Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Blogspot meltown?
I can't access any blogs with a .blogspot.com address from work, but I can get to them from home. I can also add posts to this blog, because the editing windows all go through a .blogger.com address. The IT people say the problem is with blogspot, and the pages I am accessing at home are just in my computers cache.
If that is the case, then Molly will not be able to read this post at home.
Molly, can you read this post? Should I talk to IT again?
Should I assume the inability to access blogspot is a productivity enhancing measure from administration and get back to work?
If that is the case, then Molly will not be able to read this post at home.
Molly, can you read this post? Should I talk to IT again?
Should I assume the inability to access blogspot is a productivity enhancing measure from administration and get back to work?
Monday, January 03, 2005
the problem of evangelism
After I posted about my desire to shelter tiny Caroline from Christian messages, Molly showed me an atheist children's book. It assured its tiny audience that God was made up, just like unicorns and elves. While the book better reflected the current state of my thought on religion than the Christmas-time religious messages I previously said I wanted to protect Caroline from, I didn't want to bring the atheist book into my house either. In fact, the atheist children's book bothered me just as much as "God Made Food", a Christian children's book that came in a pile of handmedowns we got from someplace.
See, this is what really bothered me about Christmas. (I've already been snoped on something I said in my Christmas post, which really bums me out, because I was really hoping that Christmas caused suicides. I was even willing to wager that the festivals in other religions didn't cause suicide the way Christmas did, and that neither did Christmas as it is practiced outside of the USA. Now I will have to find other reasons to hate Christmas.) I'm not really bothered by the failings of christianity vis-a-vis my idealized vision of Buddhism. It's the evangelism.
I tell my students that when you enter a conversation with someone, you shouldn't expect the other person to change their minds any more drastically than you are willing to change your own mind. I'm not sure where I first head this rule (Habermas?) but it strikes me as both a basic piece of courtesy and a foundational principle of collective rationality. We need it both to live together decently and to form an effective knowledge-seeking community. Anyone who enters tries to convert you without themselves being open to conversion is, ironically, speaking in bad faith. My irrational aversion to public displays of Christianity comes only because in my own experience, Christian evangelism is more associated with this sort of bad faith than other religions.
This makes messages given to children especially sensitive. Children believe what they are told naturally and automatically. No adult could ever be as able to accept ideas as a child. I think you exploit a child by pumping her full of belief, of catechisms and creeds and the shibboleths that separate tribe from tribe. Better to impart the values and habits of careful belief formation, than any dogma.
See, this is what really bothered me about Christmas. (I've already been snoped on something I said in my Christmas post, which really bums me out, because I was really hoping that Christmas caused suicides. I was even willing to wager that the festivals in other religions didn't cause suicide the way Christmas did, and that neither did Christmas as it is practiced outside of the USA. Now I will have to find other reasons to hate Christmas.) I'm not really bothered by the failings of christianity vis-a-vis my idealized vision of Buddhism. It's the evangelism.
I tell my students that when you enter a conversation with someone, you shouldn't expect the other person to change their minds any more drastically than you are willing to change your own mind. I'm not sure where I first head this rule (Habermas?) but it strikes me as both a basic piece of courtesy and a foundational principle of collective rationality. We need it both to live together decently and to form an effective knowledge-seeking community. Anyone who enters tries to convert you without themselves being open to conversion is, ironically, speaking in bad faith. My irrational aversion to public displays of Christianity comes only because in my own experience, Christian evangelism is more associated with this sort of bad faith than other religions.
This makes messages given to children especially sensitive. Children believe what they are told naturally and automatically. No adult could ever be as able to accept ideas as a child. I think you exploit a child by pumping her full of belief, of catechisms and creeds and the shibboleths that separate tribe from tribe. Better to impart the values and habits of careful belief formation, than any dogma.
Sunday, January 02, 2005
foreground makes the heat more soothing
The weather was balmy when we returned from the APA, and a tepid rain had washed away all the snow. Still, the major battle over the last few days has been with the cold.
