Third Year

It's been three years down the road, and I would like to thank fellow Clearthought Singapore veterans and all my regular readers for staying on this channel.

I'll probably write a more substantial post a little later, because I went to the Darwin and Wallace talk in late June and took extensive notes, but right now my situation is not conducive to serious blogging.

So, to mark this third blogiversary I'll leave you with this little piece of Socratic dialogue, inspired by the post "don't need doctors anymore" at Angry Doc's site.

I hope you'll find it funny and interesting.

**********

Geordie: "Did you know that Steve McCurry, the photographer who took the famous 'Afghan Girl' photo came to Singapore and gave a talk at SMU?

Freddie: "Dang, I missed that. I went to John van Wyhe's talk at NUS instead. So, anything interesting?"

Geordie: "Somebody asked him what brand of camera he used. Ha ha, can you believe it?"

Freddie: "Heh, don't tell me it's the Nikon vs Canon dickfight again. Or is it Leica vs Zeiss?"

Geordie: "It's the Nikon vs Canon. I think that marketing hype is making people stupid. Nobody would ask a famous painter what brand of paintbrushes he used, so why should people care about the brand of camera that a famous photographer used? As long as the picture is focused and well-exposed would it have mattered if he used a disposable camera?"

Freddie: "I think that tool worship is common to people who don't understand or are not interested in the process. Perhaps the professionals themselves are contributing to this misunderstanding by making the process look too easy. The tool IS the profession. I can totally see it from that point of view."

Geordie: "What are you talking about? Are you saying that a camera can walk by itself to Afghanistan, endure the hardships of a wartorn environment, seek out interesting people, interact with them and produce a well-composed and expertly-timed shot?

Freddie: "Look, a camera is what takes the photos, right? If Steve McCurry didn't have a camera with him when he saw the Afghan Girl, the photo could never happen. You can consider him merely as a vehicle to bring the camera to the Afghan Girl and then press the shutter button. All he did was to travel to a remote place, turn some dials and push some buttons - the camera did all of the 'real' work."

Geordie: "Ha ha, that's a pretty twisted way to see it. The facts are the same but the emphasis is backwards. From such a view you can dismiss the photographer as an incidental, or even an irrelevant aspect of the photographic process!"

Freddie: "You don't need photographers any more, you just need an expensive brand name camera. The photographer only pushed a button! Anyone can push a button."

Geordie: "From that perspective you can pretty much dismiss the work of any professional. Teachers? Anyone can talk and write something on the whiteboard. The textbook IS education. Scientists? Anyone can push buttons and transfer liquids from one tube to another. The PCR machine IS research. Oh man..."

Freddie: "There you go."

Geordie: "Who could see it that way? Apart from a few strange people? I mean, that can't be a prevalent view, right?"

Freddie: "I suspect that it is more common than you think. To a society that is obsessed with results and performance indicators, most people can't be bothered about the process behind anything. What they want are results, now now now! Don't care how you do it. Just tell me what I want to hear."

Geordie: "But without the process you cannot have results."

Freddie: "But even with the process, you may not have results. So why care about the process? As long it produces a result that you like, it must be a 'good' process, whatever it is."

Geordie: "Ha ha, this must be a personality-dependent thing, because I don't understand how anyone can think that way. I suppose it is some kind of superduper mental shortcut. Good photo = expensive branded camera. Expensive = good. Cheap = lousy. Quick and easy."

Freddie: "Easy on the brain, but difficult on the wallet!"

Geordie: "Yeah, which reminds me of that neverending treadmill of earning and spending. If the price is the primary gauge of what is 'good' then people must keep buying more and more expensive stuff in order to feel a sense of improvement in their lives."

Freddie: "That's good news for the marketing people."

Geordie: "For the Nikon marketing people, Canon marketing people, or the disposable camera marketing people?"

Freddie: "Ha ha... suffice to say that happiness is not free, but it is surprisingly inexpensive.

Geordie: "It is meaningless to talk about the 'expense' of happiness. It's a process. You can't just stuff happiness into a bottle and slap a brand label on it."

Freddie: "Actually I think you can. And someone will pay real money for it."

Geordie: "Someone?"

Freddie: "Everyone."

Everybody Cheats... At Least A Little Bit

Interesting talk by MIT behavioural economist Dan Ariely about the psychology of cheating and how it relates to the stock market.






While the observation that morality is heavily dependent on the social context is not new, what really impressed me most is the implication of his experimental results - that a moral code not only helps to regulate in-group behaviour, but also concurrently enhance in-group loyalty via a "Us vs Them" mechanism.

Even if the moral code itself is completely made up!

I don't understand why there is a deep human need to feel morally superior to other people, but this need can clearly be exploited by people who stand to benefit richly from it.

Pipette tip to Mind Hacks.


Would you like to know more?

Another TED talk by Prof. Dan Ariely
- Are we in control of our own decisions?
- Predictably Irrational

Rise Of Creationism In Asia

Brandon at The Biology Refugia wonders why the creationist/ID movement has suddenly gained prominence outside of the USA in the past ten years or so.

I see the rise of the movement more as an incremental phenomenon, though likely spurred on in recent times by eight years of the Bush administration.

Monuments of ignorance such as the Creation Museum and the Discovery Institute have undoubtedly ignited the enthusiasm of others who are interested in replicating these impressive results in their own country.

Brandon also asked:

"So, future intellectual historians of our times: why is this happening now? And why simultaneously in societies so different from each other and from the US, where all this started?"

That's a great question - an interesting consequence of globalization is that with the increased exposure to travel and mass media, two people in one "society" of a country can have practically nothing in common, whereas two people living in different continents may share practically the same motivations and goals.

This has and will continue to create tensions between people living in the same "society" who share the same nationality, ethnicity, language and cultural history but yet have completely different or even conflicting worldviews.

Yau-man Chan at the Skepticblog puts it this way:

"The problem I have with Chinese fundamentalist Christians is how could they discard their own history? For better or for worse, we come from an ancient culture and definitely have the baggage to show for it. We have written history as old as any Middle Eastern civilizations. We have our own legends and sagas to tell the stories of our glorious ancient past. So how can a Chinese, knowing his own culture and historical past become a Young Earth Creationist? How can a person have two histories? What kind of mental gymnastic must my YEC classmates perform to adopt the Genesis stories as real and to discard the narratives of our forebearers was mere legends?"

Considering that respect for our ancestors and cultural history is an integral part of many East Asia societies, it is curious to observe that so many people are abandoning their own identity and embracing a foreign culture wholesale.

Perhaps their own local culture is not atas (high class) enough for them.

In any case, it is interesting to discuss how these people insist on "traditional values" that are not really traditions in their own culture but are actually imported "traditions" from a Western country, eg. USA.

What do you think?

Aw... What A Cute Song!

For some odd reason I can't seem to find the lyrics to this song so I've decided to transcribe it myself.

Enjoy...?

Screw You

by Kate Micucci
(featured in Scrubs Season 8 Episode 8)

Short Version

F: I've got too many questions in my mind.
M: I've got too many answers to find.

F: Can I give up all I've imagined?
M: Am I magical enough for this to happen?

F: Because I like you.
M: I like you.
F: I like you.
M: I like you...

Both: And like can lead to like-like.
And like-like can lead to love...

Sure as the stars above I'd really like to (F) screw/(M) kiss you.

M: Oh.
F: Oh.

Full Version

F: I've got so many questions in my mind.
M: I've got so many answers to find.

F: Can you be the man I've imagined?
M: Am I magical enough for this to happen?

F: Because I like you.
M: I like you.
F: I like you.
M: I like you...

Both: And like can lead to like-like.
And like-like can lead to love...

Sure as the stars above I'd really like to (F) screw/(M) kiss you.

M: Oh.
F: Oh.

M: Can I be the man you're looking for?
F: Can I be your girl forever more?

M: I'll try real hard not to lose her.
F: And I'll try to be less of a loser.

M: Because I like you.
F: I like you.
M: I like you.
F: I like you...

Both: And like can lead to like-like.
And like-like can lead to love...

Sure as the stars above I'd really like to (F) kiss/(M) screw you.

(F) Screw/(M) Kiss you
(F) Kiss/(M) Screw you
(F) Screw/(M) Kiss you

Both: Screw you.


Would you like to know more?

- Kate Micucci website
- The full song (YouTube)

How To Do It

Have you ever wondered why professionals in technical fields can become so grumpy and pessimistic?





Yes it would be sooooo nice if one simple, quick solution can be found for everything, such as "Just believe in success and you would achieve success!" or "Just vote for us and we'll guarantee job security and societal stability!" or "Just stop eating animals and you can prevent heart attacks, cancers and achieve world peace!" or "Just believe this book and everything will finally make sense when you attain eternal life!"

Pollyannas are especially annoying.

Not only because they keep shifting goalposts to make everything look cheery.

Not only because they dismiss the difficulties that technical people face with cute soundbites or the mere wave of a hand...

But most of all, because they are not the ones who have to take any real responsibility when their over-optimistic and simplistic plans end in utter failure.

It's never the "Vision" that is flawed!

It's always the workers "down there" - they are too complacent, they don't work hard enough, they are not resilient enough, they are not sufficiently hungry for "Success", they don't "believe" in the "Vision"...

The world is ruled by obscenely wealthy and well-connected people who are impressed by "The Secret" or "Who Moved My Cheese?" or "The Purpose Driven Life", while other people who make their opulent lifestyle even remotely possible with the blood and tears of their toil are marginalized and fed table scraps.

This is not a sustainable situation.