A good lecture by Robert Sapolsky on emergence and complexity in biology — watch here. This was lecture 22 on Human Behavioral Biology. Also, I did not realize that Stanford University had so many YouTube uploads.
Category: science (Page 16 of 24)
The history of consciousness and its origins fascinate me. It seems that either all life (and perhaps the universe itself) is “conscious” or, if false, then there existed an “Adam” who was the first human born with consciousness. These books propose other theories on this idea; they all deal with the brain and consciousness. I have not yet read them, as I am still in the process of reading Godel, Escher, Bach and the Tree of Knowledge.
The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Timothy Leary,
Ralph Metzner, and Ram Dass.
Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge – A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution by Terence McKenna
DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences by Dr. Rick Strassman
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes
I really enjoyed reading Longitude: The True Story of the Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time by Dava Sobel. The book provides a well written narrative on the eventual development by John Harrison of a chronometer which could accurately measure time during ocean voyages.
This post is a sequel to a previous story.
Warren, Ben, David, and Taylor meet again. This time they are violently coughing.
Ben: Why is the air is so dirty?
Taylor: Yes, I can hardly see more than a mile through the pollution.
David: It’s sad that we have done this to our once beautiful city. Will we ever be able to clean the air?
Ben: Not sure, perhaps Warren has another great idea?
Warren: I have an idea, but I am not sure if it will work. More of hypothesis really…
David: Any idea is a good idea in these depressing times.
Taylor: Please tell us your idea Warren.
Warren: Well, it’s similar to that idea I had along time ago about pieces of the paper.
Ben: Yes! How could we forget, that idea made us very rich!
David: Make pieces of paper to clean air?
Taylor: I don’t see the point yet, but please continue.
Warren: Just think of these figures — the average human lives 67 years; this person will inhale about 11,000 to 14,000 liters of air each day; thus, in a life-time a person will inhale about 6.5 billion liters of air.
David: Wow! that seems like an enormous quantity of air.
Warren: It’s about the volume of 2,600 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Taylor: Remarkable when you put it into perspective.
Ben: What do these figures mean?
Warren: Ah, well they provide an upper estimate on the volume of air a person needs to live for a life-time. Now, we can place a value on clean-air.
Ben: With pieces of paper?
Warren: Yes, exactly.
David: Each piece of paper could be worth a life-time of clean air?
Taylor: Interesting…
Warren: Sounds like a good idea, right?
Ben: I think so, but there are some issues with this idea.
Warren: Please explain.
Ben: Well, what if a person does not own one of these pieces of paper? Do they not get to breathe? It does not seem possible to force people to buy these papers.
Warren: I would never allow that to happen! Rather, these pieces of paper are only theoretical rights to clean air. Much like the idea of paper representing the value of a company. The paper only obtains value through trading in a market.
David: I see! Through the complex interaction of market agents we will be able to establish the value of clean air.
Taylor: Not to mention the money we will intially raise by selling these pieces of paper.
Ben: Just like Warren’s other idea!
David: Ironically, people would expect the value to increase as pollution gets worse.
Warren: And, as the value increases, a larger amount of money can be raised by additional issuance of these papers. With this money we could develop sophisticated clean air technologies.
David: If the technologies work then the value of the papers should decrease.
Warren: True.
Ben: I like the idea. But I feel it would not work. An international organization would have to be responsible for issuing these pieces of paper; the organization’s sole purpose would be to clean and reduce pollution. And, as we know from history, corruption is always a problem.
Taylor: I agree. If the people running the organization don’t spend the money properly, the whole idea will crumble.
Warren: Well, like I said before, I am not sure if the idea will work.
David: I think it’s at least worth a try.
Ben: Agreed!
Taylor: So… how do we get this idea off the ground?
Exploring Complexity is a good blog on the science of complexity by Melanie Mitchell.
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