More than just Invisible

More than just Invisible
Showing posts with label The Guardian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Guardian. Show all posts

Wednesday, 3 July 2013

Loving uncertainty...

This is an interesting article from the Guardian that touches on some of the themes that interest me. I would say however, that it is scientists who have put forward the view that 'science' reveals certainties rather than the general public.

 

We must learn to love uncertainty and failure, say leading thinkers

by Alok Jha, from the guardian
 
 
Planet's biggest brains answer this year's Edge question: 'What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit.
 
 
Yellow caution sign with question mark in forest
Edge of reason: Doubt and uncertainty are essential elements of the scientific process. Photograph: Getty Images
Being comfortable with uncertainty, knowing the limits of what science can tell us, and understanding the worth of failure are all valuable tools that would improve people's lives, according to some of the world's leading thinkers.
The ideas were submitted as part of an annual exercise by the web magazine Edge, which invites scientists, philosophers and artists to opine on a major question of the moment. This year it was, "What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?"
The magazine called for "shorthand abstractions" – a way of encapsulating an idea or scientific concept into a short description that could be used as a component of bigger questions. The responses were published online today.

Wednesday, 26 June 2013

The acceptable face of paranoia



Spy

 Howls of anguish and anger have greeted the latest revelations in the unfolding internet surveillance scandal; Outraged (foreign) politicians and the chattering classes are up in arms that Britain's GCHQ is intercepting and holding internet traffic into and out of the country for up to 30 days in a way that is apparently legal. Even worse from their point of view is that GCHQ has boasted that they're doing better than the NSA in gathering data and one of the formers' legal advisers' is quoted as saying "They [the UK Parliamentary intelligence and security committee supposed to oversee GCHQ] have always been exceptionally good at understanding the need to keep our work secret". You don't say...