In-Sight Publishing

2023-02-03

An Interview with Associate Professor Stavroula Kousteni (Part Two)

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/08/15

Abstract

An interview with Associate Professor Stavroula Kousteni. She discusses: tasks and responsibilities with professorship; the Women’s Commission Committee and helping solve women’s problems; greatest emotional struggle in personal and professional life; and skeletal influences on physiological processes.

Keywords: professorship, Stavroula Kousteni, women.

An Interview with Associate Professor Stavroula Kousteni: Associate Professor, Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University (Part Two)^{[1],[2],[3],[4]}

*Footnotes throughout the interview, and bibliography and citation style listing after the interview.*

7. You are the Associate Professor in Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University. What tasks and responsibilities come with this position? For instance, the training and outside of research.

There is training. A big part is to train students and post-doctoral researchers that come into the lab. It is hands-on training. It is teaching them how to do research, how to recognize problems, what questions to pose, how to form hypotheses, and then what is very important is how to read the results.

People can look at the same set of results and derive different interpretations. You can look at the result. You can make the result fit the hypothesis. Or even if the experiment didn’t work, you can see is that it doesn’t fit the hypothesis. But if you look at your results, you can see hidden things. This is my favourite part. I take the raw data – everybody’s raw data. They do an assay at the spectrophotometer.

They generate numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers. I look at the numbers in groups. I can look at them for days sometimes, especially when something does not exactly fit. When you do that, you can see connections that you did not expect were there. You can see possibilities that can change your hypotheses to a greater or lesser extent, and often to more exciting directions. I tell my trainees: keep your eyes and minds open to discover new connections. In the past, I had people in the lab say, “This is not possible.”

When that new “that” was looking at them straight in the eye, I told them that this is not the place for them. If I cannot teach you that many things are possible, then this is not the place for you. Another part of my training responsibilities is to teach in courses that are run from different programs and departments. Those are different training program supported by the different Institutes of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

I co-direct one of those programs. An endocrinology training grant that is supported by the NIDDK. It is a grant from the NIH. It has a specific fellowship for pre-docs and post-docs. So, the program tries to place them, support them with money, train them in endocrinology – a holistic view. Then there are the institutional groups we serve. For instance, I have been part of a task force with the aim to improve quality of life, communications, and working environment at the Campus.

I sat with a group of investigators and administrators. Our task was to define what areas needed to be improved in terms of facilities, provisions like childcare, and internships for older kids. Also, I serve on the senate for the Women’s Commission Committee. It is looking into identifying and resolving women’s issues, and to promote their recognition and opportunities in the university.

8. With regards to the Women’s Commission Committee, and women’s concerns and issues in the university, what are those? How can individuals, groups such as the commission or other groups in the university and other institutions solve those problems?

That women are able to perform their work with the same provisions, opportunities, and recognition as their male colleagues at the equal level. During the last few years, the university has made big steps towards this direction. More Deans and Center Directors are women than 5 years ago. Also, there are departments such as the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, the Department of Human Genetics and Development, that by looking at their faculty and faculty positions one can see that they are very supportive of women faculty. We are on a good track.

9. What seems like the greatest emotional struggle in professional or personal life?

First, in professional life, one of my struggles comes with the nature of our work. Lab trainees eventually complete their training cycle, close their project, publish, and move on to the next stage of their career. It is an emotional struggle to lose good people among them. Imagine, you work for years to build a team and then every few years need to rebuild it. Sometimes, it feels like a wave when people leave together. Others join at the same time. Emotionally and practically, it is demanding. It takes skill, effort, and time to re-establish relationships and re-harmonize the lab functions.

The second struggle in professional life is funding. Running a lab is similar to running a small company because we need to continuously generate funds. At these times, as an investigator, you need to be resilient with the difficulties in obtaining NIH funding. To get funded, an investigator has to submit a project proposal that is reviewed by a scientific panel with relevant expertise put together by NIH officers.

In this process, we are effectively told whether what we do or propose to do has merit or not, if it is worth or not. This is an exercise in resilience. It’s a criticism of your ideas and approach. If you don’t get it in the end, you have to be able to say, “I’ll move on and put in another application.” Since NIH funding is limited now, this laborious process can be repeated several times and it hits success.

In personal life, I would say how to bring up my kids. That is the most emotionally intense experience for me.

10. How so?

In fact, it’s a challenge. It was a struggle because I spent a lot of time working rather than seeing them growing up. However, I realized the things that I could offer and teach them by behaviour, experience, and by being satisfied and fulfilled from my work. Those made the compromise worthwhile. It is a challenge considering that my knowledge and experiences go into it.

I have so many different cultures in me – growing up in one country and moving into another one while meeting so many people with different backgrounds and religious beliefs. I am a scientist and am used to observing. I am used to abstracting my ideas to construct rational lines of thinking of hypotheses and conclusions. I use all these expertise as way of teaching them how to be decent and inspired people. All of my energy outside work goes there. This effort is full of emotional charge for me. I want to help them understand how important it is to ask for things in life, how important it is to be inspired in life, and how important it is to have many experiences.

11. You have moderate representation in the media.^[5],^[6],^[7],^[8] The reports covered the research on Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Your main research might be summarized as “[skeletal] functions in metabolism and hematopoiesis.”[9] It is a comprehensive research program with a distinct focus.[10] Let’s explore some of this research in-depth through some queries to you: what are the general influences of the skeleton on various physiological processes?

I was not satisfied looking at bone only as bone. For me, it was more exciting to understand how different organs interact with each other. I always wanted to enter the bone field. I was able to achieve that when I became an independent investigator. I want to know how these organ interactions maintain health. Normal every day physiological processes. This is alongside my interest in hematopoiesis and cancer. My work with Ellin and Azra made me focus to myeloid malignancies.

We started a project in the lab that was looking at simple things – to see if the skeleton and the bone-forming cells have any way of interacting or influencing leukemia. As we started doing the experiments, we realized that it did. There are signalling pathways that are triggered from osteoblasts that promote or halt the progress of leukemia. We started working on the pathways. As we were going forward, we asked whether there are any genetic differences. For example, mutations in osteoblasts that would not influence the progression of the disease alone, but could be as important as inducing it or altering its course.

That was much more far reaching because these two cell types – the leukemia cells and osteoblasts – come from different lineages. It was not thought that one could influence the fate of the other. The idea of a cell outside the hematopoietic lineage affecting myeloid malignancies was starting to surface. I decided to look extensively into it at that point. We examined a particular mouse model with a mutation on a protein that we thought could be a common link between hematopoiesis and osteoblast functions.

We found that when this mutation was present only in osteoblasts, at least in mice. It was by itself adequate to trigger the development of MDS. Then the disease quickly progresses into myeloid leukemia with all of its features of AML. If you take these bone marrow cells from these mice and transplant them into mice mouse, the healthy mice will also develop AML. With the help of Azra and Ellin, we screened a large cohort of patients with MDS and AML. To this time, we have screened 350 people, patients. We were interested to see if an AML inducing pathway like this was active in the osteoblasts of patients with MDS or AML.

We found that 30-35% of these patients had this pathway active, which suggested that it might be inducing AML in humans. We knew the signal transmitted from the osteoblast to the hematopoietic cell. It was turning this cell into a leukemic one. That meant that if we could block it, then we could block the disease. This was exciting because it could be a new means of dealing with MDS and AML. We would be targeting a leukemic signal originating from a cell (the osteoblast) that is stable, has a stable function, and does not change identity.

That is unlike leukemia cells. Those tend to accumulate different mutations or mutations develop mutations that make them resistant to chemotherapy or targeted treatments. We did this experiment in mice too. We used an antibody that blocked the pathway in osteoblasts. By doing that, it blocked the disease in mice. At this time, we are looking at other molecules and mutations in osteoblasts that may affect MDS and AML progression.

We are looking at interactive molecules. What is it that the osteoblast secretes to protect from that leukemia cell? So, we’re piercing the pathway together. We are trying to learn how these cells communicate, how you can interfere in these communication signals to take advantage of them – of one signal or the other – and make the bone a place that myeloid dysplasia can’t grow.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Associate Professor, Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University.

[2] Individual Publication Date: August 15, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2016 at https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

[3] Ph.D., Cardiff University.

[4] Photograph courtesy of Professor Stavroula Kousteni.

[5] Columbia University Medical Center. (2014, January 22). Potential Drug Target Found for Common Blood Cancer. Retrieved from http://www.dddmag.com/news/2014/01/potential-drug-target-found-common-blood-cancer.

[6] Waknine, Y. (2014, January 27). Hit the Cancer Where It Lives: A New Approach to Treating AML. Retrieved from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/819764.

[7] Columbia University Medical Center. (2014, January 21). Common Blood Cancer May Be Initiated by Single Mutation in Bone Cells. Retrieved from http://newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu/blog/2014/01/21/common-blood-cancer-may-initiated-single-mutation-bone-cells/.

[8] News-Medical.Net. (2014, January 21). Mutation in bone cells may cause acute myeloid leukemia: Study. Retrieved from http://www.news-medical.net/news/20140121/Mutation-in-bone-cells-may-cause-acute-myeloid-leukemia-Study.aspx.

[9] Columbia University. (2016). Kousteni, Stavroula, Ph.D. Retrieved from http://www.physiology.columbia.edu/Stavroula.html.

[10] Kousteni, Stavroula, Ph.D. (2016) states:

Research Activities

The purpose of the research in my laboratory is to understand the influence of the skeleton on various physiological processes. The long term goal is to uncover the pathogenesis of degenerative diseases and to suggest novel and adapted therapies for them. Along these lines we are studying the function of bone as an endocrine organ regulating glucose metabolism and energy homeostasis and examining the role of osteoblasts in hematopoiesis with particular emphasis in myelodysplasia (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Bone as an endocrine organ

Osteoblasts, the bone forming cells, have been shown previously to influence glucose metabolism through the secretion of a bone-specific hormone, osteocalcin. We found that the activity of osteocalcin is regulated transcriptionally by osteoblast-expressed FoxO1. These findings raised for us the question of the nature of the osteoblast as an endocrine cell, and more specifically whether it secretes other hormones regulating any aspect of energy metabolism. Using a genetic approach to this problem we identified a second osteoblast-specific hormone that affects glucose metabolism and insulin secretion. We are currently expanding this work, searching for its receptor and for other functions and mechanisms of action exerted by this hormone.

Detecting Interactions between Osteoblasts and Leukemia Blasts

In current work, our lab has discovered a function of the skeleton, as an inducer of leukemogenesis. We identified a mutation in the osteoblast that disrupts hematopoiesis leading to leukemogenic transformation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and establishment of MDS progressing to AML. The same mutation and signaling pathway were identified in more than a third of patients with MDS and AML. We have also found that osteoblasts affect engraftment of leukemia blasts. We are currently characterizing the signaling pathway that mediates these actions. This work may provide a rationale for using means to manipulate the osteoblast to make the hematopoietic niche hostile to residual leukemia cells.

Columbia University. (2016). Kousteni, Stavroula, Ph.D. Retrieved from http://www.physiology.columbia.edu/Stavroula.html.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Associate Professor Stavroula Kousteni (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/08/08

Abstract

An interview with Associate Professor Stavroula Kousteni. She discusses: familial geographic, cultural, and linguistic background; familial background influence on her; ancient and modern Greek texts that influenced her; reference to 1984; origination of interest in medicine; and interest in pathology and cell biology in particular.

Keywords: 1984, cell biology, medicine, pathology, Stavroula Kousteni.

An Interview with Associate Professor Stavroula Kousteni: Associate Professor, Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University^{[1],[2],[3],[4]}

*Footnotes throughout the interview and citation style listing after the interview.*

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside?

I was born in Athens, Greece until I went to college. It was in a city to the South on the Peloponnese. It’s called Patras, which is a port city. You need to take a boat if you want to travel from Greece to Italy. I was born in Athens. However, my culture is influenced by the island where my mother comes from, an island in the Dodecanese (the Twelve Islands), called Karpathos.

It is located between Rhodes and Crete. It is one of the most traditional islands in Greece. Its society is to a large extent governed by women. It has extremely strong roles for women in and outside the family. It has a culture that is friendly to people and celebratory of life. For example, every important event in the life of any person, whether it is engagement, marriage, or death, is usually communicated by a type of on-the-moment song, which is sung in the tune of the local instruments.

It is a way of living an emotionally intense and authentic life. It brings communication to a different level. It makes relationships between families closer. The villages on the island are small. Everyone is a ‘relative’. Many people moved to Athens after the war, formed an association, and bought a lot in the outskirts of Athens in a suburb at the North. Also, the land was divided among families who built houses and apartment buildings on it.

We lived in Karpathos. I grew in a very close, rich, and emotional community. It had a tremendous effect in my view of life. It’s my roots. It’s the place that gives me strength, sense of value, and teaches enjoyment and appreciation of life. I left this place to do a B.Sc. in Chemistry at the University of Patras in Greece. After that, I moved to the U.K. to University of Cardiff where I did my Ph.D. and a postdoctoral fellowship.

2. With respect to the “roots,” how did this familial background influence you?

First, it strengthened me as a woman in professional activities and family life. It was natural. It was expected that I would guide and create. Second, it taught me to form strong connections with an extended group of people. In early life, those were extended family. Cousins that were cousins of my cousins. To me, they were still cousins (!). It was a strong family bond that made us treat each other as brothers and sisters. When I left Greece, I sought to create a similar group of extended family.

Not friends alone. They were family by choice with a strong and supportive relationship. Third, it implanted a sense of optimism. So, I could crawl up unwavering. Even in the blackest days, when I really don’t want to know anything about still surviving (I would laugh here), I can get up. Also, the ways to express myself and celebrate life. Can you imagine if your sister is getting married and you start singing about what happened in her life? What happened in her past? What you hope for her? Most people sing and cry. However, a celebration of the life of the person and the relationship with them.

My personality and life were influenced by high school in Greece. High school is from grade 7 to grade 12. I took an exam. I was accepted to one of the academically prestigious schools called Anavryta. I have been one of those lucky people who knew very early. I wanted to do biomedical research. I was fascinated by science.

I have always been interested in biology, chemistry, and physics. However, I did not take these subjects in school. I took a rare and in-depth training in humanities and language arts, analysis of texts, Ancient Greek, Greek, new works of Greek authors, and world history. My mind learned to function through these years in that school. My language teachers were inspiring. They inspired us to think deep, analyze what we read, what we write, and how we think about life. That has shaped the way I see everything. It has shaped my style of science. As well, my will to be open-minded to understand different perspectives.

3. You mentioned Ancient Greek texts and some modern Greek texts were of influence for you. What were some of those?

Once we start learning Ancient Greek in 6^th grade, we read a translation of The Iliad and The Odyssey. A smart way to introduce us to the Ancient Greek world since the main interest was to teach us the concepts, the notions, the intrigues, the emotional relationships, the political situations, and so on, behind these works. Also, we were taught the “Herodotus Tales.” Herodotus was born in Halicarnassus, in Asia Minor, in the fifth century B.C. and has been called the ‘Father of History’, because he wrote the first comprehensive attempt at secular narrative history, considered the starting point of Western historical writing.

We were immersed in stories about Persian Wars, Babylon, Egypt, and Thrace. Also, we read and analyzed texts from Socrates. I was stunned to find ancient Greek education in the United States. For a couple of months, we toured Columbia University for my son’s college visit. He was told that independent of the direction taken. All first year students across different courses and programs are taught The Iliad. (Laughs). Then we re-read most of them in Ancient Greek, along with Thucydides “History of the Peloponnesian War” that chronicled 30 years of war between Athens and Sparta.

Ancient Greek is a complex language. As a Greek, you can recognize several words, but the syntax in intricate and often hard put into context. In Modern Greek, we read a lot of poetry, the works of Odysseus Elytis, Konstantinos Kavafys, Giorgos Seferis. One of the favorite authors analyzed in detail was Antonis Samarakis, who in his writing put a lot of emphasis in the person as an individual. On the thinking process, the person’s thinking process can change due to events in that person’s life. We read his masterpiece “The Flaw,” which was written in 1965. It is eerily prophetic of the military dictatorship that followed in Greece

4. It’s like 1984. It’s based on events, but in a future time.

It is predictive of the future. It tells the story of a suspect detained in an unspecified police state. At an unspecified time, it examines the relationship between what seems to be a leftist, or communist perhaps captive, and his interrogator and detainer. Who is taking him to whoever he needs to go, the plan is devised by the state to make him attempt to escape, thereby proving his guilt, or confess to his anti-state crimes under interrogation. The flaw is the plan’s failure to allow for the human factor, the fellow-feeling that the interrogator develops for the suspect during their time together.

The captive and the interrogator become harmonized with each other. As the relationship develops, as they relate things more intimate to them, the hesitation and awkwardness develops because part of it is asking, “How much of this relationship is true? How much is one trying to manipulate the other?” We spent a lot of time analyzing how the protagonists express themselves in their relationships.

5. Where did interest in medicine in general originate for you?

When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be an astronaut, which is funny. However, when I finished wanting to be an astronaut, I wanted to be in medicine. I had an inspiration growing up. A great aunt, she was a dentist. For a woman in Greece to be a dentist and intellectual immediately after World War II, she was an admirably accomplished woman. I was fascinated by her dynamism. I was fascinated by the humanism of medicine. I saw that through her. However, I was thinking, “For me, this is ot enough.”

I could see by talking with her, reading newspapers, and magazines. There were many incurable diseases. My focus shifted into understanding how it works. How do people get sick? How does disease start? How can disease be treated? This is when my interest in cancer developed too. Cancer is such a complex multifactorial and ever-changing disease. How does it all happen? Suddenly, I remember visiting the Department of Biology in Athens in 8^th grade. When we finished going through the labs, I thought, “This is what I want to do.” I want to do research. I want to do biology-oriented research.

I was lucky. It is hard to make a decision for what you want to do for the rest of your life when you are an adolescent. Colleges in Europe do not offer the range, diversity, and combinations in courses of US colleges. In Europe, you have to choose a specialty at 18 years old. So, I was lucky. I knew in 8^th grade. Those were the years we read about major DNA discoveries, breakthroughs in molecular biology, manipulating the genome in model organisms, sheep (Dolly), and later mice. All of these discoveries seemed amazing to me. The possibilities seemed endless.

You can modify the DNA, delete parts of it, or edit it. You do this to ask questions about the function of specific genes in disease and in physiology. You can look inside the cells at molecules that communicate messages. In the early 80s, it was not possible to get trained in it in Greece. I decided to apply and was accepted in the Department of Chemistry in Patras University. It was a new Department. Then and now, it has an excellent teaching faculty. The only one with a good section in Biochemistry. Part of the section in biochemistry had a course in molecular Biology, it was a dream for me. I knew from that early 8^th grade visit to the Department of Biology. I would have to go abroad to complete my studies and to do research. I could not wait to do so.

6. You found the real interest in medicine and chemistry, and not in being an astronaut…

(Laughs)

…What about pathology and cell biology in particular?

From my point of view, research can be done in two approaches. For one, it can be focused on a particular cell type or organ, which delineates its function and rules (the intracellular, intraorgan mechanisms) that regulate its fate and activity. For another, you can look at this organ from a plane view and study its integration into the whole body, which means the inter-organ communications and the transmitting signals that mediate them. In either case, you can be strictly molecular by staying focused on DNA changes and signaling events, or take a more translational/clinically applied spin by asking, “How do those apply to disease pathogenesis and to disease treatment?”

My scientific journey started with the first approach. It is now encompassing the latest. I entered the field of bone biology in 1999. I started by asking very cell focused questions: How do bone cells function? How do they maintain health and survival? How do they function to keep making bone or to resorb bone? How is this process regulated? I was looking at the specific cellular mechanism of the 3 different types of bone cells: 1) osteoblast that make bone, 2) osteoclasts that resorb bone, and 3) osteocytes that are entombed in the mineralizing of the matrix and communicate mechanical signals.

This is the more isolated view of an organ. I looked at bone as something more than an isolated island within the body. I look at it as an organ that should interact with other organs. We are used to thinking of the skeleton as a mechanical scaffold whose role is to help us grow, move around, and withstand the mechanical forces of daily life. This is one of its most amazing functions that it impressively fulfills by achieving complete renewal every 10 years. Every 10 years we have a new skeleton. However, it is not the only one. As the largest organ in the body, it makes sense that there are other roles.

I was interested in finding those. Also, I was interested in understanding how it interacts with other organs to regulate either normal physiological processes in a healthy organism or to regulate disease. My main interest is in disease pathogenesis. Where does disease start? What is the imbalance that makes a disease manifest? In following this approach, I have come to a point where I often say that I run a ‘schizophrenic’ lab. It deals with bone, but many other directions too. One direction is an unintended one. I had not envisioned it. It was something brought on by research.

When I moved to Columbia University in 2006, my lab was looking at a protein, FoxO1, which regulates bone mass in response to oxidative stress. In basic research, if you want to ask, “How does a protein work? Is its function important for a specific tissue?” You inactivate (knockout) the gene that makes the protein in mice and in this tissue. When we knocked out FoxO1 from bone and specifically osteoblasts, we created mutant mice that had a phenotype unrelated to bone mass. They had low blood glucose levels, high insulin levels, high glucose tolerance, which means that if they ate more and high fat food they did not gain weight.

In short, inactivation of a protein expressed in bone cells led in mice led to improved glucose metabolism. We followed this line of research and have subsequently generated several other genetic mouse models that serve to examine role of hormones produces by bone cells in the regulation of different aspects of energy metabolism. Half of my lab is working on these projects. The other half of the lab follows projects related to my fascination with cancer. I wanted to do this research for many, many years. Before I became an independent investigator, I was interested in hematological cancers. Because they are born, live, and thrive in the bone marrow within the bone, where hematopoiesis occurs and goes awry in such cancers, I was a hesitant in entering this vast field.

We started, shyly and cautiously, with an M.D. Ph.D. student, who did some of our initial experiments looking at how osteoblasts affect hematopoiesis. One day, an M.D. and clinical investigator Dr. Ellin Berman, from Memorial Sloan Kettering, met with me and asked if I would be interested to look whether osteoblasts affect leukemia blasts. I was thrilled. We started working on a small focused project with limited funding. Very soon Dr. Azra Raza, the head of the MDS Center at Columbia University and an amazing investigator, joined in these studies, which flourished, expanded, and drafted my new scientific identity: the study of the role of bone cells in the development of MDS and AML.

This line of research is close to my heart. An exciting part of our work is that that we are looking at MDS and AML from a different point of view. Traditionally, investigators look at hematological diseases like myeloid leukemia, myeloid dysplasia as dysregulations, genetic modifications, and mutations. All occurring in hematopoietic cells. These dysregulated cells turn malignant. We look at the disease from the point of view of completely different cells. They are not sisters, brothers, or parents of hematopoietic cells. They belong to a parallel lineage.

They are osteoblasts. They are supposed to originate from a distinct ancestor, which is different than the hematopoietic cells. We look at how osteoblasts affect the induction of myeloid malignancies. Their engraftment or progression. It is a new way to look at pathogenesis, or even treatment of MDS and AML. In fact, we found a different source of MDS and AML pathogenesis one that originates from the osteoblast. A cell outside the hematopoietic lineage. This new mechanism might hold a new promise for treatment because the osteoblasts might be a more amenable target that an AML or MDS cell.

Those malignant cells change identity constantly by accumulating new mutations or developing new protective mechanisms to outgrow treatments. Chemotherapy and other drugs that target specific mutations can be overcome by the appearance of new clones. These new clones arise or the clones become resistant. Our idea is that if you target a cell that is important for the induction of the disease and its progression, but that cell does not change its identity. You can block the signal of the cell, and then have another means to block leukemia. This research is inspiring and consuming me at the same time, not only by the thrill of the discoveries of basic science but because of its closeness to such devastating human diseases and its potential impact.

I am further influenced to my core by the work of my MD collaborators, especially Azra and Ellin. They are the closest ones to me and to my work. Often, I talk to them. I see the sensitivity with which they take care of their patients. Also, their relentless and uncompromising daily fight to save them. Over and over again, it is an inspiring fight to witness. It puts a human and humane face to the research. I can associate our work in the lab with the desired and hoped for outcome: to discover so as to treat. This is very personal and intense. I can say this approach increases personal responsibility and inspiration at the same time.

I share this view this feeling, responsibility, and try to pass them onto and to inspire my students, post-docs, and associate researcher scientists. I tell them how extremely privileged we are as researchers and as a basic science lab to have access to and to be entrusted at the same time with patient samples for our research. That we are lucky to have collaborators that have been generous in sharing their human samples with us.

It permits us to do meaningful research. Every time, we receive them, from Azra or Ellin, I say, “You should not sleep at night. You should be thankful every night that you were able to get these people’s cells. You had better do something worthwhile with them because to them it is a matter of life or death.” They hear this at least once a month. Or, every time that we get new samples. That’s how I feel about it. I committed, serious, and grateful to the work in the lab.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Associate Professor, Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University.

[2] Individual Publication Date: August 8, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2016 at https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

[3] Ph.D., Cardiff University.

[4] Photograph courtesy of Professor Stavroula Kousteni.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Anand Jain (Part Four)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/08/01

Abstract

An interview with Anand Jain. He discusses: elaboration on the About (2015); gods in an eternal universe (with souls) subject to the law of Karma; human beings able to reincarnate as gods themselves; an atheistic element to Jainism; purpose of prayer; uniting part of Jainism among Jains; Jain view of wellbeing; and long-term plans of the Jain Center of British Columbia.

Keywords: Anand Jain, British Columbia, Founder, Jain, Preserver, Sustainer.

An Interview with Anand Jain: Founder, and “Preserver and Sustainer,” Jain Centre of British Columbia (Part Four)^[1]^,[2],[3]

*Footnotes throughout the interview and citation style listing after the interview.*

27. About (2015) concludes:

The main order of Dharma was initially established by the 14th Manu, namely Lord Rishabhdev millennium years ago. One can find ample of literature on Lord Rishabhdev in Vedas and Bhagvatam. Jainism has 24 Thirthankars who are ford makers, starting from Lord Rishabhdev being the first and Lord Mahavir, who was born 2,612 years ago, being the last.^[4]

Please elaborate, what does this mean in full?^[5]

Under this question, it says that before the 14^th Manu, there was a different order of subsistence in the subcontinent and 14^th Manu taught the masses how to fill the land for food and other needs of subsistence.

Most importantly, in the new Era, Rishabdev emphasized the need of good Karmas to attain Salvation and therefore, he taught the basic ethics of non-violence and mutual co-existence with one’s neighbour, i.e., called Parasper Upagraho Jivanam meaning that we all can exist side by side and are interdependent on each other in a society. Therefore, peaceful co-existence was the primary teaching along with non-violence.

Later on, all remaining 23 Tirthankars followed the same path and depth and attained salvation. This ethical teaching became a religion which was only a religion (Duty) and when the other religions floated, the word JAIN was coined; meaning who are victorious on one-self; or meaning who have won over one’s desires and follow the ethical path of non-violence in all walks of life.

28. In the foundational metaphysics of Jainism, five ideas form its base, namely: “souls (jiva), matter (pudgala), motion (dharma), rest (adharma), space (akasa), and time (kala).”^[6] Matter and souls separate in a dualistic philosophy, complete division between them, and a total denial of one God sovereign over all in the operations of the world: its creation, operation, or dissolution. Finite gods exist with subjection to the law of Karma.^[7] The universe, or the world, remains eternal too.^[8] How are gods in an eternal universe (with souls) subject to the law of Karma?^[9]

The foundational metaphysics of Jainism simply states how the universe works and there is no creator, sustainer and destroyer. The natural forces enumerated here propel the world, there is no other force behind it. Even present day modern science concurs with Jainism’s contentions. Hence, we call Jainism a Scientific Religion.

Since Jainism has no notion of God, the word God does not come into question; therefore, there is no question of human beings incarnating as Gods.

29. Does this leave the possibility for human beings to reincarnate as gods themselves?

Good question, actually, Alexander the Great came to India he saw some of the Jain monks sitting on dried bark, and basking in the Sun. And they were naked. He went to the emissaries and said, “Go to them and tell them I will give them lots of wealth.” The monks said to the emissaries, “Go to your leader and tell them, it’s okay, go back and say we don’t need it.” Alexander the Great was surprised thinking, “Who are these people?”

He came and had an audience with the head man, and the mans aid, “Look, you have done a lot of cruel things. You have looted and killed a lot of people. Your end is near. I can see it on your forehead.” Alexander said, “I beg you to give us one of your saints that I can bring t Athens.” He brought one of the saints, and he passed away, and the saint told his minister, “Take his hands outside of the coffin so that people can see and that you cannot take anything with you. You go empty-handed. His footprints were still there.”

They learn from India.

In Jainism, there is no such word as INCARNATION. Yes, there is a word called transmigration; and once a soul is born as human, he has to work hard on the Jain ethics to attain Godhood.

Again, this entity is not the creator, sustainer and destroyer; but simply attainer of Salvation, thus ceasing the cycle of birth, old-age and death.

30. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy in Language and Testimony in Classical Indian Philosophy: General philosophical approaches to the status of Vedic scriptures (2014), Jainism rejects the notion of God, where it states:

The Buddhist and the Jain traditions also rejected the notion of God, and hence any claim that the Vedas were words of God, and hence authoritative, was not acceptable to them. On the other hand, the Jain and the Buddhist traditions claimed that their leading spiritual teachers like Mahāvīra and Buddha were omniscient (sarvajña) and were compassionate toward humanity at large, and hence their words were claimed to be authoritative… The Mīmāṃsakasaccepted the arguments of the Buddhists and the Jains that one need not accept the notion of a creator-controller God…The Mīmāṃsāconceives of an unbroken and beginningless Vedic tradition. No man or God can be considered to be the very first teacher of the Veda or the first receiver of it, because the world is beginningless. It is conceivable that, just as at present, there have always been teachers teaching and students studying the Veda. For the Mīmāṃsakas, the Vedas are not words of God. In this view, they seem to accept the Buddhist and the Jain critique of the notion of God. There is no need to assume God. Not only is there no need to assume that God was the author of the Vedas, there is no need to assume a God at all. God is not required as a Creator, for the universe was never created. Nor is God required as the Dispenser of Justice, for karman brings its own fruits. And one does not need God as the author of the Vedas, since they are eternal and uncreated to begin with.^[10]

Mark Owen Webb notes the same.^[11] When individuals outside, or even inside, of Jainism perceive an “atheistic” element to its conceptualization of the universe, what does this mean in precise terms?^[12]^,[13]

All that is mentioned in your other question is true and repeats what Jainism says.

In Jainism, the followers give the highest respect to all Tirthankars only for their highest ethical teachings and sometimes call them Bhagavan or God in name only. A learned Jain would only call them Tirthankar, meaning (A teacher who teachers the art of crossing the worldly ocean to attain salvation to the masses and also crosses himself and attain salvation).

31. What purpose does prayer serve to individuals and groups of Jains in their community?^[14]

The prayers remind us and inculcate the finest qualities possessed by Tirthankars while they were on the path of austerity. One must bear in mind that Jainism, Tirthankars have attained salvation and therefore, are detached from the worldly affairs. Thus, they are unable to shower any gifts or curse us.

32. With respect to orthodox and non-orthodox divisions and sects, what component of the complete Jain philosophy and life practice produces the greatest division among Jains?^[15]^{,[16],[17],[18],[19]}

The practice of rituals and limits of possessions by Monks and laymen. Also, the degree of severity in following daily life of Monks; namely, Skyclad’s highest monk will sleep on the floor, takes a vow, if certain conditions occur, only then he will accept food from the household that practice the cooking of food according to strict Jain principles and cleanliness. He takes his food in forming a bowl with his two hands, once only in 24 hours, that also goes for water. If and when his vow does not match, he goes without food until the next day.

Secondly, Skyclads still fully believe in the scriptures and practices laid down by all Tirthankars, and have not added or subtracted any new ideas.

33. What most unites Jains?^[20]

The vegetarianism, worship of the Tirthankars, reverence for all kinds of lives and a sernee, peaceful, honest, and sincere life style in daily business life.

34. Jains believe in concern for the health and welfare, or the wellbeing, of the universe, have emphasis on “three jewels”: right belief, right knowledge, and right conduct, have belief in reincarnation, ground themselves in self-help or destitution of assistance from the gods – or God – for human beings, believe in souls for animals, plants, and human beings, believe in the need for consideration of equal compassion, respect, and value for these souls, and aim for the elimination of Karma.^[21]^,[22] How does wellbeing of the universe, self-help devoid of the gods’ or God’s assistance, existence of the soul in everything, its reincarnation in novel forms, and ethical requisite for compassion, respect, and value for the souls themselves, interrelate in this Jain conception of the biosphere, human beings, and their mutual interrelationship with the universe?^[23]

All that said points to respect for the environment. Jainism has taught to be frugal in using water; carefully and cautiously excavating and tilling land; not even moving your body in the air without any reason. All it means limiting harm to the environment.

35. What are the long-term plans of the Jain Center of British Columbia?^[24]

Long-term plan for the Jain Centre of BC is to provide a conducive, friendly and welcoming atmosphere for all; visiting Monks and scholars; a school for the youngsters.

Jains do not believe in proselytizing, yet anyone willing to learn and practice Jain philosophy is warmly welcome. Jainism is not a caste-based religion. It is a practice-based religion.

Thank you for your time, Mr. Jain.

I feel you are a professional, doing your duty very well, have taken your time to read all of the scriptures, and were so brave to form these questions for me, and you spent your time. I am retired. I am happy. I don’t worry about going to the office or money. God has given me more than enough. So I thank you very much because that way through your hard work and publishing people will have ideas about Jainism. And, hopefully, they like it, and it makes their lives better. Thank you very much.

Bibliography

BBC UK. (2014). Jainism at a Glance. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/jainism/ataglance/glance.shtml.
Deshpande, M. (2014). Language and Testimony in Classical Indian Philosophy. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/language-india/.
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2016). InEncyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com.
Gandhi, M. (2013, April 30). Let us Celebrate Mahavir Jayanti on April 23, 2013. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/documents/Article%20by%20Mrs.%20Maneka%20Gandhi.pdf.
JAINS: Federation of Jain Associations in North America. (2015). JAINS: Federation of Jain Associations in North America. Retrieved from http://www.jaina.org/.
Jain, V. (n.d.). President’s Message. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/president-message/.
Jain Center of British Columbia. (2015). Jain Center of British Columbia. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/.
Jain Library. (2015). Jain eLibrary. Retrieved from http://www.jainlibrary.org/.
Statistics Canada. (2005, January 25). Population by religion, by province and territory (2001 Census)
(Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon). Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo30c-eng.htm.
Webb, M.O. (n.d.). Jain Philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/jain/.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Founder, and “Preserver and Sustainer.” Jain Centre of British Columbia.

