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Diary of a B+ Grade Polymath ([personal profile] tcpip) wrote2007-05-06 12:58 am

Global Politics, Gaming Reviews, Kant in Space, Social Life and Rodent News

Scotland has had an election which has seen a plurality to the SNP. The Socialists in the upcoming French Presidential elections have received a late boost with the leader of the far-right, Le Pen, calling for a "mass absention" and the centrist François Bayrou declaring he will not vote for the right-wing candidate, Sarkozy. Australia however retains the title of the nation with perhaps the most idiotic politicians in the OECD with Bill Heffernan declaring that Deputy Labor Leader, Julia Gillard is unfit for public office because she is "deliberately barren".

In the parallel reality in RPG.net they've had a Superheroes week; not my favourite genre but any stretch of the imagination, but nevertheless did reviews for the first Superhero RPG, Superhero 2044 (with the lowest possible rating) and DC Heroes. In a comparison of tough fantasy scenarios, have also recently reviewed AD&D's Tomb of Horrors and RQ's Snake Pipe Hollow. I would love to expand the latter into a larger setting, but the way licensing has been set up RQ3e/Glorantha is sadly as dead as the dodo.

Interrupting my normal life, has been a rather significant debate on [livejournal.com profile] philosophy, where I was challenged with the new community rule kumite over Kant, causation and space-time. This has led to a follow-up post on causation in science and I have just posted on discourse ethics and 'kumite' and rephrased the questions concerning Kant, space-time and mathematics.

On May Day attended Keating! The Musical with [livejournal.com profile] tabouli, [livejournal.com profile] ananas2003 and [livejournal.com profile] caseopaya. Quite good, great musical parodies although some of the humour was a bit amatuer. The setting, the Comedy Theatre, is full of old-world charm. In rodent news; Vagabond has declined significantly over the past few weeks, apparently suffering from what I suspect is osteoarthritis. He's ridiculously happy with all the extra affection he's getting, but his movements are slow and of very modest distances. He turned on the charm for [livejournal.com profile] ser_pounce and [livejournal.com profile] hathhalla who visited on Friday night for an eve of fine Indian food and the delights of Munchkin Cthulhu.

Re: kumite.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2007-05-07 06:53 am (UTC)(link)

I am trying to say that perhaps it would be more palatable if you removed all philosophic references to Kant and any one else ... and whilst showing your working (heh) just call the philosophy ... yours.


Well, in brief the argument goes as follows. Assume there is a debate over whether space and time "really" exist and, secondly, whether space-time is independent of any observer. Now someone comes along and claims that space-time is is ideal and that "idea" of space-time transcends any and all observers (i.e., transcendental idealism). Further, because we can imagine space without objects it is a priori, but because we must experience it, it is synthetic. Provable examples of this are, apparently, mathematics and Euclidean geometry.

This seems to largely work with human cognition. However, it is my opinion that 20C physics (not to mention mathematics) did some serious damage to this idea. Firstly, because it has been shown that there is a relationship between gravity and space-time, which seems to suggest that it ain't so "ideal" after all. Further there is the cosmological argument which seems to suggest that matter-energy and space-time co-exist. One can imagine what appears to be "empty space", but not actual empty space (which would, at the very least, be "full" of boson particle-waves).

So from the initial proposition a step is taken backwards and the suggestion is made that, "oh no, these are ontological issues, what is really being suggested by transcendental idealism and the synthetic a priori is an epistemological issue". Right, so it's knowledge, not existence of space-time which is an innate intuition of the human mind. Now you of all people do not need me to go into many examples on why the particular examples of mathematics and Euclidean geometry cannot stand as proofs on this matter.
So what's left? Well, a part of epistemology I (and Gödel) would suggest, i.e., phenomenology.

Apropos, I must paraphrase Feynman on this matter: "For a successful technologyphilosophy, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."

Re: kumite.

[identity profile] imajica-lj.livejournal.com 2007-05-07 07:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Lev, you have your days.

Re: kumite.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2007-05-08 12:01 am (UTC)(link)

There is at least one or two journal articles in this, imo... Heck, I may as well get some mileage from the discussion.

Re: kumite.

[identity profile] imajica-lj.livejournal.com 2007-05-08 12:21 am (UTC)(link)
Hell yeah ... remember, whomever sits on more daytime chat shows wins.

:P

Re: kumite.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2007-05-08 01:19 am (UTC)(link)

Heck that would be me again... Dammit, I'm trying not to win.

Re: kumite.

[identity profile] imajica-lj.livejournal.com 2007-05-08 01:28 am (UTC)(link)
You should get your own show.

You could flog steak knives and Bert Newton relics ... in between discussions on the absurdity of the cosmos.

Re: kumite.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2007-05-08 01:39 am (UTC)(link)

You know.... That would work. Something which is not as mind-numbingly formal as OpenEducation and not as content-empty as The Today Show. Hmmmm.... I need more TV media contacts..

Re: kumite.

[identity profile] imajica-lj.livejournal.com 2007-05-08 01:42 am (UTC)(link)
Hail Eris!