Saturday, November 11, 2006

Note on Ethics

Combine the Golden Rule and turn the other cheek and, according to a simple extension of game theory, in practical terms you have magical thinking.

The distinction between the methods religion, science, and magic dims if you consider the rewards and punishments of the afterlife (or "karma" for that matter, since there's no practical way to track, even leaving aside multiple incarnations) the dark matter/energy of this ethics, desperately seeking balance or more-than-balance for the magic that doesn't seem to work otherwise.

And thus you have - the Sermon on the Mount.

Nietzsche again. Disturbing that every time I turn a corner I find he - or Ludwig W. - got there first.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

On Experts

It's not that the Emperors have no clothes; it is just that they don't notice when they have taken them off.