Shortly after we got in the house on Friday and turned the heat back up, the furnace broke. I fussed with the things I knew how to fuss with, and then called the repair people. The repair people said that it would be Monday before they could even check on the availability of the parts we needed, and asked if we had an alternative source of heat.
"I guess we can buy space heaters," I said.
"Well, fortunately the weather is fairly balmy," they replied
So now we heat the first floor with one large Kerosene heater, and use small space heaters to warm up other rooms as needed. Our neighbor, lovely and kind Vicky Coffee, loaned us an electric space heater, and the stove does a good job warming the kitchen. Unfortunately the weather has not remained balmy. It got down to around 5 last night, and right now it is 21 F, with some freezing rain.
Having a single major radiant heat source for the whole house is actually quite cozy. You are aware of the changes in temperature as you move about the house. If you stick your hand in the air, you discover it is noticeably warmer near the ceiling. In some rooms, cold air billows about your ankles like dry ice fog. The fact that the temperature is always in the foreground makes the heat more soothing.
The kerosene heater came with a lot of conflicting instructions. The grandmotherly woman at the wise buys said to never use kerosene that has been in a can that has held any other kind of fuel. Wild Bill Locy, who gave us a gallon of kerosene on Friday when we discovered that no stores were open that sold kerosene, said twice that we should ignore this rule. The instructions printed on the heater itself make very Talmudic pronouncements on this bit of kashrut law. “Kerosene is to be kept only in blue cans. Kerosene that has been in red gasoline cans or yellow diesel cans is unclean.” When we were finally able to purchase kerosene, we were unable to secure a blue kerosene can, so we purchased a new yellow diesel can and wrote “Kerosene only: no other fuel has been in this can nor should go in this can” on it using indelible marker. Hopefully this will satisfy the petroleum rabbis.
Shortly after we got in the house on Friday and turned the heat back up, the furnace broke. I fussed with the things I knew how to fuss with, and then called the repair people. The repair people said that it would be Monday before they could even check on the availability of the parts we needed, and asked if we had an alternative source of heat.
"I guess we can buy space heaters," I said.
"Well, fortunately the weather is fairly balmy," they replied
So now we heat the first floor with one large Kerosene heater, and use small space heaters to warm up other rooms as needed. Our neighbor, lovely and kind Vicky Coffee, loaned us an electric space heater, and the stove does a good job warming the kitchen. Unfortunately the weather has not remained balmy. It got down to around 5 last night, and right now it is 21 F, with some freezing rain.
Having a single major radiant heat source for the whole house is actually quite cozy. You are aware of the changes in temperature as you move about the house. If you stick your hand in the air, you discover it is noticeably warmer near the ceiling. In some rooms, cold air billows about your ankles like dry ice fog. The fact that the temperature is always in the foreground makes the heat more soothing.
The kerosene heater came with a lot of conflicting instructions. The grandmotherly woman at the wise buys said to never use kerosene that has been in a can that has held any other kind of fuel. Wild Bill Locy, who gave us a gallon of kerosene on Friday when we discovered that no stores were open that sold kerosene, said twice that we should ignore this rule. The instructions printed on the heater itself make very Talmudic pronouncements on this bit of kashrut law. “Kerosene is to be kept only in blue cans. Kerosene that has been in red gasoline cans or yellow diesel cans is unclean.” When we were finally able to purchase kerosene, we were unable to secure a blue kerosene can, so we purchased a new yellow diesel can and wrote “Kerosene only: no other fuel has been in this can nor should go in this can” on it using indelible marker. Hopefully this will satisfy the petroleum rabbis.
Friday, December 31, 2004
Chomsky at the APA
Many people have been asking me about Noam Chomsky's appearance at the APA. I can only answer the most commonly asked ones:
How did he look? What was he wearing? Noam looked quite grandfatherly in a grey v-neck sweater and blue collared shirt. He looked quite healthy for a 76 year old anarchist. It looks like he managed to shake all the paparazzi on his way over from Cambridge, because I can't find any pictures of his APA appearance on the web.
