Sheldrake, TED, and paradigm wars

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

This from philosopher Christian de Quincey, anent Rupert Sheldrake’s censored TEDx talk.

For what it’s worth, Yeats in his old age speculated that there is something in the nature of the times (any given times) that makes certain people unable to entertain certain categories of thought. I suspect that is true. We’re not nearly as free to think our own thoughts as we think we are. I don’t think i could become a physicalist (materialist) if i wanted to. It just strikes me as a superstition.

http://www.christiandequincey.com/?p=2050

‘TED’ Sparks Paradigm War

Internet video site TED has removed presentations by biologist Rupert Sheldrakeand historian Graham Hancock because—according to TED—their ideas are “pseudoscience.”

What does this mean?

Well, simply, it means that one of the leading Internet sites for sharing intellectual ideas has shut out views that challenge deep-rooted dogmas of modern science—a decidedly unscientific act. It means the folks at TED buy into mainstream scientific materialism as the last word on what is “real” or “ideas worth spreading.”

So, what happened? 

The TED organizers have decided

 

[Etc]

Peter Diamandis: Abundance is our future

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

Peter Diamandis: Abundance is our future

This TED talk  is the ultimate answer to the people who think the past is dismal, the present is dismal, and the  future is  hopeless.

Peter Diamandis runs the X Prize Foundation, which gives rich cash awards to  inventors and engineers. The X Prize’s first $10 million went to a space-themed challenge. Diamandas’ goal now is to extend the prize into health care, social policy, education and many other fields that could use a dose of competitive innovation.

Now that you know who he is, listen to his irrefutable analysis of what’s going on around us.

http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_diamandis_abundance_is_our_future.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2012-03-02&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

 

Alice Dreger: Is anatomy destiny?

Posted on by Frank DeMarco

Another of the splendid TED series of videos.

This person’s informed opinion about the political results of different anatomy leads her to wider-reaching speculation, and the posing of problems that seem only theoretical now, but will soon engulf us if not dealt with, I suspect. Or, more likely, they will engulf us and then we will deal with them. But looking at this from the perspective lent by the guys upstairs – that we are not the individuals we think we are, but are communities – lends this video yet another dimension.

http://www.ted.com/talks/alice_dreger_is_anatomy_destiny.html