Disqus - Latest Comments for miselaineeous

Re: The Conservative Atheists » Harvard Political Review

Elaine Walker — Sat, 09 Sep 2017 02:29:13 -0000

I'm a non religious conservative. Please, everyone, read my book "Matter Over Mind: Cosmos, Chaos, and Curiosity." It's on Amazon and also iBook, kindle, etc.. if you can't afford it ask me for a PDF. It's non-fiction physics/philosophy and ONLY conservative atheists will agree with every word. Please share it with your friends!

The true purpose of the book is to help liberal atheists understand conservatism and to help religious conservatives understand non-religious morality. There is a logical (even mathematical) thread that ties the conservative atheist world view together which you folks already naturally grasp. It's also just a great book for conservative atheists to enjoy through and through. I really tried to make it fun.

Re: The MOM (Matter Over Mind) Philosophy

Elaine Walker — Sun, 19 Feb 2017 21:03:41 -0000

Hi! Sorry for the delay. You can read my account of 9/11/01 here: http://elaineawalker.blogsp...

And... http://elaineawalker.blogsp...

And.. http://elaineawalker.blogsp...

Re: The MOM (Matter Over Mind) Philosophy

Elaine Walker — Fri, 27 Nov 2015 04:40:50 -0000

Update: It should either be out before Christmas or shortly thereafter.

Re: The MOM (Matter Over Mind) Philosophy

Elaine Walker — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 14:50:32 -0000

Hi David. I don't ever state anything like "We think this". The book is libertarian leaning, so I definitely put emphasis on individuals.

Re: Longevity

Elaine Walker — Mon, 25 May 2015 18:16:17 -0000

Hello Steve. Sorry for the delay. I'm glad you brought that up, because I really should change that to "population growth rate" which is how I refer to it in the book!

Longer life spans do not affect population growth to the extent that people imagine. The population growth rate is determined by how many offspring we have and at what age we have them, rather than how long we live.

Imagine if every woman waited until they were in their 40’s to have children, and their children also waited until their 40’s, and on down the line. The population growth rate would slow tremendously. If everyone had children at 18 (and assuming the same number of children were born as in the 40’s example) it would speed up. Whether everyone in either scenario died at 50 or 120 would make no difference in the population growth rate.

If people all suddenly started living until 500 years on average and everything else stayed roughly the same, the population would initially grow in a leap as people are born in the first 500 year period; however, the population would resume its previous growth rate as the older generation started expiring. If it were possible, and everyone also decided to wait until age 400 to have 2 children each, imagine how slowly the population would grow! By contrast, if people lived to be only 34 years on average and had five offspring per woman, the population would grow exponentially out of control.

Simply stated, when it comes to the population growth rate it doesn't matter all that much how long people live after they are done reproducing.

Re: The MOM (Matter Over Mind) Philosophy

Elaine Walker — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 13:14:20 -0000

Hi Mosiah. I am shooting for this Summer. It is mainly a matter of picking the best self publishing company and getting copies printed. It's begin edited right now. I will make electronic versions too. I am hoping to use my summer off to travel and
promote the book.

Re: The MOM (Matter Over Mind) Philosophy

Elaine Walker — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 13:51:41 -0000

Bravo!

Re: The MOM (Matter Over Mind) Philosophy

Elaine Walker — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 13:49:14 -0000

Yep. Not only are they low-res but are misleading because they are internally inconsistent. I just had a conversation with someone who said this. "Liberal means you do what you want. I'll do what I want." What he says is generally what 'Libertarian' means, not 'Liberal'.

Well sure, under a Liberal regime he can do what he wants in the bedroom, but not in his own home-grown business. Under a Conservative regime he could do what he wants in his home-grown business, but maybe not with his wedding vows.

The thing is, the gentleman that I conversed with doesn't own a business, and equates those who do with "greed" somehow. So he doesn't care about that particular area of freedom. But freedom doesn’t respond well to cherry picking. (The religious right doesn't equate gay marriage with freedom because they equate it with sinning.)

Re: The MOM (Matter Over Mind) Philosophy

Elaine Walker — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 13:25:18 -0000

Heinz, you are almost more audacious than I, starting over with a totally new musical scale! Seriously, you did a similar thing in that you showed, on a fundamental mathematical level, that our Western music scale was somewhat arbitrary and forced (like many other things in our society) and therefore not necessarily even the best choice. You even figured out the math yourself. :) I am just promoting what many have already known about complexity. [for reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...]

Re: Society and civilization

Elaine Walker — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 04:21:51 -0000

Very well put, Charles. I agree. And especially with Common Core now, teachers might be hard pressed to fit any kind of rudimentary chaos theory or dynamics in. http://www.corestandards.or...

It looks fairly detailed, and does not include any such thing, although I can see places where it might be snuck in. I don't see that happening any day soon.

Re: Chaos theory

Elaine Walker — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 03:49:06 -0000

Yes, it is definitely related.

“The paradox is that at the same time we've developed machines that behave more and more like humans, we've developed educational systems that push children to think like computers and behave like robots… So we spend years converting sloppy, emotional, random, disobedient human beings into meat-based versions of robots. ”

Yep! On the one hand, we recognize that AI must be feedback-loopy, organic, self-learning, self-correcting, and so forth. But on the other hand, there is the irony/paradox that being fully self-aware (which is what we ultimately strive for in AI) has the side effect of abstract thinking. That, in turn, means a tendency to overly-organize things (inorganically), thus making things more unbending and “robotic”, like our educational systems.

“This may have monotheistic roots. Right around the time Western factory workers were smashing robots with sledgehammers, Japanese workers were putting hats on the same robots in factories and giving them names.”

I have always thought that cultural difference was so interesting.

“Human beings—though not necessarily our current form of consciousness and the linear philosophy around it—are quite good at transforming messiness and complexity into art, culture, and meaning.”

Absolutely! He has outlined what is special and necessary about our abstract thinking here.

“We are descending not into chaos, as many believe, but into complexity.”

Indeed! Although, I would have put “chaos” in quotes. But yes, over the centuries societies have become much more complex in an organic, self-weaving way. This just wasn’t possible before we understood complexity in the mathematical sense, because the fear of the unknown/unpredictable/uncontrollable sends our abstract linear thinking into overdrive and we end up forcing our own rigid order on top of things, whether it’s government or religion based. When one truly understands the robustness of spontaneous order and complexity, there is less fear, and it is much easier to just “live and let live”.

Re: SXSW PanelPicker

Elaine Walker — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 03:27:06 -0000

This is one of the most amazing panels I've seen, and worth traveling for!! And ditto to what David Gump said about changing the zero-sum thinking.

Re: 1. About us

Elaine Walker — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:58:01 -0000

Yes indeed, Nietrick. I'm sure any of us who have gone to tea parties feels that way. I first noticed it when I protested at Dobson High school in Arizona, when Obama came to speak there. I actually thought about it ahead of time - not wanting to be confused with the religious right - so my sign said "Atheists are for Liberty". My roommate (a gay male) was dressed as Wonder Woman and his sign said "Wonder Woman is for Liberty", and the other side of our signs said "Obama is NOT". So we really didn't fit in anywhere, although we were still welcomed in the JD Hayworth crowd. I don't think he realized Wonder Woman was a man. :) -- http://www.youtube.com/mise... ("Don't Tread On Me" playlist).

Re: 1. About us

Elaine Walker — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:57:49 -0000

This is my new favorite blog. I was starting to think I was the only atheist conservative. Sadly, I stopped going to the atheist meetups I had been going to once the election was underway. They were all pro-Obama. Apparently, we never talked politics until the election.

Several months ago I joined a "Libertarian Brights" meetup (the closest thing to "conservative atheist" as I could find) and they were pro-Obama too! That surprised me, but then I realized they were so used to being anti-Bush that anyone for "change" must be good. And they actually believed Obama when he said he would be fiscally responsible. They probably aren't so pro-Obama anymore, but I'm not going to bother to find out.

Conservative talk radio often keeps me company, and I find it reassuring and hilarious, but then they start reading scripture unexpectedly. Oy vey.

Thanks for starting this blog!