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Intelligent Design?

BBC report that the American Supreme Court have banned the teaching of “intelligent design“. While intelligent design sounds like a valuable course at a technical university it actually refers to the newest form of anti-Darwinism. Basically the idea is that nature is too complex for natural selection.

Do you want proof that there must be an “intelligent” force guiding the choices nature makes then look at any complex animal or organism. This is of course bull. If anyone wants to believe – thats fine. But proof? No way. Also I would like to know if these people find “flawed” or even really bad design in nature as a proof that unintelligent design forces are at work?

platypus
Is the Platypus evidence of humorous design?*
To point at an anthill, beehive, weaver bird nest or the human eye and say “oh! thats complex” is fine. But to take complexity as a proof of a higher power is to regress “…back to cavorting druids, death by stoning and dung for dinner” (Blackadder). Historically, that which we did not understand was referred back to some higher being. But this gets scary today when we have both more knowledge and methods for understanding more of the truth than ever before and still some people prefer the mythology to the facts. Its time to face it (if you have not already done so) Darwinism may not be what you want to hear but it is a fundamentally better theory than anything else around.

However since Darwinism is not compatible with a litteral interpretation with the bible schools have attempted to ban the teaching of evolutionary theory. Therefore to comply with this certain schools of thought began developing intelligent design. Its not a well grounded theory – it does not have to be since it demands faith rather than proof.

Anyway the US Supreme Court have now found that Darwinian evolution must be taught as fact in biology lessons. Good work!

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*Robin Williams about the platypus:
“Do you think God gets stoned? Take a look at the platypus… I think you think he might.” (mimes toking on a joint) “Hey Darwin! Yo. Here ya go! I’m gonna take a beaver, and put a duck’s bill on it.” (cackles stonily) “Then, I’m gonna give it webbed feet, and it’s gonna live in water. Then (tokes again) it’s gonna be a mammal, but it’s gonna lay eggs! Muahahahaha! Hey, I’m God, what’re you gonna do, eh?”

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The DeadLine, or this is not a vida

To those of you who read this blog, friends (do friends read friends blogs?), as you may know the realest* of all my deadlines is fast approaching. At this stage I am disinclined to follow the thoughts of the sage “I love deadlines. I especially love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by”** and attempt to manage the impossible (hitting deadline) if only to get the damn thing*** over and done with. This first hurdle of all hurdles is not the vida but the internal seminar were the wise ancients of the Dept of Informatics (there is no place like home) climb down from their mountain-tops to throw lightening-bolts, murmer incantations and generally discuss the suitability of the dullard attempting to pass through the gates which they are set to keep. Therefore I am left to arrange my defence and attempt to explain myself. All that remains are the words “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.”****

And it didnt take me 20 years even though some of you may have thought so…

the blind bard
the blind bard

THEN Ulysses tore off his rags, and sprang on to the broad pavement with his bow and his quiver full of arrows. He shed the arrows on to the ground at his feet and said, “The mighty contest is at an end. I will now see whether Apollo will vouchsafe it to me to hit another mark which no man has yet hit.” On this he aimed a deadly arrow at Antinous, who was about to take up a two-handled gold cup to drink his wine and already had it in his hands. He had no thought of death- who amongst all the revellers would think that one man, however brave, would stand alone among so many and kill him? The arrow struck Antinous in the throat, and the point went clean through his neck, so that he fell over and the cup dropped from his hand, while a thick stream of blood gushed from his nostrils.*****

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* Social Constructivists among you would dispute this but even the most active social constructivists tend to agree that deadlines exist and follow them – why is that? Wouldnt a real conference on social constructivism really be a a group of people not submitting on time, another group not following the compulsory paper format and eventually at the conference no groups turning up?
** Douglas Adams, who else?
*** Phd…if you didnt know this you have not been paying attention.
**** Douglas Adams, who did you think?
***** Odyssey Book 22 Samuel Butler (trans.) A funny illustrated story version here.

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Online exihibion

A great online exihibion “Life of the People: Realist Prints and Drawings from the Ben and Beatrice Goldstein Collection, 1912-1948“. All of the exhibition’s fifty-nine works on paper are reproduced in the catalog with captions and essays.

