He Does Exist

OK, I know I am an atheist; but I have talked to God, well actually iGod. Try him out (or is it her?). Don't expect this god to be all-knowing though. It reminds me of the strained conversations Neo had with the Oracle in the film, "The Matrix." You know, the lines uttered whenever he met the Oracle in The Matrix trilogy, where you were supposed to think something insightful and sagacious was being expressed, when it was just gibberish?

In any case, have fun talking to (i)God, after all -- he does exists. Take that disbelievers! Thanks Again Ruby.

http://www.titane.ca/concordia/dfar251/igod/main.html


~AP

New Name

As I stated in the previous post, I changed the domain name of this blog. You can now reach it at: http://www.rationalahmand.com. But, for others who haven't seen this update, if they type in the former url: http://ahmandishere.blogspot.com, then it shall still redirect them to the correct page. That's a good thing. I hope this doesn't disturb the 1-3 member readership of my blog.

I thought the change made sense, making the title and the domain name of this blog identical. And, it gives me more a feeling of proprietorship over my website.


~AP

Back In Action

Unfortunately, I have been inactive for a while. I had to get my personal life together. However, now that I am back, I have some new posts I plan to spring on here. Be on the look out for the URL to change soon as well, as I have provisionally decided to register a custom domain name that is consistent with the blog's title. I am hoping the confusion will not lose my two or three readers.


~AP

Psychological Humor part IV

Here's a recent psychology joke that I found:














~AP

What I Think About The 'Skins' (and other Indian sports teams)

For the record, I hate the Washington Redskins, and all the rest of the racist sports teams. If I hadn't a drop of American Indian blood in me, I'd still vigorously hate the team. But, I think these cartoons below speak for themselves:































































(Note: You can click on these comic strips to see them full-size.)


~AP

Squirrel Intentionality

Scientist examines city squirrels' lives

Yahoo! News

What they've discovered is that the critters are downright crafty.

Start with their attitude toward other squirrels' food. They want it and won't hesitate to steal it.

To ward off thieves, squirrels engage in a shell game: They go through the motions of digging and pretending to jam acorns into the ground, even smoothing out the grass to make it appear as if they're covering their hiding spot, before running off with the acorns still in their mouths.

"What possible purpose could that be for other than fake out somebody watching them bury it?" said Peter Smallwood, a University of Richmond biologist.

Squirrels figure out how to outsmart devices designed to keep them away from food — something naturalist Howard Youth learned the hard way. Squirrels broke into four types of bird feeders in his Maryland yard before he found one that they couldn't penetrate. So far.

"They will try something new and eventually, if one gets it, the other ones will notice and they will figure out a way to thwart the bird feeder," Youth said.

OK, so besides these critters being really cute and entertaining to watch, they are quite clever. I tend to stare at them while walking around campus. It's hilarious how they will steal your food when your back is turned (ever see a squirrel eat pepperoni pizza?). Well, I guess it's funny unless it's your food and you're hungry.

These little guys are greedy. And according to this article, they really do lose their nuts. Oh well, they'll just steal another squirrel's nuts. I guess it's no wonder why I always see them chasing each other.

In any case, I refer to them as intentional because pace behaviorists: people who assert that only directly observable behavior can be scientifically studied, and eliminativists: people who assert that common-sense or "folk" psychology is wrong and will be replaced by an advanced neuroscience -- intentionality seems the best scientific explanation of their behavior. I.e., their behavior is "directed" in some way, presumably because they (in some sense) want food. This seems trivially true, unless you happen to meet a clever philosopher or scientist with a connectionist bias who may try to convince you otherwise. However ... "philosophical scruple should not trump good science." (This is an ironic sentence, since the person who wrote it – Quine – was against the practice of scientific psychology, as we know it today.) That's not to say there aren't other possible explanations (e.g., connectionism/PDP) but all of them seem lacking without invoking intentionality/representation.

Yes, I favor the computational/representational theory of thought (CRTT), or the now "classical" theory of mind in cognitive science because it's still the best game in town as far as cognitive science is concerned. It works well with explaining the aforementioned squirrels' behavior. And there's plenty more where that came from. Although I'm not denying CRTT has some shortcomings; but that'll have to wait for another post.


~AP

Thar's Water In Dem Hills!

Martian Gullies Show Traces of Flowing Water within the Past Decade

Scientific American.com

Deposits formed in Martian gullies during the past seven years suggest that liquid water exists on Mars today. Researchers have observed two downhill tracks of light-colored material that were not present in images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft before 1999.

It's only a matter of time now. That is, only a matter of time until astronomers find microscopic organisms, such as extremophiles. I'm quite confident of that. If not on Mars, then Europa, or some other celestial object that is life-friendly.


~AP