Philosophy Wire: Brain. Humans. Gods.

A team of researchers from UTSA's Neurosciences Institute is challenging the historical belief that the organization of the cortical circuit of GABAergic neurons is exclusively local. [1] Locality. The gravest of the principles governing all sciences. We believe we are tiny. But it is not because we believe that distant galaxies cannot affect us. But mainly because we do not believe that we can affect them. Because if we did, we would be responsible for the cosmos. Coward. Look at your hands. Don't you see you can touch the air?

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Philosophy Wire: Deep learning… Water… Alone in the desert…

Using the South American continent as an example, Earth system modellers have developed a new Deep-Learning-Method, which quantifies small as well as large-scale changes to the water storage with the help of satellite data. [1] Watch that river flow. Quantify it. Do you really care? Does it matter how much water there is around if you are not thirsty? Does it matter is everything is dry if you are full? Knowledge is superficial. You will get it. At the moment you try to go to that river. And realize that the water can never exist. Without knowing that you will put your hand in it…

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Philosophy Wire: It is in the genes… But what is it?

Photo by Spiros Kakos @ Pexels

Intensive DNA search results in the conclusion that 10 genes are related to schizophrenia. [1] Interesting. That means that these 10 genes are also linked to the lack of schizophrenia. So what remains to be seen is whether… schizophrenia is a good thing or not! And that is the value of true science. To generate questions that philosophy needs to answer… Because science is still immature. But like any child, it can truly pose interesting questions to its parents for them to ponder upon… Yes science needs philosophy, but also philosophy needs science! As any parent needs their children, even before they are born.

Look! A butterfly!
Why do butterflies fly father?
Sit down my son…

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Philosophy Wire: Science. To the stars. So? Touch me…

Science promises to send us to the stars. [1] We used to be on earth. Touching the cosmos with our hands. Now we want to go away. Where we can touch nothing. Why are you afraid my child? We want to grow up. And we believe this means that we have to abandon our father. How little we know of Him. Still a child He is. Crying every time we laugh…

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Science: This beautiful whore! [From the Reproducibility crisis to Epstein connections]

In Greece (and many other countries) there is a saying: After going to the doctor, always go to a second one to get a second opinion! This public wisdom has been so much embedded in our everyday life that we do not even consider it as something special. And yet, this simple but highly intuitive advice hides something much more sinister than we would like to admit...

But let's take things from the beginning.

In the times of ancient Greeks, science and religion were not even separated. Both fields of thinking existed harmoniously together and helped wise people to their common goal: reach the truth. This common path continued up to the era of Galileo (whose case was largely overstated and wrongly attributed by all - read the relevant articles in Harmonia Philosophica), when for reasons altogether irrelevant to the essence of science or religion philosophy science was separated from religion.

And then the downfall started...

Science started being an independent realm of human endeavor and this resulted in the infamous "war" with religion. A war based on false premises and fed by the hate of the new intellectual order against the old one (read the "Enlightenment was not light" article in Harmonia Philosophica). It was about that time that another factor came in to fuel the fire even more: MONEY.

The result of the corrupting effect of money in science can easily be seen today by anyone even remotely connected to science. If you are not, let me draw you a picture: You are a scientist. You are funded to conduct research but only as long as you produce results. And results mean publications. So you need to publish, but this is not enough on its own. You need to publish more and more quickly before the other publish first! In that way you will get more money from funds and then you will publish more and then... Well, you get the meaning.

All this has resulted in a gruesome comedy of tragic proportions: We are everyday bombarded with new "scientific news" (the most important of which are debunked or analyzed philosophically here in Harmonia Philosophica every four days) which often contradict each other or which are so immature which should never see the light of publication. Newton used to keep volumes unpublished for decades before he was sure that the quality was good enough and today we see minions of science to publish new papers every a month or so.

This ridiculous situation would be funny if it wasn't serious as well. In this parade of publications we also see medical publications about what we should eat (coffee, wine, etc), what we should not eat (coffee, wine, etc), what we should do in order not to die, what we should not do, what medicine will save us from death (even though not even clinical trials have started and they usually never do - you see, only the initial publication is usually enough to 'prove' that you do research) et cetera. Doctors are also of course taking part in the party (why wouldn't they anyway? they are Scientists!). So medical companies pay their bills and give them bonus trips, they suggest to you the medicine they are paid to suggest, they may even promote some surgeries to write a paper! (remember, always get a second opinion)

Meet the Reproducibility Crisis!

