This is what I was thinking ...
David J. Walker
This is what I was thinking ...
A series of short pieces on a variety of subjects.
David J Walker
Published by David J Walker
Copyright © David J Walker, 2011
Also available in hard copy, printed by Salmat, 123 Hayward Avenue, Torrensville SA 5031 Australia
ISBN 978-0-9872405-1-4
Preface
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. – attributed to Calvin Coolidge (1872 – 1933)
Some years ago there was some dissatisfaction expressed by some of my department’s postgraduate students in relation to the lack of interaction with members of the academic staff. There were, of course, one-on-one meetings between supervisor and student, but these tended to be formal and very much work-focussed. The department rarely got together informally other than at times such as Christmas and the first Tuesday in November and these were not always times of unrestrained joy for many.
To deal with this I took on the task of getting a weekly morning tea up and running; a time when people could meet and chat and the department could develop a more collegial feel with all the benefits that would flow from that.
I started by organising for some biscuits to be on hand and sending out a simple announcement. This was timed for 11am on Fridays on the basis that even hard- working academics and students would appreciate that 11am was a traditional time for morning tea and Friday was a good day to recognise this.
Uptake was slow. People simply were not used to stopping their work and there were many a Friday where I sat alone, waiting …
However, after a few weeks a few attended and then a few more and there was an early memorable occasion after a couple of months when one of the academics brought some visitors to the function and they were exposed to an enthusiastic group of academics and students, all chatting, joking and generally looking enthusiastic about life. It made a very good impression.
As time went by numbers grew and fell and I took to ‘spicing up’ the email to try and attract their attention. I figured that they were starting to ignore the Friday email and decided that an amusing or catchy message might help. I tried writing messages where each word began with a different letter of the alphabet (in order): A Big Chance Dawns Every Friday, Graduates Hurry In Joining Ken, Lots Mingle Noisily etc. Others were written (as had been done by one particular French author) using only words that did not contain the letter ‘e’ (which is difficult initially but can work, as this bit of writing shows) or even messages that started with a one letter word followed by a two letter word etc. These were the most difficult and it
was very hard to get past about the sixth word and still retain some semblance of sense.
The messages worked – to an extent – but in October 2005 I was running out of variations so started putting together a short piece on something I had been reading, or thinking about. I cannot remember why, but I started with a quote, initially from the book that had generated the idea, but eventually also taking in a quote book that my wife had been given, and the Internet, and then worked up a few paragraphs to explain it or to develop an idea based on it.
These were well received (by some) and ignored by others (who told me proudly they never read them) but they were addictive (to me) and I persisted. Now six years, and 243 messages later, I have decided to put them together. They are neither universally educational nor humorous but are simply on topics about which I had been thinking or reading. There is a bit of a focus on thinking and philosophy and I went through a short phase when I decided to launch a few rounds at ‘Dubya’. Other than that, they are a mixed bag.
Initially people thought I had lifted them from the Internet and were surprised to hear I wrote them myself (scholarship is not dead!). Because they were sent out on Fridays many assumed they had been cobbled together between 8:30 and 9:30 on the morning and while the very early ones had been in their previous form this collection were generally written weeks in advance and took up many an evening.
Writing them was something that just got out of hand, but they were enormous fun. I would occasionally launch a missile and wait for the responses, and was generally not disappointed. Along the way I got to know my readers and what they liked and disliked and tried to respond appropriately. There were some people from whom I drew enormous strength and I hope that I have conveyed to them my appreciation for their encouragement and support along the way (in particular AW, AP, AS, AZ, BB, DO, JW, NA, NJ, PV, SJ and TD).
The topics sometimes got the conversation going at morning tea but to be honest most attendees were more interested in the tea, biscuits and cake (on special occasions) and many sank without trace. Until now, that is. Here, they have floated back to the surface and are presented mostly as they were delivered. Some have been adjusted slightly to correct typos but most appear as they did on a Friday some years ago.
David J Walker November 2011
for Adrienne ...
On teachers
One repays a teacher badly if one remains only a pupil - Zarathustra (as quoted to Freud by Carl Jung).
When Carl Jung went to work with Sigmund Freud it seemed to Freud an ideal opportunity to have a junior who would carry on the great work that he had started. The only problem with Jung was that he had some different ideas, but Freud was fairly sure he would be able to overcome these - he was the senior of the two after all.
It was not to be ... Jung stuck to his ideas, rejected Freud's explanations for a large number of psychological problems and eventually moved on, unable to work with someone who was so intent on remaining the teacher.
(Friday 21st October, 2005)
1 On chemistry
... one must distrust the almost-the-same ..., the practically identical, the approximate, the or-even, all surrogates, and all patchwork. The differences can be small, but they can lead to radically different consequences ... – Primo Levi (1975)
Trained in chemistry, Primo Levi was given the task of purifying benzene in wartime Europe. He found an established procedure that called for distillation followed by a final treatment using sodium to remove the last traces of impurity. Sodium was not available but potassium was and, being a good student of the periodic table of elements, he knew that the two were very similar.
Unfortunately for him, very similar was not similar enough and a final cleanup of the equipment with water led to an explosion that filled the room with flames. A tiny speck of sodium left in the flask would not have reacted so fiercely with the water and ignited the benzene fumes in the room. Potassium though was another matter.
(Friday 28th October, 2005)
2 On eminence
It is somewhat cynically said that the eminence of a scientist is measured by the length of time that he holds up progress in his field. – James Lovelock (2000)
At first it appears an odd way to rank scientists but perhaps the idea has merit. Lovelock cites the case of Louis Pasteur and his pronouncements on the forms of life possible in an oxygen-poor environment but there are more eminent scientists to consider. Arthur Eddington, for example, held back work on black holes for 30 years due to his supreme authority in matters astronomical.
Isaac Newton is credited with a number of fundamental breakthroughs. If his ideas hold sway today one can only imagine how they were viewed in his own place and time, Cambridge in the 1600s. So entrenched was his theory and beliefs that no one dared question his authority and he is credited with holding back developments in England for two hundred years. Meanwhile on continental Europe great advances in mathematics were being made by foreign mortals who feared him less.
But who is the most eminent? According to the scientist and philosopher Sir James Jeans this honour goes to Aristotle.
“Aristotle’s pronouncement that a circular motion was natural to all bodies, because the circle was the perfect geometrical figure, seems to have stifled curiosity fairly thoroughly for nearly two thousand years ...”
(Friday 4th November, 2005)
3 On giants
If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. – Isaac Newton (1676)
Newton is widely quoted for this magnanimous sounding acknowledgement that he used in a letter to the natural philosopher Robert Hooke. The background to it, however, is far more interesting. Newton and Hooke were anything but friends, and both seemed to have a history of making and keeping enemies for life. Newton was so upset by Hooke, who had claimed credit for some of his key discoveries, that he deliberately delayed publication of the final book of his three part Principia until after Hooke’s death, and also edited it to remove all mention of Hooke.
Now, back to the quote. Hooke was apparently short with what people generally describe as a crooked posture – hardly a giant, and more than likely to understand the not-so-hidden message in Newton’s words. People seem to be divided on the issue of Newton’s true meaning. To many it is another example of the vindictive nature of Newton. Stephen Hawking, on the other hand, gives him the benefit of the doubt and argues that the letter from which the quote was taken concludes in a more conciliatory tone and did appear to acknowledge Hooke’s contribution.
(Friday 11th November, 2005)
4 On poetry
[My father believed] people in general attached more value to verse than it deserved, and the power of writing it, was, on this account, worth acquiring – John Stuart Mill
James Mill was an author, who wrote a large book, and his son was impressed by the trouble he took in teaching him Latin and Greek every day, so they always had something foreign to say.
Young John was a learner who studied quite hard when asked for an inch he’d venture a yard. His father set problems for young John to learn in the hope that eventually an income he’d earn.
Now John was a thinker and John liked to walk, he was good with his brain but at doing he’d baulk. He wished he was better at making things well, but he did seem contented, though how can one tell?
(Friday 25th November, 2005)
5 On blood
… those things … are so new and unheard of, that not only do I fear harm to myself from other people’s ill-will, but likewise I fear that every man will be my enemy, so much does custom and doctrine once received and deeply rooted prevail with everyone. – William Harvey (1578-1637)
The sixteenth century was not a good time to be ill, especially with one of the conditions for which bloodletting was the prescribed treatment. Physicians would sever veins and draw off carefully measured volumes of blood in the belief that this would bring relief to the patient.
The practice sounds extraordinary, but was based on what was believed at the time. Galen*, a physician from ancient Roman times, had determined there were two blood systems in the body: one, through the arteries and taking in the lungs, brought life and nourishment; the other, through the veins, was responsible for transporting wastes and toxins. The deliberate bleeding was an attempt to remove the latter.
When William Harvey realized that blood in the human body actually circulated in one system one could imagine that he would have been pleased with his effort and keen to spread his findings. Nothing could be further from the truth! He was nervous, and waited ten years before daring to publish. Why? There was a huge vested interested in the status quo. Many treatments by surgeons relied on the two separate systems belief. His proposition was to call into question the wisdom of the ages and of virtually all the medical hierarchy of the time. No wonder he was nervous!
*As a point of interest, Galen’s views held sway in Europe for 1300 years making him a very eminent scientist/physician.
(Friday 2nd December, 2005)
6 On searching
I wouldn’t have seen it, if I hadn’t believed it. – Anon.
In January 1999 NASA launched the Mars Polar Lander with the aim of putting a robotic device onto the Martian surface and carrying out experiments to determine what they could of the environment on the red planet. As the craft approached the planet everything seemed to be going well. An extended silence was expected as the craft fired rockets to reduce its speed and drop through the Martian atmosphere. Once on-board radar detected the surface further deceleration would occur, landing legs would deploy, and the craft would settle gently on the surface. Then, and only then, would communication recommence.
In place of the expected transmission there came only silence. NASA tried a number of commands aimed at resetting the computer on the Lander but without apparent success. Then, after a few weeks of frustrating silence Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists using the Stanford radio telescope received a faint signal that they believed to be from the Lander. The signal had all the expected characteristics although it was hard to say exactly why it should have been so faint. However, after such a long time it was good to be getting something. Now began the task of trying to salvage the mission and complete at least some science before the Martian winter.
While this was proceeding they asked other radio telescopes around the globe, one at Jodrell Bank in the U.K. and another in Holland to provide an independent check of the signal coming from Mars. The U.K. team found nothing, but the Dutch team did receive something. The problem was, the Dutch were also able to receive the messages whether they pointed at Mars or not! It was quickly concluded that the signal was not from Mars; it was not from the Lander.
The Stanford team had used a search routine tuned for specific characteristics so, with hindsight, it was not so surprising that they had managed to find something with just those characteristics. A strong belief and several hundred million dollars had, for a little while at least, convinced them of what they wanted to believe.
(Friday 9th December, 2005)
7 On science
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it – Max Planck (quoted in Kuhn (1962), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions)
Thomas Kuhn, whose definition of what science is and how it works is viewed as a valid alternative to that of Karl Popper, framed much of his argument in terms of what he called the Planck Effect. Science, he proposed, worked as a series of changing paradigms where a theory would survive until there were so many exceptions to it that someone would develop a completely new view of the phenomenon and the old theory would be completely replaced by the new one.
This new theory would then continue to be tested and verified until, again, the number of problems and issues with it was too great and a new revolution would overthrow it. The complete overturning of Newton’s theory of gravity by Einstein was an example of the change in paradigms.
Einstein certainly had many fierce opponents who simply refused to believe his relativity and, as Kuhn suggested, they were never won over, they simply passed away along with their opposition. It had been a similar situation for Newton himself where continental Europe took around 50 years to take up his ideas following publication of Principia.
The Planck Effect may have been developed with science in mind but a key element in it must surely revolve around human personality and it is likely to be alive and well in other fields where innovation and discovery are central to its workings: engineering, for example.
(Friday 16th December, 2005)
8 On thought
Poincaré proceeds by sudden blows, taking up and abandoning a subject. During intervals he assumes ... that his unconscious continues the work of reflection. – E. Toulouse (1910)
When Herb Elliott won gold in the 1500 metres at the Rome Olympics much of the success was put down to the training regime implemented by his coach and mentor Percy Cerutty. Percy kept a strict training regime built on raw natural foods, spiritual reflection, and lots of hard work through the sandhills of Portsea in Victoria. Elliott himself attributed much of his success to the methods of his coach but there have been others who have suggested that anyone could have trained him to be a champion, given the quality of the raw potential that he displayed.
And so it is with thinking. There is a view that the brain is able to accomplish much while in idle mode, away from the problem at hand. Henri Poincaré certainly believed it so, and organized his day to make the most of his idle time. He would work and read for intense short bursts and then deliberately move on to other things on the assumption that when he returned to it at a later time much of the organization and work would be done.
Perhaps it’s true that the brain works well while apparently resting. There is certainly research to support the view, and one can always point to the experience of Poincaré, but then again, perhaps any regime would have worked with him.
(Friday 23rd December, 2005)
9 On genius
Since he [Albert Einstein] seeks in all directions, one must ... expect the majority of paths on which he embarks to be blind alleys. – Henri Poincaré
Although the French physicist Henri Poincaré never really accepted Einstein’s contribution to the theory of relativity he seemed happy to act as a referee when he was applying for a university position. It’s interesting to ponder how this recommendation might have been received by those in search of a new member of faculty. Geniuses and their remarkable work retain an air of mystery and an aura of magic.
The mathematician John Nash was another who seemed to relish the challenge of blind alleys. His method of finding problems on which to work involved virtually no reading of the relevant literature. He had a small network of sympathetic colleagues who he used as sounding boards to make sure a problem that he had perceived was real and unsolved. He would then pursue it until it relented. Often he would re-invent the wheel simply reproducing from scratch what others had already achieved. At other times though his thoughts, unconstrained by popular notions of what was possible and what was not, would lead him in quite different directions to quite remarkable results. And those are precisely what he is remembered for.
(Friday 6th January, 2006)
10 On librarians
Academic librarians who provide instruction in the 1990s are like the early explorers [Lewis and Clark] who coped with the new and the unknown as they ventured into the wilderness. – M. Forys (1999)
In 1803 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began their epic journey that took them from Clarksville, Tennessee, down the Ohio River, up the Mississippi River to where it joined the Missouri River and from there to the Columbia River and on to the Pacific Ocean. The adventure lasted two years during which time they covered 4000 miles, much of it through new and unexplored lands (at least by Europeans).
As they started they must have had many things on their mind. Uppermost was the need for careful planning which included the purchase of sufficient stores and provisions for the trip and the selection of thirty two suitably qualified men. Planning for the dangers ahead must also have taken some time, yet they were to return having lost only one man who had died of appendicitis, a fatal condition at the time, even with the best medical care. There must also have been a degree of apprehension knowing that the lives of so many rested squarely on their shoulders.
It would be fair to venture that one thought that did not cross their mind was that their trials and tribulations could be compared to those of a librarian, responsible for informing students on how to use new computer facilities.
(Friday 13th January, 2006)
11 On folly
He who laughs last, laughs longest. – 20th century proverb.
It was the early 1950s and the race was on to discover the structure of DNA. The key players were a small group in London headed by Wilkins and Franklin, a second English group comprising Crick and Watson at Cambridge and finally Linus Pauling and his team working at Cal Tech in the U.S.
Pauling was already a celebrated chemist who had virtually re-written chemistry and was almost beyond reach in intellectual terms. He had identified the alpha helix of some proteins and it seemed inevitable that he would soon sort out the DNA molecule.
His son was visiting the Cambridge laboratory and brought with him an early version of a paper that was about to be published that would set out the answer to the problem that they had all been pursuing. Crick and Watson were despondent, it was all over; if Pauling had said he had done it, then that was it. They started to read the paper with an air of despair. About half way through a cloud lifted. Pauling was proposing a triple helix, an arrangement that simply would not work. The great man had missed it completely! There were fundamental errors in the paper and he must have been in a dream, ignoring much of the chemistry that he himself had pioneered.
Pauling had surrounded himself with people who were reluctant to question him; who were so in awe that he was given full range for his folly. It seems if you want help, get some people around who are not afraid of you or your ideas.
(Friday 20th January, 2006)
12 On markets
Give me the clear blue sky over my head, ..., a winding road before me, and three hour’s march to dinner – and then to thinking! – William Hazlitt (English essayist)
When it’s sunny, things seem to go better, and part of that might be that the brain reacts in a more optimistic way, and this in turn drives the way people behave and react. For some time a condition referred to as seasonal affective disorder (SAD) has been observed with occupants of northern hemisphere countries that experience long and severe winters. People become more depressed, not just sad, depressed. The same effect has also been observed in stock exchanges where, in a study of 26 national exchanges, it was found that a rise or fall overall was correlated with cloud cover. No clouds – market rises. Clouds – market falls.
The move towards windowless offices may reduce the negatives but may also suppress the positives as well. What’s the use of a clear blue sky if people cannot experience it and be positively affected by it?
(Friday 27th January, 2006)
13 On mice
Three blind mice, see how they run! – Thomas Ravenscroft (1609)
The cause of the blindness that affected the three mice whose tails were cut off with a carving knife following their chase of the farmer’s wife was neither explained nor investigated and children seem happy to accept that some mice are blind while most are not. But there are other animals whose blindness (or semi-blindness at least) can be explained, and in doing so can add much to what we know of the brain.
It has been found that kittens raised in the absence of horizontal lines cannot ‘see’ them in later life! Of course this finding did not come purely by chance as it must be very hard to raise kittens in an environment without horizontal lines. Just consider our world – full of horizontal lines and just as well too because (we now know, based on the research that) at birth we have sets of neurons that are specifically designed to fire only when visual information falls on them in the form of horizontal lines. But like the saying goes – ‘use it or lose it’. If not used early on in life the potential is lost and the neurons are most likely re-assigned to other duties that would be carried out by adjacent neurons.
Perhaps these kittens that cannot see horizontal lines are particularly good at seeing vertical lines or diagonal lines or can meow using much more complex patterns. It may be a case of ‘use it or lose it’ but in the brain it is also a case of ‘waste not, want not’.
(Friday 3rd February, 2006)
14 On first impressions
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. (The more things change, the more they stay the same.) – Anon.
There is a classic maths problem, the Monty Hall paradox, concerning a game where a prize is hidden behind one of three identical doors and contestants are asked to pick which one they think conceals the prize. On picking one the host then opens a different door that does not contain the prize and gives the person a chance to change their pick. The question is: should they change, or should they stick with their first pick? Counter to what might be expected it can be shown that they should change their guess, and in doing so double their chances of getting the correct door.
But what should happen in the case of a multiple choice question where there is skill involved? In the case of doubt about an answer should a person stick with their first instinct or should they, on reflection, change?
The general consensus is that one should stick with the answer based on first instinct. That idea is backed up by experience, but is completely wrong. It has been shown that in decision-making there is more regret associated with switching from a correct to an incorrect answer than with failing to switch from an incorrect answer to a correct answer. There is also a memory bias: people overestimate how many times they have switched from correct to incorrect answers and underestimate how often they failed to switch from a wrong answer.
According to researchers in the area: “the first instinct fallacy strengthens in the face of mounting personal evidence to the contrary.”
(Friday 10th February, 2006)
15 On astronomy
Why are there six planets? – Johann Kepler
Johann Kepler, the astronomer who formulated the laws of planetary motion developed them based on a question that came to him in the middle of a lecture to undergraduates. From there he went on to determine a geometrical explanation for the number and spacing of the planets based on the five Platonic solids (tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron and icosahedron) that can be both circumscribed around a sphere and inscribed within a sphere. To his credit, Kepler persisted with the problem and eventually derived his three laws of planetary motion. This was the early 1600s and little was to change for nearly 200 years.
Had William Herschel had his way the seventh planet, and the first to be discovered using a telescope, would have been called Georgium Sidus in honour of George III. This was 1781, and following a long and detailed study of the sky (that included building his own 15 cm reflecting telescope as a first task) a disc-like object was found. It was not a comet as he first thought since it had a fairly sharp outline and was plotted in a close to circular orbit some 2,800 million km from the sun.
As to the name: in Roman mythology the father of Mars was Jupiter, whose father was Saturn, whose father was Uranus. So when the German astronomer Johann Elert Bode suggested the name Uranus as the logical next-in-line he most probably had no idea the problems it would cause English-speaking people ever since.
(Friday 17th February, 2006)
16 On confidence
All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure. – Mark Twain
Hendrik Lorentz, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1902 for work on the influence of magnetism on radiation phenomena, had carried out ground-breaking work on the theory of time and space which, when re-interpreted by Einstein, led to the well known theory of relativity. The work had applications in nuclear physics but one result, the Lorentz-Einstein electron theory, had been tested by the renowned experimentalist Walter Kaufmann and found to be in error. Kaufmann had obtained data that were not in accordance with the theory and, given his reputation for careful experimental work, this cast doubt on the new work.
Lorentz was devastated, and ready to abandon the theory. Einstein on the other hand was more positive and suggested that there may be systematic experimental errors that had been missed. He also noted that the data did not support general electron theories anyway. He then assumed that the errors in the experiments would be found and essentially ignored the problem and carried on regardless.
Ignorance and confidence may bring some success but it is likely to be short-lived. Those with an eye to posterity need something more on which to base their confidence.
(Friday 24th February, 2006)
17 On doors
Reading books opens minds, meeting people opens doors. – David Walker (current author)
There is a story told by Barry Jones (well known as a former television quiz wizard, and slightly less well known as a former president of the Australian Labor Party) about a time in his youth when he was reading a book by Benjamin Franklin*. In it the author commented on the fact that he had been thought slightly strange since it was his habit to read while walking and he found that people did not understand this curious habit. At this point Barry Jones had stopped dead in his tracks (he was in fact in the main street of his home town) and looked around and was amazed to find that he was the only person reading while walking.
Barry’s early reading seemed to stand him in good stead as he took on the might of Bob and Dolly Dyer on “BP Pick-a-Box”. He swept all before him and was generally reluctant not to explain the full story behind the answer that the cheerful hosts had confirmed was correct. Barry’s extensive knowledge and a keen sense of questioning everything saw him rise to Australian parliament and a position of some power.
George Bush has been quoted as saying that he does not read books, he reads people. He is also a people-person and it would seem that on this basis many doors have been opened to him, and many opened for him. George Bush has, I believe, found himself in a multitude of situations where an open mind would have been far preferable to the open door he has found himself herded through.
* This may not be exactly correct but will do for the purpose of this piece.
(Friday 3rd March, 2006)
18 On choice
A pupil from whom nothing is ever demanded which he cannot do, never does all he can. – John Stuart Mill.
The Archibald Prize is awarded each year in Australia to the painter who submits the best portrait in oil of a man or woman distinguished in the arts, letters, science or politics. First awarded in 1921 the competition now attracts hundreds of entries from the famous right down to the struggling artists around the country. Success means a cash injection but, more importantly, a quick move from the latter to the former.
Given its nature the award is likely to be contentious and in 1988 the organisers relented and recognised a second category of winner, that of the people’s choice. For the judges and the cognoscenti this must be a bit of a joke, something to keep the masses happy since the great unwashed will seldom recognise the characteristics that make a truly great portrait. It’s not that the people’s choice is a bad painting; far from it, it is usually a painting of someone that is well regarded in the community and is in a style that people can understand.
The Nelson Prize* is awarded each year in Australia to the university who submits the best survey of teaching in the arts, letters, science, professions or politics. First awarded in 2005 the competition now attracts thirty seven entries from the famous right down to the struggling universities around the country. Success means a cash injection but, more importantly, little move from the latter to the former. Given its nature the award is likely to be contentious since it appears for all intents and purposes to be that of the people’s choice. It’s not that the people’s choice is a bad university; far from it, it is usually a university that is well regarded in the community and is in a style that people can understand.
* This is not a real prize but a reference to the Federal Minister for Education.
(Friday 10th March, 2006)
19 On monkeys
A wrong decision isn’t forever; it can always be reversed. The losses from a delayed decision are forever; they can never be retrieved. J.K. Galbraith (American economist)
Philosophers and researchers have long pondered the mechanisms of human decision-making. A popular model has been to assume information is gathered and weighed up until there is sufficient one way or another to tip the balance. That would be logical and also validate the classification of us as Homo Sapien (wise man).
Recent work by neurobiologists has verified this in an ingenious series of experiments involving monkeys. In the experiments a series of moving dots were displayed on a computer screen where there was an overall pattern of movement, either right to left or left to right. Additionally each test had different levels of visual noise, achieved by having a varying number of the dots moving at random or against the mean flow. The monkey simply had to decide the mean direction, with this being determined by monitoring brain regions known to be associated with the preparation for eye movements. Scientists also monitored neural activity using functional magnetic resonance imagery (fMRI) and found neurons that fired in response to left to right motion and others that fired in response to right to left motion. While all this was going on they searched for an area of the brain that was most active. This was found in the lateral intraparietal area.
The accuracy of the decision and the time taken to make the decision both fitted a model where a single area of the brain integrates two signals, one signifying left to right motion and the other right to left motion, and makes a decision once a threshold had been passed.
(Friday 17th March, 2006)
20 On randomness
Nam quodcunque suis mutatum finibus exit, Continuo hoc mores est ilius, quod fuit ante. – Montaigne.
When humans observe a sequence of random, but biased events and are then asked to predict the next in the series a strange thing happens. Assume, for example, one of these humans is watching a game on the computer where a symbol appears either at the top or the bottom of the screen. After watching for a while the human observes (correctly) that around 70% of the time the symbol appears at the top of the screen. Now it’s time to start guessing where the next one will appear, and the next, and the next ...
An optimal approach is to assume the symbol will appear at the top every time; this way the human can expect to be correct 70% of the time. But what do humans actually do? They guess a sequence of positions varying between top and bottom with about 70% of the guesses being top and 30% being bottom – they frequency match! This strategy is not optimal, as it leads to a success rate of around 58% in this case, but apparently appealing for this pattern-recognising race.
(Friday 24th March, 2006)
21 On Everest
We have all heard countless examples of champions who recount stories of how they were told by so-called experts in their field that something can’t be accomplished. Edmund Hillary probably heard many times “that mountain can’t be climbed”. – Sir Richard Branson (2003)
There may have been people who didn’t believe that Everest could be climbed, but it appears from Hillary’s books, written in 1955 and 1999, that he was either unaware of them or discarded their views completely. His books give details of the years of training and preparation and also the firm impression that the mountain was there to be climbed. At the time that Hillary was in preparation the idea of climbing Everest was part of establishment thinking. There was a committee in England, the Alpine Club, which organized seven expeditions to Everest between the world wars. Admittedly, Eric Shipton, leader of the 1933, 1935, 1936 and 1938 expeditions, expressed the view that the chances of success were slim. It is likely, however, that this was said partly to temper the enthusiasm for the trek and to keep expectations to a reasonable level.
Following the revelation that the Swiss would make two attempts in 1952 the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club decided to continue planning for the 1953 climb on the basis that the Swiss might not be successful. After the Swiss failed in their first attempt of 1952 Hillary was anxious to get on with his own climb: “To our prejudiced minds it almost seemed unsporting. They’d had a fair go ... why didn’t they give us a chance now?”
From what Hillary has written it appears that he was not told many times “that mountain can’t be climbed”. Sir Richard is doing everyone, except himself (he thinks), a disservice.
(Friday 31st March, 2006)
22 On sequences
... the triangle is the first figure in geometry. Immediately I tried to inscribe into the next interval between Jupiter and Mars a square, between Mars and Earth a pentagon, between Earth and Venus a hexagon ... Kepler (c. 1595)
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) carried out ground-breaking work on the motion of the planets, his work generally being distilled into three fundamental laws. The first states that the planets move in ellipses around the sun, the second that a line between the sun and the planet sweeps out equal areas in equal time, the third that the time for a complete revolution (a planet ‘year’) is related to the distance from the sun to the planet. The first law was formulated in 1605, the second in 1602, and the third in 1618.
There are some interesting points to be noted: the first law was formulated three years after what is referred to as the second law, and the third was set out a further thirteen years later. Perhaps it makes sense to have the laws in a logical order, and what does it matter how long each took to develop? Whether it matters or not depends on whether one is trying to learn astronomy, or trying to develop an appreciation of the work involved in developing new ideas.
For the latter it is vitally important to understand that discoveries often come in an odd order and that they often come, not in an afternoon or while sitting for a little while in the bath, but after literally decades of work, thinking, muddling, and immersion in the problem. That’s the trick – there isn’t one.
(Friday 7th April, 2006)
23 On razors entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem (entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity) – attributed to William of Ockham (14th Century Franciscan friar)
Occam’s razor is often cited in the development of scientific and mathematical theories aimed at explaining something observed in the real world. The key idea is that theories should be no more complicated than is strictly necessary – parsimony rules! Occam’s razor has had numerous applications, but should also be applied to written communications.
(Friday 21st April, 2006)
24 On history
The comforting thought that history repeats itself is spoiled by the fact that it doesn’t repeat exactly. – William Poundstone, author (1992)
In the 1950s there was a considerable push in the U.S. to use their recently developed atomic bombs to subdue Russia before she also developed such devices, and force the establishment of a world government.
A large number of high ranking individuals argued long and hard that a ‘preventive war’ was sensible, right, and just. It was the way to peace! Bertrand Russell in the U.K. came out in favour of it, although he later denied this before even later accepting that he had advocated it. John von Neumann in the U.S. was openly in favour of such a course of action as was a large section of the military. Fortunately President Truman was not. Now 50 years on, history appears to be repeating itself, although not exactly.
(Friday 28th April, 2006)
25 On ignorance
There is nothing more terrifying than ignorance in action. – Goethe
Some of the most frightening facts are the ones that everyone knows. Galileo is of course well remembered for the simple experiment where he dropped two objects of different weight from the tower in Pisa and so overturned centuries of error where it was supposed that the heavier would fall faster. This is frightening for two reasons: firstly, it’s not true, and secondly, the truth is much more interesting.
Galileo did carry out significant work on gravity and its effect on earthly and heavenly bodies. But it was much more difficult than simply dropping a couple of stones from a local tower. At the time of Galileo it was generally understood that objects would fall at increasing speed, but without an accurate means of measuring time it was not possible to tell any more than that. At that time, short periods of time were often estimated by counting heart beats using the pulse. While acceptable for some situations it was not reliable enough, nor did it give a fast enough beat for this sort of work when the experiment was all over in less than a second.
Galileo’s advances were based on first building a reliable timing device, and to do this he used water dripping from a very small pipe emanating from a suspended tank. Having done that he still needed to slow everything down. He achieved this by using an inclined plane and rolling different objects of different weight down this. Only when he had done this was he able to measure accurately over a large number of experiments the rates of fall and the changes in velocity that ensued.
Based on his need for accurate timing devices it is not so surprising that when sitting in church one day and casually watching a lamp swing from a long chain that he noticed its regular period ...
(Friday 5th May, 2006)
26 On patents
... to see what everyone has seen, and think what no-one has thought. – A. Szent- Györgyi
The movie “The Aviator” tells the story of the early years of Howard Hughes Jnr. who made a name for himself producing Hollywood movies, building and flying aeroplanes, setting speed and distance flying records, and generally making the most of his money, youth and talent. The source of his early money was based entirely on a single invention that his father, Howard Hughes Snr. had patented: a drill bit for the oil industry that was particularly good at drilling through rock.
Hughes Snr. had been in the mining industry, but was lured to Texas with the discovery of oil near Beaumont in 1901. He worked in a number of locations and by 1907 had a partner in a small business. In 1908 Hughes met a millwright, Granville Humason, who had designed a new drill bit based on an idea that had come to him one morning as he ground his coffee. He had shown it to a lot of miners but no-one had been interested. Hughes offered him $150 on the spot for it, which was accepted. Hughes then rushed to work up a patent application and had the device patented in the U.S. and overseas. Hughes went on to be awarded over 70 patents and founded a company that generated tens of billions of dollars. Humason was so pleased with the $150 he spent a portion of it shouting drinks in the pub where the deal was done.
(Friday 12th May, 2006)
27 On self-organisation
The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. – Anon.
If you take a little sulphuric acid and dissolve into it some cerium sulphate, malonic acid and potassium bromate there is an interesting reaction. Initially there is nothing unusual, but after a few minutes changes in colour start to occur and the mixture changes from colourless to pale yellow. Then to colourless, then pale yellow, and back to colourless in an ever repeating cycle. Once the process starts the changes are periodic and can last up to an hour. The period of oscillation can be from a fraction of a minute to several minutes. The colours reflect a predominance of either Ce3+ (clear) or Ce4+ ions (pale yellow) and the behaviour can be explained in terms of self-organisation. It was first described by B.P. Belousov and studied further by A.M. Zhabotinsky and is referred to as the BZ reaction. With some simple physical manipulation it is also possible to cause the liquid to generate complex geometrical patterns.
