldians”. “Darwinian Marxism.” Yes, it will annoy people, but at least they’ll want to engage with it. ;)
04:52:07 From  Eric Johnson  to  Everyone : Robert: Or Socialist Darwinism? https://thisviewoflife.com/on-the-ori...
04:54:45 From  Robert Kadar  to  Everyone : Yes! I think a big problem with how we engage with people who hold opposing views is that we don’t want to engage them on their terms. We just want to hammer our ideas into them.
04:54:50 From  Luiz Lopez  to  Everyone : If we reboot Earth does the number of mutualist pair of species world be the same today?
04:56:18 From  Sage at TVOL  to  Everyone : https://thisviewoflife.com/join-us/
04:56:27 From  Eric Johnson  to  Everyone : Tony Biglan’s series on the evolution of social pathologies can be found here (links to all at the end): https://thisviewoflife.com/the-cultural-evolution-of-social-pathologies/
04:56:27 From  Sage at TVOL  to  Everyone : Support This View of Life and this discussion series
04:56:30 From  Sage at TVOL  to  Everyone : https://thisviewoflife.com/join-us/
05:00:08 From  Rengin B Firat  to  Everyone : I apologize everyone I need to leave for a meeting starting now. Thank you for the great discussion. Look forward to seeing you all in the next one!
05:00:14 From  Jill LaPlante  to  Everyone : Thank you, Everyone!
05:00:39 From  Sage at TVOL  to  Everyone : Details for our next meeting can be found here:
05:00:40 From  Sage at TVOL  to  Everyone : https://thisviewoflife.com/evolutionary-science-and-sociology/
05:00:52 From  Sage at TVOL  to  Everyone : Support This View of Life and this discussion series https://thisviewoflife.com/join-us/
05:03:09 From  David Sloan Wilson  to  Everyone : Check out my TVOL essay titled “Learning from Evolution About Free Speech”
[MTG ends]--------------

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. 

AppEEL webinar #1 - 2021

 AppEEL webinar #1 - 2021

-----------

So we had AppEEL webinar #1 of 2021. 

It was great!

This post you're reading isn't the Official Page for it.

This is just: my NOTES & whatnot.

(i.e., Velikovsky of Newcastle, or whoever I am)

--------

Like I said here: StoryAlity - News (allow me to Select, Vary and (re) Transmit a post from my PhD blog's News page), below...

—-//—-

Attended the first (& fantastic!) AppEEL webinar of 2021. It’s also great stuff! (If you like that kind of thing?) …You should check it out! Thanks to Nathalie & Antonio for making it all happen.

AppEEL Webinar 1 of 2021 on YouTube

Video includes: Intro to AppEEL and its members / * Michael Bradie on Evolutionary Epistemology and a reinterpretation of his EEM/EET distinction / * Anton V. Sukhoverkhov on the BioSystems paper on Non-genetic inheritance: Evolution above the organismal level

And here's some Notes I made/ scribbled during the mtg: (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.) 

VELIKOVSKY'S SCRIBBLED NOTES:

Antonio [our fearless AppEEL Webinar facilitator - thanks Antonio!] (is originally from: Sardinia; now from Vancouver, Canada)

JTV - must remember to ask AppEEL members:  What is `A formal list for the Criteria for a Science'? (NB - Never got to ask AppEEL members this, this time round). I have a list in my P3 of EC book, but, I want to know if it's: right :) (My `list of criteria for a Science' is collated from: Creativity in Science (Simonton 2004), & Kuhn, & Lakatos, & Popper, & Chalmers (What Is This Thing Called Science?) & a few others I can't even recall right now)

Olga - Cog Ev Psych

UBC ...(hmm. Not sure what this "UBC" means, here. But it was in my Scribbled Notes, so here it is again. Probably the acronym for a University... Uni of British Columbia? My memory fails me. SPEAK, MEMORY!)

Lorenzo - Italy

Now the talks are beginning:

(1) Mike Bradie, on EEM/EET distinction (eg his famous 1986 paper)

(Bradie, M, 1986) Assessing Evolutionary Epistemology - December 1986- Biology & Philosophy 1(4):401-459 DOI: 10.1007/BF00140962

EEM: (mechanisms!) - our evolved organs: brains, hearts, etc (biology)

EET: (theories) evolution of Scientific Knowledge (culture)

...They are 2 different things!

Descriptive vs Normative (i.e., What is  /  isn't: Knowledge?)

EET sub K (Knowledge corpus)

EEM sub N (Epistemic Norms!)

Kuhnian perspective: A `Disciplinary Matrix' (aka: `Scientific Paradigm')

Charles Sanders Pierce (pronounced: "purse")

JTV - A Q for Mike: Is Ev Game Theory (Maynard-Smith etc ) an explanation for nonhumanimal Ethics, but humanimal Ethics also have: extra `rules'? ...Or, is it: Different rules? 

Mike had a paper on this, in a volume edited by Ray Fry...

Also: Mike has read my 2016 paper! (JTV - Holy cowbells! JTV goes into mild shock)

(2) Anton's talk... re: this paper

BTW the slide above gives me an idea for a diagram I'll make soon

Amadeu - some languages - eg Chinese - are tonal. (Use tones for grammar, not phonemes.)

See the Sober book... (presumably: Elliot - JTV) 

...more on EEM/EET

Dewey - influence of Darwinism on Philosophy... Ruse (presumably: Michael), etc...

Boyd & Richerson

Information transfer (information = culture!)

...note, the old (now deeply un-PC) idea of  "culture" vs "barbarians" (the idea of more & less "advanced/ progressed" cultures... c.f Comte's `stage models of cultural evolution', etc...)

Nathalie says Popper's `3 Worlds' 

(3 - ideas, 2 - mental processes, 1 - exterior-world "products" eg a bridge, a building etc) 

...goes way back to: Huxley !!! 

(eg ...his `mentifacts / artifacts' etc), ...BUT NOTE: we don't like a lot of Huxley's (eg racist / `intelligentist' eugenics, etc) ideas... So, hmmm. (I suggest: Trust the art, not the artist. Or Trust the Science, not the Scientist...! eg Not everyone [or anyone] has 100% good ideas, all the time. :) ...In fact, most of us have 99% bad ideas. The trick is to have lots, so, if you have 1,000 ideas maybe 10 of em are actually: halfway-decent-ish.

(JTV - NB, on `Curing Cultural Cancer / Fighting Fake News / Binning Bad Ideas', etc!) Some old ideas should be abandon-ded. ...In fact probably ALL old ideas? Unless they're really good. Same goes for: (old) processes & products. 

(Evolutionary) Anthropology

THE END

JTV - I think I know what all these Notes I made, mean? Sometimes I write Notes, and don't know what they mean... Wish I'd stop doing that.

So to recap: (JTV wonders) ...WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN...? 

------------------------
Hey and here's also: the Zoom-chat I saved.

AppEEL Webinar 1 (2021) Zoom chat text – 

[minus Velikovsky’s DMs (Direct Messages)] 

[Zoom-Chat text, after Mike’s presentation…]

04:33:20 AM From  João Pinheiro  to  Everyone : I have a question. [for Mike]

04:35:22 From  Denis Noble  to  Everyone : I have a question/point. Denis

04:39:27 From  Velikovsky of Newcastle  to  Everyone : I have a Q for Mike. (JT) Is Ev Ethics: Ev Game Theory? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evoluti... (& different for human, & non-humanimals)

04:54:27 From  Nathalie Gontier  to  Everyone : i have a question too

04:55:22 From  Bhoburg@purdue.edu  to  Everyone : Look up Peter Godfrey-Smith: Metazoa

04:57:57 From  João Pinheiro  to  Everyone : If I'm allowed a suggestion in line with the current conversation: Andrew Whiten's got a very respectable and optimistic take on cultural evolution in non-human animals for which he wrote a recent literature review: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110218-025040

 

[After Anton’s presentation]

05:22:56 From  Isabella Sarto-Jackson  to  Everyone : I have a comment on this idea of reciprocal causality (from phylogeny to ontogeny and vice versa)

05:24:51 From  João Pinheiro  to  Everyone : Two commentaries rather than questions:

This is not really a critique, but I'd like to know what the examples of wild/feral children are, for I thought they were all quite anedoctal.

Retrocausality is not so much a discovery of quantum physics so much as it is a (very disputed) way of interpreting the measurement problem, and I'm not even sure it's analogue at all to what goes on in the "offspring effect", as there is no backward temporal causality.

05:25:19 From  Nathalie Gontier  to  Everyone : it(s a bit like the grandmother theory isn't it

05:25:52 From  Isabella Sarto-Jackson  to  Everyone : Exactly grandmother hypothesis

05:26:07 From  Amadeu Viana  to  Everyone : I have some comments to Anton

05:30:17 From  Denis Noble  to  Everyone : I have similar issue to Joao’s. There is an interesting photographic record on the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/2...  But this is also anecdotal. Has anyone studied this seriously?

05:30:43 From  Bhoburg@purdue.edu  to  Everyone : Isabella reminded me of the “grandmother hypothesis,” which is discussed in great philosophical detail by Kim Sterelny — The Evolved Apprentice (2012). Here’s a more directed article I thought helpful by Hawkes et al. (1998) here: https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/95/...

05:32:30 From  Isabella Sarto-Jackson  to  Everyone : Thanks Bhuburg@purdue.edu(ie Patrick), I was just looking for one of the Hawkes’ papers! Great!

05:32:49 From  Natalie Uomini  to  Everyone : Thanks for the stimulating discussions today! I'm afraid I have to leave for another meeting. See you all next time!

05:33:01 From  Nathalie Gontier  to  Everyone : ye Nat

05:33:04 From  Nathalie Gontier  to  Everyone : bye

05:33:05 From  Bhoburg@purdue.edu  to  Everyone : Thanks Nathalie

05:33:15 From  Nathalie Gontier  to  Everyone : :)

05:34:40 From  Nathalie Gontier  to  Everyone : i have some comments too

05:36:25 From  Isabella Sarto-Jackson  to  Everyone : In fact, there is even a purely biological example of reversed causality from fetus to mother = microchimerism; cells from the baby get into the mother’s organism

05:39:03 From  Bhoburg@purdue.edu  to  Everyone : Dear Anton, is there an article on “retro-causality” you might refer me to, please?

05:39:44 From  Matt Fontaine  to  Everyone : Sorry, I must leave. Thanks for these interesting talks.

05:40:28 From  olgavasileva  to  Everyone : Can I make a comment on recapitulation?

05:41:18 From  David Suárez  to  Everyone : I think distinctions between upward/downward and ordinary/retro-causation are perhaps orthogonal or separate distinctions and it would be important to distinguish them very well. Do you know if someone has discussed this? (Besides Kant) Thanks!

05:41:23 From  Amadeu Viana  to  Everyone : I agree with Nathalie critique to recapitulation...

05:42:51 From  Bhoburg@purdue.edu  to  Everyone : Hi David, I have a list of sources for the issues you mention. I can email you if you wish,

05:43:31 From  David Suárez  to  Everyone : Yes, please david DOT suarez AT ciencias.unam.mx Thank you!

05:43:41 From  Bhoburg@purdue.edu  to  Everyone : Will do

05:45:31 From  Isabella Sarto-Jackson  to  Everyone : Agreed, Haeckel’s hypothesis (recapitulation) has been largely refuted; von Baer’s rules of development are much more probable

05:46:37 From  francescobalzan  to  Everyone : I am also shifting to an other meeting! Many thanks to everyone and special thanks to the fantastic speakers and super organizers Nathalie and Antonio!