This picture is unusual among the images in the Goldstein Collection in that it extolls the benefits of capitalism, The artist Michael Lenson (1903-1971) took the title Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s campaign speech at a union dinner in Washington, D.C., on September 23, 1944.


Full Employment
“Full Production and Full Employment
under Our Democratic System of
Private Enterprise”, ca. 1944.

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Grafitti as Social commentary

Grafitti is a difficult topic. I dislike it when trams and buses are vandalised and filled with repetitive tags and I am not impressed by any sloppy, messy and defacing uses of a can of spraypaint. However this doesnt mean that I dislike everything I see. Some of the work out there falls into a category of its own. I am particulary fond of social commentary. Where there is a large communicative process. The difference? Well tags are simply the marking of turf in the same way as a dog would pee on a lamppost. Important to the dogs in the area perhaps, but not really a communication to anyone else. Social grafitti partakes, and asks others to partake, in a social discourse. One of the best examples of this I have found is the work of Banksy, who makes grafitti a form of social commentary.

“Imagine a city where grafitti wasn’t illegal, a city where everybody could draw whatever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a living breathing thing which belonged to everybody, not just the estate agents and the barons of big business. Image a city like that and stop leaning against the wall – its wet.” Take a look at examples of his outdoor collection here. I particularly like his work on the Israeli/Palistine wall which can be seen here. His work can also be seen in Retort Magazine – Where you can see a picture of Mujahidin Mona Lisa. More of Banksy’s work can be found in his books Existencilism (2002) and Wall and Piece (2005)


existencilism Wall and Piece
Books by Banksy

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Another interesting example of interesting grafitti is done by a lesser, but more local anonymous hand holding the spray-can. I came across this wall while working in a nearby town. I would not really have bothered with it much since it is simply the words “Civil Disobedience” (in Swedish) sprayed on the wall of a concrete underpass. The thing that makes this interesting is that the writer asking for (demanding?) disobedience corrects his own sign to conform to spelling.

civil olydnad
On a wall in Uddevalla (Now repainted)

If its disobedience you want – then why bother correcting the direction of the N? Is this actually more than simple tagging? Has the hand that sprayed thought about what it was doing? Is the changing of the N actually a subtle communication by the artist on the ways in which even disobedience is ruled by conventions? This work was trivial but with the changing of the N it becomes a subtle form of communication on the nature of laws, rules and social conventions. All this in two words on a concrete wall that never previously inspired me to think. Dont tell me that grafitti isnt important.

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Swedish Computer Museum

Yesterday I gave a presentation on Creative Commons at the Swedish Computer Museum, ITceum, in Linköping. I have visited the museum once before but this time I got the chance to walk around before my presentation and look at all the cool stuff. It is really a nerdy nostalgia trip with old computers some of which make you cry out “I had one of those” others pre-date me.

adb
Ready for a hard day at the office?

Collecting IT stuff into a museum is definately an interesting challenge. Much of what was created was used (abused?) and then thrown away, but it is important to remember that this is technical history at its best. The cool thing about the museum is that it is not virtual, you can actually touch an old Sinclair or IBM card sorter.

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Pictures on Walls

Another cool website collecting everyday culture is Pictures of Walls. This is a site full of messages written on walls. The idea is that this is the individuals attempt to comment and create the culture which appears around her.

The project has also resulted in a book called Pictures on Walls. There the importance of social commentary is stressed through the manifesto.

MANIFESTO
Art is not like other culture because its success is not made by its audience. We, the public, fill concert halls and cinemas every day. We read novels by the millions and buy records by the billions. We, the people, affect the making, the taste and the quality of our culture.

The Art we look at, however, is made by only a select few. A small group create, promote, purchase, exhibit and decide the success of Art. Not more than 5000 people in the world have any real say. When you go to an Art gallery you are simply a tourist waving flags at a parade. A parade where the winner was decided without you.

We want to make Art that charts. We thought of calling it a revolutionary new way to sell Art but it’s not revolutionary. It’s just cheap.

The malls are coming out of the walls.

pointless vandalism
This one is entitled Pointless Vandalism. From the website Pictures of Walls.

Once again we see that by collecting the bits and peices of life, or the commentaries of people around us, we get thoughtful commentaries on our existence. Not only is this art (or whatever you want to call it) an effective and thought-provoking form of communication, but it is also additionally interesting since it is ephemeral. Here today, gone tomorrow.