If some very simple atoms, give or take a few electrons, can show such behaviour is it so surprising that humans, who are an agglomeration of around 1012 cells, can show some complexity? And, if humans do show complex behaviour, how much of it might be purely automatic?
(Friday 19th May, 2006)
28 On spills
“[Oysters can] provide the best possible deterrent against pollution, since the first threat of damage to the pollution-sensitive oyster industry would be immediately translated into political action!” – H.T. Odum
An eco-tourism resort on South Stradbroke Island off the Queensland coast has to rely on a freshwater lens located below the island for its water supply. A diesel generator used to supplement power at the resort is situated away from the water supply area so that, should there be an accidental fuel spill, the supply would not be threatened. While every reasonable precaution is taken to prevent spills, imagine the level of care that would be taken if the generator were located directly over the freshwater lens.
(Friday 26th May, 2006)
29 On sanitation
“The role of the engineer ... will need to change, along with their perception of what constitutes success.”
The World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002 developed an aim to halve the number of people without access to proper sanitation and to have all people with access to clean water by 2020. In a surprising twist the World Bank and the United Nations called for no new infrastructure but a program of education and water supply improvements. Although large schemes seem the logical way to go, experience has shown that unless there is full subsidy on the schemes they are rarely sustainable and the result is a flawed system of broken pipes and pumps and a lack of local skilled personnel to effect repairs.
(Friday 2nd June, 2006)
30 On wavering consensus
For the layman the book provides a readable and up-to-date introduction to a most fascinating culture. For the specialist it presents a synthesis with which he may not agree but from which he will nonetheless derive stimulation. - American Journal of Archaeology
Just as the book is starting to make sense you read the back cover and find this quote. So if you know nothing you will probably take it all as fact. If, on the other hand, you are better informed then you will view some of the information much more critically.
It would be nice to know which aspects you should be sceptical about, but perhaps it’s not as easy as that. Perhaps there are no facts, only a wavering consensus.
(Friday 9th June, 2006)
31 On dice
Imagine a world where everyone is better than someone else ...
Consider the following four dice, each with specially marked faces:
A – 4 on four faces, 0 on two faces B – 3 on six faces C – 2 on four faces and 6 on two faces D – 5 on three faces and 1 on three faces
If the dice are rolled in pairs with the aim of one beating the other by showing a higher number A will beat B 2/3rd of the time, B will beat C 2/3rd of the time, C will beat D 2/3rd of the time and D will beat A 2/3rd of the time!
(Friday 16th June, 2006)
32 On placebos
Study sickness while you are well – Thomas Fuller (1732)
It has been suggested (quite seriously) that when medical trials are underway, a good supply of placebo should be kept on hand. This is based on the observation that when there have been unexpected, and unwanted, side effects from a drug in a controlled trial those who took the placebo were not adversely affected.
(Friday 23rd June, 2006)
33 On ribs
“a student ought to doubt of the things he fancies he understands too easily, as much as those he does not understand.” - Voltaire (1733)
The Biblical story of God creating Eve from one of Adam’s ribs has left a lot of people believing that men are one rib short, but that is not the case. The story, however, does have an interesting history. It is believed that it may come from a Sumerian myth involving Enki, the Sumerian god of wisdom, who wished to taste eight special plants in paradise. He was given them to eat by a messenger (not a snake!) and as a punishment was inflicted with pain in eight of his organs, one of which was his rib. A sympathetic goddess created eight healing deities, one of whom was Nin-ti (the Lady of the rib).
Now in Sumerian the word ti means both ‘rib’ and ‘to make live’ so Nin-ti can also be read as the Lady who makes live. Therefore the Sumerian scribes were able to make a pun on the word ti.
While it makes perfect sense in Sumerian it loses its punch when translated into Hebrew and we are left with a woman, a temptation, and a rib and the need to link them somehow.
(Friday 30th June, 2006)
34 On clichés
Mr Speaker, I smell a rat; I see him forming in the air and darkening the sky; but I will nip him in the bud. - Boyle Roche (1743-1807)
Boyle Roche, an Irish politician, was well known for his ability to mix metaphors and generally mangle the English language. In this particular quote he was drawing on the idea that one can be aware of trouble and the feeling can be so strong that it invades the senses. In nature there are dangers that can be sensed but in the case of hydrogen sulphide (rotten egg gas) this is only partly true.
At low concentrations hydrogen sulphide does smell and gives a potent warning of potential danger. At higher concentrations the gas is potent enough to kill off olfactory cells and it becomes undetectable to humans. Those who are experienced with the gas know that danger comes when one can no longer smell the gas (indicating that the concentration has risen to dangerous levels) rather than actually smelling it.
(Friday 7th July, 2006)
35 On Bastille Day
Ce matin le thé est comme d’habitude à 11h ...
We always have been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be, detested in France – Duke of Wellington.
On the 14th of July, 1789, in a prelude to the French Revolution, a group of insurgents stormed the Bastille (a prison) in Paris and released seven prisoners. It would be nice to think that those released were important political prisoners but unfortunately there were not, they were just in the right place at the right time (if being in jail can ever considered to be the right place!). People in English speaking countries know that the day is commemorated by the French as Bastille Day. It’s not.
One year after the event a celebration, the Fête de la Fédération was held to commemorate the day and the significance of breaking the grip of the absolute monarchy of King Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette. One hundred years later, in 1880, it was decided to mark the event by declaring a national holiday. It seems appropriate that the French put more emphasis on what the holiday was celebrating (the uniting of all France under a new constitution) rather than the English who remember is simply as an act of defiance against an unpopular regime. So today is the Fête nationale or simply le quatorze juillet in France.
(Friday 14th July, 2006)
36 On Linear B
... those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads; but, for mine own part, it was Greek to me. – Casca in Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare (1599)
In 1950 Arthur Evans, an archaeologist, excavated a site on the island of Crete and discovered clay tablets inscribed with an unknown language which he named Linear B (linear because it was on a surface and not three dimensional like some other early writings, and B because he had already named a Linear A). Evans worked for 40 years on trying to decipher the language but was unable to make any real progress. He was familiar with Egyptian hieroglyphics but found few similarities with this new script. He was sure that the language was not Greek on the basis of the perceived state of advanced civilisation found on Crete, the lack of any findings of a written language at sites on the Greek mainland, and the fact that there did not appear to be a pattern consistent with Greek where, for example, a large number of words end in the letter ‘s’.
In 1936 a 14 year old schoolboy, Michael Ventris, was at a Greek and Minoan art exhibition and was shown some of the early tablets by Evans. He was fascinated by the fact that the script was still unsolved and pursued the decipherment from that day. He believed that the language was likely to be Etruscan and worked hard to fit the script on that basis. At the end of 1949 he circulated a questionnaire to scholars around the world who had been working on the problem. Although there was little consensus on a range of issues, virtually everyone agreed that the language would not be Greek.
In 1952 he abandoned the idea it was Etruscan and entertained the thought that it might be Greek. It was, and by June that year he had the code basically cracked (although work is continuing to determine the full language and its rules).
As a matter of interest, it has been suggested that the reason the language did not show a large number of words ending in the same character was that the scribes all knew that most words would end the same way, so simply omitted it!
(Friday 21st July, 2006)
37 On explorers
In the arena of human life the honours and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action. – Aristotle.
If one thinks of great explorers of the past, Christopher Columbus, James Cook, Vasco da Gama, or Marco Polo, it is evident they shared a number of characteristics. They were all visionaries, who saw the task ahead with its uncertainties as a challenge that would be rewarded, rather than as a difficulty that should be avoided. They were prepared to sacrifice immediate comforts for eventual rewards, and rewards there were. Whether the promise of gold and spices ever matched the expectation is hard to know, but they generally did well for themselves.
There is also something else they shared. They set out for new places, found them, left their mark, perhaps did a little shopping (usually referred to as looting), then left and returned home. That was the important bit, managing to find home again. It’s one thing to discover one of the many islands that makes up the Bahamas, even if you think it is the Far East as Columbus did. It’s quite another if you can’t get back to tell the people back home who sponsored the trip what you have done and why they should send you out again. Going is fine, but you have to get back to be a successful explorer.
If one thinks of great researchers of the past, it is evident the rules are a little different. Sometimes success comes from leaving for distant climes and not returning. Bon voyage Rudi!
[Written for the departure of a colleague, Rudi Seracino, who was taking up a post at North Carolina.]
(Friday 28th July, 2006)
38 On Darwin
Don’t worry, be happy. – Bobby McFerrin (jazz composer) based on expression used by Meher Baba (spiritual leader).
Charles Darwin began his work On Natural Selection with a discussion on the struggle for existence that living organisms face. He made note of the eventual outcome of a geometrical increase in population should any species be allowed to reproduce and survive unhindered and outlined how climate, predators, food availability, and the complex interactions between quite different species could provide a limiting mechanism to keep numbers in check. In concluding the first chapter he summarised his thoughts “When we reflect on this struggle, we may console ourselves ... that the vigorous, the healthy, and the happy survive and multiply”.
The happy! In all the preceding material there did not seem to be any argument made for having to be happy, and yet there it is – “the happy survive and multiply”. Darwin’s thoughts on evolution had gelled following a reading of the Reverend Thomas Malthus’ paper on population dynamics and the conditions that promote self-limiting behaviour. Malthus was keen to prevent those with inferior morals engaging in the sorts of activities that led to excessive numbers of offspring and warned that overpopulation led to misery which then provided a most effective limit to further increases. Darwin appears to have accepted this role for misery, and in turn promoted it in his own work.
(Friday 4th August, 2006)
39 On teaching
It is one of the first duties of a professor ... in any subject, to exaggerate a little both the importance of his subject and his own importance in it. – G.H. Hardy (English mathematician and professor)
Hardy, in “A Mathematician’s Apology” writes of his love of lecturing and his hate of teaching. An interesting distinction to make since many regard the two words as in some ways interchangeable, certainly in a university environment. It may be that he saw the latter related to the standard preparation for the Cambridge exams which he argued had ruined mathematics in England for a hundred years. According to C.P. Snow, the examinations included significant mechanical difficulty but did not require or allow candidates to show the sorts of qualities that made a truly great mathematician and Hardy worked hard to have this changed.
Hardy did not elaborate on his view of lecturing, but noted with pleasure the effect that a small number of academics had had on him, either through their own efforts, or simply by pointing him in the right direction. He saw mathematics as the purest of pursuits; unsullied by the need to justify its existence or to show any real benefit. His ‘apology’ was more a statement of defiance – mathematics was there to engage the able mind and he suggested that the rest might as well do something useful like engineering or medicine.
(Friday 11th August, 2006)
40 On financial advice
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know - Anon
A well-established maxim for people in a hurry to succeed has just become more complicated. Now it seems it’s not just who you know, but how you ask them what you need to know. Some recent research carried out by psychologists in Sweden looked at the sort of question you might want to ask a trusted financial adviser regarding what the interest rates were likely to do over the next year. They suggested that two ways of doing this were to ask the advisor to provide a range of values between which the final value will fall, or alternatively, give them a range of values and ask what probability they would assign to the chance of the rate falling between those limits.
Sounds much the same, but the results were quite different.
People who asked the first question would not only have received poorer advice, but would have received it based on a significant level of overconfidence on the part of the financial advisor.
Welcome to the world of subjective probability. Not surprisingly, it’s all to do with the way the brain works .....
(Friday 18th August, 2006)
41 On unlearning every victory contains the germ of future defeat – C.G. Jung
Educators, keen to shock and engage an audience, will assert that knowledge has a limited shelf life and that the important thing for students, therefore, is learning to learn rather than just learning. According to Professor James Wilkinson of the Derek Bok Centre for Teaching and Learning at Harvard, “whatever students learn now will begin to be outdated almost as soon as they leave the university”. Warming to his theme at the recent Menzies Oration on Higher Education in Melbourne he went on “Thus early specialization results in learning that will soon have to be unlearned”.
It’s certainly a short step from having new knowledge evolving quickly to having to unlearn the old but is it a reasonable one? Unlearning is not something that comes up very often and there are few courses available to teach it. There may be some, but certainly far fewer than those concerned with learning in the first place, and yet there should be some sort of balance given Wilkinson’s assertion.
Having learned Wilkinson’s theory it is interesting to speculate how long it will be before it too must be unlearned.
(Friday 1st September, 2006)
42 On Mayo
If an individual cannot work with sufficient understanding of his work situation, then, unlike a machine, he can only work against opposition from himself. – Elton Mayo (1933)
In the Hawthorne experiment, Elton Mayo (after whom the Mayo Refectory in the Union Building is named) was able to demonstrate that under some circumstances the very act of surveying people slewed any data that were collected and essentially spoiled the results.
In the original study in 1926, an experiment was set up to measure factory worker productivity under varying light conditions. It seemed a reasonable thing to do – to determine optimum lighting conditions in a factory as measured by worker output. The original suspicion was that better lighting would lead to higher productivity, but that was not what was found. As lighting levels were reduced output rose!
In the end, the so-called Hawthorne Effect was based on the finding that workers liked to feel their work was important, and of interest to the management. The simple act of measuring their output spurred them on to work harder, in spite of falling light levels. This provided an excellent example of an experiment in ruins, that led to a significant new understanding of human behaviour.
(Friday 8th September, 2006)
43 On two cultures
A good case can be made for the thesis that man is to be distinguished from other animals by the way in which he uses symbols. – Raymond Wilder, mathematician (1896 – 1982)
It is nearly 50 years since C.P. Snow wrote of the two cultures (science and arts) and the lack of communication between them. It was, however, not just the fact that the two groups did not talk to each other that concerned Snow; it was more that each seemed proud of the fact that they did not even try. People in the arts, who Snow thought had hijacked the term ‘intellectual’ for themselves, were totally ignorant of all things scientific, and proud of it! Snow gave as an example a general ignorance of the Second Law of Thermodynamics by those in the arts: an interesting choice perhaps, but one that makes the point clearly. To balance the argument, he was equally surprised that many scientists almost boasted that they had not read Shakespeare, or the major poets.
Fifty years on, it’s interesting to reflect on how things have changed: by and large, they haven’t. It’s not that the two groups work deliberately towards isolation. It may be a case of different brains in different heads. It may also be a situation where those concerned cannot contemplate not being at the top of the pile in everything they do, and therefore do not want to undertake anything where, even with effort, they would only be run of the mill.
(Friday 15th September, 2006)
44 On student experience
American studies of students at high school report that a productive learning atmosphere should indeed be satisfying but not too pleasant or unrestrained. In other words, a too high score on student satisfaction may actually have a potential negative impact of the academic achievements of students. - Wiers-Jenssen, J.; Stensaker, B. and Grøgaard, J.B. (2002)
Investigations into the results of student evaluations of teaching and learning have shown quite clearly that these surveys can give valuable information about student attitudes to their experience at university. Studies on undergraduates, for example, have found that student opinions of the learning environment are based on how well they do in examinations, how well they think they will do in examinations, what access they have to assistance from academics, the variety of course offerings, how well they see the course in terms of career preparation, the method of instruction, class size, and how hard it was to get into the course in the first place.
The student evaluation of teaching and learning or indeed any survey of the student experience is therefore an important instrument in assessing all of these issues together and determining an overall level of satisfaction. However, in the situation where the results are below some anticipated level, the way forward is less than clear since individual academics have only limited opportunities to change many of the underlying factors that may be important in the students’ evaluation.
(Friday 22nd September, 2006)
45 On civilisation
A man, who should find in a desert country the remains of pompous buildings, would conclude that the country had, in ancient times, been cultivated by civilized inhabitants – David Hume (1748)
When Juan de Grijalva set sail from Havana on April 8, 1518 he was in search of an ancient civilisation; one that Spanish sailors had discovered quite by accident the previous year. Three sailing ships, blown off course by a severe storm, had happened upon ancient ruins of a splendid city. There “an astonishing sight was visible in the distance: rising up as though an outgrowth of the native limestone were a high wall enclosing a series of terraced pyramids and palace-like buildings constructed of carefully fitted stones”.
The constructions were more than just the work of skilled stonemasons: they showed a high level of planning, design and organisation and the Spaniards were convinced they had found a lost civilisation. This assessment came well before they saw any of its population, before they had studied its language, its art, its legal or political systems. The evidence of technological expertise, engineering skill and organisation on a significant scale was all that was required.
(Friday 29th September, 2006)
46 On majorities
General Motors discovered that 90 percent of its people believed they were in the top 10 percent. How discouraging is it to be rated lower?- Emery and colleagues (2003)
It’s rarely possible to rank complex entities using simple measures. Perhaps the 90% were right. After all it is a clear majority.
(Friday 6th October, 2006)
47 On cause and effect
It seems impossible, that what has hitherto escaped so many wise and profound philosophers can be very obvious and easy. – David Hume (1748)
Thanks partly to David Hume, the world is busy searching for a cause for every effect. Humans see a sun rising in the morning and want to know what causes it. Physicists who think they know develop a law, engineers a model, architects a concept plan, and politicians a white paper.
Dogs tend not to worry so much about the rising of the sun but will try a range of possible causes to effect the opening of a door. Rats in Skinner boxes will diligently press levers in random patterns until one hits pay dirt and the random is random no longer. What causes this effect? Something surely because, as you know, the world is busy searching for a cause for every effect ...
(Friday 13th October, 2006)
48 On recognition
There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything and people who know absolutely nothing. – Oscar Wilde
In an experiment, some American university students were asked to say which city was larger, San Diego or San Antonio. The correct answer was given by 66% of the group. When a group of German university students was asked the same question 100% of them got the correct answer. So how is it that German students seem to know more than American students about American cities and their size?
The explanation given is that one way people make decisions is by way of what is called the recognition heuristic. Given this type of question and only two alternatives, if someone recognizes only one of them, they will assume that that one is likely to be the correct answer. It is often referred to the less is more effect. The less one knows the better the chance of getting the correct answer!
The method will of course only give the correct answer in situations where there is a systematic variation in the options, but people will use it anyway.
(Friday 20th October, 2006)
49 On legs
I have long held the notion that if a vet can’t catch his patient there’s nothing much to worry about. – James Herriot
Lizards, newts and salamanders belong to a group of animals referred to as sprawlers, based on the way their legs bend at the elbow and knee leading to feet some distance out from their body. This arrangement prevents a long stride length and to overcome this they swing their shoulder from side to side with each step forcing their body to twist back and forth. This action compresses their lungs leaving them unable to breathe while running. For this reason lizards will run for a while and then stop to catch their breath.
(Friday 27th October, 2006)
50 On nine Indians
You can always trust the Americans. In the end they will do the right thing, after they have eliminated all the other possibilities. – Winston Churchill.
Around 1000 A.D. (nearly 500 years ahead of Christopher Columbus) Viking explorers discovered and named parts of the North American coast, travelling down from Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, to Labrador, Newfoundland, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, New Brunswick, Novia Scotia and possibly even as far as the New England coast. They were much taken by this new land, and named it Vinland on account of the wild grapes they found growing there.
They were keen to settle: it was much more fertile than their Greenland home, the winters were milder, and the wildlife abundant. If only they hadn’t killed eight of the first nine Indians they met, things might have gone a little better for them. If they had killed none, the Indians may have been receptive to their presence. If they had killed all of them, perhaps no-one would have noticed.
But their actions ensured a poor reception and they were driven away, realising after a number of reprisals that they would be under constant threat of attack.
(Friday 10th November, 2006)
51 On university customers
For every person wishing to teach there are 30 not wishing to be taught. – W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman.
While it would be wrong to suggest there is active debate about the topic, it is true that there is some interest in the way students are viewed in the university system. For some they are customers, for others products. This, of course, has an effect on the way they are treated, and an even more dramatic effect on the way those who strive to teach them work.
If the university considers students as customers then teachers will be pushed to ensure they are happy, and the students might be surveyed to find out how they would evaluate those teachers and whether they had a good experience. After all, in the business world the customer is always right.
On the other hand, if they are products the university would be looking to more objective measures of achievement that were aimed at taking a broader view of the whole process.
(Friday 17th November, 2006)
52 On alphabet soup
Genius is only a greater aptitude for patience. – Comte de Buffon (French naturalist, 1707 – 1788)
A Big Cake, Delicious Edible Food. Gregarious Humans Ingesting Jubilantly. Kind Lecturers, Many Nice Overseas Postgrads Queue Round Steaming Teas. Ultimate Varsity Wins. Xerox Yellow Zap
(Friday 24th November, 2006)
53 On climate
Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. – Charles D. Warner
Those who oppose the idea of man-made climate change often do so quoting scientific evidence of past fluctuations in temperature and carbon dioxide levels and arguing that current conditions are merely a continuation of a variable environment. It’s interesting that they should be so willing to accept the evidence and explanations of scientists for past behaviour while, at the same time, being so unwilling to accept the evidence and explanations of scientists for present behaviour.
(Friday 1st December, 2006)
54 On Baghdad
You ask me about the sack of Baghdad? It was so horrible there are no words to describe it. I wish I had died earlier and not seen how the fools destroyed these treasures of knowledge and learning. I thought I understood the world, but this holocaust is so strange and pointless that I am struck dumb. The revolutions of time and its decisions have defeated reason and knowledge. – Saadi of Shiraz (1258)
13th Century Baghdad was one of the major world cities; a centre of learning with an advanced culture, impressive libraries and scholars. Over the previous five hundred years its population had developed, carving out an extensive array of irrigation channels turning desert into productive agricultural land and setting the stage for the development of civilization where great advances in science, mathematics, and engineering were made. This was partly due to its own population but, as so often happens, it was also in the right place at the right time leading to a productive mix of foreigners from east and west.
Historical records from 1258 report atrocities that would be hard to believe, were similar ones not reported on an almost daily basis from the most recent invasion.
(Friday 2nd February, 2007)
55 On soccer hooligans
Some time ago, a few members of the Department of Social Psychology of the University of Nijmegen [The Netherlands] visited a soccer match. After they had parked their car, they walked the remaining mile to the stadium. The psychologists, behaving calmly and orderly as ever, were surrounded by hundreds of soccer fans and hooligans, many of whom were yelling and shouting. After some time, one of the members of the department engaged in somewhat unusual behavior. He saw an empty beer can, and, in what seemed to be an impulsive act, he kicked it as far away as possible. During the next few minutes, he and a slightly embarrassed colleague pondered on possible explanations. – Kijksterhuis and van Knippenberg (1998)
Social psychologists are a strange lot. They think about strange things and worry about the same. However, they do know a lot about us, as humans, so that should cause some worry on our part.
In one experiment a group of volunteers was told that they were to be tested on their language skills. They each were given a topic and asked to come up with as many words to describe it as possible. Unbeknown to them the topics were either a professor, a soccer hooligan, a secretary or something much less specific. This continued for 5 to 10 minutes. Following that, in what they believed was an unrelated test they were given a general knowledge test based on Trivial Pursuit.
Those who had been primed by thinking about professors scored nearly 60% on average, those who had been not been primed on any particular subject scored around 50% and those primed on ideas of soccer hooligans scored around 40%. Those primed on the subject of secretaries scored around 50% but carried out the task significantly faster than the others. None them believed that the first task had had any influence on the second and expressed surprise that it might.
(Friday 9th February, 2007)
56 On moving feasts
What good is speed, if the brain has oozed out on the way? – Karl Kraus (Austrian satirist)
It is not just sound and light that propagate with a speed that can be measured and which varies depending on the properties of the medium. Scientists working on the development of humanity and civilisation suggest that it is possible to measure the speed at which agriculture has spread. Studies have found that agriculture moved at 1km per year over thousands of years in its travel from the Middle East to Europe and England, which it eventually reached via Turkey. An interesting point is that oceans provided a natural barrier to its movement but, despite this, when agriculture did travel by sea it move more quickly. Increase the resistance, and speed goes up!
(Reference: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. (2001) Genes, Peoples and Languages. Penguin Books, 228pp.)
(Friday 23rd February, 2007)
57 On meaning
It is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal – Aristotle (384 – 322 BC)
Thomas Kuhn, originally trained as a scientist, found himself drawn to the history and philosophy of science and it was in these field that he made his mark. He had thought initially that history was simply putting things into some sort of chronological order and describing the development of a subject but soon found something much deeper.
On reading Aristotle for the first time he was surprised to find the great man so wide of the mark when describing the motion of objects. He had, after all, made significant progress in biology and political behaviour, and here he was all at sea. However, on deeper inspection he found much more that lay beneath the surface and he was soon in awe of this giant.
Kuhn’s advice, therefore, was to “look first for the apparent absurdities in the text and ask yourself how a sensible person could have written them. When you find an answer [and] those passages make sense, then you may find that more central passages, ones you previously thought you understood, have changed their meaning.”
(Friday 2nd March, 2007)
58 On teamwork
Let’s work as a team and do it my way. – Anon
Given the necessity for humans to work together in a range of situations it is perhaps not surprising that the way groups interact and the sorts of outcomes one can expect has been an area that has generated much study.
Some experiments have found that, when set a task, the group’s effort is seldom better than that that the most capable individual in the group could have achieved working alone: a rather disappointing result but, given the way some groups work, perhaps not totally unexpected. More recent research, however, has found that when the experiments are set up in such a way that the group is working on relevant and realistic tasks virtually all groups are able to outperform the most talented person in that group. The sum really is greater than the sum of its parts.
However, there is an interesting and disturbing effect that accompanies this finding: independent of how well the group perform, the confidence in their final results is far in excess of anything that could be justified in a rational sense. In fact, work by Credé and Sniezek published in 2003 found that confidence was inversely related to how correct the solution was. The greater the error, the higher the confidence in their prediction!
(Friday 9th March, 2007)
59 On pilots
The superior man is easy to serve and difficult to please. – Confucius (6th Century BC)
Humans are known to make errors, and because of this it would seem prudent to have some sort of procedure that allows critical decisions to be checked by an independent person. In a commercial aircraft, for example, the captain will have the support of a first officer who is there to check decisions as they are made, both in the general operations but also at a time of crisis when the correct decision is all the more important. It certainly sounds sensible, but then one comes to situations like the recent Garuda Airlines crash and a question that might be asked is: “how could this have happened, with so many checks and balances in the system?”
The answer might come from human nature, and two complementary behaviours in these sorts of situations. Firstly, studies have found that at times of crisis the natural human instinct is to led the leader lead. Governments have of course realised this and some sort of national crisis at an election time must be all the government in power could wish for. Secondly, it has been found that the perception of relative ranks has an effect on the perceived quality of advice that people receive. Humans have been found to place more weight on advice if they believe it comes from someone of a higher status or rank (this is particularly relevant in the armed services where much of the research has been undertaken). Advice from someone who is thought to be of lower rank is treated with much less respect.
So as the pilots made their final approach, there was a lot of human instinct going against the idea that in the event of a problem the first officer would be there as an independent mind ready to give advice as necessary.
(Friday 16th March, 2007)
60 On hail
What a book a devil’s chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horridly cruel works of nature! – Charles Darwin (1856)
If one was to ask what natural event caused the most damage in Australia in the last one hundred years it opens up a range of questions. How do you define ‘most damage’? Is it that which has the highest cost to replace, or the highest cost to the community? Is it perhaps the highest cost in a non-monetary way, perhaps the damage was so great that replacement was impossible? In any event the natural tendency is to look for big dramatic events: the Newcastle earthquakes, some particularly large floods that have caused massive damage along their paths, perhaps the Canberra bushfires or a series of fires that have razed houses, led to loss of human lives, and threatened towns.
These are, of course, all possibilities but according to research, the largest damage bill (that insurance had to pick up) was the April 1999 Sydney hailstorm (estimated bill $1.7 billion). The storm was intense to an extent, but the damage came from its wide coverage and the summation of a large number of modest damage bills rather than from a small number of large bills. Perhaps it came from everyone parking their cars outside, and having houses with lots of glass and relatively fragile roofs. Whatever the reason, in a way it is fitting because this is the way nature works: small to medium enterprises, but on a massive scale.
(Friday 23rd March, 2007)
61 On separation
I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation. Between us and everybody else on this planet. – from Six Degrees of Separation, a play by John Guare (1990)
The six degrees of separation hypothesis has been demonstrated and tested in a number of ways. An attempt to validate it involved a researcher finding random names in telephone books from around the U.S. and asking people of his acquaintance to forward a package addressed to this person using only close personal contacts. That is they had to pass the parcel to someone they knew who they thought might know this person, or to an acquaintance who might know someone who might know the person, or to a person who might know someone who might know someone ... etc. At each passing of the parcel the number of intermediate links was incremented until the parcel reached its destination. Results were varied but the median number of links was five, confirming the six degrees of separation.
The hypothesis has also led to some quirky games, one of which is the Kevin Bacon Game where the idea is to link an actor through a series of cast members of films to Kevin Bacon. For example, Charlie Chaplain was in a film with Marlon Brando (“A Countess from Hong Kong”) who was in a film with Laurence Fishburne (“Apocalypse Now”) who was with Kevin Bacon in “Quicksilver”. Mathematicians have a similar game linking those who published with the enigmatic genius Paul Erdős (pronounced air-dish). There must be an Adelaide link because he visited here staying (I believe) with the Sveds, making the most of his Hungarian background and two able minds.
The six degrees of separation also ties in with the small world network model where like entities are grouped together in one network which then has a relatively small number of connections to an adjacent, but separate, network. This model has been used to explain everything from the synchronization of fireflies to the way people use personal contacts to find new jobs. That work was carried out by Mark Granovetter, a sociologist, who interviewed people and asked them “Was this a friend that you got the information [about the job] from?”. Invariably the answer came back, “No, just an acquaintance.” In fact 83% of people who had found jobs through personal contacts saw those acquaintances only occasionally or rarely.
(Reference: Steven Strogatz (2003) Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order, Penguin, 338pp.)
(Friday 30th March, 2007)
62 On change
Odiorne’s Law: Things that do not change will remain the same. – George S. Odiorne (1987, business consultant)
When George Odiorne drafted his “law” he was, to be fair, thinking about businesses and arguing that unless something changed in an organisation, output was unlikely to change. This then led him to quantitative measures that could be used to assess managers’ effectiveness. But just how general is this law? It almost seems to be true by definition, but perhaps not.
Although it is simple to state that things exist, this often leads quickly to the need to have that existence defined, perhaps by fixing it in space and time, but more often by fixing it relative to other “things” that also exist. Rene Descartes’ “Cogito ergo sum” (I think therefore I am) quickly defined his existence, but was then extended by drawing on conclusions reached from possible interactions with other co- existent beings (an evil demon, a good god). So what does it mean to have a thing that exists but does not change? What is change? When Descartes wanted to challenge simple understandings of being, he gave the example of a block of coloured wax placed next to a fire. As the wax heats, its shape, texture, smell, and colour all change. And yet the wax is still wax and therefore the same: or is it?
At present there is a push within the university to improve our rate of postgraduate completions. With funding tied to relative performance, and other institutions improving, we are going to have to change if we are to maintain our position and remain the same.
(Friday 13th April, 2007)
63 On Rousseau
Error is no worse than ignorance when the truth is of no consequence. – Jean- Jacques Rousseau (1777)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who was at times a philosopher, writer, thinker, and transcriber of music took great pleasure, in his latter years, walking the countryside around Paris. As he walked he thought, and having thought he wrote. Those writings became his reveries of a solitary walker, a series of short essays on a variety of topics, many dealing with how happy he was (he wasn’t), and how badly he had been treated by others (true in part).
It was some time before the end of summer, 1777 that he set off on one of this walks, this time devoted to determining the nature of falsehood. He worked through the various ways falsehood can manifest itself, from a direct lie, through omitting important details and thereby giving a false impression, to being wrong in ignorance.
One of the areas he carefully avoided involves the lies that people tell themselves. His own state, for example, was something he kept returning to in his essays in an effort to convince himself of how happy he was. However, all the logic in the world cannot help when something is known to be untrue, and it’s doubtful if he ever really succeeded. If you can’t fool yourself, how can you expect to fool others?
(Friday 20th April, 2007)
64 On time management
How pleasant it is, at the end of the day, No follies to have to repent; But reflect on the past, and be able to say, That my time has been properly spent. – Ann Taylor and Jane Taylor (1806)
A recent study involving first year university students investigated the correlation between a number of factors (age, sex, reading and writing ability, numeracy and IT skills, time management). It was found that the only one that had significant predictive ability with overall Grade Point Average was time management (“clusters of behaviours that are deemed to facilitate productivity and alleviate stress”).
Sorry, out of time ...
(Friday 27th April, 2007)
65 On Feynman
The discipline of colleges and universities is in general contrived, not for the benefit of the students, but for the interest, or more properly speaking, for the ease of the masters. –Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations, 1776)
One of the issues that the Research Quality Framework (RQF) is likely to stir is the argument regarding research-only and teaching-only positions in universities. Simple logic would indicate that one way to improve researcher performance is to alleviate them from the demands of teaching, but a simple approach is unlikely to work in a complex situation.