05:46:46 From  francescobalzan  to  Everyone : See you soon!

05:49:56 From  Denis Noble  to  Everyone : Great seminar. Learnt a lot. Must also leave soon.

05:50:05 From  Selene Arfini  to  Everyone : I’m sorry I need to go too. Thank you very much for this first meeting and for the fascinating talks! Till next time!

05:52:33 From  Velikovsky of Newcastle  to  Everyone : I took lots of screenshots already :)

(etc...)

05:52:50 From  Isabella Sarto-Jackson  to  Everyone : Thanks to everybody. Exciting event! Looking forward to Denis’ and David’s talks in Feb!

05:53:17 From  Isabella Sarto-Jackson  to  Everyone : Cmd + Shift = 4 [to take a group selfie snapshot in Zoom]

05:53:33 From  Sarah Otten  to  Everyone : Thanks everyone. I enjoyed the papers.  I have to go.

[Post-presentations Discussion on Zoom chat]

06:11:17 From  antonio  to  Everyone : Hillary Kornblith

06:33:19 From  Velikovsky of Newcastle  to  Everyone : Fyi Patrick: Velikovskys 5 chapters on "memes" (2016-2020) https://storyality.wordpress.com/2020/12/21/storyality170-p3-of-ec-book/

06:35:33 From  antonio  to  Everyone : Another interesting paper that... How to derive "ought " from 'is" . By J.R.Searle

06:50:51 From  Velikovsky of Newcastle  to  Everyone : Patrick - I define `culture' as: "ideas, processes,products". (eg Popper's `3 Worlds' :)

(Except also in `PROCESSES', I include: not just mental processes [eg thinking], but also, outside world processes too. Like: baking a cake, riding a bike, writing a blog-post, etc.)

And so, the Evolutionary Algorithms (eg SVT, BVSR, etc) are: processes...

I can't think of anything in culture that isn't an: idea, &/or process, &/or, product.

(...Can you? If so, my Definition of Culture is: now, broken :)   ~JTV

 

[AppEEL #1 2021 - ZOOM-MTG... ENDS]

 

------------//------------

Anyway, 
great meeting. 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

In Praise of `Cultural Science' (Hartley & Potts 2014)

 In Praise of `Cultural Science' (Hartley & Potts 2014)

Some praise, by:

Velikovsky of Newcastle

14th Jan 02021

-----

Cultural Science (Hartley & Potts 2014)

So, here is a true fact. Exactly one week ago, (Thurs 7th, January 02021) I first learnt - or discovered - or heard - that there was a thing in the world (a: knowledge domain? an: academic discipline?) called: 

`Cultural Science'...!

(...Did you know about it-? If so, why didn't you tell me: sooner? :)

(You'll see exactly why I ask that, below...)

So, in the past, I've published these book chapters:

Velikovsky, J. T. (02020). Technology: Memes (Units of Culture). In M. A. Runco & S. R. Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Creativity (3rd ed., pp. 585-604). San Diego, Calif.: Elsevier Science & Technology Books.

Velikovsky, J. T. (2019). The Holon/Parton Structure of the Meme, or The Unit of Culture. In D. B. A. Mehdi Khosrow-Pour (Ed.), Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Simulation, and Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 795-811). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Velikovsky, J. T. (2018). The Holon/Parton Theory of the Unit of Culture (or the Meme, and Narreme): In Science, Media, Entertainment, and the Arts. In IRMA (Ed.), Technology Adoption and Social Issues: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications(pp. 1590-1627). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Velikovsky, J. T. (2017). Chapter 405: The Holon/Parton Structure of the Meme, or, The Unit Of Culture. In M. Khosrow-Pour (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition (pp. 4666-4678). New York: IGI Global.

Velikovsky, J. T. (2016). The Holon/Parton Theory of the Unit of Culture (or the Meme, and Narreme): In Science, Media, Entertainment and the Arts.In A. Connor & S. Marks (Eds.), Creative Technologies for Multidisciplinary Applications (pp. 208-246). New York: IGI Global.

And since 2016, I've been writing a book, expanding out the original 2016 chapter (above)... 

(Which, is basically the same as the 2017 chapter, the 2018 chapter, the 2019 chapter, and the 2020 chapter, above.)

The original 2016 chapter was an Appendix to my 2016 PhD, is like: a unit of culture, and keeps getting replicated. Republished, once a year. Selected, Varied, and (re)-Transmitted. SVT. The evolutionary algorithm. It's like a viral meme. Hey wait, it IS a viral meme. A unit of culture, spreading out in bio-culture, or, adaptive radiation of a unit, or, whatever.    

And so, that whole time, i.e. up till a week ago, I never knew, someone else had published, a VERY similar book to the one I've been writing, for 4 years...  

Well, ok - very similar in many ways, but very different in others.  

So - I guess, I could retitle this blog post: 

In Praise of some specific Parts in the book `Cultural Science' (Hartley & Potts 2014),

And, I very-politely beg-to-differ about other Parts of it..?

 

...but hey - that's academic conversation for you. 

If we all agreed 100%, there'd be nothing to `argue' about. 

(Maybe.)

Anyway, the good news is, me finding out about Hartley & Potts (2014) makes my job (in finishing this book I'm writing) sooo much easier...!!

So - thank you  Hartley & Potts (2014) !  

There is, now, a whole bunch of stuff, I don't need to say for the first time ever in a book, as somebody else has "said it for me", already... 

In their book. In 2014!  

(Hey, this is great... So, rather than criticize me for saying a lot of the stuff that's in my book, maybe go criticize Hartley & Potts, first. :) 

Or if you praise them, praise me too for arriving at the same (or similar?) conclusions. Independently.