[2] Individual Publication Date: August 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2016 at https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

[3] Photograph courtesy of Anand Jain.

[4] Jain Center of British Columbia. (2015). About. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/about/.

[5] Jain Center of British Columbia. (2015). About. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/about/.

[6] Webb, M.O. (n.d.). Jain Philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/jain/.

[7] Webb, M.O. (n.d.). Jain Philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/jain/.

[8] Webb, M.O. (n.d.). Jain Philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/jain/.

[9] Webb, M.O. (n.d.). Jain Philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/jain/.

[10] Deshpande, M. (2014). Language and Testimony in Classical Indian Philosophy. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/language-india/.

[11] Webb, M.O. (n.d.). Jain Philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/jain/.

[12] Deshpande, M. (2014). Language and Testimony in Classical Indian Philosophy. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/language-india/.

[13] Webb, M.O. (n.d.). Jain Philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/jain/.

[14] Jainism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Jainism.

[15] Indian philosophy. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Indian-philosophy.

[16] Jainism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Jainism.

[17] Jain Center of British Columbia. (2015). About. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/about/.

[18] Deshpande, M. (2014). Language and Testimony in Classical Indian Philosophy. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/language-india/.

[19] Webb, M.O. (n.d.). Jain Philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/jain/.

[20] Jainism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Jainism.

[21] BBC UK. (2014). Jainism at a Glance. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/jainism/ataglance/glance.shtml.

[22] karma. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/karma.

[23] karma. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/karma.

[24] Jain Center of British Columbia. (2015). Jain Center of British Columbia. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Anand Jain (Part Three)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/22

Abstract

An interview with Anand Jain. He discusses: importance of interfaith dialogue; relationship with Hindus and Buddhists in British Columbia; relationship with Hindus and Buddhists in Canada; relationship with Hindus and Buddhists in the world; “Ahimsa, Aparigraha, and Anekant”; the grounding of the manifestation; Five mahavatras and influence on daily life; Digambras and Svetambras; origination of their division; purpose for monks and nuns in Jainism; and salvation with end result of zero Karma.

Keywords: Anand Jain, British Columbia, Founder, Jain, Preserver, Sustainer.

An Interview with Anand Jain: Founder, and “Preserver and Sustainer.” Jain Centre of British Columbia (Part Three)^[1],[2],[3]

*Footnotes throughout the interview and citation style listing after the interview.*

16. What importance comes from interfaith dialogue?^[4]

It shows how other religions think about us, other faiths think about us. It is great to shun all of our differences and discuss things – how we can give to the society. And I think this is one way we can mutually get education, and I am the only one that always goes to these events.

I do not deny that it is not easy to take out time, but somehow I look for them, you know.

In this library right here [Simon Fraser University Surrey Campus Library – Scott], I think twice there was a big interfaith conference. I was invited once by the Bahá’í faith. It is a good thing if we can dispel some of the misgivings.

It is enlightening to note that Jainism has always taught to respect the views of other religions. A very amicable relationship exists with both Hindus and the Buddhists.

17. Jainism exists, in history and in the present, alongside other Indian philosophies and life practices, or religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism.^[5]^{,[6],[7],[8],[9],[10],[11]} What relationship exists among the Hindus and Buddhists of British Columbia?^[12]^{,[13],[14],[15],[16],[17],[18]}

It is not common knowledge that Buddha was a Jain monk for 7 years before devising a middle path for himself called Buddhism.

It is not common knowledge that lineage of most of the Hindu Gods and Jain Tirthankaras are the same. Both share the same family inception and culturally there is hardly a difference.

It is not common knowledge that Hindus and Jains do have interfaith marriages, because our culture is similar. And why not? Like, before and now, people do like to – everybody has their own differences. Even a brother or another have a different ideology, but that does not mean you can sit together and eat, on the other hand, we have an advantage because other religions have learned non-violence and vegetarianism from the Jains. Come to think of it, one of the Hindu universities’ chancellor’s once said that to become a good Hindu you have to be a Jain first.

We wish we all continue to do the same. Only then we can make this world a beautiful place to live other than you can see now, or done 15 years ago.

I wrote a poem in Hindi, and I predicted that the culprit or the perpetrator would survive, and you could see a few years after what happened. So those are the thoughts.

18. What about Canada?^[19]^{,[20],[21],[22],[23],[24],[25]}

It is very amicable, the relationship, in Canada.

19. . How about the world?^[26]^{,[27],[28],[29],[30],[31],[32]}

It is a very amicable, the relationship, in the whole world.

20. What does each principle of “Ahimsa, Aparigraha, and Anekant” mean to the Jain community – in British Columbia and its global manifestation?^[33]^{,[34],[35],[36]}

Ahimsa is non-injury to any being by way of thoughts, speech and actions. Aparigraha simply means limit your needs, your possessions, let it be available for others, and keep only what you need.

If you keep it to yourself, it will degenerate itself, it will go moldy, or go out of fashion, so why do you need to hold it? Let go, you will have better sleep. That’s how our saints live. They do not even have clothes or bowls. They make a bowl by clutching their two hands together, and they take food once in 24 hours, and he thinks a person in a black jacket and blonde hair (referring to me – Scott) should meet him and then he should eat.

Anekant means tolerance of all kinds of views of all kinds of faiths. Never say that you are the one who is always right. Different people think differently, so we should not be criticizing them and this is not one. Truth is not one-sided, and you are not the contender that I am the only one. Others are, and there are many ways to look at it. It is very intricate. There are seven sides that you have to apply on all subjects, and only then do you come to the truth. Anekant is about multiple states, multiple views.

Non-violence, non-possession. Jainism also says there are the same rules with the saints. The ones who are away from the worldly life have stern rules. And then the household owners can then devolve them to their own level, and then they can increase them to their own level in degrees. So those are the three explanations that are important for those things.

21. What grounds these principles?^[37]^{,[38],[39],[40]}

Since religion in Jainism is a way of life, a rational belief system; a yearning desire for salvation, these principles guide our total behaviour.

One must understand that Jainism is the only religion that is not organized.

22. Five mahavatras, or great vows, exist in Jainism: ahimsa or non-violence – the supreme principle, “non-attachment to possessions, not lying, not stealing, and sexual restraint.”^[41]^,[42] Duly note, the emphasis on restraint in contrast with aid, or encouragement, with the prefix “non-.”^[43]^,[44] How do these influence daily, mundane, life for a Jain?^[45]^,[46]

No doubt that a child and adolescent would only observe and imitate what the parents and the community members do in daily life. Accordingly, these five principles are very dead to all Jains.

The degree of understanding them well depends upon one’s knowledge of the religion. Age factor has nothing to do with it.

Once again, knowledge of the principles and how much importance a Jain grants to them depends on person to person and their situations, conditions and guidance. Modern day to day life is so mechanical that one has little time to fully practice these five principles. Never the less a Jain would think of these five principles before violating them grossly.

23. What divides the Digambras, the “sky clad,” and Svetambras, the “white clad”?^[47]

Skyclads follow the attire and way of life as it was dictated by all the twenty-four Tirthankaras even until three hundred years after the last seer in 300 BC. Digambras or Skyclads have always followed the original path and are still following it in India ever since.

24. Where did this division originate?^[48]

The Whiteclads or Swatambers came about after 300 BC when a 12 year famine in the province of Magadh (present day State of Bihar) was predicted by a Skyclad monk who advised the followers to go south to survive…

But, some were adamant to stay in Magadh during the famine and had to change themselves according to the calamities of the day. They adopted and amended different principles.

25. What purpose comes from the existence of monks and nuns in Jainism?^[49]^,[50]

Monks and Nuns have a dual purpose in Jainism. Firstly, they want to be in the front of the line for salvation by fully practising the principles of Jainism called Mahavratas.

Second purpose is that they are real examples for the layman in the Jain community.

Frankly, they are the greatest source of encouragement and guidance. They the upholders of the Jain religion without having any authoritative behaviour.

26. According to About (2015), it states:

Jainism is the one of the most ancient religions of India teaching non-violence, peaceful co-existence, a disciplined lifestyle, and limiting possession. It teaches not to hurt any soul by thoughts, speech, and actions. Thus, no injury to all beings, including our ecosystem. It precisely elaborates the route to salvation by reducing all Karmas to zero.^[51]

How does the Jain tradition define “salvation” and its end result in zero Karma?^[52]^,[53]

An intensive practice of Jain principles, denying one’s body of pleasure and pain; fasting for long times; walking on foot, controlling even the subtle greed, anger, passions and possessions one reduces Karmas to zero and thus is closer to salvation.

Salvation, according to Jainism, is only possible after shedding all Karmas. Salvation is an eternal abode where the soul remains with it’s own individual identity and possess all virtuous qualities of a liberated soul. This is an abode where the soul does not have to travel to different places and is not subjected to the vagaries and sufferings of Birth, old age and death. The soul ceases the cycle of birth and death.

One must know that Jainism is not one the ancient religions of India. It is the only ancient religion of India. Others are imports into the country. So-called Hinduism based on the Vedas are imports.

Of the Aryans who arrived from the North East.

It is said that in the scriptures that you cannot get Salvation in this world. You cannot get ther because the time there is eternal. We have divided time into six-fold time, and we are in the fifth, which is bad, and the sixth will be horrible, and the fourth was good. Always, the fourth time prevails. So, from there, we have to do penance there. It does not matter if you do it there or here, you cannot have Salvation with penance, and no one is spared – even the Tarthinkars were not spared.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Founder, and “Preserver and Sustainer.” Jain Centre of British Columbia.

[2] Individual Publication Date: July 22, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2016 at https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

[3] Photograph courtesy of Anand Jain.

[4] Jain Center of British Columbia. (2015). About. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/about/.

[5] In Hinduism (2015), it, in part, states:

Hinduism, major world religion originating on the Indian subcontinent and comprising several and varied systems of philosophy, belief, and ritual. Although the name Hinduism is relatively new, having been coined by British writers in the first decades of the 19th century, it refers to a rich cumulative tradition of texts and practices, some of which date to the 2nd millennium bce or possibly earlier. If the Indus valley civilization(3rd–2nd millennium bce) was the earliest source of these traditions, as some scholars hold, then Hinduism is the oldest living religion on Earth. Its many sacredtexts in Sanskritand vernacular languages served as a vehicle for spreading the religion to other parts of the world, though ritualand the visual and performing arts also played a significant role in its transmission. From about the 4th century ce, Hinduism had a dominant presence in Southeast Asia, one that would last for more than 1,000 years.

Hinduism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Hinduism.

[6] Indus civilization. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Indus-civilization.

[7] Sanskrit language. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Sanskrit-language.

[8] Southeast Asia. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/place/Southeast-Asia.

[9] In Buddhism (2015), it, in part, states:

Buddhism, religion and philosophy that developed from the teachings of the Buddha(Sanskrit: “awakened one”), a teacher who lived in northern India between the mid-6th and the mid-4th centuriesbce (before the Common Era or Christian era). Spreading from Indiato Central and Southeast Asia, China, Korea, and Japan, Buddhism has played a central role in the spiritual, cultural, and social life of Asia, and during the 20th century it spread to the West.

Buddhism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Buddhism.

[10] Buddha. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Buddha-founder-of-Buddhism.

[11] India. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/place/India.

[12] Hinduism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Hinduism.

[13] Indus civilization. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Indus-civilization.

[14] Sanskrit language. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Sanskrit-language.

[15] Southeast Asia. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/place/Southeast-Asia.

[16] Buddhism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Buddhism.

[17] Buddha. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Buddha-founder-of-Buddhism.

[18] Inia. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/place/India.

[19] Hinduism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Hinduism.

[20] Indus civilization. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Indus-civilization.

[21] Sanskrit language. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Sanskrit-language.

[22] Southeast Asia. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/place/Southeast-Asia.

[23] Buddhism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Buddhism.

[24] Buddha. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Buddha-founder-of-Buddhism.

[25] India. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/place/India.

[26] Hinduism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Hinduism.

[27] Indus civilization. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Indus-civilization.

[28] Sanskrit language. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Sanskrit-language.

[29] Southeast Asia. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/place/Southeast-Asia.

[30] Buddhism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Buddhism.

[31] Buddha. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Buddha-founder-of-Buddhism.

[32] India. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/place/India.

[33] India. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/place/India.

[34] ahimsa. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/ahimsa.

[35] anekantavada. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/anekantavada.

[36] BBC UK. (2014). Jainism at a Glance. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/jainism/ataglance/glance.shtml.

[37] India. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/place/India.

[38] ahimsa. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/ahimsa.

[39] anekantavada. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/anekantavada.

[40] BBC UK. (2014). Jainism at a Glance. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/jainism/ataglance/glance.shtml.

[41] ahimsa. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/ahimsa.

[42] BBC UK. (2014). Jainism at a Glance. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/jainism/ataglance/glance.shtml.

[43] BBC UK. (2014). Jainism at a Glance. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/jainism/ataglance/glance.shtml.

[44] BBC UK. (2014). Jainism at a Glance. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/jainism/ataglance/glance.shtml.

[45] BBC UK. (2014). Jainism at a Glance. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/jainism/ataglance/glance.shtml.

[46] BBC UK. (2014). Jainism at a Glance. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/jainism/ataglance/glance.shtml.

[47] BBC UK. (2014). Jainism at a Glance. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/jainism/ataglance/glance.shtml.

[48] BBC UK. (2014). Jainism at a Glance. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/jainism/ataglance/glance.shtml.

[49] BBC UK. (2014). Jainism at a Glance. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/jainism/ataglance/glance.shtml.

[50] Jainism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Jainism.

[51] Jainism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Jainism.

[52] Jainism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Jainism.

[53] karma. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/karma.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Anand Jain (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/15

Abstract

An interview with Anand Jain. He discusses: falsehoods about Jainism; truths that dispel the falsehoods; greatest difficult as a minority religion in the Lower Mainland; non-Jain to Jain citizen relationships; consideration of other religions from Jainism; motivation for “promoting non-violence, peaceful co-existence, vegetarianism, and interfaith dialogue”; and reason for espousing vegetarianism.

Keywords: Anand Jain, British Columbia, Founder, Jain, Preserver, Sustainer.

An Interview with Anand Jain: Founder, and “Preserver and Sustainer.” Jain Centre of British Columbia (Part Two)^{^[1],[2],[3]}

*Footnotes throughout the interview and citation style listing after the interview.*

9. If we can explore something a bit, which comes from the specificity of the previous response, then this might be of community value in the short, or long, term. In a very pluralistic society, as Canada is, there can be a lot of superficial knowledge about various religious belief systems. What falsehoods exist about Jainism?^[4]

The biggest falsehood is that this is an offshoot of Hinduism. Even most of the Hindus have no knowledge that their first Ved, namely, Rig Veda elaborately mention Jain’s first tirthankar as the first person to teach the civilization and whose son’s name gave the name Bharat to the sub-continent of India.

10. What truths dispel them?^[5]

Basically, people are not informed about it. Jains have done a very poor job about informing others simply because they do not want to, they are not in the habit of beating their own drum, which would put them in another category – where they will be accused of proselytizing other people, and also they do not want to be haughty. If somebody wants to learn, there are libraries and temples. Come, we will be happy to tell you about our functions.

Some of them know very well. Some of the pundits know that it is the oldest one. They know that it is a separate entity. If they can say that the other religions came out of that in a different form, then that is true. Some of them still do not want to believe it because the number is not great. Some will say, “If it is such a great and big religion, why are there not a lot of followers?”

The answer is that it is a religion is practice. You have to practice what you are taught. You cannot simply not practice, not being able to do anything and still call yourself religious. Even somebody that is a Jain would not be a Jain, if they do not follow the principles because it is not based on the caste system, it is an action-system. It goes by your acts.

Traditionally, Jains do not tangle in arguing and imposing their religion on others, but the scholars like the Late Dr. Radhakrishnan, the second President of India, and numerous others with knowledge of the history of India clearly wrote that Jainism is an ancient religion separate from Hinduism. This remains a difficult issue where the 80% of the problem of the land are Hindu. Jains do not want to create a problem; since, we are taught to put the country or your land first and religion after. Jains are devout nationalists. When it comes to receiving honours from the President of India in 2015, Jains stole the show. Out of 109 medals, 8 were received by Jains. Being a large majority in India, Hindus think that all is wrote in their book and they believe that Jesus was south Indian Hindu and Christianity was born in India. So, you can judge for yourself.

Like I told my friend, I never sold 22 karat gold. I was a jeweller, but when I see all f the Indians buying 2 karat gold. I can come out and put a smoke screen and say, “Yes, yes! I do sell it.” But that is not. What should I say? I should say I sell diamond watches and 10 Karat. So I should state that that way. But the other religions have a different perspective. They say they sell coffee, Starbucks. No, you brew your own and stay there.

11. Two religious sects in society come to mind to the earlier point about proselytizing to individuals in a society. Whereas the Jains consider national identity first and then religious identity in terms of priorities, and without proselytizing, if one looks at the Jehovah’s Witnesses or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (The Mormons), they tend to come to you. That’s a different methodology for bringing people into the community. To me, that is a poignant point by you.

So if one looks at the demographics of the religions in British Columbia, if you add Roman Catholics and Protestants together, that amounts to about 73% of the Canadian populace with 16.5% for those without religious affiliation, which leaves 10.5% for the rest of the religious demographics of the nation.^[6] That is, 89.5% of the Canadian populace have labels as Roman Catholic, Protestant, or No Religious Affiliation, which means the lack of knowledge about the intricacies of small (by demographic numbers, not ethnicity) religions is not deliberate but, rather, a natural and predictable consequence of size compared to the large religious/irreligious labels in the country. What remains the greatest difficulty as a minority religion within the Lower Mainland, British Columbia, and Canada – with some insight into the intricacies?^[7]^,[8],[9]

The greatest difficulty being the availability of Jain food in restaurants and some groceries mainly used by Jains. It is comforting to note that since Jains enjoy a respectable place in Indian society and in educated masses outside India. Jains are given a special welcome by all upon knowledge of their Jain identity.

I, myself, have experience welcome gesture from different quarters when people knew that I am a Jain. My benefactor an Irish Canadian who sponsored my application to come to Canada and gave my first job before arriving in Canada confided in me that he believed Jains to be honest and educated when he took the decision to sponsor me: “Ethics have their worth in gold.” This is my own invented, experienced, proverb.

Don’t love wealth too much. Jains are not worried about what other people do. We are not here to teach other people how to live.

12. How might non-Jain Canadian citizens reach out to Jain Canadian citizens, and their community, in a compassionate, reasonable, and respectful manner, and vice versa – even simple day-to-day words and deeds?[10]

Even before our place in Surrey that we acquired on September 1, 2015, people used to phone me up. People who were really interested in Jains found out. I had a store, a jeweller store that said Jain Jewllers. They would say, “oh, are you a Jain?” And when they read my article in the paper about Diwali being an invention of the Jains, I found it comforting that none of the non-Jains came and discouraged it because it is in the scriptures. In fact, the word Diwali is not in any of the Jain scriptures.

Yet, they emulated. They followed, which is good. Nothing wrong because Mahavira was for everyone, not just the Jains. Now, we have the centre and the telephone and email, and a website. So, they can contact us. I was always available for those who are eager to learn, but I would not go and talk to a person on the street and say, “How about turning into a Jain?” We have all of the books and so on. As long as I am here, I am sure others will be, so there is no problem. We welcome them.

I do believe that most Canadians do respect their fellowman and I always heard praise by Jain-Canadians about how well they were treated by people and fellow workers and employers here in Canada. Almost all Jains are highly educated professionals they manage their affairs intelligently, yet there is a need on the part of the Jain Centre of BC to host an open house or knowledge session for Canadians and non-Jains to come to the Temple and enjoy the philosophy at work.

13. Some religions conceive alternate religions, philosophies, and ways of life as partial truths. For instance, Islam considers adherents of Judaism and Christianity as Ahl al-Kitāb or “People of the Book.”^[11]^{,[12],[13],[14]} Of course, in the past, this came with the special tax, called jizyah, during the great Caliphate for the non-believers, named dhimmis, belief in non-Islamic religions.^[15]^{,[16],[17],[18]} Regardless, in comparison to its own considered total truth – internal to itself, where does Jainism hold other religions, philosophies, and ways of life?^[19]

At the time of the 24^th and last Seer Mahavira of the Jains, there were 363 main religions in India and all were passionate about their own religions and there was a great chaos and violence Mahavir, at that time, invented the theory of relativity (before Einstein brought it to light). He told the masses that the truth is to examine with seven aspects of an object, only then, one can reach the full truth. This way he not only separated himself from one’s own path. On that basis, Jains refrain from argumentative behaviour.

Jains can explain what they believe and should stay away from criticism. Criticism leads to revenge and violence; violence is the one we abhor. Incidentally, once a reporter asked Einstein if he were to believe in transmigration of the soul, in which religion would he want to be born in his next life. His answer was he wanted to be born as a Jain in a Jain family.

14. According to About (2015), the Jain Center of British Columbia states:

Jain Center BC is a non profit organization established in 1984 for the purpose of promoting non-violence, peaceful co-existence, vegetarianism, and interfaith dialogue. Our aim is to provide a place to worship together for Jain followers, learn and promote Jainism. Through this organization we want to support and promote Jain principles of Ahimsa, Aparigraha, and Anekant. We also want to provide a platform to enrich our future generation to learn and value their spiritual heritage. We celebrate Mahavir Jayanti, Paryushan, Das Lakshan, Mahavir Nirvan (Deepawali) besides other celebrations.^[20]

What motivates the principles of “promoting non-violence, peaceful co-existence, vegetarianism, and interfaith dialogue”?^[21]

Interfaith dialogue brings people of different faiths and beliefs under one umbrella for understanding different religions and tolerance of one another’s way of life. It is a great education for all mankind.

The underlying thing is this, lest we forget. So it is our duty to teach these good habits taught to us through the religion and familial backgrounds, and make sure that they are not encroaching on anyone. Incidentally, even in India, 90% of the Jains are highly educated, here our children are outstanding in school.

I do not want to brag, but I have four daughters. All of them, including myself, are all University of BC graduates. My oldest daughter is a 48-year old. She had been practicing pediatrics for the last 20 years. Another one is a clinical pharmacist and worked fro ten years in a hospital. The third one is a speech pathologist living in the states. The last one graduated as a producer for television and radio.

My friends, their children, most of them are doctors and in good professions, lawyers, and so on. That shows that these teachings have a lot to do with it. Whenever we went to the parent-teacher meeting in West Vancouver, they were very thankful that our children went through their school. And I remember there were two incidents. My daughter was selected valedictorian. Second, another second daughter also served as the host for the dinner, gave a speech, and so on. My wife was saying that my first one got two scholarships, and I do not know about the other daughter, and I said do not worry she will get it too. And she did.

One of the teachers got up and said, “I want to say something. All of my students re equal to me, but if I say Sarita Jain is special to me, then I am not lying.” The only thing I heard from her was that if they can produce a kid like Sarita, then I will become vegetarian. And I said to my wife, “I have accomplished my purpose coming here.”…

I have very, very good moments in these 50 years. I feel happy meeting people. I feel happy not because of making money, but because of having lots of moments. Teaching my kids, seeing them accomplish something, I have ten grandchildren and they are achieving something above the norms. So I am a happy person.

I do not know if you can see my age. What do you think is my age?

65 to 70?

According to my passport, I’ll be 75 in August. But in those days, the babies were born at home. And when we were sent to school, the headmaster in the kindergarten, I remember today. He said, “Because the government exams for civil servant are restricted to people who failed the exam twice after a certain date every year, they cannot sit in the exam.” To my dad, he was saying, “So because of that, why don’t you put the date two years younger.” So, in August, I’ll be 77.

Canada has been good to me.

In Jainism, we are taught not to be jealous or find fault. There are good things everywhere.

15. The leading medical institutions in the world such as the Mayo Clinic espouse the Mediterranean and similar diets. Why vegetarianism?^[22]

Vegetarianism has numerous advantages for the society. It keeps us away from animal violence; it helps in maintaining our natural environment; it promotes healthy lifestyle; bones, blood and flesh are not meant for human consumption, one has no right to take any living being’s life. Believe it or not killing brings Bad Karmas.

In my own experience, and this is the truth, one’s own diet is related to the environment the person lives in. If you go far north, you cannot find vegetables. In the Indian subcontinent, the weather is warm. We can grow lots of grains and lots of foods, fruits, and vegetables. India is a land of sages and saints who wanted to pay more attention to their soul rather than their body. They wanted through free will and didn’t want to interfere with their environment.

What I will tell you is an anecdote, 5 people are travelling through a jungle. They are hungry. Suddenly, they find a big mango tree. One says, “I’m hungry, let’s cut it, bring it home, and then we can grow all of the mangoes we want.”

Second person says, “No, no, no, we can take a big part of it, and there will be plenty for us.”

Third person says, “No, no, no, you just take a branch, enough to fill our belly, and leave the rest here.”

A fourth one says, “You know, I am not in favour of cutting anything. I am just in favour of taking what is right for ourselves.”

A fifth person says, “I do not want to do anything because we do not know who owns this and we are not asking its permission, so we just take whatever we have and drop on the ground.”

This is how the Indian culture comes down to, the minimum harm to the environment. Jain philosophy very in tune with that. There is the path that is the minimum harm to the environment. When you play with animals, the dogs, birds, and so on, it feels good. They have a right for their own life, right. It all depends on one’s environment that they live in, their heritage, how they were brought up, the history and location of the land, and we can only speak for ourselves. Even the Jain sages, everything they ever said was negative. They simply explained the results, the qualities. It brings bad Karma even when killing a small life. Even with water, we cannot simply leave the tap open.

For instance, if I have to wash five dishes, I have to take out the leftovers with the utensil, and after the first through fourth, we start to clean one, two, three, four, five with new soap, and that way you use less water. We cannot just breathe in the air for nothing. If there is a need, go ahead, if there is a reason, go ahead. Don’t eat after sunset, or otherwise you get indigestion. Don’t drink water right out of the well or the stream. Now, the municipality will do that.

So, it is a must for us to strain it. Things like that for the Jains. Now, people are finding out it is good for everybody.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Founder, and “Preserver and Sustainer.” Jain Centre of British Columbia.

[2] Individual Publication Date: July 15, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2016 at https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

[3] Photograph courtesy of Anand Jain.

[4] Jainism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Jainism.

[5] Jainism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Jainism.

[6] According to Population by religion, by province and territory (2001 Census)
(Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon), the total population of Canada amounts to 29,639,035 with 12,936,905 Roman Catholics and 8,654,850 Protestants, which means 12,936,905+8,654,850/29,639,035 amounts to 72.8%. 4,900,090 label as No Religious Affiliation, which means 4,900,090/29,639,035 amounts to 16.5%. 73%+16.5%=89.5% leaves 10.5% for the other religious categorizations in Canada.

For more information from 2001, Statistics Canada. (2005, January 25). Population by religion, by province and territory (2001 Census)
(Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon). Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo30c-eng.htm.

[7] Jainism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Jainism.

[8] Vancouver. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/place/Vancouver.

[9] Central Intelligence Agency. (2015). Canada. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ca.html.

[10] Jainism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Jainism.

[11] Islam. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Islam.

[12] Judaism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Judaism.

[13] Christianity. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Christianity.

[14] Ahl al-Kitab. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Ahl-al-Kitab.

[15] jizya. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/jizya.

[16] Islam. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Islam.

[17] Ahl al-Kitab. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Ahl-al-Kitab.

[18] Caliphate. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/place/Caliphate.

[19] Jainism. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Jainism.

[20] Jain Center of British Columbia. (2015). About. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/about/.

[21] Jain Center of British Columbia. (2015). About. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/about/.

[22] Jain Center of British Columbia. (2015). About. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/about/.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Anand Jain (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/08

Abstract

An interview with Anand Jain. He discusses: geographic, cultural, and linguistic family background; the foundation and development of the Jain Centre of British Columbia; memorable moments in its developmental partnership; current status of the Jain Centre of British Columbia; the content and purpose of prayers; the Jain image of heaven and hell; the purpose of community; and the central communal event.

Keywords: Anand Jain, British Columbia, Founder, Jain, Preserver, Sustainer.

An Interview with Anand Jain: Founder, and “Preserver and Sustainer,” Jain Centre of British Columbia (Part One)^{^[1],[2],[3]}

*Footnotes throughout the interview, and bibliography and citation style listing after the interview.*

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside?^[4]

Old Delhi (walled City), India; North India Culture; Hindi language.

2. You co-founded, and remain a member of the board of directors for, the Jain Center of British Columbia.^[5],[6] How did this begin and develop in its early years?^[7]

I am actually the founder, preserver and sustainer as I solely registered the society with my own funds and obtained the Federal Government Charitable status for which I had to communicate and convince Revenue Canada to issue Charitable status. I have been the president and director for many years.

My parents always performed worship in the morning at their temple in India. So, we decided to hold it at my home. There were, maybe, three families that we knew at the time. They came home and performed the prayers and so on, which I knew by heart because I was doing these prayers with my dad at the temple when I was even eight years old. When one prays, they take a bath if they want to. They do their prayers close to the altars, go to the bath there, take a long white cloth, and after wearing it, and they are away from worldly affairs, then they go upstairs and have books. All of the utensils and the offerings. And, we start doing prayers there, and then we go and study some more of the scriptures.

Then we would come home, and only then did our mother give us food. So I started from my house, and then later on I had an idea. That when we have more money we should build a temple. It came about because I was still trying to establish myself. And then I discussed the idea of incorporating a society. People told me, “If you want to do it, then do it on your own. You don’t know who’s interested or not interested.” So, I went ahead and then incorporated this society, the Jain Society of BC.

We had, maybe, a dozen Jain members. And one of the members kept saying, “You don’t have the charity number from the government of Canada.” I didn’t worry about that. Then I went ahead and worked very hard and brought in the money. I was the first one. I spent my own money, and I did it. It was my passion, and is still to this day.

Actually, way back, I came in 66’. My parents came in 76’ just to visit. At the time, I invited a few Jains to my home and conducted Jain prayers with Digamber Puja; similar pattern continued on three times a year at my home until 1984 when one prominent Jain Muni visited Vancouver. At the time, he initiated us to form a society and I complied whole-heartedly.

Every now and then and one religious festivals, I invited members at my house or at other member’s home for prayers. I always gathered the prayer items and conducted the prayers leading them myself. With research and past knowledge of Jain prayers and ceremonies, I compiled a manuscript containing salient prayers and printed thirty copies and later revised it with more additional prayers.

Since 1984, we held one prayer meeting every year until 1913 on the occasion of the birthday of Lord Mahavira at a prominent Hindi temple with guest speakers. By this time, we had approximately 30 members who all helped financially. I always made sure that we put some funds in term deposits and between 1984 and 2015, the funds great to $26,000.

Along with the above, we held prayers at a rented hall twice a year.

3. After acquisition of the charity number, what were one or two of the memorable moments in its developmental partnership?

Before I got that number, and even after, I was the only one who used to invite people into my home. Luckily, I still had a bigger home. I still have. Very spacious and nice place. I was the only one who knew the prayers, the routine. And then they came. Some of the closer ones with me. They reciprocated. They hosted some of the prayers at their home, but very few.

After that, the society grew. A lot of newcomers came from Africa, India, and so on. We needed a bigger place. We used to go and rent a place, and some of the big buildings, where they have meeting rooms set up for the tenants and so on. Once in a year, we made sure, after 84’, that a saint came from New Jersey. He advised us to have a society at that time. Formally, the society was formed.

Every year, we used to do a big prayer meeting in a Hindu temple. Until 2013.

4. Where does the Jain Center of British Columbia stand now?^,[8]

It’s still in transition because we bought a unit, a warehouse complex that was already approved for public assembly. It had been in operation for 18 years, and their membership was dwindling, and so they sold it to us. It was 2015 that we acquired that. It is in Surrey, British Columbia.

At present, the Jain Centre is in a transitional period of setting up a temple in a strata title public assembly approved warehouse complex in Surrey. We have approximately over 100 families eager to see the full-fledged Jain Temple in July 2016. We have a very efficient and diligent working executive committee with a hard working progressive president.

I do prayers from 10 o’clock.

5. In terms of the content of the prayers and the purpose of the prayers, what are they?

You see, Jainism is very peculiar compared to other religions in terms of antiquity. What happened, the scriptures say, way back, many, many years ago, there was a different system of existence, then came a system where we would be judged by our karmas. At that time, the first teacher, we call him Rishabhanatha, who’s history and teaching are also in the other religious scriptures.

He taught us how to cultivate the land, how to live in the society, reading, writing, arts, and barter in those days. And then that person also told us how to get salvation. He taught us that whatever you do will be debited or credited to your account. If it is debited to your account, you might inherit hell. If it is credited in your account, you might inherit heaven, but still you are subject to life, birth, old age, and death. But when your debits and credits are zero, that is the time that one can attain salvation.

One other peculiar thing about Jainism si that we have 24 seers. And none of them can help us or, or put us in heaven or hell by pleasing them or displeasing them. Whatever is done is done to our own karmas, they are only a means to teach us, or they are not here, only the scripture, we believe, we follow their path. If we emulate their path, only then we can get salvation. If we pray for them, they don’t feel happy.

If we abuse them, they curse us. This is a very good system. Jainism, we are independent. Nobody is controlling us. This is the only religion that is not organized, which is very, very good. Because we don’t believe in dwarfing any other religion, it’s independent thought. So, when we pray, we just recite their lives. And their good deeds and teaching. Non-violence, non-stealing, or understanding the truth, no false pride, things like this.

6. Two questions come to mind, for me. From the Jain scriptures, what is the image of heaven? What is the image of hell?

Very good question, in Jainism, we believe there are 16 stages in heaven, and hell there are seven stages. I took it this way. Even if it is just a thought, it is a very good insight, just like we do in daily life with promotion, promotion, promotion, and demotion, demotion, demotion. The scriptures say that in heaven or hell, one’s lifespan is limited.

So once you’re out of there, one can go into different lives, transmigration of souls. But in heaven, it’s peaceful, luxurious, but even then there are many, let’s say, stages or many elevations like one, two, three, four, five… sixteen. One might feel jealous of the other one. And when one does that again, one can go back to hell. One’s thoughts must be controlled. If we control our thought processes, our actions will be limited.

