This, That and The Other

One of my readers will recognize the title of this note because it was her idea, another phrase like 'here and there' or 'now and then', redirecting our attention in saccades to simplify and get a complete picture bit by bit. OK, let's go with this, that and the other.

Reality can be deconstructed in a variety of ways. For this note and perhaps a few to follow, I choose these categories: the self (this), the environment (that), and what we make of it all (the other). 

To begin, notice that paying attention to one thing means ignoring all the rest, at least for the moment. Take for example apostle John's assertion that the origin and totality of things is the WORD, ignoring that a word is a symbol in which we store meaning and that meaning derives from experience and that experience requires sentience that emerges from the singularity only after billions of years of random events in an arbitrary universe. John was ignorant of semiotics, mathematics, physics, cosmology, chemistry, biology, evolution and all the other conceptual schemes I left out. His world (not his reality, but rather what he made of it) began a few days before Adam, who, according to legend, appeared in an instant, awake and full of words. Not very likely, but we can believe anything if we try.

I stopped trying about grade 11 when I learned that before the word arrived, almost everything was already here. The word is an emergent phenomenon generated by an organism that came late in the story and may be gone in an instant. 

Let's be humble about words. When we are done with deconstruction, we have to put the pieces together as best we can to have a coherent idea of reality. This and that is far more than the other we describe with our humble words, our 'isms and 'ologies.

But we can have some fun trying.

*****************
Some interesting this and that.

Global Fossil Fuel Emissions Increase in 2024: Global Carbon Project, Nov 2024

Canada's Climate Plan is Working: Gov Canada National Inventory Report, March 2025

Now and Then

Out for a walk yesterday, we encountered a pair of robins doing what comes naturally at this time of year. They were not interested in us, except to keep clear because people are scary. I suspect that there was not much thinking going on with the birds. A robin's little brain is good for migration, mating, evading people; but all of that is inherited instinct. Daniel Dennett (no longer with us) would call it Darwinian behaviour, reflex built into the neural network through evolution with little experience or imagination or reason involved. 

I don't mean to disrespect the robins. Their tiny brains serve them well. But they learn very little, and they have no foresight or imagination or reasoning. Robins don't obsess  about a nest full of eggs hatching into hungry little birdies needing to be fed, and then decide to stay single because the family thing is too much bother. It's all about now. Then will look after itself. They see a potential mate and go into their dance. They see us coming on the sidewalk, and fly off to dance elsewhere. They find a likely place to build a nest following a blueprint written in their genes. I recall years ago, when a robin claimed our front porch for nesting and spent hours attacking his reflection in the window because he was programmed to defend his territory against rival males. To give him credit, that usually works; but in this case, not so clever.

Dennett postulated several other potential modes of mental activity given a sufficiently well-developed brain. Skinnerian behaviour involves trying something out at random, and if it works, do the same thing next time. Popperian thinking imagines likely outcomes of possible actions, and then tries what is most promising. Gregorian thought makes use of tools (language, books, videos) for gathering and transmitting knowledge and evaluating it critically. 

The birds may get as far as learning from first-claw experience. Good for them. But it takes a human brain to access the past and make a rational plan for the future based on accumulated wisdom, i.e. first-hand experience plus all the rest: myth, legend, history, all the books in the library and bytes on the Internet. Furthermore it takes a lazy self-absorbed human brain to think like a bird when accumulated wisdom is available. So in my opinion, if a human is so obsessed with the task at hand (getting elected by ignoring the real cost of energy) that the future doesn't come into it (preventing climate disaster), that birdbrain should get out of the way when actual humans are deciding what to do. 

Apologies to the birds. 

Apologies to grandchildren who are already suffering the consequences of a century of human ignorance. 

Apologies in advance to great grandchildren who may decide that having a family isn't worth the bother in a world that is unravelling...

...unless we value then enough to pay what we owe now.

**************

The Insanity of Carbon Capture Deception: Just Have a Think, March 16, 2025

CO2 Pipeline Leak in Mississippi: CBC News, March 16,  2025

Carbon Pricing 101: David Suzuki and Ian Hannington, April 2024

Axe-the-Tax Poillievre: CBC News, Jan 2025

Climate Action is Less of a Priority. Trump Isn't Helping: Kyle Bakx, CBC News, March 15, 2025

Predictions of Future Global Climate: UCAR

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research: take a look before it gets Trumped

Stuff I'm Reading

I just finished 'The Certainty Illusion' by Timothy Caulfield, and now I'm not sure of anything. 