Anyway - so, this is my book I'm writing: (& it's only taken 4 years so far)

P3 of EC

It's 70,000 words - and I was going to publish at that length, but my new publishing deal means it will be 110k words. 

So - in realizing - just a week ago - that the great book (Hartley & Potts 2014) exists, and I had also arrived at a whole bunch of the same conclusions, (but some, quite different!) independently, (without knowing about their book) - I am reminded of, scientific multiples.

...Scientific Multiple Discovery.

 

Because, have you ever read D K Simonton's great book on creativity in science...?

Simonton, D. K. (2004). Creativity in Science: Chance, Logic, Genius, and Zeitgeist. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.  

Because - in that, D K lists a whole bunch of: scientific multiples. 

Here's just some of 'em:

(Hey - and check this out too: a wonderful & great Metascience presentation by DK. It will make you a genius. Maybe.)
Anyway, so - when 2 independent thinkers (like Darwin and Wallace, Newton and Leibniz) independently converge on the same scientific truth (or a very similar scientific truth)... 
It always reminds me of: 
2 guys (or gals, or they/thems), unknowingly climbing the same as-yet-unscaled / unconquered mountain-peak - from either side - only to arrive at the top - and suddenly find the other guy. 
Another : `rugged [intellectual] frontiersman'!
So - when they both simultaneously arrive at the summit, and both go to stick their flag in it, they halt - as they see the other guy, also looking very surprised!
Which all reminds me of The Simurgh, by Jorges Luis Borges. (One of my favourite short stories. But I digress.)
But, you see - also there's clouds all around the mountain, so - they both can't tell, if it's a local or global maximum (highest mountain peak, locally, or globally). There might be a better (higher) one, nearby...
...Or - maybe I arrived, 6 years later (or 2 years later, in 2016?) at the `top' of what I thought was a previously-unscaled mountain peak, (...a local - or global - maxima, or, highest point of the knowledge-landscape) and found a campsite there, abandoned for 6 years (or 2 years)...! 
Although I did first publish this idea in 2013, so, maybe I got there a year ahead? (Who even cares. Time, Schmime.)
(But - is the campsite "abandoned"? Wait, aren't Potts & Hartley still there? We shall see.)
Actually, I may even have accidentally arrived at a higher local maxima, i.e. a global maxima...? 
As - their views (2014) are only part of "the big picture" (vista) that I can see...?
(As their "demes" are cities - and see those, i.e., `cities' (& towns, or villages), within this very all-encompassing scientific model of mine...)

Anyway, so I've read 8 pages of of this article, below, and before I read on, I wanna point out, where I'm thinking the same, and where I differ, from.... 

Hartley, J., & Potts, J. (2014). What is Cultural Science? (And what it is not.). Journal of Cultural Science, 7(1), 34-57. 

Actually - wait, maybe I'll just point out the differences , as otherwise: this will take too long. :) 
Also I want to note: I think Hartley & Potts started working on their stuff, in: 2006...?
Then in 2008, was started up: Cultural Science Journal. 

And in 2014, it was published the book: 

Hartley, J., & Potts, J. (2014). Cultural Science: A Natural History of Stories, Demes, Knowledge and Innovation. Sydney: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

So, anyway - let's start with the 2014 journal article, then get on to the book. (As, I read it. Literally.)

Bear in mind - I'm only reading them both: now. 

Right now.

So - this is all very first impressions stuff...! 

I may change my mind, "Ron". 

(i.e. "lateR on", aka `Ron'. & Sorry for the Australianese here. Or not.) 

...I've never blogged on a book (or article) before, as I was actually reading through it.

Usually, I wait till I've finished reading something (a unit of culture, like an article - or a book), and only then, go back and: blog on it. 

So this is: new. 

Let's see how it goes?   

Ok - so what do I agree with, in this (2014) article? 

But when I say "what do I agree with" I mean, what am I doing the same, only different? 

Remember this (below) is the article I'm talking about, first. (We'll get to the book, later. Ron.)

Hartley, J., & Potts, J. (2014). What is Cultural Science? (And what it is not.). Journal of Cultural Science, 7(1), 34-57. 

OK so - Starting with, the Abs[t]ract: 

`Hartley and Potts (2014) argue that cultural science represents a new theoretical
and methodological approach to the study of cultural structure, dynamics and use.' (Hartley & Potts, 2014, p. 34)

Good. I like it already. 

...I think I have one of those, too! 

(And, I didn't know, anyone else had pulled this off, yet. I thought I was gonna be the first...? Thank goodness, I don't have to be. Phew.)

Next sentence, of the Abstract:

`We explain how this differs from the extant analytic frameworks of cultural studies, both as a research program and as a policy platform.' (p. as above, i.e. p. 34.)

Ah, see --- now, there's the first difference, right there. 
As I understand this (so far), Hartley and Potts (2014) are coming out of the discipline of Cultural Studies ; 
And - I'm not...!!!
At all.
I'm coming out of the disciplines of: Communication Science, Information Science, Systems Science, and, Computer Science. 
So - there's your first big difference, right there. 
In: Schools of Thought...! 
I don't do: Semiotics , or, Ideologies (eg  Karl Marx, etc) . I like Science.
(By choice, just my preference: not to ever go there, again, if possible...? I've been there, and I vastly-much-prefer Karl Popper to Marx, and, Systems & Information Science, to Semiotics... You get the idea.) 
...Just me? I may be weird. (I like to do Science, every single chance I get.) 
Moving on a bit (still in the Abstract of Hartley & Potts 2014, JoCS):

`Cultural science, then, is a new model of the cultural processes involved in socio-economic evolution and innovation of knowledge-making demes.' (p. 34)  

Ah yes - I see the difference here too... 
Where Hartley & Potts use demes , I use: memes ... 
Ok - so, How to best explain the difference to you? 
(To: my stuff. Evolutionary Culturology. )
Well, here's one way:
Here are some definitions I use: (I don't see any Definitions so far, in Hartley & Potts 2014, by the way) 

JTV’s Definitions he likes to use, in `Evolutionary Culturology':

Culture – units that are: ideas, or processes, or products [and, they can be any 1, 2 or 3 of those, at once]. (These units can be internal to a mind/body or external to it, see Popper’s `3 Worlds'). These units are structured as HOLON/partons. Which have 3 Laws. These things, called memes, or units of culture, occur in: Units, & Levels. You can find them, using the 3 Laws. Which are laws of: Physics.

