View RSS Feed

Recent Blogs Posts

  1. From Ignorance to Insurrection

    by , 01-12-2021 at 08:37 PM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    While thinking about the insurrection invading the U.S. Capitol, I realized that the underlying reason for it was ignorance; although there may reasons for the ignorance. Most people have very limited contact with state and local government, just paying taxes, voting, building inspections, etc. And many people think that TV cop shows are good sources for legal advice and information about prosecution.

    For criminal prosecution, there are many rules for the collection of evidence, ...
  2. Be Skeptical

    by , 07-28-2019 at 03:16 PM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    I just read an article about “The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories” (Karen M. Douglas, Robbie M. Sutton, and Aleksandra Cichocka), and I had been thinking about blogging on the philosophy and logic of conspiracy theories. The only place where I agree with this article is on this point” Our analysis suggests that conspiracy theories may satisfy some epistemic motives at the expense of others—for example, by shielding beliefs from uncertainty while being less likely to be accurate. The epistemic ...
  3. Missing the Reality

    by , 09-01-2016 at 06:53 PM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    I have started to think that humans are opposed to rational thought. Simply starting for a reasonable premise (a premise based in reality) and accurate evidence, and then making logical deductions based on those leads to something reasonable. It was an excellent way to figure things out, but reasoning seems to have been abandoned by many people, perhaps even most people. People often start from bits of fiction and fantasize from that. It’s one thing to kid around, but I have heard or seen too many ...
  4. Single-mindedness

    by , 08-11-2016 at 04:20 PM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    “Cave ab homine unius libri.” Beware the man of one book. Pliny the Elder

    This fine adage came to mind earlier today, when I was listening to a man who thinks that the Jews control the world, and that all evil comes from them (he thinks The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is non-fiction). There seem to be many people who put their faith into a single item or narrow set of beliefs. Religious zealots are of this sort and sports fanatics also, but sports fanatics seldom go to war over ...
  5. Too Much Data

    by , 01-29-2016 at 05:52 PM (Memories of the 28th Century)
    I recently ran across an article and a paper on determining the potential lifespans of conspiracy theories. It is an interesting idea, but I think there are problems with it so I posted a link and a comment on a forum to which I belong. Several people replied, but they ignored the paper and attacked my comments about problems with the method. Take a look at the paper and see what you think. I think that it is a method to make shooting from the hip look more dignified. Set up an equation to give ...

    Updated 01-29-2016 at 08:36 PM by PeterL

    Categories
    Uncategorized
Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast