One of the major themes of Western philosophy since Plato is the elevation and near-deification of consciousness. Conscious thought and reflection have been prized above all else. Suspicion has been directed towards everything that is dark, murky, instinctive, unclear, unreasonable. Spirit has been emphasised above body. Christianity and its penal mechanisms was in no small […]
Works of art, including film, painting, sculpture, literature and poetry, have a seemingly inexhaustible quality. As we keep confronting them, renewing our relationship with them over time, we continually extract more meaning from them. Some works truly appear to be bottomless. Reaching the bottom easily is, of course, a sure sign that a work will not […]
Scientific method is fundamentally concerned with repeatable events. The phenomena that science captures most easily may be described using the following formula: once conditions A have been established, if B is done, then C happens. This kind of science is a science of reactions, of the reactive. But what about a science of the active? Is […]
Knowledge can be associated with weight, heaviness, obligation, cynicism. Depending on one’s attitude, it can be seen as opposed to more “innocent” qualities such as beauty and play in many cases. The more we know of our own history, and the more honestly we face it, the more gloomy we might become about the prospects […]
Pjotr Prins has published a Small Tools Manifesto for Bioinformatics, which is well worth a read for anyone who develops bioinformatics software. In essence it’s about increased adoption of the Unix design philosophy. I fully support the manifesto, which in many ways is reminiscent of the ideas that me and Gabriel Keeble-Gagnere presented in our […]