7. According to President Vijay’s President Message, the Jain Center of British Columbia provides numerous activities and services for its community including the following:

[P]athshala, Hindi classes, performing Satsang every Friday, and performing Pooja and Pravachans everyday during Mahaparyushan par…Jain Pathshala, Hindi Classes, Satsang, Jaina (Jain Association in North America) activities and other activities for Youth that we are planning for this summer. We have also added a Jain Calendar…E-newsletter every three months, comprising of religious articles, health articles, quiz, and Jain recipes.^[9]

What purpose does community activity serve to Jains in British Columbia?^[10]

All the activities elaborated by Vijay Jain are part and parcel of the Jain Centre of BC and the purpose of such activities is to bring the community closer to each member.

This helps in maintaining our religious tradition; cultural tradition; helping non newcomers in the lower mainland to deal with government and city authorities; introducing pioneers to have liaison for education, jobs and finding housing including advising for the purchase of residence. To make the newcomers at home in a new environment by narrating examples of early settlers. In the past, I have helped many lone students in their teens coming to study in the lower mainland universities with setting up their accommodation, transportation and early free lodging and boarding at my house.

The main purpose is to bring them together where they have a place to come together, share their sorrows, get some advice from each other. It’s like intermingling. Jainism has a very good principle that says we all have to live together and one person cannot live alone because the society is interdependent on one another. Keeping in mind that philosophy: birds of a kind flock together. At the same time, we have to be very friendly, open, helpful, towards our neighbour. That’s the whole religion. Mainly the newcomers come and usually do not know, like if I go to a new country. Usually, if somebody helps us, it is a boon. That is the purpose.

8. What remains the Jain Center of British Columbia’s central communal event?^[11]

Couple picnics in the summer every year. At this time, the membership freely intermingles with each other and open-heartedly talk their achievements and problems. Kids enjoy meeting and playing with other kids.

Central communal event, we have mainly went to Mahavira’s or Lord Mavi’s birthday. Sometimes March and sometimes April because of the Indian calendar. Sometimes in September, we have our fasting days, and ten days of brooding, thinking on ourselves with all of the teachings that have been given to us. All that they mean, and how we can incorporate them into our lives.

And the third is Diwali. Most people do not know that Diwali is the invention of the Jains. I wrote this article, or I had an interview, like the one I’m doing with you right now, with the Vancouver Sun reporter one day. Ten years ago, at least. He said, “How do the Jains celebrate Diwali?” The Jains celebrate Diwali because the Jains invented Diwali. Lord Mahavira had nirvana on this day. So, that’s a big day for us. Those three are important. Since we’re in a situation with this new location, that once a month we have a general prayer, where everybody is invited. One of the people can sponsor it. I go for that. If there is no sponsor, the center will be the sponsor for it.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Founder, and “Preserver and Sustainer,” Jain Centre of British Columbia.

[2] Individual Publication Date: July 8, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2016 at https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

[3] Photograph courtesy of Anand Jain.

[4] Jain Center of British Columbia. (2015). Board of Directors. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/board-of-directors/.

[5] Jain Center of British Columbia. (2015). Jain Center of British Columbia. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/.

[6] Jain Center of British Columbia. (2015). Board of Directors. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/board-of-directors/.

[7] Jain Center of British Columbia. (2015). Board of Directors. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/board-of-directors/.

[8] Jain Center of British Columbia. (2015). Jain Center of British Columbia. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/.

[9] Jain, V. (n.d.). President’s Message. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/president-message/.

[10] Jain, V. (n.d.). President’s Message. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/president-message/.

[11] Jain, V. (n.d.). President’s Message. Retrieved from http://jaincenterbc.org/president-message/.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Elizabeth Mwanga

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/01

Abstract

An interview with Elizabeth Mwanga. She discusses: geographic, cultural, and linguistic background; responsibilities with profiles and representation in numerous outlets; lessons from an emergency; change in life course from the emergency; greatest risk factors for diabetes; B.A. in politics from New York University for personal growth and professional success; lifestyle factors most important for diabetes prevention; earning Identifying Best-in-Class Support Services for Patients with Diabetes from INNOCENTIVE; blog topics; Bob Friedrich in District 23; linguistic talent; Louis Kayanda Mwangaguhanga and work with the Open Society Foundation in South Sudan; core motivation, purpose, and final goal for the initiative in South Sudan; management of a polyglot team; First Lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama: Instagram ‘Hate’ (2015); self-description as a diabetes advocate; services and products for customers; most meaningful initiatives and accomplishments; the future of diabetes; and near and far future technological disruption and diabetes advocacy.

Keywords: diabetes, Elizabeth Mwanga, Louis Kayanda Mwangaguhanga, South Sudan.

An Interview with Elizabeth Mwanga: Founder & CEO, HCODE; Founder & CEO, MCODE; Founder & CEO, Winning Diabetes LLC^{[1],[2],[3],[4]}

*Footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*

*Appendix II for Interview with Louis Kayanda Mwangaguhanga by Elizabeth Mwanga.*

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your personal and familial background reside?

My parents were born and raised in Southwest Uganda, in towns bordering Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. I currently reside in New York City, as does my immediate family – my three older brothers, as well as my parents. Our extended family mainly reside in Sub Sahara Africa and England. My immediate family speaks English. I have a basic level of understanding of Kinyarwanda and Kiswahili. I was born, raised and educated in the United States, and thus, through schooling, I took many years of Spanish, so I am proficient in that language, as well. Culturally, I consider myself African American. A broad term, but an accurate one, nonetheless.

2. You have profiles and representation in numerous outlets.^[5]^{,[6],[7],[8],[9],[10],[11],[12],[13],[14],[15]} What responsibilities come with this public recognition?

When you are considered a ‘public figure’, whether it be online, or in mass media, there is a tremendous responsibility to represent yourself honestly, but also in a manner that affords respect to those who view your work. I take this responsibility very seriously. I am building a legacy which will benefit many people who must face life’s hurdles, be them financial, health, political, etc.

3. You have Type 1.5 diabetes.^[16]^,[17] In On The Verge Of A Diabetic Coma, She Realized She Couldn’t Wait Any Longer To Take Off The Weight (2013), it portrays the risks of high blood sugar in the form a diabetic coma:

Elizabeth was on the verge of a diabetic coma. A seemingly shocking diagnosis for a woman who’d just seen a doctor, had her blood levels tested and was told she was fine — despite the fact that at 5’2″, she weighed 210 pounds.

“The doctor noticed my blood sugar was very high that day,” she continued, “but he just asked what I’d had for breakfast. When I listed off the fried eggs, the bacon and bagel, he said, ‘It’s probably because you ate a lot this morning.’ He didn’t do any follow up testing, even after I told him there was a history of diabetes in my family. He never said a thing about my weight. He just told me I was healthy.”

But that day in the ICU, it was clear that Elizabeth was anything but healthy. Her blood sugar was nearly 1000, ten times what’s considered normal.^[18]

Furthermore, Diabetes-Fighting Secrets from a Former Fat Chef (2013) states:

In 2007, Elizabeth Mwanga, 36, was found unconscious on the couch of her Manhattan apartment. She was rushed to the hospital, where tests revealed that her blood sugar levels had skyrocketed to 1000 mg/dL—nearly 10 times the normal range. At this level, Elizabeth risked not only a diabetic coma, but also possible death.

That day, Elizabeth was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes after doctors determined she had been experiencing what is known as diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), an acute, potentially life-threatening complication that occurs in patients with Type 1 diabetes. In the months prior, she had turned to sugary treats and alcohol as a way of coping with a bad breakup. But the medical crisis showed Elizabeth, who was morbidly obese at 201 lbs and 5’1, that she needed a lifestyle makeover—and fast. “In the hospital, I made a conscious decision to eat healthier, lose weight and manage my condition better,” she recalls. “It wasn’t driven by vanity. It wasn’t driven by, ‘Oh, I want to look fabulous in a bikini.’ It was driven by the fact that I needed to make these changes in order to live.”

Doctors told Elizabeth she would be on insulin for the rest of her life, but she was determined to prove them wrong.^[19]

Upon further reflection, what did this emergency teach you?

The most important thing this extraordinary experience taught me is how to stay alive and healthy. My survival instincts kicked in and I quickly understood that if I did not take control of my health, that I would not be around much longer, So I learned a lot about my particular type of diabetes (Type 1.5), how to cook and eat healthful in relation to my condition, and also how to motivate myself to regularly exercise in order to keep my blood sugar levels at a normal rate. It’s all worked, I haven’t needed insulin since late 2009, and my A1c (3 month blood sugar levels- required to be taken at least 2x per year) last taken in January 2016 was 4.6, which is that of a non-diabetic. Since 2010, my A1c has been below that of a diabetic, or even a pre-diabetic. So, I must be doing something right!

Another thing I have learned from the experience is to never fear the pursuit of your own happiness.

4. How did this change your life course?

Prior to my hospitalization, I was in transition, both professionally and personally. I had no real passion or drive. Afterward, I realized that what I desired most in life is to own my own highly successful businesses, which in my case has evolved into a two-part disruptive technology firm. Thru this venture I contribute to humanity though technology innovation, as well as philanthropy. In short, my near death experience actually gave me a purpose in life. Ironic.

5. What remain the greatest risk factors for diabetes?

The food we eat, a sedentary lifestyle (Type 1, 1.5 & 2). Heredity plays a large role in Type 1 & Type 1.5 diabetes. However, Type 1 & Type 1.5 diabetes can both be greatly controlled by diet and exercise. Also, mental stress can very much impact diabetes, in all types – 1, 1.5, and 2.

6. How has the B.A. in politics from New York University helped with personal growth and professional success?

The best major for me was Politics, and I know that now. For many years, I regretted obtaining a degree in Politics, because I thought that majoring in business would have been more suitable for my career goals. However, much of what the political science curriculum teaches is understanding how to navigate through professional and social situations to achieve your end goal. My area of concentration is International Studies; learning about the history of various governments has given me advantages when speaking with C-level executives of multinational corporations, as well as government officials, when negotiating contracts.

7. What lifestyle factors remain the most important in terms of diabetes prevention?

The International Diabetes Federation estimates that Type 2 diabetes, which is directly linked to obesity, accounts for roughly 90% of all diabetes cases. http://www.idf.org/about-diabetes With this in mind, keeping your BMI normal- which is internationally recognized as 18.5-24.9, is key. The NIH has an easy BMI calculator tool: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm . Of course this entails regular exercise, avoiding refined sugars, limiting refined carbs, and in general, eating more fresh fruits and vegetables. For those with type 1 and type 1.5 diabetes, prevention is trickier because these gradations of diabetes are mainly hereditary, and thus more difficult to prevent. That said, my solution for everyone is to: 1) Limit or eliminate refined sugar and refined carbohydrates from your diet, 2) Limit or eliminate glutens altogether, from your diet. An ideal meal plan should be at least 50% vegan and gluten free. Most diabetics are allergic to glutens, meaning, their blood sugar levels spike when they intake gluten products.

8. You earned the Identifying Best-in-Class Support Services for Patients with Diabetes from INNOCENTIVE. What does this award mean to you?

I was very proud to receive the award and have since expanded on the mobile health plan, which I designed for both diabetic patients and their providers. I am currently in talks with a major technology company to fold the program into one of their diabetic initiatives,

9. You are a Diabetes ‘Healthy Lifestyle’ Blogger. What topic in Diabetes remains the consistent theme with regards to attitude diet, exercise, lifestyle, and medical advice in these articles?

The most consistent theme and concern is diet and meal planning. Many diabetics are completely lost when it comes to what to eat in order to keep their blood sugar levels stable.

10. You volunteered for the campaign of Bob Friedrich in District 23. What distinguished him – platform and personality?

Bob has a long standing commitment to District 23. He’s the CFO of the Glen Oaks co-op board, a District 23 resident for decades. He is very down to earth, authentic and says what he means. What attracted me to his platform was his pragmatic approach to fiscal matters (he is an accountant by trade), and his long standing experience as a community advocate. He is not a traditional politician, which unfortunately worked against his campaign. However, I find him to be someone who would have made a dynamic Councilperson.

11. You speak four languages: English, Kinyarwanda, Kiswahili, and Spanish. Where does this linguistic talent source itself?^[20]

Obviously, English being my native tongue has helped me in business dealings worldwide. Recently, I have been utilizing my (limited) Kinyarwanda, Kiswahili and Spanish skills to forge business relationships in countries where those languages are spoken. Language proficiency is a major tool in forging relationships and also can be utilized as a tactic to express cultural respect.

12. Your father,Louis Kayanda Mwangaguhunga, was a former UN Ambassador of Uganda – responsible for the construction and development of the Uganda embassy building in NYC. You have deep interest in African Development and Domestic, and Foreign Politics. Now, you have begun work to do with the Soros funded Open Society Foundation program with a focus on South Sudan with respect to government transparency and technology infrastructure. What does this personal history bring to this recent work with the Open Society Foundation in South Sudan?

The parcel of land was purchased by the first Ambassador, Apollo Kironde. My dad was responsible for the construction and development of the building, which is now estimated at over $25M USD, one of Uganda’s best assets, to date.

Senator Daniel Parick Moynihan was extremely instrumental in facilitating our family to establish residency in the United States. He literally helped save our lives.

Northern Uganda is directly below South Sudan – the countries share a border. There are many South Sudanese people in Uganda, throughout the country. I have several South Sudanese friends and associates and I have fully supported their fight for freedom and victories over the last years. The next hurdle for ‘the newest country in the world’ is to advance political transparency via technology.

13. What is the core motivation, purpose, and final goal for this initiative for South Sudan?

My company is developing an iris detection platform which will refine accuracy for South Sudanese elections.

14. You manage a team of individuals with 17 separate languages spoken amongst them.^[21]How does this increase the effectiveness and strength of the team?

Everyone on my team is proficient in English, some better than others, of course. However, having access to technical professionals with 17 additional language skills, widens the pool of potential clients exponentially.

15. In First Lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama: Instagram ‘Hate’ (2015), you described the “hate” towards the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, and gave personal positive feelings about her, and a negative reaction to some public feelings about her.^[22]What seems like the source of the negative feelings about her to you?

Unfortunately, I had to remove this post because I was receiving disturbing comments and emails. I will, however answer the question:

The most obvious answer is that Mrs. Obama is the first African American First Lady, and that is a shock to some people. Unfamiliarity often breeds fear, which can breed hate. At the very core, though, I believe the negative reaction toward our First lady stems from racism. This is rather disturbing.

16. You self-describe as a diabetes advocate. What does this implicate to you?

In my (limited) free time, I speak at schools in the New York City metropolitan area regarding diabetes, and the importance of good nutrition and fitness. I also offer gratis advice to a roster of endocrinologists and diabetic nutritionists, on patient compliance. Additionally, because of my media presence, I receive a regular stream of emails from diabetics who request recipes, fitness tips, etc.

17. You founded Winning Diabetes LLC, MCODE, and HCODE. MCODE invented Minesweep. A hand-held laser detector of mines. HCODE invented AMAGARA. The first non-invasive continuous glucose monitor for diabetics. HCODE invented Mindchair. An EEG-driven wheelchair. What other services/products does each company provide for customers?

Winning Diabetics, LLC is a distributor of healthy food, as well as fitness equipment, mainly to schools, hospitals and prisons. HCODE focuses primarily on medical technology and software research, design and development. MCODE does the same as HCODE, however covers all other aspects of technology development, with a heavy emphasis on artificial intelligence, and advanced sensors. Both MCODE and HCODE offer the most cutting edge tech development, from facial and iris detection, data mining via machine learning, 3D printing, robotics, EMR, cybersecurity design and development, and more. A full list of services can be found at http://www.mhcode.tech. All three companies are registered US government contractors and offer services worldwide.

18. What initiatives and accomplishments within this personal and professional work means the most to you?

Creating financial opportunities for talented developers worldwide is very rewarding to me. Disseminating information that helps diabetics and pre-diabetics improve their quality of life is very rewarding to me I am presently working on a project that utilizes Apple’s ResearchKit. The project will create an OpenSource platform for developers, to further the understanding of PTSD in military veterans, its correlates, and its relation to social context. This will take the form of a mobile app, utilizing Apple’s HealthKit, and various iPhone sensors as well as other datasources. I am very excited about this project.

19. What does the future hold for diabetes in the health, medical, and wellness domains?

A strong focus will be via technology, mainly wearables, mobile apps, and sensor-based invasive and non-invasive solutions. Human health solutions in general will be very much digitalized.

20. Finally, what do the near and far future for technological disruption and diabetes advocacy hold for you?

Near future: I am aggressively pursuing governmental, NGO and private sector clients for MCODE and HCODE advanced disruptive technology projects. The team is doing a ton of research and development in the areas of remote sensor technology, galvanic vestibular in particular. With regard to my diabetes advocacy, I will continue to consult with my network of health professionals to help create solutions for diabetic patient compliance. Far future: I plan to take MCODE & HCODE public, with a wide variety of ground-breaking patented disruptive technology and software solutions. With regard to diabetic advocacy, I will definitely start a foundation which provides free diabetic testing materials and medical solutions for patients in need worldwide.

