About That

One more note in this trilogy: This, That and The Other. That directs our attention to the environment. However, the notion of the environment as something separate from the self is a paradigm with implications I must challenge once again. 

A video produced by the IPCC in 2023 ends with the slogan "Our climate. Our future" demonstrating a sense of responsibility (good) barely emerging from a sense of ownership, management, use and control (maybe not so good). Whose climate was it before we showed up? Who will be responsible for it when we are gone, and then whose future will it be?

We need to see the world first as a whole within which humanity is one species among millions, a problematic late arrival rushing to the sixth mass extinction with a presumption of entitlement. Meanwhile microplastics accumulate in our brains, another unintended consequence of our ingenuity. 

We have a choice. We could aspire instead to belong with respect and restraint to a regenerating world where happy children play for seven generations and more.

I've said all of this before. You can read it again in earlier notes.

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Some environmental thoughts from past blogs:

Belonging to the Earth: Nov 2021

While Heaven Thaws: Jan 2022

Make a Plan: March 2022

Cousins of Wolves: Aug 2022

Spring Again: March 2023

Seeds: March 2023

Paving Paradise: March 2024

I Wonder

Here is the promised sequel to This, That and The Other. I was going to write about this (the self), but noticed after the first sentence that I was already fully engaged in the other (what I make of it). So what follows is entirely what I make of the self. If you are looking for an exposition on the actual self, you are on your own.

I know. It's hard. You don't want to do it on your own. Neither do I. So I read some books by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Robert Sapolsky, etc. But when I did that, I got what they made of it rather than the actual self. I keep yes-butting, reminding myself "never sell your soul for a theory". 

I continue wondering. I look closer for the self within systems of organs, tissues, cells, organelles, molecules, atoms, electrons, protons, neutrons, up-quarks, down-quarks, antiquarks, the Higgs boson (remember the God particle), wavicles, and such: that train of thought still leaves me wondering. I don't see myself in there.

We bring God into this because theologies are older than the Higgs boson and demonstrate the point very well. If we knew God we might know ourselves better. But don't tell God what to be because God is what God is in spite of what we think. Maybe God is not the omnipotent champion of our tribe who will ensure victory over the unbelievers, who, by the way, are in possession of something we want. If we don't sell our souls for that theory, good for us. Maybe God sees us as friends who are tragically stuck in a false idea of who we are. 

I wonder.
That's what I make of myself. 
I am a wonderer.

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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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.

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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