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More Pseudo-Science from Stanford
My alma mater seems to have fallen on dark times these days. I think it's a hubris thing: all that high-flying dot-com money seems to have gone to their heads.
But, whatever the reason, the "scientists" at Stanford continue to dish out wild, sweeping, unexamined, unchallenged and unsupported claims.
Blind Whack at Creationism
In a recent talk at the Stanford School of Education, former Stanford president Don Kennedy asserted that providing students with the creationism alternative "intercept[s] and deaden[s] curiosity" of students, and he elaborated at length on that theme. In other words, Mr. Kennedy's position is that creationism diminishes mental capacity.
Why Climate Change Is Not an Engineering Problem
Just Like Child Abuse Is Not an Engineering Problem, Either
Many environmentalists, perhaps including Al Gore, believe that science — applied through technological innovation and good engineering — is the key to arresting global climate change before it is too late. In short, proponents of this view hold that we can think and design our way out of the current environmental mess.
Corporations: Have Your Cake, and Let Someone Else Pay for It
The Ubiquitous Corporation
Most modern business transactions involve at least one corporation, limited liability company or similar entity.
When originally invented (at the time of the East India Trading Company or earlier), shareholders of a corporation remained personally liable for any of its misdeeds, and the government was actively involved in monitoring its behavior.
Limitation of liability — in this or any other context — was permitted only in very special circumstances because its inherent and enormous dangers were regarded with awe and trepidation.
Fuss, Mysteriously Multiplied by a Million, Is an Enigma to Me
Freakonomics
By Steven D. Levitt
and Stephen J. Dubner
and Stephen J. Dubner
The only thing freaky about this book is its popularity.
Why has Freakonomics (HarperCollins: 2005) been such the rage?
We couldn’t find anything new or original in it.
Recycling Old News
Economic and moral incentives working behind-the-scenes to influence various situations — from theft of bagels to cheating at sports — is hardly a new discovery.
The author even begins one sentence at the end of the book by saying,
A Word on the Culture Wars from 11,000 Years Ago
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond (W. W. Norton & Company: 1997) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historical analysis of why certain cultures have expanded to the detriment of others.
With all the praise it has received, GGS (as the author calls his own work in a 2003-written Afterword) needs no more from us, but we’ll praise it anyway. It’s a magnificent piece of work.
The basic case made in GGS is that a handful of environmental factors, all of which were in place by 11,000 years ago, essentially pre-ordained the events that came to pass in the intervening millennia.
Intelligent Feline II
[Editor’s Note: See Part I of “Intelligent Feline,” Jan. 26.]
The Cat and the Door
As for the door, the cat has analyzed its workings and found that it has hinges and a doorknob. He has even learned to use the doorknob so that he can now open the door by himself, if he tries hard enough.
"See! There is no mystery here," says the cat. "There is no need to believe in a mythical master. I, myself, can manipulate this door, and I am merely a cat.
“Your mythology is falsified by my science!"
Intelligent Feline
[Editor’s Note:First of two parts. Conclusion will be published on Tuesday, Jan.30.]
It's been a little crazy here lately, because my pets have been debating about whether I exist. The dogs, who tend to be simpler and more gullible, think that I do. But my cat — an intelligent feline — thinks I am but a myth.
The Poodle
As evidence for my existence, the dogs offer some observations. The poodle argues, "He brings us food, and the food is undeniable, since we eat it. The food doesn't just show up in our bowls by accident; it would be silly to argue otherwise.
“Therefore, he — the life-sustainer — must exist."
The Essential Problem with Medieval Property Law
[Editor’s Note: This is the concluding installment of a trilogy by S.E. Harrison on the philosophy of medieval property law. See “Medieval Property Law, It’s Time to Upgrade,” Dec. 20, and “Medieval Property Law, It’s Time to Upgrade, Part 2,” Dec. 21.]
Seeking Solutions
At the heart of the problem is the medieval notion of absolute ownership. Under medieval property law — which persists today — a "fee simple absolute" gives an owner rights over a piece of land that stretch indefinitely into the future. But as a scientific matter — trite as it may sound — human owners do not stretch indefinitely into the future. We die. Thus, to use property law terms, we humans are more appropriately characterized as owners of a different type of estate: a “life estate," which makes us "life tenants."
In short, as a scientific matter, we are all but life tenants, even though medieval property law still recognizes the fiction of a fee simple absolute.
Medieval Property Law: Time to Upgrade, Part 2
Editor’s Note: This is the second of a trilogy of essays on the consequences of medieval property laws. Part 1 was “Medieval Property Law: It’s Time to Upgrade,” Dec. 20.
A Fable
There once were two geese that had been enchanted so that they would not age. The enchanted geese still had to eat and breathe to stay alive, but as long as they were taken care of, they would live indefinitely. Best of all, the enchantment had a second effect. Each of the two geese would lay exactly one golden egg per week of its life.
One enchanted goose was given to the tiny village of Alphenberg. The other was given to the equally tiny village of Bravenburg. The people of each town assigned an official goose-keeper to care for its goose, and both towns enjoyed easy prosperity for several centuries, largely as a result of the constant influx of gold.
Medieval Property Law: It’s Time to Upgrade
The American land ownership system ("real property") dates all the way back to medieval England.
Unlike some areas of law — like intellectual property, which can develop very rapidly — the law with respect to real property develops very slowly.
One probable reason for this slow development is simply that sometimes ownership of land remains unchanged for dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of years at a time. The use to which a piece of land is put — farming, for instance — may also go unchanged for decades or centuries. Thus, occasions for reconsidering the nature of ownership with respect to a particular piece of land may not arise very often.
But having a medieval property system in the 21st century causes some problems. Big problems. The reason for these problems is primarily — perhaps surprisingly — technology. And it's no single new technology, but rather the cumulative effect of innumerable and enormous advances that have happened in virtually all technological fields in the last 500 years.
