I don’t think about mountains much at home in the UK. In Taiwan, I think about them a lot. They’re right there, though they aren’t what most people associate with the place, I think. Taiwan is shaped by mountains. It’s a leaf at the edge of the pacific, twisted a little in the water so the spine is off-centre, and the spine is rugged. So the mountains make the land what it is, and in many ways human society what it is, too....
Bear with me, we’re going on a little thought experiment journey. You may, at some points, feel disoriented or wish to get out. The exits are there, there and there. Ready? We start inside your head, at this very instant. You are you, you are here, this is now. If you’re like most people, you have a very strong sense that you have a self, and that instant is part of a flow that self is experiencing in time, with a past and a future....
Why are you reading this? For some reason, in recent weeks I keep bumping into Robert Sapolsky’s ideas. He is certain that you had no choice but to read what you’re reading, because there is no such thing as free will. You may think you chose, but there was nothing doing any choosing. Biologically, you can’t argue either – because of the evidence, not because your actions are predetermined. Whatever you do is caused by neurons firing, which are physical, and work by physical causes, combinations of sensory input, connection between them, environment and history....
Sometimes I annoy people by saying that truth is not important. “Truth” is always either provisional, dependent on formal assumptions, or a matter of faith. It can’t be absolute, and therefore we shouldn’t treat it as an end in itself. As sentient beings, we interact not directly with reality, but with representations and models of reality. More and more, in science, through sophisticated equipment, but at any time through our senses and brain processes....
I regularly mention, when talking about other things, that I am a great believer in “the wisdom of crowds” and democracy in the absolute. And people are regularly baffled. What, I see all the idiots around, and what they vote for, and how all around people say stupid things and are mean and terrible, and wrong … and I think that’s a good thing? I do think it’s a good thing....