Richard Feynman, the U.S. physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965, believed that teaching was an important part of what he did. He described it as “the greatest pain in the neck in the world” but then argued for its benefits. Firstly, he liked the fact that it was something that you could say you were doing, so that even if you were not making progress in your research at least you were doing something: an important psychological benefit. Secondly, he enjoyed interacting with the students, and the challenge of explaining difficult concepts in a way that they could understand. Thirdly, he liked being forced to review topics that he may have been away from for a while, partly for the simple pleasure of going over them again, but also to see if he could view them in a different way and come up with something new.
He described the teaching-free job as “a happy situation for me” but was careful never to accept one!
(Friday 4th May, 2007)
66 On rivers
You cannot step twice into the same river; for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you. - Heraclitus (circa 500 BC)
Philosophers have never claimed that their work is relevant to everyday life in the same way that a doctor’s is, or a taxi-driver’s or that of the person who makes the Subway rolls that allows everyone to “eat fresh”. What they do claim is that they will challenge the common way of thinking, and look at ideas and beliefs in a quite different way.
And so it was with Heraclitus, who lived in Ephesus, in what is today Turkey. The quote appears deliberately provocative, bordering on the ridiculous. Of course it is possible to step into the same river twice! But just stop a second and consider it at another level; if only for the reason that this is a man whose work influenced thinking and philosophy for thousands of years.
The assertion appears ridiculous because when we think of rivers we think of a fixed and fairly permanent long length of flow rather than the series of individual packets of water that make up that flow. You can’t walk into the same cyclone twice because cyclones are transient features – here one moment, gone the next (along with the house and car and most of the neighbourhood). You generally can’t walk into the same lightening bolt twice because lightning never strikes the same place twice. But rivers are different; they are features fixed on a map and named accordingly.
But what if we did think of rivers as a series of packets of water? Would we perhaps then not focus much more on those packets and where they come from? Would we not be much less likely to assume that with a river nearby we can take as many of those packets out that we always have because that’s what you can do with rivers? Perhaps we have the wrong idea about rivers – perhaps we should be listening to Heraclitus and thinking that stepping in a river at any particular time does not guarantee that it will be there for us next time.
At a time when it is increasingly important to be able to deal with change and uncertainty, there is a lot to be said for Heraclitus and his views.
(Friday 11th May, 2007)
67 On Russell
The problem of finding a collection of “wise” men and leaving the government to them is thus an insoluble one. That is the ultimate reason for democracy. – Bertrand Russell (1946)
The world is clearly divided into two types of people: those who write in library books, and those who don’t. The former cannot help but underline or highlight sections of text that they believe are so important that they cannot bear the thought that subsequent readers will miss them. The latter most likely resent the defacing of public property.
In one of the copies of Bertrand Russell’s “History of Western Philosophy” in the Barr Smith Library someone has taken the trouble to mark the passage quoted above with two blue vertical (and, in a freehand sort of way) parallel lines. Readers were unlikely to miss the text because in many ways this was the punch-line; it came at the end of a chapter and at the point where an argument was being concluded, but it was marked nevertheless.
The act of marking could be considered from a range of viewpoints, but an important aspect of it is as a demonstration of the active nature of reading. When reading, one is not just decoding symbol after symbol, word after word; reading is an active pursuit where the mind takes in a highly correlated set of serial data and quickly tries to fit it into an existing system of organisation. Some ideas fit easily into what might be ready-made spots, and these are the ones that are mentally, if not physically, marked. Seeing what others have marked in their reading lets us into their brain, to see what they were looking for, and to see what “clicked” with them.
Having considered the various marked passages in the book I cannot help thinking that the marker and I, although looking at the same pages, were actually “reading” something quite different.
(Friday 18th May, 2007)
68 On cooking
It’s good food and not fine words that keeps me alive. – Moliere (1672)
I attended a function some time ago where two chefs were to give a sort of master class, passing on some of their experience to an audience of ordinary kitchen hacks. I think most of us were expecting to learn a lot about secret recipes, or at least combinations of flavours and spices that would make us galley gourmets.
Instead, we were shown how to peel an onion quickly, how to prepare garlic quickly and how to dispatch a hundredweight of potatoes in the shortest possible time. We did learn a few interesting facts (Q. What’s the difference between Traditional Apple Pie and Californian Apple Pie? A. Two cups of sugar) but we also learned two important lessons: how to prepare vegetables quickly, and, more importantly, that being a successful chef is more about time management than the knowledge of recipes and spice combinations which are treated as a given.
The lesson is relevant to those of us in universities. In many respects it’s not the knowledge per se that is important, it’s the way we facilitate its preparation and dispersal, and ensure its survival.
(Friday 25th May, 2007)
69 On heat
These last have wrought but one hour, and thou has made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. – St. Matthew, 20, 12.
The quote from the bible comes from a parable that would have the union movement up in arms, and proponents of Work Choices rejoicing. Labourers for a vineyard are hired at the start of the day. Before commencing they agree on the day’s wages. Hours later the owner notices some others seeking work and engages them promising they will be paid a fair wage. This continues up until one hour before the end of the day when the last group are hired. As the workers are paid for the day it is noticed that everyone is getting the same total payment; the ones who started first are not happy, but do provide a valuable opportunity for a lesson.
Now, forget the workers and think about their grievance: toiling through the heat of the day. As a matter of interest, would it make any sense to add the morning temperature to the afternoon temperature to get some sort of total temperature? If it was 15 degrees in the morning and 23 degrees in the afternoon, does the total of 38 degrees make any sense? Richard Feynman, a physics Nobel laureate, didn’t think so and made this quite clear in one of his books where he told of his frustration at the sort of material that was being published in school mathematics textbooks. (A question gave the characteristic temperature of a number of different types of stars and asked for the total temperature to be calculated if there was one of each type of star!)
Although calculating the total of two or more temperatures makes no physical sense, he did note that the average temperature is a valid quantity and this would normally be obtained by adding temperatures and dividing by the number that were added together. It is interesting that a senseless intermediate result can give a sensible final result. This is of course in sharp contrast to the workers mentioned earlier, where a sensible intermediate agreement led to a senseless final disagreement.
(Friday 1st June, 2007)
70 On DNA
Any hypothesis, however absurd, may be useful in science, if it enables a discoverer to conceive things in a new way; but that, when it has served this purpose by luck, it is likely to become an obstacle to further advance. – Bertrand Russell (1946)
Erwin Chargaff was an Austrian biochemist with a skill for chemical analysis. He had followed advice that suggested the study of DNA was important and had come to a fascinating discovery: there was a constant relationship between the quantities of adenine, guanine, thymine and cytosine in DNA. The fraction of adenine was always equal to that of thymine, and the same was true for cytosine and guanine. He was not sure what it meant, but it was universal and seemed important. This finding became known as Chargaff’s rule.
In the early 1950s, Francis Crick and James Watson were busy with their own work on DNA, but Chargaff was not impressed. On meeting Crick for the first time he was horrified to find that he did not even know the differences between the four molecules and was quick to dismiss the work. Despite this it was Crick and Watson who discovered the structure of DNA (the double helix) with adenine joined by hydrogen bonds to thymine forming the same molecular shape as cytosine bonded to guanine. The same pairs were always found together, and this provided a neat explanation of Chargaff’s rule. Not only that, but the structure meant that when combined in a string the two chains were the complement of each other: Crick’s “secret of life”.
It might have been expected that Chargaff would be one of the first to realise the significance of the discovery and to accept it, but that was not the case. As others embraced it he remained steadfast in his belief that the theory was flawed. He had been at the front of the field, but ultimately his hypothesis prevented him for accepting that those behind him had set off with other leaders in a new direction.
(Friday 8th June, 2007)
71 On Pythagoras
Let no one enter who does not know geometry – inscription on Plato’s door, probably at the Academy in Athens (circa 400 BC).
Pythagoras, who lived in the sixth century BC, lived by the maxim “all things are numbers”. He had discovered the rule behind the right angled triangle that the Egyptians had been using in the 3:4:5 variety and must have been reasonably pleased with himself. However, his delight was short-lived because he soon came to the problem of deciding the length of the side opposite two sides, each of unit length. He found that this length could not be expressed as any number in the form m/n (where m and n are integers) and was therefore incommensurable (irrational). He was not pleased!
Perhaps a lesser known fact regarding Pythagoras is that he started a religion based on a “no beans” rule, together with some sensible tenets such as “don’t sit on a quart container”, “do not walk on highways” and “do not break bread”. While the “no beans” rule may have had its advantages in large assemblies, and the “not sitting on quart containers” rule anticipated current OH&S regulations, the “highways” rule may have prevented many country and western singers joining his ever-shrinking band, and the “breaking bread” rule might put off a lot of people who would otherwise have been open to sitting down (not on a quart container) and simply breaking bread with him.
The moral of the story is: if you do a couple of very good things you will be remembered for them, and the rest will be quietly forgotten. It worked for Pythagoras, it worked for Newton; it can work for you!
(Friday 15th June, 2007)
72 On the real world
An example of the evils of specialization: a man must not write on Plato unless he has spent so much of his youth on Greek as to have had no time for the things Plato thought important. – Bertrand Russell (1946)
One can only assume that Bertrand Russell was taken to task by those who excelled in the study of Plato for daring to write and express opinions on the man and his philosophy. However, this is symptomatic of life in general where people are often criticised for not being what they are not.
Politicians who have spent their lives in the party, working their way up through the ranks, are often criticised for not having had a “real” job. Those in religious orders or of royal rank are said to have spent too little time dealing with issues that affect the common man.
And engineering academics, who through the demands of entering the profession are most likely to have had a research background, are told they should know more about engineering in the “real world”.
(Friday 22nd June, 2007)
73 On coastlines
The Creator made Italy from designs by Michelangelo – Mark Twain
In Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, Slartibartfast is a designer of planets who specialises in coastlines. His best works, for which he won an award, were the fjords of Norway on planet Earth.
In Texas, a team of engineers and biologists have been attempting something similar with the rehabilitation of a coastal wetland that had been damaged by industrial pollutants. Previous attempts had had only limited success and it was concluded that “unfortunately, man-made marshes are rarely as productive as natural ones”.
The “unfortunately” is interesting, particularly considering which part of the situation is unfortunate. Perhaps it is the lost opportunity for consultants who, with the ability to match or even improve on nature could tackle all wetlands to improve them. Perhaps it is an acknowledgement that engineers and biologists, for all their training and experience, must admit they still do not know everything about these systems. One can only imagine what the world would be like if man-made designs were as productive as natural ones.
(Friday 29th June, 2007)
74 On time
Guessing seems unprofessional, historians do as little of it as possible. – Robert Drews (historian)
There is an argument that has been made to suggest time does not exist. Seems rather extraordinary but consider for a moment what makes up what we think of as time: the past, the present and the future. Well, the past may have existed, most have images in their brain to suggest that it used to be here, but it certainly no longer exists. The future may exist at some time down the line, but certainly does not exist in the way we think of existence at the moment. And the present is but a fleeting instant which lasts no time at all, so there is little there to exist either.
So we exist, but time doesn’t! (Strange, but better than the alternative.)
(Friday 6th July, 2007)
75 On mission statements
Empty vessels make the most sound. – early 15th Century proverb.
According to the School’s mission statement we aim to conduct something, maintain something and provide something (times four). It’s a worthy sentiment, but does it mean anything?
By way of a distraction, Jack Welch was CEO of the General Electric company (GE) for a period of 20 years from 1981 to 2001. His training was in chemical engineering but he took to management, making it up pretty much as he went along. He had some spectacular failures, but these were far outweighed by his successes. The successes were brought on by understanding people, how to choose the right ones for the job, how to get the most out of them, and how to keep them. He was a great believer in company values and the GE way of doing things.
He was all for mission statements and, having generated a set of company values, had company employees carry a card outlining them (“All of us ... are passionately focussed on driving customer successes”, “insist on excellence and are intolerant of bureaucracy”, “act in a boundaryless fashion”, and “demonstrate ... the 4-E’s of GE leadership”, etc.). He had an aim that each GE company would be either No.1 or No.2 in the world.
The interesting thing is that he achieved most of what he set out to do. He thought that company values were important, so important in fact that managers and personnel that did not live up to them had to go. Many were fired, others saw the writing on the wall and jumped before they were pushed. He said this was an effective way of getting the message across. He recalled that at one particular meeting, during which he set out quite clearly why five senior managers were no longer with the company (they had not exhibited boundaryless behaviour, a term that he had invented and was quite passionate about), “You could hear a pin drop. You could feel the audience thinking, This is for real. They mean it.” He also was happy to reward the top performers, ensuring that financial and other benefits were commensurate with their contributions.
Mission statements are fine, but if they are not backed up with action the hollow sound is a dead giveaway for their lack of substance.
(Friday 27th July, 2007)
76 On John Stuart Mill
He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. – John Stuart Mill (1859)
John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, was a chance for him to give his considered opinion on a wide range of topics, and the education process was one that he was keen to comment on. He believed students should have to work at their learning, and that if things were simply presented as uncontested facts they would not approach it with the correct frame of mind. He liked the idea of teaching material that was new and, therefore, still controversial as he felt it would ensure that students engaged fully with the task.
He went so far as to suggest that once the opposition to material had receded educators should create some controversy of their own to give learners the right environment (Both teachers and learners go to sleep at their post as soon as there is no enemy in the field).
There do not appear to be many students sleeping the corridors of Engineering North; JSM would be pleased!
(Friday 3rd August, 2007)
77 On Eureka!
If there is a better truth, it will be found when the human mind is capable of receiving it. – John Stuart Mill (1859)
Much has been written about the so-called Eureka! moment: the instant when a new idea suddenly reveals itself. Francis Crick, in a 1988 book reviewing his life and work, talks of the “feeling of sudden enlightenment that floods the mind when the right idea finally clicks into place”. Freidrich von Kekulé, the chemist who solved the structure of benzene (a ring of six carbon atoms), credited a dream which featured a host of snakes writhing together with some forming a circle by biting their own tales as the turning point in his search for a solution. And according to Arthur Koestler, the Latin verb cogito (to think) etymologically means "to shake together".
Wherever one looks, the concept of developing or recognising new ideas is explained in geometrical terms with solutions having to “look” right. It was Louis Pasteur who asserted that “chance favours the prepared mind”, so the natural question is: how to prepare?
Certainly one must know the problem in sufficient detail that its “shape” is well known. This usually only comes from a long and diligent investigation. Then, it is necessary to be willing to be open to potential solutions of all shapes and sizes and to be knowledgeable enough to be able to assess “fit”. There are better truths, but few minds are capable of receiving them.
(Friday 10th August, 2007)
78 On camouflage
It is amateurs who have one big bright beautiful idea that they can never abandon. Professionals know that they have to produce theory after theory before they are likely to hit the jackpot. The very process of abandoning one theory for another gives them a degree of critical detachment that is almost essential if they are to succeed. – Francis Crick (1988)
A.H. Thayer (1849-1921) had an idea, and a good one. He was an artist and looked on life through an artist’s eyes where colours and shades were everything. On studying creatures he discovered that one of the ways that they protected themselves was through counter-shading, a natural form of camouflage. The young of the species in particular were coloured in this way; darker near the top grading to lighter at the lower extremities and underside, so that when combined with an overhead sun the visual impact of the body was reduced to a minimum. Armed with this insight he sought and found work with the military devising effective camouflage for ships and aeroplanes.
Having make his mark he was keen to extend it and did so based on his original idea that camouflage was behind the colouring of all animals at all times. This led quite naturally and quickly to his pronouncing that flamingos were pink in order to protect them from crocodiles while feeding in the shallow waters at sunset. He should have let go a little sooner.
(Friday 17th August, 2007)
79 On sprinklers
... such clever reasoning that one is ashamed not be believe it. – Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79)
As part of a book documenting all that was known at the time about natural history, Pliny the Elder included an estimate of the circumference of the earth (29,000 miles) that he had learned from a respected expert. The quote above relates to his justification for accepting it.
At one stage is his career Richard Feynman developed an interest in the behaviour of simple garden sprinklers with ‘S’ shaped arms that discharged the water and caused the device to rotate. Their behaviour under normal circumstances was well established, but what would they do if placed underwater? Elementary fluid mechanics could show that they would rotate as normal, but what would they do underwater if they were sucking water rather than discharging it? In lively tearoom discussions he and colleagues discussed and argued. John Wheeler, an eminent physicist and Feynman’s doctoral supervisor, was asked what he thought the behaviour would be. “Well”, he replied, “yesterday Richard convinced me the device would rotate clockwise. Today he convinced me it would rotate anti- clockwise. Tomorrow, who knows what he will convince me!”
Perhaps you don’t always need to be right to get your way, you just need clever reasoning.
(Friday 24th August, 2007)
80 On Bragg
It is also a good rule not to put too much confidence in the observational results that are put forward until they are confirmed by theory. - Sir Arthur Eddington (1934)
William Bragg (the Younger), who won the Nobel Prize for Physics with his father, was apparently never too worried when data did not fit his theoretical models. He continued on, assuming that the errors in the data would be found eventually and all would be fine. They often were and it often was.
This attitude of course presupposes that your model is right, and perhaps that is the most important part of the lesson: not to disregard data, but to be very clever with your models.
(Friday 31st August, 2007)
81 On plagiarism
I found that writers of bygone times had been copied by the most reliable and modern authors, word for word, without acknowledgement. Surely it is characteristic of a mean spirit and of an unfortunate attitude to prefer to be caught committing a theft rather than to repay a loan, especially as capital accumulates from interest. – Pliny the Elder (1st Century, AD)
It is easy to dismiss plagiarism as theft and to condemn its perpetrators. Pliny the Elder certainly was not impressed by those who engaged in the practice. He read widely in preparing to write his treatise on natural history and must have been at first surprised and then frustrated to see the same material coming up, word for word, time and time again.
Writing in The Australian Higher Education supplement Paul Matthews, a sociologist, anthropologist and author, found himself exposed to a quite different form when dealing with students whose first language was not English but who were expected to submit material in this strange and difficult code. The students lifted material from here, there, and everywhere in putting together their submissions. When challenged, their argument was that they were conscious that their professor deserved the best and they were very aware of their own ability and its failings.
The interesting point in all of this is not the plagiarism as such, but the value of what is stolen. Students seem particularly deft at stealing what the more discerning would simply leave on the ground where they found it.
(Friday 7th September, 2007)
82 On modesty
If I had a fault, it was that if I could grasp something easily, I believed I had already understood it thoroughly. – Francis Crick (1988)
James Watson began his account of the discovery of the structure of DNA with the words “I have never seen Francis Crick in a modest mood.” It may be a case of the pot calling the kettle black but he did seem to catch the general feeling that a lot of people had about his collaborator. According to Horace Freeland Judson, who wrote a detailed account of the people and events associated with the work, Crick spent his early time at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge moving from problem to problem, looking for something to work on. He was described as “doing other men’s crosswords but not finishing his own”.
The quote is an interesting one for a couple of reasons (at least). It goes straight to the heart of the issue of learning and may provide one means of differentiating deep from shallow learning. It contrasts nicely, for example, with a description of Muhammad Ali, who ruled Egypt in the early 1800s. He was described as having a “sharp intelligence [that] was quick in absorbing new facts and analysing their importance”.
The quote also gives a nice snapshot of the man who, but for the leading two letter word, was coming as close as he dared to appearing modest.
(Friday 14th September, 2007)
83 On the unlikely
Near the town of Harpasa stands a rough boulder which can be moved by one finger, but resists a push made with the whole body. – Pliny the Elder (1st Century AD)
In discussions, it is common to attempt to find fault in an argument and to use that fault to demolish the proposal being put forward. Pliny the Elder, for example, seems to have been taken in by some sort of fable and the first reaction is to dismiss his assertion as complete nonsense.
A more open approach would be to attempt to determine under which conditions such an assertion could possibly be true. After all, the world is full of strange things: animals that can see without eyes, women who can fly, rays of light that can bend around corners, rocks that can float. Could there not be a rough boulder that can be moved by one finger, but that would resist the push made with the whole body?
(Friday 21st September, 2007)
84 On Groucho Marx
I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception. - Groucho Marx (1970)
Humans are apparently very good at being able to differentiate between different faces. It may only have been someone on a television program (not a strong reference I admit) who suggested it but apparently we have the ability to recognize differences in each of the 6,000,000,000 faces on earth at the moment. However, despite what Groucho thinks people do forget faces, but the forgetting is selective.
It has been found that people are more likely to remember faces of people who they believed were cheaters or people not to be trusted. This was even more so if the person was a male.
So if someone remembers you, it may not be for the reasons you think!
(Friday 5th October, 2007)
85 On mirrors
Imitation is the sincerest flattery. - Charles Caleb Colton (1825)
Studies of the brain activity in monkeys have found some fascinating behaviour – neurons in regions of the brain that control movement have been found to fire, not only when an action is undertaken, but also when the animal is simply watching the action being performed by another individual. These so-called mirror neurons are believed to hold an evolutionary advantage because they allow passive practice.
Imagine the power of these neurons in learning if students could hone their skills simply watching others carrying out the required activities. In fact, it may be that the students with an eye for making the most of evolutionary advantages are already using this potentially powerful technique: watching rather than actually doing, observing the learning taking place, and waiting for the mirror neurons to do their work.
(Friday 12th October, 2007)
86 On intuition
Listen to your intuition. It will tell you everything you need to know. - Anthony J. D'Angelo
There is a particular test that involves 3 water jugs of different volumes where the challenge is to distribute water from the largest in a particular way amongst all the jugs. In doing so water may be passed back and forth between them with the proviso that a container that is being poured must either fill the other vessel completely or be completely emptied itself in the process. A standard test starts with three jugs of 8L, 5L and 3L where the 8L one is full and the others are empty. The aim may be to leave 4L in the 8L jug, and have 4L into the 5L jug and leave the 3L jug empty. For this particular problem the minimum number of steps is 7, but in tests volunteers have taken 25 or more steps to achieve the solution.
It has been found that when novices are presented with the problem and offered a range of alternate moves at any particular stage in the process they are happiest if one is intuitively better, where better in this case means that the new position is visually closer to the required final position. In this situation they select this option almost automatically. It is only when a number of counter-intuitive moves are offered that they actually pause for thought and consider them in some meaningful way.
Of course, with experience the intuition is educated and brings a much more sophisticated view to bear on the problem.
(Friday 19th October, 2007)
87 On discovery
We’re not sure who discovered water, but we’re pretty sure it wasn’t the fish. – Marshall McLuhan.
According to Gerald Schroeder, author of a number of books on God and science, it should be possible to predict the properties of water given knowledge of the chemical structure of its two constituents, hydrogen and oxygen. This of course does not mean that it would have been discovered by anyone in particular before fish were swimming in it because in terms of the development of the earth water preceded fish and fish preceded humans, so perhaps the point is moot.
Arguing along similar lines, there is much discussion about who first discovered Australia, with Asian, Dutch and English navigators all credited with some role. Meanwhile the original inhabitants were casually living in the land and, like the fish, seem to have been awarded a much less important role in the affair.
(Friday 2nd November, 2007)
88 On Maslow
It is no more necessary to study animals before one can study man than it is to study mathematics before one can study geology or psychology or biology. – Abraham Maslow (1943)
I have always found intuitively obvious observations, used to reinforce an opinion, a blight on the landscape. At best they add little to the argument since they are obvious, at worst they are likely to be inaccurate and detract from the overall quality of the work.
Maslow seemed to have developed a nice explanation of a basic human characteristic when he wrote of the five sets of goals or levels of need and the sequential nature of desire that moves on to new levels only when the lower ones have been satisfied. He suggested that a “person lacking food, safety, love, and esteem would most probably hunger for food more strongly than anything else” and in that he may well have been right.
However, he was wide of the mark in his opinions on the study of mathematics. It may not be strictly necessary to study mathematics before biology, but in a 2007 study investigating the effect of university student backgrounds it was found that the study of mathematics conferred statistically significant benefits for students embarking on university biology, chemistry and physics.
(Friday 9th November, 2007)
89 On discovery
The artist brings something into the world that didn’t exist before ... – John Updike (1977)
Walter Brattain was one of the team of three who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956 for the development of the first solid-state transistor. He has been quoted as saying that he felt that the final discovery of the transistor “waited for him” which is an interesting way of explaining the process. It ties in with the feelings of many mathematicians who believe that their discoveries were “there” all along, just waiting to be found.
It is of course at odds with those artistic types who argue that if Leonardo had not painted the Mona Lisa then no-one else would have. That may be true, but presumably Mrs Z. del Giocondo would have found someone else to do the portrait and, who knows, she may even have managed a smile.
(Friday 16th November, 2007)
90 On transistors
It hardly matters how sincere you are if you are wrong. – Julian Schwinger (Novel Prize winner)
The life of William Shockley, team leader at the time the point-contact transistor was invented at Bell Laboratories, is one of contrasts; from near-genius inventor who at the time of his peak was recognised as having the deepest understanding of solid state electronic behaviour, to an obsessed and paranoid fanatic who spent much of his time using his statistical skills in the promotion of eugenics (the science of the production of fine offspring by the control of inherited qualities).
He found himself in the ranks of Nobel Laureates and at one stage asked them all to admit to their beliefs with regards to the existence of inherited intelligence. All refused to comply with his request, secure in the knowledge that the chance of a parent and child both winning a Nobel Prize would be small (but certainly something to Bragg about).
(Friday 23rd November, 2007)
91 On insurance
There is enough in the world for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed. – Frank Buchman (1878-1961)
In a twist on the Tragedy of the Commons (which is used to explain environmental degradation) comes an experiment in cooperation (or the lack of it). In 1984 a magazine in the U.S. decided to run an experiment: they devised a scheme where readers were asked to respond with a request for money. The two options were to ask for $20 or to ask for $100. There was, however, a catch: they were told that they would all get the money they asked for providing no more than 20% of them asked for the $100.
The publishers thought this a risky business and, having tried unsuccessfully to get it underwritten by Lloyd’s of London, added a clause that no-one would actually get any money but people should respond as if they were going to.
There were 33,511 replies with 11,758 (35%) asking for $100 and the rest for the smaller amount. Critics argue that the fact that it was not real money involved altered the outcome, but if one accepts the results it is interesting to see that they wouldn’t have had to pay out anyway.
(Friday 30th November, 2007)
92 On being greener
Fertilior seges est alieno semper in arvo. – old Roman proverb
Although the Romans were comparing their corn to that of their neighbours the basic message was similar to the modern idea of the grass being greener on the other side of the fence. It’s all about envy and, in some cases, optical illusions. However, in the case of the Goodman Crescent lawns that provide the setting for Sir Thomas Elder to stand on his pedestal, the grass really is greener. On Wednesday this week, in preparation for the many graduation ceremonies being held, workmen (or perhaps artists) dosed the area with a fresh coat of green grass paint.
It just goes to show, all that glitters is not gold and all that is lush in not necessarily green the whole way through.
(Friday 14th December, 2007)
93 On anonymity
How many papers would be published if the authors had to be anonymous? – Patrick Rivett (1981)
In an essay lamenting the lack of published output by operational research scientists in the UK, Patrick Rivett was casting around to explain why academics bothered to publish at all. He decided it was for the chance of career advancement and perhaps out of a sense of duty to repay the living that he or she was making at the public expense (he saw this as a moral duty). Hence the rhetorical question. But is the answer really none or not many?
If anyone has the inclination or time to search for clever or amusing quotes one will discover that it is not uncommon to find them attributed to Anonymous (or Anon. for short), so the anonymous author has already made a contribution to published wisdom. In fact it would be nice to be able to name all the people who make anonymous contributions to a whole range of endeavours but this is clearly not possible, not because the list would be so long but because, by definition, there are no known names to put on the list.
In fact it may be possible to treat this whole concept mathematically. It involves a set that is believed to be large, but that contains no known elements. Any element in the set that is identified cannot be part of the set – a classic Catch 22 situation.
(Friday 21st December, 2007)
94 On the life of ideas
Ideas are born, they struggle, triumph, change, and they are transformed; but is there a dead idea which in the end does not live on ...? – Murray Kempton (1955)
In Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” the universe was actually being run by mice. Humans, despite their pretensions were really only there to ensure that they created the conditions that were conducive to the survival of the master species. It all seems a little far-fetched but consider for a moment the assumption that humans are at the top of the pecking order and that nature and the universe are there for our benefit. Perhaps there is a higher power here on earth: the idea.
Ideas have been around as long as humans. They come into being, spawn offspring, and can possibly also die. They can pass from human to human and live in a range of non-human media. Bertrand Russell pursued such a line of thought when he credited the Greeks with "giving birth to theories which have had an independent life and growth ... [and] have proved capable of surviving throughout more than two thousand years". Not bad for a non-carbon, in fact completely non- chemical, non-physical form of life.
Now to search for some that have passed away ...
(Friday 18th January, 2008)
95 On capitalism
Capitalism is using its money, we socialists throw it away. – Fidel Castro (1964)
In the years leading up to 1st January, 2000 the world spent somewhere between US$500 billion and US$3 trillion preparing for that day. None of it was spent on fireworks or champagne, those were extra. That money was spent in an attempt to overcome the anticipated effects of the Y2K bug. (A problem based on the fact that programmers had chosen to represent the date in most personal computers and microprocessors using just the last two digits and assuming a preceding “19”. Hence the fear that 2000 would be thought of as 1900 and that this might lead to some strange software decisions and on to global chaos.)
There has been much written about this, but one particularly interesting take on the whole exercise was by John Phillimore and Aidan Davison writing in the Futures journal. They asked: why are current environmental problems not treated with such largesse? Just think what the $12 billion that Australia spent could do for research, or for new developments such as solar energy, or nano-technology.
Phillimore and Davison believe that one of the keys to the Y2K bug funding was that it had a fixed and very significant deadline (January 1, 2000). They also argue that small discrete problems are easier to focus on rather than long-term slow burn ones. The existence of concrete examples of what might go wrong helped as did the fact that, in selling the fix, computer people highlighted the positives of the measures rather than concentrating on negative issues.
These suggestions might also be valid for researchers seeking funding!
(Friday 25th January, 2008)
96 On recall
Hindsight is always twenty-twenty. – Billy Wilder, American screenwriter and director (1979)
If a survey were to be carried out today asking people which party they thought was going to win the last federal election it is very likely that the percentage picking Labor would be higher than it would have been if the same question had been asked before the election. So, are people dishonest in their recollections?
It is now believed that when asked to recall something that involved having to estimate a probability people actually reconstruct rather than simply extract the memory and, as part of that, re-do the calculation. The problem is that they use the latest available information on the probability which has been updated in their memory, leading to a better estimate and explaining the effect of hindsight.
The brain seems to be full of clever tricks that are designed to protect it from over- working, some of which introduce a largely unnoticed bias. Still, with hindsight, this does not seem such a bad thing.
(Friday 1st February, 2008)
97 On a perfect world
An education system that tries to make everything easy and pleasurable will prevent much important learning from happening. – Kay (1991)
People often talk of the perfect world. Of course, they say, in a perfect world (and at this point they fill in the details of what sort of world would suit their immediate needs).
Sometimes it seems that students and teachers have such different views of what they should each be doing that in a perfect world they would not be together at all. Teachers could be on their own teaching, without the distractions of real students. The students, in turn, would be away on their own, learning without the distractions of teachers.
Now, back to the joys of an imperfect world.
(Friday 8th February, 2008)
98 On simple truths
I am on the right wing of the middle of the road and with a strong radical bias. - Tony Benn (the English politician formerly known as Anthony Wedgwood Benn)
In a recent speech given at the ANU, Senator Kim Carr (no relation to Stephen!?) outlined some of his ideas about the role of higher education in Australia. One of the points he made regarding the value of the ANU was that it provided “non- partisan advice to parliament”. At first this seems very reasonable and was surely intended as a compliment, but is it that simple? Are there really truths that university people know and can pass on in some disinterested fashion to interested parties?
Whether or not there are simple truths, it is interesting to see that Senator Carr prefers non-partisan advice as the chief ingredient in partisan politics. Parliament rarely goes for a bi-partisan approach to its work and so thinks that while it works best in that way, others should behave differently.
(Friday 29th February, 2008)
99 On guiding lights
When it is no longer a question of leading people to do good, one may at least distract them from doing evil. – Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 1778)
It’s hard not to think of first year university students, without being reminded of the thoughts of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Jean Jacques had lots of ideas about education: instead of putting them into practice, he wrote books and influenced others who then tried to do just that.
Beware of people who know what others should do but have not actually done it themselves.
(Friday 7th March, 2008)
100 On global warming
If ... a scientific civilization is to be a good civilization it is necessary that an increase in knowledge should be accompanied by [an] increase in wisdom. – Bertrand Russell (1931)
It seems nowadays that every hot day, or cold day, or wet day, or dry day is taken as further proof of global warming or climate change. However, it is unlikely that data alone will demonstrate much, especially given the range of variations that are believed to have occurred in the past. The development of scientific theories or models also lacks the potential for proof since theories and models can never be proved, only disproved, and this through the use of data which, as has already been noted, are not likely to help much.
