on Stuart Hall

Politics without guarantees by Asad Haider

The unravelling of a conspiracy in India

The unravelling of a conpiracy by Siddharha Deb

In 2018, Indian police claimed to have uncovered a shocking plan to bring down the government. But there is mounting evidence that the initial conspiracy was a fiction – and the accused are victims of an elaborate plot.

Probably Freeman Dyson's last article

 Biological and cultural evolution: six characters in search of an author in Edge.org

Long read, a review of three books from 2010, mostly about George Price

 On George Price by Miriam Markowitz

A quote towards the end:

"If we know that altruism makes one feel good and useful—that, at least, has been tested in the laboratory of human emotion—then perhaps altruism evolved because it increases the fitness of the individual by protecting him from the desire to die. Life is hard; we know that as moderns, and it seems likely that it was as well for our predecessors. Perhaps, in her omniscience, Nature understood that she could not rely solely on the survival instinct to ensure the propagation of her magisterial creations; that occasionally one might grow disillusioned with this life, despite its beauties, and want to end it. Feeling that one is needed by others might just prevent this defection. Altruism, pure or not, may be a lifeboat, a dinghy we row. Within its confines, we experience the subtle brotherhood of men, and let it warm us."

Fifty years of Price Equation

 Fifty years of Price equation from Philosophical Transactions of thevRoyal SocietyB. Several interesting essays free online.

Introducing 'Khabar Lahariya'

 From The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jul/29/stop-patronising-me-and-give-me-an-interview-the-female-journalists-speaking-up-for-indias-poor?fbclid=IwAR2nEOZhINdjVkNuV7BdsShMECnPaijU3myrKhJWpNwjlN92BhRbZ92FQIs

"Khabar Lahariya is India’s only all-female news organisation. Based in Uttar Pradesh, its journalists passionately believe in reporting rural issues through a feminist lens."

From 'The natural selection of bad science'

 Seems applicable to other areas as well.

"The requirements for natural selection to produce design are easy to satisfy. Darwin outlined the logic of natural selection as requiring three conditions:

(i) There must be variation.

(ii) That variation must have consequences for survival or reproduction.

(iii) Variation must be heritable.

In this case, there are no biological traits being passed from scientific mentors to apprentices. However, research practices do vary. That variation has consequences—habits that lead to publication lead to obtaining highly competitive research positions. And variation in practice is partly heritable, in the sense that apprentices acquire research habits and statistical procedures from mentors and peers. Researchers also acquire research practice from successful role models in their fields, even if they do not personally know them. Therefore, when researchers are rewarded primarily for publishing, then habits which promote publication are naturally selected. Unfortunately, such habits can directly undermine scientific progress." 

"Despite incentives for productivity, many scientists employ rigorous methods and learn new things about the world all the time that are validated by replication or by being effectively put into practice. In other words, there is still plenty of good science out there. One reason is that publication volume is rarely the only determinant of the success or failure of a scientist’s career. Other important factors include the importance of one’s research topic, the quality of one’s work, and the esteem of one’s peers. The weight of each factor varies among disciplines, and in some fields such factors may work positively to promote behaviours leading to high-quality research, particularly when selection for those behaviours is enculturated into institutions or disciplinary norms. In such cases, this may be sufficient to counteract the negative effects of incentives for publication volume, and so maintain high levels of research quality. If, on the other hand, success is largely determined by publication output or related quantitative metrics, then those who care about quality research should be on high alert. In which direction the scale tips in one’s own field is a critical question for anyone interested in the future of science."

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303698773_The_Natural_Selection_of_Bad_Science?fbclid=IwAR1zn5t6CzzuO2hGOYmWOAPYbtZxM5ggEXL8fybNJ0xmUHdjya-1G4j_Iqo

Victor Toth on entanglement

 No man is an island.

Victor Toth in Quora about entanglement:

Well, actually, that is precisely the point. Most of the time, everything is entangled with everything else.

When we talk about, say, creating an entangled pair of particles, the point is not to get them entangled with each other; the point is to reduce or eliminate their entanglement with everything else to the extent possible, for as long as possible. That is to say, make sure that the pair are isolated from the environment.

That’s the hard part. Not entangling them with each other; that’s a given.

The original question:

If interacting particles become entangled, why isn't everything entangled with everything else from the big bang?

A comment from Dan Kervick

 Dan Kervick comments in a Doug Henwood post;

Seems like leftists of various kinds and degrees are always bemoaning the failure of the masses to develop a consciousness of their “true” material interests, and their susceptibility to fake or fraudulent cultural, religious, identity or moral concerns. (What’s the matter with Kansas?)

Is it possible that, after many decades of failure, these kinds of leftists might want to reconsider their own flat, two-inch deep understanding of human nature and what they understand as its “real” material interests.

People actually care about their spiritual lives, their loves and friendships and family lives, their linguistic heritage and the cultural riches embodied in it, and their sense of justice and morality. Leftist philistines who think all of this is fake, false consciousness need to expand their own intellectual and spiritual horizons, and then might understand why they have failed, over and over and over, to gain much of a foothold.

The socialist vision of society is ancient and rich and varied. It is exalted. It has a noble artistic, moral and religious heritage. It didn’t begin in the cold, smoggy and mechanical mid-nineteenth century and isn’t solely the product of the satanic mills and what a handful of modernist urban European thinkers thought about them.