Chimp mother climbs a tree for food while carrying her dead infant.
There are a couple of articles in recent issues of Science News, Chimps may be aware of others’ deaths and Neanderthal genome yields evidence of interbreeding with humans, that challenge the universal myths of human uniqueness. Our uniqueness is expressed overtly as in the Christian ‘created in God’s image’, or simply implied by an attempt to nail down ‘origins’(1).
I suppose the Tao Te Ching’s disclaimers let us off that hook somewhat, e.g., ‘the way that can be spoken of is not the constant way‘… and ‘… one who speaks does not know‘, and finally, ‘… are you capable of not knowing anything?‘ Hmm? Continue reading ‘We’re Not So Different After All’
A recent issue of Science News has an article on the group behavior of social animals. I’ve always been dumbfounded by how well we, as social animals, are able to manage the logistics in dynamic civilizations composed of millions of individuals. I know, ’supply and demand’ plays a big role in this. Still, it mystifies me(*). This article, Swarm Savvy: How bees, ants and other animals avoid dumb collective decisions, sheds light on this for me somewhat by extending the mystery to all social animals. Continue reading ‘Group Think’
I was soaking in the hot bath this morning and Dave’s recent reply to Butterflies have wings; we have minds popped into my mind. A hot bath never fails to loosen up thinking, I find. Anyway, he said, “Our models in our minds are staler than we know.” He also quoted George Box, one of the most influential statisticians of the 20th century, who said ‘all models are wrong, some are useful’.
I agree, but only if we’re talking about judging models ‘by their covers’. Taken at face value all models are wrong. However, when considering a model as mirroring the mind of the model maker, every model is 100% on target. This parallels something Jesus said: ‘Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit’. We are the tree, the models we make, or are attracted to, are the fruit. The tree and its fruit share the same root. Continue reading ‘Of What Is The Taoist Model Symptomatic?’
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