Fibonacci fantasia

Hyperobjects and the End of Common Sense

I just posted this on The Contemporary Condition.

First quantum effects seen in visible object

First quantum effects seen in visible object - physics-math - 17 March 2010 - New Scientist

The physicists over at University of California Santa Barbara give us this treat—yes, superposition happens. It's not just a neat (though weird) way of explaining things. Put that together with my previous about photosynthesis...

Don't Get Upset, You Won't Persuade Anyone

That seems to be the implicit injunction in this rather scientistic account of arguments for working on global warming. Thanks to Jairus Grove of The Contemporary Condition for showing this to me.

It sounds a little bit like the way Republicans sometimes frame the debate about taxes: “Don't be starting any class warfare, now!”

The underlying assumption is that strong emotions are me-centric. An idea that's had a lot of traction, at least since Plato: the dichotomy between your head and your heart.

This cannot be the case. My nine-month old son was crying when his sister cried, because his mirror neurons were developing so fast. End of conversation?

Keep That Day Job

Quantum Developments

My colleague David Robertson gave a fascinating talk today in which he used Shakespeare's song “Full Fathom Five” in connection with photography:

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

It made me realize that the song could be all about how photographs develop, in little pools of chemical solutions...

So photographs contain information about the environments in which they were developed.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Animals but Were Afraid to Ask Vegetables

I'm giving a talk with that title at USC on Thursday.