Category Archives: Basics
Last time, I wrote about irony and the perverse universe. This time I want to write about something just as fundamental. It has the technical name, entropy, and there is a very technical definition that goes along with that name.
I’ll return to that later, but for now consider this simple truth: If you have a barrel of fine wine, and you add a teaspoon of sewage, now you have a barrel of sewage. On the other hand, if you have a barrel of sewage, and you add a teaspoon of wine, you do not have a barrel of wine.
You still have a barrel of sewage!
Continue reading
30 Comments | tags: entropy, perfection, spaghetti sauce, stew, thermodynamics, wine | posted in Basics, Life, Physics
The universe is perverse. I don’t mean that in the peeking into windows sense (although the universe is indeed peeking into all our windows every moment), but in the ironic sense. The universe is deeply, hugely, fundamentally ironic in ways that are incredibly perverse.
It is ironic in that the only constant is that nothing is constant.
It is ironic in that the only absolute truth is that nothing is absolutely true.
It is ironic in that its most basic everyday aspects are its greatest mysteries.
It is ironic in that the toast always lands buttered side down.
Continue reading
13 Comments | tags: death, George Carlin, irony, Spider Robinson | posted in Basics, Philosophy
Sidebands are 10; a full hand; a (very small) odometer moment.
The accident of genetics and evolution that gives us ten fingers (and ten toes) causes us to count in tens and celebrate things that occur on tens boundaries.
Turning 30, 40 or 50 years of age is viewed as cause to bring out the black balloons and mocking birthday cards. Yet celebrating 30, 40, 50 or 60 years of marriage is cause to celebrate (especially these divorce-prone days).
Continue reading
4 Comments | tags: decimal, Derek Jeter, odometer, tens | posted in Basics, Math, Sideband
In earlier Sidebands I have tried, as our English teachers used to say, to “compare and contrast” related pairs of concepts that are sometimes mistakenly conflated. The first pair, Truth and Facts, are similar enough to make distinctions between them debatable. Even the language can twist you up once you start talking about true facts and false facts. The next two pairs, Good vs Like and Ignorant vs Stupid, are well-defined and distinct.
In all three cases, there are similarities and differences (hence “compare and contrast”), but a key difference between those and the current topic, Analog vs Digital, is that none of them are really opposite pairs. There is no Yin and Yang aspect to them; one does not exclude the other. I’ve already mentioned true facts. Something can be both good and liked (or neither). Someone can be both ignorant and stupid (being neither is both good and likeable).
Not so with analog and digital! They are true Yin-Yang pairs; one excludes the other.
Continue reading
4 Comments | tags: analog, digital, Dualism, quantum physics, Yin and Yang | posted in Basics, Sideband
Last week a friend of mine experienced one of the worst things that can happen to a parent: outliving your very young child.
The past 16 months of her thread in life’s tapestry is particularly tragic and heart-breaking. It started a year ago March when her son, seven years old then, was diagnosed with a brain tumor and given 12 months to live. Then, last November, her husband died at age 35 in an unexpected asthma attack. At that time, she was pregnant with their third child, a girl born this past May.
Last week this part of the thread finally ended having taken both men from her young life and leaving her to raise her newborn and five-year-old daughter. If there is anything that leavens this heavy loaf, it is that she has the strong support of family and many friends. She is well-loved, which doesn’t balance the scales or make it easier to bear but provides some solace. Her journey also should serve to remind us all just how rich and blessed our lives are and how we must cherish and appreciate each day.
Continue reading
7 Comments | tags: death, John D. MacDonald, Travis McGee | posted in Basics, Life
Last time I talked about opposing pairs: Yin and Yang, light and dark, north and south. I mentioned that some pairs are true opposites of each other (for example, north and south), whereas other pairs are actually a thing and the lack of that thing (for example, light and dark). Such pairs are only opposites in the sense that an empty cup is the opposite of a full cup.
However, in both cases, the opposites stand for opposing ideas; two poles of polarity, and it is polarization that I address today. Specifically, I want to discuss a way of thinking that helps avoid it.
It’s easy to divide the world into sides. Many sayings begin with, “There’s two kinds of…” It seems easier to break things down into opposing points of view than to consider a variety of views. It seems easier to compare features between two things than twenty. Our court system has two sides and so does our political system (despite many attempts to create a viable third party).
Continue reading
4 Comments | tags: debate, discussion, parameter space, thinking, vectors, worldview | posted in Basics, Philosophy
In my second post I raised the topic of mind versus brain. There is (or, perhaps more accurately, may be) a duality. I mentioned that there are two basic schools of thought: one holding that mind emerges from brain and the other holding that they are distinct, that mind is – somehow – not physical. For now, the duality of the brain/mind question is open.
But there is definitely a duality in the two schools: the two opposing points of view. In this post I want to focus on the idea of duality and the idea of ideas in opposition. This post is about Yin and Yang.
Continue reading
13 Comments | tags: binary, Dualism, trinary, Yin and Yang | posted in Basics, Philosophy
One last very important distinction: there’s a big difference between being ignorant and being stupid.
To be ignorant is to not know something.
We are all ignorant. In fact, given how much there is to know, we’re all far more ignorant than not. Granted, some more than others, and if there is any crime, it is in remaining willfully ignorant in the face of knowledge.
That’s stupid.
Continue reading
2 Comments | tags: stupid | posted in Basics, Philosophy, Sideband
While we’re on the topic of important distinctions, let’s also try to draw a line between the idea of liking something and the idea that something is good.
Very often people conflate the two. For example, that a “good” movie is a movie they liked.
In fact, good and like are different measurements, and I wish more people understood the difference.
Continue reading
4 Comments | posted in Basics, Philosophy, Sideband
A bit of Haiku:
A Thing is rarely
The whole or the only Truth.
Most Things are that way.
It’s useful to break the connection between the idea of fact and the idea of truth. A fact is a datum that stands on its own regardless of opinion, belief or perception.
A truth does reflect the opinion, belief or perception of a person.
Continue reading
4 Comments | tags: haiku | posted in Basics, Philosophy, Sideband
Logos con carne 