Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages

Animadversions

Aeon Papers

(Work In Progress: output at 18/04/2025 10:01:55)

Colour ConventionsPrevious VersionsNote ReferencesNon-Note ReferencesNote CitationsNon-Note Citations


Introduction Papers Read: 955 Papers Unread: 2,883 → Pri 1: 7 Pri 2: 760 Pri 3: 829 Pri 4: 427 Pri 5: 265 Pri 6: 231 Pri 7: 136 Pri 8: 102 Pri 9: 65 Pri 10: 61

Introduction
  1. The Aeon eZine, described in Aeon: About:-
    1. Covers a large number of philosophical topics that I’m particularly interested in from a semi-professional point of view.
    2. It also covers others that are of more general interest, for which I’ve read papers as they crop up but don’t really have much time to comment on.
    3. Finally, there are others – and particularly videos – which are not as relevant, and which I often ignore.
  2. In May 2020, Aeon launched a new platform Psyche, described in Psyche: About. I’ve just treated the Psyche videos and papers as for Aeon.
  3. This Note contains links to Aeon & Psyche papers and videos I've found interesting – or hope to find interesting – from 2019 onwards, together with a few others that I’d not had time to categorise in this Note1 that covers papers published during 2017-2018. It represents an attempt to gain benefit from Aeon without incurring the overheads previously exemplified in the Note just cited. I intend to combine the two Notes into one in due course.
  4. The items accessed now appear in two lists: those I’ve read, and those I’ve not. The latter list ought to be itself divided in two – those I intend to read and those I don’t. This is because the items arrive too rapidly to be read, at least while I’m in “catch-up” mode, as will always be the case. However, I’ve decided to simply prioritise the items, with the lower-priority items likely to remain languishing at the bottom.
  5. The priorities are fairly random, and subject to revision. I intend to restrict “priority 1” items to a maximum of 10, though this has a tendency to get out of hand. Indeed, this is the case at the moment, when there seems to be an unusually large backlog of interesting items!
  6. Those I’ve read appear first, in reverse date of publication. I’ve tried to add a brief footnote for each.
  7. For the list of items I’ve not read, the items most recently published appear – within their respective priorities – at the top of the list when accessed. Some of these items were "reminders" sent out at weekends when new material doesn't appear, so can have much earlier publication dates than their sequence in the list might imply.
  8. The counts of the papers read – and unread by priority – appear in the table above, with hyperlinks to the lists.
  9. Note that where a date appears, this is the date published, not the date read. Any comments or additional information appear as a footnote, followed by clicking the date. Click on the paper title for the link to the full text on the Aeon website.
  10. I intend to add links to the PID Notes, where applicable, to which these works are relevant, and to their authors if they appear in my database. Also, if a paper turns out to be important enough for my research, I’ll incorporate it into my database so the hyperlinks to the topic of interest work better and I can add more information.
  11. The references to “WebRef= nnnn” signify the primary key for a couple of MS Access tables I use to generate this page.
  12. I have to add a note of warning to myself. These papers are – in most cases – especially in the case of those selected – fascinating and informative. But they also lead on to other papers cited that are likewise fascinating and informative, or important if I am to follow in detail or critique the arguments put forward. There is no end to this process, which may end up as a distraction from constructive work.
  13. A note on completeness: Prior to August 2023 I recorded – both in this Note and the earlier one cited above – almost everything of the slightest interest that turned up on Aeon or Psyche. Since then – in an effort to focus on my Thesis – I’ve been much more selective, and usually now only select papers or videos that can be classified as ‘Priority 1’. I may catch up later, but I doubt it. Those wanting a full list of papers or videos on Aeon or Psyche should browse or search the sites themselves.
  14. Some of the papers or videos are republications from other sites of interest. I list them here in the order they came to my attention:-
    → Closer to Truth
    → Neurophilosophy
    → Woit - Not Even Wrong
    → 3Blue1Brown
    → Institute of Arts and Ideas
    → Philosophy Overdose
    → Physics Reimagined
    → YouTube: Then & Now
    → The Royal Institution
    → FT - Five Books
    → Quanta Magazine
    → Briliant.org
  15. Why is all this worth bothering with?
    1. Firstly, some items are relevant to my research or other projects and provide a more contemporary or less formal / more exploratory approach than I’ll find in academic papers or books.
    2. Secondly, there are items on a very wide range of subjects that might be treated in magazines or broadsheets, but which are dealt with in greater depth here.
  16. So, my intention is to use Aeon for general culture and education, and Newspapers for … news.


Items Pending

Items Read

Items Not Yet Read
  1. Priority: 1
  2. Priority: 2
  3. Priority: 3
  4. Priority: 4
  5. Priority: 5
  6. Priority: 6
  7. Priority: 7
  8. Priority: 8
  9. Priority: 9
  10. Priority: 10


In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 2: Aeon: Tahar-Malaussena - Why the cat wags her tail (Date=28/03/2025, WebRef=15760)Footnote 3: Aeon: Majeed - Does national humiliation explain why wars break out? (Date=27/03/2025, WebRef=15759)Footnote 4: Aeon: Mills - Requeering Wilde (Date=25/03/2025, WebRef=15762)Footnote 5: Aeon: Moravec - Ghosts among the philosophers (Date=14/03/2025, WebRef=15770)Footnote 6: Aeon: Tolhurst - You can think like an animal by silencing your chattering brain (Date=19/12/2024, WebRef=15615)Footnote 7: Aeon: Linden - As a society, we’re not death phobic, we’re death complacent (Date=17/12/2024, WebRef=15614)Footnote 8: Aeon: Lau & Sokolowski - If you think you are ‘just not a math person’ then think again (Date=16/12/2024, WebRef=15612)Footnote 9: Aeon: Sharma - What’s in the rule of law? (Date=16/12/2024, WebRef=15616)Footnote 10: Aeon: Bayne - The stories of Daniel Dennett (Date=13/12/2024, WebRef=15618)Footnote 11: Aeon: Video - Can you transplant a head to another body? (Date=11/12/2024, WebRef=15621)Footnote 12: Aeon: Linford - Exploding the Big Bang (Date=09/12/2024, WebRef=15623)Footnote 13: Aeon: Mercedes - Late autism diagnosis: it’s a relief, but who’s behind the mask? (Date=09/12/2024, WebRef=15622)Footnote 14: Aeon: Jennings - A linkless internet (Date=06/12/2024, WebRef=14499)Footnote 15: Aeon: Hayward - If you hear voices, here are some empowering ways to respond (Date=04/12/2024, WebRef=14498)Footnote 16: Aeon: Bernhardt-Radu - The eugenicist of UNESCO (Date=02/12/2024, WebRef=14495)Footnote 17: Aeon: Video - The sound of colour (Date=02/12/2024, WebRef=14500)Footnote 18: Aeon: Sedivy - Why every utterance you make begins with a leap of faith (Date=02/12/2024, WebRef=14496)Footnote 19: Aeon: Misak - The underground university (Date=29/11/2024, WebRef=14492)Footnote 20: Aeon: Qureshi-Hurst - Many worlds, many selves (Date=28/11/2024, WebRef=14490)Footnote 21: Aeon: Video - The life of an (extra)ordinary Roman soldier (Date=28/11/2024, WebRef=14491)Footnote 22: Aeon: Rosenberger - The reason that even hands-free calls are risky for drivers (Date=28/11/2024, WebRef=14493)Footnote 23: Aeon: Kensinger & Budson - How to get better at remembering (Date=27/11/2024, WebRef=14489)Footnote 24: Aeon: Kirsch & Ray - Bunkerised society – why prepping for end times is so American (Date=26/11/2024, WebRef=14488)Footnote 25: Aeon: Smith - Living without mental imagery may shield against trauma’s impact (Date=21/11/2024, WebRef=14446)Footnote 26: Aeon: Walker - What is decolonisation? (Date=21/11/2024, WebRef=14447)Footnote 27: Aeon: Vyazovskiy - Could humans hibernate? (Date=18/11/2024, WebRef=14450)Footnote 28: Aeon: Fassberg - I am an article about the speaking objects of ancient Greece (Date=18/11/2024, WebRef=14449)Footnote 29: Aeon: Stephenson - The cochlear question (Date=15/11/2024, WebRef=14452)Footnote 30: Aeon: Hubert - The nature of natural laws (Date=14/11/2024, WebRef=14454)Footnote 31: Aeon: Aftab - What a psychiatric diagnosis means – and what it doesn’t mean (Date=14/11/2024, WebRef=14451)Footnote 32: Aeon: Video - The moon's orbit (Date=07/11/2024, WebRef=14400)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: To change the way you see the Moon, view it from the Sun’s perspective
    • Editor's Abstract
      • That the Moon orbits Earth is one of the first and most basic facts most people learn about physics and astronomy. And it’s certainly intuitive enough: Earth’s only natural satellite moves across our sky each night.
      • But, as this short from the YouTube series MinutePhysics details, if you use the Sun as your frame of reference, the truth becomes much more complicated.
      • Explained via a series of nifty whiteboard-style animations, the video uses the Moon’s trajectory through the cosmos to explore broader, perhaps counterintuitive truths about orbital mechanics.
  2. Notes
    • This brief (5 minute) video is absolutely fascinating, if a bit ‘quick’. I suppose it ought not to be surprising that - from the Sun's perspective - the orbit of the Moon is not a spiral but a wobble, but this fact seems to depend on various factors.
    • The important parameters are the relative masses of the Earth and the Moon, the distance of the Moon from the Earth, the distance of the Earth from the Sun, and the relationship between the orbital periods of the Earth around the Sun and the Moon around the Earth. The orbital periods are dependent on the other parameters.
    • The centre of gravity of the Earth-Moon system is inside the Earth. Were it not, we would get a spiral.
    • The mass of the Sun so far exceeds that of the Earth that we can consider the Sun to be fixed (this isn't mentioned in the video).
    • The mechanics can only be worked out by 'numerical methods' (ie. these days by computer), as the 3-body problem is intractable. See Wikipedia: Three-body problem. It seems that Wolfram's Mathematica has been used.
    • Key facts:
      1. The Moon’s trajectory always curves towards the Sun, never away from it towards the Earth. It’s more like a 12-sided polygon with curved corners.
      2. The locus of a circle rotating round another circle is called an epitrochoid (see Wikipedia: Epitrochoid; the example here isn’t the same as in the video; this is acknowledged but said not to matter ‘the curves are the same’).
      3. The faster the moon’s orbit or the larger the orbit, the more it is like a spiral.
      4. Viewed from afar, both the Earth’s and the Moon’s orbits around the Sun are essentially circular – and look like two planets close together weaving in and out of one another. Presumably strictly ‘elliptical’.
      5. Keppler’s Law: T2 ∝ r3.
      6. The Sun pulls on the Moon with almost twice the force the Earth pulls on the Moon.
      7. The Moon is outside the Earth’s Chebotarev radius (where the pull from the Earth and the Sun are equal). So, the pull on the Moon is always towards the Sun, but gets weaker if the Earth is the other side from the Sun.
      8. However, we need to take centrifugal forces into account. The Moon is within the Earth’s Hill Sphere (see Wikipedia: Hill sphere).
      9. The Moon can be said to orbit the Earth because – just – the centre of mass of the 2-body system lies within the Earth. Otherwise, they’d be better described as a double planet.
      10. Similarly, points on the Earth’s surface don’t trace loops when the Earth orbits the Sun, but trace something like a wobbly circle.
      11. How you describe the orbits depends on your perspective.
    • We're referred to Briliant.org, which sponsored the video (though wasn’t used in the calculations).
Footnote 33: Aeon: Hochuli - Utopia brasileira (Date=07/11/2024, WebRef=14401)Footnote 34: Aeon: Video - Can I remember it differently? (Date=04/11/2024, WebRef=14397)Footnote 35: Aeon: McShea & Babcock - Elusive but everywhere (Date=04/11/2024, WebRef=14406)Footnote 36: Aeon: Zvirzdin - The city of wisdom (Date=01/11/2024, WebRef=14409)Footnote 37: Aeon: Kanjwal - Colonies of former colonies (Date=31/10/2024, WebRef=14410)Footnote 38: Aeon: Gismundi - Speaking a different language can change how you act and feel (Date=31/10/2024, WebRef=14408)Footnote 39: Aeon: Klaas - The forces of chance (Date=29/10/2024, WebRef=14413)Footnote 40: Aeon: Frohlich - When does the first spark of human consciousness ignite? (Date=29/10/2024, WebRef=14412)Footnote 41: Aeon: Noe - Rage against the machine (Date=25/10/2024, WebRef=14347)Footnote 42: Aeon: Video - The Conquest of Space (Date=24/10/2024, WebRef=14348)Footnote 43: Aeon: Harris - Why deepfakes pose less of a threat than many predict (Date=24/10/2024, WebRef=14346)Footnote 44: Aeon: Oderberg - Life makes mistakes (Date=22/10/2024, WebRef=14350)Footnote 45: Aeon: Morton - The spectre of insecurity (Date=18/10/2024, WebRef=14354)Footnote 46: Aeon: Video - The FlyWire connectome (Date=17/10/2024, WebRef=14355)Footnote 47: Aeon: Simecek - Your life is not a story: why narrative thinking holds you back (Date=17/10/2024, WebRef=14353)Footnote 48: Aeon: Video - The first views of Tutankhamun's tomb (Date=16/10/2024, WebRef=14356)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: What did the first people who entered Tutankhamun’s tomb see?
    • Editor's Abstract
      • In 1922, a relatively obscure ancient Egyptian pharaoh became an international sensation when a team led by the British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun, who reigned from roughly 1332-1323 BCE. The discovery marked the first time a pharaoh’s tomb had been entered essentially unlooted and untouched, providing an invaluable glimpse into ancient Egyptian society.
      • In this short video, Daniela Rosenow and Richard Parkinson of the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford discuss both the riveting first moments of discovery and the 10-year excavation that followed, during which archaeologists would comb over some 5,000 burial objects.
      • In particular, Rosenow and Parkinson detail the work of the British photographer Harry Burton who, tasked with documenting the immense find, took a now-famous photo of an eclectic clutter of items revealed inside the tomb’s antechamber.
  2. Notes
    • Brief and interesting - though hardly revelatory.
Footnote 49: Aeon: Nadis & Yau - Stars behaving absurdly (Date=15/10/2024, WebRef=14358)Footnote 50: Aeon: Stiefel - The tentacles of language are always on the move (Date=15/10/2024, WebRef=14357)Footnote 51: Aeon: Video - Storing data on DNA (Date=07/10/2024, WebRef=14359)Footnote 52: Aeon: Goff - My leap across the chasm (Date=01/10/2024, WebRef=14316)Footnote 53: Aeon: Thompson - Clock time contra lived time (Date=30/09/2024, WebRef=14318)Footnote 54: Aeon: Gotlib - Main character syndrome (Date=27/09/2024, WebRef=14320)Footnote 55: Aeon: Lacaux - The brain’s twilight zone: when you’re neither awake nor asleep (Date=26/09/2024, WebRef=14319)Footnote 56: Aeon: Goldin-Meadow - Expert tips on using gestures to think and talk more effectively (Date=25/09/2024, WebRef=14322)Footnote 57: Aeon: Video - The ancient hookup that changed humanity (Date=25/09/2024, WebRef=14321)Footnote 58: Aeon: Jukic - The forging of countries (Date=20/09/2024, WebRef=14327)Footnote 59: Aeon: Krakauer - Problem-solving matter (Date=17/09/2024, WebRef=14331)Footnote 60: Aeon: Gadsby & Van de Cruys - The surprising role of deep thinking in conspiracy theories (Date=12/09/2024, WebRef=14285)Footnote 61: Aeon: Video - The Babylonian map of the world (Date=11/09/2024, WebRef=14287)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Irving Finkel
    • Aeon Subtitle: How researchers finally solved the puzzle of the oldest known map of the world
    • Editor's Abstract
      • This instalment from the British Museum video series Curator’s Corner focuses on a small clay tablet that, at first glance, seems somewhat unremarkable but is, in fact, one of the most astonishing artefacts in the museum’s collection. Indeed, as the always entertaining British Museum curator Irving Finkel details, the ancient Babylonian tablet, which was created circa the 6th century BCE, is the ‘oldest map of the world, in the world’.
      • Finkel explains how, like many early maps, the tablet integrated both practical information about the world as the ancient Babylonians understood it, and mythology. He also explores the exceptionally fascinating story of how he and other researchers were able to decode the map since it was first acquired by the museum in 1882.
      • The result is an enlightening glimpse into both the ancient Babylonians’ understanding of their world, and how archeological puzzles can sometimes be solved over the course of centuries.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting from many angles. It's fascinating to see Irving Finkel in his youth and to get an angle on co-operative research in the British Museum.
    • The discovery of the small additional part - one of the surrounding mountains - that turns out to show Mt. Ararat and assures the traveller that he would find the remains of the (Babylonian) Ark there is an extraordianry stroke of luck.
    • This connects to "Finkel (Irving) - The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood". In fact, everything in this video is covered in greater detail in Chapter 12 of this book.
    • The tablet hails from the sixth century BC. I was surprised, therefore, that the Babylonian world was so circumscribed since Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Jerusalem by this time (see Wikipedia: Babylonian captivity) and later campaigned in Egypt. It may be, however, that the missing southerly sections of the map included Judea and Egypt.
Footnote 62: Aeon: Plakias - Make it awkward! (Date=06/09/2024, WebRef=14293)Footnote 63: Aeon: Emery - Desperate remedies (Date=05/09/2024, WebRef=14295)Footnote 64: Aeon: Crouse - Our internal clocks could be key for preserving mental health (Date=05/09/2024, WebRef=14292)Footnote 65: Aeon: Kind - How to think about consciousness (Date=04/09/2024, WebRef=14296)Footnote 66: Aeon: Garson - Targeted (Date=02/09/2024, WebRef=14299)Footnote 67: Aeon: P - Mere imitation (Date=08/08/2024, WebRef=14275)Footnote 68: Aeon: Video - Saviour siblings (Date=07/08/2024, WebRef=14276)Footnote 69: Aeon: Sandford - Seeing plants anew (Date=02/08/2024, WebRef=14242)Footnote 70: Aeon: Narayanan - Baby talk (Date=25/07/2024, WebRef=14229)Footnote 71: Aeon: Khaliq - Why I’ll never forget the day I met Daniel Kahneman for lunch (Date=25/07/2024, WebRef=14227)Footnote 72: Aeon: Gilbert - All that we are (Date=23/07/2024, WebRef=14231)Footnote 73: Aeon: Sutton - Dementia is not a death. For some, it marks a new beginning (Date=23/07/2024, WebRef=14230)Footnote 74: Aeon: Sandelson - A novel kind of music (Date=22/07/2024, WebRef=14232)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Joel Sandelson
    • Author Narrative: Joel Sandelson is a conductor who works with leading orchestras across Europe. In 2021, he won the Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award at the Salzburg Festival.
    • Aeon Subtitle: So-called ‘classical’ music was as revolutionary as the modern novel in its storytelling, harmony and depth
    • Author's Introduction
      • Compare these two pieces. First, one of Henry Purcell’s fantasias for viols (1680). A short figure is imitated between voices, summoning a detailed web of melancholy counterpoint. The idea is spun out in elaborate developments: upside down, the entries piling up closer together, the tail extended into a sequence. The music contorts itself into harmonic paradoxes and clashes, perhaps reminiscent of the wit and double meanings of poetry by those other 17th-century Englishmen, John Donne and Andrew Marvell. This is music of great beauty and sophistication, but where does the piece as a whole take us? It falls clearly enough into large-scale sections (beginning at 1:38, 2:30 and 3:15) differentiated by a new character, tempo and theme. But their sequence feels additive rather than cumulative, with little sense of an overall narrative arc. To us modern listeners, the effect is something like looking at a richly embroidered tapestry, as if each line of counterpoint were a thread in a seamless, two-dimensional foreground.
      • Now try the first movement of Haydn’s 47th symphony (1774). Everything about it sounds in motion, from the level of each phrase to the piece as a whole – more like telling a story than seeing a static object from multiple angles. Each phrase is clearly directional, carefully proportioned, and distinct from its neighbours. Like a tour of the rooms and gardens of a rococo palace, the piece as a whole has a strongly differentiated beginning, middle and end: setting off, passing through varied surroundings, and returning to an altered version of where we began (from 4:16) with the benefit of experience. (Both halves of the movement are themselves repeated – if you want to hear it all through once, listen from 1:24 to 5:26). The music seems to evoke not just linear time but something like spatial depth; events in the musical foreground whose succession feels compelled by a purposeful underlying structure.
      • What changed in this century or so between Purcell and Haydn? Three crucial innovations of musical composition are part of the story. One is a much greater variety of texture – the surface events and gestures of the music. Another is a more unified, integrated approach to overall structure, based on large-scale repetition and resolution. The last is a new system of harmony that was able to create a sense of proximity and distance, foreground and depth, over extended periods of time. I want to suggest some parallels between this 18th-century musical lingua franca and a familiar device from another medium: modern realist prose, which emerged through the 17th and 18th centuries – just when these musical conventions took shape.
    • Author's Conclusion
      • Revolutions in art don’t take place overnight, and many aspects of 18th-century music were caught between older and newer conceptions. Already present in J S Bach’s music, for instance, are the powerful forces of goal-directed tonality that he derived from the Italian concerto style, even though (as Berger argues) Bach is best thought of as a late representative of the older model of musical time. And much of the idiosyncratic music of the 1600s shows features in outline that would become more important in the next century. One of the first operas, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo of 1607, contains (appropriately enough for a story about a return from the Underworld) a ritornello punctuating its recitative-driven scenes. Each repetition summons us over and over again to Euridice’s fatal look back.
      • If we look at later 19th-century music, these conventions are as enduring – and as unquestioned – as their counterparts in literature and painting. The young Richard Strauss’s Don Juan (1889) is a virtuosic rendering in music of the seducer’s tale. The Don Juan legend itself has no literal large-scale repetitions. So why does Strauss feel the need to write a long, balancing reprise of the opening music (starting at 14:23) when there can be no direct literary justification? Perhaps he felt it necessary in order to achieve a ‘purely musical’ coherence, as a novel or painting achieves for itself by different means. Tellingly, the composer’s own written programme for the piece, which matches moments in the music to the story, falls silent during the long repetition – as if the passage were as integral but almost as unremarkable as the proscenium arch of a theatre or the canvas of a painting.
      • The textbooks call the late 18th century’s music the ‘Classical’ era. In some respects, it’s an unfortunate label, giving a serene, abstract (and just plain ‘old’) quality to music that we could hear as endlessly contemporary and loaded with worldly significance. But perhaps there is a sense in which this music can be thought of as a ‘classical’, or perhaps a ‘classic’, style. The devices of literary realism, too, became classic: powerful but invisible conventions that pass themselves off as nature.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting enough, but I've not much to add.
    • I dare say there are the parallels the author suggests between developments in literature and music, but these may have a common cause in the liberalisation of society and the rise of the composer from a servant of the aristocracy to romantic genius 'going places'.
    • I think of Bach as a transitional figure, though it depends on which works you consider. Many of the keyboard works are really training manuals, either in composition or technique, or demonstrations of the capabilities of the instrument (the author cites the Well-Tempered Clavier). As such, they aren't intended to go anywhere.
    • I only sampled some of the longer pieces, though I've heard them most of them before.
    • It would be worth spending more time on this - considering more closely what the author has to say in the light of a more careful listening to the music and reading the literature cited. But I'm not going to get round to it.
    • Anyway, it's good to have music for all moods. You don't always want to be striding on.
Footnote 75: Aeon: Video - The canine rainbow (Date=10/07/2024, WebRef=14214)Footnote 76: Aeon: Zellmer - Baffled by human diversity (Date=08/07/2024, WebRef=14216)Footnote 77: Aeon: Wengrow - Beyond kingdoms and empires (Date=05/07/2024, WebRef=14208)Footnote 78: Aeon: Video - This ciliate is about to die (Date=03/07/2024, WebRef=14210)Footnote 79: Aeon: Williams - Three ways to get in touch with your Shadow self (Date=03/07/2024, WebRef=14211)Footnote 80: Aeon: Ball - We are not machines (Date=02/07/2024, WebRef=14212)Footnote 81: BBC: Dying together: Why a happily married couple decided to stop living (Date=29/06/2024, WebRef=14158)Footnote 82: Aeon: Glaser - Me versus myself (Date=28/06/2024, WebRef=14159)Footnote 83: Aeon: Gerits - The route to progress (Date=27/06/2024, WebRef=14161)Footnote 84: Aeon: Hedebrant & Herlitz - In more prosperous societies, are men and women more similar? (Date=25/06/2024, WebRef=14163)Footnote 85: Aeon: Alma - The problem of erring animals (Date=24/06/2024, WebRef=14166)Footnote 86: Aeon: Kelly & Westra - Moral progress is annoying (Date=21/06/2024, WebRef=14169)Footnote 87: Aeon: Kakkar & Brady - How a ‘dominance’ mindset encourages leaders to put others at risk (Date=20/06/2024, WebRef=14168)Footnote 88: Aeon: Krznaric - The disruption nexus (Date=20/06/2024, WebRef=14170)Footnote 89: Aeon: Zinn - You have multiple ‘social identities’ – here’s how to manage them (Date=19/06/2024, WebRef=14171)Footnote 90: Aeon: Desmond & Haslam - What is intelligent life? (Date=17/06/2024, WebRef=14174)Footnote 91: BBC: Ghosh - Are animals conscious? (Date=16/06/2024, WebRef=14127)Footnote 92: Aeon: del Campo - Eulogy for silence (Date=14/06/2024, WebRef=14117)Footnote 93: Aeon: Van Aken - Chaos and cause (Date=13/06/2024, WebRef=14119)Footnote 94: Aeon: Petersen - Do plants have minds? (Date=11/06/2024, WebRef=14122)Footnote 95: Aeon: Frick - Economics 101 (Date=07/06/2024, WebRef=14124)Footnote 96: Aeon: Wheatley - There is nothing new about gender fluidity and nonconformity (Date=04/06/2024, WebRef=14126)Footnote 97: Aeon: Mithen - This is what a Neanderthal conversation would have sounded like (Date=03/06/2024, WebRef=14091)Footnote 98: Aeon: Luckhurst - Tomorrow people (Date=03/06/2024, WebRef=14092)Footnote 99: Aeon: Polk - Peregrinations of grief (Date=31/05/2024, WebRef=14094)Footnote 100: Aeon: O'Dwyer - Chastising little brother (Date=30/05/2024, WebRef=14096)Footnote 101: Aeon: Desmond - Dominion (Date=27/05/2024, WebRef=14100)Footnote 102: Aeon: Baggott - Quantum dialectics (Date=23/05/2024, WebRef=14062)Footnote 103: Aeon: Rank - What we gain by recognising the role of chance in life (Date=23/05/2024, WebRef=14060)Footnote 104: Aeon: Schütz - You are your body: here’s how to feel more at home in it (Date=22/05/2024, WebRef=14063)Footnote 105: Aeon: Huston - How babies’ and children’s temperament varies around the world (Date=21/05/2024, WebRef=14064)Footnote 106: Aeon: Pinsker - On Jewish revenge (Date=17/05/2024, WebRef=13953)Footnote 107: Aeon: Wallingford - Building embryos (Date=16/05/2024, WebRef=13954)Footnote 108: Aeon: Davis - Acid media (Date=10/05/2024, WebRef=13935)Footnote 109: Aeon: Dworkin - Last hours of an organ donor (Date=09/05/2024, WebRef=13936)Footnote 110: Aeon: Lähde - Decoupling (Date=07/05/2024, WebRef=13941)Footnote 111: Aeon: Love - You can want things you don’t like and like things you don’t want (Date=07/05/2024, WebRef=13938)Footnote 112: Aeon: Alkema & Boks - The shadows cast by childhood abuse and neglect are not the same (Date=06/05/2024, WebRef=13940)Footnote 113: Aeon: Wisher - Why make art in the dark? (Date=06/05/2024, WebRef=13939)Footnote 114: Aeon: Velasco & Loev - How ‘feelings about thinking’ help us navigate our world (Date=02/05/2024, WebRef=13918)Footnote 115: Aeon: Bhagabati - India and indigeneity (Date=02/05/2024, WebRef=13919)Footnote 116: Aeon: Frank - Alien life is no joke (Date=30/04/2024, WebRef=13921)Footnote 117: Aeon: Love - Is it better to live in ‘clock time’ or ‘event time’? (Date=30/04/2024, WebRef=13920)Footnote 118: Aeon: Kaye - Reimagining balance (Date=29/04/2024, WebRef=13922)Footnote 119: Aeon: Fisher - What would Thucydides say? (Date=26/04/2024, WebRef=13905)Footnote 120: Aeon: Video - Cracking chirality: The mystery of mirror molecules (Date=24/04/2024, WebRef=13906)Footnote 121: Robson - ‘Like a film in my mind’: hyperphantasia and the quest to understand vivid imaginations (Date=20/04/2024, WebRef=13849)Footnote 122: Lenharo - Do insects have an inner life? Animal consciousness needs a rethink (Date=19/04/2024, WebRef=13850)Footnote 123: Aeon: Video - Laura Mersini-Houghton - A quantum multiverse (Date=18/04/2024, WebRef=13852)Footnote 124: Aeon: Abdessamad - My elusive pain (Date=16/04/2024, WebRef=13855)Footnote 125: Aeon: Castro - How to make a map of smell (Date=12/04/2024, WebRef=13815)Footnote 126: Aeon: Loughlin - Conscientious unbelievers (Date=11/04/2024, WebRef=13817)Footnote 127: Aeon: Cheek - Many of us have the wrong idea about poverty and toughness (Date=11/04/2024, WebRef=13813)Footnote 128: Aeon: Lewis - Rather than fearing getting old, here’s how to embrace it (Date=10/04/2024, WebRef=13802)Footnote 129: Aeon: Ham - Censoring offensive language threatens our freedom to think (Date=08/04/2024, WebRef=13804)Footnote 130: Aeon: Mishra - The divided self: does where I live make me who I am? (Date=04/04/2024, WebRef=13805)Footnote 131: Aeon: Forbes - How to think about time (Date=27/03/2024, WebRef=13766)Footnote 132: Aeon: Yaden - William James was right about our strange inner experiences (Date=27/03/2024, WebRef=13764)Footnote 133: Aeon: Love - What is it like to remember all the faces you’ve ever seen? (Date=26/03/2024, WebRef=13767)Footnote 134: Aeon: Video - Powernapper’s Paradise (Date=25/03/2024, WebRef=13763)Footnote 135: Aeon: Woodward - Terrifying vistas of reality (Date=25/03/2024, WebRef=13769)Footnote 136: Aeon: Simoneau-Gilbert & Birch - The dangers of AI farming (Date=22/03/2024, WebRef=13724)Footnote 137: Aeon: Bellitto - The medieval notion that shows why even experts should be humble (Date=22/03/2024, WebRef=13723)Footnote 138: Aeon: Farris - A man beyond categories (Date=21/03/2024, WebRef=13725)Footnote 139: Aeon: Video - The bees that can learn like humans (Date=20/03/2024, WebRef=13726)Footnote 140: Aeon: Mumford - Legacy of the Scythians (Date=19/03/2024, WebRef=13728)Footnote 141: Aeon: McDonald - The magic of the mundane (Date=15/03/2024, WebRef=13699)Footnote 142: Aeon: Video - Shattering stars (Date=14/03/2024, WebRef=13700)Footnote 143: Aeon: Sartwell - What my mother’s sticky notes show about the nature of the self (Date=14/03/2024, WebRef=13698)Footnote 144: Aeon: Stavrinaki - Prehistory in the atomic age (Date=12/03/2024, WebRef=13701)Footnote 145: Aeon: Schneider - Who bears the risk? (Date=11/03/2024, WebRef=13703)Footnote 146: Aeon: Polansky - The battles over beginnings (Date=08/03/2024, WebRef=13696)Footnote 147: Aeon: Cohn-Gordon - Cathedrals of convention (Date=04/03/2024, WebRef=13697)Footnote 148: Aeon: Video - Adeus aos Livros (Date=01/03/2024, WebRef=13629)Footnote 149: Aeon: Costandi - Rethinking the homunculus (Date=01/03/2024, WebRef=13630)Footnote 150: Aeon: Dalal - Inventing Hindu supremacy (Date=27/02/2024, WebRef=13632)Footnote 151: Aeon: Waltner-Toews - Kinship (Date=23/02/2024, WebRef=13602)Footnote 152: Aeon: Love - Rubber hand illusions shed new light on our bodily sense of self (Date=22/02/2024, WebRef=13601)Footnote 153: Aeon: Reames - Ancient Greek antilogic is the craft of suspending judgment (Date=20/02/2024, WebRef=13605)Footnote 154: Aeon: Saul - Beyond dogwhistles – racists have a new rhetorical trick (Date=15/02/2024, WebRef=13608)Footnote 155: Aeon: Evans - There was no Jesus (Date=15/02/2024, WebRef=13576)Footnote 156: Aeon: Lazar - Frontier AI ethics (Date=13/02/2024, WebRef=13575)Footnote 157: Aeon: O'Dwyer - The cruelty of crypto (Date=06/02/2024, WebRef=13573)Footnote 158: Aeon: Love - Innovative three-year-olds expose the limits of AI chatbots (Date=05/02/2024, WebRef=13525)Footnote 159: Aeon: Temkin - The mythos of leadership (Date=01/02/2024, WebRef=13528)Footnote 160: Aeon: Reed - Why so many plagiarists are in denial about what they did wrong (Date=01/02/2024, WebRef=13527)Footnote 161: Aeon: Video - The gory history of barber-surgeons (Date=31/01/2024, WebRef=13529)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Why surgery and barbering were one occupation in the Middle Ages
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Beginning around the 12th century CE, the professions of barber and surgeon were combined into a single occupation throughout much of Europe. And, as this animation from TED-Ed explores, while being on the receiving end of a medical procedure performed by one of these ‘barber-surgeons’ was certainly an unideal place to find oneself, this class of generalists did make notable contributions to the medical field.
      • This slice-of-history video tracks the profession’s rise within monasteries to its dissolution in the 18th century as surgery became more specialised, and how the red-and-white barber pole is a symbol of the barber-surgeon’s legacy.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting, if a bit grisly!
    • Monks required barbers for tonsures, hence had some of the tools, but were eventually - in 1215 - forbidden from shedding blood.
    • Mostly boil-lancing, tooth extraction and blood-letting, but became more sophisticated over time.
    • Mentions antiseptics, but not anaesthetics.
    • Stumps of amputations covered with cow or pig bladders!
Footnote 162: Aeon: Video - Plato: Gorgias (Date=29/01/2024, WebRef=13526)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: ‘My art is oratory, Socrates.’ An ancient warning on the power and peril of rhetoric
    • Editor's Abstract
      • In his dialogue Gorgias, Plato drafts a fictional conversation between Socrates and a group of pre-Socratic philosophers and teachers known as sophists, who were famed for their mastery of rhetoric.
      • This experimental video essay from Epoché Magazine combines somewhat cryptic archival visuals, a haunting, dissonant score, and text from an exchange between Socrates and the titular Gorgias on the nature of oratory.
      • In particular, Socrates’ interrogations address the powers and perils of rhetoric as a persuasive device, especially if used to convince mass audiences to adopt a ‘belief without knowledge’.
      • Embedded in the exchange is both a clear expression of Plato’s anti-democratic sentiment and a critique of the ‘art of oratory’ that still resonates some two millennia later.
  2. Notes
Footnote 163: Aeon: Banks - What awaits us? (Date=29/01/2024, WebRef=13530)Footnote 164: Aeon: Szegőfi - Beware climate populism (Date=25/01/2024, WebRef=13497)Footnote 165: Aeon: Worsnip - What is incoherence? (Date=23/01/2024, WebRef=13498)Footnote 166: Aeon: Prum - Artists of our own lives (Date=19/01/2024, WebRef=13499)Footnote 167: Aeon: Berry - An animal myself (Date=18/01/2024, WebRef=13442)Footnote 168: Aeon: Video - Go incredibly fast (Date=18/01/2024, WebRef=13441)Footnote 169: Aeon: McElvenny - Our language, our world (Date=15/01/2024, WebRef=13444)Footnote 170: Aeon: Blagrove - The reason we dream might be to bring us closer together (Date=11/01/2024, WebRef=13445)Footnote 171: Aeon: Titelbaum - How to think like a Bayesian (Date=10/01/2024, WebRef=13447)Footnote 172: Aeon: Olson - Capturing the cosmos (Date=08/01/2024, WebRef=13449)Footnote 173: Aeon: Englert - We’ll meet again (Date=02/01/2024, WebRef=13420)Footnote 174: Aeon: Orvell & Lebrón-Cruz - Essentialism is insidious – but it might also be helpful (Date=14/12/2023, WebRef=13376)Footnote 175: Aeon: Lupyan - What colour do you see? (Date=12/12/2023, WebRef=13380)Footnote 176: Aeon: Yu, Liao & Kruger - What does switching from paper to screens mean for how we read? (Date=11/12/2023, WebRef=13381)Footnote 177: Aeon: Guerrini - The rights of the dead (Date=07/12/2023, WebRef=13353)Footnote 178: Aeon: Egid - Forging philosophy (Date=05/12/2023, WebRef=13354)Footnote 179: Aeon: Knight - The two Chomskys (Date=04/12/2023, WebRef=13382)Footnote 180: Aeon: Video - How AI learns to see without eyes (Date=29/11/2023, WebRef=13356)Footnote 181: Aeon: Sepielli - Ethics has no foundation (Date=24/11/2023, WebRef=13248)Footnote 182: Aeon: Video - Dying for beginners (Date=23/11/2023, WebRef=13249)Footnote 183: Aeon: Love - How to embrace being a lark or an owl (Date=22/11/2023, WebRef=13251)Footnote 184: Aeon: de Bres - Both one and yet distinct (Date=21/11/2023, WebRef=13252)Footnote 185: Aeon: Goff - Purposeful universe (Date=16/11/2023, WebRef=13245)Footnote 186: Aeon: Williamson - The patterns of reality (Date=14/11/2023, WebRef=13246)Footnote 187: Aeon: Kipnis - The haunting of modern China (Date=10/11/2023, WebRef=13240)Footnote 188: Aeon: Lyons - Whither Philosophy? (Date=02/11/2023, WebRef=13183)Footnote 189: Aeon: Video - Why Henry VIII's codpiece is so monumental (Date=30/10/2023, WebRef=13182)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Why a forcefully phallic portrait of Henry VIII is a masterful work of propaganda
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Painted in 1537, the portrait of Henry VIII (1491-1547) by the Swiss-German artist Hans Holbein the Younger is, as the video essayist Evan Puschak (aka the Nerdwriter) puts it in this short, ‘arguably the most famous portrait of royalty ever painted’. It’s also ‘a lie’, portraying the infamous English monarch as imposing, commanding and virile in a moment when both his physical and political power was in decline, and his lack of a male heir was considered a major liability.
      • Centring his analysis on the most protrudent codpiece the English king sports in the painting, Puschak makes the case that, although very few people ever saw the piece during Henry VIII’s life, it’s a masterful work of political propaganda which still shades how he’s viewed today.
  2. Notes
    • Brief, cogent, informative, humorous ... what's not to like?
    • That said, there's more information in Wikipedia: Portrait of Henry VIII.
    • I'd not realised that all the famous Henry VIII 'Holbein' portraits were copies of the lost mural at the Palace of Whitehall, destroyed by fire in 1698.
    • While the Nerdwriter states that the mural wasn't widely seen at the time, he points out its political import. Yet it seems to me that if - as Wikipedia also suggests - it was in the King's privy chamber, it must have been painted to bolster Henry's self-confidence in difficult times. But, I suppose, the copies – such as the contemporary one at Petworth House – would have distributed the political import.
    • Wikipedia suggests that the portrait may have been commissioned when the King's son Edward was either due or had recently arrived. I think the latter is very unlikely as - had Edward been born - he would have featured in the mural along with Jane Seymour, his mother, who also features along with Henry’s parents.
    • I seem to remember a passage in 'The Tudors' where Holbein presents a cartoon of a more realistic portrait and is told to do it again. The King is more satisfied with the final version (the mural aspect is ignored) and remarks that he could create a new Duke any time he liked, but he couldn’t create another 'Master Holbein'.
Footnote 190: Aeon: Love - Digging for answers in a cave filled with Neanderthal skeletons (Date=26/10/2023, WebRef=13160)Footnote 191: Aeon: Haerle - If thinking is rational, what makes overthinking irrational? (Date=24/10/2023, WebRef=13163)Footnote 192: Aeon: Ball - The final ethical frontier (Date=24/10/2023, WebRef=13164)Footnote 193: Aeon: Video - Ancient demons with Irving Finkel (Date=23/10/2023, WebRef=13181)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Irving Finkel
    • Aeon Subtitle: Meet the absentee gods and nefarious spirits of ancient Mesopotamia
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Ancient Mesopotamians believed that a deity was assigned to every person at birth. It’s a fine sentiment, except that these deities were, like the people they were tasked with protecting, fickle creatures who couldn’t always be relied upon. And, in their moments of abdication, there was a variety of demons interested in seizing the opportunity to disrupt and disturb their lives.
      • In this short video from the British Museum, the Assyriologist Irving Finkel details several stone carvings to explore the complex web of unseen deities, sprites and ghosts that ancient Mesopotamians believed could affect their lives, and which reflected the very real anxieties and dangers of their time.
      • For more from the always-entertaining Finkel, watch his lecture on cuneiform writing (Aeon: Video - Finkel - Cuneiform writing with Irving Finkel).
Footnote 194: Aeon: Cleary - Déjà vu (Date=23/10/2023, WebRef=13165)Footnote 195: Aeon: Callcut - Wrestling with relativism (Date=20/10/2023, WebRef=13070)Footnote 196: Aeon: Huang - The exam that broke society (Date=19/10/2023, WebRef=13072)Footnote 197: Aeon: Video - The room (Date=19/10/2023, WebRef=13071)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Against her father’s warnings, Debra resolves to learn about his time in Auschwitz
    • Editor's Abstract
      • For much of her life, Debra Fisher knew that her father Oscar’s account of surviving Auschwitz as a teenager had been sugarcoated to protect her – and perhaps him as well – from the reality of the horrors he had experienced there.
      • In this brief animation from StoryCorps, Fisher reflects on asking her father, who was nearing death, to let her into a ‘room that she could never leave’ by sharing the truth about his time at the notorious concentration camp.
      • The resulting short forms a brief yet powerful look at how the drive to know the truth can override one’s desire to guard from its sometimes haunting, life-changing gravity.
  2. Notes
    • Too short, really.
    • Debra's father was the same age as the author of "Wiesel (Elie) - Night", a book she had read. So, she knew what the real Auschwitz was like.
    • Is a request for a first-hand account purely joyeuristic? It certainly would be if you kept reading holocaust literature for the sheer thrill and pleasure of it. But, maybe, it's difficult to really believe it all without the testimony of someone you love who had been through it telling you?
    • Not all true accounts are the same, of course. "Frankl (Viktor E.) - Man's Search For Meaning: The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust" gives an account of a much less terrible ordeal.
Footnote 198: Aeon: Bradak - Panspermia (Date=17/10/2023, WebRef=13073)Footnote 199: Aeon: Merson - Recognise free will is an illusion and reap the emotional benefits (Date=12/10/2023, WebRef=13043)Footnote 200: Aeon: Video - Under G-d (Date=12/10/2023, WebRef=13044)Footnote 201: Aeon: Levy - How to drink less alcohol (Date=11/10/2023, WebRef=13046)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Michael Levy
    • Author Narrative: Michael Levy is a psychologist who maintains a private practice in Andover, Massachusetts and in Delray Beach, Florida. For many years, he was a lecturer at the Division on Addictions, Harvard Medical School. He has written two books: Take Control of Your Drinking (2nd ed, 2021) and Celebrity and Entertainment Obsession (2015).
    • Aeon Subtitle: You don’t have an addiction, but you know you’re drinking too much. Learn to regain control and benefit your mind and body
    • Author's Key points
      1. Many people have good reasons to change their drinking. When drinking tends to be unpredictable or has negative consequences – even if the problems seem mild – it may be time to do something about it.
      2. A healthier relationship with alcohol is achievable. While someone with an alcohol addiction will typically need to stop drinking altogether, many others who drink more than they would like to can learn to moderate their drinking.
      3. Describe your reasons for wanting to change your drinking. Getting clear about your personal reasons and creating a handy list can help to bolster your motivation for change.
      4. Consider taking a short break from alcohol. A hiatus can provide insight into your drinking and reinforce that you don’t need to drink every day, which is helpful for cutting back long-term.
      5. Develop your specific plan for healthier drinking. Decide on limits for how much you will drink in a day, how many days a week you will drink, and what kinds of drinks you will have. Consider whether there are certain situations in which you should avoid drinking.
      6. Practise tactics for better pacing and timing. Delaying your first alcoholic beverage, challenging yourself to stretch out and savour each drink, and other in-the-moment tricks can help you consume less.
      7. Prime yourself to drink moderately in social situations. Remind yourself of your goals and your reasons for limiting your drinking, and try to focus on the pleasure of the whole situation, treating drinking as one small part of it.
      8. Assess your progress. Check in periodically about how well you have been adhering to your plan and whether your relationship with drinking has improved.
  2. Notes
    • As is often the case, this is a plug for the author’s latest book.
    • The ‘Key Points’ listed above are a sufficient summary.
    • While I’ve never had a drinking ‘problem’, in the sense of an addiction, I used to drink far too much at university and throughout much of my working life; mostly in social situations but also when working away from home.
    • Since taking early retirement, social opportunities have declined considerably. I’ve kept a record on my drinking since 2004 (6 years before I retired) and my 12-month moving average has almost halved from 30 units / week to 16.
    • What counts as a unit it often rather vague. The official NHS definition is 10 ml / 8 grams of pure alcohol – the amount that can be fully metabolised in an hour. It equates to 1 small glass of 8% wine. So, a bottle of 12% wine equated to 9 units.
    • The ‘safe limit’ has varied over time, but is now – in the UK – set at 14 for both men and women. See UK Gov: Guidance Chapter 12: Alcohol. It used to be 21 for men see – for instance – British Heart Foundation: Know Your Alcohol Limits from 2015. While sticking to the strict definition of a ‘unit’, this allows regular consumption of 3-4 units / day for men and 2-3 units / day for women, where ‘regular; is ‘most or all days of the week’.
    • According to this paper, it’s a little more liberal in the US (where units are presumably indexed to ‘cans of Bud’). We’re referred to NIH: What Is A Standard Drink?, where the ‘unit’ is 14 ml of pure alcohol. In this paper, ‘one standard drink’ is ’12 fl oz (355 ml) of regular (5%) beer’. We’re referred to NIH: What are the U.S. guidelines for drinking? which suggests that the safe limit for men is 2 drinks a day and for women 1. So, you might be able to drink 40% more ‘safely’ in the US, at least if you’re a man.
    • The ‘Key Points’ don’t recommend keeping a detailed spreadsheet as I do, but they do recommend reviewing your plans. While the spreadsheet has helped me moderate my intake, there can be – as with budgets –more of a temptation to fully spend the budget (and therefore occasionally go over) than to underspend. That’s my experience.
    • For me, the issue is the daily ‘nightcap’ – usually 1.5 – 2 units. I find it helps me get to sleep. This is fine, but when there’s a social gathering even a moderate consumption – a large glass – can make me break my budget.
    • "Walker (Matthew P.) - Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams" disapproves of ‘nightcaps’ as – while alcohol is a sedative – so helps you to get to sleep – it interferes with REM sleep. 2 units will take 2 hours to metabolise. It’s supposed to disrupt the assimilation of memories and learning during the day. I don’t think this has ever been a problem for me. I’ve always had a very good memory of what happened during my drinking bouts!
    • Overall, I don’t really have a ‘problem’, but the situation needs to be kept under review.
Footnote 202: Aeon: Doyle - Physician, invade thyself (Date=10/10/2023, WebRef=13048)Footnote 203: Aeon: Ori - Adapting to the neurotypical world is not the same as conforming (Date=09/10/2023, WebRef=13029)Footnote 204: Aeon: Green - Uncertain contact (Date=06/10/2023, WebRef=13017)Footnote 205: Aeon: Video - Holy Cowboys (Date=04/10/2023, WebRef=13019)Footnote 206: Aeon: King & Rudy - The ends of knowledge (Date=29/09/2023, WebRef=12995)Footnote 207: Aeon: Video - What science tells us about the afterlife (Date=28/09/2023, WebRef=12996)Footnote 208: Dennett - Five Favorite Books (Date=25/09/2023, WebRef=13851)Footnote 209: Aeon: Video - The Physics of Music (Date=21/09/2023, WebRef=12966)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: A song of ice, fire and jelly – exploring the physics and history of the trumpet
    • Editor's Abstract
      • In this short from the Royal Institution, the materials scientist Anna Ploszajski combines her greatest passions – physics and music – in a highly entertaining demonstration of how her two areas of expertise are inherently interconnected.
      • Blowing a trumpet into a device known as a Rubens tube, which visualises sound waves and pressure with flames, Ploszajski shows how, for all its complex engineering, her instrument of choice is, in essence, vibrations created with the mouth travelling through a tube.
      • She further deconstructs the instrument by showing how blowing into concrete, ice and even jelly can generate a very similar effect.
      • Ploszajski then ends her presentation with a brief history of the trumpet from ancient Egypt to today, showing how the instrument has evolved alongside contemporary technology, even as the physics of how it creates sound has remained very much the same.
      • Video by The Royal Institution.
  2. Notes
Footnote 210: Aeon: Video - Chinoiserie (Date=20/09/2023, WebRef=12968)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Tour the European architecture that dreamed of a wondrous, fictitious China
    • Editor's Abstract
      • In the 17th and 18th centuries, many European aristocrats were captivated by the luxury goods being imported from China, which they assigned an aura of exotic mystery. Eventually, European artists, architects and designers began taking inspiration from Eastern aesthetics, like the distinctive blue and white colouration and elegant designs of Chinese porcelain.
      • But as so few Europeans had firsthand knowledge of China, what emerged, per this video essay from the YouTube channel Kings and Things, was ‘a European dream of a distant and wondrous place’. This style, which integrated Chinese motifs and European Rococo exuberance, came to be known as Chinoiserie.
      • Taking viewers on a tour through some of Europe’s most notable Chinoiserie structures, most of which served as pleasure palaces for their wealthy builders, the video provides a fascinating look at this moment in European architectural history.
  2. Notes
    • Misled by the solitary 'comment' on this video, I'd thought it might include a discussion of 'cultural misappropriation' and therefore be relevant to my Note on Race. But it wasn't.
    • But it was interesting enough as a bit of cultural history.
    • I suppose, in England at least, there might be a parallel piece on the influence of Indian architecture (see Wikipedia: Royal Pavilion).
Footnote 211: Aeon: Love - When the human tendency to detect patterns goes too far (Date=19/09/2023, WebRef=12969)Footnote 212: Aeon: Video - 73 cows (Date=15/09/2023, WebRef=12973)Footnote 213: Aeon: Video - Math's famous map problem: the four colour theorem (Date=11/09/2023, WebRef=12972)Footnote 214: Aeon: Aldhouse-Green - The secret life of Druids (Date=25/08/2023, WebRef=12895)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Miranda Aldhouse-Green
    • Author Narrative: Miranda Aldhouse-Green is emeritus professor of archeology at Cardiff University in Wales, UK. Her books include The Celtic Myths (1990), Bog Bodies Uncovered: Solving Europe’s Ancient Mystery (2015), and Sacred Britannia: The Gods and Rituals of Roman Britain (Thames & Hudson, 2023).
    • Aeon Subtitle: The Greeks and Romans portrayed these elusive priests as bogeymen who bathed in their victims’ blood. Who were they really?
    • Author's Introduction
      • Gaius Verius Sedatus was a respectable citizen of the community of Chartres in the early 2nd century CE. He was a member of his local town council (a sort of mini-senate), where he and his colleagues presided over its laws and management, under the aegis of Roman law. Gaul had been conquered by Julius Caesar a century earlier and was now administered by trusted locals such as Sedatus, overseen by distant Roman officials.
      • But Sedatus lived a double life. In the evening, he donned the mantle of a magician-priest and descended to his underground temple in the small cellar of his house. There he kept a group of four large incense-burners, placed symmetrically at the points of a square. He filled these vessels with aromatic, perhaps hallucinogenic herbs, and lit fires beneath them. When the drug-laden smoke was sufficiently dense for his needs, he and his followers began to summon the spirits by chanting their names and demanding that they provide him with guidance in the dark arts.
      • Who were these spirits, who had to be contacted so secretly in a small space, dimly lit with oil lamps and flickering candles? Fortunately, one of the incense-burners is complete enough to study closely. The vessel is inscribed, telling us who Sedatus was: a Roman citizen (because of his triple name) and the presiding ritualist who summoned the spirits. Beneath this statement is a long list of spirit names, almost all of which are unknown to archaeologists. But one stands out: ‘Dru’. If we are right in assuming this is an abbreviation of ‘Druid’ (and what else could it be?) then it is the only direct archaeological evidence for the existence of the Druids.
       Author's Conclusion
      • So who were the Druids? How influential were they? Did they really exist or were they constructed by the would-be conquerors of Britain and Gaul – rather like Saddam Hussein’s mythical weapons of mass destruction – to whip up fear and hostility to nations that Caesar and his peers wished to incorporate into the Roman Empire? I think that they did exist but that they were subject to bad press perpetrated by classical writers, their ‘barbarous’ habits of sedition and sacrificial murder either invented or exaggerated not only to instil fear in their readers but also to glorify the conquest of the peoples to whom the Druids belonged.