Evolution - Evolution is a process that occurs, (the evolutionary algorithm), on units (memes, HOLON/partons). The units that get `spat out' of the system by the algorithm, actually change over time in the: ideas, processes, products that occur, when the evolutionary algorithm (e.g. Selection, Variation, Transmission, and there are a few others too) operates on them, in an ecosystem. Same in biology, as in culture. 

Ecosystem - A product, a system (a unit, a HOLON/parton, with inputs & outputs - and an algorithm inside it), whether biological or cultural, or even bio-cultural.   

Actually - let's also go to Merriam-Webster on this one:

`Definition of ecosystem

`the complex of a community of organisms and its environment functioning as an ecological unit' 

(Source: Merriam-Webster online )

Sure, I agree with the above Merriam-Webster definition, but - they only talked about organisms as the units...? 

What about: units of culture? 

There are cultural ecosystems, too...! 

Seriously. Read my 5 book chapters on it. 

Or read: Hunter Creative Industries (Final Report) (2019) 

Where, they have this model of an ecosystem:

Source: HCI Final Report (2019)

Okay - back to my definitions I like to use: (currently, anyway?)

Creativity - see the bipartite - and the tripartite - standard definitions of creativity. eg (Runco & Jaeger 2012) 

Runco, M. A., & Jaeger, G. J. (2012). The Standard Definition of Creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 24(1), 92-96. 

i.e. A creative artifact is one judged new and useful by its environment (the Field for a Domain). 

Or the tripartite definition of creativity adds: `surprising'. 

So: creative = New, Useful, and Surprising.  

And my last Definition, for now anyways:

MLS –  Multi-Level Selection. ...See David Sloan Wilson on it. (I arrived at MLS, via: Computer Science. Not so much, via Biology. But, if anyone else likes MLS, I like their ideas, already :)

...I actually go all-out, with MLS, 

See, this diagram of mine, for example:

The levels above are all levels of Selection . In my view. As they all compete. (And - more importantly - co-operate!)

So - I think, with using demes, (like, a city), I have actually encapsulated/included Hartley & Potts's (2014) view of `the unit'...? 

It (the `deme' or `city') is just one of the levels (and, units!) in the memes diagram, above...? 

And below - I have highlighted their: "demes" (cities) as a unit.

See what just happened ? I Selected, Varied (add some red stuff), and Transmitted, my diagram.

...I go nuts with the units, and get 'em all: all the way up (to multiverses, which: probably exist - especially if we're in a Sim) and down, to quarks, and whatnot. Like David Bohm, I think these units and levels, go infinitely upwards (larger) and downwards (smaller.) ...I could be wrong, but let's see?

Anyway - all of the units in the diagram above (organs, organisms [people], towns/cities (i.e., "demes"?),) are HOLON/partons - aka memes. aka units of culture... all governed by the 3 Laws of HOLON/partons. 

But - that's just me. 

(...Call me a `big thinker'...?)

Also I would note: 

Systems (i.e., which are also HOLON/partons) are made of: energy, information, and matter. 

And, all organisms are algorithms (see: Harari 2017, Homo Deus, on that.)

In fact all processes are: algorithms. 

(But hey, I came up through Computer Science, remember? So I like: algorithms. Computer programs are algorithms. So are, the processes, inside systems, algorithms...! An algorithm is just: a recipe.)

Remember, memes, units of culture, (e.g. books, ) are: ideas, processes, products.

A book is a product. So is a person: a product. (...A biological one. In fact a bio-cultural one. As all biology has culture - i.e. information - in it. Systems are: energy, matter, and information - right?)

So a deme (a city) is just one of the (many, multilayered) memes in my: HOLARCHY/partarchy...

So I kinda see: the bigger picture...? 

Not just: cities ("demes"), as units of culture (or: units of `socio-culture')...

Also, I reckon: go nuts with this tool (below), to find units of culture (aka, `memes'):

Look for fractal things that obey those 3 Laws, and hey - Bob's your uncle! 
There's your unit of culture!
So - yes - I agree, demes, or `cities' are units... 
But - so are lots of larger - and smaller - things, in my view...?

(Use that tool above, the 3 Laws, to find 'em. And: study 'em! Scientifically.)

The above (Velikovsky's 3 Laws of HOLON/partons) is a scientific instrument. 

And, hey - it's free! 

It's a: conceptual tool. 

I made it.

And now, I give it to you. 

It's an idea, a process, and a product - all at once. 

(A meme. A unit of culture.)

Hey... Look how fractal everything is getting, now? 

If you're using it, You're now - Using: a unit of culture to find: units of culture...!

But, yeah - I go nuts with that tool: 

e.g. 

So - I use it to find the units of culture (memes) in: words, sentences, books - songs, inventions, anything you like, in culture...

So; yeah. 

See: my five book-chapters (2016-2020)...

...Or - wait for my booky-wook.

Anyway, so - if this is the definition of Cultural Science (2014):

`Cultural science, then, is a new model of the cultural processes involved in socio-economic evolution and innovation of knowledge-making demes.' (Hartley & Potts 2014, p. 34)  

Then, I am not quite doing, their: `Cultural Science'...? 

I am doing, something, slightly bigger...? 

(More: all-encompassing... All of culture. All of it.)

I call it: Evolutionary Culturology...

