Wednesday, November 12, 2003

What I Believe Alfred Korzybski wrote in 1948: I AM deeply honored to participate in the Symposium, The Faith I Live By. This is the first opportunity I have had to write a 'credo', where I do not need to go into theoretical explanations. It happens that I come from an old family of agriculturists, mathematicians, soldiers, jurists, and engineers, etc. When I was five years old my father, an engineer, gave me the feel of the world's most important scientific discoveries of the nineteenth century, which prepared the groundwork for the scientific achievements of the twentieth century and remain fundamentally valid today. The feel of the differential calculus, as well as non-euclidean and four-dimensional geometries, which he conveyed to me at that time shaped the future interests and orientations of my life, and became the foundation of my whole work. My observations and theoretical studies of life and mathematics, mathematical foundations, many branches of sciences, also history, history of cultures, anthropology, 'philosophy', 'psychology', 'logic', comparative religions, etc., convinced me that: 1) Human evaluations with reference to themselves were mythological or zoological, or a combination of both; but, 2) Neither of these approaches could give us a workable base for understanding the living, uniquely human, extremely complex (deeply inter-related) reactions of Smith1, Smith2, etc., generalized in such high-order abstractions as 'mind', or 'intellect'; and, 3) A functional analysis, free from the old mythological and zoological assumptions, showed that humans, with the most highly developed nervous system, are uniquely characterized by the capacity of an individual or a generation to begin where the former left off. I called this essential capacity 'time-binding'. This can be accomplished only by a class of life which uses symbols as means for time-binding. Such a capacity depends on and necessitates 'intelligence', means of communication, etc. On this inherently human level of interdependence time-binding leads inevitably to feelings of responsibility, duty toward others and the future, and therefore to some type of ethics, morals, and similar social and/or socio-cultural reactions. In the time-binding orientation I took those characteristics for granted as the empirical end-products of the functioning of the healthy human nervous system. It was a fundamental error of the old evaluations to postulate 'human nature' as 'evil'. 'Human nature' depends to a large extent on the character of our creeds or rationalizations, etc., for these ultimately build up our socio-cultural and other environments. ... To conclude, I may quote from my new preface to the third edition of Science and Sanity: 'We need not blind ourselves with the old dogma that "human nature cannot be changed", for we find that it can be changed [if we know how]. We must begin to realize our potentialities as humans, then we may approach the future with some hope. We may feel with Galileo, as he stamped his foot on the ground after recanting the Copernican theory before the Holy Inquisition, "Eppur si muove !" The evolution of our human development may be retarded, but it cannot be stopped.'  (11/12/03) Re-thinking the Renaissance Craig Russell writes:  Sometimes our very words help to confound and thus to enslave us. Take, for example, the word “renaissance,” which we use to refer to a particular time in human history.  It means “rebirth” or “revival,” and we capitalize it to make it a proper name – the proper name – of that time in human existence when mankind “emerged” from “the dark ages” into the “enlightenment.”  But as S. I. Hayakawa points out in Language in Thought and Action, “What we call things . . . depend(s) upon the interests we have” (p. 121).  “Classification,” he says, “is not a matter of identifying ‘essences.’  It is simply a reflection of social convenience or necessity”. Because of that word, we accept as a fact that during “the Renaissance,” mankind “awoke” from their long medieval “sleep” into the “light” of “modern” thought. But perhaps this word reflects a social convenience or necessity we haven’t thought about – that in telling us we’ve become awake, it simply masks our essential slumber. L. T. C. Rolt deals with our understanding of the Renaissance and its repercussions at some length in his excellent (and much too hard-to-find) 1947 book High Horse Riderless.  An engineer, he thought deeply about the effects of his beloved machines on the land in which he grew up and the people who lived there.  His book points out how the changes in human thought that occurred during the Renaissance have affected both our approach to work and our understanding of freedom in a very negative and damaging way. ... Most of us (modern humans) have almost no connection to the natural world, to the land or the sun, to the very source of our lives.  We neither know nor care either where the food that sustains us comes from or where our physical wastes go.  And this separation from God and from nature also separates us from one another.  As humans we no longer see ourselves as all in this together, for we no longer believe in a god, in a nature, through which we are all connected and interrelated, not only to one another but to the world in which we live.  