Were there any other celebrities there? Was there hugging? Yes, there was celebrity hugging, which took me by surprise, because I never thought of Noam as a hugger. As Chomsky made his way through the throng at the APA group session meeting of the Society for Social and Political Philosophy, Cornell West, star of The Matrix and Princeton's African American Studies Department, jumped out and offered Chomsky a hug, as if they were old friends. Chomsky looked startled, as if thinking "Who is this person, and what is wrong with his hair?" Once he got a better look at West, though, he recognized him as a fellow rock star, and gave him one of those one armed, token hugs.
When will his remarks be published? Under the Chomsky Universal Transcription Act of 1980, every sound Chomsky makes in public must be published somewhere. My bet is that this will turn up in South End Press.
Were there any good Chomskyisms? His more devoted fans may be familiar with some of these, but they impressed me.
"The United States accomplished all of its major policy objectives in the Viet
Nam war"
(Because by crushing South Vietnam, it demonstrated that successful defiance of US policy aims will be punished. The fact that the US failed to establish a client state in SE Asia is a minor loss compared to the overwhelming success it had in preventing the growth of stable prosperous societies outside of its control.)
“There’s a slogan I really don’t like, although it comes from people I do like,and that is the Quaker slogan ‘Speaking truth to power.’ You can’t ever be sure you are speaking the truth; you shouldn’t speak to people, you should speak with them; and there’s no point in speaking to the powerful, because they know exactly what they are doing. A better slogan would be ‘seeking truth with the powerless’”
(I’m paraphrasing a little, but the rhythm of the remark is right.)
“Incidentally, 50% of Iraqis polled said something that no US intellectual would dare utter in public, that the US invasion was motivated by the desire to control the last major reserves of the world’s most important energy source.”
(Again, I’m paraphrasing, but remember, all good chomskyisms are introduced with the word "Incidently")
Also, for what’s its worth, I’m a US academic, and I’ll say it in public:
The war in Iraq was fought for oil.
The people who were tortured in Abu Graib, were tortured for oil. The thousand plus US soldiers who died, died for oil. The hundred thousand plus Iraqis who died, died for oil.
A few servings of Chomsky every month are part of a balanced intellectual diet. You can lose perspective without him.
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
quick APA blogging
had my first job interview, here is the post mortem
(1 = stammering only interrupted by vomiting; 10 = left with interviewers home phone numbers and an invitation to go dancing)
Q1: Did the candidate appear relaxed and comfortable: 5
(1 = stammering only interrupted by vomiting; 10 = left with interviewers home phone numbers and an invitation to go dancing)
Q2: Did the candidate answer all questions completely and cogently: 8
(1 = all answers monosyllabic and about football; 10 = all answers ready to be published in a peer reviewed journal)
Q3: Did the candidate blurt out the truth when he really should have evaded: 5
(Among the blurts: "How did you wind up with the research program you have?" "Well, time and chance really. I couldn't get my dissertation published, and I landed this gig teaching medical ethics."
Friday, December 24, 2004
I'll be your straw man
Ever since Bill O'Reilly announced that he was the only one out there "defending Christmas" the holiday media have been dominated by two memes: conservatives claiming that Christmas is under attack from secularists forcing people to say "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas"; and liberals insisting that no one is attacking Christmas, and that conservatives are creating another liberal boogie to perpetuate the idea that they are somehow oppressed.
As I mentioned in the comments on Echidne, all of this makes it very difficult to what I want to do most this time of year: attack Christmas. My deep need to attack Christmas has been simmering for the past week, as I conduct my rounds of Midwest holiday visits, so I really, really need right now to list all the aspects of Christmas that I wish to see annihilated by any means necessary, Christian sensitivities be damned.
