If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact – not to be solved, but to be coped with over time.
— Shimon Peres
I have lead many a discussion with constructivists – who deny that such a concept as “truth” exists. I understand and respect their motivation – a distrust of proclaimed truth, which is the hallmark of ideology. I always say that truth in science is something different: while ideologists posit the truth (they already “have” it) [...]
Making sense of data requires visualization methods – here is an ingenious overview: A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods Technorati Tags: complexity, statistics
Watch this video, it is truly stunning: although I do feel very sorry for the Stormtroopers (being a devout Imperial ). GameDrift – Technology and Gaming Combined – Previews – Star Wars: Force Unleashed – AI Tech Demo Star Wars: Force Unleashed – AI Tech Demo Technorati Tags: artificial intelligence, entertainment
Here some more links devoted to rational thinking, which I found on the site mentioned in the previous post and which are simply excellent: Chance Welcome Page Fallacy Files Argument Mapping Tutorials Technorati Tags: bias, cognitive science, rationality, statistics
One of the most important skills today is critical thinking. We live in an information overflow society – the problem is not information access, but information filtering, and yes, even drawing conclusions contrary to the information being presented (because it is false/dumbed down/rests on false assumptions etc etc). I recently read a good paper by [...]
A new book has come out which casts into serious doubt some of the models which have influenced policy-makers so far. This further convinces me that it is time to lay a serious philosophy of science foundation for modelling; especially the semantics of models, which have not yet received due attention (interpretation is more of [...]
Buckminster Fuller seems to have been a very remarkable person, so I would like to introduce him here on my blog. I like his word creations (text from Wikipedia, retrieved 18 Feb 2007): Use of language and neologisms Buckminster Fuller spoke and wrote in a unique style and thought it crucial to describe the world [...]
Much has been written on ethics in philosophy and elsewhere, but in fact it all boils down to this in the end: “How can morality be defined?” This is one of the ageless questions, asked by man. It is a question that has been answered from almost the moment it was asked. The problem is [...]
This is a very nice paper, especially well suited for a first introduction: Heylighen F. (2001): “The Science of Self-organization and Adaptivity”, in: L. D. Kiel, (ed.) Knowledge Management, Organizational Intelligence and Learning, and Complexity, in: The Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems ((EOLSS), (Eolss Publishers, Oxford) @INCOLLECTION {Heylighen2001, title = {The science of self-organization and [...]
I’m starting a new category: paper of the week. Here, I want to introduce papers important to complexity science and my research, together with related weblinks. Please note that paper of the week means neither at minimum nor at maximum a paper a week, it’s just more of a moniker with a hint to the [...]
