<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title></title><style type="text/css">p.MsoNormal,p.MsoNoSpacing{margin:0}</style></head><body><div style="font-family:Arial;">Our science illuminates global warming.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">Our political institutions are incapable of crafting solutions absent so many loopholes as the make the exercise near pointless.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">Individuals operating in those institutions are driven by greed, power lust, ego, and all manner of what the Buddha called "attachments."<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">davew<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div>On Sat, Oct 5, 2024, at 12:26 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:<br></div><blockquote type="cite" id="qt" style=""><div dir="ltr"><div>So in what sense and for what purposes is this pithy aphorism useful? What exactly is the pith?<br></div><div><br></div><div>If a metaphor, what is truth in the metaphor, the positive analog. Nobody ever said that all metaphors are <i>entirely</i> wrong.<br></div><div><br></div><div>and yes, I am being pissy.<br></div><div><br></div><div>n<br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div><br></div><div class="qt-gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="qt-gmail_attr">On Sat, Oct 5, 2024 at 11:04 AM steve smith <<a href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com">sasmyth@swcp.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="qt-gmail_quote" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204, 204, 204);padding-left:1ex;"><div><blockquote><p>All <i>Pithy Aphorisms</i> are wrong, some are useful?<br></p></blockquote><div>On 10/5/24 9:06 AM, Prof David West
wrote:<br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div style="font-family:Arial;">my affection for the quote derives
from a metaphorical reading, not a literal one. Something akin
to Steve's differential rates of evolution. I also would have
eschewed 'god like' in favor of 'magical' ala Clarke's dictum
about any sufficiently advanced technology.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">davew<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div>On Fri, Oct 4, 2024, at 8:46 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:<br></div><blockquote type="cite" id="qt-m_3719146269230241149qt"><div dir="ltr"><div>I think that this way of talking about emotions precludes
careful thought. First of all, neurologizing emotions is
just to hide the pea under the wrong thimble. I don't think
paleolithologizig helps much more. Glen is correct that,
whatever an emotion is, its inputs and outputs are
ontogenetically and culturally determined. So, fear, for
instance, is a relation between something that we take to be
threatening and something that we hope will be avoidance.
Inputs and outputs are everything. The rest is just
arousal.<br></div><div><br></div><div>N<br></div></div><div><br></div><div><div dir="ltr">On Fri, Oct 4, 2024 at
7:01 PM steve smith <<a href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com" target="_blank">sasmyth@swcp.com</a>>
wrote:<br></div><blockquote style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204, 204, 204);padding-left:1ex;"><div>Emotions/Limbic systems evolve at genetic rates,
institutions evolve at<br></div><div>social/cultural rates (maybe the fastest significant
change can<br></div><div>happen/resolve is in multiple lifetimes?) but
technology is advancing at<br></div><div>must faster rates?<br></div><div><br></div><div>Or is this wrong(headed) also?<br></div><div><br></div><div>On 10/4/24 3:43 PM, glen wrote:<br></div><div>> None of that is true, however romantic it might
sound. Depending on<br></div><div>> how one defines "emotion", that smells the most
true. But the<br></div><div>> mechanisms of emotion are as coupled to current
reality as is every<br></div><div>> part of our bodies. To suggest that, say, the
Space Force or methods<br></div><div>> like quantitative easing are medieval is just
nonsense. Technology is<br></div><div>> more democratized than it has ever been. Granted,
it takes (a lot) of<br></div><div>> work to familiarize oneself with something like
how GPS works or how<br></div><div>> to NOT click on that phishing email. But to
suggest that it's<br></div><div>> "godlike" says more about the person than it does
about the state of<br></div><div>> technology.<br></div><div>><br></div><div>> On 10/4/24 11:16, Prof David West wrote:<br></div><div>>> /"The real problem of humanity is the
following: we have Paleolithic<br></div><div>>> emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike
technology. And it is<br></div><div>>> terrifically dangerous."/ Edward O. Wilson.<br></div><div>>><br></div><div>><br></div><div>><br></div><div><br></div><div>-. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . /
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