Here's a diagram, to show what it is.

Anyway - back to the next bit of the Abstract (in Hartley & Potts 2014, i.e., the journal article, not the book), that I want to talk about:

`The paper is in three sections, the first on the exhaustion of cultural studies;' (p 34) 

Again, I don't go in for Cultural Studies myself, but I use other methods (and models) to think about: stuff. 

More, Science-based stuff. 

I don't like `Postmodernism' (and, most Continental Philosophy) at all, and try never to use them; I think it's all very anti-Science? 

...I try and do: Science - all the way, Hosay. 

But - that's just me?  

Hey also - I have a weird Question: I don't know the answer yet, but - I do wonder why, the Journal of Cultural Science isn't listed here, in the list of Cultural Evolution journals, on the CES webpage...? 

Maybe, it was judged: not Science-y enough...? 

...Dunno? 

Anyway. There you go. 

Maybe one day I will uncover that current: mystery-to-me. 

Here are the journals, currently listed on there (as at: 14 Jan 02021):

Behavioral and Brain SciencesCliodynamics: The Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural EvolutionEvolution & Human BehaviorEvolutionary Human SciencesEvolutionary Studies in Imaginative CultureJournal of Cognition and CultureJournal of Cognitive HistoriographyJournal for the Cognitive Science of ReligionJournal of Evolutionary EconomicsNature Ecology & EvolutionNature Human BehaviorPNASSource: The CES website

So... Who knows, why JoCS isn't in there? 

(Not me.) 

One day, maybe I will ask someone who knows.

Ok - back to the Abstract:

`The paper is in three sections, the first on the exhaustion of cultural studies; the second on the emergence of cultural science;' (p 34)

Hey - wait, this reminds me: some Schools of Thought run out of ideas, once they exhaust their subject matter, and models (theories)... 

I think that is what the above means: i.e., "the exhaustion of cultural studies". 

Then they usually go back to an earlier idea and start over. 

(An idea like: Evolution!) 

Actually - this seems to be exactly what has happened, in (Hartley & Potts 2014) turning from Cultural Studies, to: Cultural Science...? 

Like a `branching off'. A new species.

See my model of Koestler & Garstang's evolutionary spiral, sometime.  

It's like, how Philosophy split off (...speciated?) into different "breeds", or "schools", or whatever...

I like: Evolutionary Philosophy, myself. Ed Gibney (2012), and all that.

And, Evolutionary Systems Philosophy. (e.g. Laszlo 1972), and so on.

And - what with `Cultural Science' splitting off from Cultural Studies, it's kinda like how:

"Philosophy is the soil out of which the Tree of Scientific Knowledge Grows." 

(Velikovsky of Newcastle, 02021 - in this blog post, right now)

(I just made that up, how do you like my metaphors? I like to go around, speaking in parables, like some messiah, or guru, or Cult Leader or something. Except, I hate all that stuff, I like: Science... Popper and all that. I know, it's called `Ev Cult', but it's: a new Science. ...Really!)

(...Maybe someone also said that parable above, before me, as, it's the obvious move, really?)

And so is: Ev Cult. 

It seems to me (so far?), that Cultural Science came very close, to it. 

But, I see, it used: demes, and not memes. 

And: stuff like that.

(I note: Some "branches" of the tree of knowledge die, and fall off... 

(e.g. PoMo...! And Anti-Science stuff like that.)) 

...Maybe Cultural Studies is dead now, too? 

Anyway, the last bit of that sentence, from the Abstract: 

`...and the third on some implications for cultural policy – illustrated by reference to Matthew Arnold’s policy on language preservation.' (Hartley & Potts 2014, p. 34)

Well - I don't think I (yet) know what that is, but - I will read on... and, find out! 

Then, try and talk about it. 

So as for `Our Story So Far' (hey - another meme!) - 

...that's my analysis of selected (and varied, and transmitted) parts, of the Abstract of:

Hartley, J., & Potts, J. (2014). What is Cultural Science? (And what it is not.). Journal of Cultural Science, 7(1), 34-57. 

 

And - so far - I think the main differences I can see, are:

Hartley & Potts (2014) apparently use demes, but - I use memes, as the units (see: my `3 Laws of HOLON/partons', which also includes: demes/cities... and, everything else, too...?)I don't use: Semiotics... At all! (Don't like: PoMo, or Continental Philosophy. At all. It's Anti-Science. I like: Science, and Evolution.)I don't use `Cultural Studies' theorists/models/lenses. (e.g., Hoggart, Marx, etc - Not my cuppa tea! :)

Anyway - I need some sleep now, but - soon, will comment on the rest of the article, and then move on to the book: 

Hartley, J., & Potts, J. (2014). Cultural Science: A Natural History of Stories, Demes, Knowledge and Innovation. Sydney: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

And, will point out the key differences there, as well... 

...Differences, to my: Evolutionary Culturology.

But, also - a question I now wonder about: 

Do the two domains (`Cultural Science' and `Evolutionary Culturology') ...compete, or co-operate? ...Or, a bit of both?

 

Both those domains of knowledge, are units of culture (memes), and - see, the 3 Laws of HOLON/partons...  

So... Food for thought-!

And now, To sleep, perchance to dream :)

(Hey, another meme, or, unit of culture. From: Shakespeare.)

(...I like co-operating, rather than competing, usually. But - that's just me. :)

Depends on the situation, I guess...?

And so - 

To Be Continued...!

(...hey, that's another meme! 

A: Unit of Culture... 

A HOLON/parton.)

[Try that new tool above... You'll see!]

PS - Hey I also watched these 2 videos, below - one by Potts, and one by Hartley - I liked them! A lot!

I'll talk about them, too. 

(Probably? If I get time. Gotta finish this Ev Cult book!)