At some point the problem mentioned above started to become so huge that even scientists took notice (remember, true science has a serious lag to notice obvious things). This is what is now known as the Reproducibility Crisis in science. And when we say science we mean Science! As a whole. As it turns out, the eagerness to publish resulted in scientists faking results. According to a 2016 poll of 1,500 scientists reported that 70% of them had failed to reproduce at least one other scientist's experiment (50% had failed to reproduce one of their own experiments). In 2009, 2% of scientists admitted to falsifying studies at least once and 14% admitted to personally knowing someone who did. Misconducts were reported more frequently by medical researchers than others. (source)

That article you read about not having to drink coffee because you will get cancer? Forget it! Or perhaps not! Actually that is the problem now: We cannot know what is false and what is right! As long as there was money to fund the research, then the research would yield a result! How can you trust anything today when it is known that about 70% of scientists cannot replicate the experiments of others?

And yet the money is still flowing in...

The problem is so big that you can easily find articles pinpointing the problem - focusing also mainly in the medicine related research. (source) (source) (source) Karl Popper, the 20th century's pre-eminent philospher of science, said that science without a testable hypothesis really isn't science at all, but rather a "pseudoscience." Much of today's so-called science, which relies on scary projections without tests to back them up, fits this description. (source)

And yet the money is still flowing in...

Meet Epstein!

The billionaire who served time for a sexual offense involving a minor and then, afterwards, jailed for being accused of running a worldwide ring of pedophiles. Yes, so? What about him? Well, it turns out that Epstein was in love with... science! As it turns out he was a patron of many well known scientists! Scientists who took Epstein’s money or associated with the financier even after he was jailed for soliciting an underage girl for prostitution. Some of them issued apologies, some failed to comment. (source) Would this sound as a surprise? Not to those who have been looking at the path science has taken for the last centuries or so...

One of the science institutes which took money from Epstein includes the famous MIT Media Lab. There has been a huge uproar for this, which resulted in the Media Lab issuing statements and promising to give the equal amount of money it had received to the victims of Epstein. Are they really sorry? Hard to distinguish the truth behind the statements made under public outrage. One of the founders of MIT Media Lab - Nicholas Negroponte - provided an answer though: In an event he said quite simply and honestly that he suggested that the Lab took the money from Epstein and that he would do it again! "Take the money!" he added emphatically. "Take it!" he repeated. (source)

Many people might object here. It is some scientists who are not moral. It is some scientists who are not good and ethical. Not science. But they would be wrong! It is exactly science which is inherently immoral today!

Science is supposed to be morally neutral [1] [2]. Today we believe that knowledge is intrinsically good [1]. But it is exactly this ethical neutrality which leads to unethical paths! It is exactly this certainty of goodness which leads to everything bad modern civilization has experienced. This is what Rousseau tried to point out in the first place – knowing what is good has nothing to do with being good.

"Take it!" said Negroponte.

And so he did. And so other will keep on doing...

And that beauty which was once science, will turn into an beautiful old whore... Looking at us with a promising look and a tear in her eyes. And as the Polar Star of Lovecraft, she has forgotten what message she has to give us. Except that she has a message to convey...

Bibliography

1. Paul RootWolpe, Reasons Scientists Avoid Thinking about Ethics, Cell journal, Volume 125, Issue 6, 13 June 2006, Pages 1023-1025, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2006.06.001
2. Ma-Kellams C, Blascovich J, “Does ‘Science’ Make You Moral? The Effects of Priming Science on Moral Judgments and Behavior”, 2013, PLoS ONE 8(3): e57989, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057989.

Philosophy Wire: Science generating monsters. Smiling and accepting.

Researchers have developed transgenic mosquitoes that stably express the Cas9 enzyme in their germline. The addition of Cas9 will enable the use of the CRISPR gene editing tool to make efficient, targeted changes to the mosquitoes' DNA. As proof of concept, the researchers used the system to disrupt cuticle, wing, and eye development, producing completely yellow, three-eyed and wingless mosquitoes. Their long-term goal is to develop new pest control strategies. [1] Knowledge does not liberate. Knowledge creates monsters. And modern science is all about knowledge. Always searching for more in the name of progress and research. And yet, more and more knowledge increases our longing for more knowledge. And that makes us feel more and more empty. And frustrated. The moment we realize we will never know everything, we try to make things on our own. To control the cosmos, to manipulate it in order to fit our understanding. And the cosmos will bend under our will. And we will feel more empty. Because we would not have understood anything, we would have just made the cosmos look like us inside: Hollow and void. Seek nothingness. Crave to be empty. Let go. It is only then that you will fully understand everything. It is only then that the beauty inside you will come out. Without any strings attached or knowledge razors to cut through it and distort it. You are not only editing your genes. You are changing the cosmos itself. Making it ugly. Accept yourself. Just smile. You are beautiful.