Thank you for your time, Ms. Mwanga.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Bibliography

Dickens, A. (2013, July 3). Diabetes-Fighting Secrets from a Former Fat Chef. Retrieved from http://spryliving.com/articles/diabetes-fighting-secrets-from-a-former-fat-chef/.
Dickens, A. (2014, March 30). Five Tips from a Diabetic Chef. Retrieved from http://americanprofile.com/articles/five-tips-from-a-diabetic-chef-video/.
Everyday Health. (2015). About The Author: Elizabeth Mwanga. Retrieved from http://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/elizabeth-mwanga-smart-healthy-diabetes-living/author/emwanga1/.
Fritz, J. (2012, April 20). Defeating diabetes demands lifestyle changes, conscious eating. Retrieved from http://www.examiner.com/article/defeating-diabetes-demands-lifestyle-changes-conscious-eating.
Gowo, R. (2014). Five Tips from a Diabetic Chef. Retrieved from http://whoisdiabetes.blogspot.ca/2014/04/five-tips-from-diabetic-chef.html.
Levitt, S. (n.d.). A Better Body at 36 Than at 20. Retrieved from http://www.more.com/a-better-body-diabetes-diet.
Mayo Clinic. (2015). Mayo Clinic. Retrieved fromhttp://www.mayoclinic.org/.
Mwanga, E. (2015, June 30). First Lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama: Instagram ‘Hate’. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/first-lady-united-states-america-michelle-obama-instagram-mwanga.
Mwanga, E. (2010, October 12). The Tale of a Diva Diabetic. Retrieved from http://www.healthywomen.org/content/blog-entry/tale-diva-diabetic.
Padgett, T. (2009, November 2). Elizabeth Mwanga: ‘Almost losing my life motivated me to lose weight’. Retrieved from http://www.newsday.com/news/health/dropping-lbs-elizabeth-mwanga-of-queens-village-lost-105-pounds-1.1558053?firstfree=yes.
Summerland, C. (2012, April).Real Women Series: Surviving diabetes and obesity and inspiring others to do the same. Retrieved from http://www.yourbeautyadvisor.com/2012/04/real-women-series-surviving-diabetes-and-obesity-and-inspiring-others-to-do-the-same/.
Weiss, L. (2013, December 11). On The Verge Of A Diabetic Coma, She Realized She Couldn’t Wait Any Longer To Take Off The Weight. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/11/on-the-verge-of-a-diabeti_n_4414602.html.
Williamsburg Therapy+Wellness. (2012, May 15). How Are Diabetes And Mental Health Connected?. Retrieved from http://www.williamsburgtherapyandwellness.com/blog/2012/05/16/how-are-diabetes-and-mental-health-connected.

Appendix I: Interview with Louis Kayanda Mwangaguhunga on Daniel Moynihan by Elizabeth Mwanga

EM: Elizabeth Mwanga; LKM: Louis Kayanda Mwangaguhunga.

EM: How exactly did Senator Moynihan help our family establish residency in the United States?
LKM: Because I was the last Ambassador to the United Nations before Idi Amin was overthrown, our situation was very complicated. Although I was a career diplomat (no political ties to any of the ‘regimes’ who were in power – for over 20 years) – it did not matter. At the time, Idi Amin was a brutal dictator who had absolutely no regard for international law, and was widely known throughout the world for his human rights atrocities and violations. Anyone affiliated with his administration was either killed or blacklisted from Western countries. So, Senator Moynihan did take a risk by doing the following:

– working with our attorney to secure me a job in the United States, to ensure my ability to apply for legal residency for myself and my family.

– worked with our attorney to lobby in Washington to pass the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which stated that any ‘alien’ living and working in he United States before 1982 would be eligible for temporary residency. “This bill gave unauthorized aliens the opportunity to apply and gain legal status if they met mandated requirements. The fate or status of all those who applied fell into the hands of “Designated Entities” and finally the U.S. Attorney General. Applicants had to prove that they lived and maintained a continuous physical presence in the U.S. since January 1st, 1982, possess a clean criminal record, and provide proof of registration within the Selective Service. Moreover, applicants had to meet minimal knowledge requirements in U.S. history, government and the English language or be pursuing a course of study approved by the Attorney General.” http://library.uwb.edu/static/usimmigration/1986_immigration_reform_and_control_act.html

EM: When you were seeking to obtain residency in the United States, after fearing for the safety of our family, how did you get in contact with Patrick Moynihan?
LKM: It was thru our pastor at the Roman Catholic church we attended. I sought assistance thru the church and he suggested that our complex situation needed to be intervened by the then NY Senator, Patrick Moynihan. We were then connected thru our attorney and our pastor. Senator Moynihan remembered me from our days working together at the United Nations in the mid 1970’s when he was a permanent representative to the United Nations. We were friendly and I had mentioned that given the political climate in Uganda at the time, would probably in the future need to seek refuge in a Western country. I suppose that may have jarred the Senator’s memory, and when called upon to assist in our family obtaining legal residency, he chose to help us.

ME: Why do you believe Senator Moynihan took an interest in helping our family legally immigrate to the United States, at such a precarious time in American-Ugandan diplomatic relations?

LKM: Well, first, there was the fact that we previously worked together in the United Nations. We were also both Roman Catholic. I received a BSc in Economics from Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland; Senator Moynihan was of Irish descent. We also both received degrees from the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE). So you see, even though we both were raised in very different environments — we bonded through our career paths as well as our moral code.

ME: What was Senator Moynihan’s disposition?
LKM: Senator Moynihan was among the most objective diplomats I have ever dealt with. He was an intellectual.

Appendix II: Footnotes

[1] Founder & CEO, HCODE; Founder & CEO, MCODE; Founder & CEO, Winning Diabetes LLC; Disruptive Technology Entrepreneur; Diabetes Advocate.

[2] Individual Publication Date: July 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/an-interview-with-elizabeth-mwanga; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2016 at https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

[3] B.A., Politics, New York University.

[4] Photograph courtesy of Elizabeth Mwanga.

[5] Everyday Health. (2015). About The Author: Elizabeth Mwanga. Retrieved from http://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/elizabeth-mwanga-smart-healthy-diabetes-living/author/emwanga1/.

[6] Weiss, L. (2013, December 11). On The Verge Of A Diabetic Coma, She Realized She Couldn’t Wait Any Longer To Take Off The Weight. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/11/on-the-verge-of-a-diabeti_n_4414602.html.

[7] Dickens, A. (2013, July 3). Diabetes-Fighting Secrets from a Former Fat Chef. Retrieved from http://spryliving.com/articles/diabetes-fighting-secrets-from-a-former-fat-chef/.

[8] Padgett, T. (2009, November 2). Elizabeth Mwanga: ‘Almost losing my life motivated me to lose weight’. Retrieved from http://www.newsday.com/news/health/dropping-lbs-elizabeth-mwanga-of-queens-village-lost-105-pounds-1.1558053?firstfree=yes.

[9] Levitt, S. (n.d.). A Better Body at 36 Than at 20. Retrieved from http://www.more.com/a-better-body-diabetes-diet.

[10] Mwanga, E. (2010, October 12). The Tale of a Diva Diabetic. Retrieved from http://www.healthywomen.org/content/blog-entry/tale-diva-diabetic.

[11] Dickens, A. (2014, March 30). Five Tips from a Diabetic Chef. Retrieved from http://americanprofile.com/articles/five-tips-from-a-diabetic-chef-video/.

[12] Fritz, J. (2012, April 20). Defeating diabetes demands lifestyle changes, conscious eating. Retrieved from http://www.examiner.com/article/defeating-diabetes-demands-lifestyle-changes-conscious-eating.

[13] Summerland, C. (2012, April).Real Women Series: Surviving diabetes and obesity and inspiring others to do the same. Retrieved from http://www.yourbeautyadvisor.com/2012/04/real-women-series-surviving-diabetes-and-obesity-and-inspiring-others-to-do-the-same/.

[14] Gowo, R. (2014). Five Tips from a Diabetic Chef. Retrieved from http://whoisdiabetes.blogspot.ca/2014/04/five-tips-from-diabetic-chef.html.

[15] Williamsburg Therapy+Wellness. (2012, May 15). How Are Diabetes And Mental Health Connected?. Retrieved from http://www.williamsburgtherapyandwellness.com/blog/2012/05/16/how-are-diabetes-and-mental-health-connected.

[16] Type 2 Diabetes (2014), from the Mayo Clinic, describes Type 2 diabetes, as follows:

Type 2 diabetes, once known as adult-onset or noninsulin-dependent diabetes, is a chronic condition that affects the way your body metabolizes sugar (glucose), your body’s important source of fuel.

With type 2 diabetes, your body either resists the effects of insulin — a hormone that regulates the movement of sugar into your cells — or doesn’t produce enough insulin to maintain a normal glucose level.

More common in adults, type 2 diabetes increasingly affects children as childhood obesity increases. There’s no cure for type 2 diabetes, but you may be able to manage the condition by eating well, exercising and maintaining a healthy weight. If diet and exercise aren’t enough to manage your blood sugar well, you also may need diabetes medications or insulin therapy.

Mayo Clinic Staff. (2014, July 24). Type 2 Diabetes. Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/type-2-diabetes/basics/definition/con-20031902.

[17] Type 1 Diabetes (2014), from the Mayo Clinic, describes Type 1 diabetes, as follows:

Type 1 diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes, is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin, a hormone needed to allow sugar (glucose) to enter cells to produce energy. The far more common type 2 diabetes occurs when the body becomes resistant to insulin or doesn’t make enough insulin.

Various factors may contribute to type 1 diabetes, including genetics and exposure to certain viruses. Although type 1 diabetes usually appears during childhood or adolescence, it also can begin in adults.

Despite active research, type 1 diabetes has no cure. But it can be managed. With proper treatment, people with type 1 diabetes can expect to live longer, healthier lives than did people with type 1 diabetes in the past.

Mayo Clinic Staff (2014, August 2). Type 1 Diabetes. Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/type-1-diabetes/basics/definition/con-20019573.

[18] Weiss, L. (2013, December 11). On The Verge Of A Diabetic Coma, She Realized She Couldn’t Wait Any Longer To Take Off The Weight. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/11/on-the-verge-of-a-diabeti_n_4414602.html.

[19] Dickens, A. (2013, July 3). Diabetes-Fighting Secrets from a Former Fat Chef. Retrieved from http://spryliving.com/articles/diabetes-fighting-secrets-from-a-former-fat-chef/.

[20] LinkedIn. (2015). Elizabeth Mwanga. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethmwanga.

[21] Ibidem.

[22] First Lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama: Instagram ‘Hate’ (2015) Mwanga states:

I follow the First Lady of the United States on Instagram (I only follow a handful), not only because I am a supporter of our President, but also because of he fact that she has done SO much for veterans, the obesity crises in our nation, is a staunch advocate of healthy living, is IVY educated and an all around awesome person.

Recently, I have been reading comments on her posts, which are always uplifting, she travels the globe and gives light to causes which many are unaware of. Recent comments on her Instagram which ave aught my attention are extremely racist, vulgar and all around disgusting.

My father, who was a high level diplomat under the reign of a very dangerous dictator, defeceted to America, which ultimately saved our immediate family’s life. I will forever be grateful to America…and beyond the crises’ facing us currently, we will prevail.

This sickens me and makes me sad about the future of our society. How anyone can post such filth about a woman who’s mission in life in life to UPLIFT people…is beyond me.

Please people, spread love, not hate.

Mwanga, E. (2015, June 30). First Lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama: Instagram ‘Hate’. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/first-lady-united-states-america-michelle-obama-instagram-mwanga.

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2023-02-03

An interview with Dr. Jason Betts, B.Sc., Dip.M.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc.: Emerald Alchemist (Part Four)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/06/22

Abstract

An interview with Dr. Jason Betts, B.Sc., Dip.M.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc. He discusses: real religious/mystical experiences; recounted experiences; The Grand Architect of the Universe; attributes of the The Grand Architect of the Universe; evidences and arguments; freemasonic community thought on agnostics, atheists, humanists, irreligious, non-believers, and skeptics; purported psychic ability and its means; psychic activity compared to the more pragmatic field of intelligence measurement; varied background influence on perception of the future; thoughts on the future; Reiki; reasonable response to skeptics; point to skeptics; ten steps followed by a particular topic and what interrelates the advisements; reports from them; foundational, driving, philosophy for life’s research; future of the gifted population in relation to society; near and far future of the gifted population in general; influences; inspirations; and emergences in the near and far future.

Keywords: Jason Betts, psychic, skeptic, The Grand Architect of the Universe, World Genius Directory.

An Interview with Dr. Jason Betts, B.Sc., Dip.M.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc.: Emerald Alchemist (Part Four)^{^[1],}^{^[2],^[3],^[4]}

*Footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*

43. What counts as real religious/mystical experiences?

You can’t use ‘real’ and ‘religious’ in the same sentence! Especially when talking about internal and personl experiences! My, goodness. Wittgenstein would be turning in his grave, the poor thing! As best as I can manage, under the limitations of language, meaning and understanding, this concept of a mystical experience is ‘something that affects the person with knowledge’. It gives him something to think about, something to work on and understand, so that when that oyster of datum is opened, the flesh of information threshed, the dross of excretion excised, the pearl of wisdom remaining is adorned, gifted, accepted and absorbed. It changes him, and no-one else was there to share it, only him, in his internal world, and cannot be elsewhere-evidenced. This is the Revealing of the Mysteries. Now, of religious, that’s everything else, because religion serves it’s own master, Control, the brother of Truth, and while Truth seeks the solice of nature and beauty, Control seeks the power of people and policy. In saying, religious experience is either the mind creating what it wants to see, or a mystical experience being portrayed to the religious believer in a manner that their brainwashed minds can accept, such that their belief system filters and edits the true insights that may appear, but still illude them due to their choice to believe other people’s truth and not the nature of reality itself, with all of its Truth and Beauty. Such poor fools, they. Pity them.

44. Can you recount some in detail?

Yes.

45. Freemasons look at the universe, observe structure, infer design, necessitate some designer, and call this designer The Supreme Being or The Grand Architect of the Universe. Does The Supreme Being in some form exist to you?

Yes. The best definition of my deity is pan-enthiesm, where ‘God’ is seperate from the Universe but still operates within it, all through it, but is still seperate from it, in essence. ‘God’ first, Universe second, then God in the Universe third. This also alludes to the concept of a divine plan, an order of Platonic Forms and the spiritual structure of forms and beings upon Aristotle’s Ladder. For discussion, do these potential forms attract us forward to a greater evolution or do they just wait patiently for us to get there? God knows.

46. What attributes comprise The Grand Architect of the Universe to you?

To typify the GAOTU as human is an anthropormorphic error. God is incomphrensible, to the infinite limit of understanding, and as such, cannot be so simply defined – God may as well be a rock. Or a paper aeroplane. Or both, even. The point is that we revere God as a Force and Intelligence, not a virtuous being. Yes, we have virtues and intelligence, and the lessons teach us to use them, but God, well, that’s another matter. God is ‘the connexion’ of all things to all things, which sounds very quantum to me. God is not a person nor a personality. God might turn out to be some chaotic strange-attractor for the matrix we call the Universe, or perhaps a set of Gödellian Exceptions that are not mutually-exclusive, or even a set of quantum equations that allow self-observation without effect, and hence, a true pure consciousness.

47. What arguments and evidences most convince you?

Of what? Existance is, so I believe that. Consciousness is, so I believe that too. And rocks. Especially rocks. And especially rocks when I’m not wearing shoes along the beach. I believe that no conviction is necessary. Each truth should stand on its own merit, and stand and fall as such; prove it true or let it go. If there is some kind of phenomena then surely it can be tested and eventually understood, ad infinitum, to understand God and the Universe we inhabit – this may take some time. Considering the advances made in the last one hundred years it may not be as long as we think, but surely, it is a thing worth working towards. To be clear: God, the Universe, Consciousness and FTL-communication (EPR Interpretation) – I see these things as being the One-and-the-Same. The Mystery Schools of the West and East have some of these Truths, which some have been proven true, and others will follow. How and where they manifest is anyone’s guess, but I am damn sure it’s going to be really very interesting.

48. What does the freemasonic community think of agnostics, atheists, humanists, irreligious, non-believers, and skeptics?

Nothing. We don’t talk about them. We don’t consider them and they do not form any part of policy, instruction or teaching. We do not discriminate them in any way, unlike the way most religions do, other than they can’t join. Can’t see the Light if they ain’t got no eyes, see?

49. You work as a psychic. Does this purported ability occur through hidden realms, through better intuition than others, or another means than these two common explanations?

It’s not purported by me and I take offense at the insinuation. I demonstrate psychic ability and do it very well. My information comes only from my mind and not from any other mundane source.

50. How do you reconcile the ethereal realm of psychic activity with the more pragmatic field of intelligence measurement?

I don’t. They are seperate. I have wondered, however, that my unique set of abilities might be the mix of three factors: a near-death experience, Asperger’s autism, and my two decades of building my Reiki power.

51. You have expertise in ethereal and practical realms. How does your varied background influence how you see the future?

I think you misunderstand how psychic powers work – at least, for me. Seeing in the ethereal realm is like seeing in other dimensions as defined by mathematics as used in science, but still from the observer’s current perspective. The ‘future’ is a set of probabilities and there is no definite future. Many answers from psychics that seem clear and definite are based on truths currently resting inside the concerned parties. Making predictions relies on sensing the variables and ‘sitting with it’ until your subconscious can calculate the most likely outcome. There is research on this called ‘superpredictors’, which is not psychic at all, but which many psychics have intuitively as they get asked to perform this mundane task all the time. Psychics’ real ability is to know many things – many factual items of data, and their relevance – without being told, just from listening or seeing their client for an instant. This is beyond questioning.

52. How do you think the future will play out?

Slowly, like it always does.

53. You have qualifications in Reiki. How does Reiki work?

Now that is a book I’m writing, so I don’t want to spoil it here. The simplest explanation I can give is electro-dermal transmission of neural-para-electricity. It can be taught to anyone from a properly-qualified Sensei such as myself. By touching a person and connecting to their nervous system one can sense organ failure in another, such as colour-blindness, taste malfunctions and also favourite tastes, high/mid/low range deafness in each ear, heart problems, inflammation in internal organs (lungs, intestines, liver, etc), plus the emotional states of the person and their psychological drives. This is done without any information from the recipient by placing one hand on their back over their spine.

54. Proper skeptics, or even cynics masquerading as skeptics, harbor doubts as to the efficacy of Reiki, psychic abilities, and online high-range intelligence tests and their respective communities – publications too. Burden of proof resides in both sides of the issue, skeptics and practitioners – by definition, for their legitimacy. What seems like the reasonable response on each topic to you?

I am open to being researched. I think that’s pretty reasonable. One should always test what one is buying. Most of my students take my class because they sit with me for five minutes and with them silent and my hand on their back, they feel the Reiki flow from my hand to different parts of their body while I also tell me those body parts, their physical and emotional problems, and other claircognient thoughts.

55. Do skeptics have any point to you?

No, not that I’ve had any evidence about.

56. You proposed sets of ten steps followed by a particular topic.^[5]^{,[6],[7],[8],[9],[10],[11],[12],[13],[14],[15],[16],[17],[18],[19],[20],[21],[22],[23]}What interrelates these topics/advisements?

My website, www.emeraldalchemy.com. Seriously, they are some basic life strageties that people suggested I publish online so others could benefit. I wrote those in the year 2000.

57. What reports came back from them?

Letters of thanks and appreciation. The website gets 500,000 hits per year.

58. What foundational philosophy drives this life’s research?

The desire to be the best I can be; to be me, to be true, to know.

59. Where do you see the future of the gifted population in relation to society?

I would hope that the intelligencia of the future would be greater respected and useful and more greatly participatory in creating a better future for the survival of our planet and as many of its life forms as possible. Sadly, I cannot see this happening with the currently political structure of capitalism and political economics, international wafare, religion and the building pressure of resources-rarity caused by increasing population growth.

60. What about the near and far future of the gifted population in general?

I would hope that the higher-IQ population community of Earth continues to work together and support each other, until such time that it can actually do something significant, such as enter the global political area, either directly in collective or by individual infiltration. There are so many challenges facing us over the next two decades I fear that much of what we are talking about will become irrelevent and that the fate of the future will rest with those not best equipped to deal with it.

61. Who most influenced you?

I have had many mentors, like my parents, Haydn & Ilona Betts for their wisdom and understanding, Simon Turnbull of the Australian Psychics Association, Bill Pearson of the CHI-MED College of Natural Medicine, Ken Atherton of the Pindari Herb Farm and Hatton & Laws Pharmacy, John Donaldson of Tasmania University Math Department, but mostly, I’d say would be Anton Jayasuriya of the Open International University of Sri Lanka, who taught me ‘The Art of Healing’ but also of that of people. He was a truly great man. I would have loved to continue to work and learn in his hospital in Colombo.

62. Who inspires you?

My wife, now deceased, continues to inspire me. She was a complete woman, full of grace and elegance, and always was understanding of the real situation and its consequences. She taught me so much and still does. Her values were perfect and she always gave the best advice. I am a pretty good counsellor and philosopher but she really did know a thing or two about people and truth, by golly, she did. And I miss her so very much.

63. What will emerge in the near and far future for you?

More time, I expect, if the past is anything to go by. Or maybe not, chao semper.

Thank you for your time, Dr. Betts.

Bibliography

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Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Abbot, The Order of the Mystic Rose; Member, HOTA High IQ Societies; Member, Helliq Society; Member, Prometheus Society; Member, Australian Mensa; Member, The Triple Nine Society; Member, Australian Psychics Association; Member, Masonic Grand Lodge of Tasmania; Member, Infinity International Society; Member, Triple Nine Society; Member, ISI-Society; Australia’s #1 Distributor (2007), ForeverGreen’s FrequenSea Health Tonic; Owner (2004), Emerald Alchemy, Mail-Order Vitamins, Minerals, Antioxidants; Owner (2000), Taslife Intl, Mail-Order Vitamins, Minerals, Antioxidants; Self Employed (1998), Acupuncture, Massage, Reiki, Nutritional Therapist; High School Teacher (Science/Maths, 1996), Dept. of Education, Tasmania; Editor/Publisher (1995), Tasmania’s Alternative & Natural Therapy Directory; Founder/Organiser (1995), Tasmanian Psychic Expos; Started Teaching Magical Tarot (1993), Numerology and the Hebrew Qabala; Started Reading Playing Cards (1990); Professional Magical Tarot (1992); Member of the Order of Merit (2015), Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree; Knight Kadosh Thirtieth Degree (2012), Holy Grail Soverign Chapter, Tasmania; Most Wise Soverign (2012), Holy Sepulchre Soverign Chapter, Tasmania; Knight of St John the Evangelist (2004), Patriarchal Council of Scotland; Knight of Rome and the Red Cross of Constantine (2004), Grand Imperial Council of Scotland; Knight of HRM and the Rosy Cross (2003), Grand Lodge of the Royal Order of Scotland.

[2] Individual Publication Date: June 22, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2016 at https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

[3] Diploma of Homoeopathy (Dip. Hom, 2001), Medicina Alternativa University (Sri Lanka); Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, 1999), Medicina Alternativa University (Sri Lanka); Registered Marriage Celebrant (1999), Order of the Mystic Rose, Inc. (A4699); Founder/Abbot (1998), Order of the Mystic Rose, Inc. (Tas. #3885); Diploma of Metaphysical Counselling (Dip.MC, 1998), Order of the Mystic Rose (Tasmania); Diploma of Acupuncture (Dip.Ac, 1998), Medicina Alternativa University (Sri Lanka); Certificate of Membership (1998), Acupuncture Foundation of Sri Lanka; Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa, 1997)(DSc), Medicina Alternativa University; Reiki Sensei (Master/Teacher) Certificate (1997), Lee-Anne Bennett (SA); Post Grad. Diploma of Metaphysical Science (Dip.MSc, 1997), Lindlahr College (WA); Bachelor of Science (BSc, 1996), University of Tasmania (Mathematics/Philosophy); Diploma of Remedial Massage (Dip.RM, 1995), Chi-Med College (Tasmania); Certificates in Iridology, Shiatsu and Swedish Massage (1995), Chi-Med College (Tasmania); Advanced Certificate (1992), Usui Method of Reiki Healing; Basic Certificate (1991), Usui Method of Reiki Healing; Certificate (1991), Quantum Dynamics Rebirthing Technique; 30^th Degree Freemason; Buddhu Reiki Shihan; Winner (2010), Tasmanian Psychic of the Year, Australian Psychics Association; Winner (2008), Australian Psychic of the Year, Australian Psychic Association; Founder, Tasmanian Psychic Expos; First Principal, Royal Arch Chapter (2003), Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland; Right Worshipful Master, Mark Lodge (2003), Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland; Master (2002), Tasmanian Union Craft Lodge, Grand Lodge of Tasmanial; Rites of Druidism (2002), Anglesea Lodge, United Ancient Order of Druids, Victoria; Cross Degrees (2002), Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland; Knight of the Pelican and Eagle (2001), Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree of Scotland; Royal Master Degree (2001), Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland; Royal Ark Mariners Degree (2000), Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland; Royal Arch Degree (1998), Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland; Grand Lodge Certificate (1996), Grand Lodge of Ancient Free & Accepted Masons of Tasmania; Discoverer (2012), hexagonally symmetrical circles sequence (OEIS A218146); Discoverer, base-prime integer sequences (OEIS A21551, A126359); Founder, Tasmanian Natural Therapy Directory; Editor, World Genius Directory; Editor, IQ Societies List; IQ Test Constructor, Lux25, WIT, Mathema, and Asterix; Creator, Betts Square Arithmetic Tool and Number Representation, The Betts Virtuegrams; 30th Anniversary Psychic Ambassador Award (2013), Australian Psychics Association; Australia’s Top Psychic, ABC TV’s Unbelievable, Episode One; TV Star Psychic (2008), Channel 7’s ‘The One’, Fox Studios Sydney; Founder, EarthHeart.com.au; Member, Mensa International.

[4] Images/photographs/portraits/sketches courtesy of Dr. Jason Betts.

[5] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Beauty Inside and Out. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/beauty/.

[6] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Becoming a Romantic Love Magnet. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/romantic_love_magnet/.

[7] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Becoming Smarter. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/becoming_smarter/.

[8] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Confidence and Personal Power. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/confidence_personal_power/.

[9] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Effective Communication. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/effective_communication/.

[10] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Enlightenment. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/enlightenment/.

[11] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Financial Wealth. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/financial_wealth/.

[12] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Fixing the World. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/fixing_world/.

[13] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Life Improvement. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/life_improvement/.

[14] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Losing Weight. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/losing_weight/.

[15] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Quitting Smoking. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/quitting_smoking/.

[16] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Perfect Eyesight. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/perfect_eyesight/.

[17] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Perfect Health. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/perfect_health/.

[18] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Psychic Powers. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/psychic_powers/.

[19] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Raising Children. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/raising_children/.

[20] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Staying Alive. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/staying_alive/.

[21] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Successful Dating. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/successful_dating/.

[22] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Zen Chainsaw Safety. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/zen_chainsaw_safety/.

[23] Betts, J. (n.d.). 1,000 Year Old Super Health Foods. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/super_health_foods/.

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2023-02-03

An interview with Dr. Jason Betts, B.Sc., Dip.M.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc.: Emerald Alchemist (Part Three)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/06/15

Abstract

An interview with Dr. Jason Betts, B.Sc., Dip.M.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc. He discusses: possible reasons for smart people joining the high-IQ world and high-IQ testing; reasons they should join; serving exceptional intellectual and creative talent; provisions for the gifted populations; inculcation of prosocial values for the gifted individual and society; convincing reason to provide for this sector of society; assisting the gifted population; responsibilities of the gifted and talented towards society; definition of genius; hastening discovery of the world’s geniuses; accidental repetition of the question on definition of genius; genius in an era with technology making everyone smarter; impressive intelligence tests; definition of the spiritual; the heart of valid spiritual traditions; personal interest in joining chapters, councils, lodges, and orders; important lessons from the chapters, councils, lodges, and orders; and unification of mystic traditions across culture, geography, and time.

Keywords: geniuses, high-IQ, Jason Betts, World Genius Directory.

An Interview with Dr. Jason Betts, B.Sc., Dip.M.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc.: Emerald Alchemist (Part Three)^{^[1],}^{^[2],^[3],^[4]}

*Footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*

25. What might motivate smart people to join the high-IQ world and high-IQ testing?

Curiosity and the search for friendship on an intellectual basis. Self-knowledge is a powerful thing and many find this IQ a part of their process, learning about themselves, their abilities, and also the social side that is available with it. Some stay, some leave, some just visit when they feel the need – but we’re always here. 🙂

26. Why should smart people join the high-IQ world and high-IQ testing?

They shouldn’t. They can if they want to, but there’s no judgement they should. Most smart folk know they’re smart and don’t need an IQ test to prove it, which is a bit of a pity because the rest of the world – and especially those in HiQ World – would be really interested. High-IQ testing is an ever-growing and evolving field, with new tests, types of tests and theories of intelligence always being produced – that’s not going away, just because it’s really interesting!

27. How can we best serve those of exceptional intellectual and creative talent?

I think the answer to that is the same as if you’re asking about any group of people on Earth: with honesty, compassion and helpfulness, so they can grow and thrive, develop and evolve, just like any other class of people. I would hope, though, and wish, that intellectuals would have a bigger say in the running and management of this planet. So far, the existing oligarchy isn’t doing such a good job. Likewise, religion should be kept separate from politics, and never have anything to do with policy. Time is short.

28. Many organizations provide for the needs of the moderately gifted ability sectors of the general population, most often adults and sometimes children. However, few provide for the needs of children (and adults) in the high, profound, exceptional, or ‘unmeasurable’ ability sectors of the general population. (Of course, this does not mean pity or special privileges for those with the advantage of gifts and talents in life, especially early life.) Some organizations and societies provide forums, retreats, journals, intelligence tests, literature, or outlets for the highest ability sub-populations. What can individuals, organizations, and societies do to provide for the gifted population?

I think that’s a bit like the previous question, and the answer is the onus of each specific organisation. For example, in Australian Mensa, we have a Gifted Childrens Fund, which grants successful applicants (including non-members) financial assistance to achieve specific goals they could not afford themselves.

29. From the vantage of the adult and senior gifted set, how might we inculcate prosocial values most net beneficial to both the gifted individual and society?

Careful now, this might lead to the Dark Side of Philosophy, a.k.a. religion. Seriously, teach all kids philosophy. Get them to think for themselves, and question their thinking, intentions, consequences. There’s so much good, basic and useful philosophy from many cultures one doesn’t have to look far to find thinking tools that are useful for teaching children to think, and then teach, thinking and teaching.

30. What argument most convinces you of the need to provide for this sector of society?

Does one throw seed upon the rocky and sandy field, or upon the rich, moist and fertile soily field? If the choice is there, we chose the one with the most potential for good and consequence, the one with the higher rung upon Aristotle’s Ladder; we should teach all, help all, but where possible, help to create the bright and best possible, for those are the leaders of thought and the finest of the Human Mind, so far.

31. How can parents, mentors, educators, and policymakers assist the gifted population?

I am so glad this has started to happen. As a past educator of high school science and math I have witnessed it as a grass-roots movement of parents making choices and voices to their children’s schools and the schools and education departments responding. Of course, it was the private schools first, motivated by simple economic carrots, but of course, that did lead to a revolution of ‘gifted children’s programs’. Well, at least here in Australia!

32. What responsibilities do the gifted and talented population have towards society and culture?

Sapientia est Potentias, and of course, from Ben Parker again, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Gifted and talented are not quite the same, either, and every person has within them a knack – a thing – that they can do. Not everyone finds theirs, nor even develops it; but those that do know it, perform it, and can use that to find their place in the World and make it just that little bit better. For the moral duty, I ask you, if you have the power to help – if you could, and you know you should – would you? It’s a self-judgement and internal motive that begs the answer, and truly, it’s everyone’s own choice of freedom.

33. What defines genius to you?

One of my IQ mentors, Dr Greg Grove, says it best with the motto of his Mysterium Society: “Originality, Creativity and Ingenuity”. To me, this is to be original and unique, to create works of use and beauty, and doing it in a clever and new way that defines an intellectual perspective. Otherwise, you’re just smart, perhaps foolish, and even one of many, working in a difficult field but not achieving genius results. A genius creates things – new and wonderful things – that are just not clever, but useful, helpful, and profound, that will change the way we enjoy and experience life, enriching the human race and survival.

34. What might hasten discovery of the world’s geniuses?

IQ testing is the trite answer, but what we really have is a steady-state situation, where the flux is the number of geniuses in the world and the level is the number recognised. So, as per the rules of steady-state, there’s three main activities to maximise this and the strategy should encompass all three. 1) Create more geniuses. Do this by teaching children to think with values that are humanistic in nature, like honesty, science, reason and the creative arts, and not influenced by any ulterior motive or bias. 2) Nurture the geniuses you have, in mind and body, and cultivate and environment (or environments, be they physical centres of learning and growing, or electronic environments, like IQ societies, etc) of sharing, support and growth of their ideas, ‘genius’ (creativity, originality, ingenuity) and of course focussed on the topics and matters of need in the day. 3) Search for geniuses, in an active, ordered, arranged and determined way, with specific purpose and plan for implementation once you’ve found them. This is done via educational networks (universities), institutions for publishing excellence (Nobel, TEDx, etc) and of course there’s the societial cultus (YouTube, FaceBook, etc), including the desire of one’s self to be tested and deliberately work with IQ.

35. What defines genius to you?

Embracing the Intellectual Godhood within. Using it, and being better, creating better, evolving self.

36. Does genius matter in an era where technology makes everyone smarter than before?

Of course! Who created the technology, repairs it, and whom will make the next lot of technology?! Smart is not genius. Genius is taking stock of that you’ve got, seeing what’s there and what’s needed, and then creating something new, different, useful and brilliant that’s not been done before (no one’s thought of it yet) and create a new paradigm and set of possibilities for that situation – to open a new door, and walk through.

37. Whose intelligence tests impress you?

Well, mine, of course! I often surprise myself in creating them, be they Eureka! style moments or those created in the genius-flow, or sometimes even in the mundane mechanisms of ordered thought. To be fair, I consider my tests an art form and have created many new formats of tests, in originality, creativity and ingenuity, so I’m pretty pleased with myself. In terms of other people, there are different classes, so it’s hard to mention just one or two names. Of the old guard, Ron Hoeflin, Nik Lygeros and Paul Cooijmans are all worthy of respect and greatness, pioneers in the modern field. Of special note, Paul’s practical guidelines and statistical devices have been regarded very useful and revolutionary in the field.

