In a truly random game – such as rock/paper/scissors – the best winning strategy is to play truly randomly. “But people are notoriously bad at generating randomness on command. They flip back and forth too often, whereas truly random sequences will always contain some runs…”
Category: ideas
Wouldn’t You Like To Be A Philosopher Too?
Not so difficult. Here are 12 easy tips to get you started… “Think of a matter of great importance to life. Reduce it unequivocally to three concepts. Enumerate them. Analyze each concept by distinguishing two independent notions in each. Continue with further analysis (preferably speculative) until you have developed a maze of distinctions that bear no resemblance to any topic of any importance to life at all.”
Beyond Existence (How Did It Happen?)
At the most fundamental level, scientists working on trying to explain how the world works have to admit there are things that defy understanding. “The more science learns about the origin and history of the cosmos and of life on earth and of Homo sapiens, the more it reveals how staggeringly improbable we are. Honest physicists will admit that they have no idea why there is something rather than nothing. Why does the universe look this way rather than some other way? Beyond science, then, what do we have?
Whose Learning Will Prevail?
The world of learning has always felt the tension between theoretician and practitioner. So here’s something to ponder: “In the next 50 years, the entirety of our inherited archive of cultural works will have to be re-edited within a network of digital storage, access, and dissemination. This system, which is already under development, is transnational and transcultural. Let’s say that prophecy is true. Now ask yourself these questions: Who will be carrying out this work? Who will do it? Who should do it?”
Picasso, Van Gogh and Some of the Boys Sitting Around in a Bar
Artists see the world in their own stylistic ways. Here’s a Flash animation that imagines what the everyday world might look like through the eyes of different artists.