Friam Digest, Vol 50, Issue 15

[Nick Thompson]

Dear all,

What a great discussion!  This is the sort of discussion for which I
treasure this list.  

Still, I just would like to add a testy snarl at any establishment figure
who calls himself a heretic.  Dennett did this in Darwin's Dangerous Idea,
trying desparately to wrap himself in the shroud of The Man Himself but
also to appear like a romantic outsider.  Frankly a bit disgusting.  

You cannot be a household name and a heretic in any meanful sense.  I
admire these folks for their skills in science AND in reputation
manipulation, grant getting, editor management, project leadership, etc.,
etc., but NOT for their courage in going it alone in the scientific
wilderness.  That honor probably goes properly to people on this list and
elsewhere whose names we would not recognize.

In the world of science, we do not burn our heretics; we ignore them.

Nick  

[Phil Henshaw-2]

Nick wrote:
>
> In the world of science, we do not burn our heretics; we ignore them.
>
> Nick
>

Much of it is that new points of view are inadvertently read using old
filters, and just don't connect.   In addition many kinds of new points
of view require grasping a complex group of new ideas at once, not just
some new bit of information.   There's also the conflict between old and
new, heightened by the curious human notion that no point of view should
ever change once fixed, as you see in all the professions and politics,
etc.   That's what I think mainly turns 'novelty' into 'heresy' and
'curiosity' into 'denial'.   Just ignoring things is the easiest way to
turn off to new ideas, and also conveniently easy to hide.  It's
unfortunate, but that seems to be our culture, even if during a time of
more and more rapid change, a policy of avoiding it seems counter
productive.  

It's come up several times on FRIAM, that complex systems that tolerate
deep level diversity, rather than maximizing only one thing, are more
capable of learning other things.   It's also a principle of economics,
that mixed economies are more versatile and responsive to change,
recognized as the 'secret' of cities that they support so many
overlapping kinds of commerce, and in nature as the 'secret' of
ecosystems making them richer and more resilient than mono-cultures.  

If we're seeing these things, is there any chance our apparent cultural
urge to keep every new idea from ever changing, is about to?



Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
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