Vale Alan Ratcliffe, More Unitarians, Completing Works, Gaming and the Usual Madness.

[tcpip]

Last Friday attended the funeral of Alan Ratcliffe, 101, at the Melbourne Unitarian Church. Just to give a sense of perspective Alan's school-teacher was the man who stopped the trains after the Kelly gang ripped up the lines. He bought his first Harley Davidson and Cheverolet in the mid-1920s and was still driving at the age of 91. An uncompromising socialist and atheist, he found no problem with being an active member of the Church for over fifty years. Nor did he ever waver in his support for voluntary euthanasia. The service, conducted by Peter Abrehart, was dignified and insightful. Some 150 people were in attendance.

Was expecting Andrew Chalmers at the Unitarians on Sunday on the topic of public versus proprietary science; for the second time he didn't show. Felt quite silly for having organised him as a speaker and once again, for having to conduct the service and give a presentation off-the-cuff. Managed to provide, on-the-fly, a presentation on the scientific method from inductivism, deductivism, and falsification, to research structures, scientific paradigms and 'anarchist science'. This Sunday coming I am on again as the presenter with the topic "Prospects for Liberal and Rationalist Islam".

Have completed, a website for motor vehicle apprenticeships, the T3 Program. Still has a couple of rough spots to iron out. On Tuesday completed CCNA 2 Prac Exam; engaging in a major catch-up for semester 3 in the following fortnight. Putting my foot down at Borderlands and have submitted network and web policies. They will comply to my benevolent network dictatorship ;-). Still going through the mountain of procedures that is my work at Naturelinks. Also, just have received confirmation that damien_wise and I are embarking on an IT publication.

Gaming over the last week has been HeroQuest and GURPS Australian Noir, both extremely enjoyable as was the films (Soylent Green and Westworld at the Astor afterwards). Mongoose Publishing almost overlooked my name as a playtester for the new upcoming edition of RuneQuest; a couple of terse emails has fixed that up. This weeked is Retrocon; come along and play. Still developing my Cyberpunk/Paranoia crossover; the systems seem to integrate very nicely. On topic, Valhalla Games is pushing the envelope when it comes to pricing.

Somalia the Libertarian bastion, falls. Livejournal bans displays of nipples (seriously, this place has gone to the dogs since Six Apart took over). The amazing survival story of Mike the Hamster

Comments

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Anarchist science is shorthand for Paul Feyerabend's "against method" proposals.

I pointed out Greg's recent auction to Doug as examples of the maximum prices he could possibly expect (I managed to pick up Hero Wars on that!).

Liberal Islam will include elements of the Sufi tradition, the syncretic flavour of the Malay archipelago, some of the nicer times in history (such as the Spanish caliphate), and the Mutazilites.

Somalia as cyberpunk-Libertarian. Yep, that sounds about right. Some people seem to forget that cyberpunk was supposed to represent a dystopia.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Ok, Feyerabend. Been there, read that. Works only as a critique, in my view, but an interesting one. Its a pity he never got to do the dialogue volume with/against Imre Lakatos, that would have been terrific. I really like Lakatos' work.

OK, historical Islam. I think its well established that there is a well established liberal tradition within Islam - and a pretty strong argument that its only the rise of Wahabbist influence since the 19th century that has made modern Islamic notably intolerant since (though the line is a little less clear when you consider the craziness certainly extends to Shi'ites too, as in Iran). The much more difficult question is about Liberal Islam in the modern day, what are its prospects for success against the back-to-the-middle-ages Islamist trend, backed up by oil state money and emowered by deluded US policy.

I've recommended the book 'Desperately Seeking Paradise' a few times, BTW - a great personal account of the intellectual battle against Islamism from the point of view of a Liberal Muslim (who also happens to be a notable Western intellectual, Ziauddin Sardar). If you haven't read it I'd recommend it.

Some people seem to forget that cyberpunk was supposed to represent a dystopia.

Which is why its so bleakly funny.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

You are quite right about Feyerabend; it has been commented that because he didn't offer an alternative the claim of "anything goes" became "everything stays".

Personally I'm much more of a fan of Lakatos myself also.

My pitch will not only be historical Islam, but the handful of moderates that seem to make some headway (such as Indonesia's neo-Mutazilites) and Irshad Manji. I'll also take into account Sardar's comments (thanks for the heads-up)