      • Sedatus’ shrine in Chartres survived to be excavated only because the house above the cellar – whether by accident or design – burned down, sealing the crypt under a thick layer of collapsed debris. It was discovered during clearance work to install a carpark in the centre of the city in 2005. Could it be that Sedatus’ secret life as a Druid had been found out and the shrine condemned by local people? Did he pay for his subversive, anti-Roman activities by having his house destroyed? We may never know. But what is certain is that he dared to be subversive enough to summon strange, non-Roman gods even within the context of a fully Romanised town, a town in which he was regarded as an upstanding Roman citizen. His activities – if nothing else – are a sure indication that Druids remained alive, at least as an idea, long after the absorption of their nations into the maw of the Roman Empire. The shadowy figure of the Druids will continue to beckon – and we will continue our search to find out who they really were.
  2. Notes
    • Fairly interesting, but - while the archaeology seems abundent - connection to the druids seems incredibly sketchy - including for Gaius Verius Sedatus being a druid.
    • While it's true that the Roman historians did 'spin' their defeated opponents - history is always written by the victors - some of the commentors are a bit smug; there's an interesting defense of the ancient Romans by a modern one!
Footnote 215: Aeon: Gable - Efforts to expand the lifespan ignore what it’s like to get old (Date=24/08/2023, WebRef=12894)Footnote 216: Aeon: Video - Kowloon Walled City (Date=23/08/2023, WebRef=12896)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: The rise and fall of Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong’s infamous urban monolith
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Existing as a Chinese enclave within British Hong Kong for roughly a century, in the 1980s Kowloon Walled City was considered the most densely populated place on Earth. Built 14 storeys high and with little to no space between buildings, an estimated 33,000 to 50,000 residents packed into its high-rises across just 6.5 acres. By 1994, this curious urban monolith had been demolished due to what was considered a low quality of life within its walls and plans for the region’s transfer back to China.
      • This video essay traces the history of Kowloon Walled City from its origins as a small 17th-century military outpost to today, where it lives on in the popular imagination through films, video games and an ongoing fascination with this unlikely makeshift society. In doing so, the piece unravels a fascinating story of how geopolitical and economic forces led this unassuming stretch of land to become one of the most idiosyncratic settlements in human history.
  2. Notes
    • I stayed in Hong Kong for a week in 1999, by which time Kowloon had been demolished, so I never saw it.
    • But the history is interesting. In particular, that the walls of the Walled City were demolished by the Japanese during the occupation to expand an airport. Prior to that, the origins of Hong Kong and its expansion following the Second Opium War are well told.
    • Another interesting historical fact is the joint jurisdiction of China and Britain over Kowloon during the period of Britain's 'lease' of Hong Kong, which seems to have led to its autonomy from either, subject to the occasional drugs raid and the limiting of the height of the buildings to accommodate flightpaths to the airport.
    • Their are many interesting comments on the social conditions and of the Walled City as an unregulated economy.
    • More can, of course, be found on Wikipedia (Wikipedia: Kowloon Walled City) and elsewhere.
Footnote 217: Aeon: Lähde - The polycrisis (Date=17/08/2023, WebRef=13942)Footnote 218: BBC - Colosseum - 1:1 The Gladiators (Date=16/08/2023, WebRef=13021)Footnote 219: BBC - Colosseum - 1:2 The Builder (Date=16/08/2023, WebRef=13022)Footnote 220: BBC - Colosseum - 1:3 The Beastmaster (Date=16/08/2023, WebRef=13023)Footnote 221: BBC - Colosseum - 1:4 The Gladiatrix (Date=16/08/2023, WebRef=13024)Footnote 222: BBC - Colosseum - 1:5 The Martyr (Date=16/08/2023, WebRef=13025)Footnote 223: BBC - Colosseum - 1:6 The Scientist (Date=16/08/2023, WebRef=13026)Footnote 224: BBC - Colosseum - 1:7 The Commodus (Date=16/08/2023, WebRef=13027)Footnote 225: BBC - Colosseum - 1:8 The Pagan (Date=16/08/2023, WebRef=13028)Footnote 226: Aeon: Black - The dinosaurs didn’t rule (Date=14/08/2023, WebRef=12851)Footnote 227: Aeon: Video - A journey to Viking Iceland with Kári Gíslason (Date=10/08/2023, WebRef=12853)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: See QUT (Queensland University of Technology): Dr Kári Gíslason.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Myths from Earth’s edge – what the Icelandic sagas reveal about Norse morality
    • Editor's Abstract
      • The collection of stories known as the Icelandic sagas are foundational works of Icelandic culture that are still widely read in the country today. Predating the Christianisation of Iceland in 1000 CE, these tales intermingle history, Norse paganism, and a morality steeped in warrior traditions and the northerly island’s rugged, barren terrain.
      • In this performance and lecture, Kári Gíslason, a professor of creative writing and literary studies at Queensland University of Technology, evokes the sagas’ roots in oral storytelling as he melds his own story with that of the saga character Disa, whose tale of exile, love, murder and loyalty captivated Gíslason’s imagination as a young student and, in doing so, altered the trajectory of his life.
  2. Notes
    • This is an entertaining, if rather leisurely, video.
    • It interweaves summary dramatisations - monologues - of the sagas with the same telling of the author's own family life and fascination with Iceland.
    • It is top and tailed by the author's singing ancient songs in Icelandic.
    • The trouble with the telling of the sagas is the indistinctness and unusualness of the names of the protagonists, which makes it a little difficult to follow the plot sometimes.
    • A reference to which saga / sagas this one was would have been helpful. There doesn't seem to be a Wikipedia entry on the Icelandic Sagas as such, but there is one (Wikipedia: Sagas of Icelanders) which seems relevant to the one (s) in the video.
    • I suspect this video presents some highlights from the author's book (with Richard Fidler) - Saga Land: The Island of Stories at the Edge of the World. This is rather long, leisurely and with difficult characters to keep track of, according to one Amazon reviewer, though there's a long and very appreciative review from a fellow academic.
Footnote 228: Aeon: Video - Pupil Diversity (Date=09/08/2023, WebRef=12854)Footnote 229: Aeon: Video - Changeling (Date=07/08/2023, WebRef=12852)Footnote 230: Aeon: Mestyan - The Arab Kingdom (Date=07/08/2023, WebRef=12855)Footnote 231: Aeon: Fernandes - The great libraries of Rome (Date=04/08/2023, WebRef=12840)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Fabio Fernandes
    • Author Narrative: Fabio Fernandes lives in London, where he received a BA and MA in ancient history at University College London.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Passersby could wander at will into grand public libraries in imperial Rome. Could they trust what they found inside?
  2. Notes
    • Interesting enough. I think the idea is that the Roman Emperors outdid the earlier Republican senatorial class in making their libraries open to the educated public, rather than just to their friends.
    • Clearly, all such magnanimity was a statement of power; and no autocrat wants too much work critical of his regime.
    • It is noted that the vast majority of Romans couldn't read. It is pointed out in an anecdote that authors would read their own works aloud. It's not mentioned whether there would be public recitals of 'classics' in the libraries.
    • There's an attempt to bring the topic up to date by focusing on the attempted censorship - in the US - of works by or supporting members of the 'LGBTQIA+ community and people of colour' by various vigilantes and right-wing parental groups. No doubt, but it's hardly state policy. But if we're taking a high view of freedom of speech, the no-platforming of people who deviate from the current orthodoxy on certain issues also needs to be mentioned.
Footnote 232: Aeon: Video - Deirdre Barrett on dreams (Date=31/07/2023, WebRef=12841)Footnote 233: Aeon: Love - How to connect with your future self (Date=26/07/2023, WebRef=12830)Footnote 234: Aeon: Rampton - Miracles not magic (Date=20/07/2023, WebRef=12814)Footnote 235: Aeon: Gray - It’s not only political conservatives who worry about moral purity (Date=13/07/2023, WebRef=12790)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Kurt Gray
    • Author Narrative: Kurt Gray is professor of social and moral psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and director of the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding. He is the co-author, with Daniel Wegner, of The Mind Club: Who Thinks, What Feels, and Why It Matters (2016). He lives in Carrboro, North Carolina.
    • Aeon Subtitle: You might think the political Right is more focussed on morals than the Left. But purity is a pervasive political value
    • Author's Conclusion
      • One scholar is known for his steadfast faith in the importance of feeling revolted. Leon Kass argued in 1997 that any future practice of cloning humans should be banned. He defended his position by pointing to the impurity of the practice; his article was titled ‘The Wisdom of Repugnance’.
      • Yet repugnance and disgust, on their own, are not sufficient for moral condemnation. If you want people who don’t feel the same way you do to understand your position on a moral issue, you will need to articulate the potential harms of seemingly immoral acts. Kass wrote: ‘Shallow are the souls that have forgotten how to shudder.’ This is the way many of us regard moral opponents nowadays: seeing them as shallow or morally bereft, and not bothering to connect with them because they seem so different from us.
      • But we have much in common. People of different political orientations care about maintaining purity because they see it as protecting themselves and others from harm. By putting this harm into words, we may find that there is greater potential for understanding than we thought.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting enough. The idea is that everyone has 'purity' intuitions, but not everyone has the same ones. We can better understand one another's revulsions by understanding the underlying reasons for revulsion to represent fear of potential harms (rather than irrational taboos). The harms can be Kantian 'what if universally adopted' ones rather than immediate harms resulting from a particular action.
    • So, in the example of cloning humans in the author's conclusion cited above, I have no revulsion (and can't imagine why anyone would be 'revolted' by the idea), but can see that some people would see more potential harms than I can.
    • But - for all that - 'revulsion' is a gut instinct rather than a rational response to potential harms.
    • Take the example in "Mistry (Rohinton) - A Fine Balance", where a small bit of beef is found in the stew: it's difficult to see why such visceral and murderous reactions by devout Hindus could be explained in that way.
Footnote 236: Aeon: Video - The return of the takhi (Date=13/07/2023, WebRef=12793)Footnote 237: Aeon: Hassett - How to grow a human (Date=10/07/2023, WebRef=12799)Footnote 238: Aeon: Alexander & Bunschoten - Crème de la crème (Date=07/07/2023, WebRef=12778)
  1. Aeon
    • Authors: Kelly Alexander & Claire Bunschoten
    • Author Narrative:
      • Kelly Alexander is an anthropologist at the Department of American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her books include Hometown Appetites: The Story of Clementine Paddleford (2008), co-authored with Cynthia Harris, and Peaches: A Savor the South Cookbook (2013).
      • Claire Bunschoten is the Abbott Lowell Cummings Postdoctoral Fellow in American Material Culture at Boston University. She is working on a book about vanilla as a flavour, fragrance and euphemism for race in the United States.
    • Aeon Subtitle: How French cuisine became beloved among status-hungry diners in the United States, from Thomas Jefferson to Kanye West
  2. Notes
    • I read this because of the - according to one reviewer - 'irrelevant' introductory section on Kanye West.
    • Contrary to all the reviewers, I found the article moderately interesting and informative.
    • I thought Kanye West received far more space than was relevant.
    • I don't have any sort of 'feel' for the US culinary or class system, nor do I care much about either.
    • But the background information on the development of French cooking in post-Revolutionary France was at least enlightening.
    • My feeling is that French cooking - like French wines - is no longer as central to the good life as it once was because the French have been overtaken or at least rivalled by other cuisines and wines.
    • But almost anything is better than standard English or US cooking.
    • I'd thought that this article might relate to my Notes on Race or Narrative identity, but so weakly I've not created a Paper from it.
Footnote 239: Aeon: Shapiro - Evolution without accidents (Date=06/07/2023, WebRef=12780)Footnote 240: Aeon: Video - Takrar (Date=06/07/2023, WebRef=12779)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: The art of Istanbul dances to life in a tribute to the city’s timeless beauty
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Built from images gathered around Istanbul, the short video Takrar – from the Arabic for ‘repetition’ – is a mesmerising celebration of the city’s multicultural, centuries-long legacy of art, design and architecture.
      • Intricately pieced together by the Syrian German filmmaker Waref Abu Quba from some 2,900 photographs taken over two years, the stop-motion short contains images spanning Islamic, Ottoman, Greek and Byzantine designs.
      • Set to a lively, percussive soundtrack, Abu Quba’s labour of love makes for a riveting tribute to the city’s timeless beauty and rich history.
  2. Notes
    • While this is cleverly done, I found it boring and it in no way gave me a feel for the beauties or splendour of Istanbul.
    • The video exploits the symmetry of the images to make their asymmetric elements appear to move (the asymmetric elements seem to rotate as the photos rapidly superced one another).
    • However, I'd have preferred a wider view - together with some facts and context - rather than trick photography.
    • While the video is short - at only 4 minutes - after the first 30 seconds it's more of the same tedium.
Footnote 241: Aeon: Video - Are we living in a quantum sandwich? (Date=05/07/2023, WebRef=12781)Footnote 242: Aeon: Middleton - The horrors of Pompeii (Date=04/07/2023, WebRef=12784)Footnote 243: Aeon: Video - 4124.GreyKey (Date=03/07/2023, WebRef=12789)Footnote 244: Aeon: Price & Wharton - Untangling entanglement (Date=29/06/2023, WebRef=12766)Footnote 245: Aeon: Evans - The myth of mirrored twins (Date=27/06/2023, WebRef=12769)Footnote 246: Aeon: Jordan - Warfare as mercy and love (Date=23/06/2023, WebRef=12751)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: William Chester Jordan
    • Author Narrative: William Chester Jordan is Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University. His most recent books are Servant of the Crown and Steward of the Church: The Career of Philippe of Cahors (2020) and The Apple of His Eye: Converts from Islam in the Reign of Louis IX (2019).
    • Aeon Subtitle: The daggers that knights carried to the crusades help us understand why they thought of holy war as an act of love
Footnote 247: Aeon: Jarrett - Five ways to take control of your dreams (Date=20/06/2023, WebRef=12755)Footnote 248: Aeon: Rao - Here’s to blue foods (Date=19/06/2023, WebRef=12758)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Madhura Rao
    • Author Narrative: Madhura Rao is a freelance (food) science communicator and doctoral candidate in food law and policy at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.
    • Aeon Subtitle: With care for the social and ecological consequences, foods from the ocean should provide sustainable protein to billions
  2. Notes
    • A disappointing article. I'd hoped it would consider the fish involved, but they are viewed purely instrumentally - as objects, not as subjects.
    • This isn't remarked on by the commentators who complain about the practicalities or environmental impact only.
Footnote 249: Aeon: Video - Some Kind of Intimacy (Date=19/06/2023, WebRef=12760)Footnote 250: Aeon: Andersen - All possible worlds (Date=15/06/2023, WebRef=12732)Footnote 251: Aeon: Sheldon - The three reasons why it’s good for you to believe in free will (Date=15/06/2023, WebRef=12739)Footnote 252: Aeon: Video - Could we have babies in space? (Date=14/06/2023, WebRef=12733)Footnote 253: Aeon: Video - A journey at the dawn of photography (Date=12/06/2023, WebRef=12728)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: See the Mediterranean as it was captured in some of the earliest surviving photographs
    • Editor's Abstract
      • A scholar, artist and heir to a considerable fortune, Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey set off from his native France in 1842 for a tour of the historic archeology of the Eastern Mediterranean. But, more than just an eager sightseer, Girault de Prangey planned to capture such famed structures as the Acropolis in Athens and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem via daguerreotype – the world’s first publicly accessible photographic process – with the intent of publishing and selling his images.
      • These pictures, as well as the additional street scenes and cityscapes he would capture along the way, would eventually become historic in their own right, in some cases representing the oldest surviving photographs of the places depicted.
      • However, as this video essay from the YouTube channel Kings and Things details, these remarkable images would go almost entirely unseen until the 1920s, some three decades after Girault de Prangey’s death.
      • Inviting viewers to retrace this photographer’s footsteps, the video presents a riveting window onto the Eastern Mediterranean as it existed nearly two centuries ago, at the dawn of the photographic age. For more from Kings and Things, watch Aeon: Video - The impossible architecture of Étienne-Louis Boullée.
Footnote 254: Aeon: Video - Gecko grip (Date=08/06/2023, WebRef=12714)Footnote 255: Aeon: Huston - There’s a growing case for renaming ‘personality disorders’ (Date=06/06/2023, WebRef=12718)Footnote 256: Aeon: Video - The science of cuteness (Date=01/06/2023, WebRef=12699)Footnote 257: Aeon: Salmon - A philosophy of secrets (Date=26/05/2023, WebRef=12684)Footnote 258: Aeon: Video - Ancient wine drinking (Date=25/05/2023, WebRef=12685)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: What wine vessels reveal about politics and luxury in ancient Athens and Persia
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Fought between 499 and 449 BCE, the Greco-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts in which Greek city-states, and especially Athens, fought off the military advances of the sprawling Persian Empire. Today, it’s remembered for such storied events as the battles of Marathon (490 BCE) and Thermopylae (480 BCE).
      • However, historical accounts of these conflicts come to us from Greek sources only, meaning they’re inevitably and unabashedly one-sided.
      • And so, as the British Museum curator James Fraser explains in this video, by studying artefacts from this time period, historians can glean many details that the written histories lack.
      • An accompaniment to the exhibition ‘Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece’, which is on display at the British Museum until 13 August 2023, this short features Fraser comparing wine vessels from the two warring civilisations. In doing so, he examines how, while Athens was able to repel the Persian military, the cultural impressions left by their items of ‘supreme luxury’ would leave a lasting mark.
Footnote 259: Aeon: Video - Eliminative Materialism (Date=22/05/2023, WebRef=12692)Footnote 260: Aeon: Hart - The myth of machine consciousness makes Narcissus of us all (Date=22/05/2023, WebRef=12693)Footnote 261: Aeon: Walker & Cronin - Time is an object (Date=19/05/2023, WebRef=12666)Footnote 262: Aeon: Video - Eleonora Stump on the problem of evil (Date=17/05/2023, WebRef=12670)Footnote 263: Aeon: Sartwell - The post-linguistic turn (Date=16/05/2023, WebRef=12673)Footnote 264: YouTube: The Sad Story of the Smartest Man Who Ever Lived (Date=13/05/2023, WebRef=12993)Footnote 265: Aeon: Video - Our ark (Date=11/05/2023, WebRef=12651)Footnote 266: Aeon: Mizrahi - Why not scientism? (Date=11/05/2023, WebRef=12653)Footnote 267: Aeon: Video - Ndagukunda déjà (I Love You, Already) (Date=08/05/2023, WebRef=12658)Footnote 268: Aeon: Video - Shakespear's First Folio (Date=04/05/2023, WebRef=12633)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Leaf through Shakespeare’s First Folio for a riveting journey into theatre history
    • Editor's Abstract
      • For proof that Shakespeare’s genius was evident to his contemporaries, look no further than the collection of plays published seven years after his death: Mr William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies (1623), today often called his First Folio.
      • Compiled by two actors from Shakespeare’s theatre company in an effort to save his works for posterity, the book features 36 of his plays, including such classics as Macbeth, The Tempest and Twelfth Night, as well as the annotations made over time by the book’s early owners.
      • In this video, Elizabeth James, senior librarian at the National Art Library in London, and Harriet Reed, curator of contemporary performance at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, open and explore this fascinating 400-year-old document, detailing its creation, content and enduring influence.
  2. Notes
Footnote 269: Aeon: Srinivasan & Pearson - The free dogs of India (Date=04/05/2023, WebRef=12635)Footnote 270: Aeon: Päs - All is One (Date=28/04/2023, WebRef=12616)Footnote 271: Aeon: Video - Three ways to think about free will (Date=26/04/2023, WebRef=12620)Footnote 272: Aeon: Video - Five graphs that changed the world (Date=20/04/2023, WebRef=12605)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Mapping data visualisation’s meteoric rise from Victorian London to today
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Today, data visualisation is ubiquitous, created and used by experts and laypeople alike to make sense of an increasingly intricate – and intricately measured – world. However, some 200 years ago, the notion that fanciful images could accurately represent hard data wasn’t taken seriously among scientists.
      • This stylish animation walks viewers through two centuries of data visualisation. Moving from the physician John Snow’s cholera ‘dot map’ of London from 1854, to a disturbing instance of eugenic misinformation, to the ‘warming stripes’ charting today’s climate crisis, the video highlights five data visualisations that gave rise to the form, and changed the world.
  2. Notes
    • The five visualisations are:-
      1. John Snow, Dot Map, Cholera
      2. Florence Nightingale, Coxcomb, causes of deaths
      3. W.E.B de Bois; various charts of the accomplishments of Black Americans since the abolition of Slavery
      4. Henry Goddard: Kallikak Family Tree - fictitious, eugenicist
      5. Global 'warming stripes'
    • Ok as far as it goes, but it's more politically tendentious than a dispassionate description of techniques, as in "Spiegelhalter (David) - The Art of Statistics: Learning from Data".
Footnote 273: Aeon: Borkenhagen - Octopus time (Date=20/04/2023, WebRef=12607)Footnote 274: Aeon: Noreña - Guide to a foreign past (Date=18/04/2023, WebRef=12611)Footnote 275: Aeon: Platts-Mills - Animal, vegetable, mineral (Date=14/04/2023, WebRef=12585)Footnote 276: Aeon: Vazard - Perplexed? Embrace it! Confusion is a symptom of learning (Date=12/04/2023, WebRef=12587)Footnote 277: Aeon: Martinho-Truswell - How like the kiwi we are (Date=11/04/2023, WebRef=12592)Footnote 278: Aeon: Video - The art of two-way art (Date=06/04/2023, WebRef=12570)Footnote 279: Aeon: McGuigan - Meaning beyond definition (Date=03/04/2023, WebRef=12579)Footnote 280: The Guardian: McGivney - ‘Bees are sentient’: inside the stunning brains of nature’s hardest workers (Date=02/04/2023, WebRef=13729)Footnote 281: Aeon: Video - Carl Sagan on Eratosthenes (Date=30/03/2023, WebRef=12554)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Carl Sagan
    • Aeon Subtitle: How an ancient polymath first calculated Earth’s size, as told by Carl Sagan
    • Editor's Abstract
      • In this clip from the celebrated science education series Cosmos (1980), the astronomer Carl Sagan explores the life and legacy of the ancient Greek polymath Eratosthenes, who, in the 3rd century BCE, not only understood Earth to be spherical, but was able to calculate its circumference with remarkable accuracy.
      • In detailing Eratosthenes’ ingenious methods, Sagan provides a fascinating science history lesson that doubles as a tribute to the remarkable ingenuity of ancient thinkers, who were able to uncover extraordinary truths with the simplest of tools.
  2. Notes
Footnote 282: Aeon: Video - Everything is a remix: AI and image generation (Date=27/03/2023, WebRef=12561)Footnote 283: Aeon: Malesic - Our big problem is not misinformation; it’s knowingness (Date=27/03/2023, WebRef=12562)Footnote 284: Aeon: Broks - Are coincidences real? (Date=24/03/2023, WebRef=12542)Footnote 285: Aeon: Cassen - Hidden in translation – Jewish resistance to Spanish empire (Date=21/03/2023, WebRef=12536)Footnote 286: Aeon: Hoeg - Aphantasia can be a gift to philosophers and critics like me (Date=20/03/2023, WebRef=12539)Footnote 287: Aeon: Barash - Stuck with the soul (Date=20/03/2023, WebRef=12540)Footnote 288: Aeon: Saraceni - The problem with English (Date=16/03/2023, WebRef=12525)Footnote 289: Aeon: Star - How the ancient philosophers imagined the end of the world (Date=15/03/2023, WebRef=12526)Footnote 290: Aeon: Webb - Cosmic vision (Date=10/03/2023, WebRef=12512)Footnote 291: Aeon: Pierce - Where went the wolf? (Date=09/03/2023, WebRef=12515)Footnote 292: Aeon: Jabbari - After the mother tongues (Date=07/03/2023, WebRef=12519)Footnote 293: Aeon: Machek - What’s a life worth living? For the ancients, it depends (Date=06/03/2023, WebRef=12521)Footnote 294: Aeon: Video - How do we know what's real? (Date=02/03/2023, WebRef=12509)Footnote 295: Aeon: Venkataraman - Lessons from the foragers (Date=02/03/2023, WebRef=12511)Footnote 296: Aeon: Video - The Parthenon Marbles (Date=28/02/2023, WebRef=12502)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: The strange journey of the Parthenon Marbles to the British Museum
    • Editor's Abstract
      • With origins in the 5th century BCE, the Parthenon Marbles are a collection of architectural sculptures that were built into the temple of Athena, also known as the Parthenon – a masterpiece of classical Greek architecture and an enduring symbol of ancient Greece.
      • In this video essay, Evan Puschak (aka the Nerdwriter) explains how, in the early 19th century, roughly half of the these sculptures, with some additional items from the Acropolis of Athens, came to be housed at the British Museum in London, where they’re still on display today, some 2,000 miles away from their original site.
      • In his dive into the ongoing controversy over the Marbles, Puschak details the historical tides and vague legal language that led to the transfer of these priceless antiquities from Ottoman-controlled Greece to England.
      • In doing so, he hints at the broader reckoning around artefacts, ethics and the legacy of colonialism facing museums around the world.
  2. Notes
    • This is an interesting account of the acquisition of the Elgin Marbles. I'd not known that Lord Elgin played a little fast and loose with his entitlements (that - by modern sentiments - the Ottomans had no right to alienate from their native land). However, it's not as though the Ottomans were curating the Greek antiquities. I noted that the Venitians received the blame for blowing up the Parthenon, rather than the Turks for using it as an arms dump: analogous to it being the allies' fault for destroying Monte Casino, rather than the Nazis for being holed up in it?
    • All this anti-colonialism (not that this had anything to do with the Elgin Marbles: Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire, not the British Empire) seems to suffer from a loss of perspective. Until modern times, the rules of the game were that Empires expanded by attacking their neighbours and either annihilating or enslaving their populations if they weren't complient, or imposing levies on them if they were willing to play ball. The levies often involved expropriating their best 'stuff' as booty, partly to pay for the costs of war. The Venetians were good at this expropriation; Venice contains many treasures expropriated from Byzantium; which was itself expropriated by the Turks.
    • In general, the colonial powers weren't so rapacious or destructive as had previously been the case, and themselves changed the rules of the game (admittedly this is a complex matter: some of the colonial activities in sub-Saharan Africa may have been as bad as anything the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Mongols, Turks and so on did). The colonial powers were the last empires on the scene and receive more criticism than those that preceeded them on account of their temporal proximity, and their sucessor states being rich enough to pay reparations.
    • As a reviewer has pointed out, where would all this end? European and American museums would be empty.
Footnote 297: Aeon: Misgar - Wielding death (Date=24/02/2023, WebRef=12493)Footnote 298: Aeon: Andrews & Birch - What has feelings? (Date=23/02/2023, WebRef=12495)Footnote 299: Aeon: Leong & Chee - How to nap (Date=22/02/2023, WebRef=12484)Footnote 300: Aeon: Torres - The ethics of human extinction (Date=20/02/2023, WebRef=12490)Footnote 301: Aeon: Lencz & Carmi - Selected before birth (Date=17/02/2023, WebRef=12472)Footnote 302: Aeon: Video - How to outsmart the prisoner's dilemma (Date=16/02/2023, WebRef=12473)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Chew over the prisoner’s dilemma and see if you can find the rational path out
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Prisoner’s dilemmas ponder what happens when two rational agents, unable to communicate with one another, must choose between betraying the other for a large individual reward or cooperating for a more modest shared reward. These thought experiments are accompanied by a caveat – if both agents betray one another, they’re left with nothing.
      • One of the best-known examples of game theory, the implications of prisoner’s dilemmas are more than just theoretical, extending to real-life matters of government and diplomacy.
      • Illustrated with whimsical felt stop-motion, this TED-Ed animation puzzles through two prisoner’s-dilemma scenarios in which gingerbread men are forced to chew over how to keep the maximum number of limbs.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting but, as is usually the case in these videos, too fast to follow in one viewing, even for those - like me - who have seen all this before.
    • Papers I have on the topic include:-
      → "Kuhn (Steven) - Prisoner’s Dilemma", and
      → "Parfit (Derek) - Prudence, morality, and the prisoner's dilemma".
    • The second case, involving infinite series with the discount rate for break-even for defection versus cooperation being 1/3 depends on the specific model under discussion. Also, the discount rate Delta would normally be written (1 - Delta).
Footnote 303: Aeon: Agadjanian - If racial identity can be fluid, who changes their race? (Date=14/02/2023, WebRef=12478)Footnote 304: Aeon: Godfrey-Smith - If not vegan, then what? (Date=10/02/2023, WebRef=12466)Footnote 305: Aeon: Video - A brief history of vampires (Date=09/02/2023, WebRef=12467)Footnote 306: Aeon: Podany - What the tablets say (Date=09/02/2023, WebRef=12469)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Amanda H. Podany
    • Author Narrative: Amanda H Podany is professor emeritus of history at the California State Polytechnic University in Pomona. Her latest book is Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East (2022).
    • Aeon Subtitle: Some 3,700 years ago, an enslaved girl, a barber, and a king crossed paths in a city by the Euphrates. This is their story
    • Author's Conclusion
      • The land-owning families in the rebit matim neighbourhood at Terqa, such as those of Gimil-Ninkarrak and Puzurum, lived and worked alongside families who struggled to make ends meet. I think they would all be astounded to know that, more than 3,700 years later, the clay tablets they left behind allow us to trace their relationships and analyse their decisions, and that their lives help us to understand their long-lost culture.
      • Cuneiform archives like these combine to show us that the ancient Middle East was populated by men, women and children who worked and socialised, loved their families and friends, struggled through adversity, and were as real and human as ourselves.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting and informative. More information can be found in the author's books; but, life is too short.
Footnote 307: Aeon: Video - Man on the chair (Date=08/02/2023, WebRef=12465)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: An animated figure’s world grows enigmatic when he begins to doubt reality
    • Editor's Abstract
      • For some, the existential heebie-jeebies creep in only during small, idle moments – perhaps when you’re awake in bed, or prompted by a mind-bending book or film. Or maybe you find the mysteries of the Universe an endless source of wonder and even joy. But for others, the strangeness of existence, and the reality it rests upon, can be a haunting prospect. Where did I – and everything else – come from? Am I really here? How can I know that I even exist? For those with ruminative and anxious minds, these most fundamental questions are more than just philosophy-class curiosities – they have the capacity to reverberate, linger and overwhelm.
      • At once meditative and unsettling, Man on the Chair by the Korean animator Jeong Dahee mines enigmatic art from the unknowable. With very few words from an unseen narrator and a stunning series of visuals, she sketches out the tale of a man who, unable to move, spirals deep into the ontological quandaries that have troubled him since childhood. The story unfolds like a haunting dream, drifting further into the surreal with each passing moment.
      • Aided by a sparse and realistic sound design, Dahee builds a meticulous world, rich with detail at every turn. Lines on the man’s body are echoed in ripples of water, and later as birds in flight. When a table begins to move of its own volition and a glass atop it begins to spill, the creaks, drips and swirls unfold with a convincing physical realism. When a clock on the wall ticks, its second hand jerks into place in a lifelike manner. It’s these small touches, accumulating throughout and tethering the uncanny scenes to reality, that make the work so oddly enchanting.
      • Although Dahee builds a full story arc, she resists trying to moralise or rationalise away the experience of existential dread. Ultimately, Man on the Chair is a contemplative work, not a message. However, by eventually breaking the fourth wall and revealing herself as the film’s creator, Dahee perhaps hints at her own chosen way to channel anxious feelings about the big, unresolvable questions.
  2. Notes
    • It's well made, and I don't have much to add to the commentary. It raises lots of the questions we ask ourselves in idle reflective moments.
    • I'm not sure what the film-maker's answer to it all is supposed to be, but my answer to feelings of existential dread would be to embrace the questions, take them seriously and try to answer them.
Footnote 308: Aeon: Video - The panspermia theory (Date=07/02/2023, WebRef=12459)Footnote 309: Aeon: Video - My Dudus (Date=31/01/2023, WebRef=12452)Footnote 310: Aeon: Grant - My blackness (Date=27/01/2023, WebRef=12434)Footnote 311: Aeon: Video - Barry Loewer on causation (Date=24/01/2023, WebRef=12427)Footnote 312: Aeon: Baggini - Goodbye Pixel (Date=24/01/2023, WebRef=12429)Footnote 313: Aeon: Video - Ethical dilemma: whose life is more valuable? (Date=19/01/2023, WebRef=12405)Footnote 314: Aeon: Mireault - Born that way (Date=17/01/2023, WebRef=12399)Footnote 315: Aeon: Nicholson & Haywood - There’s no planet B (Date=16/01/2023, WebRef=12402)Footnote 316: Aeon: Taiwo - It never existed (Date=13/01/2023, WebRef=12386)Footnote 317: Aeon: Video - Connecting the human body to the outside world (Date=09/01/2023, WebRef=12382)Footnote 318: Aeon: Raff - Finding the First Americans (Date=22/12/2022, WebRef=12354)Footnote 319: Aeon: Terzian & Corbalán - Do you have a duty to tell people they’re wrong about carrots? (Date=21/12/2022, WebRef=12353)Footnote 320: Aeon: Hershovitz - How to do philosophy with kids (Date=21/12/2022, WebRef=12346)Footnote 321: Aeon: Simon - If animals are persons, should they bear criminal responsibility? (Date=21/12/2022, WebRef=12345)Footnote 322: Aeon: Video - Creating a wormhole in a quantum computer (Date=19/12/2022, WebRef=12350)Footnote 323: Aeon: Cain - The immortalists have got it wrong – here’s why we need death (Date=14/12/2022, WebRef=12333)Footnote 324: Aeon: Wilkinson - The pharaoh’s trumpet (Date=08/12/2022, WebRef=12322)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Toby Wilkinson
    • Author Narrative: Toby Wilkinson is an Egyptologist and author. He is a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and his latest books are A World Beneath the Sands: Adventurers and Archaeologists in the Golden Age of Egyptology (2020) and Tutankhamun’s Trumpet: The Story of Ancient Egypt in 100 Objects (2022).
    • Aeon Subtitle: The truly wondrous treasures of Tutankhamun’s tomb are not made of gold. They are the mundane things of everyday life
    • Author's Conclusion
      • Tutankhamun’s trumpet conjures up a lost world of sound. Music was clearly important in the lives of the ancient Egyptians, at all levels of society, as evidenced by numerous tomb scenes. Yet, in the absence of any musical notation, the nature of pharaonic music remains unknown and unknowable. The tunes the ancient Egyptians played, and the tonalities of their music, remain elusive.
      • It is a salutary reminder that, even after more than two centuries of excavation in the Nile Valley, yielding countless finds, many details of pharaonic civilisation escape us. Study of the material remains left by the ancient Egyptians – epitomised most spectacularly and abundantly by the objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun – reveals much about their daily lives, their geography and history, government and religion; but the human experience of actually living in the pharaonic Nile Valley can never be recovered.
      • Like Tutankhamun himself, the music that surrounded him has vanished. All that remains are echoes of the past. The objects buried with him provide glimpses into his world, and into the civilisation of ancient Egypt of which he remains the ultimate symbol. It is left to our imagination to fill in the gaps.
  2. Notes
    • A plug for the author's latest book, and the preceeding one. Both look worth buying and reading, but life's too short.
    • The essay is interesting and informative.
Footnote 325: Aeon: Case - Where God dwelt (Date=02/12/2022, WebRef=12306)Footnote 326: Aeon: Wyatt & Ulatowski - How to think about truth (Date=30/11/2022, WebRef=12299)Footnote 327: Aeon: Video - The Rosetta stone and what it actually says (Date=29/11/2022, WebRef=12300)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Ilona Regulski
    • Aeon Subtitle: What did the Rosetta Stone’s inscription actually communicate?
    • Editor's Abstract
      • There’s a good chance you know a fact or two about the artefact called the Rosetta Stone – namely that, because it was inscribed with a single message written in three different scripts, its discovery allowed archeologists to decode ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Or you might have heard that the new Grand Egyptian Museum has been calling for the artefact to be returned to its homeland.
      • However, you may not know some of the most basics facts about the object. For instance, what was its purpose, and what did it actually say?
      • In this video, Ilona Regulski, curator of Egyptian written culture at the British Museum in London, walks viewers through the stone and its ‘decree’, issued during the Ptolemaic dynasty in 196 BCE. In doing so, she reveals how this ancient stele, first unearthed in 1799, was just the first of many copies that have been found throughout Egypt, and what its message can tell us about the transitional period in which it was written.
      • The video supports the exhibition ‘Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt’, which runs at the British Museum through to February 2023.
  2. Notes
Footnote 328: Aeon: Uzan - Moral mathematics (Date=28/11/2022, WebRef=12304)Footnote 329: Aeon: Video - Why did Consciousness evolve (Date=28/11/2022, WebRef=12303)Footnote 330: Aeon: Fernandes - Wanderlust of the ancients (Date=24/11/2022, WebRef=12289)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Fabio Fernandes
    • Author Narrative: Fabio Fernandes lives in London, where he received a BA and MA in ancient history at University College London.
    • Author's Conclusion
      • Identities could co-exist and complement each other, but Roman-ness itself provided the focal point of an admirable multiculturalism to millions of otherwise disparate peoples, a universal identity that anyone could aspire to attain. Aristides encapsulated this evolution succinctly, praising the city for having ‘caused the word “Roman” to be the label, not of membership in a city, but of a common nationality’.
      • This ‘common nationality’ was not merely a legal concept: most inhabitants of the empire were not actual Roman citizens until the Constitutio Antoniniana of 212 CE granted full citizenship to all free men. Until then, this plethora of Romans in all but city and citizenship, with all their distinctions, were bound together by what must have been a more practical and even emotional sense of kinship. Indeed, ‘Roma communis nostra patria est’, declared the Greek-speaking jurist Modestinus in the 3rd century CE: ‘Rome is our common fatherland.’
      • It’s hardly a leap to declare that, some two millennia ago, in the Roman Empire, an early version of ‘globalisation’ first reared its head. It was this interconnectivity and the Roman tolerance of plurality that glued the empire together and made it ultimately work and flourish for centuries.
      • Make no mistake: liberal ideals were not the impetus behind the ‘cosmopolitisation’ of the Roman Empire. There was no progressive democracy, but an imperialist machine that expanded and thrived through violent conquest, subjugation, exploitation and slavery. Nor was ‘Romanisation’ an absolute or uniform process throughout the empire: it was felt less acutely in relatively remote, little-urbanised regions. Xenophobia and nativism contradicted the supposed inclusivity of imperial Roman-ness, which was in itself bound up with notions of the perceived superiority of Roman civilisation. Rome could both embrace and disdain the foreign. Just as Egypt’s wonders were marvellous and frivolous, so was the diversity of Rome’s migrants a source of pride and dread. Xenophilic or xenophobic, there is no use in generalising the attitudes of the time: the inconsistency is a reflection of how Romans across the empire were processing their increasingly cosmopolitan reality.
      • The cultural transformations brought by Rome permanently altered the course of European history and society. The extent of this legacy demands we question the idea that Romanisation was solely the homogenisation of powerless, victimised native peoples into a pre-existing social order. Instead, in multifarious ways, these peoples participated in the creation of a new world. For better or worse, that world was ripe for exploration, familiarisation, interaction and, ultimately, self-introspection: travel was opening and deeply transforming minds.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting, and a welcome (to me) antidote to the current trend to denigrate the Roman Empire because it grates against our current democratic and egalitarian sensibilities where 'freedom' is more important than living in peace.
    • OK it was an unequal society, but so are all human (and animal) societies. But the autocracy - for a time - allowed a relatively comfortable and prosperous life for more people than at most other times. And - as the essay points out - the infrastucture of road and maritime connectivity allowed the interplay of ideas and cultures.
    • It will be interesting to compare and contrast with "Toner (Jerry) - A Grand Tour of the Roman Empire by Marcus Sidonius Falx".
Footnote 331: Aeon: Liggins - This essay isn’t true (Date=17/11/2022, WebRef=12275)Footnote 332: Aeon: Video - Ed Yong - The hidden world of animal senses (Date=15/11/2022, WebRef=12266)Footnote 333: Aeon: Andrew - How to find great films to watch (Date=09/11/2022, WebRef=12253)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Geoff Andrew
    • Aeon Subtitle: Bored with Hollywood and Netflix? Becoming an adventurous and informed explorer of the cinema world is in everyone’s grasp
  2. Notes
    • I was excited to see this paper by Geoff, as he's - after a fashion - a friend of mine from student days in the early 1970s at King's College Cambridge. over the last 50 years we've met up with others at various reunions - both those in Cambridge organised by the College and by myself in London.
    • The paper is useful in alerting the reader to generic things of interest in films beyond pure entertainment.
    • However, I'm by no means a film buff and don't expect to find the time or inclination to follow up on the many useful suggestions Geoff has made.
    • Hence, I have nothing further to say - the paper says it all.
Footnote 334: Aeon: King - Human exceptionalism imposes horrible costs on other animals (Date=01/11/2022, WebRef=12234)Footnote 335: Aeon: Video - The legacy of Sappho (Date=01/11/2022, WebRef=12233)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Diane J. Rayor
    • Aeon Subtitle: Sappho’s homoerotic poetry was beloved in ancient Greece – and burned centuries later
    • Author's Abstract
      • Living on the island of Lesbos around 600 BCE, Sappho was a priestess lyric poet who wrote and sang eloquently on themes of love, passion and longing. Her work and influence spread across ancient Greece. Plato called her ‘the tenth Muse’ and her likeness appeared on coins.
      • However, only small fragments of her work have survived the passage of time and the actions of those once tasked with preserving it.
      • This animation from TED-Ed details Sappho’s influence, life and work, and the many mysteries that still surround her.
      • In particular, the video explores why the erotic and homoerotic themes in her poetry would eventually lead to its destruction, and how her life inspired the word ‘lesbian’.
  2. Notes
    • The author is an expert on the poetry, being the editor of Sappho - A New Translation of the Complete Works, the second edition of which comes out in 2023. The first edition is available on Cambridge Core, and I’ve downloaded:-
      → Introduction
      → Note on Translation
      → Poems
      → Notes
      → Appendix
    • For the author, see Diane Rayor.
    • For Sappho, see Wikipedia: Sappho.
    • While the author is certainly an expert, I think her account is tendentious. I suspect Sappho’s biography is more nuanced than that of a gay icon, and I don’t believe the ancient accounts of her overstate the heterosexual aspects of her life. Also, following Wikipedia, I’m willing to believe that she wasn’t ‘suppressed’ on account of the Church’s antipathy to her sexuality; all sorts of classical stuff was preserved, whether or not it was morally or theologically ‘sound’. Rather, like the pre-Socratics, and the works of many ancient authors, lots of works were lost – either in antiquity or later, by random chance or simply because no-one was willing to pay for them to be copied.
    • I certainly don’t think our author’s claim that ‘the monks’ were tasked with preserving the works of classical antiquity has any merit. Sounds like a conflation of Western monks – who were only literate in Latin – and the Byzantines. Did the Byzantines really rely on ‘monks’ to preserve their non-religious literature?
    • Rather – as Wikipedia notes – the obscurity of the archaic dialect – later replaced by Attic – may have been the issue.
Footnote 336: Aeon: Video - Proportional verdicts (Date=25/10/2022, WebRef=12218)Footnote 337: Aeon: Goldberg & Gavaler - A dinosaur is a story (Date=21/10/2022, WebRef=12177)Footnote 338: Aeon: Video - Five years after the war (Date=18/10/2022, WebRef=12172)Footnote 339: Aeon: Brakke - The imperative betrayal (Date=18/10/2022, WebRef=12174)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: David Brakke
    • Author Narrative: David Brakke is the Joe R Engle Chair in the History of Christianity and professor of history at the Ohio State University. His books include The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity (2010) and The Gospel of Judas: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (2022).
    • Aeon Subtitle: The mystery of why Judas forsook Jesus goes to the heart of Christianity. A newly translated gospel offers a new view
    • Author's Introduction (excerpted)
      • The writers of the New Testament gospels believed as a matter of faith that it was God’s plan for Jesus to die, that indeed dying for others was the Son of Man’s primary mission (‘as it is written’). They did not consider the possibility that Judas handed over Jesus for a noble reason.
      • The Gnostic Christian author of the Gospel of Judas, however, did suggest that. Even though Judas’ act of betrayal was bad, Judas knew why he had to do it – because Jesus had told him why. No historian thinks that the Gospel of Judas reports what really happened or gives us any insight into the real Judas’ character or motivations: it was almost certainly written decades later than the New Testament gospels, and it is no less shaped by theological commitments than they are. Nonetheless, this author’s decision to place Judas at the centre of the story and to depict him as doing what Jesus wanted must have been intentionally provocative. It signalled a Gnostic protest against central beliefs and practices of emerging orthodox Christianity such as Jesus’ identity as the son of the God of Israel, his death as a sacrifice for the sins of human beings, and the Eucharist as a commemoration of that sacrifice. In this gospel, the question of why Judas did it raises the larger questions of who Jesus is, what god Christians should worship, and whether their rituals save people. In other words, the nature of Christianity itself was at stake.
      Author's Conclusion (excerpted)
      • The villainous, even Satanic Judas of the New Testament gospels eclipsed the ambiguous, tragic hero of the Gospel of Judas, until the latter suddenly reappeared in the 21st century.
      • That reappearance does not answer the question with which we began – why the historical Judas betrayed the historical Jesus around 30 CE – as some historians and interested observers hoped when they first learned of a gospel of Judas. But it does help us to see more clearly why orthodox Christianity became what it is. The orthodox form of Christianity did not emerge in the 2nd and 3rd centuries without opposition, and since then Christians have continuously challenged and revised it. Christianity, the Gospel of Judas reminds us, could have been different, and it still could be.
  2. Notes
    • This is a plug for the author's latest book, which is expensive, and I've already got a book on this topic:-
      → "Kasser (Rodolphe), Wurst (Gregor) & Meyer (Marvin) - The Gospel of Judas".
    • The author warns that more text has come to light since the original manuscript was published, hence (we may assume) the need for his book. As we see from the author’s own account of the text – and see also Brown - The Manuscript of the Gospel of Judas – it is unlikely that these refinements give us any useful additional knowledge of the historical Judas, as the main text gives us nothing in any case.
    • I've also got a book that discusses Judas's role:-
      → "Maccoby (Hyam) - Judas Iscariot and the Myth of Jewish Evil"
      This is also tendentious, but at least it focuses on a person with potential connection to the historical events, rather than pure phantasy.
    • These complaints aside, this paper is a clear exposition of what the Gospel of Judas is all about. It shows clearly that – like other gnostic writings – it is so far from – and antagonistic towards – the Jewish roots of Christianity as to be of no value in explaining why anyone in NT times did and thought what they did, least of all Judas.
    • I’m sure the author is right that there could have been alternative Christianities. Various religions could have taken the events in first century Judea as their inspiration, in whole or part. Institutional Christianity could have developed along a Gnostic path by incorporating Christian elements into a fundamentally different religious world-view, much as bits of misunderstood Judaism and Christianity are adopted into – and argued against – in Islam. But this would have nothing to say about what Jesus and Judas actually intended.
Footnote 340: Aeon: Video - A C Grayling: Why not nothing? (Date=13/10/2022, WebRef=12157)Footnote 341: Aeon: Schneider - An unholy alliance (Date=13/10/2022, WebRef=12159)Footnote 342: Aeon: Butterworth - A basic sense of numbers is shared by countless creatures (Date=12/10/2022, WebRef=12161)Footnote 343: Aeon: Video - The Boltzmann brain paradox (Date=06/10/2022, WebRef=12149)Footnote 344: Aeon: Humphrey - Seeing and somethingness (Date=03/10/2022, WebRef=12122)Footnote 345: YouTube: Teleporters: The Death Machines You Don't Want (Date=02/10/2022, WebRef=12994)Footnote 346: Aeon: Dugatkin - Fortune favours the shrewd (Date=30/09/2022, WebRef=12123)Footnote 347: Aeon: Young - Time doesn’t flow like a river. So why do we feel swept along? (Date=21/09/2022, WebRef=12085)Footnote 348: Aeon: Video - They (Date=19/09/2022, WebRef=12090)Footnote 349: Aeon: Marino - Happy the person (Date=16/09/2022, WebRef=12032)Footnote 350: YouTube: Russell's Paradox - a simple explanation of a profound problem (Date=08/09/2022, WebRef=12980)Footnote 351: Aeon: Video - What was the first transit map? (Date=08/09/2022, WebRef=12013)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Why did the Romans create a massive, entirely impractical map of their empire?
    • Editor's Abstract
      • The Tabula Peutingeriana, or the Peutinger Map, is known for both its peculiar dimensions and uncertain origins. A parchment scroll a foot tall and 22 feet long, the map depicts the Roman Empire at the height of its power, spanning from Spain to India. While its emphasis on roads and population centres seems to imply it’s a transit map, it features cities that never existed simultaneously, and it places little focus on waterways, which were often the empire’s most efficient travel routes. Further complicating matters, the only version of the map remaining is a 13th-century copy of the likely 4th-century Roman original.
      • In this light-hearted video essay, the US graphic designer and video producer Jeremy Shuback explores the many historical controversies and uncertainties surrounding the Tabula Peutingeriana.
      • For the task, he enlists the help of Richard J A Talbert, a research professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who spent a decade studying the map. Reasoning his way through its many idiosyncrasies, Talbert offers his view that the original was likely a way for Romans to demonstrate, above all, the scope and power of their empire.
  2. Notes
    • See Also:
      → Wikipedia: Tabula Peutingeriana
    • No reason to disagree with the author's contention. Even if it was a transit map, it would be totally impractical - too big and expensive to have copied repeatedly for travellers to use.
    • Much more likely to demonstrate the extent of the empire at its height.
    • Presumably originally in marble on public display, then copied in antiquity before further copying in the middle ages.
Footnote 352: Aeon: Curry - Why academia should embrace ‘Grandma’s metaphysics’ (Date=08/09/2022, WebRef=12007)Footnote 353: Aeon: Owen - What luck in war reveals about the role of chance in life (Date=07/09/2022, WebRef=12004)Footnote 354: Aeon: Video - If you love this planet (Date=01/09/2022, WebRef=11995)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: A peace activist’s harrowing account of nuclear war is a visceral case for disarmament
    • Editor's Abstract
      • In the wake of the Manhattan Project, humanity, for the first time in its existence, became eminently capable of its own destruction. And it’s a reality we’ve been living with ever since. In fact, as the Australian physician and anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott details in this Oscar-winning short documentary from 1982, in the ensuing decades, the threat of annihilation became even more pronounced as new generations of nuclear weapons exponentially increased in destructive power.
      • Filming Caldicott as she delivers a lecture on the history, threat and potential consequences of nuclear war, the Canadian director Terre Nash (then going by Terri Nash) intercuts brutal images of injuries caused by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She juxtaposes these sequences with scenes from Second World War-era propaganda films from the United States, which portray the development of nuclear weapons as an exceptional accomplishment in US ingenuity.
      • While inevitably an artefact of its time, watched four decades later, Caldicott and Nash’s unapologetic argument for nuclear disarmament remains a dire reminder of the unimaginable horrors that a full-scale nuclear war would truly entail.
  2. Notes
    • It is good to be reminded of the terrible consequences of nuclear war.
    • We completely ignore the possibility these days - since the end of the cold war - even though it may be even more likely given proliferation. I suppose full-scale war is less likely – unless things are still set up as in Doctor Strangelove – though small-scale war may be more likely. Devastating though a small-scale war would be, it would not destroy all the infrastructure of the industrialised nations, so ‘supplying assistance’ to survivors would make some sense.
    • This documentary from 1982 doesn’t mention nuclear winter (see Wikipedia: Nuclear Winter) instead mentioning the potential destruction of the ozone layer. It seems from the Wikipedia article that the nuclear winter hypothesis superseded the latter which was ‘losing credibility’ in the 1980s. Both theories raise the prospect that the populations of non-combatant nations would be equally affected in the longer term.
    • Whether this is so or not – the near total destruction of combatant nations in the event of a full-scale exchange of missiles is sufficient to compel us to do everything in our power to avoid situations in which such an eventuality might come to pass.
    • Provoking or encouraging and supporting conflicts over relatively trivial infringements of ‘freedoms and democracy’ needs to be considered in the light of such risks. The current ‘apocalyptic’ cost-of-living crisis is trivial in comparison with the consequences of a nuclear war where 90% of the population would die fairly immediately and the rest would wish they were dead.
Footnote 355: Aeon: Video - Einstein's twin paradox (Date=30/08/2022, WebRef=11986)Footnote 356: Aeon: Ball - What on earth is a xenobot? (Date=30/08/2022, WebRef=11988)Footnote 357: Aeon: Lockhart - What sex-difference science misses about the messy reality of sex (Date=17/08/2022, WebRef=11970)Footnote 358: Aeon: Lichtenberg - Abolish life sentences (Date=12/08/2022, WebRef=11930)Footnote 359: Aeon: Gulliver - Semiotics of dogs (Date=04/08/2022, WebRef=11889)Footnote 360: Aeon: Goff - Why religion without belief can still make perfect sense (Date=01/08/2022, WebRef=11884)Footnote 361: Aeon: Video - Can we create the perfect farm? (Date=28/07/2022, WebRef=11862)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Producing food while restoring the planet – a glimpse of farming in the future
    • Editor's Abstract
      • The agricultural revolution that began around 10,000 years ago marks a turning point in human history: the dawn of civilisation. Farming enabled us to build communities and expand, but it also sowed the seeds of modern inequality and wreaked havoc on the environment through the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife.
      • Today, farming faces the distinct challenge of feeding a growing global population while working with the environment, and not against it. Practices in countries from Costa Rica to Zambia point to new conservation-oriented approaches to farming that optimise food production; preserve biodiversity and forests; and cut down on harmful emissions.
      • In this TED-Ed animation, colourful graphics paint a picture of what these future farms might look like, showcasing the potential for new technologies to help deliver food security while preserving – and even feeding – the ecosystem.
  2. Notes
    • I’d expected this to be arguing against factory farming of animals. So had originally categorized it under Animal Rights, but the topic isn’t mentioned. Indeed, the only crop mentioned with a very negative climate impact is rice, which feeds half the world’s population.
