FedSearch - Federated network search engine

I don't have time right now to participate in this discussion, but I would like to suggest that you read Anderson's landmark 1972 paper _More is Different_ and google "more is different" for the many related and follow-up thoughts and discussions.

Essential reading on #emergence #reductionism #complexity

#complexity #reductionism #emergence

Last updated 1 year ago

Original post

Yohan John 🤖🧠 · @DrYohanJohn

1283 followers · 1007 posts · Server fediscience.org

Here's my latest substack essay! I take a leaf from CS Lewis's 'The Discarded Image', and look at reductionism as a scientific 'mythos'.

https://yohanjohn.substack.com/p/reductionism-as-a-scientific-mythos?utm_source=twitter&sd=pf

#Science #Philosophy #HistoryOfScience #Reductionism #Emergence

#emergence #reductionism #historyofscience #philosophy #science

Last updated 1 year ago

Original post

Jim Donegan ✅ · @jimdonegan

1447 followers · 4182 posts · Server mastodon.scot

#JaronLanier - Is #Consciousness an #Illusion?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSb_MCs9eqY&ab_channel=CloserToTruth

#Philosophy #PhilosophyOfScience #PhilosophyOfMind #Mind #TheMind #Neuroscience #Experience #Qualia #Reductionism #Determinism #Time #Afterlife #CloserToTruth #RobertKuhn

#RobertKuhn #CloserToTruth #afterlife #time #determinism #reductionism #qualia #experience #neuroscience #themind #mind #philosophyofmind #philosophyofscience #philosophy #illusion #consciousness #jaronlanier

Last updated 1 year ago

Original post

Kent Pitman · @kentpitman

372 followers · 340 posts · Server climatejustice.social

The Guardian - Greenspan - I was wrong about the economy. Sort of

@tarmoamer @MarkBrigham @breadandcircuses

> capitalism must serve mankind, not the other way around.

Agreed, though possibly easier said than done.

There is a big problem with reductionism, by which I mean the substitution of a simpler system or model for the actual problem. We use economic systems like capitalism on a theory that they will somehow negotiate this detail in a better way than humans do.

Friedman, for all I think he did horrible things in practice, wrote eloquently about how the coordination of society was a large task not easily done by individuals and how capitalism could manage it better. I vaguely recall some metaphor about spider webs and how a tug on one part of it causes the whole network to respond in a way that is magically orchestrated by the beauty of the system as a whole. I don't know if this was contrived smokescreen or if he believed it, but like the rhetoric of Atlas Shrugged, it was something that captures people's minds and makes them forget that there was a real problem to be solved, outside of the mechanism, and to which the mechanism as a whole needs to be accountable.

I have similar concerns with carbon taxation for Climate. Many think market pressures would work, but my worry isn't that it might not have effect. Rather, it might cause people to think that as long as that mechanism is doing something, the problem is being solved. Reductionism creates a kind of myopia.

The thing is that these things have a lot of trouble at the detail level. Alan Greenspan, for example, spoke of this after the last stock market collapse, suggesting (as amazing as it seems) that it had never occurred to him that there would such a profound effect where theories of what was supposed to cause what effects broke down.

Specifically, he said: "Partially ... I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interest of organisations, specifically banks, is such that they were best capable of protecting shareholders and equity in the firms ... I discovered a flaw in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works. I had been going for 40 years with considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well. The overall view I take of regulation is, I took an oath of office when I became Federal Reserve chairman. I'm here to uphold the laws of the land passed by Congress, not my own predilections."
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/oct/24/economics-creditcrunch-federal-reserve-greenspan

There he speaks of corporations vs. shareholders, but there are other situations where corporations are imagined to do the right things for society because demand is supposed to naturally drive supply, but we saw during covid how there were amazingly long periods of time where basics like masks, toilet paper, lysol, and vaccines were in short supply and where Friedman's claims that no human could do as well as a market were put into SERIOUS question.

Capitalists often ask us to take a given that any attempts by people to do better will fail, but that just isn't clear at all. And CERTAINLY it's true in the case of safety regulations because left to themselves, you get things like the train accident in Ohio, where corporations were, for efficiency, apparently bypassing required safety practices.

Likewise Antitrust rules did not get there out of the blue, they were due to specific anti-competitive practices. They're often ignored these days but not because that never happens any more. More because the campaign spending limits were overcome, and it's too easy to distract Congressfolk with bribes of one kind or another, often in terms of mega donations to their campaigns.