Separated from the wells-springs of life, we see ourselves as atomistic individuals, each out for himself, looking out for #1, hungry only for money and for power. This change of thought which we praise as a “renaissance” brought a wholly different conception of man and his relation to others and to the world. (11/12/03) AUTO-CPR: New Heart Rescue Machine New Scientist -- A portable, automated chest-pumping device greatly increases the chances surviving a cardiac arrest compared with manual methods, a study of dying pigs has revealed. If a person's heart stops, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can coax the heart to beat again. CPR involves repeatedly compressing the chest while also ventilating the lungs, often using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Now researchers at Stanford University in California have tested a new device called the AutoPulse Resuscitation System. It consists of a rigid backboard and a flexible band which is strapped across a patient's chest. Microprocessors then automatically estimate a person's size and calculate the force necessary to compress the chest wall by 20 per cent - the optimal amount of pressure. Autopulse can deliver 80 compressions a minute across the whole chest, rather than just the area of a human hand. Three-quarters of the pigs given AutoPulse were revived compared with none of those given manual CPR. The pigs had been technically dead for eight minutes - the average time it takes for paramedics to respond to a cardiac arrest. "What was even more astounding than the survival rate was that 88 per cent of the surviving animals had normal brain function," says Mehrdad Rezaee, director of interventional preclinical research at Stanford, who led the team. Brain damage is a common consequence of interrupted blood flow to the brain. ... Autopulse has been available for use on humans in Sunnyvale, California, since June. This followed its licensing by the US Food and Drug Administration, on the basis of a number of clinical studies. (11/12/03) Monarch Butterflies Threatened BBC Nature -- Monarch butterflies may lose their winter habitat within 50 years because of climate change, say researchers. Each autumn, Monarchs migrate thousands of kilometres from North America to the oyamel fir forests of Mexico, where they spend the winter months. Scientists fear that increased rainfall may render the forests unsuitable for the butterflies - which can only survive under very specific conditions. The results appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ... Dr Oberhauser and her colleagues used a technique called ecological niche modelling to predict how the Monarchs' winter home will change over the next 50 years. They found that, while the temperature in the oyamel forests is unlikely to change much, it will rain more, which the butterflies cannot stand because the wet increases their chances of freezing to death. The range of locations that fit the Monarch's requirements is likely to shrink even further, because of deforestation to make way for agriculture. Between 1971 and 1999, 44% of the butterflies' winter habitat was degraded, which means it was either cleared or thinned so that it was no longer suitable for the Monarchs. Scientists are worried that if this north-south migratory population is wiped out, it will prevent them from solving the mystery of how the Monarchs know to follow the same route every year. "The next step is to take the research on to a continental scale, to see if there are other places they can spend the winter," said Dr Oberhauser. "We need to think to the future, to preserve sites that might be suitable." (11/12/03) America's Ghost Ships Arrive BBC Environment -- The first of the ageing US navy ships at the centre of an environmental and legal struggle has arrived off the coast of Hartlepool. The contaminated ships have been towed across the Atlantic for dismantling and the first reached the Tees on Wednesday morning. A second ship is expected to arrive on Thursday. The UK Government has said they can be stored temporarily on Teesside, but should be sent back to the US. On Wednesday, it was announced the Environment Agency has approved a modification of a waste management licence to allow the ships to dock in Hartlepool. Any dismantling cutting or breaking up of the US vessels in any way shape or form while stored in the UK will be prevented. It also emerged all ports are being considered for the storage of the second two vessels which are en route to the UK. Able UK, the firm planning to wreck the so-called ghost ships, must convince a court it has the correct permissions. ... The ships are not carrying any cargo, but the problem is in their own ageing fabric. They were built when asbestos was widely used to line boilers, for example, and toxic chemicals were used in their wires. Last Wednesday, the High Court blocked any work on the ships after campaigners brought an action against Able UK. Environmental groups argued that the firm did not have the requisite licences and permissions to do the work, and warned of an environmental disaster. (11/12/03) Beagle 2 on Course for Mars BBC Science -- The British-built Mars lander, Beagle 2, is on schedule to reach the Martian surface on Christmas Day. Mission officials say its parent space craft, Mars Express, has survived a massive solar storm and is within 20 million kilometres of the Red Planet. Beagle 2 is due to descend through the Martian atmosphere and touch down on 25 December. "Mars Express the satellite is on collision course with Mars," said John Reddy, principal of electrical systems. "It means Beagle 2 is going to get there by hook or by crook." Europe's first solo mission to Mars has been disrupted by the greatest solar storm on record but there have been no long-term effects. However, engineers still need to check that Beagle 2 has withstood this intense bombardment from the Sun. Radiation shields should protect its inner workings but engineers cannot be certain until the power supply is switched on in the next week or so. Beagle 2 mission manager Dr Mark Sims of the University of Leicester, UK, said the chances of any damage to Beagle 2 were low but not zero. "As the mission manager I will not be happy until we turn Beagle 2 on next week," he told a news conference at the Royal Society in London. ... Scientists are well aware of the risks of landing a craft on Mars. Some two-thirds of Mars missions have ended in failure, often during landing. ... Engineers will fire the space craft's main engine in the early hours of 25 December to put it in orbit around Mars. Further adjustments will then be carried out before the space craft is ready to start capturing images on 4 January. From then on, if all goes well, Beagle 2 and Mars Express will start their main science mission - searching for signs of water and past life on the planet. (11/12/03) 9:00:13 AM

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