Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach contained some interesting musings on recursion, computation, self-reference, and so on. But of course is main "oomph" was that it was going to use all of these musings to explain consciousness. And the explanation? "This is it -- this is what consciousness is . Consciousness is that property of a system that arises whenever there exists symbols in the system which obey triggering patterns somewhat like the ones described in the past several sections" (385). Can you imagine someone in a real science, one that makes real discoveries, offering an "explanation" like that? "Planets just are those celestial objects that move in the sky in that funny way." "Atoms just are those things that cause chemicals to form in the patterns they do." "Evolution just is the process of new species coming into being." Such a phony would be laughed right out of the scientific community. In a real s
Wizardry is free-market. Other schools exist that have a greater emphasis on safety but they never gained market share and hence never went on to develop a movie-franchise business in the way Hogwarts did.
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way about the Romulan ship in the Star Trek reboot. Clearly the Federation needed to intervene in Romulan affairs to bring better governance to the Romulan people!
ReplyDeleteAny time I hear railings or anything of the like it reminds me of that episode of 'Mystery Science Theatre 3000' where Tom Servo is the safety officer of the ship who has acquired the book 'Banisters, Balustrades and Railings' and proceeds to put a railing, banister or balustrade anywhere and everywhere. I forget what movie was on that episode.
ReplyDeletePerhaps this episode?
DeleteYes! I gave a half-assed attempt at finding that clip, too.
Delete