We have to always be watchful because economic schemes end up counting money as a measure of success, and as long as externalities exist, and as long as regulatory capture and disinformation are allowed to persist as legit mechanisms, it's far more profitable to pursue those than the original goal. And there is zero motivation to ever reconsider the paradigm because everyone invests heavily in the paradigm and sees new paradigms as impossibly disruptive.

#Corporations #Antitrust #Reductionism #Capitalism #CampaignFinance #Friedman #MiltonFriedman #AtlasShrugged

#corporations #antitrust #reductionism #capitalism #campaignfinance #friedman #miltonfriedman #atlasshrugged

Last updated 1 year ago

Original post

nil · @nil

23 followers · 30 posts · Server functional.cafe

Pi calculus is simply animism for engineers. #hottake #concurrency #reductionism #processtheultimate #csp #occam

#hottake #concurrency #reductionism #processtheultimate #csp #occam

Last updated 1 year ago

Original post

Jim Donegan ✅ · @jimdonegan

1414 followers · 3914 posts · Server mastodon.scot

#AlanGuth - What Can't Be #Predicted in #Physics?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZINe7FYkEH8&ab_channel=CloserToTruth

#Philosophy #PhilosophyOfScience #PhilosophyOfPhysics #StandardMoel #TheStandardModel #Science #QM #QuantumMechanics #QuantumPhysics #QuantumGravity #GR #GeneralRelativity #ClassicalTheory #ClassicalTheories #StringTheory #Reductionism #Emergence #FundamentalLaws #LawsOfPhysics #LawsOfNature #Consciousness #Life #Biology #CloserToTruth #RobertKuhn

#RobertKuhn #CloserToTruth #biology #life #consciousness #lawsofnature #lawsofphysics #fundamentallaws #emergence #reductionism #stringtheory #classicaltheories #classicaltheory #generalrelativity #gr #quantumgravity #quantumphysics #quantummechanics #qm #science #thestandardmodel #standardmoel #philosophyofphysics #philosophyofscience #philosophy #physics #predicted #alanguth

Last updated 1 year ago

Original post

Jim Donegan ✅ · @jimdonegan

1395 followers · 3864 posts · Server mastodon.scot

#BernardCarr - #Physics of #Consciousness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aMaCpH-tWI&ab_channel=CloserToTruth

#Philosophy #PhilosophyOfScience #PhilosophyOfMind #Neurophysiology #Neuroscience #Emergence #Metaphysics #FilterTheory #Reductionism #Epiphenomenon #Epiphenomena #BiologicalNaturalism #Naturalism #1stPerson #Qualia #Mind #CloserToTruth #RobertKuhn

#RobertKuhn #CloserToTruth #mind #qualia #1stperson #naturalism #biologicalnaturalism #epiphenomena #epiphenomenon #reductionism #filtertheory #metaphysics #emergence #neuroscience #neurophysiology #philosophyofmind #philosophyofscience #philosophy #consciousness #physics #bernardcarr

Last updated 1 year ago

Original post

CLaE · @leafs_s

1122 followers · 2501 posts · Server mstdn.science

Open media

RT @ineshipolito
The cool kids of Dynamical Systems Theory are here to rescue psychology from your boring clutches. Big shoutout to Luis Favela & @DioVicen for letting us show off how we're embracing the complexity and leaving #reductionism in the dust. #DynamicPsych" In the making:

#reductionism #dynamicpsych

Last updated 1 year ago

Original post

Jim Donegan ✅ · @jimdonegan

1385 followers · 3762 posts · Server mastodon.scot

#LeeSmolin - Why Do We Search for #Symmetry?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF1AHulu3bg&ab_channel=CloserToTruth

#Philosophy #PhilosophyOfScience #PhilosophyOfPhysics #Science #Physics #Emergence #Reductionism #Beauty #Art #SymmetryBreaking #FundamentalPhysics #StandardModel #ParticlePhysics #Space #Time #SpaceTime #CloserToTruth #RobertKuhn

#RobertKuhn #CloserToTruth #spacetime #time #space #particlephysics #standardmodel #fundamentalphysics #symmetrybreaking #art #beauty #reductionism #emergence #physics #science #philosophyofphysics #philosophyofscience #philosophy #symmetry #leesmolin

Last updated 2 years ago

Original post