Category: Books
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Retrospective 2024-24
This is a retrospective of week 24, 2024 (2024-06-10–2024-06-16). This week, I’ve read an article about the persistent inaccuracies which plague Large Language Models (LLMs). The authors argue that it’s more accurate and useful to describe “AI hallucinations” as bullshit. These models replicate human language without any concern for truth. This is a serious problem…
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Christopher Alexander on Observation
Christopher Alexander has the following to say about the new method of observation which he proposes in The Nature of Order, Book One: The Phenomenon of Life (italics in the original text): [The method of observation] goes directly to the intuitions which are widely shared and raises them to a formal level as techniques of…
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Christopher Alexander on Descartes
Christopher Alexander has the following to say about René Descartes in The Nature of Order, Book One: The Phenomenon of Life (italics in the original text): …Descartes not only invented the method of observation which in effect we have continued to use unchanged for several hundred years, but that in addition he saw clearly what…
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Retrospective 2024-22
This is a retrospective of week 22, 2024 (2024-05-27–2024-06-02). I’ve continued reading The Living Classroom by Christopher Bache this week. I’ve mentioned the book here and here in previous retrospectives. The book is about collective consciousness and teaching, but it is as applicable to any circumstance where people gather with a common intent. I’ll review…
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Retrospective 2024-20
This is a retrospective of week 20, 2024 (2024-05-13–2024-05-19). As mentioned last week, I’m currently reading Biology Revisioned by Willis Harman and Elisabet Sahtouris. Harman and Sahtouris raise important questions about living systems and how to deal with self-organization. This has further implications for dealing with organizations and societies. Willis Harman mentions Margaret Wheatley’s eight…
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Retrospective 2024-19
This is a retrospective of week 19, 2024 (2024-05-06–2024-05-12). This week I’ve continued reading Biology Revisioned by Willis Harman and Elisabet Sahtouris. It’s a book which arrived last week. Harman and Sahtouris write: The self-forming characteristics of living beings…require a re-examination of the metaphysical assumptions that tend to underlie all of Western science. –Willis Harman…
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Retrospective 2024-18
This is a retrospective of week 18, 2024 (2024-04-29–2024-05-05). This week I’ve continued looking into the work of Forrest Landry. Here and here are my previous retrospectives on Landry’s work. Jim Rutt talks with Landry about his Small Group Method and the difficulties in scaling it up beyond 16 people in this podcast. Forrest Landry’s…
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Retrospective 2024-15
This is a retrospective of week 15, 2024 (2024-04-08–2024-04-14). This week, I finished reading VISTA: Life and getting where you want to be by Elisabet Sahtouris and I started reading the following two books: I also listened to Heather Ensworth’s interview with Elisabet Sahtouris this week. Elisabet talked, among other things, about her new book:…