The Emergent Fool » Media

Book Review: LOGICOMIX

plektix — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:57:42 +0000

We are living in an age of, amongst other things, excellent graphic novels. One shining example, which I have just finished reading, is LOGICOMIX, a graphic novel biography of mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell. (Side note: can a biography still be called a graphic novel? Our terminology may need an update.)

Seeking an escape from his authoritarian religious upbringing, young Bertrand turned to mathematics as the one source of absolute certainty in his life. But the more he studied mathematics, the more he realized that underlying all the sophisticated theories of the time were arguments based more on intuition than full rigor. Driven by his quest for absolute truth, Russell embarked on a project to rebuild mathematics from the foundations up, and thereby establish its status as absolute truth.

Unfortunately, his project ran into major difficulties of the mathematical/philosophical variety (to say nothing of his equally great personal difficulties) including the famous paradox of Russell’s own invention, the arguments of his student Wittigstein that logic was merely a tool for generating tautologies, and finally, Godel’s proof that even in the self-consistent world of mathematics, there must always be true statements that cannot be proven.

In the end, though Russell and his contemporaries eventually succeeded in placing mathematics on a rigorous footing, the dream of a logically grounded “universal truth” had to be abandoned. Mathematics is only as true as the assumptions it rests on, and cannot even prove all that is true in its domain.

While the mathematical and philosophical ideas are well-illustrated for a lay audience, the heart of LOGICOMIX is Russell’s personal struggle, first to find the universal truths in mathematics and then to accept their nonexistence. Like others engaged in this project, Russell’s struggle with logic occasionally veered into a struggle with sanity. Through a meta-narrative of the book’s creation, the authors debate the “logic and madness” theme, and ask whether some amount of detachment from reality a prerequisite for one who spends his or her life searching for its foundations.

This narrative of Russell’s quest had personal resonance for me: I went through my own late-high-school/early-college phase of viewing mathematics as a bastion of truth in an illogical world. I wonder if many of my mathematical colleagues’ careers had their genesis in the same yearning for certainty. I imagine we all eventually come to the same realization as Russell: that mathematics is a powerful tool for clear thinking, but the only “truth” it contains is ultimately tautological.

Disillusioned by his self-described “failure” but ultimately freed from his need for unblemished truth, Russell turns to more worldly concerns, including pacifist activism and the founding of a school with no rules (spoiler: it doesn’t go well). The book ends on a bittersweet note as Russell encourages students to accept their lives in an uncertain world.

I had great pleasure following Russell’s journey, and the many ideas and people encountered along the way. If anyone is interested in what really drives mathematicians, this book is heartily recommended.

Highlights from the Year in Ideas

Egyptian Mummies Yield Ancient Secrets of Good Journalism

Rafe Furst — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:17:58 +0000

This is based on an LA Times article here

What strikes me most is how athlerosclerotic the science itself is. Or perhaps it’s just the reportage?

The opening line of the article is “CT scans of Egyptian mummies… show evidence of… hardening of the arteries, which is normally thought of as a disease caused by modern lifestyles….” One of the researching cardiologist draws this conclusion: “Perhaps atherosclerosis is part of being human.”

The LA Times reporter covering the story (Thomas Maugh) rightly points out at the end, “The high-status Egyptians ate a diet high in meat from cattle, ducks and geese, all fatty.” Which of course entirely negates the hypothesis of heart disease being part of the natural human condition.

It’s clear why the researchers — both cardiologists — would want ancient evidence to support the notion that heart disease is normal. But the fact is that the preponderance of evidence around the world in epidemiology as well as cardiology indicates that diet and lifestyle are largely responsible. Don’t trust me, just start digging around for yourself, it’s not hard to find the data.

Okay, so researchers are trying to get their work into the mainstream, what’s new? Any thinking person can see through their faulty logic, right? Not according to all the research on behavioral psychology. That’s why I’m mostly disappointed in the reporting as opposed to the research.

Maugh and the LA Times bit so hard on this succulent morsel of pseudo-science that the net result is false information which is damaging to public health. Had Maugh flipped his article upside down and lead with his commentary at the bottom, he would have come much closer to serving the public good with the dark leafy vegetables of truth.

hat tip: @DannyHorowitz

Nature Minus Humans?

plektix — Tue, 05 May 2009 22:16:05 +0000

From the “nothing is quite so simple” department, a Boston Globe article this week points out a hidden legacy of the conservation movement: The expulsion of native peoples from their land.

Starting with Yosemite in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the pattern of forcing indigineous civilizations from their ancestral land in order to create wildlife reserves and national parks has been repeated across the country and the world.

The conflict is… compelling the conservation movement to grapple with the effects of its own century-long blunder, and with its origins as an American movement driven largely by nature romantics and aristocratic men determined to protect their hunting grounds. Not only has it dispossessed millions of people who might very well have been excellent stewards of the land, but it has engendered a worldwide hostility toward the whole idea of wildland conservation – damaging the cause in many countries whose crucial wildland is most in need of protection.