Blockchain and the future of work, Prof. Jason Potts@RMIT Night (2019)

John Hartley - Humans vs Westworld: A Cultural Science Approach (2018)

-----------

...And - maybe, a way to say this, is:

I think, maybe Hartley & Potts (2014) saw `the trunk', but maybe I saw, the whole elephant?

(As, their `deme' - as "the unit, of culture" - is but a tiny part, of my: whole, broad view of the units...)

I think, their Grand model (or Grand theory) of Culture (and Evolution) is a special (edge) case of my [vastly bigger] Grand Theory (or Model) of Culture (and Evolution)...?  

...Am I right?

We shall see?

Anyway - I sure hope, maybe, we can: co-operate...!

(Not: compete.)

Or, our discoveries, can co-operate... 

...Maybe my stuff helps them - as well as, their stuff (2014) helping me...?

--------------//---------------

 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
-----------------------

Dear Friends of Science and Evolution

Dear Friends of Science & Evolution

Thank you (so much) for being a part of our community.

There is a war on. 

A war of ideas.

In this war, You have chosen the right side; or more correctly, it chose you.

And so -

Dear Enemies of Science & Evolution

We are coming for you.

When I say "we", I mean: Natural Selection. 

Evolution and Science. 

Truth, Facts, Reality, is: coming for you. 

You: COVID-denying, conspiracy theory peddling, anti-truth, (liars, cheaters, deceivers, freeriders, conmen & conwomen): you refuse to wear a mask, as you don't understand how facts, science, and truth works. Or you do, and you are: lying.

You need to read Enlightenment Now (Pinker 2018). 

But even then, you would fight it with: some bullshit, or other. 

Because: You're an asshole. (Wait - Did I just stoop to your level? Ad hominems? No; you're already lower than that - you're using violence. See Graham's hierarchy of disagreement, below.)

Your values are all wrong.  

Liars lie, and then then they: gaslight. (They accuse you of being the liar...!! Two deadly, fatal, lethal insults, for the price of one. Just one of the insults makes me want you to stop existing. Let alone 2.)  

Note also: If you refuse to wear a mask - Science will kill you. 

The Germ Theory of Disease. 

(So, carry on! Don't wear a mask.)

Please thusly, and kindly, remove yourself from the humanimal race.

Natural Selection in action.

(Science i.e. Natural De-Selection, is rather like Islam; it kills its "non-believers" :)

And so:

Dear Science Deniers, Postmodernists, & "Alternate Facts" Liars, 

Please, accidentally kill yourself...? Due to your denial of reality. Due to not wearing a mask, and ignoring Science.

The world (reality) is a vastly better place, without you. 

Just sayin'.

Hey check this out:

Michael Moore: The Terrorist Attack Is NOT Over. | Rumble with Michael Moore podcast | EP. 153

I love Michael Moore's rewriting of the US Pledge of Allegiance, when he was a (precocious, if not precarious :) 6th grade kid -- (at: 51 mins of the above)

"I pledge allegiance to the people" (not "the flag"!) "of the United States of America, and to this Republic for which we all stand. One nation, part of one world, with liberty and justice for all."

...Reminds me of the great Atlas Hugged !

See: Atlas Hugged World

"The banner of John Galt III’s revolt is a mysterious column of symbols: A dot, a circle, the American Flag, and the planet Earth. Never was an academic critique so decisive and also so much fun." (Source: Atlas Hugged World)

And now... 

Let's look at Wars (i.e., competition, not co-operation), in (1) Ideas, (2) Processes, and (3) Products.

Here's one way to see it:

See: On How To Disagree

Wars can be fought in the worlds (domains) of: (1) Ideas [communication using words, language, tools of "messages"], or (2) Processes (change the enemy's thinking), or (3) Products (blood, bullets, bombs in the physical world, Popper's World 1). 

But remember - this is a true statement:

"This quote comes from a character, Salvor Hardin, in Isaac Asimov's Foundation saga. 

“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.”

Isaac Asimov, American science fiction and popular science writer

Source: One Liner Wednesday 

Q: Why is the Foundation series (and science fiction in general) not taught, in all high schools? 

Anyway - Here's another hierarchy, along same lines as i=P: (ideas, processes, products)

Or, a simpler version:

...Now look again:
And, read this:

"...knowledge ignorant of consequences is foolishness.

Chemistry that shrugs at pollution is foolishness, Economics that discounts politics and sociology is just as ignorant as are politics and sociology that discount economics.

Unfortunately, it does not seem to be enough to protect the neutral objectivity of each separate science, in the hope that the knowledge generated by each will be integrated later at some higher level and used wisely. The synthetic principle will have to become a part of the fundamental axioms of each science. 

How shall this breakthrough occur? 

Current systems theories are necessary but not sufficient, as they tend not to take values into account. Perhaps after this realization sets in, we shall have to re-write science from the ground up." (Csikszentmihalyi 2009)

The above diagram of Good and Evil is what happens, when VALUES are built into Science.

Science (and Philosophy) are about the search for truth. 

Anything that is anti-Science, (or anti-Philosophy) is evil. i.e., You are the enemy.

Now, Science-Deniers, we can play the game your way, if you want? The bottom rung of Graham's hierarchy. Physical Violence. 

That means we just turn Science to: the task of eliminating evil. 

Curing Cultural Cancer. 

But - you should be grateful we Science-Lovers are: morally better than you. 

Killing you would be: too easy. 

We'll do it through the war of ideas and processes. Worlds 3 and 2. 

...Unless you want to go down to: physical products...? 

(I'm fine with whatever, really. And the more you test my patience, the more likely I am to slip down to your level. It takes a lot of energy to stay in those higher levels. Ideas and Processes.) 

So the aim of the Science of Evolutionary Culturology is: Curing Cultural Cancer.

Culture is knowledge. 

Information. 

Ideas, processes, products.

There is good and bad (e.g. EVIL) information.

