Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Here is a funny one
Re: Mercury's orbit
Date: 26/10/2003 6:09 pm
From: Peter Turland
To: Chora List
The way I look at it, things divide into possible and probable. Simplified
into, an above fifty percent likelyhood as being a probability and below a
fifty percent likelyhood as being a possiblity. These are dynamic schematas,
subject to change at the slightest event. The future is full of unknowns.
Regularites are all I have to go on. Trouble is, those regularites are
chaotic and depending on where we live, will have a differing range of
phenomenas.
I think this kind of contextual analysis goes a long way to explain cultural
differences. A possible example for this is, the connection between the
Japanese phsyche and the fact that their culture evolved on a very volcanic
group of islands with lots of earthquakes.
The British islands are geologicaly benign, but climactically chaotic, one
would wonder, is Japanese weather more or less chaotic than English weather?
It would not be that difficult to calculate if you had the figures, and a
talented mathematician (which I'm not :) All you would need to know is the
average maxima and minima of things like wind temp, moisture content, wind
speed and direction and to work out its chaosity, the rate of climactic change in both regions. Sounds like something solved with calculus.
Maybe this is why people of a western ilk find the notion of kamikazi rather
odd and the Japanese in the second world war would find kamikazi normal. It makes more sense once you factor in volcanoes and earthquakes. Sociey works on predictable regularites, the whole of astronomy rests on predictable regularities.
Predictable regularity is the hallmark of maturity. Past a certain age one
begins to wear time like an old sock. I eschew change myself, my habit
comforts me, even though I know it is an illusion. It is weird when I think
back to my days as a truck driver. My notion of time was different in those
days. It always makes me laugh when friends and relatives talk of being tired
after a long drive. Try doing it for five and a half days a week.
Time and its regularity for me, is the real meat of philosophy especially when
it concerns the future. As I get older I get more concerned about what I
leave behind me, all I could think about when I was younger, was what I could
get. Not steal mind, I used to work damn hard. Now I read a lot and write
occasionaly, I don't lack friends and I hope I do not annoy too many people
writing to Chora, I tend to think had things in my childhood been different I
would have gone to university who knows, *time* again.
One thing about me, I naturally speed read. I used to read lots of books but
books are just more clutter, I used to buy a newspaper but in the desire for
less clutter stopped buying them apart from one a week, for the TV guide.
There are some that would say with this email I am blogging, I would say "so
what" I have a weblog on my website I rarely put anything in it, why not?
Well the biggest reason is I do not have any idea who I am writing to. With
Chora at least some people have acknowleged my existance sometimes, which
gives me a little bit of confidence.
For me emails are the most poingant and abused section of the internet. It is
coming up for eight years that I have been writing emails on the 'net, so all
those years of yours truely with his nose in a book, have resulting in me
metaphorically putting pen to paper. Giving back, or reacting if you like.
Starting out with 'process philosophy' gave that up writing to that after a
while, still read it for a few correspondents tho'. Then a history list that
died on me, a few other lists, then an interesting time, I wrote to the
darwin list, which was hijacked by Ian Pitchford and it became the
evolutionary phsychology list, which was then hijacked by yahoo. If you would
like to see the effects of that click here.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evolutionary-psychology/
The first thing that will hit you, if you follow the threads, is spam trying
to distract you from reading the threads, which are sometimes wonderful, yes
Jeremy.
I was once a subscriber to evolutionary-psychology but cancelled it under the
sheer volume of spam exhorting me to buy some book or other. I followed
evolutionary-psychology as a web based outfit, the spam got me down that much
I stopped reading it, the rudeness is astonishing. I now have a solution to
reading evopsych without pain, but I'm keeping it a secret, in the vain hope
that the breadheads on this planet will not find a way around my defences, in
their desire to get me to help them pay their mortgage.
Peter.
--
http://dollyknot.com
Date: 26/10/2003 6:09 pm
From: Peter Turland
To: Chora List
The way I look at it, things divide into possible and probable. Simplified
into, an above fifty percent likelyhood as being a probability and below a
fifty percent likelyhood as being a possiblity. These are dynamic schematas,
subject to change at the slightest event. The future is full of unknowns.
Regularites are all I have to go on. Trouble is, those regularites are
chaotic and depending on where we live, will have a differing range of
phenomenas.
I think this kind of contextual analysis goes a long way to explain cultural
differences. A possible example for this is, the connection between the
Japanese phsyche and the fact that their culture evolved on a very volcanic
group of islands with lots of earthquakes.
The British islands are geologicaly benign, but climactically chaotic, one
would wonder, is Japanese weather more or less chaotic than English weather?
It would not be that difficult to calculate if you had the figures, and a
talented mathematician (which I'm not :) All you would need to know is the
average maxima and minima of things like wind temp, moisture content, wind
speed and direction and to work out its chaosity, the rate of climactic change in both regions. Sounds like something solved with calculus.
Maybe this is why people of a western ilk find the notion of kamikazi rather
odd and the Japanese in the second world war would find kamikazi normal. It makes more sense once you factor in volcanoes and earthquakes. Sociey works on predictable regularites, the whole of astronomy rests on predictable regularities.
Predictable regularity is the hallmark of maturity. Past a certain age one
begins to wear time like an old sock. I eschew change myself, my habit
comforts me, even though I know it is an illusion. It is weird when I think
back to my days as a truck driver. My notion of time was different in those
days. It always makes me laugh when friends and relatives talk of being tired
after a long drive. Try doing it for five and a half days a week.
Time and its regularity for me, is the real meat of philosophy especially when
it concerns the future. As I get older I get more concerned about what I
leave behind me, all I could think about when I was younger, was what I could
get. Not steal mind, I used to work damn hard. Now I read a lot and write
occasionaly, I don't lack friends and I hope I do not annoy too many people
writing to Chora, I tend to think had things in my childhood been different I
would have gone to university who knows, *time* again.
One thing about me, I naturally speed read. I used to read lots of books but
books are just more clutter, I used to buy a newspaper but in the desire for
less clutter stopped buying them apart from one a week, for the TV guide.
There are some that would say with this email I am blogging, I would say "so
what" I have a weblog on my website I rarely put anything in it, why not?
Well the biggest reason is I do not have any idea who I am writing to. With
Chora at least some people have acknowleged my existance sometimes, which
gives me a little bit of confidence.
For me emails are the most poingant and abused section of the internet. It is
coming up for eight years that I have been writing emails on the 'net, so all
those years of yours truely with his nose in a book, have resulting in me
metaphorically putting pen to paper. Giving back, or reacting if you like.
Starting out with 'process philosophy' gave that up writing to that after a
while, still read it for a few correspondents tho'. Then a history list that
died on me, a few other lists, then an interesting time, I wrote to the
darwin list, which was hijacked by Ian Pitchford and it became the
evolutionary phsychology list, which was then hijacked by yahoo. If you would
like to see the effects of that click here.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evolutionary-psychology/
The first thing that will hit you, if you follow the threads, is spam trying
to distract you from reading the threads, which are sometimes wonderful, yes
Jeremy.
I was once a subscriber to evolutionary-psychology but cancelled it under the
sheer volume of spam exhorting me to buy some book or other. I followed
evolutionary-psychology as a web based outfit, the spam got me down that much
I stopped reading it, the rudeness is astonishing. I now have a solution to
reading evopsych without pain, but I'm keeping it a secret, in the vain hope
that the breadheads on this planet will not find a way around my defences, in
their desire to get me to help them pay their mortgage.
Peter.
--
http://dollyknot.com