The article describes how indigineous peoples threatened with displacement across the globe have begun to band together to force a change in the conservationist mindset that humanity and nature are antithetical.

Reporting like this is why the Boston Globe needs to stay in business.

Powerful Images

Crowdsourcing Election Verification, part 3

Rafe Furst — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:29:01 +0000

In part 1 I advocated photographing your completed ballot before submitting it and posting your photograph online. Turns out that if you followed this piece of advice in Missouri, you might be in jail right now. Oops! Sorry :-)

I’m not even clear whether doing what I did in revealing the contents of my ballot textually would be illegal in Missouri or not. Or in Nevada where I voted for that matter. Of course it would be a silly and slippery slope if it were illegal to reveal the contents without using a photo. For one, I could have lied and not really voted according to what I posted — as far as I know blogging falsehoods is still legal. Also, what if I posted my choices before the actual vote, like op ed columnists do? And what if I did so prospectively but scheduled the post to be published after the vote happened? Or if I tried to post before the vote but the system was slow and it didn’t actually get posted until after the vote?

Anyone who can clear up the legalities, both federally and also on a per state basis, please comment below.

hat tip: Ace Bailey

Victory Over "War on Terror"

Rafe Furst — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:51:39 +0000

For those of who understand the power of self-fulfilling prophecy, there’s some good news on the foreign policy front. The Obama administration (thanks to Hillary Clinton) will not be using the phrase “war on terror” anymore, as it is widely deemed to be “overly militaristic and perhaps counterproductive.” Amen!

hat tip: Daniel Horowitz

Decrease Red Meat Consumption

Rafe Furst — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:00:48 +0000

This is not news, health professionals of all sorts have been saying this for a long time. ABC News features a recent study supporting this.

A relevant footnote near the end of the article though:

“The question is how much of it is the meat and how much is the extra calories,” Brooks said. “Calories per se are a strong determinant for death from cancer and heart disease. This should make us think about our calorie intake.”

Suffice it to say, the average U.S. diet contains too many calories, and too many of the calories we consume come from red meat. My favorite quote, to be filed under the heading of methinks-thou-dost-protest-too-much is this one:

But the American Meat Institute objected to the conclusion, saying in a statement that the study relied on “notoriously unreliable self-reporting about what was eaten in the preceding five years….”

The article quickly debunks this of course since it’s not true.*

So the question is, how much red meat should we be eating, and does it make sense to simply replace red meat with poultry and fish but east the same amount? The China Study tries to make the case for zero animal protein. The problem is, despite the compelling-sounding arguments and data, there are some serious flaws in their analysis. Plus, it doesn’t make evolutionary sense. Finally, I have heard of no compelling evidence which suggest that vegans live longer on average than those who eat a modest amount of animal protein, and some evidence that a totally vegan diet is problematic.**

Kevin has said that all the data he has points to 20% of your calories from protein, but it doesn’t matter what form. With the caveat to avoid a lot of casein (the main villain in The China Study), which is found in milk and milk products.

This gives us an upper bound on total protein (as a function of calories). But how much from animals and how much from plant matter? Given that you need to eat most of your calories from a variety of whole plant foods for a host of health reasons, and since some plant foods have protein (including but not limited to nuts, seeds and legumes) it makes sense that if you need to get much less than 20% of your calories from animal protein for the numbers to work out.

How much less? Who knows. My guess is somewhere between 5% and 10%. And if you are looking to make a change in this regard and are worried about your friends laughing at you, just tell them you are a flexitarian, which happens to be the 2003 Word of the Year according to the American Dialect Society.

Now, of course you are eliminating or severely reducing your refined carb and sugar intake, right? The good news is that if you are eating a majority of your calories from whole plant foods, and you are exercising regularly, you can pretty much eat til you’re full and not count calories.

Oh, and most important, don’t worry about the exact numbers or if you indulge now and then. Stressing out, now that shit will kill you.

hat tip: Daniel Horowitz

* Why does there have to be two sides to every story? Sometimes there’s only one side: the truth. The American Meat Institute is not dedicated to pursuit of science, it’s a lobbying group paid for by the meat industry. Therefore, there’s no reason they need to weigh in on a news report.

** B-12 deficiency is the most well-known, but there are other issues too. Remember, you can’t just isolate one aspect of a complex system and hope to accomplish anything.

Powerful Images

Rafe Furst — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:40:53 +0000

Click here to see the whole set.

hat tip: mom

The Return of Public Discourse

Rafe Furst — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 06:08:50 +0000

We are living in a time wherein the sound bite is the modal and most influential form of public discourse. Which is unfortunate because of its unidirectional, one-to-many nature. I’m happy to report though that I see the signs of a return to more meaningful conversation in the form of online video.