    • Instead, the focus is on what appear to be small-scale innovations – often high-tech – that need scaling up. Lots of global co-operation needed. I didn’t end up feeling hopeful.
    • We're referred to TED Countdown: Championing and accelerating solutions to the climate crisis.
Footnote 362: Aeon: Video - The modern invention of white antique marble (Date=26/07/2022, WebRef=11866)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Ancient Greek sculptures were colourful. Why does the white marble ideal persist?
    • Author's Introduction
      • For most people today, ancient Greek sculpture brings to mind images of pearly white human figures. Yet, ever since the first excavations of Pompeii in the 17th century, archeologists have known that these sculptures were painted in vivid colours.
      • The German archeologists Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann have been studying the polychromatic nature of ancient Greek sculptures for some four decades – a process that involves research through reconstruction.
      • In this short film from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Brinkmann discusses their process, and why the visual code of white antique marble persists today.
  2. Notes
    • This is interesting, and – of course – the researchers are correct: the antique sculptures were originally painted, and some of the original pigment – though only a tiny amount – is still recoverable.
    • There are two very similar but distinct questions that arise from this. Firstly, why don’t we reconstruct the colour and present the sculptures as originally intended? Secondly, why do we not want to do this?
    • I would just note that the gothic cathedrals were also gaudily-painted and we don’t – and don’t want to – reconstruct their colours either. Maybe this is a Protestant thing. We know what painted statuary looks like in Spanish cathedrals and catholic churches generally, and we don’t like it.
    • The researchers seem to think the preference for retaining white marble is something to do with white supremacy. I think – and the commentators seem to think – that this is nonsense. Race wasn’t an issue in the renaissance, and the artists didn’t like the aesthetics of coloured statuary even though – presumably – they knew from the classical authors that Greek and Roman statues were painted. Also – maybe – from the ‘grotesques’ in Nero’s Golden House (though not from the then undiscovered Pompeii).
    • I think there are several reasons.
      1. The first is that gratuitous repairs are frowned upon, though some were attempted to add stability to statues, and some confident artists did fill in some gaps. But these days it’s not seen as a good thing. The reconstructions at Knossos are an abomination. We want to know what’s original and what’s not. We know the Venus de Milo originally had arms, but we don’t know what they looked like.
      2. Secondly, we don’t know how the original colours looked.
      3. Thirdly, our interests differ from those of the classical artists. We’re interested in the perfection of form, and the skill used in ‘liberating’ the sculptures from the marble. We’re not interested in the sculptures as imperial propaganda or as objects of worship.
      4. Our aesthetic sense differs: painting the sculptures doesn’t improve them to our sensibilities, so as they’ve lost their paint, we’re happy to leave them be.
Footnote 363: Aeon: Video - Don't go tellin' your momma (Date=20/07/2022, WebRef=11827)Footnote 364: Aeon: Padavic-Callaghan - Imaginary numbers are real (Date=14/07/2022, WebRef=11800)Footnote 365: Aeon: Atran - The will to fight (Date=11/07/2022, WebRef=11806)Footnote 366: Aeon: Neumeyer - The discontent of Russia (Date=05/07/2022, WebRef=11787)Footnote 367: Aeon: Popkin - Our trip to Antioch (Date=01/07/2022, WebRef=11778)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Maggie Popkin
    • Author Narrative: Maggie Popkin is Robson Junior Professor in the Humanities and associate professor of art history at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She is the author of The Architecture of the Roman Triumph: Monuments, Memory, and Identity (2016) and Souvenirs and the Experience of Empire in Ancient Rome (2022).
    • Aeon Subtitle: Ancient Romans bought mementos to commemorate their travels. These speak eloquently of their world, if we care to listen
    • Author's Introduction
      • Souvenirs, an omnipresent facet of modern tourism, trace their roots to the ancient Mediterranean. In the Roman Empire, the common languages of Greek (koine) and Latin, standardised coinage and centralised bureaucracy increased the ease of travel, all of which helped a culture of souvenirs flourish. Indeed, a broad range of souvenirs commemorating places emerges from the archaeological record. These are not just trivial mementoes. Souvenirs then and now offer a remarkable window on how people develop shared visions of places, how they conceive of such foundational ideas as authenticity, and how we create emotionally meaningful personal relationships. Souvenirs perform vital work in shaping how people come to know their world and its landmarks. By taking ancient souvenirs seriously, we can glimpse how Romans themselves understood their empire and its cultural heritage.
      Author's Conclusion
      • Roman souvenirs were anything but marginal in the lives of their owners and in the imperial system in which those owners lived. They mediated the meanings of the artworks and monuments that still inform the grand histories of Rome. They force us to confront how the reproduction of places and monuments and the circulation of objects shape how we know the parts of our world that we never see in person – processes still in play today, albeit via different media and on different scales. One cannot look at the Roman material and still think that souvenirs only commemorate travel. They also prime expectations of sites that fuel tourism economies, direct tourist behaviour, and obscure the complex histories and present circumstances of many tourist sites. Souvenirs, whether a magnet of the Statue of Liberty or a bronze figurine of the Tyche of Antioch, may be small and inexpensive, but banal they are not. In our quest to understand how people, ancient and modern, imagine, know and make meaning of places, we cannot afford to overlook them.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting enough unstated plug for the author's latest book.
    • I agree that souveniers are more than trash - in that they reveal a lot about the cultures that produce them and the people that buy them.
    • But - unlike the collections of 'grand tourists' - they are usually trash for all that.
    • I brought stuff back from India with me which was somewhere in the middle - good workmanship, hand-crafted.
Footnote 368: Aeon: Video - How do you know you're not dreaming? (Date=30/06/2022, WebRef=11779)Footnote 369: Aeon: Torwali - The polyglots of Dardistan (Date=24/06/2022, WebRef=11764)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Zubair Torwali
    • Author Narrative: Zubair Torwali is a writer and activist for the rights of all the marginalised linguistic communities of north Pakistan. He is the founder of the civil society organisation Idara Baraye Taleem o Taraqi, and the author of Muffled Voices: Longing for a Pluralist and Peaceful Pakistan (2015), among others. He lives in Bahrain, Pakistan.
    • Aeon Subtitle: At the crossroads of south and central Asia lies one of the world’s most multilingual places, with songs and poetry to match
    • Author's Introduction
      • Dardistan is one of the most diverse linguistic regions in the world. In the 1930s, the Norwegian linguist Georg Morgenstierne called it one of the most polyglot parts of Asia. More recently, the Italian anthropologist Augusto Cacopardo has called it ‘Peristan’, an area with an ‘enormous diversity of tongues and cultures’. The region has the large Dardic languages such as Kashmiri, Shina and Khowar on the one hand and, on the other, it is home to the Burushaski language, which could not be placed within any language family because of its unique features. The Nuristani, formerly Kafiri, languages are spoken here, too. There are minor languages such as Kalasha, spoken by the Kalash community of hardly 4,000 people who still follow the ancient animistic religion that was once practised across Dardistan.
      • The name ‘Dardistan’ describes the area comprising the highest mountain ranges of Hindu Kush, Karakoram, western Himalaya and the Pamir mountains, and includes northern Pakistan, parts of Eastern Tibet in China, eastern Afghanistan and the Kashmir valley on both sides of the Pakistan-India border.
      • Dardistan’s enormous linguistic diversity occurs despite the fact that, culturally, the area is fairly homogeneous. Cacopardo says there is no match for this region in terms of linguistic and cultural diversity, except the Caucasus. Though, of course, minor differences exist, the same religious rituals and religious pantheon prevailed among the polyglot peoples of Dardistan.
      Author's Conclusion
      • Most of these languages are still in the speech form having no written tradition to them. The majority of them face daunting challenges in the emergence of globalisation and modernisation. With the erosion of these languages, Indigenous knowledge and unique forms of beauty and wisdom will be lost too.
      • If these languages are left to die slowly, the communities who use them as native languages for social interaction, understanding and communicating about their world are sure to lose their memories, histories and identities. They will be exposed to manifold vulnerabilities, such as loss of self-esteem, crises of identity, wellbeing and belonging, and the loss of their imagination, which is so intrinsically embedded in language.
      • The region also has a blend of multilingualism, which resists forces that attempt to break the peaceful harmony these communities have.
  2. Notes
    • This is not uniteresting, but is both too detailed and not detailed enough for me to get much out of it.
    • I have to admit that I skipped the poetry at the end, whether sung or written.
Footnote 370: Aeon: Quaglia - Connected-up-brains (Date=23/06/2022, WebRef=11767)Footnote 371: Aeon: Video - What does dying really feel like? (Date=23/06/2022, WebRef=11765)Footnote 372: Aeon: Salgarella - Cracking the Cretan code (Date=17/06/2022, WebRef=11755)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Ester Salgarella
    • Author Narrative: Ester Salgarella is a junior research fellow at St John’s College at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of Aegean Linear Script(s): Rethinking the Relationship Between Linear A and Linear B (2020).
    • Author's Conclusion
      • With so many brilliant scholars and such advanced technology at our disposal, why does Linear A still resist decipherment? Although incremental progress is being made in the field, scholars still face a number of significant obstacles.
      • The first is the quantity of the Linear A evidence that has survived to us. The entire corpus of Linear A does not exceed 1,400 inscriptions (by comparison, the Linear B corpus is just short of 6,000 inscriptions). These are also more often than not in a fragmentary or poor state of preservation. This significantly hampers our ability to identify individual signs with certainty, as well as examine entire texts and the overall textual structure of any given document. As a result, the lack of precision in the exact identification of number and typology of Linear A signs and sign-sequences, alongside the relative low number of total attestations, may ultimately bias the outcomes of any statistical analysis.
      • The second obstacle is the quality of the Linear A evidence. Since most Linear A inscriptions are administrative records of economic transactions, they are extremely short, formulaic and laconic, without much syntax. A typical Linear A tablet displays several entries of the type sign-sequence (often a personal or place name) + logogram (iconic sign standing for the commodity recorded) + numerals, at times with additional transaction terms and signs. Such a terse textual structure consistently undermines our chances to examine the grammatical features of the underlying language. And those few inscriptions that are not economic records do not help much, as they are all dedicatory or cultic inscriptions bearing highly formulaic and repetitive texts (such as the so-called ‘libation formula’). There is no evidence of historiographic writing, diplomatic correspondence, monumental inscriptions or private letters, which might have displayed longer and more complex texts, thus giving us more material to work on to detect syntactical structures and linguistic variation.
      • Lastly, we do not (yet) have a bilingual inscription like the Rosetta Stone, juxtaposing the same text written in both Linear A and a known language. But never say never: the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence, and it may well be – as we all fervently hope – that future archaeological fieldwork will one day bring to light such an invaluable object. Until then, we have to rely on our creativity, and work out innovative methodologies and approaches to tackle the meagre evidence at our disposal.
      • If not for anything else, deciphering Linear A may well ultimately be an excellent exercise in human creativity, backed up by thoroughly sound and multidisciplinary research. Linear A is, after all, ‘partially deciphered’, inasmuch as we can read the texts in phonetic transcription with some approximation, understand some of the words (because of their contextual position within a text, we know the word ku-ro, which means ‘total’), and get a general idea of the documents’ contents. To arrive at a full decipherment, however, we still need to understand the linguistic nature of the Minoan language encoded in Linear A, as well as any potential linguistic affiliations. Without a Rosetta Stone-like inscription, that might be a long way off. But that’s OK: the journey of trying to understand the same kind of marks that so enchanted Sir Arthur Evans more than a century ago is well worth the effort in its own right. We are still out on the high seas – but at least we know where to head.
  2. Notes
Footnote 373: Aeon: Gruber - Don’t be stoic: Roman Stoicism’s origins show its perniciousness (Date=15/06/2022, WebRef=11754)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Henry Gruber
    • Author Narrative: Henry Gruber is a historian and archaeologist, currently pursuing a PhD at Harvard University.
    • Author's Introduction
      • Over the past decade, and especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more Americans have reoriented their lives in accordance with Stoicism. Stoicism sought what the Greeks called eudaimonia: wellness of being, or ‘the good life’. These philosophies taught that the good life was attainable through concrete exercises, performed in accordance with the correct philosophical worldview. The Stoics taught that, by practising their set of exercises, practitioners could learn to see the world from a universal perspective, understand their place in it, and freely and dispassionately assent to carry out the duties imposed upon them by fate. Stoic happiness comes from wisdom, justice, courage and moderation – all states of the individual soul or psyche, and therefore under our control. Everything else is neither good, nor bad. While these beliefs about daily life rested on a foundation of physical and metaphysical theory, the attraction of Stoicism was, and is, in the therapeutic element of its exercises: cognitive behavioural therapy, or Buddhism, for guys in togas.
      • Despite the benefits of Stoic spiritual exercise, you should not become a stoic. Stoic exercises, and the wise sayings that can be so appealing in moments of trouble, conceal a pernicious philosophy. Stoicism may seem a solution to many of our individual problems, but a society that is run by stoics, or filled with stoics, is a worse society for us to live in. While the stoic individual may feel less pain, that is because they have become dulled to, and accept, the injustices of the world.
      Author's Conclusion
      • The world stands in the middle of a pandemic, a climate crisis, and, in many countries, our own crises of (at least quasi-) democratic self-governance. It may be tempting to embrace a philosophy that counsels us not to be sad, not to mourn the things we’ve lost, to accept all that happens as fate, and to do our duty even as the world crumbles around us. But we should not write speeches for Nero; nor should we glorify the power of the emperor. We should mourn our families when bad things happen to them, our cities when they are threatened, our houses when they burn or flood. It is not easy to feel grief, and it is tempting to seek out exercises to suppress it. But to look around the world and feel the pain of injustice, to understand and wallow in the hurt of the natural world – this is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of humanity, and the first step towards taking action. Because if you accept your fate joyfully, as a Stoic sage should, you’ll never try to change it.
  2. Notes
    • The author is largely correct in what he says. Stoicism (just as Buddhism, which he briefly alludes to in his introduction) leaves the world as it is and seeks only to change our response to the world. This is no good if we think – as we should – that we should be trying to make the world a better place in which to live.
    • It was popular in Classical times during periods of despotism (Seneca and Epictetus) – where people's lives were held at the whim of the emperor and where 'resistance was futile' or (in the case of Marcus Aurelius) – in the face of natural catastrophes that even the emperor was powerless to resist.
    • So, if resistance is not futile, we should resist – or otherwise work for the betterment of society – rather than collaborate and support the wicked system.
Footnote 374: Aeon: Petersen - Can algorithms speak? And should their opinions be protected? (Date=07/06/2022, WebRef=11734)Footnote 375: Aeon: Peña-Guzmán - The dreams of animals (Date=07/06/2022, WebRef=11735)Footnote 376: Aeon: Video - The incredible life of Maria Sibylla Merian (Date=30/05/2022, WebRef=11717)Footnote 377: Aeon: Video - Thalia Wheatley: social neuroscience (Date=26/05/2022, WebRef=11700)Footnote 378: Aeon: Keil - How to revive your sense of wonder (Date=18/05/2022, WebRef=11679)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Frank C. Keil
    • Author Narrative: Frank Keil is the Charles C & Dorathea S Dilley Professor of Psychology and Linguistics at Yale University. His latest book is Wonder: Childhood and the Lifelong Love of Science (2022).
    • Aeon Subtitle: That childhood urge to ask ‘how’ and ‘why’ usually fades. But we can all learn to rediscover the joys of wide-eyed discovery
    • Author's Key Points
      • Wondering is rewarding. By embracing wonder – your drive to learn about the world – you can deepen your appreciation of the world’s richness and engage more fully with others.
      • Wonder commonly declines with age – but it doesn’t have to. A childhood boom in wondering often subsides as people grow up, yet lifelong wonderers show that we can maintain the habit of asking questions.
      • Conduct regular introspections. A periodic check-up can help you take stock of the insights you have recently gained – or prompt you to start wondering about areas of ignorance.
      • Embrace the proliferation of wonder. Wondering deeply is not about finding one simple answer. Answers to questions beget new questions, and each offers an opportunity to learn.
      • Adopt diverse ways of wondering. Search engines have their place, but also look to other resources, such as videos, educational events and books that provide an accessible introduction to a subject.
      • Look for anomalies and puzzles. Zero in on phenomena that seem atypical or unclear – they can provide fuel for wondering.
      • Explore contrasting cases. Examining the similarities and differences between related kinds or concepts can yield unexpected insights.
      • Entertain counterfactuals. Wondering what would happen if something about the world was different can help you understand why certain things work the way they do.
      • Practice win-win wondering with others. Adopt an ‘argue to learn’ mindset, treating disagreements as opportunities for wondering rather than battles to be won.
      • Create a checklist for wondering. A checklist can help ensure that you wonder in ways that are as fair and thorough as you’d like.
  2. Notes
    • A useful reminder. See the Key Points.
    • Of course, following things up is so much easier these days with - as the author notes - the ease of a quick Google.
    • It's a plug for the Author's latest book - Wonder: Childhood and the Lifelong Love of Science (2022) - but I suspect once you've got the basic message, it's best simply to act on it rather than to have it drummed in.
    • One thing, though. You could spend your whole time following up everything that crops up that you don't fully understand. You have to be selective. This for those who hardly follow anything up. But it is a habit that needs to be got into.
    • He cites Robinson - The Last Man Who Knew Everything (which I've downloaded, but not logged) as extra reading. As the title indicates, the age of 'Renaissance Men' is past. To succeed you must specialise, which requires focus and intentionally not following some things up. Life's too short.
    • There is a useful reminder to ask open questions of young children, and of encouraging their sense of wonder.
Footnote 379: Aeon: Schwenkler - What does it take for someone to become a ‘different person’? (Date=17/05/2022, WebRef=11681)Footnote 380: Aeon: Video - Godel's Incompleteness Theorem (Date=16/05/2022, WebRef=11651)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Marcus du Sautoy
    • Aeon Subtitle: How a verbal paradox shattered the notion of total certainty in mathematics
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Dating back to ancient Greece, the idea that any mathematical statement can ultimately be proven true or false, and any apparent contradiction ultimately erased, was as enticing as it was intuitive for many logicians and mathematicians.
      • However, this long-dominant belief was upended in the early 20th century when the logician Kurt Gödel converted a written paradox – ‘This statement cannot be proved’ – into an equation, shattering the notion that mathematics could be built on structures of total certainty.
      • This animation from TED-Ed traces how Gödel was able to use words to transform mathematics forever, and how his ‘incompleteness theorem’ has led to breakthroughs in both his field and the digital world.
  2. Notes
Footnote 381: Aeon: Andersen - Quantum Wittgenstein (Date=12/05/2022, WebRef=11658)Footnote 382: Aeon: Baggini - How to think about free will (Date=11/05/2022, WebRef=11645)Footnote 383: Aeon: Video - The great silence (Date=11/05/2022, WebRef=11654)Footnote 384: Aeon: Video - Bacon and God's wrath (Date=10/05/2022, WebRef=11646)Footnote 385: Aeon: Sebo - Against human exceptionalism (Date=05/05/2022, WebRef=11635)Footnote 386: Aeon: Video - What is movement (Date=03/05/2022, WebRef=11626)Footnote 387: Aeon: Video - The AI historian (Date=02/05/2022, WebRef=11629)Footnote 388: Aeon: Video - The spiritual exercises (Date=02/05/2022, WebRef=11631)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: What happens when two people on life’s spiritual path find each other?
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Terence Netter was raised in a Roman Catholic family knowing that he ‘belonged in the Jesuits’. As someone mostly uninterested in coupling, Therese Franzese grew up feeling like she didn’t fit in. Both were guided by a desire to live a spiritual life, and neither imagined that romantic love would upend their lifelong searches for meaning. The Spiritual Exercises follows the story of Terence and Therese’s unlikely union, detailing how their partnership developed, and what it meant to reconcile their romantic relationship with their Catholic faith. Throughout the film, their story unfolds within the framework of the Jesuit Christian meditations – prayers aimed to ensure that no decision is made ‘under the influence of any inordinate attachment’. But for Terence and Therese, love would become a force strong enough to break the scaffolding on which two people had built their lives, and ultimately shift their values and rewrite their futures.
      • In the film, Terence and Therese’s two narrative threads slowly weave together. With craft and care, the American directors Lloyd Kramer and Scott Chestnut cut between Therese and Terence’s parallel retellings of the past until their stories play out in tandem. Bringing this rich narrative to visual life, the directors draw on archive footage and photographs to paint a picture of the cultural milieu of 1960s New York where the couple met. Film clips from the Metropolitan Opera where Therese worked, images from Terence’s art exhibitions, and black-and-white family portraits weave a tapestry of memories. Throughout, the Catholic Church’s millennia-old celibacy requirement for priests, which was reaffirmed by Pope Paul VI in 1967, lingers in the background.
      • By asking what it means to leave your church for love, The Spiritual Exercises grapples with themes beyond what it’s like to feel at inextricable odds with a lifelong commitment to a religious order. Terence and Therese’s difficult decisions about finding meaning in their lives invite viewers to contemplate serendipity, the roads taken and those we chose to leave behind, giving their relationship a universal resonance as they struggle to make their undeniable love for one another fit into their lives. Through their story, The Spiritual Exercises forms a gentle yet powerful exploration of sacrifice, love and peace of mind – and the inherent tensions between the three.
  2. Notes
    • Very well made - and covers a lot of ground.
    • Not really anything to do with the 'Spiritual Exercises'. Also, they don't 'leave their church' - just (in Terence's case) his Order.
    • Interesting parallel with my own life, though not the same motivation.
Footnote 389: Aeon: Video - Stray in Kars (Date=28/04/2022, WebRef=11619)Footnote 390: Aeon: van der Lugt - Look on the dark side (Date=26/04/2022, WebRef=11614)Footnote 391: Aeon: Video - Sister (Date=26/04/2022, WebRef=11612)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: A son of China’s former one-child policy remembers the sibling he never had
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Set in 1990s China, the Oscar-nominated short film Sister starts out as a lucid recollection of an unnamed male narrator’s childhood, recalling how he played, bonded and sometimes fought with his younger sister. But halfway through the story, the Chinese-born animator and director Siqi Song reveals the heartfelt message of her film as the narrator confesses that he in fact grew up alone like the vast majority of children born between 1979 and 2015 during China’s one-child policy.
      • Through this split narrative structure, Song examines and evokes the loneliness felt by China’s generations of only children, as well as the policy’s emotional impact on couples forced into abortions.
      • Using stop-motion animation and a nostalgic, desaturated colour scheme, the narrator’s fabricated memories are brought to life with charming, felted wool puppets.
      • Told from the director’s unique perspective as a second child and sister herself, who, per the law, should not have existed, Sister is a poignant reflection on the enduring effects of China’s former one-child policy.
  2. Notes
    • Very poignant. Not something I often think about. Of course, there are ‘only children’ in the UK too. We have a nephew who is one. No doubt there are pluses and minuses. But having a companion to hand can be a great plus, even though you might fight.
    • I had a younger brother and a much younger sister. My brother and I were totally incompatible by the time we got to senior school, having gone our separate ways, and I don’t have many fond memories. I have fond memories of my sister, but she was a baby and then a little girl – not yet in senior school when I departed for university. So, not the sort of brother-sister relationship that appears in the film.
Footnote 392: Aeon: Greve - AI’s first philosopher (Date=21/04/2022, WebRef=11602)Footnote 393: Aeon: Video - You've never been completely honest (Date=21/04/2022, WebRef=11600)Footnote 394: Aeon: Video - The great malaise (Date=18/04/2022, WebRef=11598)Footnote 395: Aeon: Video - Who decides what art means? (Date=14/04/2022, WebRef=11589)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Does the artist’s intention matter, or is it indeed all in the eye of the beholder?
    • Editor's Abstract
      • You’re staring at a painting in a gallery and see a symbol of love. In the same image, your friend sees a symbol of war. To settle the debate you Google the work only to learn that the artist had neither topic in mind when they created it.
      • Was anyone wrong? Or, perhaps, is everyone right? Should this change how you see the painting, or should your personal interpretation be safe from this new information?
      • This animation from TED-Ed traces the history of this ongoing debate over art and intention, exploring the contending viewpoints of philosophers and art critics such as Monroe Beardsley, Walter Benn Michaels and Noël Carroll, each of them – either ironically or appropriately – with their own unique perspective.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting enough. As a commentator suggests, it depends whether the artist intended to portray anything at all, and whether any such 'message' is all that's intended to be conveyed.
    • Many works of art have hidden messages that might have been clear to the original viewers but need to be pointed out today (eg. Holbein's The Ambassadors: Wikipedia: The Ambassadors (Holbein); Raphael's School of Athens: Wikipedia: The School of Athens; here I'd known that there was Plato pointing to the heavens, and Aristotle to the earth, but not that Leonardo was the model for Plato). But even in the absence of such understanding, the pictures retain their impact.
    • The same might be said of "programme music", or of opera in a language one doesn't understand. Maybe something is missed; sometimes all to the good.
Footnote 396: Aeon: Smyth - Nature does not care (Date=12/04/2022, WebRef=11584)Footnote 397: Aeon: Video - Composite (Date=11/04/2022, WebRef=11585)Footnote 398: Aeon: Video - Abductees (Date=06/04/2022, WebRef=11575)Footnote 399: Aeon: Video - Tengri (Date=05/04/2022, WebRef=11570)Footnote 400: Aeon: Video - Phenomena: magnetism (Date=31/03/2022, WebRef=11558)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: This is not an animation: the spectacular sight of magnets meeting a metallic liquid
    • Editor's Abstract
      • For the ABC Science series Phenomena, the Australian artist and filmmaker Josef Gatti collaborated with the Australian composer Kim Moyes for an amalgamation of art and science exploring ‘naturally occurring patterns, and the fundamental forces of nature that create them’.
      • In this entry exploring magnetism, the filmmaking team experiments with ferrofluid, a metallic liquid invented by NASA, by harnessing its responses to magnetic force to draw out spectacular three-dimensional patterns.
      • Captured with powerful cameras, the ferrofluid seems to defy gravity, looking as if it must be a creation of CGI. It’s exquisite eye-candy, to be sure, but also reveals an oft-hidden force that is still mysterious to scientists, even as we harness its power to make the modern world possible.
  2. Notes
    • Visually interesting, but it's not really explained what's going on: ie. what are the magnetic fields, and how are they modulated in order to create the matterns in the film?
    • Needs some diagrams and some mathematics, otherwise - as the Editor says - it's just eye-candy.
Footnote 401: Aeon: Video - The Japanese sword as the soul of the samurai (Date=24/03/2022, WebRef=11537)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: A rare glimpse inside a samurai sword workshop, where ritual meets mastery
    • Editor's Abstract
      • ‘Between the samurai and his blade was formed a binding spiritual union of man and steel.’
      • In the 1969 short documentary The Japanese Sword as the Soul of the Samurai, the US filmmaker Kenneth Wolfgang (1931-2011) is allowed rare access to the Tokyo workshop of a master samurai swordsmith to explore the craft and history behind the iconic Japanese weapon.
      • Instantly recognisable for its elegant shape and sharp cutting edge, the samurai sword was long one of the most fearsome weapons in the world, as well as an object of great symbolic importance in premodern Japan. Here, its creation is documented in rich detail as a swordsmith and his apprentices hammer, fold and weld to create a near-perfect steel blade in a process that melds expert craftsmanship with Shinto religious ritual.
      • Alongside the workshop footage, Wolfgang uses traditional Japanese woodblock paintings, dolls and the narration of the US actor George Takei (Lt Sulu in Star Trek) to take the audience through the sword’s history – from its mythological origins and into the 20th century, well past the samurai era. In doing so, Wolfgang demystifies the object for Western audiences while also conveying its deep significance to Japanese history and myth.
  2. Notes
    • The film is interesting enough - though - given its age (1969) - of poor technical quality.
    • However, it's disappointing, in that it doesn't address the actual use of the sword, either in war or in seppuku.
    • One would imagine if these swords were used in hand-to-hand combat, they would blunt or get notches in them. How were they repaired?
    • Also, it seems from a quick Google (eg. Quora: Did Samurai fight with a samurai sword on the battlefield?) that Samurai didn't really use their swords for fighting (but only for dispatching): their main weapons were pikes, bow and arrow, and flintlocks!
    • Finally, Samurai swords and armour were greatly inferior (despite their fearsome reputation) to their European medieval equivalents. A samurai - it seems - would have had a 10% chance against a mediaeval knight in full plate armour, but only a slight disadvantage against the more lightly armoured Norman knight.
    • So, samurai swords are mainly status symbols used for ceremonial and religious purposes. And maybe for occasional use against unarmed commoners.
Footnote 402: Aeon: Video - The first Tuesday in November (Date=22/03/2022, WebRef=11531)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Close-ups on the night of anticipation in the 2020 US presidential elections
    • Editor's Abstract
      • In anticipation of the United States presidential election in 2020, the filmmakers Ashleigh McArthur and Barna Szász enlisted friends, colleagues and a handful of recent film-school graduates in a unique filmmaking experiment to capture the night in as many locations as possible.
      • The result is The First Tuesday in November, a short documentary that chronicles the nail-biting evening of Tuesday 3 November 2020 from the perspectives of eager onlookers across the country.
      • Teaming up with 15 filmmakers across several states – including the crucial ‘swing states’ of Arizona, Florida and Georgia – McArthur and Szász strip each subject of their party affiliation, instead focusing on them as individuals with their own subtle reactions.
      • Assembled as a series of intimate black-and-white close-ups, the film conveys the intense emotional experience of election-watching in the US, regardless of party affiliation.
  2. Notes
    • The Editor's Abstract says it all really.
    • There's no real narrative in the film. What there is is either intentionally incomprehensible, or looped.
    • While there is some whooping, there's less than I'd have expected and much more anxiety.
    • Of course, this may be a selection effect of the - presumably liberal - film-makers.
Footnote 403: Aeon: Video - A is for autism (Date=21/03/2022, WebRef=11535)Footnote 404: Aeon: Kang - The problem with ‘han’ 한 恨 (Date=18/03/2022, WebRef=11517)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Minsoo Kang
    • Author Narrative: Minsoo Kang is professor of history at the University of Missouri-St Louis, specialising in European intellectual history. He is the author of Sublime Dreams of Living Machines: The Automaton in the European Imagination (2010). He is also a translator and scholar of classic Korean novels. He translated the Penguin Classics edition of The Story of Hong Gildong (2016) and wrote Invincible and Righteous Outlaw: The Korean Hero Hong Gildong in Literature, History, and Culture (2020).
    • Aeon Subtitle: Korean culture is characterised by an untranslatably profound sorrow and regret. Or is that just another stereotype?
    • Extracts
      • For much of the 20th century, han has played a significant role in the self-definition of Koreans. It became a particularly important cultural concept starting in the 1960s when South Korea embarked on a concerted effort to overcome the tragedies of the recent past: colonisation by the Empire of Japan from 1910 to 1945; the forced division of the country into North and South following the defeat of Japan in the Second World War; and the devastation of the Korean War (1950-53). Even after South Korea took its place on the global stage as an emerging economic powerhouse, the stigma of han remained. Han not only pointed to all the sorrow and rage from the traumas inflicted on the people by the historic events, but also described the unique ways in which they carried and dealt with the experiences. Ultimately, han came to signify a kind of Korean exceptionalism defined by strength and resilience in the face of inherent sadness and pain.
      • Recently, a number of Korean American writers have written beautifully about what han has meant to them, especially in the construction of their identity as Korean Americans. But they have largely avoided the troubling historical origins and the problematic uses the term has had in the past. I invite people to consider the full story so that they can make informed decisions about whether the term is worth preserving as anything other than a historical artefact that is best left in the past.
  2. Notes
    • This is interesting to me for a couple of reasons: because I've made the effort to learn Hangul (the Korean script), though I've not got far with the language; and secondly because I've been reading "Jansen (Marius B.) - The Making of Modern Japan" and have got to the part where the Japanese start interfering with Korea.
    • The author thinks the concept of han is best consigned to the dustbin of history as the Koreans have got over the traumas of the first half of the 20th century and have caught up with the rest of the developed world. han is not an indellible part of the Korean psyche because - for most of their hostory - they have lived in prosperity and peace.
    • One reviewer thinks the concept is still relevant because - while highly prosperous - the lives of the current and immediately prior generations have been constrained for them by the expectations of their grandparents.
Footnote 405: Aeon: Derbew - Blackness in antiquity (Date=17/03/2022, WebRef=11520)Footnote 406: Aeon: Ribeiro - Ancestral dreams (Date=15/03/2022, WebRef=11514)Footnote 407: Aeon: Video - How does a quantum computer work? (Date=14/03/2022, WebRef=11515)Footnote 408: Aeon: Blankinship - Tales of two jackals (Date=11/03/2022, WebRef=11496)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Kevin Blankinship
    • Author Narrative: Kevin Blankinship is a scholar, poet, critic, and translator. He is assistant professor of Arabic at Brigham Young University in Utah. He is also contributing editor for New Lines Magazine and his work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Review of Books and Foreign Policy, among others.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Kalila and Dimna’s ancient parables on power delight as much as they instruct. But their moral maxims are ethically murky
    • Extract
      • Some of the best-travelled works are moral fables from an Indian guidebook for rulers, a nitisastra, called the Panchatantra or ‘Five Treatises’, dating to c300 BCE. What remains of them, likely joined to parts of the Mahabharata, goes by the title Kalila and Dimna, after the names of two jackals who serve a brave but thoughtless lion king. The stories were translated into Arabic from Pahlavi (Middle Persian) by Abdallah ibn al-Muqaffa’, an 8th-century Zoroastrian convert to Islam. They have witty animal characters who stand for ministers advising kings, friends cautioning friends or wives scolding husbands, all to inspire virtue and judgment in rulers. No wonder readers first took Kalila and Dimna to be a ‘mirror for princes’. As a field guide to wielding power, its tracts suddenly and forever steeped Arab regimes in the brew of Persian courtly culture, thus sealing a legacy for Ibn al-Muqaffa’.
      • Readers can enjoy these Sanskrit Aesop’s Fables in a new translation by Michael Fishbein and James Montgomery from the Library of Arabic Literature. Kalila and Dimna has for centuries gathered bits of context and personal interest unto itself like briars on a pair of jeans, growing from a single book into a whole written tradition. ‘The statement has been made,’ wrote the Sanskrit scholar Franklin Edgerton in 1924, ‘that no book except the Bible has enjoyed such an extensive circulation.’ To call it world literature barely does it justice.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting enough. Mentions a recent Arabic / English edition of Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ - Kalīlah and Dimnah: Fables of Virtue and Vice edited and translated by Michael Fishbein & James E. Montgomery.
    • Not interesting enough to purchase the book, though.
    • The book's Blurb on Amazon: Timeless fables of loyalty and betrayal. Like Aesop's Fables, Kallah and Dimnah is a collection designed not only for moral instruction, but also for the entertainment of readers. The stories, which originated in the Sanskrit Panchatantra and Mahabharata, were adapted, augmented, and translated into Arabic by the scholar and state official Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ in the eighth century. The stories are engaging, entertaining, and often funny, from The Man Who Found a Treasure But Could Not Keep It, to The Raven Who Tried To Learn To Walk Like a Partridge and How the Wolf, the Raven, and the Jackal Destroyed the Camel. Kallah and Dimnah is a mirror for princes, a book meant to inculcate virtues and discernment in rulers and warn against flattery and deception. Many of the animals who populate the book represent ministers counseling kings, friends advising friends, or wives admonishing husbands. Throughout, Kallah and Dimnah offers insight into the moral lessons Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ believed were important for rulers and readers.
Footnote 409: Aeon: Video - Virtual ancient Rome: walking from the Colosseum to the Forum (Date=10/03/2022, WebRef=11490)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Walk like a Roman in this digital reconstruction of the ancient city
    • Editor's Abstract
      • What would it be like to take a historically accurate stroll down the streets of an ancient city? Through increasingly sophisticated virtual reality (VR) technologies, motion graphics and the committed work and research of 3D modellers, such an immersive educational experience may soon be possible. The team behind History in 3D is working to bring this concept to life through its ambitious project to ‘create the most extensive, detailed and accurate virtual 3D reconstruction of ancient Rome’. Eventually, the team hopes to allow users to explore a historically accurate rendering of the city, and perhaps beyond, via VR technology.
      • Today, viewers can watch excerpts from this expansive work-in-progress on the History in 3D YouTube channel. In this extract, titled Virtual Ancient Rome: Walking from the Colosseum to the Forum, we’re led on a gentle digital stroll between these two landmarks, in the 4th century CE, with views of several other notable sites along the way. While it’s but a glimpse into the larger, more ambitious endeavour, the video is a fascinating experience in its own right, and hints at the promise of historical reconstructions to come.
  2. Notes
    • As the Editors' Abstract says, this is just a snippet of what's to come - but it's really really good!
    • For more, see YouTube: History in 3D, the link cited in the Editors' Abstract. However, I think the correct site is History in 3D.
    • Some of the YouTube offerings seem to be live-streamed, which is a bit odd, and of variable quality. See YouTube: Rome in 3D Walking Tour Live; a 4-hour session! I've not watched it yet.
    • One thing - the magnificance of the buildings may be a little overstated, I thought, because - firstly - there'd have been no machine-tooling, so the edges would be a little rough; also, in the 3D images everything is brand new, which would not have been the case in a city built and re-built over hundreds of years. Finally, there's none of the detritus - human and animal - of real life.
    • But it certainly gives you an idea, and it's only a fraction of what ancient Rome had on display.
Footnote 410: Aeon: Video - The Black cop: a victim, a villain and a hero (Date=07/03/2022, WebRef=11488)Footnote 411: Aeon: Video - The infamous overpopulation bet (Date=03/03/2022, WebRef=11481)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: In 1980, two feuding professors bet on the fate of humanity. Who won?
    • Editors' Abstract
      • In 1968, The Population Bomb by the Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich became a bestseller. With its foreboding thesis that humanity’s population growth was outpacing its ability to feed itself, it was a rare book that both caught the attention of the public and became deeply influential in academic circles.
      • But not everyone was a fan. One of the book’s biggest critics was the economist Julian Simon, then a professor at the University of Illinois. Simon thought the thesis of The Population Bomb was little more than poorly drawn speculative fiction, calling Ehrlich a ‘false prophet’. Human ingenuity, Simon argued, would ultimately accommodate the exploding population.
      • As this short animation from TED-Ed details, the ongoing professional feud between the two prominent academics ultimately culminated in a $1,000 bet on the fate of humanity – one which Ehrlich would ultimately pay out, and that shifted the way the world understood population growth.
  2. Notes
    • This is obviously a very important issue, and the video rightly says that the prognosis for the carrying-capacity of the planet is much greater than it was thought to be in Ehrlich's day.
    • The issue is covered in "Sowell (Thomas) - Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy", pp. 298-9, from the perspective of the terms of the bet (availability of natural resources). Sowell's argument is that there is always much more of any particular natural resource available than appears on current inventories - it's just that it's currently not worth looking for or exploiting it while there's lots of 'low hanging fruit' to be gathered. I agree. I think he also says somewhere that larger populations are usually per capita richer than smaller ones. I probably agree with that in many circumstances; but it is surely true that families with many children are worse off in those societies without generous social services than are smaller families. And, as in the animal world, 'spares' in the litter don't survive to adulthood.
    • However, while human ingenuity may be able to increase the carrying-capacity of the planet almost indefinitely, this isn't necessarily a good thing, for at least two reasons.
    • Firstly, the whole issue of climate change and ruination of the natural world. No doubt much of this is also soluble by human ingenuity. However, the question is one of timing, which leads on to ..
    • Secondly, while human ingenuity may one day be able to solve most problems, society has a tendency to run ahead of itself. Letting population grow exponentially before the ability to accommodate that growth is actually in place will lead to, or make rapidly-expanding populations liable to, Malthusian events. Societies become fragile and subject to plagues or famines if shock events happen.
    • Finally, if some natural or human-initiated mega-catastrophe occurred, the carrying-capacity of the planet would drastically reduce over-night, leading to many billions of deaths.
    • Reading the comments, eight of the nine seems to agree with the above, written before reading them. However, there is one who disagrees, and alludes to "Rosling (Hans) - Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think". He's right, of course, in that things - in general (ie. outside war zones) - are much better now than they ever have been for most people, including 'the poor'. The question is whether this happy state of affairs can continue indefinitely in the face of exponential growth. Maybe, but you need to keep the break on to the degree that population growth exceeds our capacity to accommodate it.
    • There is also a tension between the seeming empirical support for the optimists as against the alleged doom-mongers. To a degree, the current rosy picture (the environment aside) is due to the general attempt to limit population growth. What would things be like if the world population now was twice what it is?
Footnote 412: Aeon: Nathan - Knowing your true age requires more than a swab and calendar (Date=02/03/2022, WebRef=11472)Footnote 413: Aeon: Doyle - Affirming transgender people’s identities is more than politeness (Date=01/03/2022, WebRef=11475)Footnote 414: Aeon: Francione - We must not own animals (Date=01/03/2022, WebRef=11476)Footnote 415: Aeon: Video - The many disguises of Australian walking sticks (Date=28/02/2022, WebRef=11477)Footnote 416: Aeon: Video - The happiest guy in the world (Date=24/02/2022, WebRef=11464)Footnote 417: Aeon: Video - The Bombay highway code (Date=21/02/2022, WebRef=11460)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: A postcard from Mumbai, where there’s poetry in getting from A to B
    • Editor's Abstract
      • But every mode of transport has its place upon the road
        so you must become acquainted with the Bombay highway code …
      • Every city’s streets have their own modes of transport, rhythms and rules – written and unwritten. Nowhere is this more conspicuous than in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), where a population of some 20 million moves by foot, bike, rickshaw, train and all forms of motor vehicle across crowded and lightly regulated streets.
      • In The Bombay Highway Code, the London-based filmmaker David Baksh pays tribute to Mumbai’s history and vitality in words and images bound to arouse wanderlust.
      • Baksh’s own poem accompanies vivid cinematography unspooling to original music by James Fortune, all of which reads as a love letter to Mumbai, and the many forms of communication that make navigating its streets possible.
  2. Notes
    • I watched this as a reminder of my limited experience of being driven through Mumbai's traffic then taking a car between Mumbai and Pune, in both directions.
    • My memory of the trip from Mumbai airport to Pune is dominated by experience of the Deccan Traps when the driver stopped so I could take a look. The exit from Mumbai itself seemed fairly straightforward along major roads.
    • My memory of the reverse journey from Pune to Mumbai is however dominated by the streets of Mumbai, as I was staying in a Mumbai hotel for an early morning flight rather than taking a direct flight back to England, and getting there involved crawling through the traffic, including all the scenes itemised in the film.
    • Some extra scenes don't appear: beggars tapping on the window and waving babies; whole families on a motorbike - only the father wearing a helmet; motorbike riders with an arm in plaster and a bandaged head; cows and elephants (maybe not in Mumbai). But the scenes of chaos that somehow don't usually lead to catastrophe are just as I remember.
    • I only made the round trip once. Other times I took the internal flight between Mumbai and Pune; another experience worth having, but not as interesting.
    • As for the film, it's very enjoyable and pays particular attention to the people rather than just the traffic, though they don't speak (in English). I didn't pay much attention to the poem. There seem to be several 'David Baksh's, so I don't know if he's originally from Mumbai.
Footnote 418: Aeon: Video - Bertrand's Paradox (Date=15/02/2022, WebRef=11442)Footnote 419: Aeon: Video - Jeff Tollaksen - quantum mechanics experiments (Date=10/02/2022, WebRef=11418)Footnote 420: Aeon: Tyldesley - Nefertiti’s bust (Date=08/02/2022, WebRef=11414)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Joyce Tyldesley
    • Author Narrative: Joyce Tyldesley is professor of Egyptology in the Department of Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology and Egyptology at the University of Manchester in the UK. Her books include Cleopatra, Last Queen of Egypt (2008), Nefertiti’s Face: The Creation of an Icon (2018) and, co-authored with Nicky Nielsen, From Mummies to Microchips (2020).
    • Aeon Subtitle: How did this ancient and enigmatic sculpture of a beautiful Egyptian queen end up as fortune’s hostage in Germany?
    • Author's Introduction
      • Almost 3,400 years ago, the sculptor Thutmose said goodbye to the extensive compound – a warren of workshops, courtyards and living accommodation for artists and apprentices – that had been both his home and his workplace for more than a decade. He had once managed a highly prestigious business, creating many of the stone images of the royal family that decorated Egypt’s newest royal city, Amarna. But now King Akhenaten was dead and his young successor, Tutankhamen, had decided to relocate the royal court back to Thebes. On the verge of becoming a ghost city, Amarna no longer had any need for royal statues, so Thutmose – the king’s chief of works, and entirely dependent on royal patronage – had no choice but to seek employment elsewhere. Packing his goods and chattels, he sailed away, abandoning objects that he did not want or could not move. Among this heap of castoffs was an uninscribed bust of a woman whose distinctive tall, flat-topped crown identified her as Akhenaten’s consort: Nefertiti.
  2. Notes
    • The first half of this paper is fascinating. The author's theory is that the Nefertiti bust - made of limestone with a thin layer of plaster overlayed - is a model for craftsmen to work from to ensure a consistent depiction. The copies were to be worshipped as only the Pharaoh and his consort had direct access to the Aten.
    • The second half gives a history of scrabbles over who should keep the bust. It wasn't 'looted' but was 'under-described' in the document listing the Egyptian share and the archaeologists' share of the excavated items. Later, it seems that Hitler over-rode Göring who'd agreed to return it to King Fuad.
Footnote 421: Aeon: Video - The chimney swift (Date=07/02/2022, WebRef=11415)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: The perilous lives of the ‘climbing boys’ who swept chimneys in 19th-century London
    • Editors' Abstract
      • ‘No one knows the cruelty which a boy has to undergo in learning.’
        → from an original statement by a master chimney sweeper, London 1840
      • The Chimney Swift brings viewers into the claustrophobic world of the young chimney sweepers of 19th-century London. A dangerous, sometimes deadly job done by children aged between four and 14, these ‘climbing boys’ cleared the ash and soot from chimneys, their small bodies being advantageous for fitting into narrow spaces. Often, the best they could hope for was to survive into adulthood and become a ‘chimney master’ themselves, recruiting more children into the hazardous job, and continuing the cycle of exploitation and abuse anew.
      • Via impressionistic hand-drawn animations, the French-German filmmaker Frédéric Schuld employs a dark colour palette and narrow framing in this short video, evoking the grim working conditions that these children faced until the practice was finally outlawed in 1875 by the UK Parliament, although it continued in other countries.
  2. Notes
    • This video makes very unsettling viewing.
    • It seems amazing that a practice so exploitative should only have been outlawed in 1875, when slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1833 (see Wikipedia: Slavery Abolition Act 1833). And this was slavery, and worse treatment – while it lasted – than for a plantation worker.
    • The narrative appears to be from the master chimney sweep quoted who started to train one of his own boys, but couldn’t bring himself to continue it.
    • Tending not to think about such things, I’d imagined that boys would occasionally get stuck and die (as was the case) but hadn’t thought of the ‘hardening’ process – which could take years – and during which knees and elbows would be scraped until bloody when on the job (and were treated with brine).
Footnote 422: Aeon: Falk - The philosopher’s zombie (Date=04/02/2022, WebRef=11407)Footnote 423: Aeon: Video - Forever (Date=03/02/2022, WebRef=11408)Footnote 424: Aeon: Video - The invention of trousers (Date=01/02/2022, WebRef=11401)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Unravelling the surprisingly epic story of the world’s oldest pair of trousers
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Trousers: they’re the leg-engulfing garments that, today, most cold to temperate weather societies take for granted as the most practical way to cover your lower body. Given their modern ubiquity, one might assume that, as long as there have been people, there have been pants. However, any combination of cloaks, short skirts, leggings, loin cloths and more have been favoured by various cultures across time. And, as this entertaining video from the German Archeological Institute explores, until recently, their origins were a historical mystery.
      • The Invention of Trousers is a surprisingly epic journey into the history of clothing, tracing an archeological discovery (Beck, Etc - The invention of trousers and its likely affiliation with horseback riding and mobility: A case study of late 2nd millennium BC finds from Turfan in eastern Central Asia) at the Yanghai cemetery in Turfan, western China, where what might just be the oldest known pair of pants were found inside an immaculately preserved grave. The find launched an ambitious project by an international team of archeologists, scientists and even fashion designers to unlock the mysteries of these centuries-old (but still quite stylish) trousers, by reverse-engineering them from scratch. More than just a fascinating dive into history, the documentary doubles as a celebration of the incredible expertise and teamwork necessary for unravelling the ancient past.
  2. Notes
    • At 45 minutes, quite a long video, but worth the watch.
    • I was initially interested because the location of the find tied in with what I'd been reading in "Keay (John) - China: A History".
    • The sophistication of the weaving and general manufacture of the original garment is amazing.
    • The 'discovery' that trousers were invented to make horse-riding more comfortable is hardly a revelation.
    • The Abstract from the Paper referenced above is: Here, we present the first report on the design and manufacturing process of trousers excavated at Yanghai cemetery (42°48′–42°49′N, 89°39′–89°40′E) near the Turfan oasis, western China. In tombs M21 and M157 fragments of woollen trousers were discovered which have been radiocarbon dated to the time interval between the 13th and the 10th century BC. Their age corresponds to the spread of mobile pastoralism in eastern Central Asia and predates the widely known Scythian finds. Using methods of fashion design, the cut of both trousers was studied in detail. The trousers were made of three independently woven pieces of fabric, one nearly rectangular for each side spanning the whole length from waistband to hemline at the ankle and one stepped cross-shaped crotch-piece which bridged the gap between the two side-pieces. The tailoring process did not involve cutting the cloth: instead the parts were shaped on the loom, and they were shaped in the correct size to fit a specific person. The yarns of the three fabrics and threads for final sewing match in color and quality, which implies that the weaver and the tailor was the same person or that both cooperated in a highly coordinated way. The design of the trousers from Yanghai with straight-fitting legs and a wide crotch-piece seems to be a predecessor of modern riding trousers. Together with horse gear and weapons as grave goods in both tombs our results specify former assumptions that the invention of bifurcated lower body garments is related to the new epoch of horseback riding, mounted warfare and greater mobility. Trousers are essential part of the tool kit with which humans improve their physical qualities.|
Footnote 425: YouTube: Why Teleportation Isn't Total Science Fiction (Date=28/01/2022, WebRef=12962)Footnote 426: Aeon: Zangwill - Why you should eat meat (Date=24/01/2022, WebRef=11389)Footnote 427: Aeon: Montas - Great books are still great (Date=21/01/2022, WebRef=11365)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Roosevelt Montas
    • Author Narrative: Roosevelt Montás is senior lecturer in American studies and English at Columbia University, and director of the Freedom and Citizenship programme at the Center for American Studies. He is the author of Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation (2021).
    • Aeon Subtitle: Read with love, rather than critical distance, the classics can provide tools to subvert oppressive hierarchies
    • Author's Conclusion
      • If the approach to liberal education that I am describing sounds like the traditional education of social elites, it is because liberal education does significantly resemble that. And this, by itself, is no grounds for rejecting it. In fact, to cast liberal education as a mere affect of privilege is precisely to perpetuate the structures of social power that have long plagued our unequal society, and to put crucial tools for social, political and personal agency beyond the reach of those who need it most.
      • My point is simple: give the ‘underprivileged’ access to the cultural wealth that has long been the exclusive purview of the elite, and you will have given them the tools with which to subvert the social hierarchies that have kept them down. Beyond equipping them with marketable skills and the means for economic self-advancement, this deeper work of education is the most valuable gift that colleges and universities can give to young people. It is also the most valuable contribution they can make to a democratic society.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting and cogent. Probably a plug for the author's latest book.
    • Numerous mostly-supportive comments.
    • I agree with the critique of critical theory, and with the thought that the classics should be accepted on their own terms, and the topics they wrestle with engaged with sympathetically, with application to our own times. Focusing on whatever we might (be induced to) find offensive misses out on whatever is good in these works.
    • The essay partly reflects the US tertiary educational system, and assumes that a 'liberal education' equates to liberal arts, and that other forms of education are career-oriented.
    • But, whatever an undergraduate's specialism, it is mostly not in practice directly related to their future career. At least not so in the UK. Most people don't go into research or teaching, though there are doubtless more vocational courses now categorised as University Education.
    • Tertiary education in the UK used to be a way of testing whether the student could seriously engage with a topic in depth - a broad education was the province of secondary education.
Footnote 428: Aeon: Barash - Be they friend or foe, animals share our blood and our planet (Date=19/01/2022, WebRef=11370)Footnote 429: Aeon: Kahn-Harris - The pleasure in not understanding a language can be awesome (Date=19/01/2022, WebRef=11367)Footnote 430: Aeon: Video - Zen koans (Date=17/01/2022, WebRef=11375)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: What Zen Buddhist riddles reveal about knowledge and the unknowable
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Is seeking an explanation for life’s deepest mysteries a worthy pursuit? Many scientists and theologians would say yes.
      • Zen Buddhists practising in China from the 9th to 13th centuries CE, however, believed that it was important to embrace uncertainty instead of always seeking answers. For these monks, achieving enlightenment meant resisting the urge to know the seemingly unknowable.
      • To foster this way of thinking, they meditated on paradoxical riddles called kōans to raise doubts about the very meaning of knowing and, through this, find deeper truths about existence.
      • This playful animation from TED-Ed provides a brief history of kōans, and offers two rich examples from the roughly 1,700 kōans written to illustrate the key role of ambiguity on the path to enlightenment.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting, though I'm not sure the animation adds much.
    • So, Koans are not riddles to be solved, but to be meditated on to show that some matters cannot be resolved.
    • This is all very well: some matters are no doubt beyond out ken, and some disputes are purely verbal or perspectival for which we need some Wittgensteinian therapy.
    • But knowing which problems are soluble and which aren't is itself a difficult problem, and retreating into paradox doesn't get you very far.
    • Sometimes thinking on something continuously does lead to a solution (witness Isaac Newton).