My next book is one I have already read and mostly forgotten. It is "Value(s): building a better world for all" by Mark Carney. As I recall, it isn't an easy read, although its key ideas are worth the trouble, even more relevant than in 2021 when it was published. Just knowing Mark Carney better is worth the trouble given his emerging importance in Canadian federal politics. 

A synopsis of "Value(s)" is available free at SoBrief.

If you want to know what Mark Carney thinks, you could spend some time with his book as I intend to do once again. If you want to know what I think, read the rest of this note. It won't take so long. Tiny mind.

We have the tools we need to keep the planet from unravelling. Let me do what Moses did and list some 'commandments' or rather Existential Principles that will make things go better.

0. Take care of yourself. If you don't do this, you don't get to do anything else. (I will call the dentist on Monday.)

1. It is what it is. Life is beautiful but hard. (I put this in because I have another toothache. Brush and floss or not. Expect consequences.)

2. Take care of others. We don't survive or thrive by taking care of ourselves alone. (How about universal dental care?)

3. Truth awaits forever in the questions. (Why am I having more pain after the root canal? I thought the nerve was gone.)

4. Think bigger. It's not all about us. (Do elephants get big toothache?)

5. Think longer including future generations. (OK kids. No candy for you. You're going to live long and prosper, if you keep your teeth.)

6. Risk action based on what you know, and learn from consequences. (I took acetaminophen and naproxen. Stopped aching for awhile.)

7. Extremes are dangerous. Find the sweet spot between opposing imperatives. ('Sweet' may be the wrong word given the tooth pain.)

8. Be good. What is good for us may be bad for them. It goes better for everyone when they belong among us. Grow the circle. (Our friends at the candy store are going to go broke. I should keep eating chocolate.)

9. Learn from the past, but don't get stuck there. Things could be better. Make them better. (I think I will get it pulled rather than paying for another root canal.)

10. There's more. Up to you. Add to the list. 

****************

Stuff Dave's Been Reading: Just Have a Think, March 2, 2025

A Viral Political Meme: Big Think

 

Humble Confidence

Yesterday we took a taxi to vote early for the provincial election. When we arrived at the poll, the taxi driver said he didn't know who to vote for and asked us who we liked. That's a big ask, not easy.  Do you vote for the incumbent who put beer in the corner store,  and finished up with a $200 cheque to convince you he knows what he's doing? Or do you vote for values, thoughtfulness, respectful compassion and conscience, all of which will be proven as a person grows into the job, though not before, because nobody knows what they're doing with the problematic and conflicted collection of issues that arise in running a government.

Even with good will and experience, nobody is going to get things done right because what's right for you is wrong for me. Never mind the beer. I want cheaper chocolate. Yet politicians pretend to know what they are doing even before they understand the impossible complexity of the task. Don't trust certainty.

So Dennis, why are you so certain that certainty can't be trusted?

Ah! You caught me. Good for you. It's true that the politicians are giving certainty a bad name while scrambling for votes. For sure, being certain is why the braggarts are in charge. On the other side of this issue, uncertainty could leave a person weak, indecisive, unable to commit to action, pusillanimous. (The word of the day.) 

We won't vote for pusillanimous. 

Somewhere between certainty and uncertainty, there must be a happy compromise, maybe humble confidence. As it happens, I am not the first person to put those words together. Check out the link in the footnotes. 

You won't hear much about humble confidence in the election campaign. If it's there, it's silent while trash talk and insults vie for attention. You can't trust that stuff. 

Let's think more deeply about trust. Trust in what: science, statistics, ideas, beliefs, creed, justice, luck, fate, fantasy, fairness, loyalty, retribution, conscience, compassion, the experts, God, whatever?

From the pulpit we hear about faith, which is something like trust in God or values and principles. However, according to Mark Twain, "faith is believing [trusting] what you know ain't so"; in other words, faith is unreasonable trust in intuition, myth, fantasy, or a collective lie. He was poking fun at the faithful, trying to start an argument by scoring the first point.

For good reason. Faith as certainty leans into ugly excess, humanity as planetary cancer, growth at all cost, dominance, privilege, exclusion, inquisition, sectarian war, religious imperialism, partisan politics, extinguishing the unbelievers (heretics, savages, drug addicts, nonbinary), all because we know better and our God is bigger. 

Let's not vote for that.