Good - and Bad - Ideas, Processes, Products. 

So - pick your side. 

Science, or Anti-Science?

Are you with us, or against us? 

Make it clear.

Look at Velikovsky's `3 Laws of HOLON/partons':

Once you've found the unit of culture (the idea, process, or product), - the ideology, philosophy, worldview, etc - you then need to judge it. Is it: 
Good - or Evil?
True - or False?

...Do you see ?
----------

PS - In the war of ideas in academia, I was captured by the enemy for a few long years. 

I was tortured. 

I was screamed at. 

Postmodernist, Ideological, Continental Philosophy Science-Deniers made my life: a living hell.

They created a monster. 

Me. 

Now, I want justice.

I want truth.

I want: revenge. (Fair's fair. That's: justice.)

I want fairness. 

This war has to end. 

...I also don't want anyone to ever again have to go through, what I went through. 

We have to destroy the enemy. 

Liars, cheaters, swindlers... people like Trump.

In Politics, the "right(wing)" side is the WRONG side. The EVIL side. 

The side that has to: end.

Left-wingers care about: Science, Facts, Reason, The Enlightenment. 

You don't have to like it, it just has to be: True.

(Ever notice how Right-wingers lie and gaslight, about pretty much, everything? ...Even the (NOT) "Liberal Party" in Australia is: conservative, right-wing. Even their name is a lie. Pure evil.)

And, Extremists on either side of Politics (i.e. Values) are evil. 

See the documentary, Better Left Unsaid. 

Source: BLU Review

& Thanks for reading!

And Friends of Science and Evolution - THANK YOU!

--------------//---------------

 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

Alien Ant Farm

 I have an ant farm. I like studying ants. 

Wide view

Closer view
This ant farm of mine currently contains: 17 banded sugar ants (Camponotus consobrinus). 
...It does not have: a queen. 
(Let alone two, which some banded sugar ant nests have.) 
So, in a sense, all 17 of their lives are pointless, but, such is the Existential Cosmic Horror, so go read some Sartre, or, watch Rick & Morty, or something. 
Just kidding, life has meaning. 
See Evolutionary Philosophy (Gibney 2012). Or Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life (Dennett 1995). 

Hey, I also like E O Wilson's novel, Anthill: A Novel (Wilson 02010). I even created a Game Design for it.

I also like Atlas Hugged (D S Wilson 2020), which also mentions ants.

Ants are interesting. Science is interesting. Biology is interesting. So is Culture. 

So is Evolutionary Culturology.

I like watching them: dig tunnels, and hang out together, and run through the tunnels, and eat food, and drink water, and sleep, and stuff. 

Also, in the wild, these little guys farm aphids. The sugar ants protect the aphids (like humanimals protect their sheep and cattle, or whatever), the ants milk the aphids, and everybody wins. More or less. 

Either way: I used to be a sheep and cattle farmer, and used to be an omnivore, but now, after reading Yuval Noah Harari's 3 great books I think it's cruel so I am just an ant farmer now. And, am a pescatarian. So should you be. Farming of animals is cruel, and bad for the greenhouse effect. 

Hey there was also a band, called Alien Ant Farm, and now, I often think of them, when I think of my ant farm, but associative memory can be like that. 

Then I get an earworm, of Smooth Criminal. (Now, you may have one too. Oops, sorry about that.) 

Catchy memes (i.e., units of culture, like songs, or whatever) can be like that. 

Ants are kind of like aliens, when you think about it. 

They have a different social hierarchy than us: humanimals. 

And in terms of biomass, there is probably more ant-mass than humanimal-mass, on Earth. Unless that statement is not true. Who knows. Either way, a lot of folks are overweight, so that probably tips the scales in our favor a bit.

Either way, ants are still: interesting. 

You should get an ant farm, and study them!

Because: Science is freaking awesome. 

Or, at the very least, befriend them... Especially if, one day they plan to take over the Earth, because there's sure a whole lot of them. 

In fact, I'd be careful where you're stepping if I were you, because: an ant never forgets. 

Or wait, was it: an eleph-ant?

Look, the point is, I can't remember.

--------------//---------------

 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

4 types of hierarchies (Gontier 2017)

4 types of hierarchies (Gontier 2017)

In this great article, 

Gontier, N. (2017). What are the levels and mechanisms/processes of language evolution? Language Sciences, 63(September), 12-43. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2017.05.002

...in looking at Language, in the light of Applied Evolutionary Epistemology, Gontier rightly notes 4 types of hierarchies: (1) Aggregational, (2) Linear, (3) Constitutive/Embedded/Nested hierarchy (functional arrangement), and (4) Interactional hierarchy or hierarchies (like in networks).

Here is a Table, from that great (2017) article:

And so, I want you to think of those 4 different kinds of hierarchies... (As, I know I will be. They're great! What's not to like?)
Also, I suggest, here are some others, to think about: (as I have been thinking about them. So why not you too?)A hierarchy–groups of units, in ranked (or graded) levels of power. Examples include: a military chain of command; corporate organizational structures; animal group/herd/flock/pack social structures; feudal society; caste systems.A HOLARCHY/partarchy –a set of nested wholes and parts (simultaneously), and governed by the Three Laws of HOLON/partons. Examples include: biological organisms in an environment; external culture (e-memes) such as: books; songs; languages, etc A heterarchy–(1) in the Information and Social Sciences, a network where all agents (units) have equal agency or power; (2) in Biological taxonomy: a species which shares a common ancestor with a different family.A homoarchy–a hierarchy that can be ranked in only one way; the opposite of heterarchyThere is also one conception of `nested hierarchy’ in evolution (in phylogeny) that refers to a family of descent, or common ancestry. 
In short, there's a lot of types of hierarchies, to think about. 
And it affects: evolution. 
Both biological, and cultural.

--------------//---------------

 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