As I mentioned in the comments on Echidne, all of this makes it very difficult to what I want to do most this time of year: attack Christmas. My deep need to attack Christmas has been simmering for the past week, as I conduct my rounds of Midwest holiday visits, so I really, really need right now to list all the aspects of Christmas that I wish to see annihilated by any means necessary, Christian sensitivities be damned.
Like any human institution, Christianity has positive and negative aspects. Nevertheless, overt displays of Christianity can make me anxious in a way that no other display of religion can. It is a visceral, irrational response.1. The phrase "Merry Christmas"
2. "The Little Drummer Boy"
3. Suicide.
4. Relatives who hold their holiday gathering every year at the same time
grades are due, and then get mad at me because I don't come.
5. The fact that social niceties led me to go to a Christian church this Christmas eve, and Christian churches make me very, very antsy.
6. " Oh little town of Bethlehem" 7. The contemporary Christian rock version of "the little drummer boy" I
heard in the diner the other day.
Most of the things that I loathe about Christmas are carol related. This is odd, because normally my aversion to Christianity is suspended when it comes to music: I dig Mahalia Jackson, shaped note singing, Bach, etc. If one were to read me uncharitably, one might think that I only liked the Christian music it was ok for hipsters to like, but when confronted with the honest expression of worship from ordinary people, I turn up my nose. The way I read me, though, what is really at work is aesthetic detachment. When Christian ideas come from other places and times, I can take what I like of it and leave the rest. When Christianity comes from my own culture, I feel pressure, like I’m supposed to buy this whole hog, and if I don’t there is something wrong with me.
8. The fact that my daughter is exposed to Christianity a lot this time of year.
I develop this irrational feeling that she has gotten some Jesus on her, and I should wipe it off. Its irrational, because I don’t believe that Jesus is necessarily bad for you. I am certain that the good aspects of Christianity have actually made bad people better. Still, I have to admit that I don’t want my daughter to be a Christian. This can be very problematic socially, because my wife’s family are Christians of various stripes (United Church of Christ & Quaker). We occasionally find ourselves around God-related toys, and I always have to find a way to steer Caroline away from them without announcing “I’m not really one of you.”
9. The sermon I heard today, about how we all come with “some assembly required”
and only God can help us put the pieces together.
Contemporary Christianity begins with what Buddhists call the first noble truth, the truth of suffering. Life is full of suffering. I feel this truth quite strongly, and am always suspicious of people who don’t. The question is how to respond to this suffering. Buddhism offers a diagnosis of this suffering that makes sense. The second noble truth is that suffering comes from desire, and the cure for suffering is the release of desire. Christianity (like all the Western monotheisms) takes the opposite route. Suffering is not caused by desire, but by having the wrong object of desire. The only object of desire that can relieve your suffering is God. Thus a god is posited that can satisfy all desire. Such a god would have to be infinite, paradoxical, and in the end, unbelievable.
10. The phrase “happy holidays”It’s just like “merry Christmas,” only more insipid.
I know this list is going to offend some. Suicide is an important holiday tradition for Americans. There is really no good reason why I should call on the annihilation of a sermon that no one was making me hear, and is perfectly protected speech under principles that I myself hold dear. Whatever. My real point was put best by PK "We must stop christmas from coming." We failed this season, but maybe next year.
Well, I could go on, and I probably will at some point, but I should also mention one aspect of Christmas normally targeted for death by grinches like me, that I want to see spared in the upcoming Christmas holocaust:
"Its a Wonderful Life"
Why spare "Its a Wonderful Life"? Because while I was in college I had an alcohol-fueled religious experience watching it. At the time T.V. stations were in the habit of really pushing the Frank Capra classic. That Christmas eve easily half of the stations on my parent's cable system were running it. My parents had gone to bed, but I couldn't sleep, so I started drinking beer and surfing the various broadcasts of Jimmy Stewart's brush with suicidal depression. I quickly discovered that the different stations were not quite in synch, and that if you flipped the channels just right, you could watch the same sequence over and over again. At around my fifth beer, I managed to watch the Zuzu’s petals sequence for a good fifteen minutes “Zuzu’s petals!” “Zuzu’s petals!” “Zuzu’s petals!” This led me to achieve mystical union with … well with something.