It does seem rather a hopeless case but one, nevertheless, that will attract both the best and the worst to its cause.
(Thursday 20th March, 2007)
101 On mentors
An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support. – John Buchan (1875- 1940)
According to a reputable dictionary, the word mentor means “a wise or trusted adviser or guide”. It is interesting to speculate whether the “or” is (in mathematical logic terms) inclusive (OR) or exclusive (XOR), with the latter being the more interesting. In that case there is a choice to be made between a wise adviser (who is not trusted) or a trusted adviser (who is not wise).
The word “mentor” itself comes from Mentor, the friend who Odysseus put in charge of his household when he left for Troy. In that role he was also adviser to Odysseus’ son, Telemachus. The reason Mentor did not go to Troy was that he was too old (for the real action) and had to content himself with more menial duties. Mythology has it that even as an adviser he had some help: when the time came for Telemachus to set off for Troy to search for his father (a time when a wise and/or trusted guide would have been most useful) it was actually Athene, the daughter of Zeus, who took on the job, by first assuming the form of Mentor (to ensure the job was done properly perhaps).
Mentors seems to stem from a history that is rich in symbolism, which is perhaps apt for the modern role.
(Friday 28th March, 2008)
102 On reading
Schopenhauer describes reading as a mere surrogate for thinking for yourself. – Simon Blackburn (philosopher and author)
Reading is, of course, a rather passive activity. You sit there and the brain just scans the pages and translates the pattern of black and white smudges into letters and letters into words and words into meaning. Easy really. Sometimes the smudges are also translated into sounds. And the smudges are occasionally translated into colours and smells and sensations as well.
But perhaps, that is not thinking. Thinking is what philosophers do and is far beyond what mere readers are capable of.
(Friday 4th April, 2008)
103 On footballers
I doubt whether Copernicus would ever have become a Copernican ... – Bertrand Russell (1931)
In the AFL football commentary each week there is often much discussion on the impact that certain key players have on the game. The commentators will talk of the Nathan Buckleys or the Andrew McLeods of the football world in an attempt to characterise the ability of a player or to demonstrate his importance in a particular game. This does, however, raise some questions. Firstly, how many Nathan Buckleys are there? Presumably there are more than one since the plural is clearly intended. (Football commentators may not be the best grammarians, but they know their plurals.) Secondly, is Nathan Buckley always a Nathan Buckley or might he occasionally be a Tony Lockett or a Matthew Primus? If Nathan Buckley was having a bad day, might he not be a Nathan Buckley at all? Weeks might go by without a Nathan Buckley being identified.
Bertrand Russell may have started all this well before Nathan was wondering who or what to be. If Copernicus was not be a Copernican then it’s interesting to consider who he might have been, perhaps a Ptolemyian with the heavens revolving around him.
(Friday 18th April, 2008)
104 On arguments
The best causes tend to attract to their support the worst arguments. – R.A. Fisher (English statistician, 1956)
Now that the U.S. has been overtaken as the nation with the highest output of carbon dioxide it will surely not be long before the former highest emitter starts to realise that there may be merit in some sort of limit on said emissions. This may be dressed up in scientific and environmental garb, but is likely to be much more about national positions and protecting them. Al Gore has already shown one way of having your cake and eating it by cleverly shifting the goal posts and sanitising the use of extravagant levels of energy by offsetting, and this is likely to be followed by more equally clever (in a legal rather than a technical sense) accounting schemes that favour the old money over the new money, the established economies over the establishing ones.
Whether the emissions are even important will soon be old news; not because of the much touted (and much questioned) scientific consensus on climate change, but because it will be a battle over something much more symbolic: national rights and pride. In this situation there may be a case for turning Fisher’s quote around to suggest that the worst causes tend to attract to their support the best arguments.
(Thursday 24th April, 2008)
105 On memory
There is no clear absolute sense in which problems are simple or difficult. - Noam Chomsky
One of the guiding principles in the design of an education system is the idea that students will have to be trained in the fundamental principles of a range of topics, and that their skill and expertise will gradually develop. As the skills develop so too does the difficulty of the problems and the level of knowledge that must be applied to determine valid solutions.
It comes as a bit of a shock, then, to find the opinion being expressed that there is no absolute scale of difficulty. Chomsky used as an example pigeons; they can navigate their way quite successfully over thousands of miles, a feat beyond normal human capability, and yet cannot do the most basic tasks that humans find quite trivial. There was a rider to the argument: if a creature has the capacity to perform certain tasks well, then that very capacity will lead to failure in some other tasks. Now, (and this is the important bit), he saw failure at some tasks as a positive thing. If a creature cannot do certain things, then there are other things that they will be able to do, not so much as a way of compensation, but as a direct consequence of it. Wire a brain in a certain way and it can do some things, but not others.
Take, for example, Daniel Tammet. He was born with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, which meant it was difficult for him to do many of the things that most take for granted. Things like normal social activities, or even being able to read other people’s moods, he found difficult or impossible. However, in December 2003 he set himself the challenge of memorising the value of pi (3.14159265358979 etc.) to over 22,500 decimal places in just three months. On March 14 (written as 3/14 in the American system) in the following year he spent five hours in the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford accurately reciting pi to 22,514 places – a European record.
Exactly how he did it will be saved for later musings.
(Friday 2nd May, 2008)
106 On teachers
A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read. – Mark Twain
There are two things I tend not to do: write in the first person, and read the fashion pages in the newspaper. The first comes from teaching Engineering Planning and Design, a course that involves trying to move students towards a more professional style of writing; a task that is almost achievable if they can be weaned off the “we” and its associates and relations and on to the very formal third person. The second (not reading fashion pages in newspapers) comes from a range of beliefs and value judgments that would do me little credit, and that I will not expand upon at the moment.
However, from this position of relative ignorance I make the following observation: in fashion there seems to be two competing issues, the designer and the model. Furthermore, it is possible to judge who is the more important simply by looking at the photo captions. If it’s Jennifer Hawkins or Kate Moss in an evening dress or some jungle outfit then you can be pretty sure that the designer is much less important. If it’s a Valentino evening dress then it’s the model that is a relative unknown.
I am wondering if the same goes for university courses. Do students enrol in Deric’s final year course or do they enrol in the FRP elective? Do they enrol in Holger and Matt’s course or in Environmental Modelling? Same thing you say: I don’t think so! You see, it’s important, and the difference is not which is easier to say; it’s all about the relative glitz and glamour of each of the components. I am fairly sure the first year students sign up for EP&D, but it would be nice to think that by final year they are looking for the coastal course, rather than Walker’s elective.
(Friday 9th May, 2008)
107 On golf
Golf is a good walk spoiled. – Mark Twain.
In an effort “to be in solidarity” with the families of soldiers fighting in Iraq the U.S. President, George W. Bush, has sworn off golf. According to a report in The Australian on 15 May, 2008, the last game he played was on October 13, 2003. The President thinks that “playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal”, and it would be easy to agree. But is it that simple?
Scholars of history would, no doubt, recall that Sir Francis Drake was reputed to have spent valuable time while the Spanish fleet approached, playing bowls. Whether this was just a clever tactic or if he was concerned about being “in solidarity” with his companions is impossible to know for sure. Despite such precedents George Dubya is taking no chances.
Of course, there may be other, deeper reasons for the President’s decision. During one of the many briefings he has attended he may have misheard the term “Gulf War” and thought they were saying “golf war”. This would be quite alarming to a young man, especially one from a family that had worked so hard to keep him away from wars in general, and military service in particular. He may also have known that his own father had been involved in some sort of gulf (or was it golf?) war, and this may have troubled him too. His aides may have explained that the war was being played out a fair way away (fairway – another golf term!) and the fact that his enemy, Saddam Hussein, was found in a hole (they have holes in golf!), or some sort of bunker in the sand (a sand-bunker) would be all the warning he needed.
Tiger, you are safe. At least for a few more years.
(Friday 16th May, 2008)
108 On self-esteem
The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself. – Bill Gates
One of the arguments often made in support of the academic life is that it is the best chance for a person to be paid for doing pretty much exactly what he or she wants to do. It’s not a complete blank cheque, but within fairly wide limits it’s close to the truth. Of course, if this is to be considered a good thing it does raise a couple of questions: “What is so good about people doing what they want to do?” and “Are there benefits that will come from having thousands of people doing just what they want to do?”.
Perhaps it’s all about personal development and self-esteem. According to James Flynn, a researcher of intelligence and its measurement, there are benefits that flow to people who are “continuously taking on challenges that lie just beyond their competence”. By working their brains, he believes there is sufficient evidence to suggest they will not only achieve in the short term, but also develop a more resilient intelligence that will serve them well into old age.
Society, who after all funds this whole exercise, may beg to differ. A researcher from the CSIRO, John Philip, in a 1991 review of the development of soil science and its application, was of the opinion that “there are no prizes and no thanks from society for the scientist who spends his time and the resources of society in the attempt to solve problems beyond his competence”.
So there it is; either we should be pushing our limits, or holding back lest we fail. Easy choice really.
(Friday 23rd May, 2008)
109 On feedback
It is, no doubt, a very laudable effort, in modern teaching, to render as much as possible of what the young are required to learn, easy and interesting to them. But when this principle is pushed to the length of not requiring them to learn anything but what has been made easy and interesting, one of the chief objects of education is sacrificed. – John Stuart Mill
A recent study in a medical school in the U.S. was set up to investigate the role of feedback on student satisfaction. Two groups of students were put through a session where two-handed knot-tying skills were to be developed. One group, when given the chance to try for themselves was given specific, constructive feedback, the other was given some general scripted compliments (great job, you’re making progress, outstanding). The session was video-taped and the skills were assessed by independent experts. In addition, both groups were asked to rate their satisfaction of the teaching on a 7 point Likert scale (1 = very poor to 7 = truly exceptional)
It may not surprise to find that the group who were given the compliments were more satisfied with the teaching, but had not improved at all from their pre-session competence. The other group, while less satisfied, had improved significantly. As the authors noted “it appears that satisfaction ratings respond to praise more than feedback, while learning is more a function of feedback”.
Without a careful approach by educators, it may be a case of the satisfied or the competent. The current SELT, with its focus on student satisfaction and a complete lack of curiosity regarding learning outcomes, seems to be driving academics towards producing the satisfied student. A pity really, because there is a place for the competent, particularly where two-handed knots are required!
(Friday 30th May, 2008)
110 On meaning
We are prepared to say that one and one are two, but not that Socrates and Plato are two, because, in our capacity of logicians or pure mathematicians, we have never heard of Socrates or Plato. A world in which there were no such individuals would still be a world in which one and one are two. – Bertrand Russell
Suppose for a moment you have seen the expression “the engineer” and wish to find out as much as you can about these two words. Consulting a dictionary, such as the Concise Oxford, you find the two entries; “the” is set out in some detail running to 62 lines of small type in a two column format, while “engineer” is allocated 17 lines in the same small type. Now, either “the” is a much more important word, and deserves the extra 45 lines of explanation or it may simply be harder to define. Casting around for other examples, it is easily found that the Concise Oxford manages to define itself (“dictionary”) in 9 lines, “serendipity”, a word that many rate as their favourite, in 4 lines and “ciao” and “circa” in 1 line each.
This (33 lines) very (28) limited (6) analysis (9) speaks (34) volumes (12) about (28) dictionaries (9) and (11) their (3) lexicographers (2). Dictionaries are written by people who probably do not need one, other than as a means of supporting themselves. They seem to be written for the writer, rather than the reader who may simply be searching for a word and its meaning. There is certainly a strong philosophical element in dictionaries with the most common terms being set out in the finest detail while the grimy business of defining useful words like “engineer” are given short shrift. Much the same might apply to pure mathematics, and Bertrand Russell is unlikely to be the last to struggle developing a proof for 1 + 1 = 2. Even so, the Concise Oxford defines “two” as “one more than one” and in doing so provides a short-cut (if one was sought). There is, however, a problem: in the dictionary, “one” (106 lines) is over double “two” (48 lines) rather than the other way around, so the discussion is far from over, and in one respect: 2 + 2 < 1.
Returning to the theme, it is significant that the Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799 and responsible for linking the three main languages of civilisation at the time (Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek), was a tri-lingual piece of normal text. Who knows what would have happened if it had been the first piece of a basalt dictionary starting with an entry for “a” (49 lines), something that may have taken up the whole slab.
(Friday 6th June, 2008)
111 On background knowledge
Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself. – Mark Twain
Gerard Baker, writing in The Australian (June 7–8, 2008) on the fall of Clinton and the rise of Obama, starts his piece with: “Only the most gnarled cynic or a member of the Clinton family (but I repeat myself)”.
It’s an interesting opening, not just because it is reworking the original Mark Twain humour, but because it seems to be relying on not everyone knowing the original. He is probably not plagiarising, but having a little fun for himself and those who recognise the passage. He’s on a winner either way. Some will not know the original and will marvel at the humour. Those that do will enjoy it even more since they will derive satisfaction from being “in” on the joke. The fact that not everyone “gets it” makes it all the sweeter.
(Friday 13th June, 2008)
112 On light
Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true. - Niels Bohr
Recent research into developmental stages in the very young has demonstrated that the ability to lie, and to maintain a lie, requires a higher level of intelligence than simply telling the truth. To lie, it is necessary to recognise the truth, and to develop an alternative reality (often in limited time, within quite narrow constraints). The lie must then be maintained under conditions of mild to severe interrogation. Victoria Talwar, at Montreal's McGill University, has found that bright children can start lying at 2 or 3; well ahead of their slower peers.
As these bright youngsters grow, many will (of course) pursue a university career and in this setting their ability to lie convincingly may be put to a more socially responsible use: the development and professing of new theories and hypotheses. While not lies, these positions require the same sort of intelligence if the fabric of the idea is to be maintained and defended, sometimes against common sense, always against an army of doubters and sceptics.
Consider, for example, Niels Bohr and quantum theory, with its bizarre predictions. Or the parallel universe theory to explain how a single photon can interfere with itself as it passes through a narrow slit. Come to think of it, even the idea of a single photon takes some supporting. And it’s not just physics; Canadian researchers have identified a plant on the shores of the Great Lakes that is able to “recognise” kin; a skill more commonly associated with intelligent humans. This latter work is the sort of finding that the Society of Plant Neurobiology welcomes, with its focus on plant sensing. Of course, the Society’s provocative name, which indicates the study of nervous systems (nerves, synapses and brains) in plants, means that it must maintain a high level of intelligence itself if it is to survive.
Just because someone is intelligent does not mean they are right; in fact, it may be that their intelligence allows them to be wrong for longer, and to be more convincing while they are wrong.
(Friday 20th June, 2007)
113 On big research
Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising. - Mark Twain.
In the U.S. in the 1980s there were two “big science” projects competing for a decreasing public purse: the International Space Station, backed by NASA, and the Superconducting Super Collider (ScSC) backed by an international group of scientists. According to an analysis of the relative merits of the two projects, on purely scientific grounds the ScSC was superior, however, that project was scrapped after decades of work and approximately US$2 billion of funding. The term sunk costs is perhaps particularly appropriate because most of what is left of the project is tens of kilometres of quite precise tunnelling, and 17 shafts leading from ground level to those unfinished tunnels.
It is the opinion of a political analyst who has studied the two projects, and the processes of federal funding, that a key strategy employed by NASA involved spreading the work around the country to maximise the number of congressional representatives whose states had a slice of the action. This was in stark contrast to the ScSC which was located in Texas (the then President’s home state!) and which promised only limited work for out of state interests. Another issue was that the space station could be sold to the public as a much more visible and comprehensible proposal and one that boosted national pride and sense of achievement.
Of course, the ARC would not be fooled so easily when it allocates funding. (!)
(Friday 27th June, 2008)
114 On classification
Do you know who I am? – Belinda Neal (politician)
The soon-to-retire politician Alexander Downer classifies his colleagues into three categories: those who are in it for their electorate, those who are in it for themselves (the opportunists), and those who can only be described as the salt of the earth, who work tirelessly for the national good. He makes no judgment on the relative proportions of each, nor does he speculate in which category he himself belongs although he seems to be eyeing off the last one.
The off-on-study-leave academic, Deric Oehlers, has a similar classification system for researchers, leading to four categories. There are, not unsurprisingly, some similarities with the politicians with a group for the highly creative whose work is their life, another for those who are basically in it for themselves, and other categories for the less innovative or creative with one having positive attributes that complement the brilliant group, and the other having the sort of characteristics found in the most negative of journal reviewers whose sole aim, it seems, is to defend their patch and to protect the status quo.
This idea of classifying people according to characteristics or inherent traits is not new. Carl Jung set up such a system with his four categories: sensation – intuition, and thinking – feeling. These were expanded out to eight different combinations by the addition of introversion – extraversion. In doing so he shows himself to be a member of the first research category group: brilliant, creative and absolutely dedicated. The power of one of the lower ranked groups, however, is demonstrated by the work of Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers, who took Jung’s idea, extended it slightly with the addition of an extra category (judging – perceiving), protected it with a legal fortress, and started making money from it.
(Friday 4th July, 2008)
115 On Google
Who am I anyway? Am I my resumé? – lyrics from the musical Chorus Line
If you type “Who is Ashu Jain” into Google a list of about 210,000 hits results from a process that is claimed to take a mere 0.29 seconds. The first entry listed goes quickly to a home page showing a photo and address together with some key information on recent experience (a list of appointments over the last 13 years) and a long list of publications.
If you type in “Who is Charles Dickens?” the first entry opens with “A Tale of Two Cities”. (“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, ...”)
From this very limited survey a number of conclusions can be drawn: what we have done is often used as a proxy for who we are; and, if what we have done is viewed as extremely valuable the what may completely subsume the who. Of course, in other circumstances the who is much more valued – how else could one explain the various forms of bond between humans where the what we have done is ignored and the who we are reigns supreme?
[Ashu Jain was a visitor to the School.]
(Friday 11th July, 2008)
116 On space
In an empty space, where nothing happens, time has no function. – Stefan Klein (author)
It was J.A. Wheeler, winner of the Albert Einstein medal in 1988, who once said “time is nature's way to keep everything from happening at once”. Time may not actually prevent an all-action, so-short-it-doesn’t-really-exist slice of activity, but it certainly makes following what is going on in life much easier.
It was a bold step that took Albert Einstein from a universe where time and its rate of progress was the one fixed feature to one where, for some unexplained reason, the speed of light in a vacuum should suddenly be the gold standard of fixed quantities. Even time falls into step, slowing as it is transported around at increasingly high speeds.
And yet, if Klein is correct, if time only functions away from empty space it seems odd that we should be defining the gold standard exactly for that situation: empty space, a vacuum. Perhaps Klein stopped one stop short of the logical end of the line. Perhaps in empty space there is no time. Perhaps time and existence cannot be separated and perhaps the illusion of one provides the reality of the other.
(Friday 18th July, 2008)
117 On books
Education isn’t everything. For a start, it isn’t an elephant. – Spike Milligan.
The current task of ranking journals, which will lead to a way of quantifying research output, highlights the question of academic worth. To the outsider (or politician) it may seem a relatively straightforward task to rank the various publications based on some key indicators but, as with many things, it seems that the more one knows about subject the more one realises that it is not that simple.
However, there seems to have been a breakthrough at Deakin University, at least in terms of determining the quality of textbooks. A Fellow of Deakin’s college of distinguished educators has declared (The Australian Higher Education Supplement, July 23, 2008, p22) that in terms of a publication’s merit it is value for money that is important. (The issue arose when some of the first year lecturers published their own textbook and expected the students to purchase it.)
Of course the next task is to determine how to measure value for money. Perhaps it could be simply the cost per page, meaning that a 500 page book for $100 would be superior to a 250 page book for $55. Or perhaps it is a function of the number of authors; a book with five authors would be better value than one with only four. It might be that students are more subjective in their assessment of value; some might value a text with lots of worked solutions (everyone seems to like these), others with a more visual learning style might value one with more pictures or diagrams. Still others might value a more expensive book (based on the idea that you get what you pay for).
This lovely multi-criteria optimisation problem also has a constraint: lecturers should not be able to prescribe any book that they have written themselves. At least that bit makes sense; there is absolutely no point in having academics trying to write and teach and, at Deakin at least, perhaps a book from anywhere else really does represent better value for money!
(Friday 25th July, 2008)
118 On amateurs
Every honest researcher I know admits he's just a professional amateur. – C. F. Kettering (1876-1958, inventor)
The recent Engineering Faculty awards ceremony for the top teachers rightly recognised the efforts of two top teachers, Cheryl Pope and Martin Lambert. However, I could not help wondering what a “real” teacher, perhaps a fellow from the Deakin college of distinguished educators, for example, would think if they were fortunate enough to be invited to such an event. I have a suspicion that he or she might look down their nose at the assembled mass and mutter “amateurs”.
It has always been a bit of an insult to be called an amateur. Certainly if you want to insult a professional there is no crueller cut than to compare them to an amateur. In sporting events which mix professionals and amateurs there is always great interest from the press if an amateur manages to beat a professional (and this may explain why the professionals are not keen to promote these events). And yet, this view is quite unfair.
If one looks back to the early days of science, for example, it was the amateur that developed and promoted the early developments. The Royal Society started as an association of gentlemen scientists who took their hobby very seriously, but who were nevertheless anything but professional scientists. Robert Boyle is described as a gentlemen scientist, Robert Hooke was many things, but did much work as an architect. John Wilkins was a clergyman. What they brought, based on their backgrounds, more than made up for any deficiency due to a lack of professional status.
It may be the same with teaching. The amateurs may have an abundance of enthusiasm but it is that enthusiasm the students pick up on and respond to. The amateurs may lack some of the depth of understanding of the psychology of teaching, but that does not mean they will be wrong in what they do. The amateurs may make some mistakes without realising it, but is that any worse than making those same mistakes and knowing they are wrong?
There’s a lot to be said for a committed group of amateurs.
(Friday 1st August, 2008)
119 On needs
He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail. - Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) (American psychologist)
Abraham Maslow developed the idea that animals have a hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid, where the most basic must be satisfied before consideration can be given to the higher ones. Those needs started with the most basic such as adequate air, food, water, sex and sleep (probably in that order). At the next level came security, employment and friendship, and at higher levels came the more human-specific wants such as self-esteem, confidence, creativity, spontaneity and morality.
It reflects poorly on humans in general that, in the 21st Century, there should be so many who cannot enjoy the highest levels of these human needs. It is even more disturbing to see how many seem quite content to remain at the base of the pyramid.
(Friday 8th August, 2008)
120 On memory
Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it. – Michel de Montaigne
There is a test (digit span forward) for assessing memory that requires subjects to repeat an increasingly long sequence of random digits that are read out to them. The test starts with three and increases one at a time until mistakes are made in recalling them. Tests in English speaking countries show that, on average, people can manage to repeat about seven before errors occur.
Tests with Chinese children, however, indicate they can outscore their English counterparts by approximately 20%. There are a number of reasons that come to mind to explain this advantage but it has been put down to a rather interesting fact: the time required to say the numbers from one to nine in Chinese takes about 20% less time than in English and this indicates that humans’ short-term memory can handle a certain duration of spoken digits rather than a certain number of them.
It's almost as if we have a small loop of recording tape and it's up to us to squeeze as much as we can onto it before it is backed up into long-term memory.
(Friday 15th August, 2008)
121 On lectures
The notion of one’s ideas surviving only through a student’s lecture notes makes every academic feel despair. – James Flynn (intelligence researcher)
Lectures have been described as dull, passive affairs, “where the notes of the professor are transferred to the notes of the student without passing through the mind of either”, but the situation is unlikely to be as simple as that. While the lecture may be an inefficient way to ensure the accurate replication of the original idea, there is considerable scope for the Darwinian evolution of ideas through the processes of cross-over, mutation and random errors. And what better way to ensure this happens than through a lecture to students? In this way ideas not only survive, but can grow, breed and multiply.
(Friday 22nd August, 2008)
122 On that party drug
Going to law is losing a cow for ... a cat. – Mark Twain
Writing without using that amazingly popular fifth symbol in our standard script is difficult but not too difficult. It can work, and in doing so work to profit all. You can look at many, or all words, and not find out what is wrong; but it is wrong, almost unnatural to many folks’ way of thinking. Lots of thoughts can still find ways to that wondrous light of day that is so much sought, but that fact should not go towards any form of soothing comfort.
In days long past girls and boys, nay all humans, would find ways to avoid crucial traps, but taking a fifth was not just for criminals (or authors). This flight of fancy could go on and on, but wait – biscuits, cups and postgrads approach with many thoughts of Friday fun. Not using our fifth stops many things – I cannot say what – but it will not stop good company, or fun and food.
So, inform us, what is wrong with this writing? Nothing? Think! What is missing? Do say!
(DJO will say “rubbish!” – but it’s not. Anything that brings on musing, and a swag of thoughts, cannot do too much harm.)
P.S. Thanks to Mark Twain for joining in this day’s invitation and avoiding that awful fifth symbol.
[The letter ‘e’ is absent in this piece.]
(Friday 29th August, 2008)
123 On cricket
Cricket is the only game where you are playing against eleven of the other side and ten of your own. – G.H. Hardy (mathematician)
It is interesting to speculate on the role that competition plays in the generation of ideas or the time-hungry task of bringing them to reality. Take as an example Robert Goddard, a man responsible for much of the development of rockets in the US. Goddard spent almost his whole lifetime working tirelessly towards the single goal of having one of his rockets reach extreme altitudes. (In the right mood, and with the right company, it is true that he would speculate about landing on the moon, or travelling to distant stars, but his immediate aims were much more down to earth!) The work involved the development of the appropriate technology, the rocket hardware, fuels, ignition systems, guidance systems, et cetera. It also involved an almost constant search for funding and the need for him to be an all-in- one scientist, engineer and promoter.
But there was more to it than that. He also focussed on protecting his priority by filing literally hundreds of patents and ensuring that any mention of other rocket work (in Russia and Germany for example) was denounced at home as a copy of his own. For this reason he took few people into his confidence and particularly avoided those who were making, or likely to make, progress.
It seems that the need for him to be at the forefront of rocket development assisted him early in his career – driving him at a frenetic pace and preventing him from being put off things that were believed impossible – and in this regard it was probably the optimum conditions for the work. Later, however, he could really have benefited from a more collaborative approach. And yet as time went by, and his needs changed, he remained quite rigid in his attitudes and behaviour, based on a constant set of beliefs and prejudices.
(Friday 5th September, 2008)
124 On ideas
Some ideas take hold, not because they are correct, but because they are so easy to picture. – Stefan Klein (author and researcher)
Research carried out in the 70s focused on people’s memories: how they are formed, and more particularly, how they are retrieved. One interesting conclusion from the work was that people tend to improve their recollections by making them more logical. A roughly drawn three sided figure that didn’t quite close became more and more regular as time went by, and much more likely to be recalled as a properly formed triangle in the fullness of time. Stefan Klein may argue that a triangle is easier to picture than a collection of ill-fitting lines but, as with many things, the answer is unlikely to be quite so simple.
Perhaps it is more correct to suggest that “some ideas take hold, not because they are correct, but because they are logical”. In the search for truth, and diverting from the obvious problem of choosing between “easy to picture” and “logical”, it opens up the interesting prospect of having to decide between ideas that are correct and ideas that are logical. Perhaps the work for teachers, then, is to assist students develop the deeper level of understanding that is required to appreciate that things that are obvious and logical are not necessarily correct.
(Friday 12th September, 2008)
125 On sustainability
For every complex problem there is a simple solution, and it is almost always wrong. – H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) – American editor and thinker (among other things).
There are many who argue that the current generations are using the world’s finite resources at an ever-increasing rate, that non-renewable oil and coal reserves are being mined and consumed to exhaustion, and that we are leaving a world where it will become ever harder for future generations to attain anywhere near the level of prosperity and material comfort that we do. To address this situation, we should be living in a sustainable manner so that we can leave the planet to future generations much as we found it.
It sounds like a tall order, but imagine for a moment that it was possible. And not only possible; imagine also that this dream has been running for hundreds of years. We would have forests as they were when the first settlers ventured into Port Jackson. The rivers and streams would be in their natural states. Uranium, coal, bauxite, and iron ore would all still be safely underground. The coasts, wetlands, swamps, and plains would exist as nature had formed them. No roads to degrade the environment. No power plants to pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. No ugly telecommunication towers. No telecommunication at all, come to think of it. No cars. No trucks. Now there’s a thought.
(Friday 19th September, 2008)
126 On opinions
No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion. – Carrie C. Catt (1895-1947) American feminist.
In any scientific debate or public quarrel, the status given to “well established facts” is hard to beat. Bobbing around in the stormy seas, facts act as a welcome rock on which to anchor an argument. There are, of course, also opinions but “it’s a well established opinion” doesn’t really have the same rock-steady security of cold, hard, facts.
Facts may appear to be solid, but there have been so many over the years that have been found to be wrong. In science, facts are forever being overturned; all it takes is a new fact to emerge. Opinions, on the other hand, are much more resilient. It was Thomas Kuhn who proposed that progress in science was made by a paradigm shift and that shift was accomplished not so much by the changing of the facts, but in their acceptance by the scientific body of opinion. In many cases it required those who held to their original opinions to fade away before the new opinions could be held up as the new way.
Facts are simple; they are right or wrong, and easily displaced. Opinions are quite the opposite.
(Friday 26th September, 2008)
127 On studying
Great discoveries in science are usually made by young men in a hurry, full of bright ideas. – John Gribbin (author)
Benjamin Jones, from the Kellogg School of Management in the U.S., has looked at the productive working lives of U.S. scientists and engineers in their role as innovators. He used as his measure the number of patents granted and the number of Nobel Prizes won and came to an interesting finding: although the pattern of a gradual rise in output leading to a peak around the mid to late 30s followed by a gradual decline has remained the same over the last 100 years, the peak is now being reached some eight years later than it was in 1900. Not only is the peak later, but the creative working life is finishing around the same age so the total innovative output has been reduced.
His thesis is that education, and the time to acquire the necessary level to go on to great things, is being extended and that young men and women of today are spending more of their early life just learning all the things they feel they need to. He cites the Ph.D. and the trend for researchers to then go on to post-docs as contributing to this delay, although he is not suggesting that these qualifications and experience are unnecessary. They just take time to acquire.
This situation then leads to a trade-off (something that economists like to find in the problems they construct) between time spent in education and time spent applying it. It would be interesting to investigate the performance of different countries; Germany, for example, seems to keep its students in education for an inordinately long time and this should reduce creative output, but that is something for another day.
(Friday 3rd October, 2008)
128 On breeding
History is made in bed, but nowadays the beds are getting closer together. We are mixing into a global mass ... – Julia Belluz (journalist)
Notwithstanding the valiant efforts of a dedicated group of aging rock stars, scientists (a few anyway), have proposed that the reduction in the number of old men who are active in the human breeding program is leading to a reduction is diversity because diversity comes from mutations and mutations increase with age – fewer old men breeding leads to fewer mutations being generated, leads to less genetic variation. This is taken to be a bad thing for the species in general because genetic diversity is nature’s way of planning multiple escape routes from nasty unforseen circumstances.
Now, before the old men reading this get too excited about assisting with the generation of genetic diversity there is another aspect worth investigating: the benefits of mutations on a case by case basis. For this it is worth recalling an argument made on television a few years ago in a segment on exercise and longevity. The argument went like this: populations who exercise tend to live longer, so everyone should exercise. Then, and this is the important part, even if a particular person does not live longer, the exercise that he or she did will help the rest of the population to live longer because the overall level of exercise will have risen, and this is known to be associated with an increase in longevity.
On that basis, old men should refrain from breeding because any increase in diversity that they may be responsible for would tend to reduce the mutation level amongst all other men, leading the species to a undiversified line of clones, ceteris paribus [other things being equal].
(Friday 10th October, 2008)
129 On reading
... we must expect the decay of the scientific faith to lead to a recrudescence of pre-scientific superstition – Bertrand Russell (1931)
It seems that the brain has a default allocation of memory for all the particular tasks it must perform. At birth hearing is associated with a particular area of the brain in all humans. Sight is processed in a different area. Short term memory and mental maps, for example, are dealt with in the hippocampus (so called because someone thought it looked like a Latin seahorse well before someone else found out exactly what it did). In fact, studies have found that people, such as London taxi-drivers, who work a lot with mental maps of places tend to have an enlarged hippocampus, and that the enlargement comes at the expense of adjacent areas in the brain, whatever they happen to be. This ability to change memory allocation on the run is called plasticity and is thought to be important for humans.
On a soon-to-be related matter, experts are warning that the level of reading is reducing in the population. Young people, in particular, are reading less so the area of the brain that has developed over the last few thousand years to handle all the tasks associated with reading is going to be used less and less. This should lead to its memory allocation being taken over by adjacent areas that control other skills and abilities. There is, however, a twist: different language scripts, for example Chinese and English, are processed in different areas of the brain. This has been confirmed by recent studies but was illustrated very clearly with the case of a bi-lingual reader of Chinese and English in the 1930s who had a stroke that damaged one particular area of his brain. After the stroke he could still read English but not Chinese because only the Chinese area was damaged in the stroke.
Anyway, what does this mean for the world in general? Young people who are not reading in their different languages may be found to have improvements in different abilities associated with the area of the brain next to where their reading would have been processed. Chinese young people may develop new and different skills and abilities to English young people – it will not be random, but it is difficult to predict what particular skills and abilities will change.
(Friday 17th October, 2008)
130 On information and knowledge
Socrates’ worries were not so much about literacy as about what might happen to knowledge if the young had unguided, uncritical access to information. – Maryanne Wolf (author)
Socrates had a point; there he was desperately trying to engage with the young of Athens, in an attempt to get them to think deeply about various topics, and now someone was trying to promote the spread of writing that would remove the need for active engagement and allow passive acceptance of almost anything. Deep mental activity was going to be made redundant. Who would ever bother to think for themselves again if they could just reach for the right book to tell them what they wanted to know?
If Socrates was worried about unguided access to information he should have been terrified by the Internet which provides guided access to information. People may think they are directing operations but in fact they are often being led along a predetermined path by Google’s “invisible hand”. Once there, it is hoped they will feed uncritically.
Still, it is slightly ironic that what we know of Socrates comes to us through Plato, and what we know of both of them comes to us from Plato’s writings (and often via the Internet). That’s life – even the smartest can get things spectacularly wrong, especially when the role of technology is an issue.
(Friday 24th October, 2008)
131 On conferences
The life and freedom of a Ph.D. student are similar to those of a world-travelling cyclist: at crossings it is all about deciding whether to go left, right, straight ahead, or sometimes even back, based on a poor map and a good guess. - Astrid Blom, Ph D candidate (Universiteit Twente), 2003
Conferences are important events in the life of researchers. Conferences are promoted as being about presenting results from studies but are much more about meeting the people who are there to present those results. The conference organisers provide everyone with a name tag but people are known by their presentations – the name tags are really just to get to the morning tea.
(Friday 31st October, 2008)
132 On maturity
... it is not knowledge but the quest for knowledge that gives the greater interest to thought - to travel hopefully is better than to arrive. – Sir James Jeans (physicist and philosopher)
There was a newspaper article some time ago written by a cyclist who had undertaken a journey involving long hours in the saddle and a series of demanding hills. In the early stages he longed for the downhill sections, while the climbs were viewed as sources of pain and suffering. Later in the journey, however, the situation changed and it was the downhill cruising that caused angst since it was a sure sign that an uphill section was approaching. The uphill bits, on the other hand, were valued as leading to better things.
There is of course no single correct approach to this: some will see uphill as hard work and others will see it as leading to eventual joy. However, there seems to be an extra level of maturity in the latter view with its focus on the future and its looking beyond current pain to eventual gain.
Perhaps the journey that students undertake is a bit like the cyclist and the hills. In the early stages the difficult bits are seen as a pain and the easy bits are valued above their worth. It is only later that the benefits that come from the hard work become evident and the hard work is appreciated for what it brings rather than what it costs in terms of effort and application.
Perhaps also it is a very personal journey based on experience and maturity, and academics can only be on the alert for the change in attitude rather than actively trying to bring it about.
(Friday 7th November, 2008)
133 On success
If at first you don't succeed, redefine success. – Anon.
In an article in the Australian’s Higher Education Supplement (12 Nov, 2008) a recent winner of the Prime Minister's Eureka Prize bemoaned the low success rate for ARC grant applications. David Blair thinks 20% is too low and argues that if he were in charge of a company that expected workers to spend a month a year on a task with such low chances of success he would be relieved of his duties by the shareholders.
That attitude, of course, precludes him from taking over the reigns at the Australian Olympic Committee which oversees a process whereby every four years athletes, who have been training for perhaps a dozen years, front up to the Olympic Games where the chances of success are likely to be in the single digit percentage range. Nor would he be welcome at the Hawthorn Football Club where success, as measured by premierships, has come only once in the last seventeen years. Hardly worth trying, one might think.
It’s not that it wouldn’t be nice to have more people winning ARC grants – it’s more that, as in a lot of things, success needs to be defined carefully.
(Friday 14th November, 2008)
134 On Palin
If you build it, he will come. – quote from the movie Field of Dreams.
There is talk in the US at the moment that Sarah Palin is being urged to write a book. The publishers are keen, but the question is: if she writes it, will they come (to read it)?
Sarah Palin portrayed herself, and was promoted by her party, as an anti- intellectual. In simple terms this means she is not someone who would read a lot of books. This also means that it is unlikely that other true anti-intellectuals would read any book she wrote because that is not the sort of thing that anti-intellectuals like to do. In fact they are often proud of the fact that they don’t read books. George Bush, for example, has been quoted as saying he doesn’t read books, he reads people. (Looking at who he has been associating with indicates that he does not read them very well!)
So that leaves the intellectuals and others. It is unlikely that the intellectuals will read a book written by an anti-intellectual so there goes that market. And the others – well they most likely form the core of the 40% who didn’t vote because they don’t really care so it is unlikely they will buy a book because they don’t really care.
Hope it sells well.
(Friday 21st November, 2008)
135 On progress
Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense. - Mark Twain.
One of the trends in modern technology is the increasing number of specialist functions that programs and devices now include as standard. For example, this is being written using Microsoft Word 2000, a word processor with more features than most would ever use. It is, of course, a direct descendant of the apparently unpopular Microsoft Word 1 which was given away free with a computer magazine and had as its “selling” point the fact that it could show bold and italic characters on the screen in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get format.
When one thinks of development, be it human or technological, it is relatively easy to see increasing complexity and functionality as a natural and necessary part of this evolution. But is this always true?
As people master the skills required to use CAD packages effectively they are able to produce results more quickly. According to a recent study they do this, in part, by using fewer features in the program, and that using fewer features is a characteristic of more sophisticated use.
The same happened in the mid 1970s with the development of RISC (reduced instruction set computer) processors where, rather than packing more and more high level capabilities onto the processor chip, designers deliberately kept the instructions to a minimum, making up for the lack of complex capabilities by having a set of instructions that were optimised to run at maximum speed.
So the next time you contemplate a new program with more features to assist with your productivity it may just be taking you in exactly the wrong direction.
(Friday 28th November, 2008)
136 On guards
A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him. – Winston Churchill
The last few weeks leading up to the final exam in a course can be particularly interesting. Suddenly, it seems, everyone wants to know the answers and, in extreme cases, to understand them as well. There can be quite detailed interrogations as students probe not only the meaning of key concepts but also try to gauge the likelihood of there being questions on same in the exam. Of course, following the exam interest declines very quickly in all but a few cases: the few being those who have earned the right to sit a supplementary exam.
I am ignorant of the origin of the supplementary exam but assume it must be a British invention along with croquet*, cricket and concentration camps. In fact, the supplementary exam system seems to have many parallels to the situation that exists with prisoners of war. History, and Hollywood, have shown that life for the prisoners is regimented and harsh. They prepare and go into battle but, unlike their colleagues, have to stay back when the others have the chance to go home and on to more interesting activities.
However, one should spare a thought for the guards who are equally bound by the system and for whom escape is not seen as an honourable option. As a guard, it must at times seem so much easier just to let the prisoners all escape; the only issue is that one expects them to make it look like they planned the whole thing and put in the effort necessary to effect that escape.
*croquet actually started in France but it was the English that took to it with all the vigour that croquet allows.
(Friday 5th December, 2008)
137 On who is the best
If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain
Each year, following the announcement of the successful applications for research funding, it is common to find more than one university advertising that it has outperformed all others. At first this appears to be impossible but on further inspection it turns out that one is measuring success in terms of total dollars won, another in dollars per academic staff-member*, another as dollars per student, and yet another, perhaps, as the rate of increase from the previous year. So if one was to ask which university has outperformed the others there appears to be no simple answer.
It would be easy to accuse the universities of playing with the truth, but there is, perhaps, more to this than meets the eye. Attention should turn to the person asking the question because just as the respondent has some sort of bias, more often than not the questioner does also. It is unlikely the question is being asked in innocence; anyone asking for this sort of information will have an agenda they are pursuing and this should be expected to colour the answer.
*The University of Adelaide of approach
(Friday 12th December, 2008)
138 On SOPs
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
The title of the Blake Edwards film “SOB” was based on a number of standard acronyms, one of which (Standard Operational Bull****) was deliberately close to the more polite SOP (standard operating procedure). In factories and workshops around the world SOPs are designed to promote safe work practice by ensuring uniform and correct use of machinery and the like, but in combination with humans, things are seldom so simple.
On the eve of the Challenger launch, for example, the manufacturer of the solid- fuel rocket O-rings that had been the centre of much investigation recommended a change to the SOP for launch, a change that would have prevented the launch in the very cold conditions at the time. NASA questioned this decision on the basis that SOPs were an essential part of the safety policy of the company and should not be changed. The launch went ahead, the O-rings failed, and the rest, as they say, is history.
(Friday 19th December, 2008)
139 On difficult links
The important thing is to create. Nothing else matters; creation is all. – Pablo Picasso
In a series of articles written for the journal “Knowledge Management Research & Practice” Hiener Muller-Merbach attempted to draw a range of philosopher’s ideas and arguments into the realm of computing knowledge management. In some the task was easy: for example, Kant had something to say on the distinction between “a priori” and “a posteriori” knowledge and it was relatively easy to make a connection. In other articles the link was much more tenuous and the good professor had to work hard to make an argument for a link between Heraclitus’ pronouncement that “one cannot walk in the same river twice” and knowledge management.
It’s interesting though: the ones where the link is clear are interesting and informative, but the ones in which the link is harder to make, or even non-existent, are the ones that generate more intense thinking and are, ultimately, the more enlightening.
(Friday 23rd January, 2009)
140 On retirement
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow. - Mark Twain
The effects of compound interest have been studied for literally thousands of years. This is known because archaeologists have discovered stone tablets dating from 1700 BC that set out a still-current student problem: how long will it take for a sum of money to double if invested at 20% interest rate compounded annually?
Students will generally do what is necessary to calculate an appropriate answer but some people go much further. Warren Buffet, for example, one of America’s richest men, has this sort of thinking programmed into all that he does. He is apparently reluctant to take his wife out to dinner – it’s not the $100 it would cost that is the problem, it’s that he can’t help but think of the $100 as the $1,000 it might turn into if invested wisely. He argues that $1,000 is far too much to spend on dinner and that is all that there is to it.
Of course, when things go backwards, the situation can be quite different. But even in times of shrinking assets and negative returns there is some hope. In the newspaper recently there were some reassuring words from an accountant on the subject of superannuation. The article was in response to the general gloom and his message was simple: even if the value of the assets has gone down, you have not actually lost money until you have to sell them. Even though the pie is shrinking, as long as we don’t eat it, we won’t have to notice. It’s safe to assume he was not on the verge of retirement.
(Friday 30th January, 2009)
141 On mission statements
Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often. – Mark Twain
Nowadays any university worth its crest has a crest, a mission statement, a vision statement, and an expensive motto such as “Life impact”. Each is important, in much the same way as the human appendix which everyone seems to have but no-one seems to use.
Delving beneath the superficial glossy layer it is found that universities also have rules and standard procedures that present a more open and honest account of the underlying philosophy of the place. After all, these are actually used and so, continuing the anatomical analogy, must be more like the heart or kidney in function and importance. Among these one might include the university’s policies on scholarships (heart function), plagiarism (kidney function), or the conduct of examinations (amygdala function), for example.
From the latter it appears that the University believes that cheating has some merits associated with it. This conclusion comes from the examination notice that is printed on the back of all exam books used by the students. There it can be seen that, while cheating is “expressly forbidden”, the university does admit that “each case of cheating will be treated on its own merits”.
(Friday 6th February, 2009)
142 On precedence
What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it before. – Mark Twain.
In the field of human developments, much depends on precedence. History’s stepping stones are those who are recognised for their discoveries with the very occasional nod to those who were a close second. While there are a few well- knowns who have delayed publication for various reasons, most have been keen to get into print and have their place recorded and recognized.
With the emphasis on being first, simultaneous discoveries are, of course, of special interest. Often two share the prize (e.g. calculus by Leibniz and Newton) but Thomas Kuhn, a science historian/philosopher, points to twelve (Mayer, Joule, Colding, Helmholtz, Carnot, Séguin, Holtzmann, Hirn, Mohr, Grove, Faraday and Liebig) for whom a claim could be made for the independent and simultaneous discovery of the law of conservation of energy. Of course there are complications and each of the aforementioned may have had only a glancing blow with key aspects of what is now recognized as a fundamental law. The acknowledgment of discovery comes, therefore, with a good dose of educated hindsight.
It might be argued that it is unreasonable to give credit to someone who did not realise they had discovered something – but there are precedents for recognising such precedence.
(Friday 13th February, 2009)
143 On Dalton
An accumulation of facts is no more a science than a pile of stones is a house ... Most of all the scientist must predict. – Henri Poincaré (1854-1912)
The idea that chemical compounds such as sulphuric acid could be described in terms of a set of basic building blocks with a fixed ratio of components (two hydrogen, one sulphur and four oxygen) was developed by John Dalton in the early 1800s. His theory was based partly on his concept of how compounds might be formed, and supplemented by published experimental work relating to the relative quantities of elements in various chemical compounds.
Some texts make the discovery sound easy by stating that the work that Dalton relied on (measurements by the French chemist, Joseph Louis Proust) always showed proportions of elements in the ratio of small whole numbers (2:1, 5:4, or similar). However, according to Thomas Kuhn the story is not so simple. Some of Proust’s careful work on compounds of nitrogen and oxygen, for example, showed proportions of 1.47:1 while Dalton would have expected 2:1. This was cause for concern.
The interesting part of the Kuhn version of the story is that once Dalton had published his theory subsequent empirical results were able to confirm it. Kuhn believes it is an example of theory leading experimental work and that it was only when the experimentalists knew the results they should be expecting were they able to devise appropriate experiments that could come up with those results.
For engineering research, it highlights the importance of having a theory to drive any experimental work. Otherwise, as Kuhn puts it, you will not be collecting data, just numbers.
(Friday 20th February, 2009)
144 On da Vinci
Remember when discoursing about water to use first experience and then reason. - Leonardo da Vinci.
It is easy to imagine the quote by Leonardo da Vinci being used by many an academic, keen to promote hydraulics laboratory classes to students. It is certainly compelling; it has that self-evident aura of truth, and it was written by someone famous. However, as with many simple truths, there is more to consider and the whole situation is more interesting than might first appear.
Leonardo da Vinci lived in a time when authority, passed down through the generations, was held in the highest regard. It was almost by decree, for example, that anything Aristotle had said was to be taken as true and taught faithfully and unquestioningly. And Aristotle had had some fairly odd ideas, based mainly on his reasoning rather than actual observations or measurements. He maintained, for example, that men had more teeth than women – the sort of thing that he could so easily have checked! Under these conditions it is not so surprising that Leonardo revolted and made a plea for experience.
Working over the da Vinci quote in this way gives an example of the issues that can occur in the interpretation of the written word. The problems have been well researched, with much early work being carried out in relation to religious texts where, for example, a literal interpretation is only one of the options (and one that has led to much angst over the years). According to Friedrich Ast (1778-1841), a Plato scholar, without direct knowledge of what was in the author’s mind, texts can be read both from a grammatical and a psychological point of view. Neither of these is completely open, hence the need for interpretation.
Interpretation is more than reading between the lines, perhaps it’s more like reading behind the lines.
(Friday 27th February, 2009)
145 On winning
It's good sportsmanship to not pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling. - Mark Twain.
After a match that can last up to four or five hours, it seems odd that the result of a tennis game ultimately rests on a single point – the last one. Win the last point and you have won the whole match. Lose, and it matters little how many others you have won, although, to be fair, some are required to build the foundation of the eventual victory.
In terms of their mathematics, other games such as football, basketball or netball are different. To determine the winner most require an integration to be carried out over the duration of the entire game, or at least a summation over a discrete number of points, where the aim is to maximise the function. Tennis, on the other hand, requires much more of a time series approach where the order of the data is crucial to understanding the game and determining the outcome. Tennis is not just about winning points, but winning them in an advantageous order. Winning two points in a row is certainly useful at the start of the game but will not win anything. However, once the score is 30-all or deuce (which are equivalent in terms of their relationship to the end of a game), someone must win two points in a row to win the game.
The sequencing that is so important in tennis also leads to some surprising player aims. The player who is doing better is actually trying to end the game, while the weaker one wants it to continue. Winning means stopping what you are doing well in, and losing means trying to prolong the agony. It really is most strange!
(Friday 6th March, 2009)
146 On catches
It was neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never questioned anything. – Joseph Heller (in Catch-22)
It would seem that much of the current educational literature requires, or at least assumes, that university classes are full of students who are eager to learn and who have a questioning nature. Problem based learning, for example, relies very heavily on this and the academic becomes the “guide on the side” rather than the “sage on the stage”. The learning can then be student-centred; a most desirable state of affairs.
But wait a minute: there’s a catch and, as Yossarian observes in Catch-22, it is some catch.
For students to learn they must question things, and it is only then that they can be educated. But in agreeing to be educated they are setting themselves on a path where they will have their questions answered and then it will no longer be possible to educate them.
Universities are on a futile mission: it is not possible or necessary to educate people who never question anything, and for those who do question, educating them will simply move them into the former group who cannot be educated.
(Friday 13th March, 2009)
147 On writing without a symbol
A man cannot [gain comfort] without his own approval. – Mark Twain
Continuing what I was doing six months ago ... how many words can a human, or all humans, think of that do not contain a particular symbol? Is it two, or four, or fifty four? It could turn out that a final count is a thousand but what probability would you think would occur for an act of producing a full book without our fifth symbol? In fact, an old book or two (from Gaul) and an occasional short work (with many missing in action) point to a possibility of doing it, but that only shows how high human thoughts can soar.
Any joy that a human can gain from an act of writing is bound to finish as a final full stop is put down. To follow that, any options that might occur sound so difficult. Writing is a craft, and has had many who support it but to start anything again is without much point. Sorry – having to stop at this point as my brain has run out of lucid thoughts.
[Again, no ‘e’.]
(Friday 20th March, 2009)
148 On science
Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered - either by themselves or by others. – Mark Twain
It is interesting to see how fundamental human characteristics have shaped beliefs over time, and how those beliefs have shaped the way people strive to make sense of life and the world in general.
In early times, there was a belief in all-powerful entities that controlled day to day events and with this in mind the search for meaning was, similarly, one of determining the controlling elements. It was Thales, often described as the first Western philosopher, who proposed that everything was made of water. A more modern view would gasp in disbelief at such unscientific beliefs but the approach is easier to understand if it is remembered that he was searching for some sort of meaning in terms of a mystical driving force or underlying guiding hand for the world and its inhabitants.
Anaximander (circa 610 BC - ) argued for an element other than water, fire or air on the basis that by their nature these three were in opposition (water is moist, fire hot and air cold) so that if one was the fundamental element then it surely would have had time to subjugate the others.
Bertrand Russell, writing from a more modern viewpoint, has praised Anaximander for his scientific endeavours (“Wherever he is original, he is scientific and rationalistic.”) and highlighted another aspect of thought that is perhaps still relevant: the one about respecting superiors.
(Friday 27th March, 2009)
149 On opinions
Another person who wrote about science like a Lord Chancellor was the philosopher Thomas Kuhn, who had no experience of scientific research himself … - John Gribbin (author)
Thomas Kuhn, a scientific historian and philosopher, is generally spoken of in complimentary terms. When people discuss what science is and how it works it is often the work of Kuhn and another philosopher, Karl Popper, which is cited as representing complementary approaches in representing it. So it was a genuine surprise to find someone whom Kuhn had upset, either through his ideas or perhaps the prominence given to them.
If you ask someone for their opinion on someone else, you actually get two pieces of potentially valuable information. You learn something of the person you were asking about, but you can also gain an insight into the person who gives their opinion. Ask enough people and you may be able to form some sort of consensus on the person in question, but you will also have a lot of other information on all the people who gave their opinions.
Now consider the process of asking students about the teaching they experience. We are actually hoping to find out about the teacher and believe that if we ask enough students we will get a reliable measure. However, at the same time we could also be finding out about the students. Instead, we take their opinions at face value and smudge over all the idiosyncrasies that went in to paint that final picture.
(Friday 3rd April, 2009)
150 On names
The name of a man is a numbing blow from which he never recovers. – Marshall McLuhan.
In much earlier times people were often identified and referred to based on their occupations. This practice eventually led to a formal naming convention where the local cooper (who made the town’s wooden barrels) took on the surname Cooper and many other occupations did likewise. The earliest records of some common English surnames include Smith (1611), Baker (1179), Fletcher (1729), Cook (1780), and even Walker (1614). In many cases the name is still commonly in use; for others some explanation is required. Fletcher, for example, is to do with the manufacture of arrows and a Walker was someone who walked on damp raw cloth to thicken it.
In modern times surnames are largely fixed but this brings the opportunity for a reversal of the process where a person’s name may influence the occupation they find themselves drawn to. This phenomenon has become apparent in recent research papers where, for example, one set of authors relied on work where a “decrease in apparent brightness” had been found by Darke (2007). Another Dark author, who published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences was working on “Seasonal Cycles in Energy Balance – Regulation by Light” and may be part of a dark conspiracy.
Work on the influence of Hurricane Lothar was carried out by a researcher called Storms and another with the same surname was reporting on coastal storms and event-based simulations in shallow marine areas (for events, read storms). It appears that the Storms are increasing in their interest in storms; whether this is part of global climate change is yet to be determined.
(Friday 1st May, 2009)
151 On gambling
Life is a gamble at terrible odds – if it was a bet, you wouldn’t take it. – Tom Stoppard.
In the world of sport, games can be divided into two broad categories: those where it is possible at any time to say which person or team is winning and those where it isn’t. In tennis, for example, one only need look at the scoreboard to see who is winning. In golf too, there is a leader board that is constantly adjusted in line with the player fortunes. Cricket, on the other hand, is fundamentally different. A team might be judged to be in a better position but days can go by where a simple answer to the simple question about who is winning cannot be given.
However, despite this feature of cricket, people are tempted to gamble on outcomes and bookies will offer odds that change in response to the current state of play. The bookies, therefore, set themselves up as being able to estimate who is winning or in a better position to triumph in the end.
Perhaps it is the same with climate change. Although it is possible to give some basic statistics, in much the same way as might occur in a five day cricket match, it may be that this is as far as it goes and any collection of statistics cannot be used to provide a confident answer to what appears to be a simple question about whether the globe’s climate is changing.
But who are the bookies that service the climate change game? And who are the punters, willing to take them on? Perhaps the punters are the groups that will either win or lose in a changing climate; in this case the political climate as much as the weather variety. And the bookies, in some ways, are the politicians who are busy taking bets and advertising odds in an attempt to increase the pot and perhaps even influence the market (as the cricket bookies are apt to do).
(Friday 8th May, 2009)
152 On climate change
Nos amis, les ennemis. (Our friends, the enemy) – Pierre-Jean de Béranger (French poet)
One of the fascinating aspects of cycling events such as the Tour de France is the way rival team members will actually help each other on a stage if they think they might benefit from it. If a two man breakaway can work together and keep their distance from the main field then (theoretically at least) each has a 50% chance of winning – much better odds than those they would have sitting in the peleton. Of course, the closer they get to the finish the less they want to help, but are often forced to by the practicalities of the situation.
It is interesting to speculate on what drives the key players in the current climate change debate. Each side holds diametrically opposed views and yet in some ways it is in their best interest to work together to keep the whole thing playing. It seems counter-intuitive, but many things do.
(Friday 15th May, 2009)
153 On translation
Poetry is what is lost in translation. It is also what is lost in interpretation. – Robert Frost (American poet)
In the description given in Genesis, languages entered the world during the construction of the Tower of Babel as God’s way of ensuring that progress would be slow and that the building would not reach its intended destination: heaven itself*. What might be viewed as a logistical nightmare to those involved in the construction has, in the long run, enriched humankind as the separation that different languages brings has led to all the benefits that come from such diversity.
In the same way that translating from one language to another is much more than simply decoding text word by word, reading any passage of text can involve much more than a simple recognition of a series of words. To truly understand a work it is necessary to get into the mind of the author to see the passage from their point of view. This is hermeneutics: the art of interpretation. According to Friedrich Ast, a Plato scholar, the interpreter’s aim is to “understand the text at first as well as and then even better than its author”.
It seems a tall order, to understand something better than its author, but as one stands in front of a large lecture theatre, filled with a hundred young brains, it is not too hard to imagine that this might be the case. The words are being taken in through a hundred selective filters where they are modulated, modified, distorted, amplified and catalogued. Each brain will get a subtly different message and some of those one hundred will, one hopes, make something better of the raw material that was provided to them.
* The reference to heaven has been explained by one scholar as having a more geometrical meaning with heaven referring to an ideally proportioned building with its height equal to its base. The plans for the tower show a building with a square 92 metre base and height of 92 metres in line with this suggestion.
(Friday 22nd May, 2009)
154 On holes and shapes
A man is but what he knoweth. – Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
In a series of articles written for the journal “Knowledge Management Research & Practice” Heiner Müller-Merbach wrote of the philosophers and their work in relation to knowledge management.
In some cases, such as the article focussing on the work of Francis Bacon, the task must have been relatively easy with the philosopher dealing directly with the topic and almost feeding the lines required. In others, the task was less straightforward and one could sense the author having to work very hard to make a connection or to draw some parallels.
Although the articles on those whose work was directly related to knowledge management were interesting, in many ways the others were better from the reader’s point of view. It is all well and good to draw together relevant opinions or findings and knit them into a coherent story; it is much harder to do this with a poor thread where more has to be made of the holes and their various shapes and patterns.
(Friday 29th May, 2009)
155 On leaders
It may be fine to feel, when you have done your work, that you have added to the happiness or alleviated the sufferings of others, but that will not by why you did it. – G.H. Hardy (English mathematician)
Being surrounded, as we are at the university, by people in training it is interesting to contemplate the change that occurs as people move from positions where they are being trained, and therefore reliant on the efforts of others, to those where they are able to make a contribution to the world based on that training.
Recent revelations about members of the UK Government has highlighted the fact that the cycle continues and many revert from an overt position of using their training to help others to a covert one where they are again benefitting from the efforts of others (in this case the British taxpayers).
Hardy would presumably see this as evidence that his idea is correct and that people are driven by self-interests.
Instead of fighting this we should be using this knowledge to help choose our leaders by selecting them not based on how they say they will serve us but on how we believe they will serve themselves. We should be careful to elect those whose ambitions and plans will lead to beneficial spinoffs for us, safe in the belief that we may be able to enjoy a win-win situation.
(Friday 5th June, 2009)
156 On cosmic resonance
Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow, and everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go. – (traditional)
In “A New Science of Life” Rupert Sheldrake made an argument for what he called cosmic resonance: the idea that memories and knowledge reside, not in separate human brains, but in some sort of ether that all humans are part of. The upshot of this is that if something has been learned in the past by anyone, it will be easier for others to learn it for themselves at a later stage. The idea has been used to explain why popular nursery rhymes are so easy to learn: not because they are intrinsically easy but because others have learned them in the past making it easier for people to learn them anew.
Of course the theory is classified as New Age but serious scientists have engaged with Sheldrake to test the hypothesis. One particular experiment carried out by neuroscientist Steven Rose found no evidence at all of the phenomenon although, to his credit, Sheldrake was able to come to the opposite conclusion from the same results! Such are the benefits of New Age thinking.
It is, therefore, of some interest to discover that one of the School’s senior structural academics has recently discovered some evidence that could support the cosmic resonance theory. In submissions made to a design task in 2009 some students were able to reproduce work that was only taught in 2008 and which they had not been exposed to at all! It appears that the knowledge and memory were there in a cosmic resonating form and these students were able to tap into it.
Some may suspect plagiarism, but it may also be a case of new-agearism.
(Friday 19th June. 2009)
157 On Greek youth
I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. – Hesiod, Eighth Century B.C.
It’s a common theme and quotes like the one by Hesiod, have been put in so many similar ways over the centuries. There are similar ones often attributed to Plato complaining about the lack of manners and grace of youth in his time, although there is some debate about whether Plato actually made the remarks. Socrates might have been in a better position to pass judgment on the youth since he spent much of his time challenging their beliefs and arguing with them. In the end he was eventually sentenced to death for corrupting them.
In some ways it is important to know who said what but perhaps more important is the fact that these two gentlemen came some three or four hundred years after Hesiod’s time and, to borrow from Mark Twain, the predicted demise of the Greek people must have been greatly exaggerated.
For all their recklessness and frivolity there must have been something in the youth in the eighth century BC that made the future rather than dooming it. Either that or the future is not dependent on the young who are free to remain just as frivolous and reckless.
(Friday 26th June, 2009)
158 On fruit and light
Ideally a book would have no order to it, and the reader would have to discover his own. – Mark Twain
Richard Feynman took every opportunity to tackle and tease out problems, even where none existed. Discussing one day the fact that the number of physics journals was increasing so rapidly, he set some graduate students the task of determining how these could be put onto library shelves once they were arriving so quickly that the length of shelf required was increasing at a rate that approached the speed of light. This is perhaps not the sort of research question that the ARC would consider funding, but with track record accounting for 40% of the total he would presumably have scored highly on that component of the assessment.
Mark Twain’s track record would have been reasonable too, if one was prepared to accept fiction in his publications (rather than in the research plan and methodology where most applicants put it). His book without order might have turned out to be a book without orders but should that really be a reason not to fund its development?
It’s interesting to speculate how successful Francis Bacon would have been in research applications. The man credited with defining the scientific method saw experiments as being of two fundamental types: those that brought fruit and those that brought light. Funding agencies may be looking for fruit, but those who bring light are better remembered.
(Friday 3rd July, 2009)
159 On decisions
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. – Albert Einstein
A recent article in Nature Biotechnology (with 24 authors!) accused the public of being “cognitive misers” who, rather than paying close attention to the details, rely on mental shortcuts and other non-intellectual methods to form opinions. In this way, it is suggested, they are open to manipulation by the media, or bloggers, or a range of other undesirables.
Naturally, those with the knowledge see this as a bad thing. And of course they may be correct, but there are other ways of looking at the situation. One of the fascinating insights that came from the work that Carl Jung started and that Katharine Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers, brought to the point of profit is that people are fundamentally different in the way they perceive the world and actually see problems quite differently depending on their personality type.
Scientists promoting GM food, for example, must be exasperated at the public’s “lack of knowledge” that prevents them from seeing the safety and benefits of the new technology but it is unlikely to be as simple as that. Many of the scientists working in the area will be of a particular personality type and will tackle problems and frame them in a quite specific way. Once the problem has been defined the solution is often very much constrained by that but what if there are other ways to see the problem?
Given that human survival has been attributed, in part at least, to our ability to make quick and generally good decisions, it does seem a bit rich to then complain about these mental shortcuts. After all, without them we would not be here to make them. And who would direct science policy then?
(Friday 10th July, 2009)
160 On choosing
There are lies, damned lies and statistics. – Mark Twain
Imagine for a moment that you have been observing prizes being drawn from two boxes. The series from the first box has gone: 13 – 12 – 10 – 8 – 13 – 14 – 11 – 10 – 10 – 10 – 10 – 12 while that from the second box has gone: 8 – 9 – 23 – 18 – 13 – 14 – 7 – 2 – 25 – 0 – 6 – 0. It is now your decision to make a choice; you will have ten draws and you can choose from either box for each draw.
(Pause a moment and consider your ten draws and how you might decide pick by pick.)
Experience shows that people will tend to pick more from the first box, but will also take some from the second. The explanation for this is interesting. The first box is more predictable and has a higher average (having come from a series with a mean of 12) while the second has more variation and comes from a series with a mean of 11). It seems people are programmed to expect a continually varying environment so tend to spend some of their effort in foraging (where part of the effort is in finding food and some is in harvesting it). Humans are prepared to “spend” to gain more information and this explains the phenomenon of frequency matching where people will pick more of the box that appears better but will still take some from the poorer box. It makes no sense in a rational utility-maximising way, but makes eminent sense in a human-explorer way.
(Friday 17th July, 2009)
161 On ethics
Fish are the last to recognize water. – Anon.
For a long time engineers dismissed the idea of requiring a formal statement of ethical standards for the profession – it was felt that respectable professionals would know the right thing to do and the idea of codifying a set of rules was completely unnecessary. However, a search back through recorded history shows that ethical standards are not absolutes and have changed significantly over time. Their study provides an interesting view of human attitudes and beliefs.
At the time of Aristotle, for example, ethical standards reinforced the societal inequality that existed at the time: a man over his wife and son, masters over slaves, the educated over the uneducated. These inequalities are stated and justified quite clearly in Aristotle’s writings which, according to Bertrand Russell, accurately reflected the standards at the time.
In fact, it is interesting to contemplate why Aristotle should be held in such high regard on matters ethical when all he did was record the current views. His record, however, was a significant act – sometimes it takes a clear vision to see what everyone else sees through.
(Friday 24th July, 2009)
162 On Socrates
The unexamined life is not worth living. – Socrates (469-399 BC)
The suggestion that some people tend to look like their dog is the sort of thing that excites the general public and makes an easy story for a journalist casting around for something to fill a few column inches. At the same time it disappoints those with a more statistical leaning who realise that it would be more surprising if no-one looked like their dog – but that is a story for another day.
Today’s topic is on the (until now) little-expounded theory that people tend to look like their philosopher. It might be said that not everyone keeps a philosopher – and this is certainly true at the University of Melbourne where a lot are no longer being kept – but many, unknowingly at least, tend to follow doctrines that can be attributed to long-dead thinkers.
Take Socrates for example. It seems to be generally agreed that he was a man who thought of things other than his appearance. In more modern times he would be the one with the unkempt beard, wearing an old favourite jumper with little regard for anything other than comfort. Socrates spent his productive years working with the youth of Athens, trying to educate them by probing their loosely held beliefs and questioning everything. He gave few answers freely, preferring to tie those he was engaging with in self-construed knots. (Simon Blackburn, a modern philosopher, describes his method as a sort of intellectual striptease.) He may have been doing the same job as the sophists (those who taught for a living) but they never quite understood him, while he believed he understood them all too well.
Hard to imagine anyone much like Socrates surviving long nowadays. Au revoir Trevor. Mind what’s in the mug!
{Written for Trevor Daniell’s retirement.}
(Friday 31st July, 2009)
163 On quality control
He that cannot pay, let him pray. – 17th century proverb
Eric Blair (better known as George Orwell) spent some time working in the kitchens of a reasonably smart Paris hotel. He saw, firsthand, the conditions in the kitchens and was partly surprised and partly appalled at the lack of hygiene exhibited by almost everyone from the chefs down. He came to the conclusion that dirtiness was a natural part of the job, because the priority in the kitchens was on appearance and punctuality rather than cleanliness.
The great divide in the expectations and assumptions of the two main groups in the restaurant business, the staff and the customers, highlights the sorts of problems that can occur when people focus on their own concerns and do not give sufficient thought to the role of the other actors. People visiting restaurants may assume they are paying for interesting food to be cooked and the dishes cleared away afterwards but those on the other side of the kitchen door know that the main issue is getting each plate, with all the appearance of something special, onto the table at a particular time.
There may be more than a few parallels with students and academics at university. While the students believe they are paying to be taught – plain and simple – what they are actually getting is something quite different, driven by the academics and staff who have a quite different agenda.
All is well until someone finds the waiter’s thumb in their soup and doesn’t realise it is part of quality control!
(Friday 7th August, 2009)
164 On scepticism
She believed in nothing; only her scepticism kept her from being an atheist. – Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
Scepticism, as a school of thought, dates from the time of Alexander the Great and is attributed to Pyrrho (circa 365 – 275 BC). According to Bertrand Russell, scepticism was a lazy man’s consolation since it was founded on the idea that there was no rational reason for choosing any particular course of action since there would always be doubt which would make any choice meaningless.
Sceptics, therefore, lived comfortably in the present, going along with local customs and rituals, taking comfort from the fact that even though they might be wrong, there was really no way of knowing one way or the other. Sceptics were adamant, however, that there was no reason to worry or plan about the future since it was composed of uncertainties and there was no way to determine which might occur.
With this in mind it is important to realise that when true sceptics enter a scientific debate, they are not there to assist in determining the likely outcome or preferred course of action. Their position will be to cast doubt. Period. And that doubt will not be founded on an assessment of the science; it will be based purely on philosophical grounds.
One could argue that it is important to have people who take on the role of casting doubt, but it is equally important for those viewing the debate to realise that there will be no arguments that will win the true sceptics over. Doubt is their religion, and their faith is strong.
(Friday 14th August, 2009)
165 On hands
He glanced at my hands and saw that I was lying. – George Orwell (1903-1950)
It was (admittedly in the dim and distant past) that one could tell a person by their hands. And there was little point asserting one was able to labour if the hands were too well looked after; even less in pretending one was well bred if the hands told a story of manual labour.
But it is not so simple. Having spent some time cleaning bicycles for people to ride and some time preparing food for people to eat I can attest that the hands were much more presentable, and certainly cleaner, after the latter!
(Friday 21st August, 2009)
166 On philosophy
If a tree were to fall on an uninhabited island, would there be any sound? – (Scientific American article, 1884)
The title of Channel 10’s “Eyewitness News” makes it sound so authoritative but research has shown that eyewitnesses are as fallible as anyone and can “remember” things that never happened if prompted in the right way. It’s a field that has been studied for some time because in law courts, for example, the word of an eyewitness can carry much weight.
Witnesses are important in other fields too. The quick answer to the question posed above is “no”, but in many ways the really interesting aspect of the problem is that scientists and philosophers get so excited about the question and continue to argue its merits and implications. For all concerned the observer is central to the questions that arise. For the scientists it’s all about the relationship between vibrations in the air and their relationship to sound. For the philosophers it’s all about existence and how humans develop knowledge.
By 1935 things had moved on to quantum mechanics and Erwin Schrödinger had devised a thought experiment that played on a crucial property of the theory. Once again it was the role of the observer that was central to the problem. According to the Copenhagen interpretation, all possible outcomes of a quantum event actually occur simultaneously and only collapse to a single outcome when an observation is made. Hence the idea that a cat in a box with a device designed to release poison following a quantum event (the timing of which is uncertain) would be both dead and alive until the box is opened and the actual state observed.
The idea of a cat that is both dead and alive seems odd, as does the necessity of someone having to look. This was the part that spooked Schrödinger and Einstein and a lot of others too. One aspect that was never mentioned in the experiment, however, was the fact that it was always assumed that the observer was a reliable eyewitness; perhaps careful prompting could lead to a better outcome for the cat!
(Friday 4th September, 2009)
167 On cooks and broth
Too many cooks spoil the broth – popular saying.
In 1907 there was a crash on the stock market where the value of US stocks dropped 50%. At the time Harvard had been contemplating a new program and the ensuing panic gave them the impetus they needed to float their MBA program with 59 in its first intake in 1908. It was felt at the time that businessmen needed better training and the idea of providing a course at graduate level was quite new.
It is interesting, therefore, to learn that one of the reasons given for the onset of the most recent stock market crash was the proliferation of MBAs.
It seems there are problems when there are too few people who understand what is going on but more severe problems when there are too many.
(Friday 11th September, 2009)
168 On a symbol past d (but not as far as f)
A facility for quotation [puts a lid on any lack] of original thought. - Dorothy S. (through a fictional man, a lord of his kingdom in fact)
McLuhan had much to say about communication, in particular focusing on all that was not old. His thoughts found a following and his division into ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ communication has stuck with a public not brought up on this approach. (Hot and cool, and a summary of applications, will find a way into a paragraph or two at a not too distant point.)
But what would Marshall think about putting limits on our vocabulary?
It is right to say that writing without using all symbols can work, although it occurs with particular difficulty. So many words apply this symbol that it quickly forms a boundary to what a man or woman can say or put down in writing. It is similar to talking in a distant land to a population who cannot know most of what you want to say. You must rack your brains to say what you want to using an artificially small vocabulary. It is difficult, but a good thing to try occasionally. It works your old gray stuff and is satisfying (in a way). Starting from an initial position or thought, you cannot always find a way forward. This can annoy, particularly if you know what you want to say. With thought though this difficulty just sinks, and you can swim happily on.
What would McLuhan think? It is fair to say that his opinion would focus on any limits that his mind could find, and that his hot/cool division would want changing.
That’s it folks (and not a fifth symbol of our usual vocabulary in sight!).
(Friday 9th October, 2009)
169 On McLuhan
Gutenberg made everybody a reader. Xerox makes everybody a publisher. – Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980)
Marshall McLuhan, best known for his thoughts on modern media, believed its introduction through inventions such as television would lead to a reversal of human development. He argued that human advances were based on the ability – and necessity – to manipulate abstract symbols (the alphabet) and that the very nature of television would remove this necessity and take humans back to a pre- literate tribal level.
He developed the idea of “hot” and “cold” media where hot media contained dense data (for example a high definition photograph) leaving the observer little to do in further processing while cold media (for example a cartoon) left much more for the observer to do in filling in the details. Based on this it has been suggested that lectures are hot and seminars are cool.
It might be tempting to build an argument for educational practice based on McLuhan’s foundations; the concept of hot and cold media has certainly been picked up and is often quoted. However, this may be because it is a catchy line rather than an idea that contains much substance.
(Friday 16th October, 2009)
170 On Darwin
What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it before. – Mark Twain
There has been much mention of Charles Darwin recently, marking 200 years since his birth and 150 since he published his work: “On the Origin of Species …”. When it appeared in 1859 it quickly divided public opinion, but for those who accepted it there seemed to be an element of awe at its simplicity and a feeling of almost surprise that no-one had thought of it earlier. In fact, one might argue that in terms of the significance of a discovery, the more obvious the idea is in retrospect the better it is.
Aristotle, however, would have been less likely to have been so impressed. In a criticism of Plato’s “Utopia”, he argued that if it contained such good ideas someone would have thought of them already!
(Friday 23rd October, 2009)
171 On teaching and research
If they don’t want to come, nothing will stop them. – Sol Hurok (impresario)
There has been a lot of research recently into the connection or relationship (nexus is the term that the sort of people who write about this use) between teaching and research at university. It seems academics believe the link is there – and important – and yet actually finding it has proved difficult.
Most studies tend to find little, if any, evidence to support the idea that good researchers make good teachers – often it goes the other way – or even that one of the ingredients in the recipe for good teachers is the way they will bring their research into their courses.
There are some fundamental differences between teaching and research. It has been found, for example, that research output is a function of time spent, whereas perceived teaching quality is quite different. After a point, additional time spent on teaching leads to no particular gains.
There are, of course, some parallels in the teaching and research methodologies. To teach, one needs a class, and to complete a piece of research one needs to disseminate the findings, and for this one needs an audience. Research and teaching are joined, then, by the need for not just people, but people willing to participate in the process. As Slim Dusty might have put it: there’s nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear, than to finish a talk in a room with no cheer.
{something to encourage them to go to Aaron’s talk}
(Friday 6th November, 2009)
172 On simple truths
Truth exists; only lies are invented. – Georges Braque (1882-1963)
In some work that is yet to lead on to practical applications, John Leech, a British mathematician, discovered that spheres in 24 dimensional space could be packed in such a way that each was in contact with 196,560 others. This beats what is possible in two or three dimensions but also highlights the hazy area that can exist between what is true and what is not.
There may be some truths that simply exist, but many are created and the three or four dimensional world is a more interesting place as a result. Perhaps Mark Twain’s view on truth is closer to the reality. He observed that fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities while truth isn't.
(Friday 13th November, 2009)
173 On professors
In England, professors were treated with respect and wore clean shoes. – Freeman Dyson (physicist)
Of course things have changed since 1947 when Freeman Dyson found some professors (in his case the physicist Hans Bethe) had muddy shoes and were addressed by their first name by their students. It seems he liked the informality of it all and thrived.
What he would have made of the more recent changes in what to expect of professors is not known. The Australian (18th November, 2009) reports that more and more people are being given the title professor. And it’s not necessarily that they have done enough to earn the sort of recognition that the title normally acknowledges; now more and more are being given the title as a shortcut to the authority that they apparently require for their (often managerial) jobs. It appears that being a professor gives a person enough clout that others will listen to them.
As Freeman Dyson observes, it’s not the shoes or the title that makes a professor and students – who often seem completely oblivious to titles – would be less likely to be impressed. Luckily the circles where these professors move are mainly student-free zones so they are free to feel they can impress others who are equally keen to do the same.
(Friday 20th November, 2009)
174 On bias
Never approach a problem with an open mind. – Douglas Gough (Cambridge academic)
The recent unauthorised distribution of emails from a British climate centre has, understandably, caused a bit of a stir. Those whose emails show them in a poor light are claiming to have been taken out of context while climate change sceptics are intent on making hay while the sun shines (with some continuing to suggest it is shining more than it used to).
One of the aspects that seems to have shocked – or at least allowed people to say they are shocked – is the perceived bias shown by those in the climate change community; email after email contains comments and suggestions that clearly indicate that many have made their mind up and are either trying to set aside contradictory findings or, at best, attempting to cast doubt on them.
The public may be genuinely surprised to find that many of the scientists driving the climate change work are not the unbiased individuals that might be expected. However, as Douglas Gough indicates in his quote, the system works very well when people do come to a field of research with definite ideas and beliefs of what they expect to find.
History is full of instances of people who have worked doggedly at something for years, or even decades, before they were successful. They have worked in the face of ridicule and professional isolation but have, in the end, been shown to be correct. This sort of work is not undertaken by disinterested people wondering what the answer might be; it is undertaken by determined people who believe they know the answer and who are prepared to continue working until they are proven correct. After all, it is very difficult to have research results published where it was not possible to discount the null hypothesis.
(Friday 27th November, 2009)
175 On value
It is never worth a first class man’s time to express a majority opinion. By definition there are plenty of others to do that. – G.H. Hardy (English mathematician)
I have an opinion on this, but it is not worth my time expressing it.
(Friday 4th December, 2009)
176 On student evaluations
Time is the best teacher – but in the end it kills all its pupils. – Unknown (via Graeme Dandy)
Whether it is a good thing or a bad thing is hard to know but during the early 1970s we (students in the Department of Civil Engineering at Adelaide University) were not asked, or even expected, to rate the learning and teaching environment we experienced. We were expected to engage with it, but that seemed a reasonable place to draw the line.
In some ways it’s a pity because many of the very fine lecturers we had missed out on a lot of very positive feedback that they richly deserved. People of the calibre of David Brooks and Bob Culver probably knew they were doing a good job but might have liked to hear it formally. David Brooks’ lectures were filled with a measured precision and carefully constructed stress diagrams. Bob Culver’s lectures were generally scattered with new and wonderfully unfamiliar words and it was not uncommon for us to make lists of all these during the lecture and then to try and work out later who had identified the most, and what they meant – if they were in fact words at all! Of course most were, although I seem to remember that the term ‘balfang’ was a pure Culverism.
Time may be a good teacher, but time spent with the right people helps to concentrate the effort and multiply its rewards.
{on the recent death of Bob Culver}
(Friday 18th December, 2009)
177 On domestication
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. – Leo Tolstoy (in Anna Karenina)
In his book (guns, germs and steel) investigating the development of human civilisations around the world Jared Diamond used what he called the Anna Karenina Principle to explain why some seemed to develop more quickly than others. The principle is based on the idea that happy or successful enterprises require a whole range of conditions to be met and unless they are all met failure will ensue. He turned this to explain the different rates of development of civilisations based on their ability to domesticate wild animals; the key point was that it was not the humans but the animals in their region that determined this.
Quite simply, some animals were suitable for domestication while others were not and application of the principle argued that unless the wild animal had all of the requirements for successful domestication (must breed in captivity, have a good temperament and be able to be herded, have a stable social structure and a good and efficient growth rate) then domestication was not viable.
The Anna Karenina Principle may also be applied to teachers or researchers. Perhaps all successful teachers are alike while unsuccessful ones are unsuccessful in their own particular way. One might argue that success is a very subjective measure, but then so is happiness.
(Friday 8th January, 2010)
178 On predictive text
The long arm of coincidence. – Haddon Chambers (English dramatist)
Anyone who has used one of the older mobile phones to send a text message will have found that for many keystroke sequences there are multiple possibilities for the word. Type in 9-2-8-3-7 and my phone will give “water” as the word. Cycle through the possibilities and the next on offer is “waves”. Could that simply be a coincidence?
Perhaps it is, but consider “golf” and “hole” or “kiss” and “lips” and suddenly there seems to be a lexical conspiracy going on. Or is there something much deeper?
It shouldn’t be too long before some of the new age spiritualists catch onto this; but remember, you heard it here first. There must be others ...
(Friday 15th January, 2010)
179 On paradoxes
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(Friday 22nd January, 2010)
180 On Dr Fox
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players … - William Shakespeare.
Given the relatively small number of commonly used first names and the slightly smaller number of commonly used family names it is surprising that there are not more occurrences of well known people who share the same name. Michael Fox presumably went through this sort of discussion with himself when he went to register with the Screen Actors Guild and found an existing listing for Michael Fox and therefore had to settle for the slightly more cumbersome Michael J. Fox. Of course, having done so he must have been reasonably pleased with the result; his name is now associated forever with such well-known titles as “Back to the Future” (on the big screen) and “Family Ties” (on the small screen) and the “J” really does make his name stand out.
The original Michael Fox (1921 – 1996) was reasonably well known for his work on “Perry Mason” and “The Bold and the Beautiful” (both on the small screen). He is less well known, but in some ways made a more lasting impact when he took on the role of a visiting academic, introduced as Dr Myron L. Fox to an unsuspecting class, for an experiment that some medical educationalists were running. Their questions was: “Can an experienced group of students – some of whom were in fact education academics – who are attending a series of lectures be fooled into giving a teacher good ratings if that teacher simply puts on a good performance (in terms of their presence in the lecture theatre, their apparent interest, manner and jokes)?”. The answer was a resounding “yes” and the result is now widely referred to as the “Dr Fox Effect”.
For the role Michael Fox was well prepared. His lecture was written by experts in the field who started with a valid lecture and gradually removed content until it was a little more than a hollow shell. He was instructed though to sell the topic, to fill in his time with contradictory statements, irrelevant asides and unrelated jokes and anecdotes. The final result was that the audience loved it and in subsequent evaluations rated his presentation very highly. One member of the audience even claimed to have read some of “Dr Fox’s” earlier research papers!
There is, of course, slightly more to the story, but it would be a pity to spoil it at this stage.
(Friday 29th January, 2010)
181 On decisions and value
A cynic – a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. – Oscar Wilde
Here is a small task.
(1) Take the last two digits of your student or staff ID number and make it into a dollar amount. For example, my staff ID ends in 27 so that becomes $27.
(2) Assume you are making separate bids for a number of goods: a 4 GB USB memory stick, 200g of good quality salted cashews, a 500g box of imported Belgian chocolates, and a Nokia E71 mobile phone handset.
The first question is: are you prepared to pay whatever dollar amount you have formed in the first part for each of these items? Simple answer, yes or no.
(3) For some more detail, what is the maximum you would be prepared to pay for each of the items if they were being offered to you?
Reply, following suitable thought, with: the dollar amount based on your ID (replace the xx with the correct number), yes or no for parts (a)-(d) and the maximum you would be prepared to spend for each of (a)-(d).
(1) (2) (3) a 4 GB USB memory stick; $xx Y/N $ 200g of good quality salted cashews; $xx Y/N $ a 500g box of imported Belgian chocolates; and $xx Y/N $ a Nokia E71 mobile phone handset. $xx Y/N $
All will be revealed later.
[The point of this one is that research has shown that an unrelated number can form an anchor point for subsequent financial decisions. It was expected that those who had a staff ID number that finished 99 would naturally be prepared to offer higher prices than another staff member with an ID that finished 05. There is no reason it should, but once a number has been mentioned it appears it does influence subsequent decisions.]
(Friday 5th February, 2010)
182 On engineering prowess
Anything you can do I can do better. I can do anything better than you. – from Annie Get Your Gun by Irving Berlin.
An often quoted motto that engineers use to promote themselves boasts that an engineer can do for $10 what any fool can do for $100. It certainly makes the engineer appear very smart, but is it a recipe for success?
Engineers are, by nature, rational creatures and most likely believe that everyone else is similarly rational. What rational person would pay $100 for something that could be bought for $10? Unfortunately the answer is: many people. Dan Ariely, author of “Predictably Irrational” argues that people’s purchasing decisions are largely based on two simple rules: comparing similar alternatives, and prior experience.
When faced with two offers of service, one for $10 and the other for $100 there is a problem. The prices are too different to allow direct comparison and given that you often get what you pay for, the tendency could well be towards the more expensive of the two. If the $100 offer also had a deluxe version that included some options that took the price to $120 the game is over; the customer is then able to rely on comparison, and experience shows they will generally choose the slightly cheaper, but still very attractive, $100 product.
(Friday 19th February, 2010)
183 On Edison
Light come, light go. – 14th century proverb.
In developing the first reliable incandescent lamp (light bulb) Thomas Edison tried a range of materials for the filament from platinum to carbonised coconut hair; most worked, to an extent, but output and life meant that most were discarded sooner rather than later. Initial success came with carbonised cotton thread where a good orange light was achieved for 13½ hours; a few days later one ran for over 100 hours.
While it seems sensible to quote bulb life a new problem has arisen for modern globe manufacturers. The latest technology sees LED units producing light at a fraction of the power required for even efficient fluorescent tubes. In a recent trade magazine LED manufacturers claim lives of up to 100,000 hours but, as the article admits, “the technology is developing so quickly it is impossible for them to test the lamp for that long before it is obsolete”.
The parallels with human life-spans are hard to ignore.
(Friday 26th February, 2010)
184 On Darwin and Dawkins
His doubts are better than most people’s certainties. – Lord Hardwicke (1690 – 1764) English judge.
Charles Darwin’s work that led to his description of evolution and natural selection was carried out in a clear and methodical way. He delayed its publication for as long as possible, partly because he feared – rightly as it turned out – the Church’s reaction to it, but perhaps also to give him time to convince himself that what he was proposing was indeed correct. By the time he had satisfied his own doubts, he was ready to tackle those from others who were all too ready to find fault with what he was proposing.
Richard Dawkins sees himself as a modern-day fighter for Darwinism. The self- proclaimed high priest of new-age atheists, works tirelessly to either convert all to his form of anti-religion or to demolish those who refuse to believe. One might think that for conversion to occur the ideal proponent would be someone who has no doubt at all about his/her cause but having seen the reaction to Dawkins’ recent visit to Australia perhaps this is not the case.
The problem with Dawkins – without trying to suggest it is the only one – is that he either refuses to see, or genuinely cannot see, that anyone should have any doubts about the non-existence of a God. This means he is poorly equipped to argue his case leaving him unable to take any dissent since he sees it as pure stupidity or, at best, bloody-mindedness. Dawkins might benefit from some more study of Darwin, concentrating on his approach rather than the theory itself.
(Friday 19th March, 2010)
185 On rockets
Men might as well project a voyage to the moon as attempt to employ steam navigation against the stormy North Atlantic Ocean. – Dionysius Lardner (1793- 1859) Irish scientific writer
By 1919 Robert Goddard, the rocket pioneer, had written about the possibility of manned flight to the moon. His idea was ridiculed by the experts who knew much better, and in a way it’s a pity Lardner was not still around because, having been wrong about crossing the North Atlantic using steam, he may have been more open to altering his opinion about the lunar voyage.
When people talk or write of great people from the past, one of the things that can be said to highlight their importance is to state that their ideas came before their time. It’s the top review but it’s not one that a person would necessarily want to aim for because it means that you will be shunned or vilified at the very time you are at your best. By the time people start taking notice of what you say it is generally too late, unless you derive a lot of satisfaction from saying “I told you so!” over and over again.
An unsatisfactory side of this situation comes when recognition arrives while you are still in the public view and your new-found fame or influence gives you air-time. What to say then, now that you are past your peak but suddenly in demand?
(Friday 26th March, 2010)
186 On grammar
There’s not a noun that can’t be verbed. – Anon.
A recent report by the Royal Academy of Engineering in the U.K. called on the government to “incentivise training” in the construction of energy efficient buildings. It got me thinking about language and its use.
Although Noam Chomsky seems more interested in his writings for the political left, he is more widely regarded – certainly in academic circles – for his groundbreaking work on language, and particularly the idea that in humans the facility for language is essentially hard-wired into people’s brains.
No matter the language, people have a brain that is ready to accept its grammar and syntax and this is demonstrated by the observation that even the youngest children make significant progress with language, far beyond what would be possible if they were simply memorising words and sentences. It has been argued, in fact, that the more intelligent children will be the ones who will construct sentences along the lines of “the dog goed for a walk” where the grammatical mistake is based on them recognising the rules for verbs where the past tense is often formed with the addition of “ed”. Of course, as English speakers develop they are expected to learn all the exceptions to do with irregular verbs and irregular plurals that the language contains and conform to those rules.
If the ability to generate logically correct syntax is a sign of intelligence in the very young there must be a tipping point past which these sorts of errors can only be viewed as a lack of intelligence or, at best, a lack of awareness of the outside world. This latter description is one that applies to the very young but one hopes that the same could not be said for the Royal Academy of Engineers.
Note: apparently the word “incentivise” was developed recently by an advertising type – this, however, is no excuse for using it!
(Thursday 1st April, 2010)
187 On words
I have been giving quotes, because I have no idea what this means. – Noam Chomsky
While the ability to learn a language with its basic syntax and grammar is well established in humans, the same cannot be said for reading, which has been described as a quite unnatural act. Once trained, however, most cope well with this acquired skill.
The written and spoken words are closely associated, and in many situations are one and the same, but there are exceptions. The English language, to take a familiar example, is full of words that are identical when spoken but different when written (red and read); there are others that are different when spoken but identical when written (lead and lead). There are also words that are similar in sound, different in meaning, and yet not so different that the error will always be detected (compliment, complement).
With these sorts of words, the question is: is it necessary for people to actually understand the words they are using? Does it matter if some people always think “compliment” even if some of the time the proper word is “complement”? In one sense it is important; the two words have different meanings and are derived from quite different roots. On the other hand, it is easy to see how the two meanings can become blurred to the point that one word seems appropriate over a range of situations properly covered by two words.
If this sounds dangerous, consider (as an example) the word “miniature”. It comes from those very small paintings and portraits found in early hand-copied manuscripts. It might be thought that the word comes from the same root as “minute” meaning small but in fact the term is derived from the Latin “miniare – to colour with minium” where minium is the Latin for red lead; this red lead was the source of the rich red often found in these miniatures. People who have talked of miniature portraits and were thinking “small” should have been thinking “painting” as this is closer to the mark. Perhaps it’s not so wrong though, and perhaps it just shows one of the ways that written and spoken languages interact and evolve.
(Friday 9th April, 2010)
188 On alchemists
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. – John Lennon
Rene Descartes’ “cogito ergo sum – I think therefore I am” may have been the start of a new philosophy but it is interesting to note that much of the work in developing the argument seems to have been made in an effort to prove the existence of God. He was hardly the first, and for many people in the middle ages this was of prime importance, and many philosophers spent much of their time on this quest. This is not to suggest it was unnecessary or a poor use of their time; for philosophers the challenge of thinking of new questions and then determining answers – or perhaps it goes the other way – is enough to drive them.
A similar situation existed with the medieval alchemists who worked tirelessly on trying to turn lead, or other substances, into gold. It has been noted that their work did not bring direct success, but they did learn a lot of chemistry in the process.
There may be parallels with the work of modern-day researchers. A common cause for concern is that the main focus of the study is so often sidelined by the need to deal with annoying side issues that come up over the course of the work. The central problem may never be solved completely but that does not mean that the understanding gained from dealing with these peripherals is wasted – in fact the opposite may be true.
(Friday 23rd April, 2010)
189 On impressionists
When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field or whatever. Merely think here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow … - Claude Monet
It’s a strange thing but the strongest clash of personalities often comes when two people are very similar.
When the Impressionists first exhibited their works in the mid-nineteenth century they were refused hanging space in the best art galleries. Ridicule followed when they opened their own galleries. Eventually they found grudging acceptance although there were some who never accepted their work. Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres represented the old school; he believed that art should be true to life and continue the work of the great masters. Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix’s work, on the other hand, laid the foundations for the Impressionists with its vibrant colours and sweeping brushworks.
The French writer Charles Baudelaire knew them both and noted that they had so much in common it was a pity they were enemies.
(Friday 30th April, 2010)
190 On politic-speak
We can work together for a better world with men and women of goodwill, those who radiate the intrinsic goodness of humankind. - Wangari Maathai
It’s hard to know where politicians would be without clichés – certainly not in power. Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963 described the life of a Foreign Secretary as “forever poised between a cliché and an indiscretion” but at least there was some potential for variety there; nowadays politicians seem forever poised between a cliché and another cliché (although they might argue they were between a rock and a hard place).
There is, however, something very reassuring about clichés. The new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was on television the other day attempting to reassure a nervous public on the matter of the newly-formed coalition. The gist of his reassurance was that with both parties working together on the problem all would be well. He had, of course, carefully overlooked the fact that the problem itself was that both parties would have to work together. It’s not the first time that a problem has been re-packaged and sold as the solution but it was cleverly done. He will do well.
(Friday 14th May, 2010)
191 On optimism
The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true. – James Branch Cabell (1879 – 1958)
Optimism is often portrayed as the life-style choice of champions. Glass half empty? No way, half full and looking good! But optimism is much more than a happy attitude, more than a rose-coloured pair of glasses through which to view the half pint in a pint glass. Optimism drives people, leading to forward-looking strategies and behaviours.
The people living in Greece around 550 BC have been described by historians as prosperous and optimistic. Their time in history has been identified as particularly creative and the prosperity is evident from remains found during archaeological digs. Interestingly, their optimism was identified based on the fact that they were planting olive trees. Now olive trees take around 30 years to produce fruit and the work in planting something that will not give a return in that time certainly shows a high degree of optimism for the future.
That optimism seems to have carried through to modern times where, once again, there is evidence of prosperity and optimism. The prosperity is evident from the largesse shown by the government to its people and the optimism can be seen by the way the government has funded its operations: through borrowing. Like their ancestors, the modern Greeks have been happy to plant the seeds of future wealth but, in this case, that wealth has come from neighbours grudgingly agreeing to bail them out.
So here’s to the Greeks: optimists to the end. Send them another trillion and watch them fill those glasses.
(Friday 21st May, 2010)
192 On foundations
Knowing why is more important than knowing what. – James Watson
An oft-cited work in the educational literature is Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. In this system of classification the lowest level is termed knowledge and is based around the ability simply to recall pieces of information and facts. Higher levels move through manipulation (ability to rephrase knowledge), application (ability to apply knowledge in novel situations), analysis (breaking problems down and establishing relationships), synthesis (combining separate elements into a whole), to evaluation (where the student is expected to be able to make a judgement of the worth of something).
In his quote, Watson’s “what” is level 1: knowledge, whereas his “why” comes in at level 6: evaluation. From an educational point of view, therefore, his “why” is certainly at a higher level than his “what” but should this be taken to mean that the “what” is less important?
The “what” forms the foundation for the “why” and it would be a mistake to assume that, like other foundations, just because you cannot see them they are there.
(Friday 28th May, 2010)
193 On pronunciation
You Can Call Me Al – song title by Paul Simon
My first engineering job was with a construction company in a foreign land. Many of the workforce were, like me, from other foreign shores and there was a corresponding mix of accents and pronunciations. I could pick some of these oddities on words that I was familiar with but was caught out completely by their “boond walls” and another word that came up frequently on site: “yessus”. I had vaguely heard of bund walls but it was only years later that I found that boond and bund were one and the same; by that time I had also built some too.
As to the other word: eventually I worked out that in Dutch, and related languages, “j” is pronounced as “y”. Suddenly, the reaction to a dropped tool or a missing cable made some sense.
Following that I moved to an academic career and was introduced to a new term: “et al”. It should of course be “et alia” (and others, on the assumption that the others are an unspecified range of people that may or may not include males and females) but, as with past experience, people tend to repeat what they have heard and it goes on as a self-sustaining system of error. At some point its usage is such that it defines a new practice and is an error no more. Perhaps it is there now. (After all, if everyone says “et al”, then it’s hard to argue that everyone is wrong.)
The other bit of Latin that is widely used, “et cetera”, has fared better, and people do know that “etc.” is pronounced quite differently from what is written.
(Friday 4th June, 2010)
194 On existence
People who lead a lonely existence always have something on their minds that they are eager to talk about. – Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)
It’s an oft-quoted paradox that the bigger the city the more lonely people one is likely to find. And while some have this loneliness virtually imposed on them by a society that is increasingly inward looking, there are others who embrace the concept that the world revolves around them and that they alone exist: the solipsists. Solipsism is a system of belief where a person is convinced they alone exist. In practice this means that a solipsist would see everything around them as being there simply for them; nothing else has any independent existence.
It’s the ultimate egocentric position, but an interesting one. The lovely thing for solipsists is that there is no need for them to defend their belief since there is no- one else to question it in the first place. There is, of course, a flip side for that argument: that while there is no need to defend it, there is little reason for promoting it either.
In fact, solipsism leads to a Catch-22 position: only people who are not solipsists are able to promote it as a valid system of belief. After all, any logically consistent solipsist must believe there are no others to convert to their way of thinking, so there is little point in promoting it.
(Friday 11th June, 2010)
195 On nature’s laws
Science is organized knowledge. – Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
In the world of research scientists push themselves forward and claim what they believe is the higher moral ground. Theirs is portrayed as a pure pursuit, searching for the truth and the fundamental laws of nature. When people talk of progress in science it is often said to be measured in terms of coming closer to that truth.
The scientists have been successful in winning over – or fooling – the general population; and they have certainly deluded themselves as to their position and quest. Based on a long history of science and discovery it is unlikely that there is actually a “truth”. And even if there was, there is nothing to suggest it is discoverable.
Engineers have, of course, known this since time immemorial. While the scientists have been on their grand quest, busy searching for the laws of nature, engineers have been quietly getting on with developing models of nature; and not just nature, but all the designed and observed elements of the more general human world.
In some ways it may seem the same thing but engineers have been honest enough to know that what they were doing was providing useful rules and algorithms to allow nature to be understood at a practical level rather than the more pretentious need to see its soul.
(Friday 18th June, 2010)
196 On language
The limits of my language mean the limits of my world. – Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
The study of language development in babies and very young children highlights the immensity of the task for their young brains. Not only are they exposed to a large number of new sounds and words but they come in a continuous stream that must be unpacked using an unknown set of rules. It’s no small task.
When the Romans developed the written form of their language they wrote it without punctuation and without gaps between the words; it came as a continuous stream of letters and symbols. It doesn’t sound like much of a problem butconsiderforamomentwhatitwouldmeaninpractice. To make sense of the text one almost has to read it syllable by syllable and ‘listen’ to what was being read and reconstruct the meaning from this performance. In fact, it’s not that different from babies and their listening.
When we think, we think in words and phrases. When we listen it really is quite different and much more difficult. That explains a lot.
(Friday 25th June, 2010)
197 On humour
It’s an odd job, making decent people laugh. – Molière (1622-1673)
Systems theory is not inherently funny, not at least to most people who have studied it, but it does have some practical applications for those intent on amusing others. An important concept, and one that features in the fine text by Dandy and others, is that of the error of sub-optimization.
The term describes the process of optimizing one or more system components on the assumption that this will lead to an optimum total system. For example, attempting to reduce the weight of a structure on the (not unreasonable) assumption that reduced weight will lead to a cheaper design can lead to a situation where the cost of constructing such an optimised solution far outweighs any benefit from the reduced weight.
And so it is with humour – the best jokes are not the ones where each word is funny, or each phrase, but those where the whole joke (as a system) works. One only need watch a small section of comedy on television where canned laughter comes with every uttering to realise that this is a serious case of the error of sub- optimization.
There was an article in the paper the other day stating that Jerry Seinfeld had made something like $3 billion from the 180 episodes of his eponymous series. It seems like a lot of money and actually shows the high price of making decent people laugh.
(Friday 2nd July, 2010)
198 On pictures
I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception. – Groucho Marx
It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words; storing a name in computer memory takes around 20 bytes while a reasonable quality picture can take around 20 kilobytes so the ratio of pictures to words seems about right, at least for a lump of silicon with impurities. But what of human memory? This is where it starts to get interesting and recent work hints at a fundamentally different system.
In the 1960s a neurologist, Jerome Lettvin, coined the term “grandmother cell” to describe the concept of a single neuron being responsible for recognising one’s grandmother. Under this system there would be another neuron for the grandfather and another for each and every other person that is known. The term was actually developed as a joke, a way of highlighting the ridiculousness of the concept, but it seems to be gaining some support.
Researchers, working with patients who suffered from untreatable epilepsy and who had had electrodes inserted into various areas of their brains as part of a study to try and identify the site of their fits, decided to make use of these electrodes. They set up an experiment where the patients were shown a range of pictures of people and structures, some famous, some not, and all electrodes were scanned to see if any neurons fired. When they did fire further tests were done to see if those firings were in response to a particular face or structure of just firing generally. They found something remarkable. In the patients tested there was a neuron that only fired when viewing pictures of Jennifer Aniston. Another for Halle Berry. Another for the Sydney Opera House. Another for the Tower of Pisa. Another for Bill Clinton. In fact it was slightly stranger than that. The same neuron that fired when viewing pictures of Halle Berry also fired at the sight of her name – a neuron to recognize the concept of Halle Berry.
If their work is being understood correctly, a face or a structure may be recognised by the firing of a single neuron. Admittedly, with the way neurons are connected there may be 10,000 other neurons connected to it where each is part of the system but it seems the brain can “store” a picture or concept in a single neuron. Now that’s efficiency.
(Friday 9th July, 2010)
199 On Dryden
His imagination resembled the wings of an ostrich. It enabled him to run, though not to soar. – Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859)
John Dryden is the owner of the ostrich wings that Macaulay refers to. He is perhaps best known for his poetry and plays but also had a role in the early days of the Royal Society which led him into print in a quite different way.
The original fellows of the society were keen to promote their work, and the work of the amateur scientists who wrote in to them, and so started a scientific journal – the first – which was published and sold as the Philosophical Transactions. The fellows were particularly concerned with the standard of the writing and so engaged Dryden to ensure the quality of what went into print.
Due to the nature of this work, where part of the skill must be in actually concealing one’s influence, it’s hard to know how much he did, or what his impact was. It may be, however, that he occasionally soared, on the back of one of the great scientists, floating like a true ghost (writer).
(Friday 16th July, 2010)
200 On early customers
Le client n’a jamais tort. (The customer is never wrong.) – César Ritz (1850-1918)
In Bologna in the 12th century the university ran in a very student-centred way. The student was king and his view drove the proceedings. At the start of each semester the students and the academics agreed on the curriculum but once the lectures began the advantage moved very much in the students’ favour.
Lecturers had to sign an oath of submission; if they started a lecture late they were fined; if they ran over time they were fined; if they were absent for any reason they were fined; if they could not attract at least five students to their course they were assumed to be absent, and fined. Lecturers were constantly rated by the students and if they did not keep up to the required standard they were – you guessed it – fined. Of course, nowadays, the system is quite different; the students are now referred to as customers.
And speaking of customers, in the world of quotes, proverbs and hotels the customer’s views are apparently held in high esteem. They are either always right or, for César Ritz, never wrong. Of course, it’s not true. The power of the quote comes from the subtly submerged cynicism; the average customer is often wrong but Ritz was savvy enough to realise they would believe the more palatable view. He did very well out of it so perhaps it is time for the university to adopt a new motto: L’étudiant n’a jamais tort.
(Friday 23rd July, 2010)
201 On building
When I make a feast, I would my guests should praise it, not the cooks. – John Harington, English writer (1561-1612)
John Harington would beg to differ but if someone says they are cooking dinner one might expect to see them in the kitchen chopping vegetables, preparing ingredients, and doing the other sorts of things that cooking normally entails. By the same token, if someone says they are riding a bike then it would be fairly certain that they would be actually sitting on it and pushing it along with their feet. If, on the other hand, you were told that someone was building a house it is apparently quite possible that they will be sitting in a chair and looking out the window, or hosting a party in a room that appears to be completely built already. While many verbs are appropriately narrow in their usage, “to build” covers not only the act of building but also the act of getting someone else to do the building – building by proxy.
This of course explains why the ancient kings, queens, pharaohs, and emperors were credited with so much building. It’s not that they were there in their finery cutting bricks or laying concrete; oh no, they were paying others to do the work and then taking the credit.
This is why engineers manage to design (similar story with this dual-mode verb) and build so many things without getting credit for any of them. If it stands and performs a useful function then it was built by the politician who signed off on it or who organised for someone else to pay for it. Of course, if it falls down then it is the real builder that they go looking for. Such is life.
(Friday 30th July, 2010)
202 On logic
Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. – B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
There is an old joke about what a Scot might consider the height of good luck – dying the moment he had completed the purchase of life insurance (leading to a very quick payout which would be seen as a good thing to a canny Scot). Bertrand Russell managed to squeeze this into a discussion on probability and the fact that while the buying and selling of life insurance both involve the need to consider life expectancy, the problem is quite different for the seller, who can safely work on probability based on the statistics from a large population, while the buyer must be apply “intrinsic doubtfulness” very carefully in assessing the probability for a population of just one.
The distinction, however, is not always clear to all. There was a report some time ago that displayed a clever ignorance of logic. The argument went like this: (1) As a population increases its level of exercise it tends to lead to a reduction in average weight; (2) If a person exercises more they are likely to lose weight; (3) Even if they don’t lose weight themselves, they will lead to someone else losing weight because their exercise will be boosting the level of exercise in the population as a whole.
This, of course, can also be applied to many related situations and might be used to boost the case for more public funding of education. The argument would run: (1) An increase in the general education level will lead to a more productive and richer society; (2) If a person is able to study more they will become more educated and earn more; (3) Even if they themselves do not earn more, then someone else in society will because their learning will have contributed to the overall increase in the level of education.
(Friday 6th August, 2010)
203 On a liberal education
For also knowledge itself is power. – Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
The concept that knowledge is power is an old one and one that has driven, to an extent, the philosophy of universities. Over the years, many have argued that the gaining of knowledge was an end in itself and that if students were taught to think for themselves useful benefits would follow quite naturally. It would, of course, take time but that was simply the nature of the beast. This was Cardinal Newman’s view in the mid 1850s, and is essentially the argument behind the continuing push for a liberal education for all.
It’s a nice thought; young people being exposed to a broad education where they are challenged and taught to think, but does it pass the dentist test? In other words, is this the sort of education that people would want their dentist to have had? Just imagine, a dentist skilled in logic handed down from Plato. A dentist with a love of the classics who can carry on a discussion on the underlying religious themes in Shakespeare’s second tetralogy as she drills. Someone, perhaps, who has studied Latin, or read Homer in the original Greek. Open your mouth very wide, relax, and think about it.
(Friday 13th August, 2010)
204 On recognition
If you really want to make a million … the quickest way is to start your own religion. – origin subject to dispute.
Robert Manning, an Irish engineer, is perhaps best remembered (at least among hydraulics engineers) for the formula that bears his name; it relates open channel flow to channel roughness and has stood the test of time. One interesting aspect of this is the assertion by at least one textbook author that “the formula that bears his name probably would be surprising to him”.
Other historical figures might fare a little better. Newton would recognise calculus but be disappointed that Leibnitz’s notation was adopted and his largely forgotten. Leibnitz would be pleased to recognise his notation but be extremely disappointed that all was attributed to Newton. In fact, if they both came back there would still be enough for them to continue their argument that began three and a half centuries ago.
John von Neumann would recognize the computer chip architecture that bears his name; Freud would understand much of the talk around the psychiatrist’s couch but may want to correct the modern practitioners for moving away from his ideas (which has been largely discredited). If Henry Ford were to wander around a modern car plant with the production lines then it is likely he would recognise and understand all that was going on and gain great pleasure from it too.
Charles Darwin always expected trouble from his theory and was not disappointed when he first published it. His view might be different now with the explosion in its use and abuse that has occurred.
Probably the biggest surprises would be to historical figures who have given their name and/or philosophy to religious movements. (A good place to stop.)
(Friday 20th August, 2010)
205 On lectures
Lectures were once useful; but now, when all can read, and books are so numerous, lectures are unnecessary. – Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
The lecture, as a way of teaching, first became established in the twelfth century. The master would go through biblical passages and explain them to attentive students, who were not allowed to take notes but were expected to sit and listen. The word itself came from lectio (a reading) or lectura.
Following an encouraging start, the queue of people wanting to bury the lecture has gradually lengthened. Samuel Johnson stands somewhere near the front and there are many behind him. Those closest to the front cited the book as the way for all to gain the knowledge they required. The president of Columbia University in the 1930s was most emphatic: “The lecture system as a means of communicating facts should have been dispensed with when the art of printing was invented.”
Those near the back of the queue include Bill Gates who sees the internet as the logical alternative to lectures. He believes the next big education institution will be the internet and that this will change the way education is provided. He argues that students will no longer have to come to campus, and because they will be able to surf the web to find the best lectures there will be no role for a particular university for any particular student. He has the whole problem pretty much sorted.
This pronouncement was made recently at a conference in Lake Tahoe, California, where he was speaking. It is of course interesting to note that it was a real – rather than virtual – conference where real people were attending in real time and real space. On the one hand he recognises the value of real interactions at conferences while on the other assumes the person to person contact that comes when a student attends a class with colleagues is of little consequence.
Instead of coming to morning tea perhaps we could all sit in our rooms and set up a conference call (with someone more interesting)!
[Bill Gates reference in Campus Review, 20(16), p 20.]
(Friday 27th August, 2010)
206 On blank slates
What worries you, masters you. – John Locke (1632-1704)
John Locke believed that people were born with a brain void of ideas and knowledge: the “tabula rasa” or blank slate. His belief was that experience was central to human knowledge and understanding. tabula rasa tabula rasa tabula rasa ...
(Friday 3rd September, 2010)
207 On Nokia
If politics is the art of the possible, research is surely the art of the soluble. Both are immensely practical-minded affairs. – Peter Medawar (1915-1987) English immunologist and author
One could learn a little from Edward de Bono about the development of the telecommunications company, Nokia. According to his version of events Nokia was a company “that basically sold toilet paper” but was able to completely reinvent itself as a mobile phone manufacturer “after an afternoon of gathering ideas”.
There is, of course, the more detailed version of events. Nokia started as a wood- pulp company that installed a hydroelectric plant to provide its power. This attracted a rubber works company to the site which then bought a majority share in a cable-making company. These merged and introduced, quite naturally, an electronics section that was aligned with the cables part of the company which had become involved in the new telegraph and telephone networks. The electronics progressed to semi-conductors and digital switching on their networks, something they did very well. This successful development came at a time when the Finnish government legislated to allow local firms to set up mobile networks for car phones, and the company was ideally placed to pursue this. And the rest, as they say, is history. This process took from 1865 to 1981 – a period of 116 years.
The first version certainly has a simple appeal, and it may be that the single crucial afternoon did in fact exist. However, the activities of the other 42,368 afternoons were likely to be an important part of the mix, and very necessary to set the scene for that one when a sudden, and perhaps unexpected, clarity materialised.
Of course, the almost-too-simple-to-be-true explanation from de Bono may be just a plausible but inaccurate misrepresentation of a potentially valuable case study for the very people he is trying to attract.
(Friday 10th September, 2010)
208 On speeches
I wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup? – Jerry Seinfield
Jason Alexander plays George Costanza in the sitcom “Seinfeld” and has found some fame in that role. Fame leads to riches and recognition and these in turn lead to interest from the press. And it is only at this stage that reality sets in; in interviews he is not particularly funny. On the screen, with a solid script behind him, he is one of the four pillars of the program, so perhaps it is the script that is the key. Perhaps it should be the script-writers that are getting the riches, recognition and trappings.
At another time and in another place there is a related situation that has arisen. A spat has developed between former Prime Minister Paul Keating and his principal speech writer, Don Watson. They are jousting over who is the greater: the speaker who reads the lines, or the writer behind the lines (and behind the scene). Keating’s speech at Redfern Park in December 1992 on the subject of reconciliation has recently been added to the National Sound Archives and Watson has had the temerity to claim some of the credit, given that he actually wrote the words.
The Australian newspaper’s philosopher in residence, Tim Soutphommasane, discussed this and came down on the speaker’s side arguing that a speech is very much about who delivers it and how it is delivered, rather than the actual words.
In education, the practice of having a well-qualified person or team prepare educational material which can then be presented by others is reasonably common. If Soutphommasane is correct this model is fundamentally flawed; it’s not just the message, delivery is vital too, and without the right person even the best material might only lead to a lukewarm presentation.
[On the occasion of a complaint by a student about the quality and presentation of the International Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Management (ICEWaRM) material.]
(Friday 17th September, 2010)
209 On exams
When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep – not screaming, like the passengers in his car. – www
Exams can be stressful and it’s not surprising to learn that a 2007 study found 20% of university students reported health issues during their candidature and that stress was the most commonly cited problem. The interesting thing is that it’s not just the students who get stressed at exam time; it can also spread to their family.
It was found, for example, in the same study that “first year students with higher levels of perceived parental support were better adjusted and less distressed” so this is a positive for the student. But can all family members cope?
In a recent discussion it was revealed by a university manager that students in his school had reported the death of 12 grandfathers in the previous week. It does seem like a lot, but it was exam week and the manager could not help but wonder if the two were related. Was it that the stress had spread through the family? Or was it more sinister? After all, a death in the family might lead to a supplementary exam on compassionate grounds so it raises the important question: are the students killing their grandfathers just for the supp.? Or are these virtual deaths, as befits the new computer age? Whatever the answer, it’s a bad time for grandfathers.
(Friday 24th September, 2010)
210 On arguments
This is a rotten argument, but it should be good enough for their lordships on a hot summer afternoon. – Anon. (annotation to a ministerial brief, said to have been read out inadvertently in the House of Lords)
Common usage of the word “argument” sees it as some sort of fight but, at a higher intellectual level, it is also – in the words of the Monty Python team – a “connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition”.
The important word in this definition is “connected” because it highlights the need for the argument to be properly constructed and for the connections to be good ones, without gaps or weak points. It sounds easy but arguments can fall down because the proponent has a fixed end point that he or she wishes to defend and they assume that they can cobble together their statements to get from start to finish. It just doesn’t work. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the American writer, suggested that common law judges made up their minds first and came up with a plausible account of how they got there afterwards. (It all sounds a bit like marking final year reports.)
Of course the best results come when people have a fixed start point and then apply a logical argument and are open to see where it takes them.
(Friday 1st October, 2010)
211 On engineering
Structural engineering is the art of modelling materials we do not wholly understand, into shapes we cannot precisely analyse, so as to withstand forces we cannot properly assess, in such a way that the public has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance. - A.R. Dykes (British Institute of Structural Engineers)
One of the issues facing those who promote engineering as a profession is the odd relationship that exists between engineers and the general public. Despite the role that engineers have played in the development of civilisation their presence is often missed. History lauds the names of kings and queens who presided over significant public works but seldom the actual engineer/architect who designed, planned and brought the whole project to fruition.
Of course such anonymity is not always a bad thing. In early Mesopotamia, the engineers who organised the irrigation networks that allowed life to thrive were apparently often seen as possessing supernatural powers, and to be capable of interceding with the gods. This was fine when things were going well but there are records of mass slayings among this group when they could no longer provide the water that everyone had become accustomed to.
Mass slayings are generally frowned upon nowadays but the problems with water and the gods remain.
(Friday 8th October, 2010)
212 On the unexpected
The unexpected always happens. – 19th Century proverb.
If the proverb is true, and the unexpected is always happening, it is perhaps a little surprising that it is not noticed more often than it is. Stephen Jay Gould had part of the answer when he argued that no one can look consciously for the unexpected, but there is more to it than that.
The real issue is not so much that it is difficult to look for the unexpected but that people are so intent on looking for the expected. And they are not just looking for the generally expected, they are looking for that which is specifically expected by them. People go through life looking for evidence that confirms what they already believe, and are not surprised when they find it. Studies have shown that newspaper readers are much more likely to read articles that align with their existing beliefs. People are looking for opinions that back their own; perhaps it a herd instinct, although it is also likely to be easier on the brain. After all, taking in something that is at odds with current beliefs takes some effort to assess and process.
It is all very well for newspapers to argue that they assist public debate by providing both sides of the story. In fact what they may be doing is providing each side with sufficient evidence to maintain their current views.
Still – that’s what you’d expect from the fourth estate.
(Friday 15th October, 2010)
213 On dreams
All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream. – Edgar Allan Poe (1809- 1849)
It used to be enough to wish someone “sweet dreams” but now that is all a bit dated and the latest on the wish-list are lucid dreams. According to the newspaper definition, lucid dreams are those in which the dreamer is aware they are dreaming and is, apparently, able to manipulate the events in the dream. It all started with some research in 1913 but it has now become mainstream as Hollywood has bought in on the act with a film out that capitalises on this new distraction.
But the big question that is teasing scientists at the moment is what dreams are actually for. Do they have a biological function? Are they signposts to future events, or reflections of a troubled mind?
In the past there have been celebrated scientific breakthroughs that have been credited with dreams. The discovery of the ring structure of benzene (by von Kekulé) came following a dream where snakes bit their tails and were rolling down the hill as hoops. Others have had similarly bizarre visions that they have later been able to make something from.
There are some who believe that dreams have a purpose, but perhaps they don’t. Perhaps dreams just are. It may be that the brain cannot help but slosh back and forth and that it would be wrong to try and interpret that sloshing as something it is not. Perhaps dreams are to thinking what junk DNA is to genetics – just there to fill in the space between the bits we understand.
(Friday 22nd October, 2010)
214 On Guy Fawkes
Please to remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot. We know no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot. – Traditional rhyme (1605)
In the days before a person’s safety was everyone else’s concern, the fifth of November was celebrated with the wanton letting off of fireworks and the lighting of bonfires. In England, where November has been known to be cold and fire- dampening, it made some sense – and it was their parliament after all – but the tradition also spread to Australia where the chances of accidental fires and other misadventures were better than even.
Although it is often joked that Guy Fawkes was the only person to enter parliament with honest intentions, encyclopaedias record that Guy Fawkes Day is actually to celebrate the failure of the plot rather than the wild plan or the man himself.
It raises the question: are other named days more about the failure of the celebrated person or event rather than their success? World Teachers Day, for example, is celebrated each October 5th and it is interesting to speculate whether or not it is a feast in the same spirit as that which follows one calendar month later. World Environment Day falls on June 5th and, once again, there is a touch of irony in making use of the 5th of the month (a day related to the celebration of failure) to mark this event.
Here’s to Guy – and throw another cracker on the fire!
(Friday 5th November, 2010)
215 On bridges
Actors are cattle. – Alfred Hitchcock (film director)
According to a recent article on Kristin Scott Thomas, star of Four Weddings and a Funeral (to name just one of her films), a perfect day would involve crossing a bridge in Paris. Taken a face value this does come across as a little unambitious but there may be deeper issues in play here.
Perhaps as a film actress she sees tasks differently. Perhaps she assumes that one cannot simply cross a bridge; that to cross a bridge properly may require multiple takes, multiple cameras, and multiple run-throughs. She will do it once and someone will shout “Cut! No, no,no! You call that crossing?!” and then ask her to cross it differently. Perhaps the light will not be right early in the morning and it will be necessary to wait until it is higher in the sky, or lower.
It has been said that architects and engineers see bridges differently; that to an engineer a bridge is a means of crossing a river or ravine as part of a journey while to the architect the bridge is the journey. It’s not too long a journey therefore, to allow an actress to see a bridge as an opportunity to display, and that if it is to be crossed, then it should be done as artistically as possible (while remaining true to the author’s intent).
(Friday 19th November, 2010)
216 On Suzuki
If I had one last lecture to give, what would I say? – David Suzuki
Rhetorical questions: who can be bothered answering them?
Probably not Plato, who was not that impressed with rhetoric as a skill. He believed it focussed too much on the superficial impression one could make while playing to the audience, without worrying enough about the final outcome.
Having just spent three days marking the student responses to what were admittedly non-rhetorical questions, it would be hard not to agree with him on the importance of the final answer. In a class that had the dubious distinction of counting among its number the student who, by popular vote, won the prize for asking the most questions in lectures, it was instructive to see that this skill did not translate readily into being able to answer them. The real power of questions, rhetorical or not, comes from their ability to provoke some deep contemplation and, for students at least, this activity should occur well before the exam itself.
As to David Suzuki and his rhetorical: there are at least two answers. (1) “I am not sure. I had better buy the book and find out.” (2) “I am fairly sure it would be much the same as you have been saying for years so I will leave the book on the shelf.”
As to which is right: who knows?
(Friday 26th November, 2010)
217 On presentations
Every good cause is worth some inefficiency.- Paul Samuelson (1915-2009) American economist
Alfred Nobel made a lot of money from his development of dynamite and, on his death, put most of it into a series of prizes to recognise significant developments in physics, chemistry, literature, medicine, and the promotion of peace. Having made a fortune himself he apparently did not see much benefit to the world coming from economists so their (pseudo) Nobel Prize is actually awarded by the Swedish National Bank.
There have been some interesting winners over the years in this category. John Nash was one, for his work on competitive game theory and Paul Samuelson another, for his work on comparative advantage. According to the Higher Education supplement in The Australian (8/12/2010), the concept of comparative advantage can be explained through the example of a lawyer who employs an assistant for typing, since the lawyer is best served by sticking to what he/she is best at, the law, while letting the assistant concentrate on what he/she is best at, typing. The Australian article then extends this argument to university academics by arguing that those teaching should be able to concentrate on what they do best and not have to worry so much about the associated tasks of preparing lecture slides (since it involves typing), arranging travel, or other associated administrata.
It’s a simple argument and like many simple arguments a little too simple to be true in a complex world. While it is true that the preparation of a powerpoint slide does involve some typing the actual effort is in deciding what to type and where to type it. Having been to a number of presentations where the eminent speaker has been spared the effort of preparing the slides the best that can be said of this model is that it leads to a memorable presentation rather than a good one.
Teaching is good cause and worth a little inefficiency.
(Friday 10th December, 2010)
218 On borrowing
One forges one’s style on the terrible anvil of daily deadlines. – Émile Zola (French novelist)
In a history of German genius, Peter Watson makes the case for the importance of the German influence on thinking and on the development of the modern university. The PhD started there and the first professional journals and the seminar (as a way of developing research), for example, were both developed at Göttingen.
Watson investigates these developments and lays some importance on the spread of reading in Germany; the Germans were literate much earlier than other western European countries. And the introduction of lending libraries was believed to contribute to this – nothing unusual there since with libraries people will have access to a wider variety of books than would otherwise be possible – but at this point Watson makes a surprising assertion: the power of the lending library came from the fact that a time limit was put on people’s access to the books. This restriction thus encouraged people to actually read the books, rather than simply collecting them on shelves within their homes.
The issue then is in optimising the duration of the loan: too short and no reading will be possible, too long and there will be no sense or urgency. The same is likely to apply to other behaviours where human nature is involved: eating, drinking, resting, and perhaps even studying.
(Friday 21st January, 2011)
219 On translations
The United States and Great Britain may speak English but, more than they know, they think German. – Peter Watson (author)
In 1852 Cardinal Newman published a series of lectures under the title “The Idea of a University”. His intention was the establishment of a Catholic university for the city of Belfast so that Catholic boys could overcome the disadvantage they faced when competing with Protestant boys who, through the benefit of their university education, had an extra four years of formal tuition to recommend them.
The contents of the book, and the arguments that it contains, will wait but the point of interest was the Cardinal's frequent and liberal use of passages from scholars he was citing in the original French and Latin. There was no need to provide translations since his target audience would have had a classical education and be quite able to read the passages.
Now jump forward to 2010 and we have an author (quoted above) writing on the role of German scholars in the development of European thinking. There are, of course, many calls for passages in German, publication titles and key concepts, and English translations are provided for each. The author also spends much time on highlighting the difficulty in providing accurate translations for key German words since a single word in one language can contain much to those who know it intimately.
One might see this need for translation as an indictment of the modern education with its lack of training in the classics. It need not be. While language translations are required there are so many other mathematical, scientific, historical and philosophical ideas that can be put without "translation" or explanation that it would seem Watson's readers have been well served by their education.
C’est la vie.
(Friday 28th January, 2011)
220 On pain
When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it happened or not. – Mark Twain
It’s easy to forget just how important memory is. It’s not just useful for passing exams or keeping track of friends and enemies, its effects go much deeper and play a fundamental role in human affairs. Memory, for example, is very much tied up with the concept and experience of time. Even without the benefit of knowing that there are neurons in the brain’s visual system specifically designed to detect motion in the field of vision Bertrand Russell argued that while it was possible to detect the passing of time on the second-hand of a watch “only memory tells you that the minute-hand and hour-hand have moved”. It has been said that time is nature’s way of stopping everything happening at once, and it is time and memory that allow humans to experience a gentle unfolding of history.
But it is not just in the concept of time that memory is important. Although not intuitively obvious, there is an argument to be made for the central role of memory in the experience of pain and a reasonable question to ask is: if there were no memories, would there still be pain? The obvious answer is ‘yes’, but a more considered opinion is much closer to ‘no’.
Having recently had what is reported to be a very painful procedure carried out under a combination of drugs, one of which is known to have an amnesiac effect, I am happy to report that I cannot recall any pain. I am told I was conscious, but don’t remember. There may have been a lot of activity from the pain-sensing nerves but without the ability to lay those messages down as memories I find myself pain-free, for all practical purposes.
{Based on the treatment, last Friday, of a dislocated shoulder. If Russell had had the chance to try midazolam I am sure he would have made better use of it than I have.}
(Friday 11th February, 2011)
221 On generations
It takes three generations to make a gentleman. – proverb (early 19th century)
There is a lovely story about the late Kerry Packer who was at his favourite high rollers table and being distracted by a loud Texan who seemed overly pleased with himself and his wealth. Finally Kerry had had enough, so he asked the man what he was worth. When the Texan replied “about $10 million”, Kerry simply replied “OK. I’ll toss you for it.” The man went quiet and was trouble no more.
It is not known whether James Packer worries unduly about his fortune. He likely does and will be well aware of the many proverbs and popular sayings that predict a fall. While, as the proverb says, it takes three generations to make a gentleman it is also suggested that “wealth never survives three generations” with the first making it, the second consolidating it, and the third losing it.
Still, he should be thankful that he was allowed to try his hand at the newspaper, media and casino business in the first place. Carl Friedrich Gauss, who was apparently carrying out calculations before he could talk and correcting his fathers arithmetic at the age of three steered his own sons away from mathematics lest the name of Gauss be associated with inferior work.
There were no such thoughts from our own Trevor D______who may have steered his children into engineering using similar logic!
(Friday 4th March, 2011)
222 On films
History is a combination of reality and lies. The reality of History becomes a lie. The unreality of the fable becomes the truth. – Jean Cocteau (French dramatist and film director)
The King’s Speech has done well in the world of the Hollywood Oscars but the issue for some is that the story has taken some liberties by dipping into the worlds of fantasy and history without allowing the two to be distinguished. Perhaps, as has been argued, it is just a story and one should not expect too much, but there are a number of problems with this line.
For some, it’s the way the makers have changed key dates and times (apparently for dramatic effect). For others in speech therapy, the objections centre on the type of stammer, with one expert suggesting that the actor displayed one of the forms of stuttering from which there is little chance of recovery. There is also a group rallying against the role Winston Churchill is given in the film. Their objection seems to be more about Churchill than historical accuracy and is not so surprising given his personality and behaviour.
Perhaps the most significant concern is that for many, the film will present them with all they know of Churchill, George VI and his wife (the late Queen Mother) and that rather than stimulating them to further research it will leave them satisfied that they know enough of them and their place in history.
Of course, with films at least there is the feeling that what is being shown may not be completely factual. The internet, on the other hand, has just as much fantasy – if not more – with no warnings at all!
(Friday 11th March, 2011)
223 On mysteries
I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. – Winston Churchill (1939)
Winston Churchill may have inspired it, but in the world of problem-solving Gregory Treverton, the Director of the RAND Corporation's Center for Global Risk and Security, has suggested a distinction should be made between puzzles and mysteries.
Puzzles are based on a lack of information, where the solution would come from getting a few more pieces in the jig-saw. For example, how the School will be rated in the next ERA process is a puzzle since if there were a few more pieces of information (for example, what factors will be included in the ratings, how many publications and citations everyone had during the relevant period) it would be possible to come up with an answer.
A mystery, on the other hand, is based on there being no definitive factual answer. For example, how university funding will be allocated in 2020 is a mystery because the sort of information that would be required to answer that is simply not available since it depends on so many factors. An answer would require knowledge of which political party will be in government, who the minister is, public opinion, what has happened in the previous 20 years; the list goes on.
The distinction is important because people trying to solve mysteries could easily become distracted by using methods more appropriate for puzzles: collecting data and undertaking fact-finding missions that will ultimately be futile. Similar issues occur for those dealing with puzzles and employing methods more appropriate for mysteries.
Of course, the two may not necessarily be neatly defined – initially at least – and in honour of Churchill it might be worth using the term enigma to denote a problem where it is impossible to tell whether it is a puzzle or a mystery.