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Online museum

skarabej.com

I have always been fascinated by old photographs. At the same time I have always been saddened when I see old photo albums or pictures being thrown away. Not that I have followed the impulse to collect these discarded images. Its more that the old discarded photo reminds us of the shortness of life and memory.

Apparently someone else has followed these similar impulses and started an Online Museum of Old Family Photographs called Skarabej. Its a museum well worth the visit.

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The Virtual Virtual

Using computers to mimic, enhance and even create musical instruments is really nothing new. Until now! Enter the age of the virtual virtual. The new toy is the The Virtual Air Guitar. Its “simple” augumented reality – a pair of gloves (to recognise what your hands are doing), press the start pedal, and swing your right hand as if you were strumming a big chord and that’s exactly what happens – you hear a power chord with punchy distortion. Now move your left hand along the imaginary neck and strum again – it’s a different chord.

virtual air guitar

All of a sudden the act of mimicing a real instrument (playing air guitar), now becomes the act of playing a virtual guitar. What will the effect of this technology be to such cultural events such as the Official US Air Guitar Championships? You dont think this will have an effect? Just think of the changes which shook the film industry when sound came to the movies…At the time Warner (of Warner Brothers fame) uttered the famous question “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”

So I leave you with a paraphrase: Who wants to hear the air guitar? 🙂

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Vietnam disagrees

Recently (17/11) the Reporters without Borders (RWB) published The 15 enemies of the Internet and other countries to watch. among the top (bottom?) 15 was Vietnam of which the article wrote:

The country closely follows the Chinese method of controlling the Internet, but though more ideologically rigid, the regime does not have the money and technology China has to do this. It has Internet police who filter out â??subversiveâ?? content and spy on cybercafés. Cyber-dissidents are thrown in prison and three have been in jail for more than three years for daring to speak out online in favour of democracy.

This article was not recieved happily by the countries on the list and now the Vietnamese news agency has written an article which argues against RWB putting Vietnamn on their list. The Vietnamese article is published by the VietNam News Agency (VNA) which is the official news service of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. The “VNA is directed by the Government and is authorized to make official statements reflecting the State’s points of view on important national and international issues” (more info about VNA). The article argues against the RWB list and claims that:

The RWB made groundless and ill-intended allegations against these nations for “violating the right to freedom of speech on Internet, censoring liberal sources of news, strictly controlling Internet services.” It accused these nations of “shutting the mouth of dissidents, making troubles, repressing and even imprisoning those who expressed on the Internet opinions running counter to the Government’s policies.”

the article then goes on to describe the development of Internet services in Vietnam. Which is naturally followed by the consequences of such development.

The country’s poor management capacity and infrastructure facilities have been blamed for the Government’s inability to control inflammatory, false and libelious information and pornographic images posted by several local Internet providers. The fact has caused concern among the people. Viet Nam has also failed to introduce effective measures to prevent hostile and reactionary forces and political opportunists at home and abroad from using the Internet and on-line forums to speak ill of achievements gained by the people.

The article then moves on to meeting the actual accusations which places them on the RWB list

Like other countries, Viet Nam discourages and restricts the dissemination of information calling for subversive attempts, and puts firewalls on websites that are not suitable to the morals and fine customs of oriental people in general, and the Vietnamese people in particular.

The main motivations for censorship are the twin threats of subjecting children to pornography and terrorism. Vietnams main defence, in his article, seems to be “everyone else is doing it”:

After the Sept. 11 incident, haunted by terror threats, many Western nations have tightened control over the Internet – a move considered by some citizens to violate individual privacy. The United Nations has been calling for the establishment of a UN Internet Surveillance Agency, which will map out and implement Internet administration policies, covering the most imperative areas of the global network, namely the distribution of domain names, Internet security and crimes, spam, and the protection of individual information on the net.

Naturally the fact that other countries are behaving badly is something which the RWB is aware of even countries that did not make the list (yet) are included in the study as countries which need to be watched. Among the more interesting statements in the article is a sentence at the end “Why did RWB try to politicise a technology that has brought vigorous changes to daily life worldwide?”…Nice try – but when was technology apolitical?

Posted on by mklang