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Real Climate for the Reality Based Community
via pharyngula: realclimate.org are a group of climatologists blogging to get the word out on the consensus that people studying the climate have reached:
(1) the earth is getting warmer,
(2) human activity is responsible for at least half of this increase,
(3) if we do not change our ways, warming will continue or even accelerate.
I've just begun to comb through it, but this post , which begins to address the role of consensus in the scientific process, is interesting from a philosophy of science perspective.
(1) the earth is getting warmer,
(2) human activity is responsible for at least half of this increase,
(3) if we do not change our ways, warming will continue or even accelerate.
I've just begun to comb through it, but this post , which begins to address the role of consensus in the scientific process, is interesting from a philosophy of science perspective.
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Gas Station, and exit off I90
So I get out of the car and pop the gas cap. A kid comes up to me. He's wearing a parka with the hood up, and under that a knit cap from the fashion company whose logo looks like a pair of those girly silloettes you see on mudflaps. He says "how much do you want."
"Wow, I didn't realize this was full service." Seriously, I thought full service was exctinct, even on the New Jersey Turnpike, where it had clung tenaciously for years.
"Um, fill it up."
I get my credit card and go inside the little booth, where they sell coffee and chips. The pudgy guy behind the counter has a catepillar on his upper lip.
As I go to the counter to pay, and old guy comes in the employees only door, and is now standing on the wrong side of the register.
"Are you the manager?" he says to the pudgy guy.
"Um, I'm actually the manager at another station. I came here to get..."
"This young man," the old guy says, pointing to the girly logo kid shivering outside, "want me to pay for my gas before I put it in my tank."
"I already put it in your tank sir" says the kid "I put in 20 dollars worth."
"He wants me to give him 20 dollars before I fill up."
"I don't know anything about that" says the pudgy guy.
"He thinks I would run off without paying." they old guy is agitated.
"I already put the gas in your truck sir," says the kid again.
"Sir," says the manager of another store, "I didn't see any of this, so I really can't say"
"I've been coming here for...I would never run off without paying." says the old guy.
"Sir, I didn't see what happened. It's all a matter of perception. I can't judge..."
Holy shit! David Hume is a pudgy gas station manager with bad facial hair!
"I'm sorry if this person offended you." concludes the gas station empiricist.
"I want this young man to apologize to me."
The kid looks at me like I should intervene. I really want to explain to the old man that his gas was already pumped, but the whole thing just says quagmire to me.
"I'm sorry sir," the kid says. One of my students once insisted to me that one of the mud flap girls on his logo shirt was actually a mud flap boy. I'm looking at the logo again, and I swear they are just mud flap girls.
The old man gets in his truck and drives away.
"How much gas did you get?" bad facial hair Hume says to me.
"Wow, I didn't realize this was full service." Seriously, I thought full service was exctinct, even on the New Jersey Turnpike, where it had clung tenaciously for years.
"Um, fill it up."
I get my credit card and go inside the little booth, where they sell coffee and chips. The pudgy guy behind the counter has a catepillar on his upper lip.
As I go to the counter to pay, and old guy comes in the employees only door, and is now standing on the wrong side of the register.
"Are you the manager?" he says to the pudgy guy.
"Um, I'm actually the manager at another station. I came here to get..."
"This young man," the old guy says, pointing to the girly logo kid shivering outside, "want me to pay for my gas before I put it in my tank."
"I already put it in your tank sir" says the kid "I put in 20 dollars worth."
"He wants me to give him 20 dollars before I fill up."
"I don't know anything about that" says the pudgy guy.
"He thinks I would run off without paying." they old guy is agitated.
"I already put the gas in your truck sir," says the kid again.
"Sir," says the manager of another store, "I didn't see any of this, so I really can't say"
"I've been coming here for...I would never run off without paying." says the old guy.