(Friday 18th March, 2011)
224 On understanding
In mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them. – John von Neumann (mathematician and computer pioneer)
The sediment load in rivers can be classified based on the way it is carried, either rolling on the bed, being carried in suspension, or dissolved in the water itself. According to the way engineers and scientists characterise the processes bed load is due to the forces on the river bed and is a relatively easy process to understand; particles are disturbed just enough to roll along the bottom of the river. Suspended load is more complex because it is driven by the turbulence in the flow so the average flow properties are no longer sufficient and one is forced to consider the intricacies of turbulence, eddies, and the energy cascade. The wash load is, in many ways, even more complex because it includes not only the physical turbulence but also the chemical processes that lead to salt dissolution and ionic balance. And yet the measurement of the wash load is the simplest, the suspended load next easiest and the bed load the most difficult.
The ones that are easy to understand conceptually are the hardest to actually measure and the ones that are the hardest to understand conceptually are the easiest to measure.
It’s hard to believe that von Neumann really felt the way about mathematics that the quote implies, but this inverse relationship between understanding and measurement does tie in with the sentiment quite well where the “get used to them” suggests an empirical approach of sampling and observation.
How often are we fooled into believing we understand something because we can observe, sample and measure it accurately? That feeling may just be that we have got used to it and really are all at sea.
(Friday 25th March, 2011)
225 On words
If a lion could talk, we could not understand him. – Ludwig Wittgenstein
In their book, “Super Freakonomics”, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner make sure that their readers are made aware of the correct pronunciation of key foreign names and terms. A section on selling homes includes the term, “for sale by owner”, which is abbreviated as FSBO and pronounced “FIZZ-bo”. In a section on a computer system designed to lead to a more efficient hospital emergency system they report that the developers called the system Azyxxi which was pronounced “uh-ZICK-see”. The developers told users that the word came from the Phoenician language but that was in fact pure fantasy.
In one way the focus on how a reader internalises a word seems unimportant. Does it really matter if they pronounce the word correctly as they read? Perhaps not, but if they do mispronounce it, are they saying or thinking about the same object/concept/thing? At first glance the answer is yes of course, but on reflection it may not be quite that simple. Take for example the person who does not appreciate the difference between “compliment” and “complement”. They will have heard the words many times and assumed they are one and the same. The pronunciation is so similar that this allows this mistake to persist leading to a situation where two different words with different meanings are blurred together. This gives their thoughts and speech a broad-brush character which is not necessarily an issue all the time, but there will be places where their thoughts simply cannot take them.
Reading between the lions of Wittgenstein’s quote it is apparent that lions are unable to differentiate a whole range of sounds and words that they hear. Since they cannot tell the difference between lion, line and iron their speaking is, as a consequence, so broad-brushed that they are virtually impossible to understand. And a good thing too because there are already too many lions of enquiry in this sorry tale.
(Friday 1st April, 2011)
226 On circles
A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself. – Arthur Miller (American dramatist)
It has been argued that language provides the basis for thought, and, as the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein put it, limits to a person’s language limits their world. On that basis talking to oneself should be seen as an achievement; something to be treasured and admired.
However, when walking around the university campus one is not struck by an impression of people talking to themselves. Talking to others: yes. Eating and drinking: yes. Laughing: yes. Perhaps there is less thought going on than one might suspect. On the other hand one only need stand a short time in Rundle Mall to witness a variety of the populace deeply engaged in conversation with themselves. Most people, it must be admitted, pass by quite un-noticed. The ones that do stand out are those busily engaged in conversation – with themselves.
Now you might think that those who are keeping up a closed-loop monologue would show some consideration to the listener, but the opposite seems to be more common. Those deep in their own verbal joust seem generally to be quite upset and intent on upsetting themselves even further.
Perhaps this is the basis for Arthur Miller’s view on newspapers; devices where the views are framed for circular consumption, leading to an incestuous market that continually recycles views that become stranger with each telling and where little outside influence is allowed to intrude.
(Friday 15th April, 2011)
227 On targets and measures
To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first, and call whatever you hit the target. - Ashleigh Brilliant (English author and cartoonist, b.1933)
According to Charles Goodhart, who was at one time a chief adviser to the Bank of England, measures stop being useful when they become targets.
He was thinking about the British government and attempts at financial regulation but his thought is just as relevant to the field of education. Take, for example, the recent demise of the research measure that was part of the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA). It involved the much-criticised journal ranking exercise that turned what was supposed to be a measure of quality into a target where researchers were instructed to modify their behaviour to improve the measure. Once this had happened the field was skewed and the measure devalued. A similar situation is occurring in the schools where the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) measure of achievement is now being turned into a target as teachers re-orient their teaching to address the measure directly.
If measures lose their usefulness when they become targets, is the opposite true? Can a target still be useful if it becomes a measure? If the examination process in anything to go by the answer might be yes. It’s worth a thought.
(Friday 17th June, 2011)
228 On non-existence
Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve - Erich Fromm (German born American social Philosopher and Psychoanalyst, 1900-1980)
It’s not surprising that in the development of numbers the idea of zero took some time to catch on. The Mayans had it, as did the Babylonians, but many civilisations got on very well without it. In many ways it’s hard to take seriously something that by its very nature exists to denote non-existence. And yet, zero is important. Its presence turns one into ten and a hundred of them will make a googol and in that respect it is quite important. Zero is also part of a greater system of non-existent people and objects that are also influential in their own way.
For example, in 1919 Vladimir Tatlin began work on the design of a tall slanting tower. Reaching a height of 1,300 feet it was to be taller than the Eiffel Tower. But it was not just in height where this structure dominated. Rather than a static tower the Tatlin design was in three sections and each rotated at different speeds giving it a stunning dynamic presence. While Eiffel’s work may be seen as a silent tribute to engineering the Tatlin Tower was designed to be much louder, carry a banner proclaiming “Engineers create new forms”.
It was never built, but that has not stopped the Australian-born art critic Robert Hughes describing the tower as the most influential non-existent object of the twentieth century.
Without knowing all the other non-existent objects that he was considering it is hard to know if he made the correct choice. In fact, since one is discussing things that do not exist, is it possible to be aware of all of them anyway? Ranking non- existent objects may be a fundamentally flawed process.
(Friday 24th June, 2011)
229 On confrontation
You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible. - Anton Chekhov (Russian playwright, 1860-1904)
The premiere of Arnold Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet cannot be described as going off quietly. Schoenberg had been working towards what he called “the emancipation of dissonance” and this piece had certainly freed something. The first performance was interrupted by shouting from the audience who were aghast at what they were hearing. To be fair, not everyone was shouting their disapproval; the ones who had brought their whistles tended to use them instead. Others shouted their support. One of the respectable newspapers, the New Vienna Daily, printed their review of the performance in the “crime” section.
And yet, Gustav Mahler, the older and more established composer, was supportive. According to his biographer, he trusted Schoenberg, without being able to understand him.
Trust is something that must be built and it appears that in the arts many works can only be understood by judging not just the final product but the whole range of works that has led to that point. It is hard to imagine, for example, anyone entering their unmade bed in an art competition but that is precisely what British artist Tracey Emin did in 1999 when she had a piece called “My Bed” showing in the Tate Gallery. And not only showing; it was subsequently shortlisted for the Turner Prize (although it did not win).
And that is why the artist’s signature is so important on a painting. It’s who did it that determines, to a large extent, its merit. Perhaps the arts could take a leaf out of the academic peer review process and introduce a process of blind judging! That would sort out a few people but leave the rest of us the poorer. Hans Christian Andersen had it all wrong; if the Emperor believed he had a fine set of new clothes then why should some young boy believe otherwise?
(Friday 1st July, 2011)
230 On theories
The only physical theories that we are willing to accept are the beautiful ones. – Albert Einstein
One of the apparently reasonable starting positions for someone observing – and trying to make sense of – the world, would be to assume that it can be observed accurately by the human eye. And any eye, so long as it is in good condition, should be as good as another. Fortunately, it is not so simple. Nobel Prize winning physicists Albert Einstein and Paul Dirac both argued that for a theory or equation to be true, it had to be beautiful. And yet this beauty, as the proverb goes, is in the eye of the beholder. It takes a very special eye to “see” the beauty.
Give most people 5 seconds to look at a chess board, with about 25 pieces still in play, and they will be able to recall only a few of the positions accurately. Chess grandmasters, on the other hand, can remember nearly all, and can reconstruct the board almost perfectly. They are exposed to the same visual information but must “see” it quite differently. It is now believed that they are able to remember the pieces and their location by referring back to earlier games they have played or studied. This idea is reinforced by the observation that their ability to remember the layout reduces to being the same as amateurs if the pieces are randomly distributed over the board rather than as they might appear mid-game.
When IBM’s Deep Blue beat world champion Garry Kasparov in one game in 1997 it did so with the benefit of being able to assess 200 million moves per second. This capability was beyond Kasparov but he had one major advantage: what he saw when he looked at the board was filtered by his history in chess and his ability to remember similar positions from previous matches. He did not have to waste time checking all plays, and could concentrate on plotting ahead only for the most promising. He was also able to recall and recognise key mistakes in his opponent’s play and react accordingly. Studies have shown that this is how he is able to beat national teams in simultaneous mode where his time per move is severely restricted.
One might imagine that an equation written on paper or projected onto a screen would be seen identically by all but it is said that in a seminar a single equation can send at least 5 of the audience to sleep. Speakers are warned, therefore, to limit the number that they employ. Since it does not send all off to sleep at the same time indicates that the same visual information must be being processed and “seen” quite differently.
So much for the empiricists and their world that can be accurately observed through the five standard senses!
(Friday 8th July, 2011)
231 On being difficult
She believed in nothing; only her scepticism kept her from being an atheist. – Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) French philosopher, author, playwright and critic
There is a story (told to me by my father – and therefore likely to contain some truth) about a British soldier in one of the elite regiments that used to take his knitting with him to the bar whenever he felt like really enjoying himself. The sight of him in his uniform casting on and casting off stitches must have caused quite a stir with the locals, and this was exactly why he took his knitting. He did not like the knitting as such, but it did give him the chance to fight. Someone would poke fun at him for knitting and this would give him the chance to take offense and the fight was on. It’s not recorded what his knitting was like but his fighting was first class and the other party always came off second best.
Although not directly related to either knitting or fighting, there are some parallels to this behaviour when those with superior intelligence or capability in some field use their advantage purely for sport or, quite often, to hinder the advance of others. Jean-Paul Sartre, the French philosopher and writer, worked his way to a position of considerable influence and in France his ideas and views were held in reverence. While much of what he did was of benefit his Marxist beliefs and hate of all things American led him to misrepresent what he had learned of Russia during a visit in the 1950s. According to the author Paul Watson, he must have known that what he was saying “wasn’t true, but he felt it was more important to be anti- American than critical of the Soviet Union”.
Similar games have been played in the past by those who have argued against the link between smoking and cancer, industrial pollution and acid rain and, more recently, CFCs and the hole in the ozone layer. In each case a small number of highly qualified scientists have used their intelligence and influence to hinder rather than promote a wider appreciation of the phenomena. In some cases they have been given power and status that they would not have otherwise had, but it is hard not to assume that this was not their only motive.
(Friday 15th July, 2011)
232 On writing
Of every four words I write, I strike out three. – Nicolas Boileau (1636-1711)
Dr Inger Mewburn from RMIT is a blogger who has developed a following for her on-line musings that focus inter alia on postgraduate issues. She says the blog was slow to develop a readership but it started to take off (go viral is apparently the correct expression) after a couple of key articles, one of which was on how a postgraduate could write 1000 words in a day.
This does not sound that difficult. After all, 1000 words in 8 hours is only 2 words a minute. How hard can it be to write a word every 30 seconds?
There are, of course, two aspects to the problem: one is physically having to type at that speed and the other is determining what to type. As to the first issue: even using the what-is-said-to-be-inefficient QWERTY keyboard most can manage two words a minute. (It is worth mentioning at this stage that citing a typing speed of 2 words a minute is not going to get anyone a good secretarial position.) So the real issue must be in formulating those two words.
In what is regarded as a classic work from 1949 Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver estimated that half of what is written is determined by the language and the very formal rules that govern its structure. As a very simple example, in English a “q” is almost always followed by a “u” hence reducing the information carried by the sequence of characters and increasing the ease in determining what to type. A second example comes from an older language, Linear B. When scholars were working on the deciphering this language one of the assumptions was that it was not an early form of Greek since that language has so many of its words finishing with the same character, an “s”. Therefore, a script based on Greek should have a pattern where the same symbol comes up at the end of many of its words. (In fact, Linear B was based on Greek but the scribes who wrote it didn’t bother to put the ending on each word because they were mostly the same!) Therefore, if half of what is written is fixed by the language then 2 words a minute really only requires creativity capable of generating one word per minute. It seems to be getting easier!
However, if Monsieur Boileau is right, it will take 4000 words in a day to be written, and 3000 to be crossed out, leaving the 1000 required. At this stage it is worth considering the profession of the writer. Lawyers, for example, when faced with 4 words will cross them all out and replace each with 4 other words leading to a total of 16 words. Teachers would write 4 and then pause while they find all the errors and highlight them in red. This takes extra time and they will still need to find a student to write the corrected words. Engineers, on the other hand, aim to optimise the process: they don’t cross out words, they cut them and paste them elsewhere with the aim of using the three discarded words later. Politicians tend to dictate rather than write. (In 1928, during one of his quiet periods away from the
233 Commons, Winston Churchill reported that he was happily laying 200 bricks and dictating 2000 words a day.) Finally, journalists will have their editor cross them all out, especially if the words conform to the language standards, and insist that they use all their nouns as verbs and their verbs as nouns.
With all these issues to consider, it’s a wonder anything gets written!
Dr Mewburn’s blog can be found at: http://thethesiswhisperer.wordpress.com.
[A doctor would write four words but no one would be able to read them. – James Walker]
(Friday 22nd July, 2011)
234 On copying
And when we think we lead, we are most led. – Lord Byron (1788-1824)
If one considers the aspects of life that people take seriously (government, economics, health, education, sport, perhaps even engineering) it is evident that their leadership comes from those in the upper echelons, specially selected for the task. Teachers and engineers, for example, train at university and then are carefully introduced into their professions where they are mentored and supported as they develop their expertise. It is some time before they are given the responsibility to make significant changes, or to lead others in their work. Politicians may occasionally appear young and “green” but in most cases they have been training for their work for some years and have been exposed to the workings of the system and its actors.
In each case there is a system of leadership by a seasoned elite. This ties in neatly with Plato’s view of the best form of government which he believed was rule by those trained in philosophy, mathematics and dialectics (a form of philosophical argument designed to reveal the truth). His idea was that this training would allow the chosen few to be able to discern what is good and therefore to direct society in a way so as to achieve this. It’s a form of meritocracy rather than alternatives such as a democracy (which he must have regarded as an unattractive gamble).
And yet, if one considers the development of language – one of the defining characteristics of humans – it is clear that this vital task is very much a democratic process with literally everyone able to have their say. It is worrying, therefore, that much of the change is driven, not by those trained in its use, but by those who simply do not understand the language and its beauty. They misinterpret words, misunderstand phrases, employ inappropriate homophones, make quite blatant mistakes with the form and structure, and then spread these errors.
There are some parallels to Darwinian evolution, with change coming from errors that are then found to be better suited in a slowly changing environment. The problem lies in the fact that the environment for language is largely made up of those who do not appreciate the error and simply repeat the words and expressions that they have been exposed to.
(Friday 29th July, 2011)
235 On mouse traps
If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s original quote has been reworked and is now more often cited as “build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door”. That makes the idea much clearer, but is it true? No.
Take, for example, the case of Frank Whittle who invented and developed the first jet engine. He was largely self-taught and while working as an apprentice in the RAF developed the basics of the jet engine. Did the world beat a path to his door? No. Having developed the design for the engine he had to make the running on its introduction to the rest of the world. The Air Ministry in the UK was not interested at first and it took the assistance of friends to raise the necessary funding to get the development on track. This was about 10 years after the initial concept design. The final uptake was probably helped by the fact that by this time it was 1936 and people were anxious about events in Europe (with good reason as it turned out). It took a world war, where lots of people had their doors and paths beaten, for the air force to finally take the concept seriously.
One step back in terms of aircraft and there is the case of the Wright brothers and their “Flyer” which also highlights a lack of path-beating. Having flown the first powered, heavier than air, craft they were largely ignored. The US government turned down an offer of three aircraft and did not even bother to investigate their claims of successful flight. It took four years before the US War Department relented and gave them a contract. Again, it took a lot of work on their part to get their idea off the ground (in a commercial sense).
Rather than having others beat a path to your door, it is essential that the inventor not only invent the better mousetrap but he or she must then beat a path to everyone else’s door.
Think for a moment of all the people that the world has never heard of – among them are those who invented something much better than what existed at the time but who did not have the drive and determination to promote it. If someone could only invent a better path-beater all might be well. Until then, only the mice have cause for celebration.
(Friday 5th August, 2011)
236 On arguments
Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding. – James Boswell (1791)
In critical thinking there are two standard ways to validate an argument: the fallacies approach and the criterial approach. The fallacies approach tests the argument against a list of previously identified potential errors; the criterial approach tests the argument against three criteria developed to identify a sound argument. While both approaches are valid there is a particular problem with the fallacies approach: Aristotle identified 13 types of error that could lead to an argument being identified as unsound but logicians over the millennia have added to that list and there are now around 150 standard faults. While it is possible to test against all of these, there is nothing to say that there are not others and so the job becomes much harder (at least to settle the case once and for all).
This approach of developing a long – and likely non-exhaustive – list of errors or actions that are prohibited rather than a code for good behaviour is quite common. For example, the instructions for university examinations are often put in terms of what cannot be done rather than what must be done. Students at the University of Adelaide, for example are “encouraged not to bring handbags, carry bags, backpacks, shoulder bags, ‘bum bags’, trolley bags, etc. to the examination venue”. The problem with this is that the instructions will soon have to be edited to take in the newer forms of carrying, especially with the move away from a physically-based information base.
In the examination rules there is also an instance of an each way bet. On the one hand students “must only remove their personal belongings from the examination venue”, which is fine because it tells them what they can do, but the rule is then spoiled by the presence of the another part stating that “All examination scripts, answer books, question papers, drawing and scribble paper and other material issued for use in the examination are the property of the University and must not be removed from the examination venue, whether completed or blank.” Having told them they can only remove their own personal belongings why muddy the water by trying to develop a list of items they might want to remove that are patently not theirs? Can they, for example, take the chair they used, or the desk? If they have scanned the exam paper can they take that? According to the non-exhaustive list perhaps they can.
This rule-writing behaviour comes about because it is much easier to think of specific examples of things that people should not do rather than to devise over- arching guidelines of what people should do. In fact, one of the beauties of scientific and engineering theories it is that they are general and all-encompassing. It is easy to generate ad hoc rules of behaviour but to be able to generalise it – that takes talent.
237 People should avoid half-baked rules, rules based purely on examples, ideas that can only be expressed in specific itemised lists, … (like this one!).
(Friday 12th August, 2011)
238 On cause and effect
Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache. - Mae West
An article in The Australian on the 16th of August this year reported that a link had been found between malnourished children (in Australia) and poverty. In fact, a quick search of the web reveals that poverty has also been linked to mental disorders, obesity, health problems, gender inequality, the chances of coming down with dengue fever, unsafe sex, poor educational attainment, and – to round out the list – the recent London riots.
Although not always stated, it seems that the underlying assumption in these links is that there is a cause and effect relationship with poverty being the cause and malnourished children or a susceptibility to dengue fever being the effect. This is important because it implies that to deal with the effect one need tackle the cause and if the cause is poverty then, perhaps, this has a ready solution: the provision of targeted funding.
But what if the link or the relationship was not cause and effect but effect and effect? What if there was an underlying (unidentified) cause and poverty was just an effect in the same way that poor educational attainment was an effect? This would change things considerably, because it is not longer a valid solution to throw money at the problem; the problem is deeper and all money will do is alleviate the poverty without necessarily having any effect on the target, whether it be obesity, educational attainment or catching dengue fever.
The search for the underlying cause is unlikely to get too far as there is too much at stake to start abandoning the status quo. Universities and schools, for example, like to promote the link between poverty and educational attainment (although they have the educational attainment as the cause and poverty as the effect). Poverty is just too good a target to let it go and start searching for another that can be tackled so easily. It has the added advantage, at least for those in the industry, that the problems assigned to it are never solved.
(Friday 19th August, 2011)
239 On deduction and induction
Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men. – T.H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist
In the 12th Century a standard education consisted of the seven liberal arts: grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. Of the seven, the first three were the most basic and no one would have considered themselves educated without a good grounding in these. And it is important too as the misunderstanding that occurred between Saddam Hussein and George Bush demonstrates. But before that there is need for a quick primer in logic, with a focus on deductive and inductive reasoning.
In deductive logic, where it is possible to prove a conclusion if the premises are true, there is a classic error called the fallacy of affirming the consequent. It has the form:
If p then q. q. Therefore, p.
For example: if Saddam Hussein has nuclear weapons then he will deny it. He denies it. Therefore, Saddam Hussein has nuclear weapons – a conclusion not supported by deductive logic.
In inductive logic, on the other hand, where one uses examples of behaviour to predict outcomes, there is the valid form of induction by confirmation which has the form:
If p then q. q. It is probable, therefore, that p.
For example: if Saddam Hussein has nuclear weapons then he will deny it. He denies it. It is probable, therefore, that Saddam Hussein has nuclear weapons – a conclusion supported by inductive logic (although not proven).
From what happened with the US and Iraq one can only assume that Saddam Hussein was working in a deductive framework where the US argument about nuclear weapons was clearly invalid, while the US President was working in an inductive framework where the outcome was probable. It appears each was ignorant of the finer points of logic, which is perhaps not that surprising. It leaves one to wonder: if Huxley (quoted at the start of the passage) is right, who was the fool and who was the wise man?
(Friday 26th August, 2011)
240 On answers
It is not what you say that matters but the manner in which you say it; there lies the secret of the ages. - William Carlos Williams (American Poet, 1883-1963)
There is the story – that may or may not be true – of the philosophy exam that contained a question in the form of a single word: “Why?” It does seem slightly unlikely but no more unlikely than the assertion that one student managed to scored full marks with the answer “Why not?”
Trying to make sense of the question and answer takes one down the road of attempting to read as much as one can into the exchange. Perhaps for a philosopher the “why?” is particularly deep and full of scope for an answer while the “why not?” has matched that depth with breath-taking chutzpah and bravado.
If it were true, however, it is likely that the full marks were not based on that single answer but by taking into account the student’s other answers as a measure of the philosopher.
As in many things it is not so much what is said but who says it (and perhaps the manner in which it is said).
(Friday 2nd September, 2011)
241 On science and religion
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. – Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
Over the years the relationship between science and religion has been a troubled one. At times science has been restrained, diverted or subverted in the name of religion but the relationship continues to develop and even if there have not been significant areas of agreement then at least there has been a long-standing truce that is generally adhered to.
While science and religion may seem to exist at opposite ends of the belief spectrum there are some important similarities. The nature of religion means that it relies very much on faith, since there are too many aspects that simply cannot be proven or even demonstrated. Despite the notion that science is supposed to be more rigorous its hypotheses often involve leaps of faith that are accepted, often because they cannot be shown to be wrong. Science does of course have the concept of falsifiability but that can only justify a position once it has been taken. It does not help in getting to the position in the first place. There may be some evidence that new beliefs are warranted but ultimately there is a need for faith in accepting scientific theories such as gravity, evolution, plate tectonics, or (to pick a more recent one) climate change.
This similarity may explain the way climate change is perceived by the masses; there are clear divisions that may be explained in terms of scepticism or acceptance but they can also be explained in terms of faith. Climate change adherents accept on faith the scientific predictions of their high priests. They cite from the good books, chapter and verse, and hark back to significant people that have made their mark by defining what it is to be a believer and what can be defined as articles of faith. The deniers or sceptics (and that is not to suggest they are of the same faith) are the atheists and agnostics, respectively, of the climate change world. They ask to be convinced in such a way that they realise will not be possible. They refuse to take things on faith and practise their lack of faith proudly.
There will be no truce for the foreseeable future, and what there will be is still a matter of debate.
(Friday 9th September, 2011)
242 On feedback
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. – Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American philosopher and poet
In the natural world much of what is observed, of both animate and inanimate entities, is due to emergent properties that result from a process referred to as self- organisation. Flocks of birds flying across the sky, trees full of fire-flies pulsing in unison, large areas of regular sand ripples on a beach, and vast numbers of fish moving as an apparently coordinated school are all well explained in terms of self- organisation. The behaviour that results is referred to as emergent because what appears to be global organisation is not driven or planned directly but comes as a result of individual elements or agents reacting to their immediate environment and following local rules. In fact the global pattern is not something that could be predicted, even if one knew the rules that each player was following. And a key component in understanding and explaining self-organisation is feedback, which drives many of the local rules.
While self-organisation is believed capable of explaining some complex patterns and behaviour it has also been used to explain a lack of variation in natural phenomena. Think, for example, of schools of fish; despite all their individual differences the fish swim as one, moving in a coordinated unit but with no designated leader or over-arching direction. Of course, predators know this and use it to their advantage but that is another story. Feedback, therefore, is all important in maintaining uniformity where emergent behaviour is concerned.
Is it sensible, therefore, to implement systems that actually mandate feedback in an education system consisting of individual agents reacting to local rules and potentially leading to emergent properties that cannot be predicted? Could it be responsible for a reduction in variety? Are students all being knocked into the same shape with the same characteristics and behaviours?
And what of student feedback to teachers? This is also designed for the purpose of improving teaching but is one effect of this to not only improve but to standardise it too and to reduce the variation that should be the spice in the system? The answer to these questions, and more, will surely emerge.
(Friday 16th September, 2011)
243 On 9/11
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. – George Orwell (Eric Blair, 1903-1950)
George Orwell is not remembered for his mathematics but his quote shows he was taking the task of getting to the title of one of his books, Nineteen Eighty Four, fairly seriously. Another writer who was better acquainted with the theory of numbers was Bertrand Russell and he took the task very much to heart, spending years writing a series of books with a colleague, Alfred Whitehead. In the end their chief aim was shown to be unachievable (and that must have been a particularly hard blow) but along the way they did much to enhance the standing and understanding of the maths that many take for granted. As an example they apparently took 362 pages to prove – to their own satisfaction – that 1 + 1 = 2. (It turns out that this can be as difficult as you want it to be.)
It may seem questionable to spend so much effort on something that everyone is happy to accept but the relationship between 1 and 2 has been important in the past. In the Bible there is the account of Moses leading his people through the desert and in need of water. He was told by God to strike a particular rock and he did so, not once but twice, and for this he was rewarded with water, as promised, but no entry into the Promised Land (unlike baseball, it was two strikes and you are out!).
There has also been a more recent event where the difference between one strike and two strikes has been significant and that comes into focus with the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attack(s) on the World Trade Center buildings. A question that some have been pondering (reason given later), and one that seems quite trivial at first, is: was it one event or two that occurred that day at the site? Was it a single attack on the buildings or two attacks on two buildings?
It seems to be playing with words but it is important. And the reason comes from the wording of the insurance policy taken out on the buildings. Among all the details, and there were presumably plenty, was the stipulation that the maximum payout for any single event was $3.7 billion. Therefore, if it was one event that day the payout is only half that would be due for a successful two event claim. In this case it is two strikes and you are in (the money). So one plus one can be one (if you follow the insurance company line).
(Friday 23rd September, 2011)
THE END
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250 Index
On 9/11, 244 On coastlines, 74 On conferences, 132 On a liberal education, 204 On confidence, 17 On a perfect world, 98 On confrontation, 230 On a symbol past d …, 169 On cooking, 69 On alchemists, 189 On cooks and broth, 168 On alphabet soup, 53 On copying, 235 On amateurs, 119 On cosmic resonance, 157 On anonymity, 94 On cricket, 124 On answers, 241 On arguments, 105, 211, 237 On da Vinci, 145 On astronomy, 16 On Dalton, 144 On Darwin, 39, 171 On background knowledge, 112 On Darwin and Dawkins, 185 On Baghdad, 55 On decisions, 160 On Bastille Day, 36 On decisions and value, 182 On being difficult, 232 On deduction and induction, 240 On being greener, 93 On dice, 32 On bias, 175 On difficult links, 140 On big research, 114 On discovery, 88, 90 On blank slates, 207 On DNA, 71 On blood, 6 On domestication, 178 On books, 118 On doors, 18 On borrowing, 219 On Dr Fox, 181 On Bragg, 81 On dreams, 214 On breeding, 129 On Dryden, 200 On bridges, 216 On building, 202 On early customers, 201 On Edison, 184 On camouflage, 79 On eminence, 3 On capitalism, 96 On engineering, 212 On catches, 147 On engineering prowess, 183 On cause and effect, 48, 239 On ethics, 162 On change, 63 On Eureka!, 78 On chemistry, 2 On Everest, 22 On choice, 19 On exams, 210 On choosing, 161 On existence, 195 On circles, 227 On explorers, 38 On civilisation, 46 On classification, 115 On feedback, 110, 243 On clichés, 35 On Feynman, 66 On climate, 54 On films, 223 On climate change, 153 On financial advice, 41
251 On first impressions, 15 On markets, 13 On folly, 12 On Maslow, 89 On footballers, 104 On maturity, 133 On foundations, 193 On Mayo, 43 On fruit and light, 159 On McLuhan, 170 On meaning, 58, 111 On gambling, 152 On memory, 106, 121 On generations, 222 On mentors, 102 On genius, 10 On mice, 14 On giants, 4 On mirrors, 86 On global warming, 101 On mission statements, 76, 142 On golf, 108 On modesty, 83 On Google, 116 On monkeys, 20 On grammar, 187 On mouse traps, 236 On Greek youth, 158 On moving feasts, 57 On Groucho Marx, 85 On mysteries, 224 On guards, 137 On guiding lights, 100 On names, 151 On Guy Fawkes, 215 On nature’s laws, 196 On needs, 120 On hail, 61 On nine Indians, 51 On hands, 166 On Nokia, 208 On heat, 70 On non-existence, 229 On history, 25 On holes and shapes, 155 On opinions, 127, 150 On humour, 198 On optimism, 192
On ideas, 125 On pain, 221 On ignorance, 26 On Palin, 135 On impressionists, 190 On paradoxes, 180 On information and knowledge, 131 On patents, 27 On insurance, 92 On philosophy, 167 On intuition, 87 On pictures, 199 On pilots, 60 On John Stuart Mill, 77 On placebos, 33 On plagiarism, 82 On language, 197 On poetry, 5 On leaders, 156 On politic-speak, 191 On lectures, 122, 206 On precedence, 143 On legs, 50 On predictive text, 179 On librarians, 11 On presentations, 218 On light, 113 On professors, 174 On Linear B, 37 On progress, 136 On logic, 203 On pronunciation, 194 On majorities, 47 On Pythagoras, 72
252 On quality control, 164 On sustainability, 126 On Suzuki, 217 On randomness, 21 On razors, 24 On targets and measures, 228 On reading, 103, 130 On teachers, 1, 107 On recall, 97 On teaching, 40 On recognition, 49, 205 On teaching and research, 172 On retirement, 141 On teamwork, 59 On ribs, 34 On that party drug, 123 On rivers, 67 On the life of ideas, 95 On rockets, 186 On the real world, 73 On Rousseau, 64 On the unexpected, 213 On Russell, 68 On the unlikely, 84 On theories, 231 On sanitation, 30 On thought, 9 On scepticism, 165 On time, 75 On science, 8, 149 On time management, 65 On science and religion, 242 On transistors, 91 On searching, 7 On translation, 154 On self-esteem, 109 On translations, 220 On self-organisation, 28 On two cultures, 44 On separation, 62 On sequences, 23 On understanding, 225 On simple truths, 99, 173 On university customers, 52 On soccer hooligans, 56 On unlearning, 42 On Socrates, 163 On SOPs, 139 On value, 176 On space, 117 On speeches, 209 On wavering consensus, 31 On spills, 29 On who is the best, 138 On sprinklers, 80 On winning, 146 On student evaluations, 177 On words, 188, 226 On student experience, 45 On writing, 233 On studying, 128 On writing without a symbol, 148 On success, 134
253
This is what I was thinking ...
Over a period of six years I penned around 240 short articles based around an idea and a quote. Initially the purpose was to encourage people to come to a morning tea that I was organising (it’s true!), but soon they took on a life of their own and it became terribly hard to stop working on them. The articles vary in length and topic. They follow no particular theme although some are focused on the interests of a university academic. Many were inspired by current events. Most were based on books that I was reading and the ideas that came from these.
The Author Front Cover: The cover photo was taken on a flight from Darwin to Adelaide. I see the path of the river as a metaphor for the writing process; it takes some inclination, plenty of time, and a certain persistence. Rivers meander. We should too.
ISBN 978-0-9872405-1-4
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