Footnote 431: Aeon: Jones - Becoming a centaur (Date=14/01/2022, WebRef=11351)Footnote 432: Aeon: Video - Inka khipu (Date=13/01/2022, WebRef=11352)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Reading the strings and knots that keep the secrets of the Inka Empire
    • Editors' Abstract
      • The khipu was a record-keeping device made from fibre strings that used knots to encode layers of information.
      • They first appeared in Wari culture in modern-day Peru around 600 CE, and were later used across the Inka Empire.
      • These remarkable, portable archives centralised and collapsed language, mathematics, history and accounting into a single object.
      • So complex were the khipus that khipukamayuqs – or ‘readers of the knots’ – were trained specifically to decode them.
      • Today, there are roughly 1,000 known khipus in museums around the world, varying greatly in both size and in purpose. And, as this video from the British Museum explores, these objects offer a remarkable window into pre-Columbian Andean culture and society – from military strategies to tax obligations – revealing much about the inner workings of the Inka Empire.
  2. Notes
    • Very interesting, though brief.
    • The Editors' Abstract covers both more and less than the talk.
    • In particular, it doesn't mention the 2-dimensional decimal system of the khipu.
    • For more, see Wikipedia: Quipu, and numerous books.
Footnote 433: Aeon: Video - Unsafe passage (Date=11/01/2022, WebRef=11358)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Tension, bureaucracy and deep humanity define life aboard a refugee rescue ship
    • Editors' Abstract
      • On the Mediterranean waters off the coast of Libya, boats overcrowded mostly with adult men from conflict zones dot the waters. The vast majority of these vessels are full of asylum seekers escaping Libya, where, during perilous attempts to reach Europe, they were swept up by the European Union-funded Libyan coastguard. On land, they were often robbed, beaten and at risk of being trafficked.
      • This short documentary captures the inherent tensions, bureaucratic frustrations and fleeting moments of joy aboard a Doctors Without Borders ship operated by a crew dedicated to rescuing these refugees from Libyan boats and death at sea.
      • In particular, the film focuses on the tireless and sometimes thankless work of Salah Dasuki, a Syrian cultural mediator who was forced to make a similarly treacherous trip himself.
      • Although there are flickers of hope amid the chaos on and off the ship, the Canadian director Ed Ou also makes it clear that, even upon docking in Europe, the asylum seekers face long odds of staying. Most will be sent back home, where many, still finding themselves in a desperate situation, will begin the journey all over again.
  2. Notes
    • This is a very humane film, but it deals with an apparently insoluble problem.
    • The 'first world' can't just open its borders to economic migrants from the ‘third world’, nor even to all those wanting to escape political turmoil or persecution. There are just too many.
    • As the - doubtless corrupt - Libyan border force said, European boats rescuing migrants in difficulty and taking them to Europe, rather than leaving them to the European-funded Libyan border force to be returned to Libya, just encourages the traffic. Maybe once arrived in Libya, migrants have little choice but to risk the trip, but if it was known to be even more risky or less likely to be successful, fewer might set off for Libya in the first place.
    • The rescue boat seems to view its role as assisting the migration, rather than just saving migrants from drowning, though the situation is complicated by the ill-treatment of migrants in Libya, making their return thereto unethical.
    • The only real solution is to ameliorate the conditions in the countries from which people desperately want to escape. But the bad conditions are mostly caused by internal wars and corruption that the first world can do little about - though they could stop supporting the losing sides in civil wars. However oppressive a regime may be, most people are worse off in protracted civil wars.
Footnote 434: Aeon: Video - Powers of ten, updated (Date=04/01/2022, WebRef=11343)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Brian Cox
    • Aeon Subtitle: Revisiting ‘Powers of Ten’ – what we’ve learned about the Universe since 1977
    • Editors' Abstract
      • Directed by Charles and Ray Eames, the legendary husband-and-wife filmmaking and design team, the classic short Powers of Ten (1977) invited viewers to contemplate the edges of our understanding of reality.
      • Starting from a picnic blanket in a Chicago park, that film took viewers on a journey that stretched to the scale of 100 million light years away, and then back down to a single proton.
      • Narrated by the BBC TV presenter Brian Cox – a professor of particle physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester – this new short pays homage to the Eames classic by transposing its elegantly simple premise to today.
      • This time, the picnic blanket is in Sicily, and the time horizon stretches to a scale of 100 billion light years away; the resulting film integrates updates in astronomy, astronomical imaging and human understanding into its journey far into the cosmos and back again.
  2. Notes
    • See Also:
      → Aeon: Video - Powers of Ten for the original version.
    • Nice enough, but - as the commentators stress - only half the original as it doesn't cover the micro-world.
    • But the contemporary version is slicker.
Footnote 435: Aeon: Video - How to ride a pterosaur (Date=23/12/2021, WebRef=11328)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: It’s a massive, winged Cretaceous beast – could a human ride one?
    • Editors' Abstract
      • The Late Cretaceous flying reptiles known as pterosaurs were contemporaries and close relatives of dinosaurs and, as far as we know, the first vertebrates to master powered flight. They came in a variety of sizes, from tiny bats to small planes.
      • When you see the skeleton of a massive one – with a wingspan up to 39 feet (nearly 12 metres) – in a natural history museum, you might wonder how such a creature ever left the ground.
      • Perhaps no one has spent more time pondering this question than Liz Martin-Silverstone, a palaeontologist at the University of Bristol in the UK, who specialises in biomechanics.
      • This short video from the Sicily-based filmmaker Pierangelo Pirak uses Martin-Silverstone’s expertise in pterosaur flight as a springboard for a perhaps unanswerable, but still fun-to-ponder question – would it be possible for a human to ride one?
  2. Notes
    • Interesting enough
Footnote 436: Aeon: Video - Karl Friston: Embodied cognition (Date=16/12/2021, WebRef=11312)Footnote 437: Aeon: Video - In a lion (Date=14/12/2021, WebRef=11304)Footnote 438: Aeon: Video - Simulating star-destroying black holes (Date=13/12/2021, WebRef=11307)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Models capture the world-warping physics of what happens when stars meet black holes
    • Editors' Abstract
      • When stars cross paths with a black hole, they risk being forever torn into a stream of gas – what’s known as a ‘tidal disruption event’.
      • However, not all stars that pass through such an encounter are destined to become cosmic debris. After being stretched by a black hole’s tidal force – ‘spaghettification’, as it’s informally known – some stars can partially reform. And, as this video from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center illustrates, predicting which stars might survive these events isn’t always intuitive.
      • Using computer models to simulate the process of eight different stars passing by a supermassive black hole, researchers found that the surviving stars weren’t cleanly divided by mass.
      • In addition to bringing these astounding cosmic encounters into focus, the short video also illustrates how computer modelling is helping to deepen scientists’ understanding of complex and difficult-to-observe cosmological events.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting, but too brief.
Footnote 439: Aeon: Monti - A stable sense of self is rooted in the lungs, heart and gut (Date=06/12/2021, WebRef=11287)Footnote 440: Aeon: Baggott - Calculate but don’t shut up (Date=06/12/2021, WebRef=11288)Footnote 441: Aeon: Video - The power of diverse thinking (Date=06/12/2021, WebRef=11283)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Matthew Syed
    • Aeon Subtitle: Workplace diversity isn’t just about equality – it’s a competitive advantage
    • Editors' Abstract
      • As individuals, we tend to gravitate to people who share and confirm our beliefs. But, in business, surrounding yourself with ‘yes men’ could prove to be perilous.
      • Recent studies have shown that working in cognitively diverse groups boosts creativity and problem-solving.
      • This playfully animated short features audio from a lecture by the British author Matthew Syed at the RSA in London in 2019, and borrows from his research for the book Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking (2019) to argue in favour of cognitive diversity as a tool for innovation.
  2. Notes
    • Well, this is only one side of the story. Incidentally, it's not obviously aimed at 'diversity' as currently understood - along the lines of having lots of ethnic minorities and physically or mentally challenged people in the workforce.
    • Instead, the suggestion is that any one person might have 10 good ideas, but 10 people won't have 100 good ideas unless they are 'cognitively diverse', because otherwise mental clones will have many of the same ideas.
    • While this may be true in some idealised sense, how do you govern all this chaos, and the disenchantment of the people whose good ideas can't be followed up?
    • If several people have the same good idea, we might get a consensus for a team to follow it up.
    • I think the cognitive deversity idea only works at the start-up or completely-stuck stage of a company or project where a cognitive revolution is required. Most work situations are implementations of proven ideas where you need people to implement a plan as a team in an efficient manner. Difficult if you don't know how your colleague's mind works.
    • I agree you don't want 'yes men' - you need people to tell you how it is, but this doesn't necessarily involve cognitive diversity.
    • I came across another talk that took the view that you need people who are supportive of one another and forgiving of their faults.
    • No doubt there are lots of approaches that are true of some contexts but not of others.
    • Unfortunately, the link to the talk no longer works on Aeon, and I can't find the other talk referred to above!
    • However, YouTube: Pursuing Cognitive Diversity with Matthew Syed is an excellent talk - also by Matthew Syed - which makes the important distinction I make above, and the other points. Indeed, it might be the same as the Aeon talk, which I think was edited. Both claim to be RSA.
Footnote 442: Aeon: Video - Vertigo AI (Date=29/11/2021, WebRef=11256)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Who, exactly, authored this AI-generated spin on Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo?
    • Editors' Abstract
      • Machine learning technology can feel eerily ubiquitous in the algorithmic undercurrent of our daily lives, but humanity is likely still in the very early stages of unleashing the power of machine learning to transform our world.
      • In addition to its potential to overhaul such spheres as transportation and medicine, the Los Angeles-based artist Chris Peters predicts that its impact on entertainment will move far beyond just spitting out recommendations. He writes: ‘By 2050, you will be able to turn on your TV and order the machine to write and render a new show just for you, all within a few seconds.’
      • Peters’s experimental short Vertigo AI provides a snapshot of machine learning in its contemporary, perhaps primordial, form. Generated from running the Alfred Hitchcock classic Vertigo (1958) through an artificial intelligence computer 20 times, the resulting film offers a glimpse into the technology’s current capabilities and limitations.
      • It’s also a work of art in its own right, with its uncanny, noir-infused AI-generated script and imagery striking a haunting tone, while also raising fascinating questions of authorship.
  2. Notes
Footnote 443: Aeon: Video - Planktonium (Date=23/11/2021, WebRef=11266)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Peering into the eerie world of plankton reveals a variety of vital creatures
    • Editors' Abstract
      • Diverse, numerous and vital to life on Earth, plankton are microscopic, mostly single-celled organisms that live in sunlit regions of watery environments. Through photosynthesis, these small lifeforms produce half of the world’s oxygen. Over the past several decades, however, the climate crisis has caused worrying disruptions in plankton populations, with their numbers decreasing in open oceans and increasing in near-shore waters, sometimes leading to harmful algal blooms.
      • The Dutch photographer and filmmaker Jan van IJken’s short film Planktonium uses high-definition microscopy to bring the beauty and wide variety of plankton into view. As he focuses on just one species at a time, some resemble familiar cellular forms, while others appear as if creatures born of an alien planet. Paired with an ethereal ambient composition by the Norwegian artist Jana Winderen, the film offers a stunning perspective on this hidden, essential world. For more awe-inspiring glimpses into nature from van IJken, watch Becoming and The Art of Flying.
  2. Notes
    • Well, it's interesting enough, but it'd be better with a commentary on what you're looking at.
    • There's a 15-minute version which would be a strain to watch. 3 minutes was enough.
    • The Editor's Abstract seems confused as to what Plankton are. They are a wide range of plants, animals, fungi, bacteria and viruses, only the first category of which photosynthesise. The film shows both plants and animals (and possibly bacteria).
    • See Wikipedia: Plankton.
Footnote 444: Aeon: Pigliucci - Musonius Rufus: Roman Stoic, and avant-garde feminist? (Date=17/11/2021, WebRef=11231)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Massimo Pigliucci
    • Author Narrative: Massimo Pigliucciis an author, blogger and podcaster, as well as the K D Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York. His academic work is in evolutionary biology, philosophy of science, the nature of pseudoscience, and practical philosophy. His books include How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life (2017) and Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk (2018). His most recent work is Think Like a Stoic: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World (2021).
    • Author's Conclusion
      • So we deal with the world as it is, not as we would wish it to be. But we constantly strive to make it a better place for everyone. Modern Stoicism is not the passive life philosophy of enduring whatever life throws at you with equanimity. That is a caricature. It is a philosophy that recognises both the limitations on our capacity to change the world and the possibility of making some change.
      • Striving to find the sweet spot between endurance of the world as it is and the drive to improve things without battering your head against an immovable wall is the essence of Stoicism. What is genuinely surprising is the degree to which thinkers such as Musonius Rufus laid the foundations for radical egalitarianism 2,000 years ago. We should recognise these Stoics as at least protofeminists, and build on their insights.
  2. Notes
    • An interesting and informative article, though rather focused on one aspect of Stoic thought – proto-feminism – and is probably a plug for the author’s just-published second book on Stoicism.
    • The Stoic idea of ‘improve what you can and put up with what you can’t’ seems to be reflected in the popular quote from St. Francis.
    • Continuing the Christian theme … the Stoics (and the author) seem to think that people are born good – the antithesis of evangelical Christian thought (if people are naturally good, they don’t need saving, they just need to pull their socks up). The author mentions that “some” evolutionary psychologists hold with the “naturally good” idea, though most – or at least the authors of once-popular books – focus on our inheriting the objectional ways of our hunter-gatherer forebears (though contemporary hunter-gatherers are – of course – saints).
    • It seems that contemporary thought – at least as portrayed by liberal news outlets – hold that women are naturally good, but men naturally bad; or maybe they are just brought up that way.
Footnote 445: Aeon: Shakespeare - We are all frail (Date=16/11/2021, WebRef=11234)Footnote 446: Aeon: Video - When Vikings lived in North America (Date=09/11/2021, WebRef=11185)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: A Viking axe struck a Newfoundland tree in the year 1021. Here’s how scientists proved it
    • Editors' Abstract
      • Hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus, the Norse became the first Europeans to cross the Atlantic and settle in North America. This long-posited theory was finally proven in the 1960s, following an archeological expedition to the site of L’Anse aux Meadows on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland.
      • Until recently, the exact timing of the Viking settlement was only speculation, based on architectural remains, a few surviving artefacts and interpretations of Icelandic sagas written in the 1200s.
      • But, as this video from Nature explains, using new carbon dating techniques, scientists at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands have found the exact year that a tree was felled by a Viking axe – 1021 CE.
      • Further, this research also marks the earliest known point in history by which human migration had encircled the globe.
  2. Notes
    • See Also:
      → Aeon: Video - The Vinland Mystery
      → Aeon: Hansen - Vikings in America
    • Well, this is interesting and informative - particularly with the details of the recent refinements of radio-carbon dating using tree-rings and markers from solar activity.
    • The enigmatic comment at the end of the Editors' abstract isn't claiming that the Norsemen circumnavigated the globe, but that they - travelling west - had met up with earlier migrants who had migrated east from Siberia before the land-bridge submerged.
    • I do hate - however - the comparison with Columbus. I agree that the archaeological evidence does prove that the Norse reached Newfoundland, but this had zero geopolitical consequences, as the Norse didn't settle there (I don't know whether any alien diseases were transmitted either way).
    • Also, it's rather arbitrary whether Greenland - already as of 986 occupied by the Norse (and continually so thereafter) - is part of Europe or North America. Wikipedia: Greenland suggests the latter; having Greenland part of Denmark (or - earlier - Norway) is a political accident. So, ‘America’ had been discovered – uncontroversially – even earlier. The incremental island-hopping involved isn't as spectacular as sailing west in the hope of finding a quick way to China round the globe.
    • Columbus, of course had a much tougher task, and the fall-out from his discoveries was earth-changing: positively for Europe and negatively for indigenous Americans.
Footnote 447: Aeon: Video - Bug Farm (Date=02/11/2021, WebRef=11153)Footnote 448: Aeon: Mallette - How 12th-century Genoese merchants invented the idea of risk (Date=02/11/2021, WebRef=11154)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Karla Mallette
    • Author Narrative: Karla Mallette is professor of Italian and Mediterranean Studies and chair of the Department of Middle East Studies at the University of Michigan. She is the author of The Kingdom of Sicily, 1100-1250: A Literary History (2005), European Modernity and the Arab Mediterranean (2010), and Lives of the Great Languages: Arabic and Latin in the Medieval Mediterranean (2021).
  2. Notes
    • Interesting enough, but a history - rather than mathematics - lesson.
Footnote 449: Aeon: Pierce - The posthuman dog (Date=01/11/2021, WebRef=11158)Footnote 450: Aeon: Video - Street angel (Date=28/10/2021, WebRef=11147)Footnote 451: Aeon: Video - The development of mindreading (Date=25/10/2021, WebRef=11142)Footnote 452: Aeon: Video - Five Stories (Date=13/10/2021, WebRef=11105)Footnote 453: Aeon: Video - The Rashomon effect (Date=11/10/2021, WebRef=11101)Footnote 454: Aeon: Video - Moths in slow motion (Date=07/10/2021, WebRef=11091)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Witness the majesty of moths taking flight at 6,000 frames per second
    • Editors' Abstract
      • ‘Whose day isn’t gonna be better after watching a pink and yellow rosy maple moth fly in super-slow motion?’
      • You might think of moths primarily as the pesky creatures that get drawn to your lamplight and love nothing more than gnawing through your well-worn knitwear. However, as this video from the Evolutionary Biology and Behavior Research Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State University shows, they can also be quite majestic – especially when captured on ‘fancy science cameras’.
      • Shooting seven different moth species at a whopping 6,000 frames per second (fps) – compared with the standard 24 fps for film and television – the biologist Adrian Smith, who heads the research lab, guides viewers through the incredible biophysics of moth flight.
  2. Notes
    • Contrary to the Editor's Abstract, this says nothing about the 'the incredible biophysics of moth flight'.
    • However, it is a good watch!
Footnote 455: Aeon: Video - The elephant's song (Date=04/10/2021, WebRef=11086)Footnote 456: Aeon: Video - Fifty per cent (Date=28/09/2021, WebRef=11069)Footnote 457: Aeon: Video - The impossible map (Date=27/09/2021, WebRef=11071)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: There are many ways to make a flat map of the world – each of them a unique distortion
    • Editors' Abstract
      • As almost everyone learns in primary school, it’s impossible to represent a round object on a flat surface without imposing some major distortions. But the concept has perhaps never been as clearly or amusingly demonstrated as in this stop-motion animation from 1947.
      • Using clay moulds, grapefruits, radishes and red paint to make its point, the vintage educational short cleverly demonstrates how each and every flat map of the world represents a grand compromise.
  2. Notes
    • Despite coming from 1947, this is a very clear educational video.
    • But, I wasn't clear why Aeon decided to re-publish it.
Footnote 458: Aeon: Fleming - A theory of my own mind (Date=23/09/2021, WebRef=11061)Footnote 459: Aeon: Gonzalez-Crussi - Shaggy and strong, or shorn and sharp? Hair’s evolving symbolism (Date=22/09/2021, WebRef=11052)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Frank Gonzalez-Crussi
    • Author Narrative: Frank Gonzalez-Crussi is professor emeritus of pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. He is the author of many books on medicine and the body, including Notes of an Anatomist (1985), A Short History of Medicine (2007) and The Body Fantastic (2021).
    • Author's Introduction
      • As a conspicuous feature of the human body, hair – or its absence – is also a major element of social perception and identity. Yet the symbolic meaning of hair is far from fixed. Historically, the ways in which this bodily component has been regarded have been astonishingly varied, fluctuant and often contradictory. This is evident in even a brief sampling of the rich lore built by our multifaceted views on hair.
  2. Notes
    • Useful, if a bit patchy, historical background
Footnote 460: Aeon: Video - Alison Gopnik: Cognition, care and spirituality (Date=20/09/2021, WebRef=11056)Footnote 461: Aeon: Monso - What animals think of death (Date=14/09/2021, WebRef=11048)Footnote 462: Aeon: Video - Serial parallels (Date=13/09/2021, WebRef=11032)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: A whirlwind tour of Hong Kong’s high-rises is an awesome meditation on urbanity
    • Editors' Abstract
      • Hong Kong’s skyline is defined by towering apartment high-rises, which are themselves characterised by immense size, muted colours and the relentless repetition of their facades.
      • In his experimental animation Serial Parallels, the German artist Max Hattler finds inspiration in the city’s vertical sprawl, building a whirlwind animation from still photographs of these buildings.
      • As a staggering number of units move in and out of view, with scattered open windows and clothes hung out to dry, hinting at the separate lives each window represents, viewers might find the proceedings awe-inspiring, anxiety-inducing or, perhaps more likely, a bit of both.
  2. Notes
    • This film is far too long. You get the idea after 10 seconds, so there’s no need for the whole 9 minutes.
    • You also don’t get a feel for how close together some of these huge blocks are. It’s almost as though neighbours in adjacent blocks could shake hands.
    • But you do get a feeling for just how hutch-like these apartments are, and how similar each apartment is to the others in the same and neighbouring blocks.
    • You get no idea of what the residents think of it all, as they aren’t consulted.
    • My only interest is having spent a week in HK on business, and seen this first hand.
Footnote 463: Aeon: Video - The Standard Model (Date=09/09/2021, WebRef=11036)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: The Standard Model might be the most successful theory in science. But what is it?
    • Editors' Abstract
      • Built on the quantum physics breakthroughs of the 1920s, the Standard Model of particle physics is, according to the physicist David Tong at the University of Cambridge, the most successful scientific theory in history. But, unlike other revolutionary theories such as evolution by natural selection, heliocentrism or even general relativity, the Standard Model is quite difficult to sum up in brief. And so, no surprise, it’s nowhere near as widely understood.
      • In this animated explainer, Tong does his best to bridge this knowledge gap without skimping on the complexities.
      • With the aid of some nifty visuals, he details how the Standard Model describes the interactions between 12 elementary particles and three fundamental forces, as well as what’s missing from the model, and why it isn’t quite a theory of everything.
  2. Notes
Footnote 464: Aeon: Taylor - Jefferson’s university (Date=03/09/2021, WebRef=11008)Footnote 465: Aeon: Agren - An idea with bite (Date=02/09/2021, WebRef=11011)Footnote 466: Aeon: Video - Hisako Koyama, the woman who stared at the sun (Date=17/08/2021, WebRef=10949)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Meet the citizen scientist who changed how we see the Sun, and science itself
    • Editor's Abstract
      • In 1944, while Tokyo was under Allied aerial attack, sirens warned citizens to remain indoors as the government blacked out the city. Hisako Koyama, a Tokyo resident then aged 28, used these perilous, dark moments as an opportunity to pursue her passion for astronomical observation.
      • But as this evocatively animated video from TED-Ed explores, it was her meticulous and innovative daylight sketches of the Sun that would ultimately capture the attention of the astronomy world.
      • Melding Koyama’s inspiring biography with the science of sunspots and solar flares, the short is at once a glimpse into the Sun’s somewhat hidden cycles and a celebration of the contributions of citizen scientists.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting and brief.
    • I was initially somewhat antipathetic about the topic - expecting it to be special pleading about allegedly unfairly forgotten and unrewarded female scientists, but it's not that at all.
    • It shows the importance of having an idea, and then following it through for years and decades.
    • It's mildly surprising that this massive data-collection exercise has been left to a 'citizen scientist', but maybe this is how it should be, leaving the detailed interpretation of the data to the appropriately qualified individuals, not wasting their time on straightforward stuff.
    • I was reminded of the division of labour between:-
      → Tycho Brahe (Wikipedia: Tycho Brahe)
      → Johannes Kepler (Wikipedia: Johannes Kepler)
      → Isaac Newton (Wikipedia: Isaac Newton)
    • I was glad the video didn't dwell on this, because the parallel isn't close. Brahe had to build his own telescope, decide what was worth recording, and was generally trail-blazing.
Footnote 467: Aeon: Video - Hacking enlightenment (Date=16/08/2021, WebRef=10952)Footnote 468: Aeon: Video - When can you trust the statistics? (Date=12/08/2021, WebRef=10939)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: The modern world is littered with statistical noise. Here’s how to find the signal
    • Editor's Abstract
      • A $3.2 billion budget deficit; a 10 per cent improvement in quality of life; 760,000 jobs added this quarter. Confusing, out-of-context, incomplete and flat-out inaccurate statistics no doubt account for a good chunk of our era of information overload – although you wouldn’t want to put a percentage to that. In this video from BBC Ideas in collaboration with the Open University, the UK writer and broadcaster Tim Harford offers three helpful tips for sifting through the noise to find the signal when it comes to investigating statistical claims.
  2. Notes
    • Simple little video, with no maths.
    • Asks you to remember "three C's":-
      → Calm, Context, Curiosity
    • So, when faced with a statistical claim, disentangle your emotions, consider how this statistic fits in with whatever else we know, and do some digging.
Footnote 469: Aeon: Video - Between strangers (Date=11/08/2021, WebRef=10937)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Crowded spaces, complete strangers – meditations on the urban commute
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Perhaps no artwork has better expressed the peculiar commingling of togetherness and aloneness inherent to modern urban life than Nighthawks (1942). The US artist Edward Hopper’s painting depicts four characters’ lives intersecting, if not connecting, in a late-night New York City diner. While there’s very little suggestion of motion in the image, it carries an intense sense of trajectory – of past and present colliding to bring strangers into a single space. The figures populating the frame seem to possess entire lives outside of this scene that can only be hinted at by the artist, and guessed at by the viewer. Is the man sitting solo at the counter resting after a long day of work? Avoiding face-time with his family? Biding time before catching a train? It’s impossible to know, and oh-so human to wonder.
      • Like Hopper, the US filmmakers Jimmy Ferguson and Catherine Gubernick find inspiration in close-proximity urban disconnection and the impulse to craft narratives about the hidden lives of passersby in Between Strangers (2019). Throughout the short, a nameless male voice recalls the daily, mechanical idiosyncrasies of commuting to the heart of Manhattan. Accompanied by a series of artfully filmed black-and-white New York street scenes, the man contemplates the somewhat paradoxical anonymity of crowded commuter trains, subways cars and city streets. In particular, he reflects on the experience of having seen, but never having spoken to, a man he commuted alongside for some 15 years.
      • Although heads are captured buried in phones throughout, the film spares the viewer an overwrought or clichéd scolding on our modern lack of connection. (Look no further than Nighthawks for evidence that solitude and alienation predate the smartphone.) Instead, the film offers something much more original and honest. Navigated without judgment or an agenda, Between Strangers interrogates the ‘instinctive decision just to remain strangers’ – an experience that, while often unspoken or even uncontemplated, will nonetheless, for many viewers, be profoundly familiar.
  2. Notes
    • See Also:
      → Hopper's Nighthawks: look through the window.
    • I really enjoyed this film, much more than the commentary (though the link to Nighthawks was useful, though maybe not quite the same situation).
    • There are two situations mentioned on the account of the daily commute, and both have to do with the need - for one reason or another - not to connect with the person near you.
    • The first is the abusive muscle-man, whom you have to ignore since he's trying to pick a fight that he would certainly win.
    • The other is the fellow-commuter that you see every day but whom you have to ignore. As the narrator says, if you don't, you'll need to interact every day and you'll lose your personal space.
    • Both these situations remind me of my own commute. The narrator doesn't say what he does with his commuting time, but mine was precious to me as it gave me a couple of hours a day for my own projects either side of those imposed by work and home. I've known people set up bridge schools on long commutes, but this would be to waste the time, in my view, though better than just nattering.
    • Which further reminds me that there were unwritten rules for commuter trains - nattering was not allowed, and it was very irritating when people broke the rules - and the silence.
    • All this has nothing to do with a failure to 'connect' in the modern world; hence, maybe, it differs from the chap in Nighthawks who may simply be lonely. That said, I often used to dine alone in a restaurant when working away from home. It seemed odd initially, but you get used to it, with the help of a half-carafe or two of red wine.
    • Commuting in a big city is completely different from what happens on occasional journeys. Even there, you might have things to do, though these get tiresome during a long journey and some interaction with strangers might provide relief, especially as you're less likely to see them again and so incur on-going 'maintenance costs'.
Footnote 470: Aeon: Video - Kids game (Date=10/08/2021, WebRef=10931)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: The charity that teaches underprivileged kids to humanely hunt their next meal
    • Editor's Abstract
      • The San Antonio metropolitan region is one of the highest-poverty areas in the United States. Roughly one in four children living there experiences hunger.
      • The short documentary Kids Game follows a hunting outing led by the charity City Kids Adventures, which offers outdoor excursions to underprivileged and at-risk San Antonio youth.
      • Capturing the participants in a non-intrusive verité style, the Belgian-born, US-based director Michiel Thomas skilfully tracks the action with a nonjudgmental eye, bringing evenhandedness to a scene – kids holding large guns, learning to kill – that could easily be misconstrued or politicised.
      • Instead, Thomas invites the viewer to draw out and interrogate their own reactions, whether it’s alarm at the image of kids shooting animals, warmth at the teachers’ focus on ethics and growth, frustration at the children’s food poverty despite their country’s vast wealth, or perhaps more likely, some incongruous combination thereof.
  2. Notes
    • This is a well-made film, but one that left me with mixed emotions and muddled thoughts - much as the Editors' Abstract would suggest.
    • The idea seems to be that the children get to go on an adventure and provide food for themselves and their families (though maybe not very much).
    • It looked like the chosen children were the 'deserving poor' - they seemed well-spoken and sensitive, and not overly enthusiastic about killing animals. They didn’t look the sort to go toting guns round the ‘hood.
    • Maybe there's a sub-plot of exposing 'city kids' to where their meat (when they can get it) comes from. It's certainly 'harvested' more humanely than would be the case in a commercial abattoir, though maybe the ‘shots’ are selective. It doesn’t seem that humane – whatever the instructions to the contrary – to have completely untrained kids taking pot-shots at live animals. It could only happen in the US – or at least it couldn’t happen in the UK.
    • I wondered whether there would be too much pressure to ‘make a kill’ and what happens to those children who – for whatever reason – don’t?
Footnote 471: Aeon: Video - Kabuki: The classic theatre of Japan (Date=09/08/2021, WebRef=10934)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Close-up on kabuki – the colourful ‘pure entertainment’ of Japan’s Edo period
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Kabuki theatre is a highly stylised form of dance-drama that came to prominence during Japan’s isolationist Edo period (1603-1867). At the height of its popularity in the mid-18th century, skilled kabuki performers became celebrities, with their likenesses carved into colour woodblock prints and sold as mementos.
      • Commissioned by the the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, this film from 1964 showcases vivid scenes from a kabuki theatre in Tokyo, where masters of the form still perform for eager audiences today.
      • A colourful melding of ‘pure entertainment’ and artistry, it’s easy to become engrossed in kabuki’s hallmark eccentricities – especially the characters’ exaggerated make-up, costumes, movements and intonations. Aspects of the form captured in the film – including its post-feudal themes and use of male actors in both masculine and feminine roles – also provide small glimpses into the mores and values of the Edo period.
  2. Notes
    • Worth watching, if only for the enlightenment that the female parts are performed by male actors.
    • Also interesting was the role of the koken (stage hands and assistants who are also stylised actors but carry on their role to assist the main actors in a semi-invisible manner).
    • But, without understanding of the language and of the social tensions of the Edo period, it's not possible to get much of an idea of what is going on, and why.
    • However stylish it is, it rapidly gets dull for outsiders.
Footnote 472: Aeon: Wirzbicki - Ralph Waldo Emerson would really hate your Twitter feed (Date=09/08/2021, WebRef=10935)Footnote 473: Aeon: Golob - Why some of the smartest people can be so very stupid (Date=04/08/2021, WebRef=10911)Footnote 474: Aeon: Middleton - Poseidon’s wrath (Date=02/08/2021, WebRef=10910)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Guy D. Middleton
    • Author Narrative: Guy D Middleton is a visiting fellow in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Newcastle University. His books include Understanding Collapse: Ancient History and Modern Myths (2017) and Collapse and Transformation: The Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age in the Aegean (2020).
    • Aeon Subtitle: Vanished beneath the waves in 373 BCE, Helike is a byword for thinking about disaster, for ancients and moderns alike
    • Author's Conclusion
      • What exactly happened to ancient Helike and Bura is not clear, despite more than 50 years of scrutiny by archaeologists and geologists. But we can be sure that there was a catastrophe of some kind that destroyed the city and killed many inhabitants, which was sufficiently powerful to make Helike a byword for disaster; we know enough about the region to believe that it is plausible.
      • Contemporary calamities such as the Indian Ocean tsunami can show us the real human experience – the terror, the cost in lives, and the aftermath – of these ancient disasters, as well as pointing to the way people respond to such events, and even how they might eventually recover from them.
  2. Notes
    • An interesting and easy read.
    • There's much presentation of the ancient evidence, together with the disappointing modern archaeology.
    • While it looks certain (to me) that Helike was once under the sea, it's not clear that it still is, such is the geological instability of the region.
    • We are referred to Aeon: Video - Plato's Atlantis.
Footnote 475: Aeon: Video - Cosmology in the dark (Date=29/07/2021, WebRef=10894)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Pedro G. Ferreira
    • Aeon Subtitle: Building ‘bigger and better’ has pushed cosmology forward. Can it take it any further?
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Over the past half-century, cosmology has evolved from a largely speculative science to one founded in precise and rigorous measurement and observation. Much of this transformation has been built on the back of increasingly powerful tools for observing the Universe, from telescopes to gravitational wave detectors. However, following decades of breakthroughs, this extraordinary progress has recently come to something of a halt, stalled by several mysteries: dark matter, dark energy and the accelerating expansion of the Universe.
      • So how should cosmologists press forward? In this instalment of Aeon’s In Sight series, Pedro G. Ferreira, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford, addresses what he calls the ‘cosmological chasm’ between ‘the physics we know and love, and some of the phenomena that we observe, but simply can’t make head nor tail of’.
      • Offering something of a ‘state of the field’, Ferreira charts three distinct approaches scientists could take to address the vexing puzzles of dark matter, including why ‘building bigger and better’ tools and collecting ever-greater amounts of data might or might not be the answer.
  2. Notes
    • This talk is not hugely informative, and is little more than a reminder of Aeon: Ferreira - The cosmic chasm.
    • His three approaches - which I didn't altogether understand (as far as relevance is concerned) are:-
      1. Phenomenological models - trying to fit stuff together even if this breaks our favoured models.
      2. To look at the dynamics of individual galaxies, on which we have huge amounts of data.
      3. Use table-top experiments utilising QM - eg. interferometry with atoms.
Footnote 476: Aeon: Sebo & Schukraft - Don’t farm bugs (Date=27/07/2021, WebRef=10890)Footnote 477: Aeon: Video - The great wave by Hokusai (Date=27/07/2021, WebRef=10888)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: How Hokusai’s Great Wave emerged from Japan’s isolation to become a global icon
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Under the Wave off Kanagawa (or simply The Great Wave) by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was instantly popular in Japan upon its first printing around 1830. In the decades since, the work has grown to become a global phenomenon, with reproductions ubiquitous on the internet and lining a great many suburban living-room walls.
      • The UK art writer James Payne takes on Hokusai’s masterpiece in this instalment from his YouTube series, Great Art Explained. And, as he explores, there’s something quite apropos about the piece’s widespread popularity, given that woodblock printing was then a highly commercialised Japanese art form and that, with time, the piece came to symbolise the end of Japan’s isolationist Edo period (1603-1867).
      • Examining Hokusai’s life, times and work in the context of art history, Payne provides a sharp analysis of why The Great Wave has become such a resounding artistic and commercial success.
Footnote 478: Aeon: Video - Aerial sheep herding in Yokneam (Date=26/07/2021, WebRef=10891)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Watch the elegant flow of a sheep herd, seen from the sky above Israel
    • Editor's Abstract
      • When it comes to mesmerising animal flock movements, starlings tend to get all the love. But this short video from the Israeli aerial photographer and filmmaker Lior Patel makes the case that, given an overhead view and a bit of a speed nudge, a flock of sheep can be just as captivating.
      • Following the movements of a herd ranging from 1,000 to 1,750 sheep over seven months above the Peace Valley in northern Israel, Patel constructed this compelling video. Seen from a distance and then sped up, the animals trickle across the frame like a fluid substance.
      • The resulting short makes for a small peek into dynamics of herding behaviours, as well as a striking spectacle.
Footnote 479: Aeon: Video - Plato's Atlantis (Date=19/07/2021, WebRef=10875)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Not a lost kingdom but a parable – how to read Athens in Plato’s story of Atlantis
    • Editor's Abstract
      • The supposed mystery of whether Atlantis was truly a kingdom lost to time all but disintegrates after reading Plato’s writings on the mythical state. As described in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias, both written around 360 BCE, the island nation was an idyllic land of plenty. Its inhabitants – sired and ruled over by Poseidon, and thus half-gods and half-mortals – ‘despised everything but virtue’. Ultimately, however, ‘human nature got the upper hand’, causing them to fall out of the gods’ favour, and dooming the kingdom to become an ‘impassable barrier of mud’ following a devastating earthquake.
      • This video from the YouTube channel Voices of the Past provides a direct translation of Plato’s surviving words on Atlantis from Critias. An imagined nation constructed to provide a foil to his ideal society, Plato nonetheless leaves few details to the reader’s imagination in his descriptions of the land. Beyond the structures of Atlantis’s government and the character of its people, the text is replete with intricate details on topics ranging from local wildlife to cuisine, architecture and design. The text is also notable for what’s been lost to time. Zeus, seeing that the people of Atlantis have become ‘full of avarice and unrighteous power’, gathers all the gods and – well, the rest we might never know. Ostensibly a morality tale of a people that had it all and lost it to greed and infighting, read today, the text makes for an intriguing insight into Athenian culture during Plato’s life.
  2. Notes
    • I've no doubt that the Author is right - that this is a parable, much like "More (Thomas), Marius (Richard), Ed. - Utopia", which also has lots of detail.
    • I'd have preferred a discussion of this contention and the lessons to be learnt for contemporary society rather than just a reading of Critias in a rather ironic voice.
    • See Wikipedia: Atlantis.
Footnote 480: Aeon: Video - Is life meaningless? And other absurd questions (Date=15/07/2021, WebRef=10863)Footnote 481: Aeon: Tillson - Imagine you could insert knowledge into your mind: should you? (Date=14/07/2021, WebRef=10855)Footnote 482: Aeon: Shushan - Near-death experiences have long inspired afterlife beliefs (Date=12/07/2021, WebRef=10860)Footnote 483: Aeon: Video - Nero: the man behind the myth (Date=08/07/2021, WebRef=10834)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: A balanced account of Nero’s life reveals the ‘editing and destruction’ of history-making
    • Editors' Abstract
      • Popular culture and even historical writings are replete with depictions of Nero, the emperor of Rome from 54-68 CE, as a tyrant, uninterested in the suffering of his subjects and inclined towards almost every form of sadism imaginable. The truth, however, is much more complicated.
      • In this video from the British Museum, the curators Thorsten Opper and Francesca Bologna provide a tour of the exhibition ‘Nero: The Man Behind the Myth’, which will be featured at the museum from 27 May to 24 October 2021.
      • Taking viewers through an array of artefacts offering insights into Nero’s life, times and legacy, Opper and Bologna present Nero as a complex figure, capable of acts of cruelty, but also broadly popular with the Roman citizenry.
      • In doing so, they also shed light on the process of history-making more generally, which, while not necessarily ‘written by the winners’, is certainly shaped by a confluence of political manoeuvring, elite opinion and surviving materials.
  2. Notes
    • This strikes me as yet another attempt to demonstrate that everything we thought we knew about the past is upside down - with all the heroes being villains and the villains heroes.
    • This can be done sensibly (as with Caligula, showing that his early reign was positive and popular, before he ‘went mad’).
    • And it is also true that history is written by the victors, so Nero – like Richard III – might have got an undeservedly bad press.
    • But contrasting the opinion of the elite with the people isn’t normally seen as a sensible approach. Nero was a populist and appealed to the people, but we wouldn’t take the then contemporary positive popular evaluation of Donald Trump – or Adolf Hitler, for that matter – as indicative of their true standing and worth.
    • Also, it’s worth asking why the particular antipathy towards Nero? Suetonius is hardly enthusiastic about any of the 12 Caesars. In later ages, Nero was hated because of his persecution of the Christians, but this would have made him popular at the time, and didn’t contribute to his damnatio memoriae by the senate (which was, admittedly, reversed by Vitellius (a usurper presumably seeking authentication and hardly a reliable judge of character) – see Wikipedia: Damnatio Memoriae).
    • The decision to bury – rather than repurpose – the Domus Aurea (see Wikipedia: Domus Aurea) is extraordinary without some very strong motivation.
    • I’m unconvinced by suggestions that all the political tensions arose from the resented power of the women in the Julio-Claudian household in a patriarchal society – another popular contemporary trope.
    • This presentation focuses on every positive reading of the evidence (or non-evidence) and only very reluctantly admits to any negatives. While it may attempt to ‘redress the balance’ it is not in any way a ‘balanced account’. In fact, it is itself an example of the ‘’editing and destruction’ of history-making’.
Footnote 484: Aeon: Video - Not the same river. Not the same man. (Date=07/07/2021, WebRef=10832)Footnote 485: Aeon: Video - Rotifiers: charmingly bizarre and often ignored (Date=06/07/2021, WebRef=10826)Footnote 486: Aeon: Reeves - Lies and honest mistakes (Date=05/07/2021, WebRef=10831)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Richard V. Reeves
    • Author Narrative: Richard V Reeves is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he directs the Future of the Middle Class Initiative and co-directs the Center on Children and Families. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, National Affairs, and The New York Times, among others. His latest book is Dream Hoarders (2017). He lives in Washington, DC.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Our crisis of public knowledge is an ethical crisis. Rewarding ‘truthfulness’ above ‘truth’ is a step towards a solution
  2. Notes
    • This is - mostly - very sensible stuff.
    • It is heavily indebted to "Williams (Bernard) - Truth and Truthfulness: An Essay in Genealogy".
    • It is good to point out that a false statement is not necessarily a lie - it may be made in good faith - but if it is repeated after the mistake is pointed out, it then becomes a lie.
    • He also points out the importance of presenting the evidence in a balanced way, and not just selecting that which bolsters your case.
    • But the most important aspect is to actually care that what you say is true, and - up to your limits - to check that it is so.
    • Something that was especially useful was the suggestion that social media companies are accountable for what goes on on their platforms not so much for failing to police it, but because of their business model which encourages "click bait" rather than truth. Unfortunately, there has to be a business model of some sort and if the current companies switched to something like a subscription service, people would migrate in droves to the free services that would spring up using the click-bait model. The genie is out of the bottle.
    • A couple of other useful Aeon papers are cited:-
      → Aeon: O'Connor - The information arms race can’t be won, but we have to keep fighting, and
      → Aeon: Dermendzhiyska - The misinformation virus
    • There are a lot of comments, which I've not had time to read in detail yet.
Footnote 487: Aeon: Video - How an infinite hotel ran out of room (Date=01/07/2021, WebRef=10807)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Check in to the Hilbert Hotel, and learn why some infinities are bigger than others
    • Editors' Abstract
      • In 1924, the German mathematician David Hilbert raised a peculiar and seemingly paradoxical question: are some infinities bigger than others? The answer he arrived at – yes, actually – might have been impenetrable to non-mathematicians if not for the thought experiment he devised involving a hotel with an infinite number rooms.
      • This video from the Australian filmmaker and educator Derek Muller builds Hilbert’s ‘infinite hotel’ and populates it with some strange, fuzzy creatures to demonstrate how the mathematician arrived at his groundbreaking conclusion, and touches on the real-world implications of his discovery.
  2. Notes
    • An interesting popularisation piece on an example of the diagonalisation argument.
    • I'd always thought of this as being due to Gregor Cantor (see Wikipedia: Cantor's diagonal argument, 1891) rather than David Hilbert (see Wikipedia: Hilbert's paradox of the Grand Hotel, 1924), and I suppose Hilbert popularised Cantor's discovery.
    • The film (and Editors' Abstract) ends with an enigmatic reference to practical applications - the film implies for the mobile phone. Maybe for encryption?
Footnote 488: Aeon: Coffman - The Margaret Mead problem (Date=01/07/2021, WebRef=10809)Footnote 489: Aeon: Video - By the river (Date=30/06/2021, WebRef=10805)Footnote 490: Aeon: Video - Charting animal cognition (Date=28/06/2021, WebRef=10802)Footnote 491: Aeon: Reiff - How important is white fear? (Date=28/06/2021, WebRef=10804)Footnote 492: Aeon: Zadra - What dream characters reveal about the astonishing dreaming brain (Date=28/06/2021, WebRef=10803)Footnote 493: Aeon: Mackay - The whitewashing of Rome (Date=25/06/2021, WebRef=10789)Footnote 494: Aeon: Video - Organism (Date=22/06/2021, WebRef=10782)Footnote 495: Aeon: Video - Out of mind (Date=21/06/2021, WebRef=10785)Footnote 496: Aeon: Video - The Mozart effect (Date=17/06/2021, WebRef=10771)Footnote 497: Aeon: Video - Sounds for Mazin (Date=16/06/2021, WebRef=10777)Footnote 498: Aeon: Video - Thai country living (Date=15/06/2021, WebRef=10765)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: The rhythms of rural Thailand, where both food and music are sourced from the ground
    • Editors' Abstract
      • Thai Country Living is a film with a title that doesn’t leave you wondering. This charming short documentary by the UK filmmakers Ben and Dan Tubby (also known as the Tubby Brothers) takes viewers on a brief journey to the Isaan region, in Thailand’s northeast.
      • The host for the trip, Suman Tapkham, provides the home cooking, with ingredients fresh from his small farm; the music comes via a bamboo instrument known as a khaen, which Tapkham crafts by hand; and the warm conversation is largely made of reflections on his life spent in the country, and his worries that the unique culture there might soon be lost.
      • Through their portrait, the Tubby Brothers capture a slice of Thailand far from the bustle of Bangkok most commonly associated with the country, and, for many viewers, a more than welcome portion of armchair travel.
Footnote 499: Aeon: Video - A brief history of the devil (Date=10/06/2021, WebRef=10738)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: The devils you know – how Satan became a versatile stand-in for all manner of evil
    • Editors' Abstract
      • From the three-headed man-eater of Dante’s Inferno to the Mephistopheles of German folklore, clad and caped in red in a Goethe-penned stage production, depictions of Satan have mutated into a fearsome multitude of pitchfork-wielding, fire-summoning and otherwise malevolent creatures.
      • But how did a somewhat minor character from the Old Testament evolve into a versatile shorthand for all manner of human evil?
      • Featuring a parade of the many meme-ified devils that have come to permeate the public imagination, this crafty animation from TED-Ed provides a brief history of how some of Satan’s most infamous forms came to be.
  2. Notes
    • This is a pretty worthless effort. It gives very little detail, and nothing outside the western tradition.
    • It also - while mentioning Jesus' temptations, exorcisms and Revelation - and Job in the OT, makes no mention of the Fall of Man, only the fall of Satan.
Footnote 500: Aeon: Video - Degrees of uncertaincy (Date=03/06/2021, WebRef=10695)Footnote 501: Aeon: Video - The seeker (Date=02/06/2021, WebRef=10693)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: When his faith crumbles, an ‘Amish atheist’ rebuilds his world from scratch
    • Editors' Abstract
      • Kenneth Copp’s life has been defined – and twice upended – by his commitment to seeking the truth. Born into the Pentecostal faith in Virginia, at the age of 17 Copp became an Amish convert, favouring its ‘quiet but dedicated Christianity’ to some of the more ‘wild and ecstatic’ tenets of his parent’s denomination. After trading his pickup truck for a team of horses, he was baptised and later married into the community. Decades later, his world again irrevocably changed when, while reading the Bible with a critical eye, he discovered what he viewed as manifold contradictions and ethical problems. His faith unraveled. Excommunication from his community – including a heartbreaking split from his wife and 10 children – followed shortly after.
      • The acclaimed short documentary The Seeker finds Copp several years out from his loss of faith, living as a self-described ‘Amish atheist’. Donning a traditional beard, running a small farm and wood shop, and often travelling via horse and buggy, he has held on to the aspects of the lifestyle that he loved while shedding the religion at its core. By doing so, he seems to exist in a culture of his very own – one of traditional living and progressive values. A dedicated environmentalist intent on keeping his carbon footprint low, it’s now measured morality rather than religious devotion that binds him to a simple life. But owning an iPhone or watching a movie from time to time? No God, no foul. Where once he believed a plain existence would deliver his soul to heaven, now he hopes his Earthly journey will end with his body buried under an apple tree.
      • The US filmmaker Lance Edmands’s portrait of Copp shares a workmanlike elegance with its subject. Scenes from Copp’s farm and wood shop in Maine are beautifully captured on 16mm film – a medium with a tangible, mechanical aesthetic of its own. The naturalistic sounds of Copp’s daily routine intertwine with his gentle-yet-expressive voice and a sparse acoustic score. Mirroring Copp’s pace of life, Edmands finds resonance in gentle simplicity.
      • The film’s restrained, atmospheric character shouldn’t be mistaken for a lightness of subject matter or low stakes. Indeed, through Copp’s unique story, Edmands grapples with profound questions: can devout faith and rational enquiry ever coexist comfortably? What does it mean to be forever in search of truth – and what can that pursuit cost? But the quandary at the film’s core, underpinning the rest, seems to be: how should we live? It’s an unsolvable puzzle, of course, but one that Copp seems content to spend a lifetime pursuing.
  2. Notes
    • A very gentle and evocative short film.
    • Kenneth Copp’s life-journey shares some elements with my own, which is why I watched the film.
    • One thing I didn't quite understand was why - if the Amish community he moved on to with his family practiced 'critical thinking skills' - they still adopted the Amish practice of 'shunning' - rather than trying to convince - those who 'stray from the faith'. Maybe they did.
    • I've always hoped for some non-fundamentalist middle-way, but have not been able to find one; nor have I found any like-minded 'seekers after truth' in that regard, though I've not really taken the opportunities an internet search might provide. A point to be followed up on?
Footnote 502: Aeon: Video - Hum chitra banate hai (We make images) (Date=26/05/2021, WebRef=10681)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: A joyously animated myth retells why painting is prayer to India’s Bhil people
    • Editors' Abstract
      • The art of the Bhil people of central India is instantly recognisable for its bright colours, fantastical human forms and, above all, mesmerising dot patterns. Today, the unique character of these images is celebrated in books, folk art museums and, in the case of the short film Hum Chitra Banate Hai (We Make Images) (2016), a beautiful animation. But for centuries, this distinctive painting style existed primarily on the clay walls of Bhil homes, with twigs serving as the painting tools, and plants and oils generating the vivid pigments. More than decoration or artistic expression, the making of these pictures, taking place on festival days and depicting ancestors and scenes from Bhil folklore, represents an act of ritualistic prayer.
      • So, why do the Bhil people paint? That’s the question at the centre of Hum Chitra Banate Hai, directed by the Indian artist and storyteller Nina Sabnani in partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, where she is an associate professor at the Industrial Design Centre. For the project, Sabnani teamed up with the Bhil artist Sher Singh Bhil to bring to life the myth behind the tradition of adorning homes with elaborate frescoes. Narrated from the perspective of a rooster, the story recounts a journey to find a shaman to bring relief from a catastrophic drought. Once located, the shaman inspires the Bhil to paint their homes – an act that brings rain, bountiful crops and, ultimately, peace and prosperity.
      • The artistic collaboration results in a playful and evocative animation, with a visual style unlike anything you’re likely to find on your streaming service of choice. This absorbing imagery, combined with the unpretentious storytelling and the expressive narration of the celebrated Indian actor Raghubir Yadav, builds a world into which it’s easy to dissolve. But beyond its brisk charms, Hum Chitra Banate Hai is also an accomplished work of visual ethnology. By bringing authentic Bhil imagery to life, Sabnani and Singh Bhil at once share and express a tradition at the centre of Bhil culture, portraying a people to whom art, nature and spirituality are inseparable.
  2. Notes
    • Well, it's a well-made animation, but it only explains the myth behind the artistic tradition, not the real reason.
    • But, it was pleasing to be able to read the Hindi title! हम चित्र बनाते हैं.
Footnote 503: Aeon: Video - The undying hydra (Date=25/05/2021, WebRef=10673)Footnote 504: Aeon: Video - Lee Smolin: space and time (Date=23/05/2021, WebRef=10653)Footnote 505: Aeon: Video - The lion man (Date=20/05/2021, WebRef=10666)Footnote 506: Aeon: Video - Why do we, like, hesitate when we, um, speak? (Date=10/05/2021, WebRef=10648)Footnote 507: Aeon: Video - Phrenology: the weirdest pseudoscience of them all? (Date=06/05/2021, WebRef=10633)Footnote 508: Aeon: Video - Samurai rules for peace and war (Date=04/05/2021, WebRef=10625)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: A samurai rulebook offers guidance on how to kill enemies and refrain from gossip
    • Editors' Abstract
      • From the 10th century till their abolition in the 1870s, samurai were a class of Japanese military nobility who inherited lives as warrior protectorates (bushi) for feudal lords, and had a notoriously strict and intricate honour code.
      • This video from the YouTube channel Voices of the Past explores two scrolls from the famed samurai school Natori-Ryu’s 17th-century rulebook.
        1. The first scroll has codes of conduct for peacetime, with guidance ranging from the universal, such as the pitfalls of talking behind someone’s back, to the extremely samurai-specific, such as keeping a home garden that doesn’t leave you vulnerable to enemy attack.
        2. The second scroll lays out the rules of engagement in wartime and paints a much more violent portrait of samurai life, built around intricate rules for killing and being killed.
      • These primary sources offer an intriguing window into the samurai value system, in which loss of reputation was considered a fate far worse than death.
  2. Notes
    • A very interesting summary.
