In the 1980s, I fulfilled my (then-mandatory) military service. I tried to apply at a department that would benefit my skill set. The reply I received spoke volumes: "Why? Do you have a medical deficiency?" It was just the start of living in another world, in which they refer to us as civilians. Recently, I listened to an interview in which an adult actress refers...
Competition vs cooperation
Boredom vs curiosity
27 Jan, 2023
Lately, I've been watching movies or series, either on streaming media or on TV, that are boring. However, boredom is a prerequisite for curiosity, either external (ie, through our senses) or internal (ie, inside your mind). See my blogs on boredom versus curiosity. I suppose I should make some kind of a change in my life. I'm clueless about what (kind of) change....
Consciousness, a known unknown
25 Jan, 2023
On 29 December 2022, Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant published an interesting interview on consciousness with Dutch cardiologist Pim van Lommel. In his view, "there is no life after death, but there is continuity of consciousness" (my translation). His opinion would imply that our Data-Info is conscious. On 16 January 2023, the Wall Street Journal published the...
Climate warming, energy transition and geopolitics
16 Jan, 2023
Russia is (allegedly) looking for money to pay for its war against Ukraine (eg, Forbes-2022-03, FP-2022-07, Telegraph-2022-09, Bloomberg-2023, FT-2023). Russian cash flow is hindered by a mild 2022/23 winter and geopolitical events (eg, 2022 Russian oil price cap, and EU natural gas price cap). European climate warming was predicted decades ago (eg, Milankovitch...
“It’s just not knowable”
9 Jan, 2023
On 14 December 2022, the Federal Reserve chairman stated that "it's just not knowable", when asked if inflation will cause a hard or soft recession in the economy (see transcript, p.17/23). His answer relates to Fitch's paradox of knowability: the existence of an unknown truth is unknowable. Notwithstanding the above, people do hold views on that economic recession...
Experts vs Generalists
21 Dec, 2022
The website thesaurus has the following antonyms for expert: "awkward, clumsy, green, ignorant, inept, inexperienced, unskilled, unskillful, stupid, unintelligent, amateur, inexpert, unknowledgeable, and untrained". Clearly, there must be something (very) wrong with not being an expert. Most people are, however, not experts in any given field (eg, aerospace...
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