Re: [foar] Book recommendation

[Kermit Rose]

On 2/13/2014 9:09 PM, Bill Taylor wrote:
> For anyone who still pays attention to my thoughts, I earnestly
> recommend the following book for your urgent attention. It is...
>
> "Physics In Mind" (A Quantum View of the Brain),
> by Werner R Loewenstein, (published 2013).
>

Great review Bill.

Werner would certainly appreciate having this review posted on the
Amazon.com web page.

Kermit.

[LizR]

Sounds interesting. I was rather disappointed with BOI (or the half I read). I will add that to my wish list.

By the way you "whet" an appetite (as in to use a whetstone, which is used to sharpen a blade - hence you make the appetite "sharper", metaphorically speaking).

[Bill Taylor]

On Friday, February 14, 2014 4:14:35 PM UTC+13, Liz R wrote:

By the way you "whet" an appetite

Yeah - I often find I'm waiting with "baited breath" too,
and I don't even *like* seafood all that much...

b
 

[ghi...@gmail.com]

Hi Kermit, hope you're well,

 

Do you know the guy? I just read an interview and he looks really well grounded. But I can't work out what extent what he says about the molecules and their quantum action is confirmed science?  Quote below. By the way thanks for this Bill I'm definitely mulling this book.

 

"I present an amazing set of molecules which achieve what the avant-garde of our computer scientists is only now hoping to: quantum computing. These molecules have been at it for eons—they were engineered in the oldest workshop on earth: evolution. And they wield unheard of computing power; they manage to harness the immense amounts of information inherent in quantum wave"

 

[ghi...@gmail.com]

Bill would you mind overviewing his take on consciousness.

 

He looks like Jon Pertwee

 

 

[LizR]

Is he talking about chlorophyll (excuse spelling) ?

Yes he does look rather like the late great Jon Pertwee at that.

[Bill Taylor]

On Monday, March 3, 2014 9:49:26 AM UTC+13, Liz R wrote:

Yes he does look rather like the late great Jon Pertwee at that.

He does indeed!  There is a pic of him in the dust cover
wearing a beret, so looking like a French Pertwee!

Is he talking about chlorophyll (excuse spelling) ?

Chlorophyll and rhodopsin in particular, but there are others as well.

There's one, I forget its name alas, that can exist in
two slightly different forms, the difference being that a small
"dent" in the molecule can be either "in" or "out".  It can change,
and the information thus sent to the other end "at the speed of decoherence",
(my term, not his), which he is very keen on, and observes is about
the fastest effect that can occur in physical systems, just under lightspeed.
He explains how this has super-rapid effects *after* holding a superposition
state for a remarkably long time for warm wet systems - on the order of
one or two seconds!   Amazing.   I forget the details, alas.

Not having the book with me now, I can't fully answer the query
about his take on consciousness, but I *can* tell you it is ruthlessly
objective and reductionist.  He would get on well with Dawkins and
Dennett, but not well with Husserl or the crypto-religious, or anyone
wanting to discuss consciousness from a subjective PoV.

But that just makes him like most scientists, after all.

-- unTangling Taylor

** When blackberries are red, they're still green.

[ghi...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, March 2, 2014 8:49:26 PM UTC, Liz R wrote:

Is he talking about chlorophyll (excuse spelling) ?

Yes he does look rather like the late great Jon Pertwee at that

 

I'm surprised an American has even heard of the guy (or a Kiwi for Bill). Is this because Dr Who was that drop dead cook even then?

[ghi...@gmail.com]

Yeah Bill, he sounds first rate...thanks for the review. I'll order the book.

 

[LizR]

At least one missing episode of 60s Dr Who was discovered in New Zealand.

The guy saves the universe with his wits and the equivalent of number 8 fencing wire (or at least he did before the modern incarnation with his magic wand sorry screwdriver came along) what's for a Kiwi not to like?

[Bill Taylor]

On Thursday, March 6, 2014 10:38:47 AM UTC+13, Liz R wrote:

I'm surprised an American has even heard of the guy (or a Kiwi for Bill).

 
Liz is also a Kiwi, OC.

The guy saves the universe with his wits and the equivalent of number 8 fencing wire

Just to update the uninitiated in the wrong hemisphere, "number 8 fencing wire"
is a phrase with iconic status in Kiwiland, being the mechanical cure-all for
the under-funded but ingenious Kiwi farmer.

> (or at least he did before the modern incarnation with his magic wand sorry screwdriver came along)

> what's for a Kiwi not to like?

He even had a pet dog for a while, K9, a "canine" in the true Fred Dagg manner.

I heard the screwdriver was getting to be such a deus-ex-machina cure-all
that the writers realised they'd have to get rid of it, and return the Dr to his
traditional under-resourced but ingenious persona.    Good Move!!

-- Bionic Bill
 

[LizR]

On 6 March 2014 15:40, Bill Taylor <shirt...@hotmail.com> wrote:

I heard the screwdriver was getting to be such a deus-ex-machina cure-all

that the writers realised they'd have to get rid of it, and return the Dr to his
traditional under-resourced but ingenious persona.    Good Move!!

We can ony hope that will be the case with the latest incarnation, the wonderful Peter Capaldi.

[ghi...@gmail.com]

No shit Liz is a kiwi. Oh....well that only endears her all the more. American is something I will allow. But KIWI. I always had a softspot for both islands, Australia the other. They built societies from nothing no less successful than America, and no less creating a unique identity. But they weren't so lacking in imagination they had to deny their own ancestral histories. Nor so insecure they couldn't be entertained most above all else, by laughing at themselves, while somehow never belittling things like ordinariness - but celebrating it instead. The amazing, uniqueness wanting out, that's always there. The Americans never learned to love themselves, not clinging to very best, but ordinary,. and loving that. America didn't get there, and that's a reason for the extreme rash jingoism, cliché patriotism, best country and really meaning it, and not knowing a lot about any other countries. It's all back to not being able to make moves like strictly ballroom or Muriel's wedding.aussie horrors are a bit sick though