Philosophy Talk

:: eskimo math ::

:: alternative 3rd power model ::

:: divergent numbers ::

Rapid Qualitative Inquiry

I attended a talk on Rapid Qualitative Inquiry this evening, by an expert on the topic, Dr. James Beebe.  His partner has presented to Wanderers on her work in Afghanistan.

I came to the talk fresh from exploring a new CSN siting possibility:  Bangalore.  The LCD reveries featuring the IVM would likely go over well with proper prep, given the receptivity of this city to trends in high technology and early adoption.

However, the local chief of GST (general systems theory, a discipline) is somewhat hostile to the Bucky stuff and is circling the wagons to protect his turf.  We engage in our public quarreling on math-teach.

Rapid Qualitative Inquiry replaces the solo researcher with a team and does not begin with questions, but with techniques for eliciting emic storytelling (emic means "insider" I learned).  One might call it "accelerated anthropology" and it comes from USAID wanting to make interventions in short order, without the luxury of months of study, let alone years.

James had been a student of Bob Textor, founder of this think tank and Bob, as an architect of the Peace Corps program, was faced with challenges around rapid deployment leading to interventions in that historic context.

The new CHR candidate did not work out I'm told.  I liked the old one just fine anyway and didn't see where the CEO was coming from in proposing turnover (perhaps this wasn't coming from the CEO in the first place?).

The ability to distinguish affective emotion from logic, in the heat of an argument, is an important skill.  The way to remain cool is to calmly accept differences in naming conventions, not to defensively rally around one's own namespace as the "one and only".

Different city-states use different axioms (maxims) to govern their internal affairs.

RQI is by definition a team exercise, not the job of a solo practitioner.  One can fake it as a solo investigator but we're talking about something more akin to police work (detective work) and that takes multiple perspectives and a willingness to keep those perspectives jockeying for attention (more like the White House in that regard).

Bohmian Dialog does not insist on a minimum threshold of participants for nothing.  When the number of points of view falls to too low a number, one loses the advantage of partially overlapping narrative accounts, and in RQI work, multiple narratives makes all the difference.

James stressed an important point:  to earn the trust of participants, one should never promise them the moon, nor even that the results they most ardently wish for will in fact be the eventual results.

Buy-in on objectives is important nevertheless.  For example, the CSN reveries on LCD screens tend to reinforce a lot of the "design science" memes launched by Fuller e.g. 1, 12, 42, 92... CCP (i.e. IVM lattice).

Would more exposure to such memes benefit the children of Bangalore as they grow into adulthood?  Only if the answer is yes would I consent to move forward.  So far I'm thinking "yes" is the answer.

PsychoToon

Freaking About Phi

 
:: by numberphile ::

Loop Back

More Playing with Greek Mythos

Here's a series of billboards you might find interesting, from the Language Project of the 1980s:

Picture: Earth from space
Caption: Spaceship

Picture: Children playing on geodesic dome
Caption: Wildlife

Picture: Nautilus Shell
Caption: High Tech

Picture: Earth from space
Caption: Game Park

Then there's my Python billboard with just the Python logo (already well known) and the caption: Just Use It.

"Just Use It" alludes to Nike's "Just Do It".

Nike is a familiar / avatar of goddess Athena, as is the Python.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Athena_Nike

Leveraging Greek mythology is one of the things I do (in the tradition of Carl Jung et al), such as retelling the story of Apollo and the Python he supposedly slew... the Python escaped actually, and moved to Nashville, where a full scale Parthenon exists with a museum about the original Parthenon (temple to Athena) in the basement.

http://bit.ly/1vBpftf (shows Athena with Nike and Python in Nashville Parthenon)

But I digress. Did you know of the connection between Athena and West Point? We're talking about the military again.

Kirby

More context:  full posting @ math-teach

The Hunger (movie review)

You'll notice I'm posting this on Halloween, October 31st, as is appropriate given the subject matter:  the fictive vampire phenomenon, acted out by some talented personages: David Bowie, Susan Sarandon; Catherine Deneuve.

Somewhat like in the most recent Godzilla, we're finally in a scientific age when these mythical phenomena start getting real explanations.  Godzilla and friends feed off radioactivity and humans' discovery of this primordial "fire" has brought them to the surface.

With vampires, it's a blood thing, and transmitted through biting.  We actually look through the microscope and see that Susan's blood can't stand up to Catherine's, which has far greater immunological properties.

That's why Catherine's appearance belies her years, ditto Bowie's when the movie opens, somewhat "in the throwness of things" as Heidegger might have put it.

What a lot of vampires don't understand is their beauty is still fragile, even if longevity is assured, and they're likely to end up in an "out of sight out of mind" box in an attic or basement or nursing home someplace.

Exactly what causes aging to catch up with one suddenly is still not explained, but data points get added when the "queen" falls to her "death" (entrapment), and this seems to release her former concubines from their entrapped condition.  A new queen takes her place.  In this way turnover occurs, but slowly.

The vampire myth allows working out in narrative form what it's like for some mortals to have much longer lifespans than others through blood replacement therapy, extra vitamin C and so on.  The inequities seem obvious, as David Bowie has to relinquish his queen to go on without him, already plotting to snag her next lover (vampires get lonely too). 

If your sense of karmic inertia suggests life after Bardo, then your desire to pour money into prolonging a given organism's arc might seem less wise or necessary.

Horror films as a genre get to break taboos and cross lines.  Hitchcock's The Birds was one of the first commercial draws to show violence against children to the point of drawing blood.  Bowie's last victim is a brilliantly played fiesty young Beth Ehlers, only ten years my junior...

Halloween Season

Welcome to Nirel, CSN CTO, back in Greater Portland.

We're busy having a happy Halloween in Asylum District. 

Some fresh photos...