On the other hand,
we can trust humble confidence.
If confidence fosters arrogance
while humility leads to pusillanimity,
then when combined, each improves the other.
Confidence with humility
transforms arrogant certainty
into assurance that there is
something more we can learn.
Humility with confidence
pushes past pusillanimity
stirring us to ask questions,
risk answers,
try harder, evaluate,
think deeper,
understand better,
because we can.

I vote for humble confidence. 

******************

How to Be Humble and Confident (According to 9 Experts): Human Window

Arctic Climate Collapse: Just Have a Think,

Feb 23, 2025

Ford More Years? The Narwhal, Jan 2025

Climate Change Colloquy Archive: past zoom sessions from the Greater Pacific Northwest USA Mission Center of Community of Christ

Understanding Misunderstanding

I guess you have noticed me obsessing about ignorance. I've been telling you that to be wise you should recognize the incompleteness and fallibility of available information and understand the nature and limits of your understanding. 

Unfortunately, the assertion I don't know does not inspire confidence, so we tend to believe and give power to those who claim certainty when they are precisely the people we should not trust. Look around; there are obvious examples. One hopes that this is a low point in history, and someday the grandchildren will view the folly of this age as an aberration. May they be more thoughtful and trustworthy than we have been.

Here are some thoughts about understanding.

1. Consider the qualifications, evidence, and motives of the source.

2. Test ideas from multiple perspectives, even after you think you understand.

3. It's easy to fool yourself. Don't. 

4a. You are human. Therefore you are going to look stupid from time to time. No worries. Keep trying. 

4b. Other people are human. If they act stupid and admit it, encourage them to keep trying.

5. You can increase your intelligence with good thinking habits.

6. Thinking is hard. Do the work.

7. Test ideas and opinions with first-hand experience when you can. When you can't try things out, consult thorough, reliable sources .

8. Use physical intuition, maps and models, analogy and narrative to make ideas memorable. But don't don't fall in love with the metaphor.

9. Question, question, question.

10. Go slow. Ponder. Spend time.

11. Look closer. Then closer. Then closer. Then step back to get the big picture. Everything connects.

12. The truth is multifaceted and nuanced. Yes-no is too simple. Simple things are not so simple.

13. Biases make misinformation seductive, so bad actors exploit them. Find out about cognitive biases. Question opinions, your own included.

14. Misinformation is profitable and dangerous.

15. Understanding is recursive: imagine, plan, act, evaluate, and repeat until it's over. It's not over until it's over.

16. If you write about what you know, you will discover that you don't know. Good to know.

17. If you think you understand, that's normal; but chances are good that you don't understand.

18. If you think you understand misunderstanding, you have missed the point. See below.

*****************

How to Understand things: Big Think, Feb 2025,

Nabeel S. Quereshi

The Certainty Illusion: RealTalk video, Jan 2025, Timothy Caulfield

Stupidity is an Existential Threat: Alternet. Feb 2023, Bobby Azarian

Debunking the Dunning-Kruger Effect: The Conversation, Eric C. Gaze

It's A Miracle

What's a miracle? No surprise:
the word has several meanings,
as do most words. 

1. Divine intervention in human affairs. 

2. An unexpected or unusual event. 

3. Something inspiring wonder.

4. Whatever I mean when I use the word.

5. Whatever you mean when you use the word.

Today there was a question about miracles answered on the Progressing Spirit website. It got me thinking. I hesitate to explore my thoughts here because whatever we mean when we use the word (#4 & 5) may look like an invitation to an argument. We get invested in ideas that we trust (beliefs) and the collective understanding of our community (culture: creed, ideology, groupthink, zeitgeist). But as we are more thoughtful, however much we would like things to be simple and settled, we find they are more complex than we can imagine, and they look different as circumstances change, and we need to move on. 

Early on, contrary yes-butting person that I am, I became aware that the human mind, though wonderfully capable, is also a sloppy mess of approximations and contradictions, even when we think we have things figured out. 

Figuring things out involves abstraction, paying attention to what is important and disregarding the rest. 

Figuring things out involves rationalization, making information fit with what we know, either by fiddling with the information or by revising what we know,

pointing imagination toward

an understanding

that    fits

better

!
*

Figuring things out dresses up information in metaphors, maps and models, emotions and values. 

As the mind does all this, information becomes knowledge, which then gets stored in memory to be recalled imperfectly when needed so we can make sense of new information. 