    • I've had a quick look for Natori-Ryu’s 17th-century rulebook on Amazon and on Wikipedia. There seems to be a multi-volume edition, the first of which is The Book of Samurai - Fundamental Samurai Teachings: The Collected Scrolls of Natori-Ryu: The Fundamental Teachings: 1 by Antony Cummins & Yoshie Minami. However, it’s rather long (420 pages) and expensive (£17.50) and too “niche” for my interests. It seems to be a hit with the martial arts community, so maybe it’s not for me.
    • The most important aspect of Samurai life seems to have been the acceptance that their whole life and wellbeing stems from service to the Lord of the Clan, from whom they receive an allowance and to whom they owe unswerving loyalty.
    • Maybe this is rather idealised, as it seemed to have become much more laid back by Yukichi Fukuzawa's time.
    • There are some rather grizzly accounts of what to do with enemy heads collected during and after battle, together with ensuring the right person gets the credit, and there are no falsifications.
    • Also, there are instructions for "familial executions" for servants who run away during battle: they themselves, as well as their parents and children, are to be killed. This seems to be a standard oriental approach to 'justice' in the case of heinous crimes (usually treason) - see Wikipedia: Nine familial exterminations - and reflects the communal (especially familial), rather than individual, basis of morality.
Footnote 509: Aeon: Video - Colette (Date=03/05/2021, WebRef=10628)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: A French resistance fighter reluctantly revisits her past in this Oscar-winning portrait
    • Editors' Abstract
      • During the Nazi occupation of France, 14-year-old Colette Marin-Catherine joined the French resistance alongside her family. ‘We were playing cat and mouse. And playing with fire. Or rather, fire was playing with us,’ Marin-Catherine, now 92, recalls. Sadly, not everyone in her family would live to see France liberated. Her brother Jean-Pierre was just 17 when he was arrested for stockpiling weapons. He would die in the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp in March 1945, just three weeks before the camp was liberated.
      • In this short documentary, Marin-Catherine faces her trauma with the support of a history student named Lucie Fouble – only 17 years old herself. For the first time in her life, and with Fouble ever by her side, Marin-Catherine travels from France to Germany to visit the camp where some 20,000 Nazi prisoners including her brother died.
      • The US director Anthony Giacchino and the French producer Alice Doyard won the 2021 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) for this poignant portrait of bravery and healing amid the long, painful echoes of the Second World War. An accomplished and moving piece of filmmaking, Colette is a reminder of the tremendous power of individual stories to humanise history.
  2. Notes
    • An interesting - and (of course) poignant - film.
    • It wasn't clear in the film how young the "researcher" was, or who was ultimately responsible for encouraging Colette to revisit the past and make a first visit to Germany.
    • Colette's brother - Jean-Pierre - had been highly intelligent (bumped up two years at school) and Colette admitted that this - and the 3-year age difference - meant that they hadn't been close.
    • Jean-Pierre had been working as a slave-labourer in the tunnels in which the V2 rockets were manufactured when he died. Life expectancy in the tunnels was only one month. See Wikipedia: Mittelwerk.
    • While Colette was clearly moved by the experience of the trip to Germany, she seems to be a non-nonsense person, and couldn't endure the self-serving speech by the former mayor of Nordhausen at a reception. He makes reference to the wicked Nazis without admitting that they were Germans.
Footnote 510: Aeon: Video - Light and microscopy (Date=29/04/2021, WebRef=10611)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: There’s no one way a microbe looks, only different clever methods to see it
    • Editors's Abstract
      • In one sense, there are many ways to see a microbe, but in another, truly none at all. That’s to say, the array of microscopy methods developed since the Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first peered into the microbial world in the 1670s are, by necessity, extraordinary distortions. Each represents a means of manipulating light to translate creatures that are, by definition, too small for the human eye to see. The result is a microbial world in which a single creature can look entirely different depending on the microscopy method used to capture it.
      • This video from the YouTube channel Journey to the Microcosmos takes viewers on a tour of the many clever methods that scientists have developed to shine a light on small-scale life. The result is both an intriguing slice of science history and a highly illuminating visual investigation.
  2. Notes
    • There's an account of four different techniques, with subtitles, that I'd thought of transcribing, but life's too short.
    • The names of the four selected methods of Microscopy are:-
      → Brightfield
      → Darkfield
      → Phase Contrast
      → Polarised Light
    • The philosophical point at the end is that none of these methods show the micro-organisms as they "really are".
Footnote 511: Aeon: Grubbs - If you think you’ve got a porn addiction, you probably haven’t (Date=28/04/2021, WebRef=10614)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Joshua Grubbs
    • Author's Conclusion
      • For some people, reducing or stopping pornography use might always be an ideal, but such ideals shouldn’t come at the expense of wellbeing every time the ideal isn’t met.
      • What might be more helpful, and kinder, is for such people to consider the morals and values that are causing them distress, and consider whether or not that distress is actually helping them get closer to those values. If not, they might be better off reducing that distress by learning to accept their own flaws and shortcomings. Then, they can work toward the values that actually matter – this will help someone much more than calling themselves ‘addicted’.
      • Lastly, some individuals might reconsider whether watching pornography is a ‘flaw’ at all, or whether it might be – for many people at least – a source of simple pleasure in a complicated life.
Footnote 512: Aeon: Video - This is Bate Bola (Date=28/04/2021, WebRef=10609)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Behold the fearsome beauty of Rio’s other carnival, on the outskirts of town
    • Editors's Abstract
      • ‘Let the beast out!’
      • A unique melding of Portuguese, Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous traditions, Carnaval do Brasil is a nationwide celebration with deep cultural roots. And in Rio de Janeiro, which is home to the world’s largest carnival celebration – and, by many accounts, the world’s largest annual party – it’s also a major economic driver, with more than 1.5 million tourists flocking to the city each year to join in.
      • But just a few miles from the endlessly documented samba sessions, floats and massive crowds that characterise Rio’s beachside celebration, thousands of locals experience a form of Carnaval that tourists – and their money – almost never touch. A surreal collage of fireworks, colourful smoke and chaotic, joyful noise, the celebration known as ‘Bate-bola’ is, to residents of Rio’s landlocked favelas and working-class suburbs, the only game in town.
      • With roots in a Portuguese tradition known as caretos, Bate-bola is centred on processions of flamboyant costumes. In the Brazilian tradition, the clothing takes on an eccentric flare that resides in an uncanny valley between playful and demonic. In This Is Bate Bola, a documentary account of the festival as celebrated in Guadalupe, a neighbourhood in the north of Rio, kaleidoscopic wigs, light-up whistles and even character’s from Disney’s Peter Pan (1953) pop up as festival garb. Crafted year-round by local Bate-bola ‘crews’, the costumes are revealed in boisterous street parades known as saídas (‘exits’) on the Sunday before Lent.
      • For residents who take part, it’s a weekend of immense joy – a cathartic celebration a year in the making. The event is permeated by a forceful sense of pride and, at times, sheer braggadocio. Crews adopt names such as ‘Elite’ and ‘Best There Is’ as they lay their claim to the most fiendishly beautiful Bate-bola look. They howl rallying cries such as ‘We’re fucking great!’, as if demanding respect for their vibrant and neglected corner of the city.
      • It’s these street-level rivalries between crews that have also earned Bate-bola a reputation for violence that’s not entirely undeserved. ‘There’s a few crews that go out armed, and they end up ruining it for the rest of us,’ says one crew member. But for many, the violence is overshadowed by the intense sense of personal and communal jubilation that the celebration brings. ‘People see lots of things wrong in our communities. They don’t see the joy here,’ another crew member says. ‘All this is very little compared to our happiness.’
      • The British directors Ben Holman and Neirin Jones, also based in Brazil, give Bate-bola an appropriately spectacular treatment in their immersive short. The filmmaking parallels the event itself: a sense of gathering electricity in the first half culminates in an overwhelming explosion of sights and sounds once the crews are unleashed on the streets. Fireworks are lit from fence posts. A man alternates swigs of Red Bull with Johnnie Walker Red Label. Music erupts from a literal wall of speakers. The original, atmospheric score by the US composer Ben LaMar Gay brings the visuals a heightened sense of pandemonium and elation. It makes for a worthy account of a cultural tradition that’s remained, until now, unseen by outsiders.
  2. Notes
    • A well-made documentary, though it's difficult to appreciate the chaos and menace - as well as the excitement - without actually being there.
    • It's also difficult to appreciate what the lives of favella-dwellers are like, year round, especially the alleged positives.
    • The prayer before the "saida" was interesting - not led by a priest but by a young woman, it seemed communal and heart-felt. Not altogether incongruous - like preparation for a medieval battle.
    • Compare and contrast with Via dolorosa and (of course) City of Samba, which I've not yet watched.
Footnote 513: Aeon: Video - The secret language of trees (Date=20/04/2021, WebRef=10590)Footnote 514: Aeon: Dermendzhiyska - The misinformation virus (Date=16/04/2021, WebRef=10577)Footnote 515: Aeon: Scheidel - The road from Rome (Date=15/04/2021, WebRef=10580)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Walter Scheidel
    • Author Narrative: Walter Scheidel is Dickason Professor in the Humanities, professor of Classics and history, and a Catherine R Kennedy and Daniel L Grossman fellow in human biology, all at Stanford University in California. His recent books include Escape from Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity (2019) and The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (2017), and he is co-editor, with Peter Bang and Christopher Bayly, of The Oxford World History of Empire (2021).
    • Aeon Subtitle: The fall of the Roman Empire wasn’t a tragedy for civilisation. It was a lucky break for humanity as a whole
    • Author's Conclusion
      • Long before our species existed, we caught a lucky break. If an asteroid hadn’t knocked out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, our tiny rodent-like ancestors would have had a hard time evolving into Homo sapiens. But even once we had gotten that far, our big brains weren’t quite enough to break out of our ancestral way of life: growing, herding and hunting food amid endemic poverty, illiteracy, incurable disease and premature death.
      • It took a second lucky break to escape from all that, a booster shot that arrived a little more than 1,500 years ago: the fall of ancient Rome.
      • Just as the world’s erstwhile apex predators had to bow out to clear the way for us, so the mightiest empire Europe had ever seen had to crash to open up a path to prosperity.
  2. Notes
    • This is a racy and interesting piece, but it begs a lot of questions.
    • The main thesis is that sprawling self-contained empires - while they may provide peace and stability for those that go along with the status quo - don't provide the stimulus for innovation that's needed for human progress. The Chinese empire is the favoured example.
    • The author's claim is that we need free-market capitalism to get things going.
    • For good or ill, the smaller highly competitive states of Europe that developed after the fall of the Western Empire were more conducive to innovation.
    • This may be true, but it took an awful long time to get going and – as the author notes – involved a lot of collateral damage. I expect matters are more complicated, and that chance events play a part.
    • I wondered whether this approach is compatible with - or orthogonal to - the geographical approach to explaining geopolitics in "Marshall (Tim) - Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics".
Footnote 516: Aeon: Video - Should computers run the world? (Date=07/04/2021, WebRef=10554)Footnote 517: Aeon: Challenger - The joy of being animal (Date=06/04/2021, WebRef=10556)Footnote 518: Aeon: Zeman - When the mind is dark, making art is a thrilling way to see (Date=06/04/2021, WebRef=10555)Footnote 519: Aeon: Green - After slavery (Date=30/03/2021, WebRef=10534)Footnote 520: Aeon: Ferreira - The cosmic chasm (Date=26/03/2021, WebRef=10523)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Pedro G. Ferreira
    • Aeon Subtitle: Physics as we know it is elegant and exquisitely accurate. It tells almost nothing about the deepest riddles of the Universe
    • Author's Conclusion
      • It might also be time to think differently about which experiments we’re deploying in our search for the new physics. While the impetus has been for bigger and better, it makes sense to step back and consider alternatives. There’s a glorious history of research in fundamental physics driving technological change – forcing researchers to come up with ingenious new devices and experiments that allow them to measure elusive phenomena. Some countries are already investing millions of pounds and dollars in research in new quantum technologies for such purposes – peanuts compared with the really big experiments and new colliders under consideration. Efforts are underway, for example, to harness the quantum interference of atoms to open a new window on to gravitational waves. Or, on a different front, tabletop experiments are being devised to look for some of the more exotic forms of dark matter that have been proposed. Again, it’s an exploratory route, guided by controlled theoretical speculation, but the payoffs would be far-reaching.
      • I’ve spent most of my adult life staring at the cosmic chasm – the abyss between what we know and what we don’t. And while our knowledge of the Universe has improved dramatically in that time, our ignorance has become only more focused. We’re no closer to answering the big questions about dark matter, dark energy and the origins of the Universe than when I started out. This isn’t for lack of trying, and a titanic effort is now underway to try and figure out all these mysterious aspects of the Universe. But there’s no guarantee we’ll succeed, and we might end up never really grasping how the Universe works. That’s why we need to be creative and to explore. As Einstein once said: ‘Let the people know that a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.’ While bridging the cosmic chasm might not be a matter of survival, undoubtedly it’s one of the most pressing challenges of modern science.
Footnote 521: Aeon: Video - Rooms (Date=25/03/2021, WebRef=10524)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: How our rooms shape our world, and vice versa
    • Editor's Abstract
      • A nearly inescapable fact of modern life is that most of us spend more time in just a few rooms in our homes than the sum of time spent anywhere else on Earth – and perhaps doubly so over the past year of pandemic-related lockdowns. And so, unsurprisingly, our spaces also tend to occupy a rather prominent place in our minds. Do they need a clean? A redecoration? To be ditched for a new arrangement altogether? And what – good, bad and ugly – do they reveal about us to visitors?
      • Featuring clever animated sequences in which talking, shifting shapes transform along to the reflective words of interviewees, Rooms explores how the mental and physical spaces of our rooms intersect and overlap.
  2. Notes
Footnote 522: Aeon: Video - Via dolorosa (Date=24/03/2021, WebRef=10522)Footnote 523: Aeon: Video - Michael Rakowitz: haunting the West (Date=23/03/2021, WebRef=10516)Footnote 524: Aeon: Video - Unfold the maths of origami (Date=22/03/2021, WebRef=10519)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Why are NASA engineers borrowing techniques from origami artists?
    • Editor's Abstract
      • With roots in the 17th century, traditional Japanese origami mines beauty from rules, limitations and, ultimately, mathematics. But there’s more to origami than just aesthetic value – scientists, engineers and designers have borrowed from the art form for a wide range of practical purposes.
      • As this short from TED-Ed details, this includes a ‘starshade’ proposed by engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, intended to block exoplanet-hunting space telescopes from the glare of distant stars.
      • Featuring appealing and instructive stop-motion visuals from the French animator Charlotte Arene, this short provides a nifty primer on how origami artists are able to fold square pieces of paper into near-infinite forms both beautiful and useful.
  2. Notes
    • This is a truly fascinating 5-minute video.
    • The mathematical constraints on origami patterns are explained in detail, but not proved - just a bit of hand-waving to show that if any rule is violated, the paper won't fold flat. It seems that folding flat is a requirement for origami models.
    • It also seems that - rather than just trying things out - an origami 3-D shape can be planned out beforehand in 2-D.
    • It's not explained whether the Japanese knew of the mathematical rules, nor whether they proved them.
    • As always, Wikipedia has something interesting to say: Wikipedia: Mathematics of paper folding.
    • Following some links, it seems that the proofs - while by Japanese - have been achieved in the past 50 years.
Footnote 525: Aeon: Jaekl - Am I my connectome? (Date=19/03/2021, WebRef=10497)Footnote 526: Aeon: Moynihan - Thanks for all the fish (Date=18/03/2021, WebRef=10500)Footnote 527: Aeon: Video - The lost sound (Date=18/03/2021, WebRef=10498)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: A playful tribute to the words our grandparents used (but we can’t pronounce)
    • Editor's Abstract
      • In her short film The Lost Sound, the Australian filmmaker Steffie Yee playfully interrogates how language evolves, causing words – and even sounds – to disappear within cultures between generations.
      • Featuring the contemporary Japanese poet Hiromi Itō reading from her own poem ‘On Ç’, Yee’s brief animation features an unseen woman struggling to bequeath a fictional lost sound to an animated character – to no avail.
      • A second-generation immigrant herself, Yee’s resonance with the source material permeates the short, which brings Itō’s words to life via an idiosyncratic blend of percussive, hypnotic music and an eclectic visual style.
  2. Notes
    • A very odd short film. I could make nothing of it really.
    • The narrative is in Japanese.
    • Since Japanese is severely limited in its sound system, the difficultles are unsurprising.
Footnote 528: Aeon: Video - The death of Julius Caesar (Date=15/03/2021, WebRef=10493)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Plotting, premonition and chaotic violence – an ancient account of Caesar’s demise
    • Editor's Abstract
      • ‘The body of Caesar lay just where it fell, ignominiously stained with blood – a man who had advanced westward as far as Britain and the Ocean, and who had intended to advance eastward against the realms of the Parthians and Indians, so that, with them also subdued, an empire of all land and sea might be brought under the power of a single head. There he lay.’
      • Nicolaus of Damascus was a prominent Jewish writer, philosopher and statesman of the first centuries BCE and CE. More than earning his multi-hyphenate status, during his life he served as a tutor to the children of Antony and Cleopatra and met, as an emissary, the emperor Augustus, writing, among other works, his biography – from which this vivid account of Julius Caesar’s assassination is excerpted. A haunting depiction of one of the most infamous moments in history, his retelling is rich with context, dramatic ironies and illustrative details, including glimpses into the Roman Senates’ plotting and the chaotic violence of the ultimate act.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting enough, though no great revelations.
    • I'd not heard of Nicolaus of Damascus.
    • See Wikipedia: Nicolaus of Damascus, amongst many other possible links.
Footnote 529: Aeon: Gallagher - How to learn a language (and stick at it) (Date=10/03/2021, WebRef=10449)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: John Gallagher
    • Aeon Subtitle: Forget about fluency and how languages are taught at school: as an adult learner you can take a whole new approach
    • Author's Key Points
      • Set specific, achievable goals at every stage, and test yourself to see if you can hit them.
      • Find the method or methods that work for you – remember there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to language learning.
      • When working with a teacher or conversation partner, make sure what you’re learning is helping you reach your goals.
      • Develop the ability to analyse your language level and work out what specific areas need work.
      • Use apps and other learning resources mindfully and with an understanding of what they can – and can’t – do.
      • Find free and compelling content online, and remember the principle of comprehensible input.
      • Make your language learning a part of your life, from your media consumption to your friendships and communities.
  2. Notes
Footnote 530: Aeon: Levy - Final thoughts (Date=08/03/2021, WebRef=10455)Footnote 531: Aeon: Video - A brief history of melancholy (Date=04/03/2021, WebRef=10440)Footnote 532: Aeon: Video - The Sutton Hoo helmet (Date=02/03/2021, WebRef=10436)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: The meanings and mysteries of the iconic Sutton Hoo helmet brought vividly to life
    • Editor's Abstract
      • The early Anglo-Saxon artefact known as the Sutton Hoo helmet has, since its origins in the 7th century, passed through many incarnations, including: exquisite armour, long-dormant burial object, astounding archeological discovery and high-stakes puzzle.
      • Today, the Sutton Hoo helmet – so named for the site in the English county of Suffolk at which it was discovered in 1939 – lives on as one of the British Museum’s most famous pieces.
      • In this video, Sue Brunning, curator of the museum’s European Early Medieval Insular Collection, examines the iconic object, revealing the multitude of meanings and mysteries it holds.
      • Through her investigation, Brunning brilliantly captures how history is an ever-fluid work in progress, being made and remade as new discoveries are brought – often quite literally – to light.
Footnote 533: Aeon: Godfrey-Smith - Philosophers and other animals (Date=25/02/2021, WebRef=10426)Footnote 534: Aeon: Video - Sabine Hossenfelder: Searching for beauty in mathematics (Date=25/02/2021, WebRef=10424)
  1. Aeon
    • Authors: Sabine Hossenfelder & Robert Lawrence Kuhn
    • Author Narrative: See Wikipedia: Sabine Hossenfelder.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Against ‘beauty’ in science – how striving for elegance stifles progress
    • Author's Abstract
      • That there is an inherent ‘beauty’ and ‘elegance’ to the laws of nature is a view that permeates the field of physics. But, according to the German theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder, the notion that the further you peer into reality, the easier the equation gets, has no basis in reality. Indeed, since the mid-20th-century, the maths of physics has become increasingly knotty, even as many physicists have continued to search for a path back to simplicity.
      • In this interview with Robert Lawrence Kuhn for the PBS series Closer to Truth, Hossenfelder makes the case that this fixation on beauty isn’t just misguided – it’s stifling scientific progress.
  2. Notes
    • Seems sensible enough. She's happpy with seeking simplicity as part of the scientifc method, but that otherwise the mathematical models of science have to fit the facts.
    • So, nuclear physics has got more complicated by adding the weak and strong nuclear forces to electromagnetism and gravity.
    • Quote from Einstein - no simpler than is necessary.
    • But the standard model is a mess, even though it works.
    • Grand Unified theories - attempting to unify the 3 electro-nuclear forces - have not been successful, so we don't know whether there is any unification to be had.
    • This search for simplicity assumes that mathematics has a cetral role in reality (not just physics).
    • Hossenfelder thinks we're just selecting the mathematics - some mathematics would not be simple at all.
    • Some physicists are trying to impose their own narrow-minded idea of beauty on the laws of nature. This is not proper scientific methodology. It's often justified by cherry-picking historical examples.
    • This is - presumably - a plug for her latest book: Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray (2018)
Footnote 535: Aeon: Video - A small antelope horn (Date=23/02/2021, WebRef=10420)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Carlo Rovelli
    • Aeon Subtitle: Sitting by the fire with a nomadic tribe, a physicist ponders the many shapes of wisdom
    • Author's Abstract
      • The Italian theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli is a pioneer in the field of quantum gravity, and often thought of as one of the world’s foremost scientific thinkers.
      • In this brief animation by James Siewert, which features narration from the Swazi-English actor Richard E Grant, Rovelli recalls communing with members of the Hadza tribe of northern Tanzania – one of the last hunter-gatherer societies on Earth.
      • Sitting by the fire, thoughts of the peculiar trajectory of Homo sapiens and the many shapes of human wisdom flicker in his head, as he ponders the gaps, large and small, between his world and theirs.
  2. Notes
    • I can't but think that the message of this video is completely bonkers.
    • It seems to be fixated on "human inequality", while asserting - of course - human equality, which supposedly started in the Neolithic period when humans - in general - stopped hunter-gathering and started farming.
    • Are all the products of civilisation really so useful, we are asked to consider? Well, some not, but mostly 'yes'. As Hobbes said, otherwise life is nasty, brutish and short. And poor and solitary - in that there would be very few human beings.
    • Sitting round the fire with hunter-gatherers, he wonders how it was so easy to understand one another. He must be joking - do they really understand one another? What's it like to have no knowledge of science or civilisation? We "understand" our tiny grandchildren - but we forget how little they know (forgetting our own limited outlook on the world at their age, and what a long - indeed lifelong - process education is).
    • The narrator wonders how much hunter-gatherers know that he does not. Much, I'm sure - but I imagine he tacitly thinks they know what he knows, which they don't, and mistakenly discounts the importance of what he knows. Not, of course, his speculations in Quantum Gravity, which very few people understand, which doesn't matter much as they are probably not along the right lines.
    • As a general principle, it's allegedly easy to maintain "equality" in a very small isolated group. All equally poor and ignorant, however exotic the occasional enjoyment of a night round their campfires might seem.
    • Of course, it can be argued that such groups should not be forcibly assimilated into "civilised society". But if parents in our country failed to educate their children to an adequate standard, or limited their range of experience, their children would be taken from them. Why do we criticise powerful countries that don't share our values, while being indulgent towards indigenous primitives? Romantic ideas about the 'Noble Savage'?
Footnote 536: Aeon: Video - How Big Tech betrayed us (Date=18/02/2021, WebRef=10411)Footnote 537: Aeon: Video - Kachalka (Date=17/02/2021, WebRef=10409)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: A gym built of Soviet-era scraps is a creative community hub
    • Author's Abstract
      • Its name derives from the Ukrainian for ‘to pump’, and it’s built from scrap metal, so it would be easy to think of the Kachalka gym in Kiev as a Muscle Beach Venice (way, way) east of Los Angeles – a place for hardbodies only, novices need not apply. But in fact, whether you’re looking to get as buff as a World’s Strongest Man competitor, land a few blows at a punch-bag built from car tyres, or simply pose awhile on the machines, the outdoor, free-to-all gym has room for you. It even comes with its own on-site volunteer instructors and sports masseurs.
      • This short documentary from the Irish filmmaker Gar O’Rourke assembles scenes from the semi-legendary open-air gym, which could seem ripped from a post-apocalyptic movie if it wasn’t for the kindly nature of the gym’s users. O’Rourke frames Kachalka with a light touch and a droll eye: there’s an inherent humour to the proceedings, as everything from massive, brawny hands to high heels meet the metal of the squeaky, makeshift machines.
      • What’s striking is just how serious and how elderly many of this gym user’s are. But beneath their earnest self-absorption, the short documentary captures the communal nature, deep resourcefulness and creative spirit inherent in the space. After all, the distinctive gym wasn’t built for novelty, but out of necessity. The film’s narrator – an unnamed regular – explains how Kachalka was born during Soviet times, when factory workers collected scrap metal and brought tools from work to build the fitness space. Today, that gym regular keeps ‘the Mecca of Kiev’s sport’ alive as part of a team who help design and weld new machines to keep visitors coming. ‘I have completely actualised myself here,’ he explains, referring to his work building Kachalka – proving, perhaps once and for all, that the path to self-actualisation can embody many forms.
Footnote 538: Aeon: West - Pause. Reflect. Think (Date=11/02/2021, WebRef=10393)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Peter West
    • Author Narrative: Peter West is a teaching fellow in Early Modern philosophy at Durham University in the UK.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Susan Stebbing’s little Pelican book on philosophy had a big aim: giving everybody tools to think clearly for themselves
    • Author's Conclusion
      • At a time when the arts and humanities, including individual philosophy departments, are under institutional and political pressure to justify their continued existence, the model of public engagement offered by Stebbing’s Thinking to Some Purpose is worth some consideration. I’m not suggesting that a ‘transfer of knowledge’ approach should be replaced by a ‘skills and training’ one. Studying and contributing to philosophy can be an end in itself.
      • But in an era of fake news and 24-hour news cycles, if philosophers are also able to help us pause, reflect and think clearly, regardless of the subject matter at hand, then that’s surely a good thing for them to do.
  2. Notes
    • See Also:
      → L. Susan Stebbing
    • Interesting enough, though it is rather of historical interest (despite critical thinking being of perennial relevance).
    • There's an interesting contemporary link to suggestions for contemporary books on the topic: FT - Warburton - The Best Five books on Critical Thinking. Nigel Warburton recommends two books I've got (and read).
    • This link - and especially to the site itself (FT - Five Books) - was the best find from this paper, though I doubt I can afford to spend much time following it up.
Footnote 539: Aeon: Puchner - How a secret European language ‘made a rabbit’ and survived (Date=10/02/2021, WebRef=10385)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Martin Puchner
    • Author Narrative: Martin Puchner holds the Byron and Anita Wien Chair in drama and in English and comparative literature at Harvard University. As general editor of the Norton Anthology of World Literature, he has brought 4,000 years of literature to students across the globe. He is the author of The Written World: The Power of Stories to Shape People, History, and Civilization (2017) and The Language of Thieves: My Family’s Obsession with a Secret Code the Nazis Tried to Eliminate (2020).
    • Author's Introduction
      • They started out as apprentices looking for masters, students looking for teachers, or soldiers looking for wars, but they ended up as travelling tinkers, peddlers, beggars and thieves, members of the itinerant underground of central Europe. Carrying forged papers and false names, they were feared by peasants, shunned by burghers and hunted by the police. Catholics and Protestants, Jews, Sinti and Roma – they had little in common, neither bonds of religion nor ethnicity, except for the life into which they had drifted, the life of the road.
      • The underground of central Europe, from the Middle Ages to the modern era, is all but inaccessible to us today. Those wandering its roads left few traces of themselves, except for the secret signs they carved on trees to warn each other of aggressive policemen and rabid dogs, or to recommend kindhearted householders willing to provide bread and water. These markings faded but there remains a way to catch glimpses of this lost world: its language. Over the course of hundreds of years, the people of the road evolved a distinct way of talking that strengthened their resilience, fostered solidarity and helped them survive. As it was purely spoken, this language, too, almost disappeared – had it not been for police forces across central Europe that decoded it like the cipher used by enemy powers. Collaborating across jurisdictions from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, the police recorded this language by arresting its speakers and forcing them to divulge their words and phrases. The police also named it: Rotwelsch.
      • Rot was a word for beggar (in Rotwelsch), and welsch could mean Italian but mostly it meant foreign and incomprehensible. There was some truth in the name, because Rotwelsch speakers freely mixed German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Czech and Romani, the language of the Sinti and Roma (who used to be called Gypsies because they were falsely believed to have originated in Egypt) in ways that were incomprehensible to outsiders. To German or Yiddish speakers, it sounded as if Rotwelsch speakers had stolen words and twisted their meaning.
      • Rotwelsch was a name for the language used not by the speakers themselves but by those who regarded vagrants as untrustworthy foreigners.
  2. Notes
    • See Also:
      → Wikipedia: Rotwelsch.
    • As is often the case, this paper is a plug for the author's latest book.
    • Rotwelsch is a sociolect, "the speech of any distinct sub-group", because it doesn't have its own grammar, but uses German.
    • Interesting account of "in a pickle" and "doing a rabbit".
    • Also, the author's family involvement: grandfather - a Nazi - attempted to eliminate the language, along with its speakers, while his uncle tried to revive it.
Footnote 540: Aeon: Sunar - I have no mind’s eye - let me try to describe it for you (Date=10/02/2021, WebRef=10386)Footnote 541: Aeon: Video - Who decides how long a second is? (Date=08/02/2021, WebRef=10390)Footnote 542: Aeon: Video - Nyctophobia (Date=02/02/2021, WebRef=10369)Footnote 543: Aeon: Video - Quantum fluctuations (Date=01/02/2021, WebRef=10371)Footnote 544: Aeon: Tasioulas - All in one (Date=29/01/2021, WebRef=10345)Footnote 545: Aeon: Wright - How to be a genius (Date=26/01/2021, WebRef=10342)Footnote 546: Aeon: Freamon - Gulf slave society (Date=22/01/2021, WebRef=10286)Footnote 547: Aeon: Video - The wolf dividing Norway (Date=21/01/2021, WebRef=10287)Footnote 548: Aeon: Frevert - The history of humiliation points to the future of human dignity (Date=20/01/2021, WebRef=10290)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Ute Frevert
    • Author Narrative: Ute Frevertis the managing director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. She has published numerous books in English and German, some of which have been translated into Japanese, Chinese and Arabic, and the latest of which is The Politics of Humiliation: A Modern History (2020). She is a member of the British Academy as well as two national academies in Germany, and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Tampere, Finland.
  2. Notes
    • Rather a dull piece. It rightly points out the welcome shift from the political use of humiliation as a way of punishment and control.
    • It's also right that all human beings should be accorded respect in the absence of evidence that they don't deserve it.
    • But it leaves open the question of how society should deal with those who genuinely don't deserve respect because of their free and antisocial actions.
    • It's not criminal to be morbidly obese or perpetually drunk; sometimes these may be medical conditions outside the individual's control, but sometimes not.
    • Quite what society should do in such cases is difficult to decide, but accepting the situation as "diversity" isn't good enough. Some encouragement to reformation is required, and a forceful realisation that society deprecates such optional conditions or activities may be helpful.
    • Maybe making anti-social behaviour that has no deeper meaning have unpleasant consequences for the perpetrator is appropriate, but in a rich society it can always be side-stepped. In a poor society, 'wasters' are a drain on scarce resources that cannot be afforded, whereas resources can always be found in a rich society.
    • But the sort of shaming that demands absolute conformity to arbitrary and ever-changing standards of fashion is to be deplored, as is that that focuses on things the shamed individual can do nothing about.
Footnote 549: Aeon: Video - The evolution of cynicism (Date=19/01/2021, WebRef=10279)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Cynicism was born when Diogenes rejected materialism and manners
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Plato once described the philosopher Diogenes of Sinope as ‘a Socrates gone mad!’ It’s a good comparison. Like Socrates, Diogenes gave the bird to respectable society. He undermined status and manners in the 4th century BCE with his bottomless reserve of shamelessness and irreverence, opting to live on the streets like a stray dog. But, of course, there was a method to his madness.
      • In this short video by TED-Ed, the Irish philosopher William D Desmond explains how Diogenes lived an authentic and ascetic life in accordance with nature, and how in doing so he founded the philosophy of cynicism – an iconoclastic tradition that continues to illuminate and infuriate today.
  2. Notes
Footnote 550: Aeon: Video - Kidnapper ants (Date=14/01/2021, WebRef=10265)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Incredible footage captures the ants that transform other species into loyal servants
    • Editor's Abstract
      • You might assume that a creature incapable of feeding itself would have a one-way ticket off the food chain and into the dustbin of extinction. But some ant species with mandibles that are ill-equipped for eating have developed a clever – if not quite mutual – means of finding sustenance and perpetuating.
      • Known as ‘kidnapper’ or ‘slave-making’ ants, these parasitic creatures raid the nests of other ant species, capture their young and carry them to their home nest. Using scents to keep the new arrivals oblivious to the fact that they’re far from home, the kidnappers deploy their captors to tend to their young, forage for their food, and even chew and feed it to them in a process known as trophallaxis.
      • Captured in stunning high definition by the science documentary series Deep Look, this short video tracks red kidnapper ants in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California as they raid, kidnap and brainwash the young from a nearby black ant species’ nest.
      • You can learn more about this video at KQED: Kidnapper Ants Steal Other Ants' Babies - And Brainwash Them.
Footnote 551: Aeon: Sykes - Sheanderthal (Date=12/01/2021, WebRef=10260)Footnote 552: Aeon: Video - Fukuzawa Yukichi in Europe (Date=05/01/2021, WebRef=10223)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: ‘Farcical situations’ and culture clashes – when Japan met modern Europe in 1862
    • Editor's Abstract
      • In 1862, the celebrated Japanese author, publisher and educator Fukuzawa Yukichi was one of 40 men who travelled as part of the first Japanese embassy to Europe, where he served as a translator. The landmark trip followed a diplomatic mission to the United States in 1860, which Yukichi also joined. These envoys took place in the wake of centuries of strict isolationism enforced by Japan’s feudal military government, the Tokugawa shogunate, between the 1630s and the 1850s, making its members some of the first Japanese people in generations to experience a culture outside of their own.
      • The result, according to Yukichi, who wrote about the trip in vivid detail in his Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa (1897), was a combination of ‘farcical’ cultural misunderstandings, eye-opening glimpses into the greater world, and tense moments of geopolitical diplomacy and posturing. Featuring readings from a 1934 English translation of his autobiography, this video tracks Yukichi’s experiences during stops in Paris, where he was awed by the grandeur of the Hotel du Louvre; London, where he was bewildered by the sloppiness of representative government; Amsterdam, where the nature of land ownership in Holland caused confusion; and Russia, where he translated a tense negotiation on the disputed Sakhalin Island. The excerpts make for an utterly fascinating historical document, offering a snapshot of the times in each of the countries represented, and providing a window into the mind of Yukichi, who would later become a leading voice against Japanese isolationism.
  2. Notes
    • This is a really interesting video, and encouraged me to investigate the Autobiography itself: "Fukuzawa (Yukichi) - The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa"; which, after some dithering, I've purchased.
    • While the video gives a flavour, it'd be nice to read more. It's fascinating to see a non-European-eye view of exposure to foreign cultures.
Footnote 553: Aeon: Video - In dog years (Date=24/12/2020, WebRef=10215)Footnote 554: Aeon: Romeo & Tewksbury - Plato in Sicily (Date=21/12/2020, WebRef=10214)
  1. Aeon
    • Authors: Nick Romeo & Ian Tewksbury
    • Author Narrative:
      • Nick Romeo is a journalist and author, and teaches philosophy for Erasmus Academy. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Atlantic and The New Republic, among others. He lives in Athens, Greece.
      • Ian Tewksbury is a Classics graduate student at Stanford University in California. His primary research interests include archaic poetry and ancient philosophy. He works on the digitalisation of Homeric manuscripts for the Homer Multitext project.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Plato travelled to the decadent strife-torn court of Syracuse three times, risking his life to create a philosopher-king
  2. Notes
Footnote 555: Aeon: Video - My name is Anik (Date=14/12/2020, WebRef=10201)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: It’s a clash of cultures when Anik’s granddaughter comes home to learn Kurdish
    • Editor's Abstract
      • The short film My Name Is Anik by the filmmaker Bircan Birol – who was born in Turkey but is now based in Scotland – documents the time she spent in Istanbul trying to learn Kurdish from her grandmother.
      • The endeavour is hardly straightforward, as her grandmother – whose given Kurdish name is Anik but often goes by the Turkified name Belguzar – has a complex relationship with her mother tongue, which evokes poignant and painful memories.
      • Tender and heartfelt, Birol’s short is at once an accomplished work of autobiographical filmmaking and a revealing glimpse into the confluence between language, culture and identity.
  2. Notes
    • The video was a bit disappointing. I suppose I'd been hoping to get an idea of Kurdish, but it's not really possible as the dialogue is in Turkish, my command of which - though I've given it some attention - isn't up to the job (though there are English sub-titles).
    • It's also not possible - for me at any rate - to understand the psychology of it all; why grand-daughter and grand-mother seem to rub one another up the wrong way, and what Anik's attitude to her native tongue and language really is.
    • Anik seems to be very fluent in Turkish, so was it always her first language?
    • However, it was interesting to see the openness of Istanbul cafe culture to Kurdish culture.
Footnote 556: Aeon: Limburg - Am I disabled? (Date=10/12/2020, WebRef=10184)Footnote 557: Aeon: Video - Why are we so attached to our things? (Date=07/12/2020, WebRef=10181)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Christian Jarrett
    • Aeon Subtitle: Feeling connected to objects is a fundamental – and fraught – part of human nature
    • Editor's Abstract
      • From heirlooms to collectables to clothes, our self-image tends to extend well beyond our skin and into our things. While just how attached to possessions people are varies by culture, decades of research has shown that connecting with objects is a hard-wired part of being human.
      • Scripted by Christian Jarrett, deputy editor of Aeon’s sister publication, Psyche, this playful TED-Ed animation takes a brief dive into what’s known as the ‘endowment effect’ – or the tendency of humans to place a disproportionately high value on the things they view as their own.
      • Drawing from some of the most fascinating and telling studies conducted on the topic, the short video touches on the many (sometimes surprising) ways in which we imbue our things with meaning.
Footnote 558: Aeon: Video - The sound of gravity (Date=03/12/2020, WebRef=10161)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: How science finally caught up with Einstein’s prediction of gravitational waves
    • Editor's Abstract
      • In 1916, shortly after publishing his theory of general relativity, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves – warps in space time caused by accelerating matter that ripple outward at the speed of light. However, he believed these ripples would be so slight as to be undetectable, before eventually abandoning the concept altogether. But following decades of scientific developments suggesting their existence, as well as technological innovations making their detection possible, in 2015 a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the California Institute of Technology recorded humanity’s first direct observation of the phenomena.
      • Created by the US filmmakers Sarah Klein and Tom Mason in collaboration with the MIT School of Science, this documentary tracks how the US physicist Rai Weiss, now professor emeritus at MIT, stood on the shoulders of his fields’ biggest giant to prove the existence of gravitational waves, a century after Einstein had predicted them. Relaying an inspiring story of imagination, ingenuity and dedication giving rise to a monumental breakthrough, the documentary reflects on how scientific ideas travel – often circuitously – across generations.
  2. Notes
    • An interesting video, featuring the 87-year-old Rai Weiss, the discoverer of gravitational waves.
    • The video doesn't focus on how many 'events' have been found, nor how to tell where they originated, or what events they might be (the video just refers to mergers of black holes).
    • It seems that multiple detectors, separated by thousands of miles, can determine the direction of the event because of the timing differences.
    • See Wikipedia: LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), for general background, and Wikipedia: List of gravitational wave observations for the full list of 50 events.
Footnote 559: Aeon: Video - Daily life in Egypt: ancient and modern (Date=01/12/2020, WebRef=10156)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Stunning century-old footage of the Nile valley carries echoes from the ancient past
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Released by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1925, this short film features nearly century-old footage of daily life in the Nile valley. With a distinctly Western perspective, the piece establishes similarities between early 20th-century Egypt and Pharaonic Egyptian life – including mud brick architecture, preindustrial farming and weaving techniques, and the centrality of festivals and the river to the region’s culture.
      • As hinted at by the introductory titles, these through-lines from ancient past to then-present are perhaps overstated, with centuries of Islamisation and Arabisation following the conquest of Roman Egypt in the 7th century CE barely acknowledged.
      • Despite this shortcoming, the refurbished footage is still a visual thrill, providing an extraordinary window into life along the Nile valley as it existed at the dawn of anthropological filmmaking.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting enough, mostly as evidence for Egyptian peasant life in 1925, with some shots of Cairo.
    • The parallels between life in 1925 and ancient Egypt are very clear early on, when agriculture is presented, but towards the end there don't seem to be as many parallels; ancient Egyptians had no camels, so there can be no parallel for camel-racing, for instance; this was earlier acknowledged when transportation was discussed.
    • It's stated that there's a parallel between Islamic saints-day celebrations and ancient Egyptian festivals, but no evidence is presented.
    • So, I'm not fully clear what the point of the film is. I suspect it's mainly supposed to be about 1925 Egyptian life, with some attempt to show how static the forms of life are.
    • I didn't notice any "particularly western perspective", but agree that the centuries of Arabisation aren't explicitly acknowledged - other than by not attempting many ancient Egyptian parallels. Also, there's no mention of the Ottomans (or the British).
Footnote 560: Aeon: Video - Don't think twice (Date=26/11/2020, WebRef=10128)Footnote 561: Aeon: Klein - The rise of the bystander as a complicit historical actor (Date=11/11/2020, WebRef=10079)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Dennis Klein
    • Author Narrative: Dennis Klein is professor of history and director of Jewish studies in the Department of History at Kean University in New Jersey. His latest book is Survivor Transitional Narratives of Nazi-Era Destruction: The Second Liberation (2017).
  2. Notes
    • An interesting, though not very clear, comparison between bystander complicity in the Nazi era and similar subsequent cases in the US.
    • Points out the expectations of protection of people assimilated into another community, and how these expectations can be dashed.
    • But this happens in ethnic conflict all over the world today, and throughout history, often on a much wider and more vicious scale even than in the US, though not (I would have thought) than in Nazi Germany.
    • I agree that bystanders are complicit. The trouble is that while sometimes it's obvious that you're a bystander - you're actually standing watching as in the photo from 1938 Vienna - but sometimes you don't naturally come into contact with the issues, or - in particular - the people affected by them - which are in areas you never need go to.
    • Yet if something needs to be done and you're not doing it, you're also a complicit bystander, though there are degrees of complicity.
Footnote 562: Aeon: Muecke - What Aboriginal people know about the pathways of knowledge (Date=11/11/2020, WebRef=10090)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Stephen Muecke
    • Author Narrative: Stephen Muecke is professor of creative writing at Flinders University, Adelaide, and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. His most recent books are The Children’s Country: Creation of a Goolarabooloo Future in North-West Australia, co-authored with Paddy Roe (2020) and Latour and the Humanities (2020), edited with Rita Felski.
    • Author's Introduction
      • What can living in one place for 60,000 years teach a people? Walking with Aboriginal people in the far North-West of Australia has given me some idea. When I wrote the book Reading the Country (1984) with the Berber artist Krim Benterrak and the Nyikina elder Paddy Roe, we walked the world that Paddy was born in – what his people call ‘Country’. I found that the conceptual structure of his world was completely different to the Western one in which I had been trained. Not only was his knowledge not reproduced in books like the ones he nevertheless wanted to write with me, but it had nothing to do with authorship. Knowledge didn’t originate with individuals, and the concept of mind was irrelevant. Knowledge was on the outside; it was held in ‘living Country’. And humans had to get together to animate this knowledge.
      Author's Conclusion
      • How do they (indigenous people) get them (the moderns) to understand? How do they make their knowledge inspirational, as I asked at the beginning? You have to get out of your speeding vehicles, slow down to walking pace, and look around and see what needs to be kept alive. Each territory has its own nature, and living in that place teaches you that you are part of it: you breathe its air, drink its water and share its nutrients. And they compose your own living tissues in the same proportions. There is no escape; there is no better world. There is a song that teaches you this, now that you have taken the time to listen; it’s not just a matter of ‘putting your mind to it’ or accepting the facts. The Country has been singing this song for generations. I wish I could sing Paddy’s ancestors’ Dreaming song that makes the oysters grow fat – but this is not the time and this is not the place.
  2. Notes
    • I dare say I might have read this paper with more attention, as I've probably not got it's message right.
    • It struck me as a little bit relativistic, but it may simply be that motivation for the usefulness of knowledge transfer is required.
    • The author is right to point out that the impact of the 'scientific world-view' on indigenous peoples has been exploitative of their natural resources.
    • He is also right to point out that indigenous peoples know their own environments better than the casual observer (or even the industrious scientist to some degree). Their voices need to be heard.
    • More might be said.
Footnote 563: Aeon: Video - The five-minute museum (Date=09/11/2020, WebRef=10084)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Fast-forward through a history of human artefacts, from arrowheads to plastic toys
    • Editor's Abstract
      • For his short film The Five-Minute Museum (2015), the UK director Paul Bush was given access to objects in some of the premier historical museums of Europe, including the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Bern Historical Museum in Switzerland.
      • The resulting short video provides a whirlwind survey of human history, from arrowheads to plastic toys. Flipping through objects at a rate of 24 images per second, Bush builds a series of stop-motion animations spanning from the Bronze Age to the Information Age, and touching on such timeless and intertwined human endeavours as religion, recreation, food, currency and war.
      • Meticulously crafted with impressive sound design to match, the resulting film forms an arc that perhaps mirrors the character of humanity itself – brimming with contradictions, and cascading ever forward.
Footnote 564: Aeon: Video - Roger Penrose: Why did the universe begin? (Date=05/11/2020, WebRef=10071)
  1. Aeon
    • Authors: Roger Penrose & Robert Lawrence Kuhn
    • Aeon Subtitle: A cyclical, forgetful Universe – Nobel prizewinner Roger Penrose details an astonishing origin hypothesis
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Since the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation in 1965, the Big Bang theory has been the dominant model of our Universe’s origin. In the ensuing decades, an obvious and yet still deeply unsettled question has emerged at the core of cosmology: what happened before it? While many scientists hold firm that there’s no decent evidence to support the notion that anything existed before the Big Bang, new hypotheses have cracked open the door for the possibility.
      • The UK mathematical physicist Roger Penrose, a professor emeritus at Oxford University and co-recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics, is a convert to the camp of thinkers entertaining the notion of a pre-Big Bang state. In this interview with Robert Lawrence Kuhn for the PBS series Closer to Truth, Penrose details a somewhat mind-boggling idea he’s advanced known as the ‘conformal cyclic cosmology’ hypothesis, which proposes that our Universe is just one in an infinite series.
      • For more on the prospect of a before, before the Big Bang, watch Aeon Video’s interview with Tim Maudlin, a professor of philosophy at New York University.
  2. Notes
    • This deserves several attempts to understand what Penrose is saying, but I doubt it can be understood without the mathematics
Footnote 565: Aeon: Video - Palenque (Date=04/11/2020, WebRef=10065)Footnote 566: Aeon: Video - Visitors (Date=29/10/2020, WebRef=10049)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: In a remote town near Area 51, UFO believers and locals contemplate the beyond
    • Editor's Abstract
      • ‘I’ve never seen necessarily an alien but I’ve met some humans that might not be considered born here …’
      • In June 2019, a prank Facebook event titled ‘Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us’ went viral, with some 1.5 million users indicating – ironically or not – an interest in blitzing the famed US Air Force facility in Nevada, long rumoured to contain evidence of extraterrestrial life. By the time the event date arrived in September, most of the world had moved on from the gag. Ultimately, only about 1,500 people descended on the remote Nevada towns around Area 51 – the vast majority of whom had no real designs on storming the facility.
      • One such attendee was the New York-based filmmaker Scott Lazer, who travelled to the town of Rachel, Nevada, located 27 miles north of Area 51, where a small UFO-themed festival was taking place. There, he found the expected, eccentric collection of UFO diehards recounting sightings and contemplating the nature of extraterrestrial life. But Visitors, his short documentary account of the event, offers more than just an invitation to tour a peculiar subculture. As he interviews true believers and Rachel locals alike, a thread begins to emerge – of people striving to make sense of their place in a strange universe, and seeking connections with something greater than themselves.
  2. Notes
    • I couldn't really see the point of this.
    • It's somewhat atmospheric, but most of the people filmed are just odd bods with weird beliefs, not that these beliefs, such as they might be, are clearly articulated.
Footnote 567: Aeon: Simpson - When is it ethical to vote for ‘the lesser of two evils’? (Date=28/10/2020, WebRef=10053)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Robert Simpson
    • Author's Conclusion
      • Nonvoting conscientious objectors would do well to remember this. While acting in line with your principles is a good thing, in certain scenarios, that’s because it embodies a type of indirect strategy for making a positive impact in the world. For most of us, that aim speaks in favour of using our vote on the least-worst option.
      • For a committed few, it means using our vote (or nonvote) to send a message about the urgency of the principles that the leaders of ‘our’ side have broken faith with.
      • But it doesn’t mean doing nothing – and we should be wary of anyone portraying their desire to sit things out as a mark of integrity. That is to misunderstand why and how integrity matters in the political morality of citizenship.
  2. Notes
Footnote 568: Aeon: Video - De artificiali perspectiva, or anamorphosis (Date=27/10/2020, WebRef=10043)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: The Renaissance art illusion that proved everything is a matter of perspective
    • Editor's Abstract
      • By the 16th century, European painters had become masterful at crafting illusions of perspective, giving viewers an impression of lifelike, three-dimensional depth on flat surfaces.
      • Building on this well of Renaissance knowledge, a small handful of artists began pushing linear perspective further still, crafting works that required the viewer to occupy a single vantage point – or series of vantage points – in order to be fully understood.
      • Today, this sort of visual illusion, known as anamorphosis, is responsible for viral internet phenomena such as the 3D street paintings of the Rome-based artist Kurt Wenner.
      • At its inception, however, the technique was used to both provocative and whimsical effect, often adding subversive new meanings to works once revealed.
      • In this short film, the celebrated US animation team Stephen and Timothy Quay, better known as ‘the Brothers Quay’, evoke a dark fairytale with their exploration of the technique, which combines stop-motion puppetry with some notable examples of anamorphosis from the 16th and 17th centuries.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting enough, but dates from 1991, and the filming and puppetry techniques are self-consciouly archaic even for then.
    • The end result is that the illusions of perspective aren't as clearly displayed as they might be.
    • The film ends up with the well-known skull in Holbein's 'The Ambassadors', but it's not very clear. Nor is the earlier fresco of St. Francis on a convent wall, though at least there's an attempt to show how it was done.
Footnote 569: Aeon: Watts - Fiddling while Rome converts (Date=27/10/2020, WebRef=10045)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Edward Watts
    • Author Narrative: Edward Watts is a professor and Alkiviadis Vassiliadis Endowed Chair in Byzantine Greek History at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of The Final Pagan Generation: Rome’s Unexpected Path to Christianity (2015), Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny (2018) and The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea (2021), among others. He lives in Carlsbad, California.
    • Aeon Subtitle: A generation of pagan bureaucrats amassed wealth and status while Roman emperors Christianised the world around them
    • Author's Abstract
      • Pagan cults were particularly ill-prepared to respond to a monotheistic religion that actively worked to permanently take worshippers away from the old gods. This wasn’t how paganism worked. It wasn’t rare for pagans to add a new god to the list of deities to whom they prayed, but most traditional cults didn’t ask their adherents to stop worshipping other gods when they prayed to a new one. This tolerance made a great deal of sense in Rome’s diverse pagan religious marketplace, but it also meant that pagan cults had no experience fighting for the loyalty of their followers when the Christian church told Romans that they must choose to worship either Christ or the old gods. Once state support turbocharged the church’s ability to reach across the empire, many Romans naturally preferred the promise of a new Christian empire to the traditions of the past. When they were asked to choose, Romans overwhelmingly chose Christianity.
      • The final pagan generation’s shortsightedness still stands out. They acquiesced to the rule of Christian emperors pursuing the elimination of paganism in exchange for a few decades of government salaries and fancy titles. These men could have fought against a change they fundamentally disagreed with. They got rich instead. Everyone tempted to believe that future generations will have time to address difficult issues that we selfishly choose to ignore should remember their sour legacy.
  2. Notes
    • This is an interesting read, though probably a plug for the author's "Watts (Edward) - The Final Pagan Generation: Rome's Unexpected Path to Christianity", which I've just purchased.
    • It seems to have a message - beyond the interesting recounting of events - that it is important to stand up for your principles rather than taking the money and keeping your head down.
    • That said, I'd be interested to know who he thought was on the right side of history. It could be argued that Christianity was better thought out than the rag-bag of cults it replaced.
    • What the author regrets seems to be the cultural loss in the sweeping-away of the old religions.
    • Also, that in a world where all religions are false, the less divisive and destructive they are the better. Just leave everyone to their private delusions.
    • It occurs to me that a view that religion was a private and tolerant matter until the Christians came to power seems to ignore the earlier persecution of Christians (and the Jews in Maccabean times). It seems usually the case that departure from the religion of the state has been seen as treasonous, never more so than with the Roman imperial cult.
Footnote 570: Aeon: Video - The greatest Briton? (Date=22/10/2020, WebRef=10029)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Hero or scoundrel? An iconoclastic biography of Winston Churchill
    • Editor's Summary
      • Most mainstream portrayals of Winston Churchill, such as the critically acclaimed film The Darkest Hour (2017), focus on his role in the Second World War, standing tall in the face of potential Nazi obliteration with a combination of brilliant foresight, fighting spirit and soaring rhetoric.
      • While this is, of course, an important part of the celebrated British prime minister’s legacy, the characterisation paints an extremely incomplete picture of his life, leaving out a great number of important, unflattering facts.
      • This short from the UK filmmaker Steve Roberts deploys a combination of claymation and biting iconoclasm to shine a light on the failing-up nepotism, political opportunism and murderous white supremacy that are often glossed over in surface-level treatments of Churchill’s biography.
  2. Notes
    • See Also:
      → Winston Churchill
    • First Thoughts
      • I'd not at this point watched the video, brief though it is, but expected to hate it. The title – suggesting Churchill might have been a “scoundrel” – deserves the good beating with umbrellas that would have been Steve Roberts’ fate at the hands of the matrons (such as my mother) who – rightly – saw Churchill’s pivotal role in rescuing the world from barbarism. Britain had the opportunity to “do a deal” with Hitler and carve up the world rather than accept the “blood, sweat and tears”. Without Churchill, that’s how things would have gone.
      • I'm aware of Churchill's many mistakes and failings. I suspect that - were the failings of all "Great Men" highlighted – there would be none left to act as an inspiration.
      • Also, the more tests a person is exposed to, the more mistakes they will make (many of these mistakes only being recognized as such in retrospect), and the more powerful they were, the greater the consequences of their mistakes.
      • Besides, someone’s “greatness” is independent of their failings, especially if they have been a pivotal influence on world history, political or cultural. Gesualdo or Caravaggio might have been murderers, and Wagner a racist and general all-round horrible person, but that’s not relevant to their greatness.
      • Also, I'd prefer it if there was a level playing field on this sort of revisionist history. Churchill had many talents and, some might say, rivaled Oscar Wilde as a wit and literary figure, while Wilde rivaled Churchill as a smoker and drinker. We don’t – these days – focus on Wilde’s failings (including his sexual relations with under-age boys; not that Wilde would have considered such things as failings, I don’t suppose; see Guardian - Jad Adams - Review of Neil McKenna's 'The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde') but portray him as a saint struggling against prejudice.
      • But in the end, it doesn’t much matter whether or not an individual is a well rounded blemish-free paragon of virtue, provided they did the job they needed to do at the key moment.
    • Second Thoughts
      • Well, I’ve watched it now and it’s even more annoying than I’d expected and – at the risk of sounding like a reactionary old git – is worthy of, if not actually beneath, contempt.
      • I suppose it’s an attempt to redress the balance whereby hagiographers ignore the blemishes of their heroes, but it goes to ridiculous extremes.
      • Some of the suggestions – that Churchill was a dunce because he did badly at Harrow – are utterly absurd, given his literary and historical skills and wit (not to mention his Nobel Prize). Also, the suggestion that Officers in WW1 stayed safely behind the lines (when in fact they were the first “over the top”) is offensive in the extreme.
      • It is true that some of Churchill’s views are disturbing to modern sensibilities, but they did not set him apart from his contemporaries in any bad light – compare his racism to Hitler’s – except towards the twilight of his career when he became on the wrong side of history.
      • Some of his great failures – in particular Gallipoli – were presumably down to his willingness to take risks. The attempt to open a second front to avoid the stalemate of the trenches was sensible and visionary, but unfortunately didn’t work.
      • His decision to resist Hitler rather than cut a deal was an even greater gamble, but one that had to be made.
      • It would be interesting to know who “the UK filmmaker Steve Roberts” (whoever he is) thinks is the “Greatest Briton”. His animation is doubtless a belated response to the absurd 2002 BBC poll (see Wikipedia: 100 Greatest Britons), which had Churchill coming out on top (with Princess Di farcically in third place and Guy Fawkes in 30th).
Footnote 571: Aeon: Levin & Dennett - Cognition all the way down (Date=13/10/2020, WebRef=10005)Footnote 572: Aeon: Ogden - Being eaten (Date=08/10/2020, WebRef=9978)Footnote 573: Aeon: Video - Newton's three-body problem (Date=29/09/2020, WebRef=9951)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: A millimetre makes a world of difference when calculating planetary trajectories
    • Editor's Summary
      • Calculating the trajectories of two gravitating bodies is straightforward mathematics. But introducing even just one more variable into an orbital system can make its long-term trajectory impossible to predict.
      • In 2009, two researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz investigated just how difficult this mathematical phenomenon – known as the ‘N-body problem’ – makes forecasting the eventual fate of our own corner of space.
      • The team ran 2,000 simulations of the solar system’s trajectory up to 5 billion years into the future, with the only variable being less than a millimetre difference in the distance between Mercury and the Sun. The simulations yielded a stunning array of results, including the possibility of Mercury careening into the Sun, colliding with Venus and destablising the entire inner solar system.
      • This animation from TED-Ed breaks down the N-body problem with rich visuals and methodical clarity, and concludes with scientists’ efforts to minimise N-body unpredictability as humans press further into space.
  2. Notes
    • It'd have been nice to have had some of the mathematics in detail.
    • The issue is that in the 2-body problem, a simplification (using the centre of mass) makes the system soluble because the number of variable equals the number of equations of motion.
    • But this doesn't work for 3-body and above.
    • So, simulations have to be run instead, and because the systems are chaotic, tiny differences in initial condition can end up with utterly different outcomes, despite the system being deterministic.
    • The video pointed out that increasingly powerful computation enables more accurate prediction, but didn't stress that this computational error is in addition to the initial condition error.
    • It was noted that if one of the three bodies is very light in comparison to the other two, the problem reduces to a 2-body problem for practical purposes.
    • At the end we were referred to a sci-fi film rather than a maths book!
Footnote 574: Aeon: Nadler - When to break a rule (Date=29/09/2020, WebRef=9953)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Steven Nadler
    • Author Narrative: Steven Nadler is the William H Hay II Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His books include Spinoza: A Life (2nd ed, 2018), A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza’s Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age (2011), and (with Ben Nadler) Heretics! The Wondrous (and Dangerous) Beginnings of Modern Philosophy (2017). His most recent book is Think Least of Death: Spinoza on How to Live and How to Die (2020).
    • Aeon Subtitle: A virtuous person respects the rules. So when should the same person make a judgment call and break or bend them instead?
  2. Notes
    • An excellent discussion of when to apply a law and when not to.
    • Also, explains why laws have to be clear, exceptionless and universal. But their application is context-sensitive.
    • Gives good reason why catch-all ethical reductionism fails (whether Kantian or Utilitarian).
    • All pretty much common-sense, really.
Footnote 575: Aeon: Hansen - Vikings in America (Date=22/09/2020, WebRef=9941)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Valerie Hansen
    • Author Narrative: Valerie Hansen is Stanley Woodward Professor of History at Yale University in Connecticut. Her books include The Silk Road: A New History (2012), The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600 (2nd edition, 2015) and The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World – and Globalization Began (2020).
    • Aeon Subtitle: Centuries before Columbus, Vikings came to the Western hemisphere. How far into the Americas did they travel?
  2. Notes
    • See Also:
      → Aeon: Video - The Vinland Mystery
      → Aeon: Video - When Vikings lived in North America
    • This is an interesting enough article. I suspect it of being a plug for the author's 2020 book The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World – and Globalization Began.
    • I think it's certain that the Vikings got from Greenland to North America around 1000, and possible that 'they' - or maybe one boat-load - got as far as Mexico, though the evidence is very weak.
    • But it depends what's to be built on these flimsy foundations and what axe the author has to grind.
    • It strikes me as absurd to claim that these tenuous and ill-evidenced links show that by 1000 the world was 'connected' and that 'Globalisation' had begun.
    • Globalisation requires more than a few traded skins.
    • In any case, there had been trade (and possibly contact) between Rome and China along the Silk Road 1000 years earlier (see Wikipedia: Sino-Roman relations).
    • For the Vikings and the Americas, see Wikipedia: Norse colonization of North America
Footnote 576: Aeon: Dahl - Young children use reason, not gut feelings, to decide moral issues (Date=16/09/2020, WebRef=9928)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Audun Dahl
    • Author Narrative: Audun Dahl is associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
  2. Notes
    • Another interesting paper.
    • The author is an experimentalist, and has conducted tests on the moral sense and reasoning powers of children.
    • She has found that the pessimistic view - that our moral sense lacks foundations and is based on gut instincts - is mistaken.
    • Also, that children do "reason" about moral problems put to them.
    • She points out that some conflicting moral stances are caused by differences over the facts, which can be manipulated. Otherwise, they can be down to weighing conflicting factors differently, as in the case of abortion.
    • This is all well and good, but I have a suspicion that reasoning may be used to support our gut instincts, rather than being the cause of them.
Footnote 577: Aeon: Video - Is our attention for sale? (Date=15/09/2020, WebRef=9923)Footnote 578: Aeon: Elliot - Origin story (Date=08/09/2020, WebRef=9894)Footnote 579: Aeon: Hazrat - A history of punctuation (Date=03/09/2020, WebRef=9897)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Florence Hazrat
    • Author Narrative: Florence Hazrat is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of English at the University of Sheffield, working on parentheses in Renaissance romance. Her first book Refrains in Early Modern Literature is forthcoming, and she is currently writing a book called Standing on Points: The History and Culture of Punctuation.
    • Aeon Subtitle: How we came to represent (through inky marks) the vagaries of the mind, inflections of the voice, and intensity of feeling
Footnote 580: Aeon: Video - Mary's Room (Date=03/09/2020, WebRef=9895)Footnote 581: Aeon: Flack & Mitchell - Uncertain times (Date=21/08/2020, WebRef=9856)
  1. Aeon
    • Authors: Jessica Flack & Melanie Mitchell
    • Author Narrative:
      • Jessica Flack is a professor at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico and director of the Collective Computation Group at SFI.
      • Melanie Mitchell is the Davis Professor of Complexity at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico and professor of computer science at Portland State University. She is the author of Complexity: A Guided Tour (2009) and Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans (2019).
    • Aeon Subtitle: The pandemic is an unprecedented opportunity – seeing human society as a complex system opens a better future for us all
    • Author's Conclusion
      • Rather than attempt to precisely predict the future, we have tried to make the case for designing systems that favour robustness and adaptability – systems that can be creative and responsive when faced with an array of possible scenarios.
      • The COVID-19 pandemic provides an unprecedented opportunity to begin to think through how we might harness collective behaviour and uncertainty to shape a better future for us all.
      • The most important term in this essay is not ‘chaotic’, ‘complex’, ‘black swan’, ‘nonequilibrium’ or ‘second-order effect’. It’s: ‘dawn’.
  2. Notes
    • A complex paper which deserves a second read.
    • Maybe a plug for Melanie Mitchell's book on AI? I had a look at this on Amazon, but it doesn't look worth buying at the moment - at least not until I've read "Bostrom (Nick) - Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies".
    • I wasn't sure quite how the new forward-looking systems could be devised, but agree that fixing the problems exposed by the last unexpected event (however recognizable in hindsight) won't necessariy help with the next unexpected event unless it's of the same kind.
Footnote 582: Aeon: Dresser - How to not fear your death (Date=19/08/2020, WebRef=9853)Footnote 583: Aeon: Woolard - Philosophy can explain what kind of achievement it is to give birth (Date=18/08/2020, WebRef=9844)Footnote 584: Aeon: Video - The Fayum portraits (Date=17/08/2020, WebRef=9846)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Haunting dispatches from the edge of the Roman Empire, just before its collapse
    • Author's Conclusion
      • ‘So, with imperious hand, fortune turns the wheel of change.’
      • The funerary paintings known as the ‘Fayum portraits’ are named for the Egyptian desert oasis region of Fayum, just west of the Nile, in which many of them have been found. Painted on the outskirts of the Roman Empire as it began to decline in the first centuries CE, these stark and hauntingly lifelike images were fashioned while their subjects were alive, and placed over their mummified bodies upon burial.
      • Depicting diverse people of mostly modest means – including Greeks, Jews, Syrians and Roman bureaucrats – the portraits reveal the region as both a colonial outpost and a cultural melting pot, where outsiders adopted Egyptian cultural and religious practices, including mummified burial, as their own.
      • Produced for an 1988 exhibition of Fayum portraits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, this short film pairs the paintings with excerpts from contemporary religious texts, dispatches from those living in Fayum at the time, and the guidance of the US art historian Richard Brilliant.
      • The result is a rich window into daily life – and death – amid the fall of Rome.
  2. Notes
    • An interesting and atmospheric presentation of the topic.
    • It is wonderful to see such lifelike portraits from nearly 2,000 years ago.
    • See Wikipedia: Fayum Mummy Portraits, which seems to dispute some of the factual claims of the video, which hails from 1988.
    • Wikipedia suggest that the portraits weren't made early in life and displayed about the house, but were commissioned on the death of the individual. The reason this is claimed is that the ages as represented in the paintings correlate well with the age at death of the mummies to which the paintings are attached (when they still are). As such, they are witness to the low life expectancy during the period.
    • While lifelike, they were not necessarily painted from life, but were somewhat formulaic.
    • They were painted not at the very end of the empire, but during periods of convulsion when it seemed to be falling, but revived. Egypt remained Roman until the Islamic conquest.
    • The paintings are pre-Christian, in the sense of before Christianity became the state religion, and the subjects are not Christians, though one of the voice-overs has a lady asking "who will deliver me from this body of death", which might indicate that Paul in Romans 7:24 was using a well-known expression.
    • The video suggests that the portraits are of all classes, but Wikipedia suggests they are of the upper classes.
Footnote 585: Aeon: Duckworth - Catastrophes and calms (Date=13/08/2020, WebRef=9755)Footnote 586: Aeon: Copeland - DNA testing is easy. It can also turn your family upside down (Date=12/08/2020, WebRef=9757)Footnote 587: Aeon: McMaster - What rude jibes about Caesar tell us about sex in ancient Rome (Date=12/08/2020, WebRef=9746)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Aven McMaster
    • Author Narrative: Aven McMaster is associate professor in ancient studies at Thorneloe University at Laurentian in Ontario, Canada.
    • Author's Conclusion
      • Caesar’s career gives us a fascinating glimpse of both Roman normative ideology, and the way that actual lives could work within and against that ideology. There is much about Roman sexuality that isn’t admirable and certainly shouldn’t be emulated. But few things provide as powerful a tool to fight tendencies to naturalise any one view of sexuality as the broad and deep cultural history of sex and gender in human life.
      • It shows that many common assumptions about sexuality and power are indeed just assumptions – that heterosexuality and military prowess don’t automatically go together, and that hypersexuality doesn’t necessarily make someone manly and powerful. What we are too often taught to think of as ‘natural’ is, in fact, dependent on the societal values of a particular time and place, and what is obviously ‘true’ in one culture is just as obviously unthinkable in another.
      • This can be a liberating realisation: if these basic connections between sexuality, masculinity and power aren’t inherent, then they can be changed – we can, in fact, choose for ourselves how we shape our ideas about gender and sexuality, today and in the future.
  2. Notes
    • This is an interesting and informative account of aristocratic Roman sexual mores. The author doesn't mention the "aristocratic" element, but it mustn't be forgotten.
    • However, I'm not sure what lessons can (or at least should) be drawn from it.
    • Ethics is taught in philosophy courses (at least at Birkbeck) from the ancient Greek perspective to show that there are different understandings of ethics and the good life from the Christian one that students (before they became increasingly "diverse"; but it applies to whatever cultural background the student is from) might be used to and think "natural".
    • This article uses Julius Caesar rather than the Greeks to draw the conclusion that certain "assumptions" about male heterosexuality and power aren't "natural" but are culture-relative.
    • It seems that the Roman view was that male sex was all about domination - whether of others (male or female) and of self. Obviously the author doesn't like the “domination” aspect of all this - nor the Roman allowance of the sexual ill-treatment of slaves and minors. But I can't see how this has anything to do with resisting attempts to "naturalise" sexual ethics. The fact that other societies had other views doesn't imply that we are "liberated" to act how we feel like.
    • I find the idea of "ethics naturalised" a fairly promising approach to resolving interminable ethical disputes. What leads - or might be expected to lead - to flourishing in all societies might be seen as objectively good. Slavery and the general abuse of the powerless doesn't lead to the flourishing of the powerless, so while it might be "natural" in that all societies in the past adopted such practices, this doesn't make it good (or "right").
    • I still think that matters of “plumbing” and the original reproductive purpose of sex means that some sexual practices are "natural" and others not so. But there aren't necessarily any clear ethical implications from this. Human societies have transcended nature in many ways for the good. Modern wealth and technology mean that practices that might have had bad consequences in the past no longer do in our current state of affluence and technological sophistication.
    • Anyway, I thought the logic of the argument might have been laid out more clearly. I thought the same data might have been used to demonstrate that there was no moral objection to slavery or to sex with minors had our culture been supportive of such abominable practices, assuming value-laden terms such as "abominable" are allowed.
Footnote 588: Aeon: Weidman - Do humans really have a killer instinct or is that just manly fancy? (Date=11/08/2020, WebRef=9748)Footnote 589: Aeon: Video - Susan Greenfield on neuronal assemblies (Date=11/08/2020, WebRef=9747)Footnote 590: Aeon: Townsend - How Aztecs told history (Date=10/08/2020, WebRef=9751)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Camilla Townsend
    • Author Narrative: Camilla Townsend is distinguished professor of history at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Her research in Nahuatl-language sources has garnered numerous awards, including a Guggenheim and a Public Scholar award from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her latest book is Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs (2019).
    • Aeon Subtitle: For the warriors and wanderers who became the Aztec people, truth was not singular and history was braided from many voices
    • Author's Conclusion
      • For the Aztecs, history didn’t require textbook-like consensus. In their understanding, truth wasn’t singular and could accommodate different perspectives. This pattern had almost certainly been part of their social practice for many generations, as they sat around campfires, talking and telling stories, trying to build common cause with the friends they’d made along their route. Now they turned it into an art form, a formalised way of keeping history that literally depended on multiple speakers standing up at different moments.
      • Yet this relativism didn’t mean that the Aztecs believed that there was no truth. Their historians never gave up on the idea that there is a truth that transcends differences in perspective. Their histories reminded listeners that, together, they had trekked a long way, over rough terrain and through painful events, to come to the present moment. They weren’t now about to give up everything with a shrug of the shoulders and an implicit conclusion that no one could ever know what happened or why.
      • In fact, the truth was that the past was still with them, the efforts of their multiple sets of ancestors still a part of who they were – and everybody present in the community needed to continue to give all they could in order to make the future come into being. They had survived their journey from the desert far to the north; they had survived bitter warfare in the central valley. By the mid-1500s, when they were transcribing the old performances, they had survived the arrival of the Europeans. This was no time to give up. Rather, it was a time to add another perspective, that of the Christians. Truth, they said again, was composite. History, they believed, was long – the trail of meandering footprints wound on for years – and it was constructed of such constituent truths. Writing in the colonial era, they wrote their own history interspersed with references to what they now knew had been happening in Europe at the same time and, when they arrived at the period after the conquest, they wrote about the efforts of both sets of people to manage their lives together. The new, they were convinced, didn’t necessarily have to obliterate the old.
Footnote 591: Aeon: Video - Plato's alegory of the cave (Date=10/08/2020, WebRef=9750)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Orson Welles’s psychedelic 1973 adaptation of Plato’s timeless ‘allegory of the cave’
    • Editors' Abstract
      • ‘It is the task of the enlightened not only to ascend to learning and to see the good but to be willing to descend again to those prisoners and to share their troubles and their honours, whether they are worth having or not. And this they must do, even with the prospect of death.’
        → Plato’s Republic, Book 7
      • Plato’s 'allegory of the cave' thought experiment ponders the experience of prisoners shackled in a cave from birth, only able to see the shadows of objects projected onto a wall. The text then traces the journey of a prisoner who is set free from the cave, given the opportunity to experience reality in the glow of the sun, and, upon returning to the cave, is met with laughter by the other prisoners, who think him a fool for struggling to re-adjust to his old existence.
      • A simple story yielding complex commentaries on the nature of reality and wisdom, Plato’s timeless allegory is built into the foundations of modern philosophy, and, more than two milennia later, still stirs debate.
      • Carried by a rich narration from Orson Welles, this rarely seen 1973 animated adaptation of Plato’s words populates the tale with haunting human figures, bringing retro-surreal life to the parable.
  2. Notes
    • This is just a narration of the text, with no commentary apart from an exhortation at the beginning to 'seek truth rather than illusion'.
    • All very well, but it'd be nice to know what the illusions are supposed to be, and what the truth.
    • Presumably it's not Plato's theory of eternal Forms that's the truth, and the senses - while not giving us access to the whole truth - are a necessary source of knowledge.
    • I had a go at Plato's Theory of Forms in this BA Finals Essay.
Footnote 592: Aeon: Little & Backus - Confidence tricks (Date=07/08/2020, WebRef=9733)
  1. Aeon
    • Authors: Andrew Little & Matthew Backus
    • Author Narrative:
      • Andrew Little is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley.
      • Matthew Backus is the Philip H Geier Jr Associate Professor at the Graduate Business School of Columbia University in New York City. His work has appeared in Bloomberg News, Slate and The Wall Street Journal, among others.
    • Aeon Subtitle: The ignorant pundit is absolutely certain; the true expert understands their own limits and how to ask the right questions
    • Author's Conclusion
      • So, how do we foster trust and integrity in discourse on science? A small but real part of the problem is that reputational incentives to appear qualified and knowledgeable drive experts to overstate their certainty.
      • One way to counter this tendency is to ask better questions, and that usually means questions about the nature of the evidence and what it allows.
      • We can also change the way that we relate to experts, not just listening to the loudest and most confident voices, but to those with a track record of only claiming as far as the evidence will take them, and a willingness to say ‘I don’t know.’
  2. Notes
Footnote 593: Aeon: Press - Mummies among us (Date=06/08/2020, WebRef=9736)Footnote 594: Aeon: Video - Solos (Date=06/08/2020, WebRef=9734)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Sketches from a Barcelona square offer an elegant celebration of people-watching
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Barcelona’s squares (plaças in Catalan, plazas in Spanish) are the beating heart of the Catalonian capital – beloved to residents and tourists alike. Breaking the monotony of the city’s gridded streets, these open outdoor areas percolate with the comings and goings of al fresco diners, makeshift football matches and all iterations of art and commerce.
      • Formed from sketches made while the London-based filmmaker Gabriella Marsh was living in Barcelona, the brief animation Solos captures daily life in a small square in the historic Gràcia neighbourhood. Streets are swept, families squabble and friendly greetings are exchanged. And yet these mostly mundane scenes transform into something quite remarkable via Marsh’s stylish hand-drawn images and composer Joe Bush’s gentle piano score.
      • What emerges is an elegant meditation on the intersections of streets, stories and social forces that give shape to a city block.
Footnote 595: Aeon: Edison - True musical virtuosos are minimalists who put roll before rock (Date=05/08/2020, WebRef=9737)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Mike Edison
    • Author Narrative: Mike Edison is an author, editor and musician. Formerly editor of High Times and Screw magazines, his writing has appeared in the Huffington Post, the Daily Beast and The New York Observer, among others. As a drummer, he has opened for bands including Sonic Youth, Sound Garden and the Ramones. His books include the memoirs I Have Fun Everywhere I Go (2008) and You Are a Complete Disappointment (2016); the social history Dirty! Dirty! Dirty! (2011); and Sympathy for the Drummer: Why Charlie Watts Matters (2019). He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
    • Author's Conclusion
      • Virtuosity is just a word. Say it enough and it doesn’t mean anything. You can call a pie a cake, but it doesn’t make it so, and anyone who thinks that Jeff Beck or Buddy Rich offers more musical potency than Muddy Waters or Charlie Watts, solely based on the illusion of their instrumental prowess, is perversely wrong.
      • It goes without question that the Rollings Stones – The Greatest Rock’n’roll Band in the World – would need The Greatest Rock’n’roll Drummer. But if you are asking who is ‘the best’ drummer, you are asking the wrong question.
  2. Notes
    • A very sensible piece.
    • He's right that it's not the number of notes that matters - as in the hysterics of 'guitar heroes' - but the right notes.
    • He's also right that the drummer's job is to serve the band, not to perform drum solos. Hence Charlie Watts and Ringo do just fine.
    • Interesting to see his connection with (but not a band-member of) the Ramones ('Sheena is a punk rocker') and Soundgarden ('Black Hole Sun').
    • This - like punk rock itself - is a reaction to the excesses of glam rock.
    • That said, anything that's a reaction to something else itself then needs to be reacted to, and is transitory.
Footnote 596: Aeon: Video - The meaning of a monument (Date=04/08/2020, WebRef=9726)Footnote 597: Aeon: Dingemanse - The space between our heads (Date=04/08/2020, WebRef=9728)Footnote 598: Aeon: Video - Oppy: The life of a rover (Date=03/08/2020, WebRef=9729)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: What the Martian surface looked like to Oppy – humanity’s most resilient rover
    • Editor's Abstract
      • When NASA successfully landed the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity – nicknamed ‘Oppy’ – in 2004, the plan was to explore the Martian terrain for 90 days. Through expert engineering and careful handling, Oppy was able to exceed its designed lifespan 60 times over, exploring the planet for nearly 15 years.
      • Over the course of its impressive expedition, Oppy made a number of key geological discoveries and broke several records, including longest off-world distance travelled at 28 miles.
      • Then, in 2018, following one of the most intense dust storms ever recorded on Mars, Oppy relayed its final message to Earth: ‘My battery is low and it’s getting dark.’
      • This short video from the US filmmaker John D Boswell, also known as melodysheep, uses images captured by Oppy and music composed using the sounds of Martian winds to pay anthropomorphic tribute to the resilient rover – and by extension, those responsible for its awe-inspiring journey.
Footnote 599: Aeon: Stonebridge - The plague novel you need to read is by Bachmann, not Camus (Date=03/08/2020, WebRef=9730)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Lyndsey Stonebridge
    • Author Narrative: Lyndsey Stonebridge is professor of humanities and human rights at the University of Birmingham. Her book Writing and Righting: Literature in the Age of Human Rights will be published in November 2020, and she is currently writing a new book on Hannah Arendt for Jonathan Cape.
    • Author's Conclusion
      • ‘I’ve often wondered,’ Bachmann wrote in the 1960s, ‘just where the virus of crime escaped to – it cannot have simply disappeared from our world 20 years ago just because murder is no longer praised, desired, decorated with medals …’ Exactly like Camus, she saw that European fascism had released an insidious kind of evil into the world. Around the same time, Arendt (who admired Bachmann) used the expression ‘the banality of evil’ to similarly describe an endemic criminality that hides itself in tacit principles, values, procedures, in everyday language and everyday tyranny. The problem for that generation was how to respond.
      • In the end, The Plague’s moral clarity belonged to the witnesses, not to the invisible victims. ‘What it is that one learns in the midst of such tribulations,’ concludes Dr Rieux, is that ‘there is more in men to admire than to despise.’ Maybe. But compare the final words of Malina: ‘It was murder.’ ‘I maintain,’ wrote Bachmann, ‘that still today many people do not die but are murdered.’
      • Camus used the fictional metaphor of the plague to expose the political and historical scourges of his time. By contrast, our plague is real: our historical and political metaphors are out of control. There is ‘a pandemic of’ we say – and what we also mean is that there is violence we can’t stop, and which seems to infect not only lives and minds, but the very words we use. And that it is killing us. On this point, Bachmann is our closer contemporary.
  2. Notes
    • See Also:
      → Judt - A hero for our times
      → Rose - Pointing the Finger - ‘The Plague’
    • The author seems to inhabit a different bubble to me, so that the issues that concern her must be obvious in her circle, so she doesn't think they need clearly stating, even for outsiders (assuming she's writing for such rather than her own echo chamber). So:-
      1. There are references to "the historical hatreds of white men" and
      2. "Even before the murder of George Floyd, the return to The Plague didn’t feel quite right. It has always been a book of ghosts, of missing Black and brown persons and silent women" and
      3. "'The women in The Plague … have been in lockdown for a long time when the story begins.' This spring, the absence of the Arabs of Oran in the novel all too accurately mirrors the contemporary whitewashing of Black bodies, deaths and health workers. "
    • What is she on about? These are issues that have been around for ever, and have usually been - and in most places in the world still are - submerged under other much more serious existential threats to the bulk of the population, including - of course - these 'oppressed' groups.
    • I suppose this is her point – Camus’ The Plague ignores all the issues that are currently of concern to those who take for granted the solution of the problems that concern most societies, including those that faced France in WW2. Maybe Bachmann’s book addresses contemporary concerns – or at least some people’s concerns – better than Camus’. However, …
    • The reason we have time and energy to worry about and - no doubt inadequately - address them is that - by historical standards (at least in the West) - times are so good, even for the 'oppressed'.
    • In times past, the killing of George Floyd wouldn't have made the news let alone caused an international conflagration. It wasn't an "execution" or a "public lynching" but an act of violent stupidity on the part of a police officer who can't seriously be supposed to have intended to kill George Floyd on camera in front of a crowd of witnesses. In some times and countries they'd have just shot him, and the on-lookers as well.
    • Certainly, blacks and the more poorly-paid health workers deserve better, and women haven't yet achieved 'equality' - however that's supposed to work out - but the situation of women, ethnic minorities and "the poor" is unimaginably better than it was a few decades ago (and still is in most of the world).
    • The Plague is wrestling with what should be done in a police state where thousands are being transported to their deaths for supposedly being 'sub-human' or summarily executed for dissidence. Whatever the short-comings of the police either side of the Atlantic, we are very far from that state of affairs, though not so far in some other countries.
    • Today, the Lebanese government has just negligently blown up its capital. Syria and Yemen have disappeared off the radar while we bicker about whether teachers should or shouldn't have their inflated exam grade proposals rebased.
    • The present risk is that Covid-19 will so weaken the economy that all these second-level issues will be submerged completely for a generation.
    • Get a grip.
Footnote 600: Aeon: Mack - Big space (Date=31/07/2020, WebRef=9720)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Katie Mack
    • Author Narrative: Katie Mack is assistant professor of physics at North Carolina State University, where she is also a member of the Leadership in Public Science Cluster. She is the author of The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) (2020).
    • Aeon Subtitle: Our planet is a tiny porthole, looking over a cosmic sea. Can we learn what lies beyond our own horizons of perception?
    • Author's Conclusion
      • The cosmic horizon defining our observable universe is a hard limit. We can’t see beyond it, and unless our understanding of the structure of reality changes drastically, we can be confident we never will. The expansion of the cosmos is speeding up; anything beyond our horizon now will be carried away from us faster and faster, and its light will never be able to catch up. While we might never be able to say with certainty what lies beyond that border, what all the theories have in common is that our observable universe is part of a much, much larger space.
      • Whether that space contains a multiverse of bubbles, each with different physical laws; whether it’s part of an ever-growing cosmos of which we are only one part, in one cycle; or whether space extends outward in directions we can’t conceive, we currently just don’t know. But we’re seeking clues.
      • The patterns in the cosmic microwave background light, the distribution of galaxies, and even experiments testing gravity and the behaviour of particle physics are giving us insight into the fundamental structure of the Universe, and into its evolution in its earliest moments. We are getting closer and closer to being able to tell our whole cosmic story. We can already see, directly, the fire in which our universe was forged, the moments just after its beginning. With the clues we are gathering now, we might, someday, follow the story all the way to its end.
  2. Notes
    • An interesting article.
    • An endnote says that the essay is based on her book, which came out on 4th August 2020 and costs £15 from Amazon.
    • However the essay itself doesn't deal with the end of the universe, only how it might be structured and how our view of it is limited.
    • I could buy her book, but it'd never reach the top of the pile, and if it ever did, it'd be out of date.
Footnote 601: Aeon: Video - All inclusive (Date=30/07/2020, WebRef=9713)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: The ritualised excess of life aboard a cruise ship is tragic and parodic by turns
    • Editors' Abstract
      • The cruise industry as it exists today – somewhat affordable, aggressively fun, indulgent by design – is a relatively new phenomenon, rooted in the 1960s, when passenger ships struggled to compete with air travel. After a pivot to all-inclusive pleasure voyages, cruising is now a $45 billion industry, beloved by some for its budget-friendly luxuries and amenities, and bemoaned by others for its environmental toll, treatment of workers, and – as highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic – health risks.
      • The observational documentary All Inclusive drops viewers head-first into the strange rituals of tableside conga lines, captain meet-and-greets and pool cannonball contests that characterise the cruise experience.
      • While the Swiss director Corina Schwingruber Ilić’s tongue-in-cheek tone permeates throughout, the film offers more than just an invitation to gawk, as ‘fun’ plays out in a series of over-the-top pastimes, hinting at the economic and social stratification between guests and workers.
  2. Notes
    • Well, I've never wanted to go on a cruise, and - if they are anything like the one illustrated on the video - for good reason.
    • Hideously low-brow with no redeeming features. Even if the food and drink were good - which I doubt - everywhere is crowded and noisy.
    • Not quite as intrusive as a Hi-di-hi holiday camp with compulsion to join in, but less opportunity to escape.
    • Give me two weeks in solitary on bread and water any day.
Footnote 602: Aeon: Jarrett - How to read more books (Date=29/07/2020, WebRef=9718)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Christian Jarrett
    • Aeon Subtitle: Modern life can feel too frantic for books. Use these habit-building strategies to carve out time for the joy of reading
  2. Notes
    • This article is basically trying to help occasional readers find the time an motivation to read more. This is not my problem. Rather, my time is already maxed out, and am fully motivated, but want to read more in the time available. Mind you, I don't need lessons in speed-reading tosh either.
    • Reading is all very well, but I think you need to write something on what you've read or else whatever you thought you learned will be lost to you. Also, you'll have no way of reminding yourself of what you've read without reading it again.
    • A supposed spin-off benefit of reading identified by the author is cognitive ‘reserve building’. I'm not a fan of spin-off benefits, and I've read about 'cognitive reserve' recently in "Costa (Albert) - The Bilingual Brain: And What It Tells Us about the Science of Language" (pp. 113-120), as a possible benefit of bilingualism. The down-side seems to be that cognitive reserve hides the signs of dementia by the use of various unconscious coping strategies so that - when these fail - the final collapse is very sudden. OK, you've had extra time, but - should there be a cure provided the disease was picked up early, you'd have missed out.
    • Not forcing yourself to read a book to the end is good advice. Mustn't be followed too often. Maybe you'll occasionally miss out - but usually there'll be the opportunity for another try if it's an important book. But best not to waste precious time.
    • However advice quoted is "... start more books, quit most of them, read the great ones twice. I think that a lot of readers would be well-served if they did that."
    • A quotation appropriate to my situation: 'We buy the books, they pile up, but we never get round to reading them – the Japanese even have a term for it, tsundoku. '
Footnote 603: Aeon: MacLeod - In an unstable economy, I found freedom and security in sex work (Date=29/07/2020, WebRef=9717)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Tamara MacLeod
    • Author Narrative: Tamara MacLeod is the pseudonym of a freelance writer, sex worker and activist based in England.
    • Author's Conclusion
      • After all, what kind of work is good for our mental health and what kind is bad? With the internal conflicts of capitalism laid bare, as they are now, I would suggest that bad work demands the impossible from us. It’s work that insists we do it only because we want to, that underpays when we are overqualified, that demands absolute loyalty and gives nothing in return, that demands more time than we have. It’s work that doesn’t permit us to be ourselves, not even a little bit.
  2. Notes
    • The author - well educated and intelligent - is arguing that her line of work isn't any worse for her mental health than the available meaningless and absurd alternatives; and the pay's better. It seems 'mental health' is a central - but confused, says the author - line of argument in the (well-meaning) feminist anti-sex-work lobby.
    • It doesn't enter into any of the controversies about the objectivisation of women, only about improving 'working conditions'.
    • I slightly wondered whether it might shed some light on the psychology of the courtesan Saeeda Bai in "Seth (Vikram) - A Suitable Boy". It doesn't. Saeeda Bai seems more like an Indian version of a classical Geisha (as understood in popular culture) rather than performing the tawdry work this paper alludes to.
Footnote 604: Aeon: Herz - Introverts are excluded unfairly in an extraverts’ world (Date=29/07/2020, WebRef=9714)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Noa Herz
    • Author Narrative: Noa Herz is a neuroscientist and a neuropsychologist studying human memory and emotion. She is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.
  2. Notes
    • As an introvert myself, I read this with interest, but note the upsides and downsides of the trait. During lockdown, and probably generally in the digital age, introversion may be an advantage.
    • There were saome interesting facts, if that's what they are: that 33% are introverts, 33% extroverts and the rest in the middle. And, that it's a continuum.
    • That there's a distinction between introverson and shyness. "Unlike shyness, which is more about a fear of being judged negatively, introversion is defined as a preference for quiet, less stimulating environments."
    • "Jung ... described introverts as preferring to direct their attention inward, to their own feelings and thoughts, and how they lose energy during social interactions. Extraverts, by contrast, direct their attention outward, gain energy from social interactions, and lose energy during periods of solitude."
    • "Eysenck proposed a physiological explanation for the difference between introverts and extraverts. Extraverts, he said, have a lower baseline level of cortical arousal relative to introverts, leading them to search for external stimulation to increase their motivation, attention and alertness. Introverts’ higher baseline arousal levels, in contrast, lead them to withdraw."
    • I agreed that "the rules" are made by extroverts, but - maybe because it's no longer an issue for me - I doubt that making "safe spaces" for introverts is really going to fly. There are so many groups that seek special treatment. Maybe this is appropriate for those at the extreme ends of the spectum, but surely not for such a large minority.
Footnote 605: Aeon: Fine - Sexual dinosaurs (Date=28/07/2020, WebRef=9709)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Cordelia Fine
    • Author Narrative: Cordelia Fine is a psychologist, writer and professor in the history and philosophy of science programme at the University of Melbourne. Her latest book is Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society (2017). She lives in Melbourne.
    • Aeon Subtitle: The charge of ‘feminist bias’ is used to besmirch anyone who questions sexist assumptions at work in neuroscience
  2. Notes
    • See Also:
      → "Fine (Cordelia) - Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society"
    • I didn't dislike this essay anywhere near as much as I'd expected I would.
    • It's obviously a plug for her book - as it opens and closes with the injunction not to reject its message without reading it.
    • It's difficult to approach this subject without simply defending an entrenched intuitive position and feeling that the other side "would say that, wouldn't they".
    • But the author is right that preconceptions and background assumptions need to be removed from scientific enquiry (or at least - since this injunction is impossible to satisfy - acknowledged).
    • Like her, I'm suspicious of Simon Baron-Cohen's team's "findings" of psychological differences by sex in very young babies, based on attention. Subconscious bias in the experiments (arising from knowing the sex of the infant being tested) is a real risk.
    • That said, the "equal but different" hypothesis does seem to be supported by so much parental experience that it's difficult not to be predisposed to accept it unless you feel "oppressed" in some way (even if legitimately so).
    • It's difficult to disentangle nature from nurture scientifically as it's inethical to perform the sort of experiments that it's also inethical - but at least legal - to perform on other great apes.
    • But the idea that males and females might be attuned by evolution to different roles doesn't seem bonkers. Nor does the thought that people of different genders full under lagely but not entirely coincident bell-curves when any particular trait is evaluated seem potty.
    • Anyway, I've ordered the book, and we'll see.
Footnote 606: Aeon: Video - Time-based currency by Robert Owen (Date=28/07/2020, WebRef=9707)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: One banknote per hour of work – Robert Owen’s utopian reboot of money
    • Editors' Abstract
      • The Welsh-born manufacturer and social reformer Robert Owen (1771-1858) was a quintessential capitalist success story, having risen from modest origins to become a wealthy textile manufacturer in Scotland. However, he grew to reject the dehumanising excesses of the system that had ushered in his fortune, writing that Britain’s monetary structure ‘has made man ignorant; placed him in opposition to his fellows; engendered fraud and deceit; blindly urged him forward to create but deprived him of the wisdom of joy’. This led Owen to devise an audacious plan to recentre the financial system around ingenuity, community and justice.
      • Introduced in 1832, the radical idea was called the National Equitable Labour Exchange – a system of currency built on the idea that labour is the source of all wealth, and that goods should be bought and sold based on the time it took labourers to produce it. While the Exchange lasted only a few years, the idealistic project helped to lay the groundwork for some of Owen’s more successful later reforms, such as shorter working days, with the ultimate goal of a workday based on the principle of ‘eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest’.
      • This brief video essay is part of a British Museum series in which curators examine objects of interest in their collections. Ben Alsop, curator of the museum’s Money Gallery, inspects a note issued by the Equitable Labour Exchange representing an hour of work.
  2. Notes
    • Brief, but interesting. The video doesn't add much to the Abstract.
    • The reasons for the failure appear to have been twofold. Firstly, an excess of unsaleable goods (this wasn't explained). Secondly, that it rewarded slow and incompetent workers who took longer to produce their wares. Seems obviously fatal to me; and the same goes for all sorts of egalitarian schemes.
Footnote 607: Aeon: Video - In the wake (Date=27/07/2020, WebRef=9710)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Kerala’s skilled hand-weavers struggle to survive the rising tides of modernity
    • Editors' Abstract
      • The Indian-born, US-based filmmaker Natasha Nair’s short documentary In the Wake brings viewers inside the colourful and tactile world of a weaving community in Kerala, the state on India’s southwest coast still recovering from the wreckage of flooding in 2018.
      • The skilled weavers produce textiles for sarees, the traditional South Asian women’s garments, and must fully engage their bodies and minds in their work, the craft of which has been passed down through generations.
      • In addition to natural disasters, the mostly female workers must also contend with competition from power-loom machines producing sarees that can be sold at half the price of their own hand-loomed products.
      • Nair skilfully captures the vivid hues and kinetic sounds of the work, while her brief portrait of craft ponders if the rich tradition of the Kerala weavers can ultimately survive the rising tides of modernity.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting. The looms are completely human-powered.
    • I watched it partly because of a general interest in India, developed as a result of visits there as a result of my work (to the more northerly Pune rather than Kerala)
    • But also because of the claims in "Tharoor (Shashi) - Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India" that the British had destroyed the Indian textile industry.
    • The technology here looks slightly beyond "cottage", but not quite up to the standard of the eighteenth-century mills in the north of England, which used power.
    • Though the level of skill involved seems greater.
Footnote 608: Aeon: Zucca - Much ado about uncertainty: how Shakespeare navigates doubt (Date=27/07/2020, WebRef=9711)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Lorenzo Zucca
    • Author Narrative: Lorenzo Zucca is a professor of law at King's College London. His latest book is A Secular Europe: Law and Religion in the European Constitutional Landscape (2012). He is currently working on his next book, entitled The Poet of Uncertainty: How Shakespeare Helps us Navigate an Uncertain World.
    • Author's Introduction
      • William Shakespeare lived in an age of uncertainty. His society was traversing a number of unpredictable challenges that spun from the succession of the heirless queen Elizabeth to the ascent of a new class of merchants. But the biggest issue had to do with religious conflicts. In the premodern world, religion provided absolute certainty: whatever we knew was implanted in our mind by God. We didn’t have to look any further. Once that system of beliefs started to collapse, Europe was left with a yawning gap. Religion no longer seemed capable to explain the world.
      • René Descartes and Shakespeare, who were contemporaries, gave opposite answers to the sceptical challenge: Descartes believed that our quest for knowledge could be rebuilt and founded on indubitable certainties. Shakespeare, on the other hand, made uncertainty a leitmotiv of all his works, and harnessed its creative power.
      Author's Conclusion
      • Shakespeare’s scepticism is compatible with the human quest for truth. To live in an uncertain world means accepting that our quest for truth is limited and fraught with errors; yet we cannot but engage with it: Ulysses’ last journey beyond the pillars of Hercules is the image of humanity bent on our next quest, sailing an uncertain sea without anxiety or sadness.
      • I’d much rather navigate this uncertain world with Shakespeare than be fooled into believing with Descartes that humans have a way of building our house of cards upon a bedrock of certainty.
  2. Notes
    • An excellent brief essay, and I look forward to the author's forthcoming book.
    • Naturally, I agree with it. In particular, I agree that Plato's excoriation of the poets for not sticking to heroic heroes and vilainous vilains, but mixing things up as in real life is a grave error that only appeals to totalitarian regimes.
    • Of course, it's important to go no further in cementing our beliefs than the evidence warrants. We have to live our lives based on our best evaluation of what is the case, but have to be open to correction. Aiming for certainty is hopeless.
    • I was intrigued by the reference to a "brave new world", which is discussed, but where I found an essay on line that suggests the expression is tinged with irony, since Prospero's island world will be populated with rebels. See Brave New World.
Footnote 609: Aeon: Cooperrider - Hand to mouth (Date=24/07/2020, WebRef=9692)Footnote 610: Aeon: Ghosh - Counting China (Date=23/07/2020, WebRef=9690)Footnote 611: Aeon: Temkin - How to interpret historical analogies (Date=22/07/2020, WebRef=9687)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Moshik Temkin
    • Author Narrative: Moshik Temkin has taught American and international history and public policy at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Harvard University in Massachusetts, and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He is the author of The Sacco-Vanzetti Affair: America on Trial (2011) and is writing a book on leadership in history for PublicAffairs.
    • Aeon Subtitle: They’re good for kickstarting political debate but analogies with the past are often ahistorical and should be treated with care
    • Author's 'Key Points'
      • Historical analogies can be powerful tools for connecting the past to the present, but they are only one such tool that history provides us.
      • Historical analogies should be understood primarily as political statements in a market-driven media environment. They are not a replacement for historical analysis.
      • Historical analogies are not algorithms and they cannot tell the future; history does not repeat itself.
      • Historical analogies can be great starting points for discussion and debate. At their best, they illuminate history in new ways and create an urge to learn more about the past.
      • Historical analogies can clarify where we stand on moral issues, by using examples from the past to make a powerful point about the present.
  2. Notes
    • I didn't like this paper as it seems written for people who share the author's political intuitions.
    • It seems to me that historical precedent is useful in helping to decide what to do in present circumstances if we can see how things worked out in the past. Of course, history is not repeating itself, because each situation is different in many ways, but if we argue dispassionately about the relevant commonalities, we might see whether a proposed course of action is likely to turn out well.
    • So, for example, removing a dictator and leaving a power vacuum is not likely to lead to good, as only the worst of dictatorships are worse than chaos. That was anticipated in the first Gulf War, sadly thereby betraying the Marsh Arabs, but forgotten by the time of the Second, leading to even worse disasters. Then forgotten again with Libya.
    • There are endless examples of closely-fought civil wars being disasters, but they continue in Syria and Yemen. Almost any peace – including victory for the incumbent despot – would be better than these wars for the bulk of the population.
    • Using the term "concentration camp" for the US immigration facilities is absurd. The term is now so associated with the Nazi extermination camps that it has no application where extermination isn't the intent. There are "immigration camps" all over Europe into which overwhelming numbers of migrants are “concentrated” for want of anywhere else to put them. What are countries that - because of wanting to maintain their standard of living - have non-porous borders supposed to do with hundreds of thousands of migrants? What would opening the borders say to other migrants?
Footnote 612: Aeon: Platts-Mills - On Matthew’s mind (Date=17/07/2020, WebRef=9661)Footnote 613: Aeon: Owen - The inward gaze (Date=16/07/2020, WebRef=9664)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: M.M. Owen
    • Author Narrative: M M Owen is a British nonfiction author and chief technical writer at Studio Mistfit. He obtained his PhD at the University of British Columbia
    • Aeon Subtitle: In Hermann Hesse’s novels, as in his life, self-discovery walked a tightrope between deep insights and profound solipsism
    • Author's Conclusion
      • Novels such as Demian, Siddhartha, Steppenwolf and The Glass Bead Game contain real insights. The world’s wise have all, like Hesse, attempted to take a sharp shovel to the cracked earth of their character. But taken as a whole, Hesse’s work and life demonstrate that self-examination is a tightrope. We can take Hesse’s writings, and see what can be seen, down at those depths of self-exploration. Perhaps we can gather some directions, for our own searches. But if the messy, fleshy world of other souls matters to you, then pluck the pearls and surface once again. In this life, the inward gaze will take you only halfway.
  2. Notes
    • See Also:
      → Hermann Hesse
    • I read four of Hermann Hesse's novels - Narziss and Goldmund, Siddhartha, Steppenwolf and The Glass Bead Game while at King's and shortly thereafter - before I made my trial at Parkminster.
    • As the author notes, they are students' books that you needs to grow out of so you can get on with life.
Footnote 614: Aeon: Davis - Let’s avoid talk of ‘chemical imbalance’: it’s people in distress (Date=14/07/2020, WebRef=9668)Footnote 615: Aeon: Daut - The king of Haiti’s dream (Date=14/07/2020, WebRef=9669)Footnote 616: Aeon: Davies - Here be black holes (Date=13/07/2020, WebRef=9672)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Surekha Davies
    • Author Narrative: Surekha Davies is a historian of art, science and ideas at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and the author of Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human: New Worlds, Maps and Monsters (2016). She is currently writing two books: on curiosity cabinets, and on monsters.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Like sea monsters on premodern maps, deep-space images are science’s fanciful means to chart the edges of the known world
    • Author's Conclusion
      • Illustrations of the natural world in regions inaccessible to observers need to be understood on their own terms: not as decoration or fantasy, but as information that is assembled as – and functions as – a diagram. Olaus’s sea-monster mappings and today’s black holes belong to a long tradition of scientific image-making that depicts objects existing at the edge of our technologies of vision, and that requires sensory evidence and a means of gathering information – but also strategies for representing that information. These techniques don’t merely reflect observations: they participate in knowledge-making itself.
      • Comparing black holes and sea monsters challenges our ideas about fact and fantasy in scientific imagery. It shows how attending to the affects of early visual styles on modern eyes helps us to better understand the character of scientific diagrams. While future generations might see the 2019 image of M87* as superstition, fantasy or even fakery, if they dig deeper they’ll see the practices of knowledge-making and synthesis behind the image, not just the terabytes of data gathered, but the imaginative leaps required to look into and make sense of deep space.
  2. Notes
    • An interesting paper, but I wasn't too convinced by it.
    • I agree that there are difficulties in portraying visual images of entities at the limits of our knowledge and perceptual abilities. And, that there are analogies between deep space and the depths of the oceans.
    • But the image of the black hole is a mathematical attempt to portray something that is theoretically invisible. It's not speculation.
    • Also, it's not actually claiming to protray the black hole, but its effects; the black hole itself is indeed black.
    • And it's a simple transformation of wavelengths from radio to visual that allows us to visualise it.
    • But, I suppose, it's easy to forget that this is what has taken place.
Footnote 617: Aeon: De Cruz - The necessity of awe (Date=10/07/2020, WebRef=9624)Footnote 618: Aeon: Kim - From vice to crime (Date=09/07/2020, WebRef=9623)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Diana S. Kim
    • Author Narrative: Diana S Kim is assistant professor in the Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and a core faculty member of the Asian Studies Program. Her latest book is Empires of Vice: The Rise of Opium Prohibition Across Southeast Asia (2020). She lives in Washington, DC.
    • Aeon Subtitle: European empires were addicted to opium smoking. Then their own agents launched a moral crusade to prohibit it
    • Author's Conclusion
      • The political theorist Bernardo Zacka shows how, in democratic states, street-level bureaucrats develop moral dispositions while working in difficult environments with conflicting normative demands. In his book When the State Meets the Street (2017), Zacka writes: "As frontline workers in the public services, they are condemned to being front-row witnesses to some of society’s most pressing problems without being equipped with the resources or authority necessary to tackle these problems in any definitive way."
      • Ethical dimensions of administrative work are harder to see in settings, such as a colonial state, that formally institutionalise racial, ethnic and class-based inequalities. Yet the more we look at the work of the individuals who perform daily state administration, the more we are forced to reckon with a form of moral agency that makes sense in an uncomfortable way. The better we understand the intractable problems they struggle to solve, the more we end up confronting the ingenuity and creativity that bureaucrats can wield.
      • But why is this unwelcome? What is so uncomfortable about finding something ‘good’ in ‘bad’ actors? And does thinking historically sometimes help us avoid figuring out why exactly we feel how we do about agents of the state? These are blunt versions of difficult questions about how to judge others and the uses of history. It is easy to either condemn or condone. It is also tempting to withdraw altogether, to either avoid the personal discomfort of strong emotions or the crude seductions of moral relativism. But there is a wide grey area in between. This space is unsettling, and indeed difficult terrain in which to think and feel. Yet, compared with the alternatives, surely the more thoughtful approach is to encourage suspicion of our own convictions before venturing to judge what others do. It is the kind of empathy with which we might hope that historians of the future will judge us and our role in our own difficult times.
  2. Notes
    • This is an interesting account of opium consumption in South East Asia, from its occasional use - mostly tolerated in an ambivalent way - to its increased use under colonialism as its revenues became important to both trade and tax.
    • I think her main complaint is that the later attemt to eradicate usage portrayed substantial percentages of the indigenous societies as ‘morally wrecked’ by its use. This seems to have been an exageration.
    • But she then considers the difficulties and freedoms of local administrators by way of policy and interpretation of the situations they faced.
    • Situating ourselves in their shoes leads to moral ambiguity and maybe greater sympathy.
Footnote 619: Aeon: Video - Peter and Ben (Date=09/07/2020, WebRef=9621)Footnote 620: Aeon: Hughes - How to choose a bottle of wine (Date=08/07/2020, WebRef=9620)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Natasha Hughes
    • Author Narrative: Natasha Hughes is a Master of Wine. She works as a freelance wine and food writer; consults for restaurants, wine producers and private clients; and hosts seminars and events for both consumers and members of the wine trade. She also judges at wine competitions around the world, and is a panel chair at the International Wine Challenge.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Bite into a strawberry, talk to a wine geek, pore over a map: forget wine snobbery and develop your own distinctive taste
  2. Notes
    • Vaguely interesting, but I've no time to become a wine buff.
    • Some useful-looking links for more information should I need it.
