RE: Friam Digest, Vol 24, Issue 1

[Nick Thompson]

Hi, All,

Looking forward to tomorrow.  

Two topics.  I really would like to try on you some thoughts with respect
to the slippery slope of non-realism, which have been running around in my
head since arrowhead.

My own brand of realism is a curious sort invented by four of James's
students, Holt, Montague, Perry, and ........The Fourth, who ever he was.
Holt taught JJ Gibson,father of one version of ecological psychology   and
Perry taught E. C. Tolman, father of coognitive psychology.  Holt's
expressed the idea perhaps most clearly when he said that consciousness was
a slice through reality.  So that each of us sees something true about the
world.    An animal's Concscious is defined as that portion of reality to
which that  animal respnds. This yields a position of no privileged access
to one's own consciousness.  Similarly,  your consciousness is in principle
something that I can experience, as long as I look at the world from where
you stand, in some extended sense.  

Similarly, there is no privileged access to one's own culture.  Each
"experiencer" of a culture has a valid view of it.   Just how far IS that
position from a pomo view of anthrpology.  Is my realist soul in danger?

I am also hoping to talk about patches.   Suddenly there are patches
everywhere.  For instance, Coen's book, The Art of the Gene, seems to
regard development as the fillilng in of a vast paint by numbers scheme.
Genes as of two general type, those that put numbers in regions of the
page, and those that tell the artist what to paint in areas bearing a
particular number.  This seems so amenable to netlogo treatment as to have
been designed for it.

Similarly, Jonathan Barker's settings theory (which some of us got a touch
of yesterday) seems to make a distinction between agents and settings that
is wonderfully amenable to this sort of ABM treatment.  I think Jonathan
will be coming with me to the meeting tomorrow.

Take care, all,

Nicholas S. Thompson
Professor of Psychology and Ethology
Clark University
[hidden email]
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/
 [hidden email]

> [Original Message]
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> To: <[hidden email]>
> Date: 6/1/2005 10:00:25 AM
> Subject: Friam Digest, Vol 24, Issue 1
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> Today's Topics:
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>    1. Reminder Today: James Stalker WedTech lecture (Stephen Guerin)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 00:58:31 -0600
> From: "Stephen Guerin" <[hidden email]>
> Subject: [FRIAM] Reminder Today: James Stalker WedTech lecture
> To: "Friam" <[hidden email]>
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> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
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> *** Reminder - Today ***
>
> TITLE: Regional Earth System Predictability Research (RESPR) Capabilities
> SPEAKER: James Stalker
> AFFILIATION: RESPR (http://www.Respr.com)
> TIME: Wed June 1, 12:30p
> LOCATION: 624 Agua Fria Conference Room
>
> ABSTRACT:
> At RESPR, our current focus has been to develop highly accurate model wind
> assessments and wind power forecasts for wind project developers and wind

farm
> operators, respectively.  We have developed many atmospheric model
features and
> other software algorithms and cluster computing strategies to perform
these
> computationally demanding fluid dynamical calculations very fast.  Some
of our
> atmospheric model project results will be discussed so the audience
appreciates
> the product development aspects better.
>
> In this presentation, a concise overview of the research capabilities of
RESPR
> will be given, including an overview on its parallel computational
resources and
> on James Stalker’s professional background.  Some thoughts on how fluid
dynamics

> concepts may be applied to agent-based models (ABMs) will be presented.
>
> RSVP [hidden email] if you want pizza slices...
>
>
>
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> End of Friam Digest, Vol 24, Issue 1
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[Jochen Fromm-2]

Hi Nick,

What do you think of Baldwin's views on evolution
and development? Wouldn't that be a good topic
to talk about? I think reading Baldwin or James
is a pleasure. It is like reading Aristotle, Plato
or Darwin: everything is clear, simple, accessible
and easy to understand.

You asked recently for models of "development".
Baldwin is known for the "Baldwin Effect" and
similar to Jean Piaget for his work on mental
development in children. Often the founders of
a science have said it already (philosophy as
a footnote to Plato etc.).

-J.

William James (1842-1910)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James

"The Principles of Psychology", William James, 1890
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/

James Mark Baldwin (1861-1934)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Mark_Baldwin

"History of Psychology", James M. Baldwin, 1913
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Baldwin/History/

"Mental Development in the Child and the Race"
http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~lward/Baldwin/Baldwin_1906/Baldwin_1906_toc.htm
l

"Social and Ethical Interpretation in Mental Development"
http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~lward/Baldwin/Baldwin_1899/Baldwin_1899_toc.htm
l