Philosophy & Ethics

What is it, this life that we are presented with? Human history has brought us from bands roaming, hunting, each day guided by mere survival, through villages and great empires of mortar and steel. It has brought us to this electronic specialized abstraction of living, gathering food from supermarkets, mass produced, convenient transfers of life energy; connecting with other human life through wires and radio waves; a massively complex organism striving, for what? Survival, for growing numbers of people, is matter of fact. Chasing after material objects, that fleeting fame and what?…

Throughout history, scientists, philosophers, mathematicians and PhD students lacking funding for actual research have turned to the thought experiment in hopes of discovering something publishable, thereby retaining tenure and/or attracting the admiration of comely undergraduates. The best thought experiments throw light into dark corners of the universe and also provide other scientists, philosophers, mathematicians and destitute Phd students a way to kill time while waiting for the bus. Below is a classic thought experiment, pillaged from my book The Geeks' Guide to World Domination (Be…

Continuing our discussion of biophysicist John R. Platt's classical paper on “strong inference” and, more broadly, the difference between soft and hard science, another reason for the difference between these two types of science mentioned but left unexamined by Platt is the relative complexity of the subject matters of different scientific disciplines. It seems to me trivially true that particle physics does in fact deal with the simplest objects in the entire universe: atoms and their constituents. At the opposite extreme, biology takes on the most complex things known to humanity:…

Taking up valuable land and growing edible crops for biofuels poses a dilemma: Is it ethical to produce inefficient renewable energies at the expense of an already malnourished population? David Pimentel and colleagues from Cornell University highlight the problems linked to converting a variety of crops into biofuels. Not only are these renewable energies inefficient, they are also economically and environmentally costly and nowhere near as productive as projected. In the context of global shortages of fossil energy – oil and natural gas in particular – governments worldwide are focusing on…

In doing some research for my next book (on the differences between science and pseudoscience), I re-read this rather stunning piece of writing: “Scientists these days tend to keep up a polite fiction that all science is equal. Except for the work of the misguided opponent whose arguments we happen to be refuting at the time, we speak as though every scientist's field and methods of study are as good as every other scientist's, and perhaps a little better. This keeps us all cordial when it comes to recommending each other for government grants.” Candid words about the nature of the scientific…

Mr Yohei Sasakawa, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for the Elimination of Leprosy and Japanese Government Goodwill Ambassador for the Human Rights of People Affected by Leprosy, has called for an end to the common use of the word leper. Speaking at the launch in London of the fourth Global Appeal to End Stigma and Discrimination Against People Affected by Leprosy, held to coincide with World Leprosy Day, he said that the word carries the meaning of a pariah, or social outcast. Mr Sasakawa said that people affected by leprosy have demanded that the term not be used. Unfortunately its use continues to…

Conservatives "cling to their guns and god" and Liberals cling to their "good will" and government The further a culture moves from its religion the closer it moves to its government. Humans have a need for the illusion of empowerment and a grand scheme beyond their own lives. With religion humans get the comfort that there is something watching over them giving their lives meaning. It gives them a grand epic to be a part of; everyone working for the end judgment whatever form that judgment takes. After they lose their faith in the fairytale they look to more humanistic forms of…

Introducing presumed consent or opt-out system may increase organ donation rates, suggests a new systematic review published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal). There is currently insufficient supply of donor organs to meet the demand for organ transplantations in the UK but the number of patients registered for a transplant continues to increase. In March 2008, 7,655 patients were on the active transplant list and 506 died in the years 2007-2008 while waiting for their transplant. At present the UK has an informed consent legislative system where individuals opt-in if they are willing for…

Salon has an interview with Stuart Kauffman, a biologist who has written multiple fascinating books about complex systems. Kauffman has a new book, Reinventing the Sacred, in which he argues that we need to toss out scientific reductionism and take a new, holistic approach to science and rename it God. But how bad is the problem really? Laplace famously claimed that if we knew the initial position and momentum of all the particles in the universe, we could confidently predict the future of the universe - that is, the universe is completely deterministic. Quantum mechanics seems to indicate…

Brian Swimme is fond of saying, "Four billion years ago, the earth was molten rock and now it sings opera."  In their 1992 book "The Universe Story," Swimme and Thomas Berry attempted to bridge the gap between science, religion and the humanities. When Michael Dowd read it, he got goose bumps and says he wept at the realization that "this is what I’m going to spend the rest of my life doing, popularizing this perspective." Rather than a 2,000 year old story of the past, Dowd believes that God’s revelations are happening all the time as proved by scientific changes in the universe, and…