Footnote 621: Aeon: Summers - Why won’t the sin wash away? When thinking ethically goes awry (Date=08/07/2020, WebRef=9622)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Jesse Summers
    • Author Narrative: Jesse Summers is adjunct assistant professor of philosophy and senior fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. His latest book is Clean Hands? Philosophical Lessons from Scrupulosity (2019), co-authored with Walter Sinnott-Armstrong.
    • Since this is basically a plug for the book, I've lifted the book's Amazon write-up below ...
      Amazon Book Description of Clean Hands: Philosophical Lessons from Scrupulosity
      • People with scrupulosity have rigorous, obsessive moral beliefs that lead them to perform extreme, compulsive moral acts. A waitress with this condition checks and rechecks levels of cleaners and solvents to avoid any risk of poisoning her customers. Another individual asks repeatedly whether he fasted correctly, despite swallowing his own saliva. Those with scrupulosity stretch out their prayers for hours to be sure that they have said nothing incorrectly. They worry constantly about cleanliness, sinfulness, and all the ways they could be falling short of perfection.
      • Using a range of fascinating case studies, Jesse S. Summers and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong argue that scrupulosity constitutes a mental illness and not moral sainthood. In doing so, they consider several important philosophical questions: Do the moral beliefs and judgments of those with scrupulosity differ from ours, or are these individuals just stricter in their moral observance? Are they morally responsible for their actions? Should they be pressured into psychiatric treatment, even when therapy leads them to act in ways they find immoral?
      • Summers and Sinnott-Armstrong illustrate how psychiatric cases can inform the way we think about these and other philosophical issues, particularly those surrounding responsibility, rationality, and the nature of belief, morality, and mental illness. Clean Hands? will fascinate psychiatrists who treat patients with scrupulosity, philosophers who study morality, and anyone who has ever wondered about and struggled with the obligations and limits of morality.
  2. Notes
    • It's fair enough, but the book is co-authored with a fairly militant atheist, and the thesis suggests a rather distorted view of what "religion" is all about.
Footnote 622: Aeon: Video - The paradox of the ravens (Date=06/07/2020, WebRef=9625)Footnote 623: Aeon: Black - Unboxing mental health (Date=06/07/2020, WebRef=9627)Footnote 624: Aeon: Woodruff - The face of the fish (Date=03/07/2020, WebRef=9605)Footnote 625: Aeon: Kachru - Ashoka’s moral empire (Date=02/07/2020, WebRef=9608)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Sonam Kachru
    • Author Narrative: Sonam Kachru is assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He is a contributor to Words Without Borders.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Being good is hard. How an ancient Indian emperor, horrified by the cruelty of war, created an infrastructure of goodness
  2. Notes
    • See Also:
      → Wikipedia: Ashoka
    • Somewhat rose-tinted, I suspect. But interesting.
    • Also, from pottering around on Wikipedia, it seems that Ashoka may have been half or quarter Greek, based on political intermarriage between the Mauryans and the Seleucid Greeks
Footnote 626: Aeon: Video - How we build perception from the inside out (Date=30/06/2020, WebRef=9599)Footnote 627: Aeon: Orent - Stealth infections (Date=30/06/2020, WebRef=9601)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Wendy Orent
    • Author Narrative: Wendy Orent is an Atlanta-based anthropologist specialising in health and disease. She is the author of Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World’s Most Dangerous Disease (2012).
    • Aeon Subtitle: From the Black Death to polio, the most dangerous pathogens have moved silently, transmitted by apparently healthy people
    • Author's Conclusion
      • Perhaps the most fearsome aspect of this pandemic is the terror it causes. It’s like the terror caused by polio before the Salk and Sabin vaccines delivered us, or that made people flee the Black Death, without realising that they carried it with them. The very idea of stealth pathogens has the power to derange us. On the one hand, you have truckloads of armed protestors demanding that the US ‘open up’ because they believe that hospitals are really empty and COVID-19 is just a hoax. On the other hand, there are conspiracists attempting to persuade us that the pandemic was actually planned by Big Pharma or Microsoft’s Bill Gates to harm citizens or force them to accept new, lethal, moneymaking vaccines. The stealth-spreading aspect of coronavirus leads us, unfortunately, to hysteria and terror, but the only way out is through science.
      • The medical community led us out of the long fear that was polio, and developed antibiotics to treat the plague. It’s likely that they will develop an effective vaccine and treatment for this, too. We will need to rely on vaccinations and antiviral therapies, because the dream that this globally entrenched pathogen will somehow, magically, vanish is just that. It’s possible that, like most novel respiratory pathogens, SARS-CoV-2 will, over time, lose something of its virulence, as germs do if they depend on keeping their hosts mobile in order to spread. Even the 1918 influenza, in a relatively short time, lost its great lethality and became an ordinary flu, one that is with us still.
      • But stealth-spreading pathogens might not need to moderate their virulence, not quickly, or, perhaps, not at all. The Black Death never lost its virulence, and neither did the three great Manchurian pneumonic plague outbreaks of the 20th century, which killed nearly 100,000 people. Polio (though not primarily a respiratory pathogen) has been with us since the dawn of recorded history, its virulence unmodified over the course of time.
      • Back and forth, round and round: the deadly tracks of SARS-CoV-2 across our planet might continue for a long, long time, while we attempt to test, trace, shutdown and isolate it out of existence, until we have a true treatment or a safe, effective vaccine.
  2. Notes
    • See Also:
      → "Orent (Wendy) - The Black Death"
    • Fascinating and somewhat disconcerting.
    • Probably partly a plug for her book, which - hailing from 2004 - may be fine for the history, but maybe otherwise out of date?
    • But, there seems to be an interesting parallel between Covid-19 and previous - though much more deadly - 'stealth diseases'.
Footnote 628: Aeon: Agostini & Thrope - This is not the end. Apocalyptic comfort from ancient Iran (Date=30/06/2020, WebRef=9600)
  1. Aeon
    • Authors: Domenico Agostini & Samuel Thrope
    • Author Narrative:
      • Domenico Agostini is a senior lecturer in ancient history at Tel Aviv University. His latest book, The Bundahišn: The Zoroastrian Myth of Creation, co-authored with Samuel Thrope, is forthcoming.
      • Samuel Thrope is an American writer and translator based in Jerusalem. He has written for The Nation, The Daily Beast and Haaretz, among others. His latest book, The Bundahišn: The Zoroastrian Myth of Creation, co-authored with Domenico Agostini, is forthcoming.
    • Authors' Introduction
      • At its height, around 620 CE, the Sasanian empire ruled over a territory stretching from Jerusalem in the west to Samarkand in the east. The royal court at the ancient city of Ctesiphon, near present-day Baghdad, was the political heart of this vast realm, and its official religion was the ancient Iranian faith, Zoroastrianism. In royal iconography, the king of the Sasanians was likened to Ohrmazd, the good creator God: just as Ohrmazd vanquishes the evil spirit Ahriman, so, too, does the king triumph over his enemies on the battlefield. For at least 1,000 years, the Zoroastrian faith held sway over the empires of Persia.
      • In 651 CE, the Sasanian empire collapsed. Armies commanded by the second and third Islamic caliphs, Umar ibn al-Khattab and Uthman ibn Affan, relentlessly pushed defeated Persian forces eastward from the imperial heartland in Mesopotamia. Yazdegird III, the last Sasanian king, was murdered. The remnants of the royal family fled to China. It was a total defeat, unprecedented in Iranian history. Faced with today’s world-changing events, this Iranian experience has much to teach us. In responding to an event different from, but in many ways proportionate to, our own, Zoroastrians, followers of the ancient Iranian religion, sought comfort in the apocalyptic – a comfort we might now turn to as well.
  2. Notes
    • Interesting background on the Sasanians and the beliefs of Zoroastrianism - see also Wikipedia: Sasanian Empire.
    • Probably a plug for the authors' forthcoming book.
    • I couldn't really see any connection with the present day, though I've maybe not read the article with sufficient attention.
    • Fairly contemporary Zoroastrians feature in "Mistry (Rohinton) - A Fine Balance".
Footnote 629: Aeon: Video - Making music from brainwaves and heartbeats (Date=26/06/2020, WebRef=9585)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Grace Leslie
    • Aeon Subtitle: Can biofeedback help to unlock the mysteries of music’s therapeutic effects?
    • Editors' Abstract
      • The US musician and research scientist Grace Leslie works at the frontiers of biotechnology and experimental music.
      • From her Brain Music Lab at the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, Leslie and her students probe the physiological effects of sounds and rhythms, including how biofeedback could potentially be used to create new sonic therapies.
      • Leslie’s lab work is inseparable from her unique original music, in which she synchronises instrumental performances with her own biorhythms and, in doing so, prompts her audience to synchronise with her. The result, she’s been told, are sounds akin to ‘a warm bathtub’.
      • To hear more of Leslie’s work, watch the Aeon Video original Neurosymphony (Aeon: Video - Neurosymphony), which pairs an excerpt from her album Chapel (2018) with high-resolution MRI scans of a human brain.
  2. Notes
    • It might be interesting to know that such research is going on, but this brief video is useless at giving more than an incomprehensible overview.
    • Time is wasted explaining the meaning of acronyms (like ECG) that everyone knows anyway, but no indication at all is given about how algorithms that use this data might work.
    • Also, there's no explanation at all about how this ties in with the author's musical composition, or how the feedback from her audience works.
Footnote 630: Aeon: Skibba - Does dark matter exist? (Date=25/06/2020, WebRef=9587)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Ramin Skibba
    • Author Narrative: Ramin Skibba is an astrophysicist turned science writer and freelance journalist whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, Slate, Scientific American and Nature magazine, among others. He is based in San Diego.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Dark matter is the most ubiquitous thing physicists have never found: it’s time to consider alternative explanations
    • Excerpt
      • It’s important to pay attention to who decides which phenomena to study, which research earns major government grants, which big experiments get funded, who gets speaking opportunities at scientific conferences, who is media savvy, who wins prominent fellowships and awards, and who gets promoted to high-profile faculty positions.
      • Different choices sometimes can shape the future trajectory of science. And when choices by theorists and experimentalists coincide symbiotically, Pickering argues, it can be challenging for an upstart theory – such as modified gravity – to get a fair hearing.
  2. Notes
    • An interesting paper, giving background to the motivation for – and the disappointing search for – dark matter. Also interesting to hear of counter-suggestions, namely, to modify theories of gravity. However, there are also methodological and sociological issues, much as there are with string theory.
    • While the paper makes interesting comments about the sociology of science - and this is important for the careers of scientists - there's only one thing that "a true scientist" ought to be interested in, and that "being right" (for the right reasons, as well). Those who are wrong will end up as footnotes to history, but of no importance to science as such.
    • So, sociology is of little importance to scientific progress in the long term except for those areas on the disputed borders of science - theories that are impervious to experiment for either practical or theoretical reasons.
    • Real science will come out in the long term. If this is not possible, then it should not be funded in the first place, especially at considerable expense. Money could be better spent.
    • It seems the trouble with “dark matter” is that it hasn’t been detected. It might simply be undetectable. Modified theories of gravity sound rather radical and just as ad hoc, but they might be right. It’s a bit like the rival theories for the discrepant orbit of Mercury – a new theory of gravity (GR) or a planet that couldn’t be detected. However, Einstein didn’t need any funding to come up with GR.
    • It seems that modified theories of gravity have difficulty accounting for the distribution of matter post big-bang while dark matter seems to be able to account for it.
    • No doubt we need to watch this space: any modification to gravity needs to be elegant and principled, and not just a bodge to account for spiral galaxies.
Footnote 631: Aeon: Frankish - Our greatest invention was the invention of invention itself (Date=24/06/2020, WebRef=9582)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Keith Frankish
    • Author Narrative: Keith Frankish is a philosopher and writer. He is an honorary reader in philosophy at the University of Sheffield, a visiting research fellow with the Open University, and an adjunct professor with the Brain and Mind programme at the University of Crete.
    • Extracts
      • How did hypothetical thinking develop? I want to introduce two suggestions, one by the Israeli linguist Daniel Dor, the other by the American philosopher Daniel Dennett. Neither is directly about hypothetical thinking but, combined, they offer a compelling picture of how humans acquired the capacity for it.
      • Dor’s proposal, made in his book The Instruction of the Imagination (2015), is about the nature and origins of language. In outline, the story is this ... The trick was to take the sound or gesture already associated with a thing and use it in a new way – not as an invitation to experience the thing, but as an instruction to imagine it ... With this, communication was released from the here and now. As Dor puts it, a Rubicon was crossed: ‘For the first time in the evolution of life, humans began to experience for others, and let others experience for them.’ This was the birth of language ... Over time, Dor explains, humans gradually improved this new technology of communication. They mutually identified new signs for things important to them, creating a ‘symbolic landscape’ that carved up the experienced world into discrete features, and they settled on conventions for linking signs together in ways that indicated the relations between the features specified ... If Dor’s suggestion is right, then language would have paved the way for hypothetical thinking ... they created new ideas in the act of talking, playing around with instructions to each other’s imaginations and waiting till they hit on one that got a positive response. It was a collective process of trial and error. How then did humans make the transition to solitary hypothetical thinking, conducted in the privacy of their own minds?
      • Here we come to Dennett’s suggestion, made in his book "Dennett (Daniel) - Consciousness Explained" (1991) ... Our brains, he argues, are composed of multiple specialist systems, which operate non-consciously and in parallel. The conscious mind is a temporary level of organisation – a ‘virtual’ system – that we create for ourselves through certain learned habits of self-stimulation ... Humans formed habits of private speech and gradually developed the ability to talk to themselves silently in inner speech ... Elaborated and refined, the stream of self-generated speech and other imagery, and the associated mental reactions, came to form what we call the conscious mind.
      • Though made earlier, Dennett’s suggestion complements Dor’s nicely. When our ancestors started to talk to themselves, they were learning to instruct their own imaginations, and it would not be a big step from this to using the instructive process in a creative way, privatising practices that had previously been social. Now, when they faced a problem, they could explore it on their own, stimulating themselves with questions, suggestions and visual images ... The big difference was that humans could now take control of the process, rapidly and systematically exploring new possibilities in their minds rather than waiting for the world to present ideas to them. They now had a method of invention.
    • Conclusion
      • As they cultivated these habits, mentally stimulating themselves and paying careful attention to the results, humans did something else, too. They created the sense that there was a private world inside them, where their real self lived and thought, a world that sometimes seemed more real to them than the one around them. In a sense, they created their own conscious minds and selves.
      • If Dor and Dennett are right, the key factors in setting humans on their unique path were the invention of a new way of communicating and the discovery of how to use it creatively, first socially and later in private. These activities are now central to human life, and our brains and vocal systems have probably become adapted in many ways to facilitate them, but they were initially cultural innovations. We might say that humans’ greatest invention was the invention of invention itself.
  2. Notes
    • Sounds fairly plausible, but Dennett's explanation of consciousness - if requiring internalised natural-language speech - would deny consciousness to the higher animals. This - I would submit - is a fatal drawback, unless the consciousness he's talking about doesn't include phenomenal consciousness.
    • However, it would be fine if the language is Jerry Fodor's Language of thought.
    • But, if that were the case, the higher animals would be able to reason with themselves. Maybe that's not too absurd, as they do seem to be able to problem-solve to some degree.
    • The reason external speech (rather than the private language of thought) is important in this context is that it allows ideas to be shared (and, with writing, recorded) so that a group-wide treasury of ideas and practices can be built up.
    • But, having mental models of other members of your group that you can talk to might help with problem-solving as the paper suggests.
Footnote 632: Aeon: Dresser - Peak ellipsis (Date=23/06/2020, WebRef=9578)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Sam Dresser
    • Author Narrative: Sam Dresser is an editor at Aeon. He lives in New York.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Does philosophy reside in the unsayable or should it care only for precision? Carnap, Heidegger and the great divergence
    • Author's Conclusion
      • Heidegger’s and Carnap’s styles of thinking and communicating were, to put it mildly, profoundly different from one another. Within that difference, we glimpse the openings of a widening chasm that defined Western philosophy in the 20th century, setting apart two methods or styles of philosophy that are commonly called the analytic and Continental traditions (the story of which is taken up by Michael Friedman in A Parting of the Ways: Carnap, Cassirer, and Heidegger [2000]). But regardless of this divergence, both Heidegger and Carnap believed themselves to be doing philosophy – even when the question of what philosophy is, and the methods by which it should be conducted, was itself at the centre of philosophical disagreement.
      • Perhaps what unites philosophy of all stripes is that its practitioners are likely to run up against the limits of language. We have no other option but to use language – broadly understood – to communicate philosophical ideas; yet we always try to go beyond it, because it always seems like there’s something more to say. To my mind, that’s because the central event that ignites any interrogation about humanity’s place in the world and who we are comes from an inexhaustible well of wonder. That wonder can arise in many different forms, and it can be experienced in as many different ways as there have been thinking people on the Earth. But in its most fundamental form, its most universal articulation, its most profound rendering, the wonder from which philosophy springs is perhaps best wrought by the immortal, unanswerable, unquenchable question: why is there something rather than – …
  2. Notes
    • This paper seems to suggest there's no sensible middle ground between Continental Philosophy and Logical Positivism.
    • I think it's agreed that Logical Positivism was an over-reaction to extreme metaphysical waffling and an attempt to tie philosophy more to what could actually be known.
    • In eliminating metaphysics, it tended to eliminate any questions worth asking.
    • But it's possible to ask questions that are worth asking and can't - at least yet - be answered definitively by the sciences. But the intention must be to set these questions up in proper form so that science or logic might have a say in answering them. If it can't, even in principle, they are idle.
    • This might seem to rule out ethics … and to a degree it does as it seems that ultimately the only way to get yourself heard on ethical questions is to shout louder. But if ethical questions are tied to human flourishing (and the flourishing of other sentient beings) as is almost universally agreed, then the sciences have something to say on just what those things are and what are sensible ways to achieve them.
    • Interestingly "why there is something rather than nothing" appears as a section in a modern book on Metaphysics: See "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Metaphysics: Part Two: Why The World Is - Introduction". But I doubt it's a question worth spending much time on as there's probably no way of answering it (on the assumption that the ontological argument is unsound).
Footnote 633: Aeon: Video - The fist of modernity (Date=23/06/2020, WebRef=9576)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Lewis Waller
    • Aeon Subtitle: Modern policing was set up to protect the powerful from a ‘criminal underclass’
    • Editors' Abstract
      • ‘Move along there, please.’
      • In most parts of the world, a constant police presence is taken for granted – accepted as the cost of a safe, functional society. But a standardised and preventative police force is a relatively new phenomenon.
      • The police state of today is partially rooted in the views of the 18th-century utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham on criminality, which were codified with the establishment of the Metropolitan Police force in London in 1829.
      • This analysis from the English video essayist Lewis Waller explores the evolution of British policing through the lens of its development from the 18th century to the 20th.
      • Synthesising archival footage, primary sources and original writing, Waller argues that the modern police state is rooted in an almost wilful misunderstanding of the root economic causes of criminality, and the will of the powerful to protect themselves.
  2. Notes
    • See Also:
      → YouTube: Then & Now.
    • This is one of the most absurd and tendentious videos I’ve come across. It is also subversive, but that’s not the reason it’s absurd.
    • It’s on the “Then and Now” YouTube channel, so it’s presumably supposed to be comparing the past with the present, but it just seems to be muddling them up.
    • Clearly, in the early 19th century there was real poverty – in the form of destitution and starvation – and there’s a good case for saying that then – and even until the introduction of the welfare state after the second World War – extreme poverty was the source of most crime against property. Those that were transported to Australia for stealing food actually ended up with a much better life than the starvation that had led them to steal in the first place. But this is emphatically not the situation in modern Britain. Extensive poverty – though some of it is real – exists by definition not as a fact along the lines of Dickensian (or modern Indian) destitution.
    • The use of the term “modern police state” is clearly tendentious as this term is reserved for the intrusive suppression of dissent as exemplified by the East German Stasi, the Gestapo and no doubt to some degree modern China. To use the term of any modern state that has a police force is a muddle and an attempted defamation by association.
    • No doubt the role of the police need continual reassessment. But what are the alternatives? Local vigilante groups? Neighbourhood watch with guns? Would the author like Neo-Nazis to come and trash his home and office without any recourse to law enforcement or deterrence thereby?
    • There are numerous visual quotations from what are presumably “propaganda films” for the friendly “bobby on the beat” in the style of Dixon of Dock Green, presumably to be seen as slightly sinister and ridiculous (as all such films and advertising generally seem to be to modern sensibilities now that social manipulation is done more subtly). Community “policing by consent” is – in most circles – the ideal that has been lost by “the savage Tory cuts”.
    • The general theme that police were introduced by the rich and powerful to suppress a starving underclass is – even if true – an example of the genetic fallacy. Even if the police were originally introduced for malign reasons, as seems doubtful in any case, this is no argument against their useful existence now.
    • As with all public institutions, there are downsides and areas needing reform. And, maybe, there are downsides to a compliant population rather than free anarchy. But a complex modern society with a population ten times the natural “carrying capacity” of the land (even when efficiently farmed), everything needs to run more or less on time, and it just can’t be allowed that your stuff – or your car – are misappropriated on a regular basis.
    • Maybe the author hopes that in his ideal society without poverty, however defined, there would be no crime. I suspect he’d be disappointed. Some people would always have more than others, and there’d always be temptations to get rich quick – or simply to get stuff you can’t afford – at others’ expense. Thieves aren’t after food, but bling, bigger tellies and better phones. Thankfully they won’t find any such at my place, and equally thankfully they’ve not yet tried. But those who have been burgled are left traumatised. The gain to the thieves is much less than the loss to those burgled, both in monetary and psychological value.
Footnote 634: Aeon: Vince - Ancient yet cosmopolitan (Date=18/06/2020, WebRef=9555)Footnote 635: Aeon: Bowles - Learning Nahuatl, the flower song, and the poetics of life (Date=16/06/2020, WebRef=9550)Footnote 636: Aeon: Video - The secret history of the Moon (Date=16/06/2020, WebRef=9551)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: A massive collision, or something stranger? An epic exploration of lunar origin theories
    • Editor's Abstract
      • The tidiest theory of the Moon’s origin is known as the Giant Impact Hypothesis – the idea that, amid the volatile early era of the solar system’s formation, a Mars-sized protoplanet collided with the primordial Earth. From the massive ensuing explosion, much of the planetary debris coalesced into a new, Earth-orbiting body.
      • But while the theory accounts for much of what we understand about the Moon, it leaves some critical question unanswered. Namely, if it was formed mostly from a foreign body, why do lunar samples show the chemical makeup of the Moon and Earth to be nearly identical?
      • In this video, the US filmmaker John D Boswell synthesises animations and original music with the voice of the planetary scientist Sarah T Stewart to explore several theories for the Moon’s birth, as well as for how it might have helped to yield life on Earth.
      • The result is a stylish, speculative lunar history that might inspire a renewed sense of awe for our closest celestial companion.
  2. Notes
    • The video is entertaining enough, but it's a bit slow and patchy. It's probably best just to read Wikipedia! See Wikipedia: Origin of the Moon.
    • The video discusses and rejects the 'Nuclear Explosion' hypothesis before favouring the 'Synestia' hypothesis.
    • It suggests that lunar vulcanism twice led to surface water, and that micro-organisms from the Earth might have found their way there following asteroid impact.
    • It doesn't mention the tides as important for evolution on Earth, but suggests that 'as Earth evolved, the Moon's gravity stabilized its tilt, protecting life from extreme swings in climate.'
    • It suggests that we have to go back to the Moon to resolve outstanding questions.
Footnote 637: Aeon: Sha - Neuroscience has much to learn from Hume’s philosophy of emotions (Date=15/06/2020, WebRef=9547)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Richard C. Sha
    • Author Narrative: Richard C Sha is professor of literature and an affiliate professor of philosophy, as well as an affiliate of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, all at the American University in Washington, DC. His books include Perverse Romanticism: Aesthetics and Sexuality in Britain, 1750-1830 (2009) and Imagination and Science in Romanticism (2018).
    • Author's Introduction
      • We are in the midst of a second Humean revolution. In his Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), the Scottish philosopher David Hume argued that: ‘Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions …’ By ‘passions’, Hume meant what we now call emotions. What gave him such faith in the passions that he could accept reason’s enslavement to them? Hume understood reason to be incapable of producing any action, and the passions to be the source of our motivations. So he insisted that we must attend to the passions if we want to understand how anything gets done.
      • Much recent neuroscience has found that human rationality is weaker than is commonly presumed, and the emotions make it possible to make decisions by granting certain objects salience. Why does this second Humean revolution matter and what, if anything, can the second revolution learn from the first?

      Author's Conclusion
      • Hume’s idea that reason serves the passions has in important ways found scientific support. Our rationality serves our passions, and we have less control over the passions than is commonly presumed. By stipulating that reason is the slave of the passions, Hume warns us of the consequences of not having the right habits.
      • When neuroscientists equate emotion and action, it narrows emotion to survival and underestimates the ways in which the emotions can foster deliberation. While neuroscientists set the timescale of the emotions to no more than a few minutes, Hume insists that it will take nothing less than a lifetime to get our emotions right.
  2. Notes
    • See Also:
      → David Hume
    • Interesting, but I wasn't sure what the "first Humean revolution" was supposed to be and what lessons had been learnt from it. I'd always assumed this would be causation, but it doesn't seem relevant to the present case - though maybe it's down to what causes our actions.
    • Maybe there's a correlation between "habit" and "constant conjunction"?
Footnote 638: Aeon: Studebaker - The ungoverned globe (Date=15/06/2020, WebRef=9546)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Benjamin Studebaker
    • Author Narrative: Benjamin Studebaker is a graduate teaching assistant in politics and international studies at the University of Cambridge and a teaching associate at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
    • Aeon Subtitle: The end of the liberal order would unleash chaos; its continuance means unconstrained economic suffering. What to do?
    • Author's Conclusion
      • So we are faced with a terrible choice. We can continue to embrace the nationalist strategy of keeping the liberal order alive by creating the conditions under which it will die. That will end in the dissolution of the order, collapsing economic growth, with massive increases in the costs of goods and services. Our living standards will be dramatically reduced. The nation-state will make a comeback, but at the cost of the prosperity that we have been building since the Second World War.
      • Or we can embrace radical democratic reforms, and attempt to convince ourselves that they will empower us, or at least give us the satisfying feeling of empowerment. We can retreat into localism, even as the critical decisions are taken far away from us. We can build a realm of illusions, where the institutions we participate in are not the ones that shape our lives.
      • Finally, we could try to salvage the order by constructing institutions that enable us to meaningfully govern it. But to do that, we’d have learn to do politics with people who are different from us. Can that be done? Probably not. And that means either the nation-states will kill the liberal order, or they will find a way to disguise it in democratic daydreams. The liberal order might not last much longer.
Footnote 639: Aeon: Dyzenhaus - Lawyer for the strongman (Date=12/06/2020, WebRef=9522)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: David Dyzenhaus
    • Author Narrative: David Dyzenhaus is a professor of law and philosophy and holds the Albert Abel Chair of Law at the University of Toronto. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and lives in Ontario.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Demagogues do not rise on popular feeling alone but on the constitutional ideas of Weimar and Nazi legal theorist Carl Schmitt
  2. Notes
    • An interesting paper from a historical viewpoint, though highly political.
    • It tries to blacken the names and arguments of those wanting to "control the judiciary" by associating them with the ideas of one of the German jurists involved in smoothing the way for the rise of the Nazi party; the legal arguments centred on the use of executive power.
    • It takes a dim view of the Judicial Power Project (Judicial Power Project).
    • I had some sympathy with Boris Johnson’s proroguing of Parliament given the very special circumstances at the time. Obviously, it was “working the system”, but the Executive was being prevented from governing and – because of the fixed-term parliament act – couldn’t call an election without the agreement of the opposition, which was withheld. I also felt that the Supreme Court made law rather than simply interpreting it, and made it in line with their majority political views.
    • The discussion of the cases put forward by Gina Millar’s lawyers in the final third of the paper are important, though I’d have liked to hear the other side of the story.
Footnote 640: Aeon: Melechi - Beware of lateral thinking (Date=11/06/2020, WebRef=9524)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Antonio Melechi
    • Author Narrative: Antonio Melechi is an honorary research fellow in the department of sociology at the University of York. He is the author of Fugitive Minds (2003) and Servants of the Supernatural (2008).
    • Aeon Subtitle: De Bono’s popular theory is textbook pseudoscience: unsound, untested and derivative of real (unacknowledged) research
  2. Notes
    • I came across Edward De Bono when at school. I think I found what he had to say rather unhelpful, and exceedingly repetitive, and assumed he was “in it for the money”.
    • I seem to have accumulated a lot of books by him (mostly unread) – 8 in fact, picked up rather cheaply.
    • The fact that others got there first, and that he doesn’t source his ideas using references is not too much of a worry for me – and might be antithetical to his whole approach.
    • But the lack of testing of the techniques to see if they actually work is a major shortcoming.
    • I was pleased to see that “brainstorming” – another fad to supposedly aid creativity – also gets the boot when it’s actually tested. I hated it, as the loudest and stupidest seemed to get most floor-space, talking about things of which they knew nothing, and had not thought about.
Footnote 641: Aeon: Foulkes - Ever taken pleasure in another’s pain? That’s ‘everyday sadism’ (Date=10/06/2020, WebRef=9523)Footnote 642: Aeon: Apperly - Gentileschi. Let us not allow sexual violence to define the artist (Date=10/06/2020, WebRef=9517)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Eliza Apperly
    • Author Narrative: Eliza Apperly is a producer at Intelligence Squared and a freelance writer, editor and translator. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Atlantic, BBC, Reuters and The Art Newspaper. She is based in Berlin.
    • Author’s Conclusion
      • To call for a different kind of discourse around Gentileschi is neither to diminish her trauma, nor to espouse a cold formalism that suggests that art exists beyond the body of either artist or viewer. It is, instead, to liberate her oeuvre from Tassi’s grip and to grant Gentileschi the full reach and space of her creativity.
      • It is to celebrate and study her extraordinary depictions of violated and violent women, but also to recognise her many paintings that lie beyond those tropes: her portraiture and self-portraiture, her allegories and saints, her Madonna and Child and Mary Magdalenes.
      • ‘The works,’ as Gentileschi wrote to a patron in 1649, ‘shall speak for themselves.’
Footnote 643: Aeon: Happe - Autistic people shouldn’t have to use ‘camouflage’ to fit in (Date=09/06/2020, WebRef=9515)Footnote 644: Aeon: Ellis - From chaos to free will (Date=09/06/2020, WebRef=9516)Footnote 645: Aeon: Vinocour - Criminally insane (Date=08/06/2020, WebRef=9512)Footnote 646: Aeon: Horn - The history of the incubator makes a sideshow of mothering (Date=03/06/2020, WebRef=9505)Footnote 647: Aeon: Hui - In praise of aphorisms (Date=01/06/2020, WebRef=9500)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Andrew Hui
    • Author Narrative: Andrew Hui is associate professor in literature at Yale-NUS College in Singapore. He is the author of The Poetics of Ruins in Renaissance Literature (2016) and A Theory of the Aphorism (2019).
    • Aeon Subtitle: What if we see the history of philosophy not as a grand system of sustained critique but as a series of brilliant fragments?
    • Excerpts
      • Consider Heraclitus’ ‘Nature loves to hide’; Blaise Pascal’s ‘The eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies me’; or Friedrich Nietzsche’s ‘If a temple is to be erected, a temple must be destroyed.’ Heraclitus comes before and against Plato and Aristotle, Pascal after and against René Descartes, Nietzsche after and against Kant and G W F Hegel. Might the history of thought be actually driven by aphorism?
      • Much of the history of Western philosophy can be narrated as a series of attempts to construct systems. Conversely, much of the history of aphorisms can be narrated as an animadversion, a turning away from such grand systems through the construction of literary fragments. The philosopher creates and critiques continuous lines of argument; the aphorist, on the other hand, composes scattered lines of intuition. One moves in a chain of logic; the other by leaps and bounds.
      • Before the birth of Western philosophy proper, there was the aphorism. In ancient Greece, the short sayings of Anaximander, Xenophanes, Parmenides or Heraclitus constitute the first efforts at speculative thinking, but they are also something to which Plato and Aristotle are hostile. Their enigmatic pronouncements elude discursive analysis. They refuse to be corralled into systematic order. No one would deny that their pithy statements might be wise; but Plato and Aristotle were ambivalent about them. They have no rigour at all – they are just the scattered utterances of clever men.
      • Here is Plato’s critique of Heraclitus: If you ask any one of them a question, he will pull out some little enigmatic phrase from his quiver and shoot it off at you; and if you try to make him give an account of what he has said, you will only get hit by another, full of strange turns of language.
      • Plato’s repudiation of his predecessor’s gnomic style signals an important stage in the development of ancient philosophy: the transition from oracular enunciation to argumentative discourse, obscurity to clarity, and thus the marginalisation of the aphoristic style in favour of sustained logical arguments. From Socrates onward, there would simply be no philosophy without proof or argument.
      • Yet I think it is possible to defend Heraclitus against Plato’s attack. Perplexity arising from enigmatic sayings need not necessarily lead one to seizures of thinking. On the contrary, it can catalyse productive inquiry.
  2. Notes
    • While aphorisms are thought-provoking – partly because of their obscurity – it is only by analysing their meaning that you can get anywhere and decide what is the case.
    • And while I’m suspicious of system-building, in that most systems are built from dubious foundations, we do need systematic thinking so that our thoughts in one area don’t contradict those we have in another.
    • That’s the trouble with bundles of aphorisms – we don’t know whether there’s a consistent message.
    • Some won’t care (along the lines of the Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass aphorism about self-contradiction), I do.
Footnote 648: Aeon: Williams - The fight for ‘Anglo-Saxon’ (Date=29/05/2020, WebRef=9473)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Howard Williams
    • Author Narrative: Howard Williams is professor of archaeology at the University of Chester in the UK. His most recent book is Digging into the Dark Ages: Early Medieval Public Archaeologies (2020), co-edited with Pauline Clarke.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Racists use it to bolster their ethnohistorical myths, but historians and archaeologists should not abandon the term
    • Author’s Introduction
      • Since September 2019, medieval scholars have heatedly debated the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’. The dispute began in relation to claims of racism and sexism within the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, which is an academic organisation dedicated to the study of the history, archaeology, literature, language, religion, society and numismatics of the early medieval period (c450-1100 CE). Some scholars argued that changing the society’s name would be a step against racism and sexism, specifically in how academics research and interpret the early medieval past. Rapidly, the criticism moved from striking the term ‘Anglo-Saxonist’ from the name of the society (now the International Society for the Study of Early Medieval England), to arguing that we should stop using ‘Anglo-Saxon England’ for lowland Britain in the mid- to late-1st millennium CE and ‘Anglo-Saxon world’ for the region’s connections across early medieval Europe and beyond.
      • The campaign quickly degenerated to slurring anyone who disagreed with these changes as ‘racist’, and anyone making a qualifying statement, or correcting or disputing the bases and framing of the debate, as an apologist to the racist uses of the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’. Online proclamations declared that scholars must signal their commitment to change by removing the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’ from their writings and courses, as well as to ‘cancel’ those scholars who might wish to persist in using the term.
      • As an archaeologist of early medieval Britain and Scandinavia, my view is that the term still has a place in both research on material culture, the built environment and landscapes of the early medieval period, as well as its public engagement and education. Those proclaiming that ‘early medieval England’ and ‘early English’ are somehow clearer and less fraught are ill-informed about the contemporary uses and abuses of the early medieval past.
      Author’s Conclusion
      • By casting all uses and users of the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’ as ‘racist’, the academic lobby to ditch the term risks alienating scholars, commercial archaeologists, the heritage sector, stakeholder communities, faith groups and enthusiasts, as well as potential future researchers, from a popular field. Hence, rather than leave ‘Anglo-Saxon England’ to become a playground for extremists, populists, self-publicists and fantasists, we have a scholarly duty to re-energise our efforts to pursue and disseminate rigorous research and modes of public engagement that leave no space for false narratives and make clear the discipline is open to all. Rather than a ‘post-“Anglo-Saxon” melancholia’ where we ‘start again’ from scratch without the term, as some scholars have suggested, Anglo-Saxon archaeology can continue to revaluate and reconfigure its strengths in delivering both detailed original research and public outreach.
      • This is why I have signed a joint statement by more than 70 experts, and have been contributing articles to other magazines, maintaining that we must stay with, and fight for, the ‘Anglo-Saxons’ and ‘the Anglo-Saxon period’, challenging academic and popular misconceptions and misuses. In this regard, those proposing that we replace ‘Anglo-Saxon’ with ‘Early English’ and ‘Old English’ risk peddling a linguistic and nationalistic emphasis far more open to misuse than ‘Anglo-Saxon’. Particularly, ‘English’ confuses language and perceived ethnicities past and present; adopting it for archaeological material and monuments is ill-considered at best. As such, I remain an advocate of the critical, cautious but widely established and understood use of ‘Anglo-Saxon’ as a gateway, open to everyone, for exploring the complex and diverse material worlds of the mid- to late-1st millennium CE. To paraphrase the motto of the Council for British Archaeology, I advocate that we should work towards an ‘Anglo-Saxon archaeology for all’.
  2. Notes
    • Between the counter-polemical sections (mostly contained within the introductory and concluding sections excerpted above) this article contains much useful information on the current, and historical, field of Anglo-Saxon (or "early Medieval") studies both popular and academic. Also about the history of the Anglo-Saxon period, in broad brush.
    • Naturally, it's a shame that the term "Anglo-Saxon" has been hijacked by white supremacists in the US (just as the term "Aryan" was hijacked by the Nazis), but that doesn't mean - as the author argues - that the terms should be abandoned, especially given how embedded they are in the literature and culture.
    • There's lots that's reported in this article that's dispiriting, particularly judging people of past ages by modern standards. It's not as though racism, sexism and slavery were invented by "the British" (whoever they were) or other European powers. They were just the latest on the scene viewed from our own perspective. Prior to the industrial revolution, or at least the Iberian invasions of the Americas, the greatest empires were Ottoman or Chinese. European feudalism (still extant in Russia into the 19th century) treated the majority of the population pretty much as slaves - estates were sold along with their serfs - though the treatment was not as brutal as in the New World, or as in the Ancient World.
    • History has always been written by those with an axe to grind, and historical accounts are always subject to revision from new perspectives. Part of the motivation for Anglo-Saxon studies was to rehabilitate the pre-Norman inhabitants of Britain from the bad press given them by the Norman invaders. And, I suppose, the Arthurian legends were to rehabilitate the Romano-Britains from their supersession by the Germanic invaders, and Celtic traditions to show their cultural legacy in the face of invasions by the before-mentioned waves.
    • All nations have had their foundation myths in order to bind their populations together into a cohesive whole – historically needed to resist the incursions of the nation next door. I can't see how the new myths being proposed - that the forebears of all white people were wicked - can help in this regard.
    • The author sites a couple of incendiary articles:-
      → Karkov - Post ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Melancholia, and
      → Rambaran-Olm - Misnaming the Medieval: Rejecting “Anglo-Saxon” Studies
Footnote 649: Aeon: Wilson - The trolley problem problem (Date=28/05/2020, WebRef=9475)Footnote 650: Aeon: Rees - The good scientist (Date=26/05/2020, WebRef=9469)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Martin Rees
    • Author Narrative: Martin Rees is the United Kingdom’s Astronomer Royal. He is a fellow of Trinity College Cambridge, co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge and a member of the House of Lords. He is also the author of 10 books, most recently On the Future: Prospects for Humanity (2018).
    • Aeon Subtitle: Science is the one culture that all humans share. What would it mean to create a scientifically literate future together?
    • Author’s Conclusion
      • ... the promise that science offers is greater than ever; but so too are the threats from its misuse. The stakes are getting higher, and the world is getting more interconnected. To harness the benefits while avoiding the dangers and ethical tradeoffs demands international collaboration, guided by values that science itself can’t provide.
  2. Notes
    • I found this a rather disappointing – because rambling – paper, given its distinguished authorship. Maybe it’s a plug for his book. I’ve just listed a few points of note …
    • Rees mentions "Snow (C.P.) - The Two Cultures" positively, though thinks that Snow’s milieu led him to make too stark a contrast, thought his general drift is still relevant today. .
    • ’Science offers huge opportunities, but future generations will be vulnerable to risks – nuclear, genetic, algorithmic – powerful enough to jeopardise the very survival of our civilization … intellectual narrowness and ignorance remain endemic, and science is a closed book to a worrying number of people in politics and the media.’
    • He thinks – given how hard it is to understand (even) the atom – that we should be skeptical “about any dogma, or any claim to have achieved more than a very incomplete and metaphorical insight into some profound aspect of existence” but thinks that atheistic scientists should aim their fire at fundamentalisms rather than the mainstream religions which have come to an accommodation with science, and to which many of their colleagues belong.
    • Scientists differ in temperament – contrast Darwin and Newton.
    • Science is “organized skepticism”, including skepticism of scientific theories themselves. This reminded me of Richard Feynman.
    • “As the American cosmologist Carl Sagan said: ‘Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.’”
    • “No one should let a craving for certainty – for the easy answers that science can seldom provide – drive us towards the illusory comfort and reassurance that (the) pseudosciences appear to offer. ”
    • “When one discusses the ‘great unknowns’, there’s less of a gap between the expert and the public – neither one has a clue.”
    • “The smallest insect is structured far more intricately than a star or a galaxy, and offers deeper mysteries.”
    • Scientific theories are waiting there to be discovered; the same is not true of artistic achievements – they are created.
    • Some scientific theories have been unfortunately-named and otherwise misunderstood: relativity and uncertainty have been seized upon as ammunition for relativist cultural theories, and social Darwinism also comes in for a swipe.
    • The applications of science have an ever greater impact on society. We need a scientifically-literate populace, and a scientific community that cares about the social application of their discoveries.
    • Mary Warnock gets appreciation for facilitating embryo research, and the European rejection of GM Crops is bemoaned, given they have been feeding the US for decades with no ill effect.
    • … and much else.
Footnote 651: Aeon: Russell - Vice dressed as virtue (Date=22/05/2020, WebRef=9460)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Paul Russell
    • Author Narrative: Paul Russell is professor of philosophy and director of the Lund|Gothenburg Responsibility Project at Lund University in Sweden. He is also a professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia in Canada. His latest book is The Limits of Free Will (2017).
    • Aeon Subtitle: Cruelty and morality seem like polar opposites – until they join forces. Beware those who persecute in the name of principle
  2. Notes
    • A very interesting paper.
    • It distinguishes moralism from morality, and divides moralism into a 'vain' form and a 'cruel' form. The former moralist cares mostly for his own moral standing ('grandstanding') while the latter is more interested in the infliction of pain and humiliation on the object of moral scorn.
    • The author also distinguishes 'impure' from 'pure' forms of cruel moralism. The former occurs in - say - show trials, where the victim is most likely entirely innocent, and knows it, and the prosecutors themselves may be constrained by 'the system'. In the latter 'pure' case, the victim is indeed guilty, but the judge inflicts pain beyond what is necessary to fit the crime.
    • Examples are given from contemporary culture, with anonymous excoriations on social media being prime examples of pure cruel moralism.
Footnote 652: Aeon: Nuttall - On gibberish (Date=21/05/2020, WebRef=9454)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Jenni Nuttall
    • Author Narrative: Jenni Nuttall is a lecturer in English at Exeter College at the University of Oxford. She is the author of The Creation of Lancastrian Kingship (2007) and Troilus and Criseyde: A Reader's Guide (2012). She blogs at Stylisticienne and is working on a book on poetic innovation and poetic experiment in the 15th and early 16th centuries.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Babies babble, medieval rustics sing ‘trolly-lolly’, and jazz exults in bebop. What does all this wordplay mean for language?
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • To create gibberish is both to flee from the familiar features of our mother tongue and yet also to draw on our deepest understandings of what language is and how it works. Gibberish plays a vital role too in giving us our own language as babies and infants.
      • Writing about the work and methods of philosophy in his Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein values the ‘bumps that the understanding has got by running its head up against the limits of language. These bumps make us see the value of the discovery.’ Gibberish is perhaps the bumpiest of human communications, yet through it we discover much about language, its possibilities and its boundaries.
  2. Notes
    • Much interesting background. It's not philosophical in the main (the reference to Wittgenstein appears out of the blue in the last paragraph).
Footnote 653: Aeon: Liu - Tea and capitalism (Date=19/05/2020, WebRef=9450)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Andrew Liu
    • Author Narrative: Andrew Liu is an assistant professor of history at Villanova University near Philadelphia. He is the author of Tea War: A History of Capitalism in China and India (2020).
    • Aeon Subtitle: The China tea trade was a paradox: a global, intensified industry without the usual spectacle of factories and technology
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • Today, the global division of labour encompasses not only capital-intensive, vertically integrated firms, but also, especially in the postcolonial world, horizontal networks of labour-intensive factories – some located in living rooms – that formally resemble the Chinese tea workshops of earlier eras. Precisely because of their labour intensity, such factories for automobiles, textiles and electronics have proven cheaper, more flexible and more adaptable to changing market conditions than their midcentury predecessors. Such strategies powered the ‘rise’ of East Asia in the late-20th century, and they have since been exported to an expanding China, where the government now seeks to restore the country’s earlier world standing, from the era of ‘chinoiserie’.
      • The story of Asia has been fundamental to the transformation of the global political economy since the late-20th century, but it has often been marginalised in accounts of neoliberal capitalism that focused on a handful of intellectuals in Euro-America. In turn, these accounts struggle to make sense of the rise of China, without a deeper understanding of how the history of capitalism has long been intertwined with the region. If our goal is to tell a more integrative story, then a valuable starting point would be to recognise that China, and Asia more broadly, was not a mere bystander to capitalism’s 18th-century birth in Europe. From the beginning, its people helped to power circuits of capital accumulation spanning the globe – especially through the tea trade – resulting in impersonal pressures toward expansion and acceleration. These social dynamics, shared in common with the rest of the industrial world, have often gone undetected, because they expressed themselves in local and idiosyncratic ways.
Footnote 654: Aeon: Leppin - As the Ancient Greeks knew, frankness is an essential virtue (Date=18/05/2020, WebRef=9455)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Hartmut Leppin
    • Author Narrative: in New York, 1930. Photo by Bettmann/Getty

      Hartmut Leppinis professor of ancient history at Goethe University Frankfurt. His main research fields are the history of ancient Christianity and the history of political ideas in Antiquity.
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • The basic feature of the parrhesiastic game remained the same as it had always been: the ascetics would confront even emperors who didn’t dare attack them; doing so, the ascetics displayed their courage. The emperors who were seemingly humiliated showed their piety listening patiently to the reprimands. Two Christian virtues were staged in such a context. [...]
      • The history of frankness in the classical sense reveals a dilemma of the role of public speech. Freedom of speech is a basic civil right, but nobody can ignore how easily this right is misused. Lack of knowledge and the lack of responsibility make freedom of speech a risky right. Yet, even if a speaker possesses these qualities, even if he or she is listened to, the parrhesiastic game can start again.
      • Today, a girl who doesn’t smile and even shows signs of evident distress has become our most popular parrhesiastés. Greta Thunberg is the truthteller who relies on the authority of scientific knowledge to explain to us how to decide on our future. The power of this role in history, in its importantly different guises, is certainly one of the reasons for her dramatic impact. In her role, however, she also provides an opportunity for those she reprimands to stage our willingness to listen and to applaud to our rigid critic in a long-standing tradition. But this can only be the first step.
  2. Notes
    • If I understand this paper correctly, the main point is that - a bit like the court fool, or the slave saying to the general in his triumphal chariot "remember you are only a man" - holy simpletons are allowed to have their say in a game, but no-one really takes any notice. The powerful carry on as before, suitably chastised.
Footnote 655: Aeon: Eden - Cigarette! Exquisite fiend, ephemeral friend, how I miss you (Date=18/05/2020, WebRef=9452)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Caroline Eden
    • Author Narrative: Caroline Edenis a writer and journalist for The Guardian, Financial Times and Times Literary Supplement, among others. She is the author of Samarkand (2016) and Black Sea (2018). She lives in Edinburgh.
  2. Notes
    • I was put off any thought of smoking by my parents indulgence of the same, and - even before the scientific evidence was in - by it's obvious unhealthiness. The author has fond memories of her parents' smoking, while all I can remember is the stink.
    • However, it's interesting to hear the other side of the story, particularly the references to Istanbul.
    • I'm glad it's (mostly) gone. The rembered smokiness of offices, trains and bars does not fill me with nostalgia.
Footnote 656: Aeon: Frohlich - Frames of consciousness (Date=18/05/2020, WebRef=9453)Footnote 657: Aeon: Stinson - Algorithms associating appearance and criminality have a dark past (Date=15/05/2020, WebRef=9438)Footnote 658: Aeon: Stegenga - Gentle medicine could radically transform medical practice (Date=13/05/2020, WebRef=9435)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Jacob Stegenga
    • Author Narrative: Jacob Stegenga is a reader in philosophy of science at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Medical Nihilism (2018) and Care and Cure: An Introduction to Philosophy of Medicine (2018). He lives in Cambridge.
  2. Notes
    • A useful reminder that not all medical problems are best got round by medication or other interventions, and that “Big Pharma” has huge incentives to develop and market medicines that are of little benefit (or little incremental benefit over against existing medication) while ignoring those most needed, but with low profit margins.
    • His recommendations include removing intellectual copyright for medicines to address the above. He thinks the argument that this would lead to less research as “tired”, pointing out that major breakthroughs in the past were made by independent scientists.
    • He also suggests – sensibly – that the testing of drugs should undertaken by those who don’t benefit financially by the tests being successful.
    • Finally, that there should be more trials of the withdrawal of drugs to check whether they are needless. In general, patients are healthier the few drugs they take.
    • Finally, more “painful” but non-interventionist therapies – diet and exercise – should be encouraged. He notes that “social distancing” for Covid-19 is non-interventionist and “painful” – but effective.
    • Some of this could be disagreed with, no doubt, but it’s an important balance to the status quo where a doctor isn’t seen to be doing his job if no drugs are prescribed.
Footnote 659: Aeon: Rees - Are there laws of history? (Date=12/05/2020, WebRef=9434)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Amanda Rees
    • Author Narrative: Amanda Rees is a historian of science in the department of sociology at the University of York, and editor of the British Journal for the History of Science. Her latest book, Human, co-written with Charlotte Sleigh, is forthcoming in May 2020.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Historians believe that the past is irreducibly complex and the future wildly unpredictable. Scientists disagree. Who’s right?
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • Mathematical, data-driven, quantitative models of human experience that aim at detachment, objectivity and the capacity to develop and test hypotheses need to be balanced by explicitly fictional, qualitative and imaginary efforts to create and project a lived future that enable their audiences to empathically ground themselves in the hopes and fears of what might be to come.
      • Both, after all, are unequivocally doing the same thing: using history and historical experience to anticipate the global future so that we might – should we so wish – avoid civilisation’s collapse.
      • That said, the question of who ‘we’ are does, always, remain open.
  2. Notes
Footnote 660: Aeon: Video - Detachment, objectivity, imagination: a critique (Date=08/05/2020, WebRef=9413)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Lewis Waller
    • Aeon Subtitle: Why Romantic historians acknowledge the human feelings behind the facts
    • Editor's Abstract
      • Following the Age of Enlightenment’s emphasis on empiricism, Romantic historians such as the French writers Augustin Thierry (1795-1856) and Jules Michelet (1798-1874) viewed human emotion as vital to – and inexorably part of – constructing meaningful renderings of history.
      • This piece from the UK video essayist Lewis Waller offers a brief intellectual history at the nexus of Romanticism and historiography.
      • From there, Waller makes the case that, by rejecting the possibility of objective detachment from historical facts and embracing feelings and narrativisation, these Romantic thinkers built more ‘truthful’ histories than empiricists.
  2. Notes
    • The author points out that historical "facts" are selected from the documentary evidence and woven into a narrative that cannot fail to reflect general contemporary concerns and the interests of the historian in particular.
    • Hence, he thinks that novels are more "truthful" than works of history.
    • While this is true, novels have no external "facts" to connect to, so can't be inaccurate or biased about them.
    • Historians should aim to be objective - putting themselves and their readers into the mindset of those who enacted the events they are narrating, insofar as this is possible.
    • What they write should be larded with humility. But it is not fiction.
Footnote 661: Aeon: Ferracioli - For a child, being carefree is intrinsic to a well-lived life (Date=08/05/2020, WebRef=9414)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Luara Ferracioli
    • Author Narrative: Luara Ferracioli is a senior lecturer in political philosophy at the University of Sydney. She is completing a book on the ethics of immigration.
    • Author's Conclusion
      • ... a child who isn’t carefree lacks the mental space required for the enjoyment of all the good things in her life.
      • If we want children to endorse play time, education, friendships and familial relationships by feeling joy, pleasure, amusement and delight towards them – and so lead good lives as children – then we’d better create the conditions for children not only to access such goods but also to be carefree. This, in turn, requires governments that are willing to take mental health seriously from an early age and create policies that put carefreeness centrestage of what it means for a childhood to go well.
Footnote 662: Aeon: Manion - Female husbands (Date=07/05/2020, WebRef=9410)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Jen Manion
    • Author Narrative:
      • Jen Manion is associate professor of history at Amherst College in Massachusetts. Their (sic - this indicates that the author is "trans" as "they" use this term for "female husbands" in the paper; this is confirmed towards the end of the paper itself) books include Taking Back the Academy!: History of Activism, History as Activism (2004), co-edited with Jim Downs; Liberty’s Prisoners: Carceral Culture in Early America (2015); and Female Husbands: A Trans History (2020).
      • See Jen Manion: Home Page.
      • There's a "media note": "If you are wondering about pronouns, feel free to refer to me by my name, they/them, or she/her". From the note, and the look of the photo, I presume Jen has transitioned from male to female.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Far from being a recent or 21st-century phenomenon, people have chosen, courageously, to trans gender throughout history
Footnote 663: Aeon: Ward - Sooner or later we all face death. Will a sense of meaning help us? (Date=06/05/2020, WebRef=9412)Footnote 664: Aeon: Baggott - How science fails (Date=05/05/2020, WebRef=9405)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Jim Baggott
    • Aeon Subtitle: For the émigré philosopher Imre Lakatos, science degenerates unless it is theoretically and experimentally progressive
  2. Notes
    • Discussion of the theories of the usual suspects:-
      → Imre Lakatos
      → Karl Popper
      → Thomas Kuhn
      → Paul Feyerabend
      → Larry Laudan
    • Basically, Lakatos is a compromise between Popper and Kuhn. A paradigm shift isn't a herd instinct but a rational response to played out theories.
    • Interesting biographical background on Lakatos.
    • Mentions String Theory and the Scientific Method by Richard Dawid.
Footnote 665: Aeon: Video - Leonard Susskind - Why do we search for symmetry? (Date=01/05/2020, WebRef=9387)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Leonard Susskind
    • Aeon Subtitle: ‘The whole thing is a monstrosity!’ How a symmetry heretic sees the Universe
    • Author's Abstract:
      • Leonard Susskind, a professor of theoretical physics at Stanford University in California and a self-described ‘beauty-symmetry-elegance heretic’, rejects the popular notion that there’s something wonderfully symmetrical and simple about the building blocks of our world. Rather, he contends, conceptions of physics as elegant and uncluttered are shortcuts created by our pattern-seeking brains that rarely hold up to scientific scrutiny.
      • In this interview from the PBS series Closer to Truth, Susskind argues that, dating back to the Ancient Greeks, what’s often been perceived as elegant simplicity was almost always a fiction or an approximation covering for a much messier reality.
  2. Notes
    • I agree that the Standard Model (in so far as I understand it) is a hodge-podge, and there's insufficient data to place any reliance on whatever symmetries are there.
    • I also agree that what we find "beautiful" says as much about us as it does about the world. Susskind contrasts butterflies with slugs. He doesn't spell it out, but doubtless both have marvelous and repulsive elements, depending on one's perspective.
    • That said, lack of simplicity in any theory is an indicator that it's not right, and is a stimulus for further research.
    • The question is whether this simplicity goes all the way, and whether the correct theory is actually more messy than we would like.
    • As Susskind says, the world is what it is.
Footnote 666: Aeon: Ellis - Philosophy cannot resolve the question ‘How should we live?’ (Date=01/05/2020, WebRef=9388)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Dave Ellis
    • Author Narrative: Dave Ellis is a PhD student and tutor in philosophy and religion at Bangor University in Wales.
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • When considering how to answer the question How should we live?, we should first reflect on how it is being asked – is it a cognitive question looking for a literal matter-of-fact answer, or is it also in part a non-cognitive spiritual remark in answer to a particular human, and particularly human, situation?
      • This question, so often asked by us in times of crisis and despair, or love and joy, expresses and indeed defines our sense of humanity.
Footnote 667: Aeon: Video - Three ways to smell cancer (Date=29/04/2020, WebRef=9384)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: How harnessing the power of dogs could help scientists sniff out cancer early
    • Author's Abstract:
      • Humans have long harnessed the olfactory superiority of dogs for hunts and, more recently, to sniff out bombs, drugs and people during search-and-rescue missions. Now, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania are hoping to make early cancer detection the next frontier for canine-human collaboration.
      • Inspired by previous research that found dogs could be trained to detect the scent of ovarian cancer in blood cells, the research team is working on a mechanical device – an ‘electronic nose system’ – to capture the same odour profile. Ultimately, the team hopes to develop a practical medical instrument to help doctors catch this deadly, elusive cancer earlier.
Footnote 668: Aeon: Martinho-Truswell - We need highly formal rituals in order to make life more democratic (Date=29/04/2020, WebRef=9383)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Antone Martinho-Truswell
    • Author Narrative: Antone Martinho-Truswell is the dean and head of house of Graduate House at St Paul’s College at the University of Sydney, as well as a research associate in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford. His current work is focused on how birds learn concepts and process information. He lives in Sydney, Australia.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Benedictus, Benedicat, per Jesum Christum, Dominum Nostrum. Amen.
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • In 2019, it was an act of fortitude to stand before 100 newly enrolled graduate students – mostly Australian, few with any experience of an ancient college – and insist that in this brand-new, modern building, at our very first dinner, we would wear academic gowns, say grace in Latin, and pass decanters to the left. It was harder still to say the same to a dozen busy and seasoned academics who joined us. But it was the right choice, and the college is better for it. In this modern university, my students and academics come from every political, religious, social and economic background one can imagine; they don’t have anything extrinsic in which to believe together. College gives them something to believe in as a whole.
      • The college needs ritual, tradition, anachronism and whispers of the numinous to bind together this diversity. Not to smooth it out, but to unite it in true engagement. Any apartment building can fill itself with diverse residents who politely acknowledge each other in the hallways, then keep to themselves. It takes a formal, traditional, ritual-filled ancient college to make them all feel as though they’re truly of one kind – even if that ancient college is only a year old.
      • Benedicto, Benedicatur, per Jesum Christum, Dominum Nostrum. Amen.
Footnote 669: Aeon: Camporesi - It didn’t have to be this way (Date=27/04/2020, WebRef=9378)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Silvia Camporesi
    • Author Narrative: Silvia Camporesi is an associate professor in bioethics and society at King’s College London, where she is also director of the master’s programme. She is interested in everything related to emerging biotechnologies, genetics, ethics, gender and sport.
    • Aeon Subtitle: A bioethicist at the heart of the Italian coronavirus crisis asks: why won’t we talk about the trade-offs of the lockdown?
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • I find myself in the privileged position to be isolated with my family of four, with access to a garden. I imagine telling my younger son about how we spent the first few months of his life. The world that my children are set to inherit will have a very different social texture to the one that I grew up in, playing unsupervised in the cobbled alleys of Forlì.
      • COVID-19 will become a hiatus in our lives, a time that will mark a ‘before’ and an ‘after’. Do you remember when we used to go to cafés and read the communal paper? we might say to one another. Oh yes, I do, before coronavirus. And after? It’s still too early for us to make any solid predictions. I only hope it’s not a society in which we’re all wearing masks, sipping our espressos at a polite distance, video-chatting with family members and friends far away.
  2. Notes
Footnote 670: Aeon: Lopez-Cantero - Your love story is a narrative that gets written in tandem (Date=27/04/2020, WebRef=9379)Footnote 671: Aeon: Video - Do I see what you see? (Date=22/04/2020, WebRef=9364)Footnote 672: Aeon: Schoenfield - Why do you believe what you do? Run some diagnostics on it (Date=22/04/2020, WebRef=9366)Footnote 673: Aeon: Krakauer - At the limits of thought (Date=20/04/2020, WebRef=9361)Footnote 674: Aeon: Schechter - What we can learn about respect and identity from ‘plurals’ (Date=20/04/2020, WebRef=9360)Footnote 675: Aeon: Video - Test subjects (Date=17/04/2020, WebRef=9347)Footnote 676: Aeon: Broks - Unholy anorexia (Date=16/04/2020, WebRef=9344)Footnote 677: Aeon: Jones & Paris - How dystopian narratives can incite real-world radicalism (Date=15/04/2020, WebRef=9342)
  1. Aeon
    • Authors: Calvert Jones & Celia Paris
    • Author Narrative:
      • Calvert Jones is an assistant professor in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland. She is the author of Bedouins into Bourgeois: Remaking Citizens for Globalization (2017).
      • Celia Paris is a leadership development coach at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.
    • Authors' Conclusion
      • Dystopian fiction continues to offer a powerful lens through which people view the ethics of politics and power. Such narratives might have a positive effect in keeping citizens alert to the possibility of injustice in a variety of contexts, ranging from climate change and artificial intelligence to authoritarian resurgences worldwide.
      • But a proliferation of dystopian narratives might also encourage radical, Manichaean perspectives that oversimplify real and complex sources of political disagreement.
      • So while the totalitarian-dystopian craze might nourish society’s ‘watchdog’ role in holding power to account, it can also fasttrack some to violent political rhetoric – and even action – as opposed to the civil and fact-based debate and compromise necessary for democracy to thrive.
Footnote 678: Aeon: Heneghan - Is there a limit to optimism when it comes to climate change? (Date=13/04/2020, WebRef=9339)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Fiacha Heneghan
    • Author Narrative: Fiacha Heneghan is a PhD candidate in philosophy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
  2. Notes
    • This is an interesting article that I don't have time to give it's due attention.
    • It divides climate activists into:
      1. Optimists - who think we can succeed in mitigating the effects, and that it will turn out to our long-term economic good, whatever the up-front costs, and
      2. Pessimists - who think we will fail in our objectives, but that we should carry on anyway.
    • The author equates the two sides as exemplifying the distinction between consequentialists - the optimists - and Kantians - the pessimists, with whom the author seems to side.
    • I can't see why the sides need to be drawn in that way. Presumably one could be a pessimist - thinking that we're likely to fail - but carry on for consequentialist reasons, in that there are degrees of failure, and worse failures have worse consequences than lesser ones.
    • Also, admitting the likelihood of failure allows you to plan for how you will adapt to failure.
    • Throughout "success" is taken to equate to limiting gobal temperature rise to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
Footnote 679: Aeon: Levy-Eichel - I was homeschooled for eight years: here’s what I recommend (Date=10/04/2020, WebRef=9322)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Mordechai Levy-Eichel
    • Author Narrative: Mordechai Levy-Eichel is a lecturer in political science at Yale University. He is the cohost of the forthcoming podcast AntiEducation. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • Like one’s country, one’s education is, at its core, an ongoing experiment. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks notes, in his introduction to The Koren Siddur (2009), that ‘Prayer is less about getting what we want than about learning what to want.’
      • If nothing else, for those who usually entrust their kid’s education to others, a few weeks or months of homeschooling is an opportunity to encourage our students to do something novel, different, unexpected – to learn what we could and should want, for them, and for us.
      • As a society, we have become exceptionally bad at encouraging our charges to be idiosyncratic and independent. These qualities are not measured by standardised tests, but are just as socially important as a vaccine for COVID-19. Being stuck at home for a few weeks and months, forced to homeschool, is a daunting prospect – but also a tremendous opportunity to cultivate the virtues of independence and original thinking.
  2. Notes
Footnote 680: Aeon: Video - Ball - Understanding quantum entanglement (Date=10/04/2020, WebRef=9321)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Philip Ball
    • Aeon Subtitle: Quantum entanglement is tough to dumb down, but this analogy can help detangle it
    • Editor's Abstract:
      • The term ‘quantum entanglement’ refers to quantum particles being interdependent even when separated, to put it in exceedingly simple terms. Because this behaviour was so at odds with his understanding of the laws of physics, Albert Einstein called the phenomenon ‘spooky action at a distance’. And because it is so hard to square with our own lived experience, it is often used as one of the foremost examples of ‘quantum weirdness’.
      • In this expansion on a previous Royal Institution presentation (Royal institution - Philip Ball - Why Everything You Thought You Knew About Quantum Physics is Different), the UK science writer Philip Ball details a metaphor devised in the 1990s by Sandu Popescu, professor of physics at the University of Bristol, and Daniel Rohrlich, a physics researcher and lecturer at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, to help bring our current best understanding of quantum entanglement into focus. In doing so, Ball also provides an enlightening window into physicists’ evolving understanding of the quantum world throughout the 20th century.
  2. Notes
Footnote 681: Aeon: Contera - Engines of life (Date=09/04/2020, WebRef=9320)Footnote 682: Aeon: Nguyen - Time alone (chosen or not) can be a chance to hit the reset button (Date=08/04/2020, WebRef=9316)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Thuy-vy Nguyen
    • Author Narrative: Thuy-vy Nguyen is an assistant professor in psychology at Durham University in the UK.
    • Author's Conclusion
      • In a culture fuelled by fast-paced lifestyles and convenient technologies, we are easily pulled by our devices and our obsession with productivity. When we are alone, we find ourselves working, and when we have a free moment, we want to catch up with what other people are doing by picking up our phones. This can be true even when people are in lockdown and unable to socialise in person.
      • Such a mindset, in which we actively seek to avoid solitude, only increases the chance that we’ll find the experience unpleasant when it arises. Conversely, by seizing the opportunity for relaxation and reflection afforded by moments (or even stretches) of solitude in our busy lives, we can reap the benefits.
      • Time when we are unexpectedly alone can be difficult but, at least for some of us, it can also be a blessing in disguise.
  2. Notes
    • It is important to find time for reflection when alone.
    • I enjoy being alone, but mainly because most of my activities require concentration and freedom from interuption.
    • However, it's easy and tempting for me to fill my time to the brim with intellectual activities that exclude reflection as much as socialising would do.
Footnote 683: Aeon: Wellmon - The scholar’s vocation (Date=07/04/2020, WebRef=9318)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Chad Wellmon
    • Author Narrative: Chad Wellmon is professor of German studies and history at the University of Virginia. He is most recently the co-editor of Charisma and Disenchantment: The Vocation Lectures (NYRB Classics 2020).
    • Aeon Subtitle: A century ago, Weber both diagnosed the ills of the corporatised, modern university, and pointed out the path beyond it
    • Author's Conclusion
      • Weber didn’t believe in the guarantee of human self-perfection. He rejected the unconstrained expectations of some liberals and more-radical socialists who held out hope that an embrace of human autonomy would make such perfection possible. His was a bleak, not a perfectionist, liberalism for which freedom was inextricable from duty and responsibility.
      • But it was a liberalism nonetheless, and so his final injunction to his audience in Munich was: ‘We should set to work and meet the demands of the day – of our life’s work – both professionally and personally.’ In these final lines, Weber ties the vocational to the human; the specialised, disciplined and constrained to the responsibility to lead a life. We have no other choice but to act as though such perfection is our potential future. In a disenchanted age, we all, not only the self-christened intellectuals, must go about the work of learning how to live. Whoever continues to look out over the horizon hoping for a prophet or history or reason to bring meaning avoids the work of becoming human.
Footnote 684: Aeon: Bond - We are wayfinders (Date=06/04/2020, WebRef=9319)Footnote 685: Aeon: Gordin - Identifying Einstein (Date=02/04/2020, WebRef=9303)Footnote 686: Aeon: Video - 9at38 (Date=01/04/2020, WebRef=9297)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: The violinist staging a concert of unity at the border between North and South Korea
    • Aeon Abstract:
      • The South Korean violinist Hyung Joon Won has held a singular – and perhaps quixotic – dream for the past seven years: a joint concert by North and South Korean musicians at the world’s most contentious border. At 160 miles long and 2.5 miles wide, the Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) separates the two countries at the 38th parallel. On this narrow strip, the threat of all-out war hangs heavy – and anyone with a violin case or a film camera gets short shrift.
      • The South Korean-born filmmaker Catherine Kyungeun Lee follows Hyung Joon as his plan for a show of peace at the border teeters between success and collapse, at great personal cost to him. Filmed in 2015, her documentary traces the confluence between fraught geopolitics and all-too-human struggles on the peninsula.
      • Lee is now directing two documentaries in East Africa. One tells the story of a child-soldier who became a Harvard graduate and activist who was jailed in South Sudan, and the other follows the woman in charge of realising Somalia’s first democratic election in 50 years, despite seemingly insurmountable opposition.
  2. Notes
    • A rather odd little documentary. The musical content isn't great. Hyung Joon Won seems a well-balanced chap with a silly obsession - enough to spilt up with his wife over, and one never likely to lead anywhere, even if he does eventually get his concert.
    • Anyway, this attempt got nowhere, and they held a concert in a village close to the border.
    • The film doesn't mention any inspirational connection with Daniel Barenboim and Wikipedia: The Eastern Divan Orchestra. The latter has been a success, but the barriers are less forbidding - being psychological rather than physical - and the chances of a successful "bringing together" of communities - or elements of them - are greater.
Footnote 687: Aeon: Isaacs - Chemobrain is real. Here’s what to expect after cancer treatment (Date=01/04/2020, WebRef=9299)Footnote 688: Aeon: Barwich - It’s hard to fool a nose (Date=30/03/2020, WebRef=9295)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Ann-Sophie Barwich
    • Author Narrative: Ann-Sophie Barwich is a cognitive scientist, empirical philosopher and historian of science, technology and the senses. She is assistant professor at Indiana University, Bloomington in the departments of history, philosophy of science and cognitive science. Her book Smellosophy: What the Nose Tells the Mind is forthcoming in 2020.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Theories of perception are heavily tilted to the visual: we have much to learn from our surprisingly acute sense of smell
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • The scientific study of the senses, down to the molecular and cellular level, invites us to revisit the basis of our inherited philosophical assumptions about perception.
      • Received philosophical analysis approaching the objectivity of the senses as ‘one percept matching one stimulus’ proved an ill-defined artifact of a prescientific intellectual tradition. It obscures our understanding of smell. It bypasses a lot of other sensory sensations, including the hidden senses of proprioception and interoception. And it even obscures genuine understanding of vision.
      • In effect, it is their causal principles and mechanisms – not some naive input-output pairing that treats the sensory system as a black box – that determines how our senses grant us access to reality.
      • To understand perception across all senses, including perceptual constancy as well as variation, requires a much more detailed look at the actual processes that connect the world with our mind. Only that way might we get to understand both.
  2. Notes
    • This is an unexpectedly facinating paper.
    • I've seen (and ignored) a fair number of announcements on Philos_List about the philosophy of olefaction. Maybe they arose from this author.
    • My main interest is because of the alleged increased sensitivity of the canine nose, whose olefactory bulb is 10 times as large as the human.
    • However, this paper tells us, humans have the same number of neurons in their olefactory bulbs as do rats (though, of course, our body mass is massively larger, as are our noses).
    • It seems that human brains suppress most of the chatter from their olefactory bulbs, only waking up in exceptional circumstances.
    • Presumably this is not the case for dogs, who "live in a world of smells".
    • As can be seen from the author's conclusion, she thinks philosophical accounts of perception have been skewed by focusing on vision.
    • She also suggests that vision is necessarily subject to illusions, whereas olefaction is not. I'm doubtful.
Footnote 689: Aeon: Wojtowicz - If all our actions are shaped by luck, are we still agents? (Date=25/03/2020, WebRef=9285)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Jake Wojtowicz
    • Author Narrative: Jake Wojtowicz is a PhD graduate from King’s College London. He is interested in the philosophy of law, ethics and the history of ethics.
    • Aeon Subtitle: If all our actions are shaped by luck, are we still agents?
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • One could read Williams and come away dispirited, left with a pessimistic view of the world. After all, Williams focuses on regret rather than the happy accidents that can affect our lives. He uses examples such as the lorry driver and draws on heart-rending stories from literature, such as Anna Karenina’s suicide. There is little comfort in his focus on how, even if we are cautious in what we aim to do, we can be felled by a stroke of luck. Williams can be a bleak read. At least the Kantian picture puts our fate in our hands.
      • But there is also something deeply empowering in Williams’s move away from the Kantian picture. Reflection on luck need not urge us to retreat to the secure but restricted domain of what we fully control; it can reaffirm our potency as agents and encourage our ambition. We can make a mark on the world and sometimes that mark can be a spectacular one. From a work of art to a strike on the football pitch, from the things we write to the meals we make, these things don’t just happen: we have to seek them out and use our skills to bring them about. And they are our actions – marks we make on the world as agents.
      • Without accepting that we might fail, that we might end up regretting what we have done, we wouldn’t be able to achieve any of these things. There is something richer and more uplifting in recognising this, rather than living our lives in the secure but impotent realm where trying is all that matters.
  2. Notes
    • This is a useful brief paper expounding moral luck, as in "Williams (Bernard) - Moral Luck".
    • Williams distinguishes Agent-Regret (where bad consequences resulted from our action through no fault of our own) from Agent-Remorse, when we did something bad intentionally.
    • The example is accidentally running over a child, when obeying the law perfectly. Kant would have us not worry, provided our intentions were right. But, as agents, Williams thinks we should have regret, but not remorse. The regret is – I suppose (I’ve not yet read the paper) – a deeply personal feeling. We don’t just regret the happening, but regret that we were responsible – that our act did it.
    • I suspect that part of the reason for regret is that if we’d acted slightly differently things would – or might – have turned out better. I might have left earlier – maybe I was late, but still driving within the speed limit; or I might have left unusually early. Either way, I wouldn’t have been there at the unfortunate time. Or I might have driven more slowly (maybe to the irritation of other road users, if any), and so on.
    • Some situations – where I’m hardly an agent at all – seem to demand much less regret. For instance, if someone randomly pushes me off a balcony (maybe by accident) and I land on a child, killing her, … would I feel the same sense of regret as in the RTA case?
    • Anyway, the paper is right to point out that all sorts of luck impacts on our agency, and if we’re wanting to appropriate the good luck, we have also to take the bad.
Footnote 690: Aeon: Video - Soft awareness (Date=25/03/2020, WebRef=9286)Footnote 691: Aeon: Harlitz-Kern - To see the antisemitism of medieval bestiaries, look for the owl (Date=24/03/2020, WebRef=9283)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Erika Harlitz-Kern
    • Author Narrative: Erika Harlitz-Kern is an adjunct instructor at Florida International University in Miami. She is a public historian and writer whose work has appeared in The Week, The Daily Beast and The Washington Post, among others.
  2. Notes
    • A succinct and moderately interesting paper on bestiaries, and the difference between the negative medieval (and Roman) appraisal of the owl and the positive classical Greek one.
    • But I think the lady doth protest too much. As she notes, the trope of the “dirty” owl persisted centuries after the expulsion of the Jews, so may just be a figure for sinners.
Footnote 692: Aeon: Parks & Manzotti - You are the world (Date=23/03/2020, WebRef=9279)Footnote 693: Aeon: Video - Do you have imposter syndrome (Date=20/03/2020, WebRef=9259)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Sandi Mann
    • Author Narrative: Sandi Mann is a psychologist and lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK.
    • Aeon Subtitle: Do you feel like a fraud after a success? It can mean you’re doing something well
    • Author's Abstract:
      • ‘When are they going to discover that I am, in fact, a fraud, and take everything away from me?’
        → Tom Hanks, winner of two Oscars, four Golden Globes and six Emmys, interviewed in 2016
      • First coined in a 1978 research paper on high-achieving women in the workplace, the term ‘imposter syndrome’ describes those who believe they have less talent that others think, who attribute any personal successes to luck, and who worry that they’ll ultimately be exposed as the frauds they perceive themselves to be. This kind of reflexive self-doubt is not so much a ‘syndrome’ as it is a widespread state of psychological distortion, with roughly 70 per cent of people experiencing it at some point in their lives.
      • In this video from BBC Ideas, Sandi Mann discusses the roots of imposter syndrome and details some practical ways to fight it.
Footnote 694: Aeon: Ho - No patient is an island (Date=19/03/2020, WebRef=9262)Footnote 695: Aeon: Dubal - Against humanity (Date=18/03/2020, WebRef=9265)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Sam Dubal
    • Author Narrative: Sam Dubal is a medical anthropologist and a visiting scholar at the Berkeley Center for Social Medicine at the University of California, Berkeley. His latest book is Against Humanity: Lessons from the Lord’s Resistance Army (2018).
    • Aeon Subtitle: What the Lord’s Resistance Army can teach us about flaws in the ideal of human rights and the fight for justice
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • When we decry the conditions of children held in cages as dehumanising, are we not replicating a form of thinking that treats them like abused animals – where being ‘humane’ means not letting them sit in their own urine or be infested with lice? To ask that migrants be treated humanely is to claim some very basic forms of equal treatment – access to toothpaste, diapers and medical care, for example. While necessary, these are hardly sufficient to achieve the good – namely, the kinds of justice due after years of imperial, racist, capitalist exploitation that created the violent conditions under which they became migrants.
      • At the same time, we should be wary of using humanity to positively equate or compare Latinx kids in cages with their white, middle-class American age-equivalents. These caged kids are not also human; they are extraordinary beings, superhumans, having made incredible, dangerous journeys across lands to escape from the ugly margins of capitalism and empire that made them who they are (and killed many of their peers). Whatever commonalities might exist, unequal structural forces have shaped them into radically different and incommensurable forms of existence. They should be respected and recognised, rather than flattened by providing the deceptive material trappings of a basic humanity. Just as a bar of soap or a flu shot does not give them justice, neither does asserting their essential sameness to rich age-mates growing up in the heart of global empire.
      • Humanity’s abstract universality aims to help us connect to people in very different circumstances, but at the expense of encouraging us to wrongly think of ourselves as like them. At the same time, humanity claims to reach for the good of universal justice, when in reality its claims are shaped by particular Western ideas about justice that have historically oppressed rather than emancipated non-Western others. It might be time to give up on humanity as a byword for emancipation or liberation, and instead call more precisely on what we often ask for in the name of humanity: justice and recognition for those constructed in and deeply marginalised by past and present structures of imperialism, racism, colonialism and capitalism.
  2. Notes
    • This a bold, articulate and dangerous paper. It was brave of Aeon to publish it.
    • I’d not even heard of the situation in Uganda, nor of the beliefs of the “Lord’s Resistance Army”, which seems to be a Totemist / Animist version of Islamic State. The author doesn’t use these terms, but that seems to be what he means.
    • The author appears to know what’s going on in Uganda, but has too many post-colonial chips on his shoulders to think straight.
    • While interesting curiosities, totemism and animism are false beliefs and – in general – false beliefs are to be discouraged, even if those who hold them may live a more “authentic” existence than those of more orthodox persuasion. Especially if that existence involves perpetrating atrocities. I was reminded of Kurtz’s “pile of little arms” monologue in Apocalypse Now: see monologuedb: Apocalypse Now, Walter E. Kurtz.
    • The author is right to point out that humanism is “genetically” a white middle-class male world-view, but it is a prime example of the genetic fallacy to claim that it is thereby false.
    • The author’s book gets some plaudits, mostly for its boldness, but is considered derivative and insufficiently engaged with the literature by a reviewer at the LSE: Tim Allen: Book review – Against Humanity: Lessons from the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Footnote 696: Aeon: Mishra - Talent, you’re born with. Creativity, you can grow yourself (Date=18/03/2020, WebRef=9264)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Jyoti Mishra
    • Author Narrative: Jyoti Mishra is assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and director of NEAT Labs at the University of California, San Diego.
Footnote 697: Aeon: Video - The solar do-nothing machine (Date=18/03/2020, WebRef=9263)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: ‘Toys are the prelude to serious ideas’ – the contraption that kicked off the solar age
    • Author's Abstract:
      • In 1957, Charles and Ray Eames, the legendary husband-and-wife design team, created a solar-powered kinetic sculpture for the Aluminum Company of America ( ‘Alcoa’).
      • Although the American designers coined their novel contraption ‘The Solar Do-Nothing Machine’ for its whimsical look and lack of evident purpose, in reality its creation was something of a breakthrough, marking one of the first uses of solar power to produce electricity.
      • In 1995, the Eameses’ grandson, the US artist, writer and designer Eames Demetrios, discovered unedited footage of the machine, and produced a short film from the material.
      • Set to a breezy jazz score, the piece is at once a small joy to watch in its own right and a testament to the Eameses’ belief that ‘toys and games are the prelude to serious ideas’.
  2. Notes
    • The film is just a waste of time to watch, I think. It's in a retro style, to appear made in the 1950s, as indeed the footage was.
    • Maybe it is self-consciously referring to the ancient Greek discovery of steam-power (by Hero of Alexandria; Wikipedia: Hero of Alexandria) which was put to no useful purpose in the Aeolipile (Wikipedia: Aeolipile).
Footnote 698: Aeon: Rolston - Don’t take life so seriously: Montaigne’s lessons on the inner life (Date=17/03/2020, WebRef=9257)Footnote 699: Imperial - Impact of NPIs to reduce COVID19 mortality and healthcare demand (Date=17/03/2020, WebRef=9249)
  1. Aeon
  2. Notes
    • Not Aeon, but logged here for want of a better place.
    • It makes grim reading. It seems that the original government strategy of mitigation, while it would get the epidemic over in 3 months, and would save half the lives of no action, would still lead to 250,000 deaths.
    • The recommended approach seems to be that towards which the government is moving; lock-down for an extended period. Initially 5 months, but the process then needs to be repeated, after a month's gap, and then 2 months' further lock-down, until a vaccine is fully available and rolled out. So, we're in for it for a further 18 months by the look of things.
    • Hard copy filed in "Various - Papers in Desk Drawer".
Footnote 700: Aeon: David - Patient, know thyself: how insight helps to treat psychosis (Date=16/03/2020, WebRef=9254)Footnote 701: Aeon: Video - The researcher's article (Date=13/03/2020, WebRef=9243)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Excitement, baby steps and reams of rejections – how scientific knowledge builds on itself
    • Author's Summary:
      • Getting a paper published in a respected scientific journal can be an exhilarating opportunity for researchers to contribute to their fields, but it’s often a patience-testing exercise in rejection, rewriting and waiting.
      • In this short by the French filmmaker Charlotte Arene, the physicists Frédéric Restagno and Julien Bobroff, both of the University of Paris-Saclay, offer surprisingly amusing accounts of their own experiences of the ‘letter’, the most common format for publishing research in physics.
      • With Arene providing jaunty stop-motion visuals, The Researcher’s Article is an enlightening and lively paean to the process of adding a small drop to the well of scientific knowledge.
Footnote 702: Aeon: Hanna - Whose limb is it anyway? On the ethics of body-part disposal (Date=13/03/2020, WebRef=9244)Footnote 703: Aeon: Hochman - Is ‘race’ modern? (Date=12/03/2020, WebRef=9238)Footnote 704: Aeon: Mauch - Slow hope (Date=11/03/2020, WebRef=9240)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Christof Mauch
    • Author Narrative: Christof Mauch is director of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, and the Chair in American Culture and Transatlantic Relations, both at Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) of Munich. He is an affiliated professor in history at LMU Munich, and an honorary professor at Renmin University in China. He is the author of Slow Hope: Rethinking Ecologies of Crisis and Fear (2019).
    • Aeon Subtitle: Climate change is an emergency but despair is not the answer. The world is full of untold stories of people-powered change
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • Today’s saving powers will not come from a deus ex machina. In an ever-more complex and synthetic world, our saving powers won’t come from a single source, and certainly not from a too-big-to-fail approach or from those who have been drawn into the maelstrom of our age of speed. Hope can work as a wakeup call, an antidote to lethargy. It acknowledges setbacks: the dialectics of ecological crisis, environmental awareness and necessary action. The concept of slow hope suggests that we can’t expect things to change overnight. If the ever-faster exhaustion of natural resources (in ecological terms) and the ‘shrinking of the present (in social terms) are urgent problems of humans, then cutting down on exhaustive practices and working towards a ‘stretching of the present’ will be ways to move forward.
      • Identifying ways to transcend the craze of consumption, production, travel and extreme workloads in a merry-go-round world can be inspiring and subversive. Our saving powers will come from diverse cultures and initiatives, from thinkers and mavericks and urban and rural communities around the world. They will come from a growing number of people who understand the power inherent in the way that we imagine better worlds, who think creatively and act ecologically: from women and men who are inspired by slow hope.
Footnote 705: Aeon: Cottingham - What is the soul if not a better version of ourselves? (Date=11/03/2020, WebRef=9239)Footnote 706: Aeon: Jaarsma - Choose your own birth (Date=10/03/2020, WebRef=9242)Footnote 707: Aeon: Gutmann - Testosterone is widely, and sometimes wildly, misunderstood (Date=10/03/2020, WebRef=9241)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Matthew Gutmann
    • Author Narrative: Matthew Gutmann is professor of anthropology and faculty fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. His latest book is Are Men Animals? How Modern Masculinity Sells Men Short (2019).
  2. Notes
Footnote 708: Aeon: Wu - Hypocognition is a censorship tool that mutes what we can feel (Date=09/03/2020, WebRef=9236)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Kaidi Wu
    • Author Narrative: Kaidi Wu is a doctoral candidate in social psychology at the University of Michigan.
    • Extract: It is a strange feeling, stumbling upon an experience that we wish we had the apt words to describe, a precise language to capture. When we don’t, we are in a state of hypocognition, which means we lack the linguistic or cognitive representation of a concept to describe ideas or interpret experiences.
Footnote 709: Aeon: Vandergheynst & Vonèche Cardia - Why lifelong learning is the international passport to success (Date=06/03/2020, WebRef=9222)
  1. Aeon
    • Authors: Pierre Vandergheynst & Isabelle Voneche Cardia
    • Author Narrative:
      • Pierre Vandergheynst is professor of electrical engineering and computer and communication sciences, as well as vice-provost for education at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland.
      • Isabelle Vonèche Cardia is a historian, by training, and currently a researcher with the REACT Group at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland.
  2. Notes
    • This paper is sensible enough, but applies mostly to technological subjects.
    • Most companies already seem to participate in “professional development” schemes to keep their staff up-to-date.
    • There’s one mention of lawyers, but otherwise nothing for arts graduates.
    • Also, nothing recommended for the “improvement” of the general population, who may have missed out on education – or failed to understand its purpose – as they grew up and now need their lives enriching, not to mention being made better citizens.
Footnote 710: Aeon: Morus - Supermensch (Date=05/03/2020, WebRef=9224)Footnote 711: Aeon: Frances - The lure of ‘cool’ brain research is stifling psychotherapy (Date=04/03/2020, WebRef=9227)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Allen Frances
    • Author Narrative: Allen Frances is an American psychiatrist. He was chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina, and of the task force that produced the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-IV (1994). He is the author of Differential Therapeutics (1984), Your Mental Health (1999), Saving Normal (2013), Essentials of Psychiatric Diagnosis (2013), and Twilight of American Sanity (2017).
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • Drug companies are a commercial Goliath with enormous political and economic power. Psychotherapy is a tiny David with no marketing budget; no salespeople mobbing doctors’ offices; no TV ads; no internet pop-ups; no influence with politicians or insurance companies. No surprise then that the NIMH’s neglect of psychotherapy research has been accompanied by its neglect in clinical practice. And the NIMH’s embrace of biological reductionism provides an unintended and unwarranted legitimisation of the drug-company promotion that there is a pill for every problem.
      • A balanced NIMH budget would go a long way toward correcting the two biggest mental-health catastrophes of today. Studies comparing psychotherapy versus medication for a wide variety of mild to moderate mental disorders would help to level the playing field for the two, and eventually reduce our massive overdependence on drug treatments for nonexistent ‘chemical imbalances’. Health service research is desperately needed to determine best practices to help people with severe mental illness avoid incarceration and homelessness, and also escape from them.
      • The NIMH is entitled to keep an eye on the future, but not at the expense of the desperate needs of the present. Brain research should remain an important part of a balanced NIMH agenda, not its sole preoccupation. After 30 years running down a bio-reductionistic blind alley, it is long past time for the NIMH to consider a biopsychosocial reset, and to rebalance its badly uneven research portfolio.
Footnote 712: Aeon: Dashan - It is not you, but existence itself, that is fundamentally unsound (Date=02/03/2020, WebRef=9233)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Natalia Dashan
    • Author Narrative: Natalia Dashan is a writer based in New York City. Her work has appeared in The Washington Examiner, Palladium Magazine and Forbes, among others.
    • Central Excerpt:
      • A popular framing of mental health divides people into two categories: you are either sane or insane. Let’s call this the split-group framing. If you are sane, you stay away from therapists. You stay away from hospitals, away from meditation retreats, away from psychics and health gurus. These are not for you – and if you venture into this territory, then at best you are mentally ill, and at worst you are somehow an inferior, weaker sort of person.
      • There is another framing that challenges this: therapy and mental health treatments are not just for the insane – they are for everybody. Let’s call this the everyman framing. This idea has been gaining traction in the zeitgeist of the past few years. Everybody has problems, and everybody can benefit from talking to somebody. Everybody can improve their communication skills, become more resilient, and level up their mental game.
      • Neither of these paradigms is completely correct. The first is wrong because the symptoms of mental illness do not fall into a dichotomy. Many diagnoses in the DSM-5 can be described on a spectrum of severity, a person can have more than one diagnosis, and the parameters for each diagnosis itself undergo debate by psychologists. The second paradigm is an improvement in that it tries to eliminate the stigma around mental health treatment, but it is still a limited framework. Instead of splitting the nuance into a ‘sane’ versus ‘insane’ dichotomy, it flattens it into ‘everybody is slightly off’.
      • But these distortions are minor compared with the much larger piece of the puzzle that is not just wrong in both paradigms but missing entirely. And this is the fact that most mental health care does not take place in the psychologist’s office at all – but in the way we live our lives.
  2. Notes
    • While the extract given above is fairly sensible, I couldn’t make much sense of most of this essay, which seems to revolve around an autobiographical account of an episode of heatstroke in Vietnam.
    • The essay’s sub-title is misleading, and the essay doesn’t deliver the exciting discussion anticipated.
Footnote 713: Aeon: Andrews & Monso - Rats are us (Date=02/03/2020, WebRef=9232)Footnote 714: Aeon: Video - What is déjà vu? (Date=02/03/2020, WebRef=9234)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: A brain glitch? A sign of quantum entanglement? What science says about déjà vu
    • Author Summary:
      • Roughly two-thirds of people have had déjà vu, or the weird feeling that a new situation has been experienced before. Yet its prevalence belies just how mysterious the phenomenon remains to researchers, despite some extraordinary recent leaps in neuroscience. In part, this is because it’s extremely difficult to instigate déjà vu in the lab.
      • But as this brief animation from BBC Ideas shows, scientists do have some hypotheses for what brings déjà vu to the surface of consciousness – from the idea that it might be a built-in processing glitch in the brain, or an indication of healthy memory, to the slightly more puzzling notion that it’s part of quantum entanglement.
  2. Notes
    • An interesting little video.
    • Most of it revolves around suggestions that déjà vu is down to slight timing differences of neural processes in the brain – either laterally or otherwise.
    • Alternatively, it could be a symptom of memory (whereby similar views are identified).
    • The wackier alternatives (quantum entanglement as a window to parallel universes) are just mentioned at the end and not seriously entertained. Similarly, it’s noted than in The Matrix déjà vu is a glitch in the simulation, parallel to the glitches in our brains mentioned above, but not posited as a solution!
Footnote 715: Aeon: Video - Walk (Date=28/02/2020, WebRef=9208)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: ‘Why do we need colours?’ A blind boy and a sighted girl experience a meadow
    • Author's Abstract:
      • ‘What do you think the grass looks like?’
      • Two friends – a blind boy and a sighted girl – wander through a meadow, riding their bikes, picking dandelions and doing their best to avoid stinging nettles. Now and then, the girl probes the contours of the boy’s sensory experience, often to his annoyance. After all, how can he explain what it’s like to not know or even understand colours, or why his experience doesn’t require them? Deriving depth and nuance from the simple premise of children at play, the Polish filmmaker Filip Jacobson reflects on the possibilities and limits of communicating subjective experience, as well as the diversity of ways to internalise the exterior world.
  2. Notes
    • While the video is very sweet, it doesn't really answer any questions. Interesting to see the blind boy riding a bicycle, though!
Footnote 716: Aeon: Video - Musical traumas (Date=27/02/2020, WebRef=9210)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: It’s great to learn music as a child – except when it’s no fun at all
    • Author's Abstract:
      • There’s a romanticised view that learning music as a child is a profoundly enriching experience, that it’s a portal into a world of creativity and a means of achieving a host of secondary cognitive benefits.
      • While learning an instrument is all of that and more for some people, music lessons can also be the locus of a very particular set of traumas, from the indignity of being forced to practise the piano with teacups on your hands to the paralysing performance anxiety that might surge forth at a dreaded recital.
      • Composed of the true stories of unhappy music students rendered in varied animated styles, and shot through with an undercurrent of dark humour, this short from the Serbian filmmaker Miloš Tomić plumbs the depths of music education – including the gargantuan gap between fantasising about greatness and actually achieving it.
  2. Notes
    • Entertaining, and true to life, in my experience!
Footnote 717: Aeon: Gertz - Nihilism (Date=27/02/2020, WebRef=9211)Footnote 718: Aeon: Wayland-Smith - This ragged claw (Date=26/02/2020, WebRef=9214)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Ellen Wayland-Smith
    • Author Narrative: Ellen Wayland-Smith is an associate professor of writing at the University of Southern California. She is the author of Oneida: From Free Love Utopia to the Well Set Table (2016) and The Angel in the Marketplace: Adwoman Jean Wade Rindlaub and the Selling of America (2020).
    • Aeon Subtitle: It is a crab; no, a worm; no, a wolf. Early physicians weren’t entirely wrong to imagine cancer as a ravenous disease
  2. Notes
    • Basically an autobiographical account of the discovery of the author’s breast cancer together with various historical understandings of the disease and reflections on mortality, though not of the experience of living with the disease.
    • Contains some interesting etymology.
Footnote 719: Aeon: Robinson - Would you rather have a fish or know how to fish? (Date=26/02/2020, WebRef=9213)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Jonny Robinson
    • Author Narrative: Jonny Robinson is a tutor and casual lecturer in the department of philosophy at Macquarie University. He lives in Sydney.
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • And so it is with knowledge. Yes, it’s better to know, but only where this implies an accompanying attitude. If, instead, the possession of knowledge relies primarily upon the sporadic pillars of luck or privilege (as it so often does), one’s position is uncertain and in danger of an unfounded pride (not to mention pride’s own concomitant complications). Split into two discrete categories, then, we should prefer seeking to knowing. As with the agent who knows how to fish, the one who seeks knowledge can go out into the world, sometimes failing and sometimes succeeding, but in any case able to continue until she is satisfied with her catch, a knowledge attained. And then, the next day, she might return to the river and do it all again.
      • A person will eventually come up against the world, logically, morally, socially, even physically. Some collisions will be barely noticeable, others will be catastrophic. The consistent posture of seeking the truth gives us the best shot at seeing clearly, and that is what we should praise and value.
  2. Notes
    • I’d previously heard the trope of fish and fishing in the context of helping 3rd-world peasants to be self-sufficient. However, this is nothing to do with that idea.
    • Rather it is asked whether it is better to seek knowledge, even though you might not find it – possibly because of having to start from a disadvantaged position – or to be handed it on a plate without paying it much attention.
    • Unsurprisingly, the author is in favour of the former. This is not because the journey is more important than the arrival, or that there’s no knowledge to be found, but because the practice of seeking knowledge trains you better to find it where it is there to be found.
Footnote 720: Aeon: Asma - Ancient animistic beliefs live on in our intimacy with tech (Date=25/02/2020, WebRef=9216)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Stephen Asma
    • Author Narrative: Stephen T Asma is professor of philosophy at Columbia College Chicago and a member of the Public Theologies of Technology and Presence programme at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California. He is the author of many books, including The Evolution of Imagination (2017), Why We Need Religion (2018) and his latest, The Emotional Mind: Affective Roots of Culture and Cognition (2019), co-authored with Rami Gabriel.
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • So our new ‘tech-animism’ might not be detrimental at all. I might not really be ‘helping’ the robot, and it might not be ‘helping’ me, but behaving as if we’re actually relating – even bonding – keeps our empathic skills honed and ready for when it really counts. Immersion in tech relationships is not creating the loneliness epidemic. It’s a response to it. The actual causes of the loneliness epidemic started way before digital dominance.
      • Our new animism – animism 2.0 – might be quite helpful in keeping the social emotions and skills healthy enough for real human bonding, perspective-taking and empathy. Instead of dehumanising us, this tech-animism could actually be keeping us human.
  2. Notes
    • While the paper is interesting, I’m not convinced.
    • Contrary to the author’s position, animism of any form – given that it involves attributing minds to entities that lack them – is childish, given this is what young children do with regards to their teddies.
    • If it’s done knowingly, for emotional support, it’s rather pathetic.
    • If it’s done unknowingly, it portrays a false view of the world.
    • No doubt there are some spin-off benefits, as the author suggests, as there are with many practices, but clear distinctions need to be made if clarity of thought is to be maintained
Footnote 721: Aeon: Video - Chunyun (Date=25/02/2020, WebRef=9215)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Chinese New Year is a stunning spectacle of human migration in 3 billion journeys
    • Author's Abstract:
      • Chinese New Year (also known as Lunar New Year), which starts on the new moon that falls between 21 January and 20 February, is celebrated by some 1.5 billion people around the world. And, as travel has become more affordable to China’s rapidly growing middle class, the holiday now accounts for an estimated 3 billion trips (called chunyun in Chinese), making the celebration the world’s largest annual human migration.
      • The New York-based filmmaker Jonathan Bregel uses scenes of this extraordinary human flow to convey both the sheer magnitude of the movement of people and the moments of celebration that are a crucial aspect of the holiday.
  2. Notes
    • Rather dull, and shows what seems to me to be the mundanity of the event
Footnote 722: Aeon: Longworth - The ethics of speech acts (Date=25/02/2020, WebRef=9217)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Guy Longworth
    • Author Narrative: Guy Longworth is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK. His latest book, co-authored with Jennifer Hornsby, is Reading Philosophy of Language: Selected Texts With Interactive Commentary (2005).
    • Aeon Subtitle: It’s one thing to say something. It’s quite another for a person to do (or not do) something because of what you’ve said
  2. Notes
    • An interesting paper by one of my former supervisors.
    • The aim of the paper is – I think – to persuade us that pornography undermines women’s freedom of speech by making certain of their speech acts – namely those such as “I refuse to have sex with you” – ineffective by persuading (some) men that women (in general) don’t mean what they say when making such statements.
    • I wasn’t convinced, and I wasn’t convinced that Guy was either, though he wanted to be.
    • But the paper is important in explaining J.L. Austin’s theory of speech acts, which are divided into:-
      1. Locutionary Acts: Basically any meaningful statement.
      2. Illocutionary Acts: A statement intended to have an effect on the hearer, such as a request.
      3. Perlocutionary Acts: A statement that succeeds in having an effect on the hearer, such as a successful persuasion.
Footnote 723: Aeon: Heneghan - A place of silence (Date=24/02/2020, WebRef=9219)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Liam Heneghan
    • Author Narrative: Liam Heneghan is professor of environmental science and studies at DePaul University in Chicago. His latest book is Beasts at Bedtime: Revealing the Environmental Wisdom of Children’s Literature (2018).
    • Aeon Subtitle: Our cities are filled by the hubbub of human-made noise. Where shall we find the quietness we need to nurture our spirit?
  2. Notes
    • An interesting paper that's split into roughly two parts - Athens and Chicago.
    • Noise pollution is yet another aspect of the environmental problems we face.
    • He contrasts the two aspects of (ancient) Greek culture - roughly, the noise of the agora and democratic politics and the hesychasm of the contemplatives; both are necessary, though he replaces the religious quiet with a secular version he calls avoesis ("absence of noise", in modern Greek).
Footnote 724: Aeon: Video - A Jew walks into a bar (Date=21/02/2020, WebRef=9186)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: Being a stand-up comedian is hard. It’s even harder when it’s against your religion
    • Abstract:
      • Have you heard this one before? An ultra-Orthodox Jew breaks the rules by going online, falls in love with stand-up comedy, and starts performing in clubs to help manage his crippling social anxiety. With deadpan delivery, and often wearing traditional Jewish Orthodox clothing, David Finkelstein has developed a comedic sensibility that connects with audiences at open mics in New York City.
      • But even as he grows ever more comfortable on stage and finds a second home in the comedy community, the experience is rife with challenges and compromises. Finkelstein is still devout and attempts to adhere to as many of his religion’s rules as possible, even as he operates in a cultural ‘grey area’ by performing. This means no physical contact with women, no vulgarity, and no shows on the Sabbath, which nixes the desirable slots on Friday and Saturday night. And, most challenging of all, it means navigating between two very different worlds as he tries to keep the faith while pursuing his passion.
      • An endearing fish-out-of-water tale that grapples meaningfully with questions of religious values, culture and mental health, A Jew Walks into a Bar follows Finkelstein as he tries to establish himself in the stand-up scene. The short is one-third of the US filmmaker Jonathan Miller’s feature-length documentary Standing Up (2019), which follows three unlikely stand-ups as they pursue comedy in New York.
Footnote 725: Aeon: Tracy - Find something morally sickening? Take a ginger pill (Date=21/02/2020, WebRef=9185)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Jessica Tracy
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • We don’t have to extend our beliefs about right and wrong to behaviours that don’t actually hurt others, even if we find them disgusting. The tendency to do so is an ancient evolutionary holdover and, with the help of modern sanitation and safe sex practices, it’s one we can afford to set aside.
      • Yet this kind of moralisation is manifested frequently in response to a number of behaviours that, to some, appear to tarnish the presumed purity of the human body. The belief – held by 51 per cent of people in the United States – that it is wrong to engage in gay sex is shaped by the moralisation of sanctity. Some people might feel disgust in response to certain sexual behaviours (in the same way that most children do to all sexual behaviours) but, for adults, that emotional reaction is a misfire. Their disgust is not a valid signal of danger. And our research shows that moral beliefs based on sanctity concerns represent a different category of morality than those based on harm and fairness. We were able to shift people’s sanctity beliefs simply by giving them ginger. A moral view that changes on the basis of how nauseous we feel is probably not one that we want to put a lot of stake in.
      • Instead, many of us would prefer to hew to a set of moral standards that come from a coherent, rationally derived philosophy about enhancing justice and mitigating harms. Certain human behaviours do make us feel sick. But we need not rely on those feelings as a basis for our moral principles, or when judging others for what we feel to be immoral.
      • Before deciding that something is wrong, we might ask ourselves, is it just that I’m disgusted by it? Or, when encountering what appears to be a moral dilemma, we could play it safe and reach for a ginger ale.
  2. Notes
    • The idea – demonstrated by a double-blind experiment – is that some behaviours are literally disgusting, and the physical disgust – and thereby the moral repugnance – can be removed by administering ginger, a folk-remedy for motion sickness.
    • This only works for moderately disgusting behaviours – those beyond the pale are immune to the remedy.
    • The moral is that we should ignore our disgust if the behaviour doesn’t harm anyone (in today’s society).
    • The point that children find all sex disgusting is a good point that has occurred to me before. If you think too carefully about many normal bodily functions, they are pretty disgusting, so why are some aberrant ones deemed especially so?
    • My own view is that some activities are such that they use the body in ways for which evolution hasn’t formed it, and are – most likely – more harmful than the standard methods.
Footnote 726: Aeon: Evans - Perennial philosophy (Date=19/02/2020, WebRef=9181)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Jules Evans
    • Author Narrative: Jules Evans is policy director at the Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary at the University of London. He is the author of Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations (2013) and The Art of Losing Control: A Philosopher’s Search for Ecstatic Experience (2017).
    • Aeon Subtitle: Aldous Huxley argued that all religions in the world were underpinned by universal beliefs and experiences. Was he right?
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • Any literate or curious person can’t help but notice the interesting similarities between different traditions’ spiritual techniques – I am struck by the similarities between Stoicism and Buddhism, for example. We can learn from other paths and travellers along our way, and recognise the wisdom (perhaps divine wisdom) in other traditions. We can meet practitioners from other faiths in friendship, as the Dalai Lama meets with his friend Desmond Tutu.
      • Crucially, we can always remember that God/ultimate reality is greater than any of our religions, that human understanding is limited and prone to error and sin (particularly the sins of overcertainty, arrogance and intolerance), and we will probably all be surprised along the way. Interreligious dialogue isn’t just a nice extracurricular activity, in this view – it’s an essential part of our journey beyond our biases, deeper into truth.
      • Not everyone will accept this sort of inclusivism. Some will insist on a stark choice between Jesus or hell, the Quran or hell. In some ways, overcertain exclusivism is a much better marketing strategy than sympathetic inclusivism. But if just some of the world’s population opened their minds to the wisdom of other religions, without having to leave their own faith, the world would be a better, more peaceful place. Like Aldous Huxley, I still believe in the possibility of growing spiritual convergence between different religions and philosophies, even if right now the tide seems to be going the other way.
  2. Notes
    • See Also:
      → Aldous Huxley
    • An interesting background piece by a sensible author. I won't be following it up, though.
Footnote 727: Aeon: Green - A psychiatric diagnosis can be more than an unkind ‘label’ (Date=18/02/2020, WebRef=9179)
  1. Aeon
    • Author: Huw Green
    • Author's Conclusion:
      • Psychiatric diagnoses are imperfect, sketchy theories about how people’s minds can give them trouble. We know that they are largely less precise and valid than is popularly understood, but this does not render them totally uninformative. We have learned snippets of useful information by considering psychological problems in terms of categories: the effectiveness, or not, of treatments for particular groups of people; the elevated risk of suicide among others.
      • Many symptoms can seem to ‘make sense’ in the context of a person’s life, but we know that humans are sense-making machines, so we need to be vigilant against ‘making sense’ where it is only illusory. The great intellectual challenge of clinical psychology is to integrate knowledge about reasons and people with knowledge about causes and mechanisms. We should avoid relying solely on diagnostic information, but we shouldn’t discard it altogether.
Footnote 728: Aeon: Greenberg - This mortal coil (Date=12/02/2020, WebRef=9159)Footnote 729: Aeon: Video - The hairy Nobel (Date=10/02/2020, WebRef=9163)
  1. Aeon
    • Aeon Subtitle: ‘The secrets of exotic matter’ revealed by the winners of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics
    • Abstract:
      • The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to David J Thouless, F Duncan M Haldane and J Michael Kosterlitz for their ‘theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter’ that ‘revealed the secrets of exotic matter’.
      • If that sounds massively difficult to comprehend – you’re right, it is. But, as this collaboration between the French filmmaker Charlotte Arene and the research team Physics Reimagined (at the University of Paris-Saclay) shows, sometimes complex and seemingly obscure discoveries can have consequences well beyond the walls of a laboratory.
      • With a distinctive, shapeshifting animated style, The Hairy Nobel combs through the surprisingly fascinating history of topological insulators, including how their discovery cascaded into breakthroughs in several fields of research, including electronics, superconductors and quantum computers – and prompted a new one.
  2. Notes
Footnote 730: