[FRIAM] nice quote

Sat Oct 5 16:51:14 EDT 2024

Wasn't a paper linked to here that said that the only solution to the
existential problem of climate change is to reduce the population of the
earth to 1 billion from 8 billion?

---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz,
Santa Fe, NM 87505

505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM

On Sat, Oct 5, 2024, 2:36 PM Prof David West <profwest at fastmail.fm> wrote:

> Our science illuminates global warming.
>
> Our political institutions are incapable of crafting solutions absent so
> many loopholes as the make the exercise near pointless.
>
> Individuals operating in those institutions are driven by greed, power
> lust, ego, and all manner of what the Buddha called "attachments."
>
> davew
>
>
> On Sat, Oct 5, 2024, at 12:26 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
>
> So in what sense and for what purposes is this pithy aphorism useful?
> What exactly is the pith?
>
> If a metaphor, what is truth in the metaphor, the positive analog.
> Nobody ever said that all metaphors are *entirely* wrong.
>
> and yes, I am being pissy.
>
> n
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Oct 5, 2024 at 11:04 AM steve smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:
>
> All *Pithy Aphorisms* are wrong, some are useful?
>
> On 10/5/24 9:06 AM, Prof David West wrote:
>
> 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.
>
> davew
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 4, 2024, at 8:46 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
>
> 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.
>
> N
>
> On Fri, Oct 4, 2024 at 7:01 PM steve smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:
>
> Emotions/Limbic systems evolve at genetic rates, institutions evolve at
> social/cultural rates (maybe the fastest significant change can
> happen/resolve is in multiple lifetimes?) but technology is advancing at
> must faster rates?
>
> Or is this wrong(headed) also?
>
> On 10/4/24 3:43 PM, glen wrote:
> > None of that is true, however romantic it might sound. Depending on
> > how one defines "emotion", that smells the most true. But the
> > mechanisms of emotion are as coupled to current reality as is every
> > part of our bodies. To suggest that, say, the Space Force or methods
> > like quantitative easing are medieval is just nonsense. Technology is
> > more democratized than it has ever been. Granted, it takes (a lot) of
> > work to familiarize oneself with something like how GPS works or how
> > to NOT click on that phishing email. But to suggest that it's
> > "godlike" says more about the person than it does about the state of
> > technology.
> >
> > On 10/4/24 11:16, Prof David West wrote:
> >> /"The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic
> >> emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. And it is
> >> terrifically dangerous."/ Edward O. Wilson.
> >>
> >
> >
>
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> --
> Nicholas S. Thompson
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology
> Clark University
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> Clark University
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