"Sir, I didn't see what happened. It's all a matter of perception. I can't judge..."
Holy shit! David Hume is a pudgy gas station manager with bad facial hair!
"I'm sorry if this person offended you." concludes the gas station empiricist.
"I want this young man to apologize to me."
The kid looks at me like I should intervene. I really want to explain to the old man that his gas was already pumped, but the whole thing just says quagmire to me.
"I'm sorry sir," the kid says. One of my students once insisted to me that one of the mud flap girls on his logo shirt was actually a mud flap boy. I'm looking at the logo again, and I swear they are just mud flap girls.
The old man gets in his truck and drives away.
"How much gas did you get?" bad facial hair Hume says to me.
I'm a cool hunter making you my way
Check me out, I'm blogging from a hotel room, using a a wi fi connection. I am so right now...er...last year.
Didn't get on the road until 8 last night. Drove as far as Buffalo. I have nine more hours of driving before Chicago. I could be there by 7 if I stopped dicking around on the internet and actually hit the road.
Hotel rooms always make me feel safe and anonymous. With all the identical doors down the hallway, why would anyone bother mine? And there's the predictability. The pay per view. The coffee maker. If you're lucky, a minibar.
And highspeed internet access! Using Molly's new computer, which is so superior to mine!
Didn't get on the road until 8 last night. Drove as far as Buffalo. I have nine more hours of driving before Chicago. I could be there by 7 if I stopped dicking around on the internet and actually hit the road.
Hotel rooms always make me feel safe and anonymous. With all the identical doors down the hallway, why would anyone bother mine? And there's the predictability. The pay per view. The coffee maker. If you're lucky, a minibar.
And highspeed internet access! Using Molly's new computer, which is so superior to mine!
Monday, December 20, 2004
cold front, bringing with it retardation
A cold front came in last night. Last I checked it was 18 below F outside, before the windchill. This causes a lot of things to freeze up, like the battery half of my car's hybrid engine, and my brain.
Thats right, with the cold has come rampant stupidity. First I get totally taken in by Dr. B's satire. And now I totally get lost taking The Ediedog to the kennel. An errand that should have taken 45 minites took 2 hours.
The only comfort: an Ottowa radio station that played francophone hip hop until 12, hip hop in español after that. The last song I heard featured that bouncy salsa piano part, a thumpy drum machine, and a guy calling out "(garbled) son Latinos!" and getting a shout back from his posse.
Thats right, with the cold has come rampant stupidity. First I get totally taken in by Dr. B's satire. And now I totally get lost taking The Ediedog to the kennel. An errand that should have taken 45 minites took 2 hours.
The only comfort: an Ottowa radio station that played francophone hip hop until 12, hip hop in español after that. The last song I heard featured that bouncy salsa piano part, a thumpy drum machine, and a guy calling out "(garbled) son Latinos!" and getting a shout back from his posse.
Sunday, December 19, 2004
loud emo because the family is gone
The family (Molly, Caroline, tiny unnamed fetus) went off to the midwest for christmas celebrations a few days ago, so it has just been me and The Ediedog here. I'm impressed with how quickly "God I love how quiet it is! I can really get work done!" changed into "Fuck, I'm lonely." Even when Caroline isn't around, I wake up in the middle of the night, expecting to see her needy, demanding face calling me out of bed.
The main advantage to not having the family here is that I can play the stereo really loud. Right now I'm having that really pleasant experience where the CD changer switches to a CD that you had put in months ago, and forgot that you had even purchased, because you haven't been listening to the stereo, just the downstairs boombox that tiny Caroline has already figured out how to put her tiny CDs in. In this particular case, the CD I forgot I had purchased is The Emo Diaries, Chapter 5, "I guess this is goodbye". It sounds right right now.
Well, grading is done. Tomorrow I drive off to join the family for family stuff. Then it's on to the APA, where I have four job interviews. (And I only applied for nine jobs! shows what a publication will do for you.) I was hoping to do something vacation-y once the semester was over. Actually try recording some music I wouldn't be embarassed posting to the web. Create a real web page. Something that isn't work or childcare.
On the stereo right now some earnest youth are singing "just to hold you, just to hold you, I came all the way." The guitars go chunk-chunk chunk-chunk chunk-chunk, in descending chunks.
The main advantage to not having the family here is that I can play the stereo really loud. Right now I'm having that really pleasant experience where the CD changer switches to a CD that you had put in months ago, and forgot that you had even purchased, because you haven't been listening to the stereo, just the downstairs boombox that tiny Caroline has already figured out how to put her tiny CDs in. In this particular case, the CD I forgot I had purchased is The Emo Diaries, Chapter 5, "I guess this is goodbye". It sounds right right now.
Well, grading is done. Tomorrow I drive off to join the family for family stuff. Then it's on to the APA, where I have four job interviews. (And I only applied for nine jobs! shows what a publication will do for you.) I was hoping to do something vacation-y once the semester was over. Actually try recording some music I wouldn't be embarassed posting to the web. Create a real web page. Something that isn't work or childcare.
On the stereo right now some earnest youth are singing "just to hold you, just to hold you, I came all the way." The guitars go chunk-chunk chunk-chunk chunk-chunk, in descending chunks.
Sunday Fetus Blogging
tiny unnamed fetus enters the second trimester today. (13 weeks post conception, 15 weeks post last menstrual period) According to the pregnancy calendar at parentspace it is 12.5 cm long and weighs 80 grms.
Last time I was reading on the issue, I came to the conclusion that this might actually be the time when the fetus becomes sentient. All of my citations on the subject are at the office, so I can't give you the details, but I remember I was impressed by two facts 1. Most of the second trimester is just rapid growth. You don't see a lot of new systems coming on line. 2. The pain circut that we share with animals (the delta fibers) is active at this point. The more advanced pain circut, the c-fibers which we only share with the other great apes, won' t be on line until week 28 or so. Well, if any of the pharyngula crowd heads this way, they might be able to correct me on the biology here. I do want to stand by a bit of conceptual analysis, though. I have a strong intuition that my dog can feel pain. If the fetus at this stage has roughly the same functioning hardware with a similar evolutionary history, I think it will feel pain too. Given the way reflective equilibrium works, one could deny sentience to both the 13 week fetus and dogs, but that is unsatisfactory.
I also, by the way, think that the fetus at this stage has the same moral status as my dog, which makes me out of touch with both pro-life and pro-choice hardliners, even though I consider myself pro-choice.
I had earlier wanted to post some composite pictures by Tsarias of the developing fetus, but a google image search didn't yield any. Now a link on pharyngula lets me know that Tsarias' company has an elaborate flash-based web page for all of their anatomical art. This is a deep link to the section on fetal development. If that doesn't work, this is the front page.
Tsarias's page has interactive graphics for the period from conception through implanation, for the 3-8 week period (technically known as the "boiled shrip stage"), and the third trimester (technically known as the "space baby from 2001 stage"). Nothing for what tiny unnamed fetus is doing now. The pictures from the boiled shrimp stage are cool, because they look more like menacing alien babies than pro-life propaganda posters. I only wish Tsarias' pictures came with more signage: explanations of the different sources used for the different images, what it means that certain systems were colored red, etc.
Last time I was reading on the issue, I came to the conclusion that this might actually be the time when the fetus becomes sentient. All of my citations on the subject are at the office, so I can't give you the details, but I remember I was impressed by two facts 1. Most of the second trimester is just rapid growth. You don't see a lot of new systems coming on line. 2. The pain circut that we share with animals (the delta fibers) is active at this point. The more advanced pain circut, the c-fibers which we only share with the other great apes, won' t be on line until week 28 or so. Well, if any of the pharyngula crowd heads this way, they might be able to correct me on the biology here. I do want to stand by a bit of conceptual analysis, though. I have a strong intuition that my dog can feel pain. If the fetus at this stage has roughly the same functioning hardware with a similar evolutionary history, I think it will feel pain too. Given the way reflective equilibrium works, one could deny sentience to both the 13 week fetus and dogs, but that is unsatisfactory.
I also, by the way, think that the fetus at this stage has the same moral status as my dog, which makes me out of touch with both pro-life and pro-choice hardliners, even though I consider myself pro-choice.
I had earlier wanted to post some composite pictures by Tsarias of the developing fetus, but a google image search didn't yield any. Now a link on pharyngula lets me know that Tsarias' company has an elaborate flash-based web page for all of their anatomical art. This is a deep link to the section on fetal development. If that doesn't work, this is the front page.
Tsarias's page has interactive graphics for the period from conception through implanation, for the 3-8 week period (technically known as the "boiled shrip stage"), and the third trimester (technically known as the "space baby from 2001 stage"). Nothing for what tiny unnamed fetus is doing now. The pictures from the boiled shrimp stage are cool, because they look more like menacing alien babies than pro-life propaganda posters. I only wish Tsarias' pictures came with more signage: explanations of the different sources used for the different images, what it means that certain systems were colored red, etc.
Saturday, December 18, 2004
Three things posted instead of grading
Thing one:
I should be grading right now. If I get my grading done early, I will have time to do some activist blogging, the sort of thing that requires a couple hours web research, before I go to my in-laws. I'd like to write a letter calling for the extradition of the Union Carbide guy to India on murder charges. I’d also like to get a list of charities and political groups on my sidebar, and do some blogging about the best places to give. I could do all these things, if I just went back to grading.
Thing two:
Here beginneth the annual wussing out. I’ve stopped riding my bike to work. I made it to mid-December this year, which is better than last year, when I only made it to mid-November. Still, I’m not like these guys. Or this guy. Or these guys. (I had a really good winter riding site bookmarked a while back, but I can’t find it anymore.)
When I lived in Chicago, I bicycled all winter, largely because I didn’t own a car, and winter biking was no more painful than winter standing-on-an-elevated-platform-waiting-for-a-train-in-minus-five-degree-weather-christ-why-does-chicago-have-an-elevated-train-anyway.
The real problem is that once the winter wussing begins, it doesn’t end until Spring, even on days like today, when the weather isn’t bad at all. Wus wus wus.
Thing three.
I’m most of the way done grading my environmental course. I enjoyed teaching the course, and want to teach it again. The papers, though, are not as good as I would have liked. The students were all environmental studies majors, and they didn’t really know how to write a philosophy paper. Next time I will have to use more structured assignments.
I should be grading right now. If I get my grading done early, I will have time to do some activist blogging, the sort of thing that requires a couple hours web research, before I go to my in-laws. I'd like to write a letter calling for the extradition of the Union Carbide guy to India on murder charges. I’d also like to get a list of charities and political groups on my sidebar, and do some blogging about the best places to give. I could do all these things, if I just went back to grading.
Thing two:
Here beginneth the annual wussing out. I’ve stopped riding my bike to work. I made it to mid-December this year, which is better than last year, when I only made it to mid-November. Still, I’m not like these guys. Or this guy. Or these guys. (I had a really good winter riding site bookmarked a while back, but I can’t find it anymore.)
When I lived in Chicago, I bicycled all winter, largely because I didn’t own a car, and winter biking was no more painful than winter standing-on-an-elevated-platform-waiting-for-a-train-in-minus-five-degree-weather-christ-why-does-chicago-have-an-elevated-train-anyway.
The real problem is that once the winter wussing begins, it doesn’t end until Spring, even on days like today, when the weather isn’t bad at all. Wus wus wus.
Thing three.
I’m most of the way done grading my environmental course. I enjoyed teaching the course, and want to teach it again. The papers, though, are not as good as I would have liked. The students were all environmental studies majors, and they didn’t really know how to write a philosophy paper. Next time I will have to use more structured assignments.
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