This month’s Wired Magazine Jargon Watch features a telling harbinger:

Sound Blast n. A supersize sound bite, blasted over the internet by a tech-savvy politician. Barack Obama’s campaign speeches, uploaded onto YouTube and viewed by millions, have defined the form. The average sound bite is 10.3 seconds; a typical sound blast is 10 minutes or more.

Additionally, the popularity and virulence of TED and Pop!Tech videos should give us hope that it is possible to convey nuanced ideas and deep new insights to a large audience.

The one thing that’s not quite there yet is the closing of the informational feedback loop such that we have real, organic, meaningful and creative conversation in the public sphere. But I believe that is coming. The ability to comment (textually and in video form) certainly suggests the potential. What’s lacking is a way for true crowd wisdom and substantive individual voices to percolate up from the cacophonous babel.

When that happens, the superorganism will have achieved a critical developmental milestone akin to when a child acquires language and begins to exhibit conscious thought.

How Grandma Saved Democracy

Rafe Furst — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:27:49 +0000

Visiting my 90 year old grandma a couple of weeks ago, I saw the opportunity for a product that I think would have a lot of success in the marketplace. Like the iPhone though, it’s not so much the idea — I’m sure someone is working on or already has the idea — but rather in the implementation and interface.

My grandma has one of those electronic picture frames that sits in her living room, is connected to a proprietary service via a phone line, and can be updated with new pictures remotely by her family members. She gets incredible delight in discovering new photos and watching old ones go by as she drinks her tea in the morning or before bed at night. The key to this whole product for her (and for many others) is that it works completely without her having to lift a finger. Her family set it up and they take responsibility for updating the photos. If grandma had to intervene somehow, her lack of any technological familiarity would be a show-stopper.

Every year these picture frames get better. Currently there are ones that connect to the internet via wi-fi instead of a phone line, and link up to open photo-sharing sites like Flickr. Clearly, it won’t be long before other functionality is added, like web-browsing, email and instant messaging. But I don’t think these extensions will catch on, mainly because the ergonomics for typing are bad, and if you had to add a physical keyboard you might as well just go use your laptop.

The extension that will catch on is a well-integrated video chat system. Imagine Apple’s iChat system with the following front-end tacked on. The frame gets a switch at the bottom that toggles between Picture Mode and Video Chat Mode. When in VC Mode, a set of onscreen buttons pop up, as follows: “Chat with Bobby”, “Chat with Dr. Rosen”, etc. Each option is pre-programmed on a central server so there is no typing for grandma.

I can imagine such a system becoming an important way for extended families and distantly located friends to stay in touch. It also may be useful for emergency services. For instance there could be a physical panic button on the frame that dials 911 and activates the camera and microphone (one-way) so that the police can monitor what’s going on and decide how to respond.

Hey, while we are dreaming, why not extend the system eventually to a become a secure and private voting machine for local and national elections? In the wake of voting machine fraud in 2000 and 2004 this may seem a long way off. But the problem with secure voting systems has never been due to a lack of actual technological solutions.

At first we will all use our home picture frames to respond to unofficial polls, like exit polls or American Idol voting. Next time around, it’s used for pseudo-official polling to let our elected representatives know how we feel on certain topics. After that, it shouldn’t be long before we are comfortable dipping our toes in the personal democracy waters for real, first with local referendums (like city and state ballot propositions). And once the training wheels are off, it will be hard to stop the groundswell of support for the whole enchilada.

Dangerous Media, part 2

Rafe Furst — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:30:41 +0000

I have talked about some of the dangerous aspects of main stream media in the past. Recently I was reading The Black Swan, in which the author argues that watching TV news, listening to news on the radio, and even reading newspapers actually makes you less informed (and dangerously so) than if you were to tune out completely.

The argument goes that all media is biased, and if you watch, listen or read more, it simply enhances that bias while giving you a false sense that you are getting more information and different perspectives. And since all of the one-to-many forms listed above have the same inherent biases and incentives, your confidence goes up without increasing your actual knowledge. A lot of biased information and misinformation is worse than none at all.

While The Black Swan makes this point somewhat tangentially, Jeff Cohen brings home the point from the perspective of a former main stream journalist who was forced out for raising these very issues.

Not that I needed any more excuse to opt out of following main stream news, but the above examples and arguments have been enough to make me consciously avoid all network, cable and local television news, not read newspapers, and only listen to radio news as it comes up on NPR* between the shows that I like listening to.

The way I stay up on what’s going on in the world is via osmosis, internet news aggregators like Digg and Reddit, and a few selected forms such as 60 Minutes and The Daily Show (which actually does a great job of highlighting the bias, spin and manipulation coming from MSM). I suspect I’m not alone in this shift. I also realize that my mix is not perfect, especially when it comes to information about the world outside the U.S. So, I’m wondering, how do others get their information about current events, and what are some sources and methods for becoming better informed about the world as a whole?

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