On the enigma of Consciousness

This morning I received an interesting paper from Iona Miller, contributor to Fourth Wave, and also creator of a site for which I am an advisor, on the workings of consciousness. I found this paper, by Chris King, Mathematics Department, University of Auckland, to be very much up my alley in terms of my own thinking.

Paper: The Central Enigma of Consciousness

 

As we proceed into our future, it would be a good thing to understand who we might be. This paper sheds some light on that phenomenon and I recommend reading it.

What’s Wrong With Economics?

What’s Wrong With Economics?

• Just about everything. But we already knew that. Good post for the uninformed.

What’s At Stake With Bailing Out Bankers: Money as Debt

• Watch this video. It could be the most important 47 minutes of your life.

Eric Greenberg and Karl Weber: The Millennials: America’s First Post-Ideological, Post-Partisan, and Post-Political Generation

Eric Greenberg and Karl Weber: The Millennials: America’s First Post-Ideological, Post-Partisan, and Post-Political Generation

• Wow, somebody important has picked up on something that those of us who actually interact with young people every day have known for years.

Contagion and Remission of Ideologies

Contagion? Remission? Of ideologies? What, is an ideology a disease, then?

In a word, yes.

An ideology is a seemingly coherent set of beliefs that, at best, emanates from a small handful of unfalsifiable postulates. (At worst, the beliefs are much more random and self-contradictory than that.) Because these postulates are unassailable, the entire belief system — the entire ideology — is built on a house of cards. So, too, is the life of the person afflicted with ideology.

Sustainability, Entropy and Thermoeconomics

Mainstream economics exposes itself frequently as a futile enterprise: The emperor has no clothes.

One of the important evolutions our future holds in store for us is a transition from the antiquated and useless neoclassical synthesis of mainstream economics to something called thermoeconomics.

Great walls hide eyesores as migrants told to leave

Great walls hide eyesores as migrants told to leave

• Did the Olympic Committee know this would happen when Beijing was selected for 2008?
• If so, why did they go ahead with Beijing? This is not what the Olympics are about, or is it?
• If not, could somebody wake them up from their nap?

Hoffa Rejects ‘Drilling Our Way Out’ of Energy Crisis, Demands Long-Term Policy Solutions

Hoffa Rejects ‘Drilling Our Way Out’ of Energy Crisis, Demands Long-Term Policy Solutions

• This is an interesting evolution. Many labor unions used to fight environmentalists tooth-and-nail, calling them “treehuggers”, because they thought that environmentally sound practices meant an inability to compete, which would mean a loss of jobs. In other words, if strip-mining of coal can’t be done in an environmentally safe manner, then all the miners would lose their jobs.
• Economists like Hoffa seem to be realizing that if you hurt the environment, you hurt the economy. If you hurt the environment a lot, you hurt the economy a lot. And anytime the economy is hurt, it’s going to be the working class that pays the price. You can take that to the bank, if you can find one that isn’t failing.

Equilibrium versus Understanding, Towards the Rehumanizing of Economics within Social Theory

Equilibrium versus Understanding, Towards the Rehumanizing of Economics within Social Theory

• This is a book that came and went. It’s time to bring it back.