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Philosophy Wire: No limit to life. And yet… we all die?!

No detectable limit to how long people can live: By analyzing the lifespan of the longest-living individuals from the USA, the UK, France and Japan for each year since 1968, investigators found no evidence for such a limit, and if such a maximum exists, it has yet to be reached or identified. [1] No limit to life. And yet… we all die?! Science has the incredible ability to be blind to the obvious. We define life as something materialistic and even then, we cannot find an inherent limitation to its duration. But why would there be a limitation? Because we believe there should be one, judging by our limited perception of life? We are too much obsessed with the end of our existence. We must stop seeing death. And we will enjoy eternal life…

Memento mori (Remember to die)...

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Philosophy Wire: Predictions from Science. Predictions from Religion. Not for the faint-hearted.

Scientists predict that an earthquake with a magnitude of 7 or greater will happen in the region of Constantinople (Gr. Κωνσταντινούπολη) in the coming years. The extent of such seismic threat to this Turkish city actually depends on how strongly the tectonic plates are entangled and on the exact nucleation point of the earthquake. A team of researchers now presents a study indicating that the next major earthquake is more likely to originate in eastern Marmara Sea. [1] Predictions from science are easy. You just see the data and repeat to the “ignorant” people that what has happened before will happen again. Predictions from religion on the other hand… these are not for the faint-hearted. Predictions from religion is about breaking the rules. It is about predicting how good will triumph when all you see is the opposite. It is about predicting that people will be good, when all you see is malice. It is about predicting the death of death, when all other people say otherwise. Because religion is based on the heart. And the heart can never be wrong. Because it does not need data to make predictions. It can formulate the Cosmos itself in order to make the predictions come true. Miracles defy predictions, in the sense that they shape their own rules. And being faithful in a cosmos so dark as this one is a miracle on its own. Let the candle burn inside your heart. You are the earthquake yourself!

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Philosophy Wire: Negative mass. Amazing. On paper. Walking on water…

Researchers in the US say they've created a fluid with negative mass in the lab. What it means is that, unlike pretty much every other known physical object, when you push this fluid, it accelerates backwards instead of moving forwards. Such an oddity could tell scientists about some of the strange behaviour that happens within black holes and neutron stars.

Hypothetically speaking, matter should be able to have negative mass in the same way that an electric charge can be either negative or positive. On paper that works, but it's still debated in the science world whether negative mass objects can really exist without breaking the laws of physics.

Now scientists claim they have made a fluid with negative mass! Well, actually they did not create a fluid with negative mass. They managed to get a fluid of superchilled atoms to act as though it has negative mass - and suggest it could finally be used to study some of the stranger phenomena happening in the deep Universe. [1]

Creating materials which behave like something else. Fantasizing about new properties. Making weird new universes in their mind. This is the role of scientists today. A role taken out of old monasteries where people gathered to create new humans. Fantasizing about new emotions and behaviors like forgiveness and unconditional love. Creating a weird new cosmos in their hearts.

You are not your hands. You do not have mass. Positive or negative.
You are the one who gives meaning to mass.
You are the one who makes matter exist.
Think of negative mass and you will see it.
Watch closely.

We used to be scientists.
Now we are just inventors.
We used to have soul.
Now we just know math.
We used to know humans were real.
Now we analyze matter.

Look at the water. Step on it. It does not repel you.
You are neither immersed in it. Look carefully. You are walking on it…

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Philosophy Wire: Science: When the solution is the problem.

Science created seedless fruit with gene editing so as to reduce our reliance on bees which are going extinct. [1] There are times when the solution is the problem. If we did not have the capability to do something like this, we would just think of saving the bees. But this is modern science anyway: Unwanted solutions which turn out to be problems on their own. Think of a world where people live for ever with the help of science. Think and compare this to a world where people died. Open your eyes… Do they really look alive? Listen to the silence. The bees are dead.

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Philosophy Wire: Global revolt against experts! (and the need for “non-experts”)

Hawking warns us that “We are witnessing a global revolt against experts”. [1] In the beginning we were ignorant. After that some people became experts. And then required from other people to listen to them because they are "experts". But the new experts are not yet… experts. And they have no desire to listen to the old experts just because they are… experts. This is how science progresses. You despise people questioning you? Then you must accept questioning from everyone! You want to become an expert? Then remain "non-expert" in your whole life!

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Philosophy Wire: It works! The fallacy of the most known pro-science argument!

