Kester Brewin

[ Lock In [1] ]  [ Lock In [2] ]
Finally got my hands on Lanier’s book. Been devouring it like a good doughnut.
In the last post I explained how Sartre sets up this paradox: we are what we are, but precisely part of our being is that we are not simply what we are.
Having got some way [...]

[ Lock In [1] ]
In the previous post I raised the idea of technological developments giving rise to ‘lock in.’ Gadgets do not evolve in the organic sense ‘free’ that we might imagine: because of protocols and standardisation (think USB / railway gauges / HTML / Lego) their evolution is guided along particular lines. Other [...]

One of my favourite podcasts is Material World – a science review from the BBC. In a recent episode, Jaron Lanier discussed his recently published manifesto: You Are Not A Gadget. I’ve ordered it, but not read it yet, but was very much taken by one line of thought he introduced in the interview – [...]

Occasionally two things from the news catch your ear and resonate together. Today it was the news that Obama has cancelled Nasa’s new moon programme. And [ht Barry Taylor] that Gil Scott-Heron is back with a new album.
The connection? I’ve always loved Scott-Heron’s early, hard-hitting social commentaries. And the lyrics of ‘Whitey on the Moon’ [...]

I’ve been thinking about what this new year and new decade might hold for us, and thought I’d stick my neck out and make some predictions. In line with some of the major themes of this blog I’ve gone for something from categories of: technology, faith, environment, politics… and the personal. Some tongue-in-cheek, some serious. [...]

It’s been fascinating following the resurrection of CERN over the past year or so since the catastrophic failure of a few connections rendered it well and truly broke soon after it first came online. Things seem to be working very nicely now, but it struck me how extraordinary a piece of engineering this is: we [...]

“In the digital age, everything we say, do and write is preserved forever, including antics most would rather forget”
Fascinating piece in today’s Independent on the problem of the net never forgetting. So much of what we do is trackable online now, and as more RF devices are linked in to gadgets, vehicles – our bodies [...]

After hearing a chance snippet of something on the radio last week, I’ve been thinking about what is known in Mathematics/Physics/Astronomy as the ‘three body problem.’ It remains one of the great questions in Mathematics as to whether it will ever be solved, or if indeed it actually can be.
The essence of the problem is [...]

An interesting thread developing on Twitter with philosophybites – Nigel Warburton under the covers – around ideas of atheism and agnosticism. It’s building towards a telephone discussion on BBC Radio Five Live tonight from 1am (one for the podcast) about whether we should all just say we’re agnostics.
Nigel notes today that there is ‘no problem [...]

In the conversation menu for The School of Life dinner I attended earlier in the week there were a number of aphorisms and quotations to get people thinking, and a few rules too. One rule was based on Oscar Wilde’s famous quote:
Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
I actually think Wilde’s [...]