singsign Comments http://www.singsign.com/blog random rants, ideas and whatnot Sat, 17 May 2008 10:00:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.2 Comment on Where’s Darwin? by: Mads http://www.singsign.com/blog/55/#comment-883 Tue, 06 Mar 2007 21:48:43 +0000 http://www.singsign.com/blog/55/#comment-883 I guess "successful" is debatable. Succesful for whom and with what consequences? To me, US foreign policy reeks of paranoid, interventionist nationbuilding, using pseudo-humanist coverups (i.e. world peace) and blatant lies (i.e. weapons of mass destruction) to justify a very costly "theatre of security" (is the US a safer place after restarting a practical engagement with the Monroe doctrine? Is Europe safer?). So how to measure success I wonder. Success for whom and with what conequences? And please don't give me contrafactual fictions starting with "what if they hadn't..." I guess “successful” is debatable. Succesful for whom and with what consequences? To me, US foreign policy reeks of paranoid, interventionist nationbuilding, using pseudo-humanist coverups (i.e. world peace) and blatant lies (i.e. weapons of mass destruction) to justify a very costly “theatre of security” (is the US a safer place after restarting a practical engagement with the Monroe doctrine? Is Europe safer?).

So how to measure success I wonder. Success for whom and with what conequences?

And please don’t give me contrafactual fictions starting with “what if they hadn’t…”

]]> Comment on Where’s Darwin? by: Peter Sjølin http://www.singsign.com/blog/55/#comment-881 Tue, 06 Mar 2007 18:28:44 +0000 http://www.singsign.com/blog/55/#comment-881 Well it depends entirely on the period of U.S foreign policy you refer to. We all know that the U.S isolation policy after the WWI was terribly wrong but every after that period has been proven to be very successful otherwise the U.S wouldn't be the solely HyperPower on this planet. Best Regards. Peter Sjølin (Pro-(foreign) American). Well it depends entirely on the period of U.S foreign policy you refer to.

We all know that the U.S isolation policy after the WWI was terribly wrong but every after that period has been proven to be very successful otherwise the U.S wouldn’t be the solely HyperPower on this planet.

Best Regards.
Peter Sjølin
(Pro-(foreign) American).

]]> Comment on Praise the maveric, anti-science, uneducated, rationality-denying, obscurantist, risk-obsessed public by: Mads http://www.singsign.com/blog/praise-the-maveric-anti-science-uneducated-rationality-denying-obscurantist-risk-obsessed-public/#comment-467 Tue, 09 Jan 2007 08:04:37 +0000 http://www.singsign.com/blog/praise-the-maveric-anti-science-uneducated-rationality-denying-obscurantist-risk-obsessed-public/#comment-467 Right, Jesper, I guess that yours is a good critical realist response to the problem I try to outline. What I find objectionable in Lord Rees (and arguably so many others of his kind, e.g. Lord May, the former president of the Royal Society) speech is that he, on one side, emphasizes participation and the voice of the people, and on the other side rejects the kind of "babble" that comes out of asking people what they think and how they feel. It just seems a slightly opportunistic move to speak kindly of bringing in other voices, but if these are measured against the "sound sciences", then I'm afraid it stay just that: Opportunistic - an attempt at coming across as caring and open to argument. But I basically agree on the predicament that you outline in your comment - and no one's found a satisfying solution to this yet...not the Astronomer Royal, not anyone I know... Right, Jesper, I guess that yours is a good critical realist response to the problem I try to outline. What I find objectionable in Lord Rees (and arguably so many others of his kind, e.g. Lord May, the former president of the Royal Society) speech is that he, on one side, emphasizes participation and the voice of the people, and on the other side rejects the kind of “babble” that comes out of asking people what they think and how they feel. It just seems a slightly opportunistic move to speak kindly of bringing in other voices, but if these are measured against the “sound sciences”, then I’m afraid it stay just that: Opportunistic - an attempt at coming across as caring and open to argument. But I basically agree on the predicament that you outline in your comment - and no one’s found a satisfying solution to this yet…not the Astronomer Royal, not anyone I know…

]]> Comment on Praise the maveric, anti-science, uneducated, rationality-denying, obscurantist, risk-obsessed public by: Jesper Juul http://www.singsign.com/blog/praise-the-maveric-anti-science-uneducated-rationality-denying-obscurantist-risk-obsessed-public/#comment-465 Mon, 08 Jan 2007 16:41:30 +0000 http://www.singsign.com/blog/praise-the-maveric-anti-science-uneducated-rationality-denying-obscurantist-risk-obsessed-public/#comment-465 But isn't the problem this: 1) OK, yeah, scientific work is contingent on various interests (and most scientists will agree on this - just consider the funding issues). 2) But how do you prevent this perspective from becoming a license to rejecting all science that contradicts one's personal beliefs? But isn’t the problem this:
1) OK, yeah, scientific work is contingent on various interests (and most scientists will agree on this - just consider the funding issues).
2) But how do you prevent this perspective from becoming a license to rejecting all science that contradicts one’s personal beliefs?

