Proposed by Matt.

Chapter 2. Humans in Universe

We read Bucky to discern the truth in our lives and in the world. As we read Critical Path it is wise to consider applying the material to what you witness in final examination.

For this week we will consider three topics for discussion.

Topic One:

On page 25 of Critical Path Bucky writes, “throughout all earlier times until yesterday, the ruling social powers assumed the human masses to be universally ignorant”

Question: In what ways is this view incorrect?

What are the artifacts that he describes in chapter 2. and who developed them?

Who... Click Here to Continue Reading

I am not all that well versed in the exercise of religious power, but the recent storm accusing Pope Benedict XVI, ex-Cardinal Ratzinger of covering up for kiddies rape and abuse got me thinking… Or is it homosexuality?

Should the man be power hungry, and one has to be to battle all the way up to head of state, could his now proven knowledge of priests pedophily/homosexuality have been leveraged to gain this position?

Is it a sin to question the integrity of Saints? Is it a sin not to? The man is attempting to take the higher moral ground, and really, what else were we expecting? But doing so by belitteling the victims of his armies got me wondering…
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In part 4, we saw that we could not believe any prediction of the life expectancy of a non-renewable resource until you have confirmed the prediction by repeating the calculation.

Using the alleged and often repeated number that the US coal reserves are sufficient to last for 500 years, Professor Bartlet exposes the fallacy of “sustainable growth” and how false and dangerously soothing ideas are propagated in the public.

Taking us back to the 1970′es, he analyses the responses and comments of the time to the energy crisis in order to determine how things could turn when it returns: It becomes rapidly obvious that “the experts”, the media and... Click Here to Continue Reading

This Boltzmann’s import-export-import-export; entropy-syntropy entropy syntropy, cosmically complementary, human-heart-like, eternally pulsative, evolutionary regeneration system, also locally manifests itself in the terrestrial biosphere as the ever alternatively, omni-inter-pulsing, barometric highs and lows of the weather.

As an instance of chasm-spanning between science and the humanities by conceptually transformative energy-quanta accounting, synergetics conceptually elucidates the Boltzmann import-export, entropy-syntropy transaction and the elegant manner in which nature accommodates the “hidden ball” play of now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t energy transference.Click Here to Continue Reading

A distinction between growth, development, and evolution.

At this point in our series tearing to pieces the fallacy of sustainable growth, it becomes important to distinguish between growth, development, and evolution. Evolution involves a process of directional (but non-directed) change that leads from states closer to thermodynamic and chemical equilibrium to those further removed from it. As such, it describes a tendency toward states further removed from thermodynamic and chemical equilibrium. More simply put, it is “a general way of conceptualizing the self-organizing selection process of the universe displayed in … increasing complexity”. Development really relates... Click Here to Continue Reading