Most pro-science sites feature the same argument in their cover: “Science! It works!” [1]. But is it that simple? Unfortunately for the worshipers of scientism (and not science, which does not need such simplistic arguments to support the imaginary “war” between science and other ways of thinking), this is not the case. The seemingly simple argument “It works” confuses many and irrelevant arguments and lines or reasoning at the same time. First of all, this argument cannot answer which are the limits of science, or rather hides the fact that these limits actually exist. (e.g. not all things are measurable and not all things can be studied in a lab) It also avoids to explain the difference between technology (this is what “works” actually) and science which in its pure form has to do with models. Yes, the laser CD works. So? Quantum mechanics has not yet concluded on why it works and scientists have not agreed upon what a particle actually is. This argument also implies rather blatantly that other ways of thinking “Do not work” which is simply not the case. Christianity has worked as a system of ethics on which a great civilization was built for thousands of years. Surely that is better and much more important than any scientific model which results in producing… CDs and which is “proven” valid for some years before a new one comes and replaces it. So beware of the easy and “simple” arguments. They usually DO NOT WORK…

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Philosophy Wire: Interpretation of Science: Void of meaning…

Scientists cannot agree on which quantum mechanics interpretation is the correct one, while many of them do not even care about the question. [1] Science. It works without having meaning. We tend to focus on the first. But the latter is what is important. Seek those things which do not seem to "work". They are the ones which make the world be...

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Philosophy Wire: How music affects us. So?

Sounds, such as music and noise, are capable of reliably affecting individuals' moods and emotions, possibly by regulating brain dopamine, a neurotransmitter strongly involved in emotional behavior and mood regulation. [1] Again, science answering the easy questions: The how. Again, science missing all the important questions: The why. Listen to the music. Sure, there is a mechanism for everything happening when you listen to it. In the same way there is a mechanism for everything happening when a rock is “listening” to the same music. Take a look at the rock. Take a close look. What do you hear?

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Philosophy Wire: Born rule. Will it hold? And if not, should we care? No! Unless you are a (modern) scientist!

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2017-07-11]: Scientists discuss of the Born rule in quantum mechanics holds or not. Because if it does not, then a fundamental axiom of quantum mechanics will have fallen. [1] Modern science rediscovers the simple truth that axioms can change. We create rules and then we feel surprised to discover that they might not hold. Ask a child. It already knows the Born rule does not exist...

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Philosophy Wire: To be or not to… Facebook? Complicated answers… Irrelevant relevant correlations…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2017-07-03]: Is social media good for you, or bad? Well, it's complicated. A study of 12 million Facebook users suggests that using Facebook is associated with living longer - when it serves to maintain and enhance your real-world social ties. [1] Irrelevant correlations. Relevant correlations. Who can decide? Check your feelings. You know that question has no answer. You are just afraid to admit it… Because you want to have correlations. You somehow feel that this is the way it is supposed to be. But if you cannot distinguish the correct from the incorrect, then only one thing can be true: That they are all valid…

Eat ice cream.
Be careful of the sharks…

PS. Check here for this weird correlation.

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Philosophy Wire: Science as a tool to control the cosmos and why we keep missing the point…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2017-03-17]: Engineers have happened upon a way to stop the movement of the colorful eddies on the surface of soap bubbles. The results are works of art that could lead to stable engineered foams for medical treatments, personal products and food. [1] We need science to control things. We need science to stop the world from moving. And yet we forget that only when you change, do you stay the same. Only when you move you can stand still. Only when you live and die, do you really exist…

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Philosophy Wire: What do you have doubts about? [What do you see?]

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2016-12-08]:

What I get tired I “see things”. When I am not tired, I see things. What if consciousness is just a play of mind to the… mind? Sure. That could be a possibility. [1] What is science is also just a play of mind to us? No! Science is a universal tool of truth! Little stupid people. They have learnt to doubt everything but the obvious. And this will be their undoing…

What I get tired I see things.
When I am not tired, I see things.
Simple. Thus, difficult.

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Philosophy Wire: Parallel universes. Real. But not as your heart.

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2016-11-26]: Scientists insist that parallel universes are real. [1] We want to believe in things which will never be proved wrong [science]. Because we are afraid to see those which can be proved [religion]. We stare at parallel universe. Because we are afraid to look into our hearts…

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Philosophy Wire: Rhinos! Sorry, I meant Unicorns! They were real! No really. Really!

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2016-08-06]: New research suggests that a species of unicorn-like horned rhinos went extinct much later than previously thought – up until 29,000 ago – and they existed along with humans. [1] We did not believe the myths. We did not believe our eyes. (rhinos have one horn you know) So we needed a research. And… WOW! We validated that (slightly different) rhinos existed! Science: The art of validating the obvious. As Wittgenstein said… “Man has to awaken to wonder - and so perhaps do peoples. Science is a way of sending him to sleep again”. Look at the unicorns in front of you. They are real. And you do not need “proof” to believe it.

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