Furthermore, passing knowledge to others requires language, using words with fuzzy, fluid meanings. As recipients of second-hand knowledge, we decode language and in the process endow it with our own meanings. 

Knowledge is information (facts) plus affect (what the mind does with the facts). Knowledge remembered and retold is less about information and more about affect. Knowledge frequently retold may hide information under layers of accumulated affect, becoming story, legend, myth.

Here is a story. Jesus resuscitates the decomposing corpse of his dead friend Lazarus ( John 11). Whatever that story meant when it was originally told, it can't mean the same thing to me, with my head full of biochemistry, microbiology, thermodynamics, and cosmology. Resuscitation just doesn't fit. But I can find meaning that does fit because I have experienced loss and grief. For me, the miracle is not a violation of natural law (a prequel to the zombie apocalypse), but rather an adjustment to how I hold death in mind. A loved one is lost and love remains.

miracle

points

here
God changes what happens

by changing  the mind

to make beautiful

loving things
happen

!
*

As for the blissful experience of wonder

when we  encounter  the unusual,

philosophers  have  parsed

that paradox, disclosing

the awesome truth
in  plain  sight.

Either

or

Shall we  join in the  miracle,
and  do  what  we can
to make  beautiful
loving things
happen
!
*

Reimagining Trade for People and the Planet: David Suzuki and Sagaa Khan, Feb 13, 2025

Power to the People: How energy is shaping the Ontario election: the Narwhal, Feb 13, 2025

The Butterflyway Project: David Suzuki Foundation, February 2025

Consequences

Yesterday I scratched an itch on my chest. While I was doing that, there was suddenly a sharp pain in my right elbow. I thought it must be a coincidence so I scratched again. It hurt again. Two lessons there. I have no idea how the nervous system is connected to make that trick work (I'm ignorant). And there are always unintended consequences.

Here is the message behind the story: a president who thinks he knows it all (but doesn't) is likely to be responsible for a storm of unintended consequences. What might be coming in this reign of arrogant ignorance? Here is a fanciful prediction.

1. Making America Great Again will end with The United States of America disintegrating into separate nations with mutually exclusive agendas. 

2. Florida, invaded by many Canadians from October to March, will be annexed by Canada as the eleventh province. Because Canada is generally welcoming of refugees, a million Palestinians from Gaza will arrive in Florida and be employed producing orange juice for Snowbirds and policing the shortest border in the world to keep out unrepentant GOPers who have left because they didn't like foreigners working at Disneyland.

3. Because of the huge influx of refugees from anti-abortion laws, California will secede and be renamed Femlandia. Visitors will have to submit to a blood test, and if their T level is too high, will be allowed only if they undergo estrogen therapy. The military will be all women, trained and skilled in saying NO to naughty boys and sending them to bed without supper. There is a name for this aversion to masculinity. Femlandia is a nation founded on misandry. Who can blame them?

4. Texas will leave the USA and be renamed Ex-US. Fracking and drilling will be outlawed. Desert areas will have new villages built in the shade of extensive solar arrays since the unmitigated heat of direct sun will be intolerable because of the accumulated GHG emissions of wealthy nations like the old USofA. Ex-US will be well on the way to zero emissions. The offshore ocean will be renamed The Gulf of Ex-US and used for TDD (Tide Driven Desalination) and OSW (off-shore wind farms). Ex-US will thrive on the profits from clean energy and fresh water.

5. New York will declare independence and be renamed New Woke. Refugees displaced by the DOGE will gather there to participate in a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion. They will prosper with policies of global free trade, progressive taxation, publicly funded education through to university, universal medical care, subsidized housing and guaranteed minimum income. There will be a long waiting list of those wanting in, including many of the 1% who are willing to pay to join a society free of aggressive self-absorption, guns, threats, and mayhem. The other states will envy the success of New Woke and will queue up to join, happily conforming to the New Woke way: pay attention, think things through and proceed with caution.  That's as opposed to the Don-Elon principle: if it's working, it's obviously a leftist conspiracy and must be shut down as quickly as possible. 

The new red hat logo will be STUD, See Trump Undo Democracy.

The blue hat logo will be WWW, Woke Works - Welcome.

******************

This is so much fun; but I'm going to quit here. Dream up your own version of Don-Elon consequences, and tell us what you think. Scratch that itch and see where it hurts.

*******************

US Energy Catastrophe: Just Have a Think,
Jan 9, 2025