Both parsimony and plentitude are well worn terms (with relatively precise meanings) within the world of science ---- but buttressing each scientific term are two long standing but wildly varying philosophies of life that we all must chose between.
The two philosophies agree just once : in both accepting that current - readily observable - reality does appear to be very dynamic and complex.
Showing posts with label plentitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plentitude. Show all posts
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Friday, November 21, 2014
Two Tier Internet the Johnson-Reed Bill of its day : plenticiding "digital plentitude"
Modernity (1875-1965), the mean-spirited ideology that was a panicky response to all the plentitudes that global modernization and advances in science had thrown up , has a lot of faults to its credit.
One of the most infamous was the 1924 Johnson-Reed Bill, an Act that shut New York City's Golden Door for over 40 years.
Republican Albert Johnson ,along with fellow Republican David Reed, had foundationed that Bill's restrictions upon their racist cum social Darwinist cum eugenic cum anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-catholic philosophy.
Why did they fear the new plentitude so much ?
One of the most infamous was the 1924 Johnson-Reed Bill, an Act that shut New York City's Golden Door for over 40 years.
Republican Albert Johnson ,along with fellow Republican David Reed, had foundationed that Bill's restrictions upon their racist cum social Darwinist cum eugenic cum anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-catholic philosophy.
Why did they fear the new plentitude so much ?
Friday, October 17, 2014
Modern Science : offering both Plentitude and Plenticide
New raw data is rarely important to scientists : far more important is what is the most currently socially profitable spin to put on this new raw data.
In their individual activities in their own small personal areas of interest,the collectivity of scientists were adding greatly to the Modern Era's overwhelming sense of sensory overload from a plentitude of new facts and sensations.
Life on Earth and Earth itself was much older than thought - from thousands of years to billions.
Ditto the Universe - billions of years old, trillions upon trillions of other suns like ours, other planets like ours.
An outwardly expanding and growing Universe - perhaps expanding and growing forever.
Ever more species being discovered, every more elements, compounds - ever more and more.
With no end in sight.
If scientists kept up with this, they'd soon be as popular as lions at a lambing.
And this was the first generation of wannabe professional scientists - a generation hoping to be well paid and well pensioned for a lifetime of scientific work.
No more amateurs scientists free to say and do as they pleased.
Professional scientists sang to the public for their supper - what they the public wanted , the scientists gave them.
So plentitude of new facts , beings and objects on one hand.
But on the other - the meat cleaver of plenticide.
It took many forms (Social Darwinism being only the best known) but the bottom line was most of this plenticide was living mistakes, living fossils - early tentative working outs on the way to a few pure perfect forms.
Plato would rescue us from Aristotle .....
In their individual activities in their own small personal areas of interest,the collectivity of scientists were adding greatly to the Modern Era's overwhelming sense of sensory overload from a plentitude of new facts and sensations.
Life on Earth and Earth itself was much older than thought - from thousands of years to billions.
Ditto the Universe - billions of years old, trillions upon trillions of other suns like ours, other planets like ours.
An outwardly expanding and growing Universe - perhaps expanding and growing forever.
Ever more species being discovered, every more elements, compounds - ever more and more.
With no end in sight.
If scientists kept up with this, they'd soon be as popular as lions at a lambing.
And this was the first generation of wannabe professional scientists - a generation hoping to be well paid and well pensioned for a lifetime of scientific work.
No more amateurs scientists free to say and do as they pleased.
Professional scientists sang to the public for their supper - what they the public wanted , the scientists gave them.
So plentitude of new facts , beings and objects on one hand.
But on the other - the meat cleaver of plenticide.
It took many forms (Social Darwinism being only the best known) but the bottom line was most of this plenticide was living mistakes, living fossils - early tentative working outs on the way to a few pure perfect forms.
Plato would rescue us from Aristotle .....
Friday, October 10, 2014
This Era of Plentudism : the post modern welcoming of plenitude vs modern plenticide
We are - deniers aside - all plentudists these days.
We actually welcome and cherish the chaos and complexity of a multilayered world - welcome and cherish communities composed of many wildly different little neighbourhoods.
'The more the merrier' is today our motto.
We are all Jane Jacobs and not Robert Moses today - we are all Henry Dawson and not Howard Florey these days.
We actually welcome and cherish the chaos and complexity of a multilayered world - welcome and cherish communities composed of many wildly different little neighbourhoods.
'The more the merrier' is today our motto.
We are all Jane Jacobs and not Robert Moses today - we are all Henry Dawson and not Howard Florey these days.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
The Axis/Allied plenticides of life and compassion
I see strong links between WWII and our current (human-driven) "Sixth Extinction" laying waste to the plenitude of Nature.
The eugenic Nazis believed that the plenitude of humanity needed drastic pruning - starting with the Jews and Slavs.
Their plenticidal crime was against the right of all humans to exist.
The eugenic Allies/Neutrals told us to stifle our plenitude of compassion for the weak and the unfit - to limit our compassion to the fate of our own 'fit' .
Their plenticidal crime was against compassion for strangers.
My biographical subject ,Martin Henry Dawson ,("Manhattan Misfits") rebuked all three. His Manhattan Project ("Penicillin-for-All") originally hoped to save just a few strangers from an eugenic and heartless Allied medical establishment.
It ended up rousing a nation and changed our whole world for the better -- forever.
The eugenic Nazis believed that the plenitude of humanity needed drastic pruning - starting with the Jews and Slavs.
Their plenticidal crime was against the right of all humans to exist.
The eugenic Allies/Neutrals told us to stifle our plenitude of compassion for the weak and the unfit - to limit our compassion to the fate of our own 'fit' .
Their plenticidal crime was against compassion for strangers.
My biographical subject ,Martin Henry Dawson ,("Manhattan Misfits") rebuked all three. His Manhattan Project ("Penicillin-for-All") originally hoped to save just a few strangers from an eugenic and heartless Allied medical establishment.
It ended up rousing a nation and changed our whole world for the better -- forever.
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