Category Archives: Philosophy

Exploring the roots of disagreement with crocs and socks

Posted on August 15, 2019 by Lascap

Pascal Wallisch & Michael Karlovich The degree of polarized disagreement about current events is at an all-time high, and rising. So we need to understand disagreement better in order to avoid disagreeable results. A key problem when studying discord in … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Psychology, Science | 5 Comments

Pascal’s Wager 2.0

Posted on October 13, 2018 by Lascap

Obviously, you can believe whatever you want about metaphysics, as there is no observable reality to constrain you. That said, I believe the usual debates about theism vs. atheism miss the point. The real issue is not whether the world … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | 1 Comment

Is the overuse of low memory data types to blame for much of tribalism and overall nonsense one encounters online and offline?

Posted on June 12, 2018 by Lascap

The notion of “data types” is probably the most underrated concept outside of computer science that I can think of right now. Briefly, computers use “typed variables” to represent numbers internally. All numbers are internally represented as a collection of … Continue reading →

Posted in Pet peeve, Philosophy | Leave a comment

Retro-viral phenomena: The dress over and over again

Posted on October 12, 2017 by Lascap

It is happening again. Another “dress”-like image just surfaced. As far as I can tell, more or less the same thing is going on. Ill defined lighting conditions in the images are being filled in by lighting assumptions, and they differ … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Psychology, Science, Social commentary | Leave a comment

Beyond free will

Posted on March 23, 2016 by Lascap

Some say that every time philosophy and neuroscience cross, philosophy wins. The usual reason cited for this? Naive and unsophisticated use of concepts and the language to express them within neuroscience. Prime exhibit is the mereological fallacy – the confusion … Continue reading →

Posted in Neuroscience, Pet peeve, Philosophy | 1 Comment

Mary revisited: The Brian problem

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Lascap

Generations of philosophers have been fascinated what has been termed the “Mary problem“. In essence, Mary is the worlds foremost expert on color vision and knows everything that there is to know about it. The catch is that she is … Continue reading →

Posted in Pet peeve, Philosophy | 6 Comments

Did a 6th century Hebrew fortuneteller accidentally do the first documented experiment?

Posted on September 19, 2015 by Lascap

Who did the first experiment? 13th century scholastics like Roger Bacon are usually credited with the invention of the modern scientific method – in particular with regard to doing experiments. Bacon expanded on the work of Robert Grosseteste, who revived … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Philosophy, Science | 1 Comment

Ideological opportunity cost (IOC)

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Lascap

Ideology interferes with an unbiased appraisal of reality. This – in itself – would be detrimental enough, but ideology is far more insidious than that. By nature, ideology is designed to be extremely self-serving and inherently creating in- and an out-groups. … Continue reading →

Posted in Pet peeve, Philosophy, Social commentary | 3 Comments

What should we call simulated data?

Posted on July 30, 2014 by Lascap

Data is not made. Data is born as a result of a measurement process. Taking measurements (in conjunction with a measurement theory) creates data. But then, what should we call – in contrast – the results of simulations, the output of … Continue reading →

Posted in Pet peeve, Philosophy, Science | 1 Comment

The social mission of perceptual research

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Lascap

Our perception corresponds to an idiosyncratic model of reality, not reality itself. This is easy to forget, as we all share a common outside environment in the form of external reality and process it with a cognitive apparatus that has … Continue reading →

Posted in Neuroscience, Philosophy, Psychology, Science, Social commentary | 3 Comments

A primer on the neuroscience of happiness

Posted on February 9, 2014 by Lascap

The age old question of what makes for a happy life is of great interest to almost anyone who is in fact alive. A classic answer, building on Aristotelian notions of happiness, is provided by Charles Murray who points out … Continue reading →

Posted in In eigener Sache, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Psychology, Social commentary, Technology | 1 Comment

The consolation of temporal perspective

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Lascap

Few things are more discouraging and galling to the righteous than the raging success of the obviously undeserving and unworthy. This can be particularly dispiriting early in life. The wise will recognize that virtue and non-virtue have fundamentally different time … Continue reading →

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The paradox of progress

Posted on October 13, 2013 by Lascap

I often wonder how people managed to get by a thousand years ago, without effective anesthetics or antibiotics or even a fundamental understanding of the underlying causes of illness and disease. However, I realize that people a thousand years from … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Science, Social commentary, Strategy | 1 Comment

A more general relationship between relevance and rigor

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Lascap

Recently, SMBC (one of the few webcomics still worth reading, as he somehow manages to be uncorrupted by his own success) posted another inimitable offering. Except that in this case, it is actually perfectly imitable. This kind of thing can … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Science | Leave a comment

In the footsteps of Theodore Roosevelt

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Lascap

The US is at a crossroads. Strong leadership is necessary. What kind? We can look to Theodore Roosevelt for inspiration. Also: Don’t forget the brothers of the cosine. Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Misc, Philosophy, Social commentary | 4 Comments