]]> Comment on Wiki-trouble?…and more to come… by: Thumbz http://www.singsign.com/blog/wiki-troubleand-more-to-come/#comment-121 Wed, 27 Sep 2006 21:45:47 +0000 http://www.singsign.com/blog/wiki-troubleand-more-to-come/#comment-121 It seems that all the good-small, ethical companies run into trouble at some point - look at google in china hihi It seems that all the good-small, ethical companies run into trouble at some point - look at google in china

hihi

]]> Comment on Headbutt by: Anders http://www.singsign.com/blog/headbutt/#comment-37 Tue, 11 Jul 2006 07:59:59 +0000 http://www.singsign.com/blog/headbutt/#comment-37 Hehe, good one :-) Hehe, good one :-)

]]> Comment on Gaze talk? by: Mads http://www.singsign.com/blog/gaze-talk/#comment-24 Thu, 29 Jun 2006 19:56:21 +0000 http://www.singsign.com/blog/gaze-talk/#comment-24 Oh, and how did we write anything before wikipedia? I hardly even googled stuff when I wrote my thesis...hardly, but still! Oh, and how did we write anything before wikipedia? I hardly even googled stuff when I wrote my thesis…hardly, but still!

]]> Comment on Gaze talk? by: Mads http://www.singsign.com/blog/gaze-talk/#comment-21 Thu, 29 Jun 2006 11:09:48 +0000 http://www.singsign.com/blog/gaze-talk/#comment-21 Right, altruism always struck me as, well, messy...Re. the Social Software (someone's gonna invent a new term here - SS is just not a viable acronym), yeah you're right, you did write that thesis - just wondering what a wellbehaved behavioural psychologist (and not lawyers or cultural critics) would make of the whole "avanced monkeys" sharing information thing... just being immensely altruistic and stuff and not caring about meownlittleself who has a dissertation to write. ps.: need more altruists to comment on blog... Right, altruism always struck me as, well, messy…Re. the Social Software (someone’s gonna invent a new term here - SS is just not a viable acronym), yeah you’re right, you did write that thesis - just wondering what a wellbehaved behavioural psychologist (and not lawyers or cultural critics) would make of the whole “avanced monkeys” sharing information thing…

just being immensely altruistic and stuff and not caring about meownlittleself who has a dissertation to write.

ps.: need more altruists to comment on blog…

]]> Comment on Gaze talk? by: Jonas http://www.singsign.com/blog/gaze-talk/#comment-20 Thu, 29 Jun 2006 09:43:39 +0000 http://www.singsign.com/blog/gaze-talk/#comment-20 As always, using the term "altruism" destroys any chance of serious dialogue :-) In biology, it makes sense (meaning behaviour which decreases the agent's fitness while increasing the fitness of other agents). But in economics it gets messy (since here behaviour is taken to be expressions of preferences, i.e. one cannot really act altruistically). For interesting takes on altruism/cooperation and "being watched", I recommend Kollock's <a>The Economies of Online Cooperation</a> and Zahavi and Zahavi's "The Handicap Principle" (which I have <a href="http://jonassmith.dk/weblog/the-reliability-of-the-zahavis/" rel="nofollow">commented on). Oh, and of course my modest pre-Wikipedia </a><a href="http://www.itu.dk/people/smith/pages/aot.htm" rel="nofollow">MA thesis</a> was on the social software implications that you mention. And shouldn't you be writing something else right now? :-) As always, using the term “altruism” destroys any chance of serious dialogue :-)
In biology, it makes sense (meaning behaviour which decreases the agent’s fitness while increasing the fitness of other agents).
But in economics it gets messy (since here behaviour is taken to be expressions of preferences, i.e. one cannot really act altruistically).

For interesting takes on altruism/cooperation and “being watched”, I recommend Kollock’s The Economies of Online Cooperation and Zahavi and Zahavi’s “The Handicap Principle” (which I have commented on).
Oh, and of course my modest pre-Wikipedia MA thesis was on the social software implications that you mention.

And shouldn’t you be writing something else right now? :-)

]]> Comment on Wicked sounds by: shaun http://www.singsign.com/blog/wicked-sounds/#comment-10 Thu, 11 May 2006 06:04:17 +0000 http://www.singsign.com/blog/wicked-sounds/#comment-10 thanks very much for the kind words about the label - i came across this blog via your last fm love the sound of skyphone, i'll have to get the album when I've got some cash take care shaun thanks very much for the kind words about the label - i came across this blog via your last fm

love the sound of skyphone, i’ll have to get the album when I’ve got some cash

take care

shaun

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