http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron text@machinemachine.net http://www.harpers.org/archive/2011/12/0083720 The history of science can be viewed as the recasting of phenomena that were once thought to be accidents as phenomena that can be understood in terms of fundamental causes and principles. One can add to the list of the fully explained: the hue of the sky, the orbits of planets, the angle of the wake of a boat moving through a lake, the six-sided patterns of snowflakes, the weight of a flying bustard, the temperature of boiling water, the size of raindrops, the circular shape of the sun. All these phenomena and many more, once thought to have been… ]]> Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:24:04 -0700 http://www.harpers.org/archive/2011/12/0083720 http://tumblr.machinemachine.net/post/8687570754 “Suppose two speakers, determined to contradict each other. As violent as their confrontation may be, as long as they are willing to continue the discussion they must speak a common language in order for the dialogue to take place. There can’t be an argument between two people if one speaks a language the other can’t understand. […] Can an individual actor, lost in these gigantic masses, still say ‘I’ when the old collectivities, themselves so lightweight, have already been reduced to uttering a paltry and outmoded ‘we’?”

- Michel Serres, The Natural Contract ]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2011 05:36:00 -0700 http://tumblr.machinemachine.net/post/8687570754 http://www.universite-du-si.com/en/conferences/8-paris-usi-2011/sessions/961-michel-serres Son of a barge man, Michel Serres joined the Ecole Navale in 1949 and the Ecole Normale supérieure in 1952 where he obtained the aggregation of philosophy in 1955. From 1956 to 1958, he served as an officer of the navy: squadron of the Atlantic, reopening of the Suez Canal, Algeria, and squadron of the Mediterranean Sea.
 
Michel Serres defended his thesis in 1968 and taught philosophy in Clermont-Ferrand, Vincennes (Paris I) and at Standford University. In his books, he focuses, among other themes, on the history of sciences (“Hermes”, 1969-1980). His philosophy, concerning as much sensibility… ]]> Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:15:38 -0700 http://www.universite-du-si.com/en/conferences/8-paris-usi-2011/sessions/961-michel-serres http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/04/25/separate_truths/?page=full It is misleading — and dangerous — to think that religions are different paths to the same wisdom.

At least since the first petals of the counterculture bloomed across Europe and the United States in the 1960s, it has been fashionable to affirm that all religions are beautiful and all are true. This claim, which reaches back to “All Religions Are One” (1795) by the English poet, printmaker, and prophet William Blake, is as odd as it is intriguing. No one argues that different economic systems or political regimes are one and the same. Capitalism and socialism… ]]> Tue, 27 Apr 2010 07:55:00 -0700 http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/04/25/separate_truths/?page=full http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article6739960.ece One of the epigraphs that punctuate Invented Knowledge is from Pascal: "It is natural for the mind to believe and for the will to love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false". Whether it is natural or not, it would seem that the false – the extravagant, the fantastical, the grandiose – can at times be so seductive that we suspend our critical faculties in its consideration. Ronald Fritze, a historian and dean at Athens State University in Alabama, is concerned about, and clearly fascinated by, the pseudo-histories and pseudo-sciences – the stories of… ]]> Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:20:00 -0700 http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article6739960.ece http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9KT4M7kiSw ]]> Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:37:00 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9KT4M7kiSw