38. What defines the spiritual to you?

‘The Spiritual’ is the non-physical world that intersects with humanity through our consciousness to our minds and brains, of things dead, distant and unknowable, but still within the reach of thought. In connection there is a high incidence of an awareness of an inner morality and self-awareness that may previously have been ignored in behaviour and judgements but may be ‘awakened’ due to stressful or intense events, such as near-death experiences, drugs, extreme sensory stimulation and extreme suffering.

39. What seems like the heart of valid spiritual traditions – their superset?

This is a very good question. I would say Truth and Understanding of Nature and Reality as a basis, and then, perhaps, a technology of control and mastery of that reality. As I have been taught, “Honesty is the doorway of self-knowledge” and “Before one can know everything, one must know one’s self.” Likewise, self-mastery is required before becoming a ‘Master of the Universe.’ Interestingly, Truth and Understanding and two of the three components for communication (according to I), the third being Clarity. All three are powerful metaphysical concepts which is why I write them as proper nouns.

40. You hold positions in various chapters, councils, lodges, and orders including Abbot of the The Order of the Mystic Rose, Member of the Order of Merit (2015) for the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree, Knight Kadosh Thirtieth Degree (2012) for the Holy Grail Sovereign Chapter in Tasmania, Most Wise Sovereign (2012) of the Holy Sepulchre Sovereign Chapter in Tasmania,Knight of St John the Evangelist (2004) for the Patriarchal Council of Scotland, Knight of Rome and the Red Cross of Constantine (2004) for the Grand Imperial Council of Scotland, Knight of HRM and the Rosy Cross (2003) for the Grand Lodge of the Royal Order of Scotland. Where does personal interest originate for you?

My patriarchal line consists of teachers and priests for many generations, my grandfather an ordaned minister within the Anglician Church, my father lay preacher/liturgical assistant, both Freemasons. Further up is an Indian chap (5th gen) and to him I attribute my skin tone, green eyes and some innate mannerisms and memories to this cultural heritage. Specifically and directly, my interest in the Western Mystery School Tradition has been since a young age, before my near-death accident; but upon awakening my ‘other consciousness’ in that event I have memberance of other skills, other experiences, affinities for the obscure and antient … other lives. Finally, ‘I have arrived’, and am now known as Dr Jason Betts, Emerald Alchemist, as says my letterhead. My carriage is the Mystiqmobile and has its name MYSTIQ upon the plate.

41. What important lessons come from these chapters, councils, lodges, and orders for you?

Each degree has its own lesson. This is the same for most orders but also any kind of school of initiation where ‘the knowledge changes you’. This is not the same for most knowledge, which is largely information. Data may inform (or not), but knowledge changes. It creates ‘knowing’. These systems of thought and initiation guide the student into higher and higher states of being and awareness. Yes, there are requirements, but not religious ones, for free-thought and imagination are requirements, and faith, of sorts, so that the incomprehensible may be comprehended. There is a common format, across the organisations over time and space, and that is that the lessons are taught in parts, and that it’s the initiates work to integrate them into the concept-answer-solution. Even then, the fuller-wisdom does not descend until the ‘fullness’ of the lesson is integrated into their life and being – such is the way of the Western Mystery School Tradition. As an example, the first mystery comes in these symbollic parts: 1) Latin: Lux ex Tenebris, 2) Virtue: Consciousness, 3) Visual: Black and White (Chinese, the Taiji; Western: Chequers), 4) Contemplation: Knowledge and Ignorance, 5) Exercise: Personally given by the Master to the student to seek and find the nature of the concept such that it become apparent to the seeker.

42. What unites mystic traditions across culture, geography, and time?

I can only suppose that it is the fibre of their being, in structure, content and purpose, that connects them in similarity, rather than any other definition. To me, this is ‘the method of intellectual awakening’ by words of wisdom that take the initiate from hither to yon, whereas they wouldn’t take the ignorant to anywhere; these words fall only upon those with ears to hear, only upon those with eyes to see, and ne’er the unworthy nor corrupt see or hear the Truth, lest they use it for purposes malicious and dastardely.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[2] Individual Publication Date: June 15, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2016 at https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

[4] Images/photographs/portraits/sketches courtesy of Dr. Jason Betts.

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2023-02-03

An interview with Dr. Jason Betts, B.Sc., Dip.M.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc.: Emerald Alchemist (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/06/08

Abstract

An interview with Dr. Jason Betts, B.Sc., Dip.M.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc. He discusses: reasonable considerations of intelligence tests; advantages of online tests; disadvantages of online tests; pitfalls in measurement of intelligence and creation of intelligence tests; strengths and weaknesses of culture fair intelligence tests; definition of general intelligence; most reasonable other positions; personal hopes for high-IQ sub-population; hoped for accomplishment of IQ tests and the World Genius Directory; suffered canards of geniuses and reflection in personal and social experience; common attributes that demarcate geniuses; common characteristics among geniuses; things wrong with portrayals of geniuses in books, televisions, movies, and journalism; Internet’s alteration to the high-IQ landscape; possibility to increase IQ, intelligence, or both; and ways this might occur.

Keywords: intelligence, intelligence tests, IQ, geniuses, Jason Betts, World Genius Directory.

An Interview with Dr. Jason Betts, B.Sc., Dip.M.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc.: Emerald Alchemist (Part Two)^{^[1],[2]}^{^,[3]^,[4]}

*Footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*

9. Criticism exists around online intelligence tests, especially high-range online intelligence tests. Mainstream standardized general intelligence tests such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM), or the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition (SB-5) tend not to garner criticism.

Major differences exist between the two. Mainstream intelligence tests work within the reasonable extrapolations of the normal range of the bell curve, have a high sample size, implement time limits, and require professional supervision, to name a few.

Online high-range intelligence tests work within the upper limits of reasonable bell curve sigmas at 4 to 6, even rarer, standard deviations, have low self-selected sample sizes, do not implement time limits – except, maybe, suggested limits, and do not require professional supervision, to name another related few.

Fault-finding toward mainstream intelligence tests might emerge in the form of theoretical critiques of the intelligence quotient (IQ) measurements and its purported complete isomorphism with the concept “intelligence.” Each, the WAIS, RAPM, and SB-5, seem to provide the most accurate intelligence scores. The gold-standard, so to speak.

For instance, as noted, four standard deviations remains the highest reasonable extrapolation for them. A standard deviation of 15, 16, or 24, would produce a positive four standard deviation intelligence test score of 160, 164, and 196, respectively. Statistical analysis dictates a theoretical rarity of 1 in 30,000 people. Any further reduces the possible sample from the population. America, for one example, contains an estimated 322,000,000 people.^[5]

322,000,000/30,000 comes out to ~10,733.^[6] In the United States, which seems to utilize 16 as its standard deviation, this would leave about 11,000 individuals with possible IQ scores of 164 or greater.^[7]11,000 people remains small in terms of the population. Even higher, some minor, and some legitimate, concerns emerge with respect to critiques about online high-range intelligence tests.

Online intelligence tests constructors appear to not have the equivalent resources, staff, and net time. This limits, in theory, their tests’ accuracies in measurement of the highest level of ability, which defines their existence, or purpose, for the most part.

From the theory, this might happen in practice too. Some online high-range tests calculate rarities into one in several million, one in several ten or hundred million, and even one in one/several billion. On face value, this can appear unreasonable. With some of this in mind, what seems like a reasonable consideration of the issue to you?

This is an ongoing issue of high-range IQ testing and also, like many things, always evolving. Not going into history, but things are looking better, in general, as long as some basic rules and regulations are kept. For starters, online testing as we currently know it, i.e. one set test of unchanging questions, is not acceptable as it is easy to cheat by multiple submissions. I am working on a version with dynamic questions (not static), but credit should be given to Marco Ripà whom has created two such tests already – truly, world firsts.

Statistical Deviation = 15 (SD15) seems to be the world standard at the moment for it’s ease of use and fitting into two structural metrics, being Mensa (130 = 100 + 15 + 15) and 15 having a factor of 5 and a semi-factor of 10.

The major point of IQ tests is to test IQ but with two extras: to test the type of intelligence that cannot be tested by standard IQ tests, and to test the range of intelligence that cannot be tested by standard IQ tests. To do this, high-range tests allow unlimited time, such that the answers should not be easily found by research, but only by thinking, and secondly – and most importantly – that no amount of thinking will unlock a specific item – but intelligence will, i.e. for any item, no amount of research nor time (practically, not including exponential experience in a finite lifetime) will reveal the correct answer for a high-range IQ test item. This is a sacrosanct truth that differentiates a difficult test and a high-range one.

10. What advantages come with online tests?^[8]
The opportunity to practise doing IQ tests and usually not having to pay money for it. And the opportunity to cheat using frauduent email identities so one can claim a higher (false) score.

11. What disadvantages come with online tests?^[9]

Non-accurate results due to low quality test-designs by non-geniuses, over-inflated scores by over-estimation and bad extrapolation of the data, the ability to cheat by multiple test-taking and not being able to use the score to list or join online institutions, such as the World Genius Directory.

12. What exists as some of the pitfalls in the measurement of intelligence and creation of intelligence tests in general?^[10]
Not being smart enough, generally. If not that, then wise enough. If not that, then cunning. IQ is a tricky thing, like water; it flows, moves around, is solid, is fluid, has resistance, yet pushes – testing can be tricky, and so must test the force of it’s power, yet the subtlety of it’s elegance, the measure of it’s flow (fluid intelligence) and the structure of it’s firmness and grounding (crystal intelligence), and finally, test the true measure of intelligence – genius! – by way of seeing the unseen, capturing the uncapturable (by normal thinking methods) and knowing the unknowable (with current knowledge and methods). Genius is where it’s at, and IQ tests and measurement is just path and doorway into the doorway of the future of thinking.

13. Intelligence does not equate to quantitative, verbal, or written ability by necessity.^[11] These remain variables, proxies. Non-verbal intelligence tests provide the possibility to tap into this for those without formal educational credentials. What strengths and weaknesses come with non-verbal/culture fair intelligence tests?^[12]

As stated in the statement previous to the question, non-verbal tests offer those without language skills (either uneducated or without the relevant language or localised knowledge) a way of thinking that is either symmetric, mathematical or aesthetic in nature, and rewards them as such for appreciating it.

NVIT offer a way of expressing mathematical truths in new and interesting ways, open to intepretation and offer new pathways of cognative recognition that can be measured and appreciated. (Sagan: if it can’t be measured, it’s not Science!”) I cannot think of any negative reasons for NVIT other that the instructions, which is why I keep mine (Asterix, Xpwmatrix, Register, etc) to a minimum.

The weakness of NVIT are that they lack the subtlety of verbal language, where words can mean more than one thing, so that a lower IQ will assume one definition and an higher-IQ person will assume other definitions; also, word-play for other languages is a favourite of mine (especially Greek and Latin) as is the use of number of letters, palindromes, anagrams, Spoonerisms and the like. The point is, the smarter the person, the more they will ‘see’ with their mind – the definition of the Latin word ‘intelligere’.

14. What defines general intelligence to you?

‘The ability to see with the mind’, from the Latin.

15. Some intelligence researchers posit a general intelligence, “g.” Others posit a triplet intelligence or multiple intelligences. Of these, or other, positions, what seems the most reasonable?

I created a Theory of Mind of 10 Intelligences, of which I am yet to publish as a book, but do so at:
http://psych.iqsociety.org/typesmodes-of-intelligence. The question is loaded on the definition of ‘reasonable’, which can mean any Occam-thing that makes the most sense at that time. However, I believe there are, by example of the varieties of genius and savant, different types of genius, and thus, intelligence. Modern psychology recognises a differentiation between emotional feelings, higher judgements, basic learnt knowledge, higher rational knowledge and intuitive knowledge/judgements. Even psychic phenomena fit into this empirical schema. The thing is: reason is anything that seems reasonable, so here I will define it thus: a singular intelligence is one where a skill or talent can be describe and measured which is different to another skill or talent in nature.

16. What personal hopes come to heart with respect to the high-IQ sub-population – the highest level of ability?

Dr Jason Betts, Editor/Publisher of the World Genius Directory, will continue to work and act as such, for is long as able, and will continue to advance the field with such advancements as have already been seen and published, leading the field in innovation, education and research.

17. What do you hope to accomplish via creation of IQ tests and the World Genius Directory?^[13]^,[14]^,[15]
My IQ tests started as experiments, personal testings, of what is intelligence and how one measures it. The WGD came a bit later, personally frustrated at what was available online as a resource for High IQ Societies and lists of tests, &cet. The WGD being a listing of the ‘highest of the high’ was a novel idea for making it interesting, to really see, who was who, and what was what, and how they got there. Many ethical problems had to be solved to create the WGD as it is, being that it has 5,000 unique visitors per month and ten times as many hits (2015 annual figures). Ultimately, the World Genius Directory is a directory for geniuses, those of high intelligence or just those interested in intelligence – it points them to ports of information, testing, help, society and friendship; it lists the famous (or those that desire it, lol) and those that want to be accessible and known as such. It list all of the high-IQ societies, high-IQ tests, publications of our members and even our annual Genius of the Year Awards. It is accomplished, consummatum est.

18. Geniuses suffer from canards, even outright slander, e.g. lack of social skills, inept emotional expression, and poor self-care. Does this reflect personal and social experience to you?

Since my death-experience I have grown and grown and grown. I was 5’10” for 3 years previous and then grew 8 inches over the next 8 years. Last year, I only grew 1cm, and went from 4XL to 5XL shirt, and from Size 11.5 to 12 in shoes, plus another 8kg in body mass. I think it’s fair to say I’m a jolly green giant now. Since my autistic beginnings, university hardships, relationship sufferings, I have survived. Despite everything, I have found love, procreated, loved, and lost. My wife (Wendy) died in 2014 and I have not recovered. I talk to her daily and it is so very hard, that nothing else matters, and every day is either hard or sad, or both. In IQ terms, I have learnt to see people for what they are, to understand what motivates them, and discern what is important and what is not, so that I manage my time and energy wisely – for, after all – that’s ‘all’ we have.

19. What common attributes demarcate geniuses?

LOL. Alienation, usually.

20. Do you find that geniuses typically have characteristics in common, and if so, what are those characteristics?

Intelligence, usually, and sometimes, wit. Trite, but true.

21. What seems wrong with portrayals of geniuses in books, television, movies, and journalism?

Geniuses *are* superheros, no doubt about that; it just seems that those in the media are those that solve really big ‘social’ problems, whereas the common genius (no contradiction) solves non-social, scientific and very-specific problems, such that their light doesn’t shine in the global daynight; however, just as the Earth turns day into night, their glory and glow is noted by those that it affects and is written into those annuls, recorded for the future, to be recognised later for their contribution to humanity’s greatness.

22. How did Internet alter the high-IQ landscape?

It gave people a place to be, as it did many other special interest groups. The internet is wonderful, yet horrible, for those same reasons. Oh, for yesterdecade – bring back the 70s!

23. Insofar as numerous professionals argue about general intelligence, it appears, for the most part, genetic with increasing hereditary influence with more complete development of the organism, e.g. an individual human being’s growth from infant to toddler to adult. However, some argue for the possibility to increase IQ, intelligence, or both. Can people increase their IQ, intelligence, or both to you?

Ha! Seeking to test my Boolean intelligence, I see! So, the answer to the last sentence is yes, to the first part yes, the second part no, and of course, the whole, as yes.

I think IQ can rise by 10% over 10 years if the right factors can come into play; namely, that the IQ is measured correctly in the first year, then many years of brain-training takes place over the concurrent years, and that proper testing takes place at the end, also. I have witnessed many people take my tests from a decade ago and now are ten points higher, slowing fighting the years in a reverse relationship of IQ to year. IQ, strictly speaking, was the relationship of a person’s mental to physical age; nowadays it is the relationship of that person in the statistical population – a much more accurate and meaningful figure.

24. If this can occur to you, how might this occur to you?

Like King Solomon, I hope to awake in an enlightened state, and become filthy rich, revered by men and adored by women. Unlike the same, I will probably work very hard for a very long time and slowly glean away at the reflection of intellectual riches and only hope that – at the end of it all – some kind of final illucidation will arrive and satisfy me.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[2] Individual Publication Date: June 8, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2016 at https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

[4] Images/photographs/portraits/sketches courtesy of Dr. Jason Betts.

[5] United States Census Bureau. (2015). U.S. and World Population Clock. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/popclock/.

[6] Ibid.

[7] United States. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/place/United-States.

[8] human intelligence. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/human-intelligence-psychology.

[9] PSIQ. (2015). PSIQ. Retrieved from http://psiq.org/lux/.

[10] Ibid.

[11] human intelligence. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/human-intelligence-psychology.

[12] Ibid.

[13] PSIQ. (2015). Bio. Retrieved from http://www.psiq.org/bio/.

[14] PSIQ. (2015). PSIQ. Retrieved from http://psiq.org/lux/.

[15] PSIQ. (2015). World Genius Directory. Retrieved from http://psiq.org/home.html.

License

Copyright

2023-02-03

An interview with Dr. Jason Betts, B.Sc., Dip.M.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc.: Emerald Alchemist (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/06/01

Abstract

An interview with Dr. Jason Betts, B.Sc., Dip.M.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc. He discusses: geographic, cultural, and linguistic family background; growing up; first awareness of abilities; responsibilities based on electronic exposure; written books; the content of the books; creation, development, refinement, administration, statistical norming, and publication of legitimate tests; and the test with the most accurate analysis of general intelligence.

Keywords: abilities, books, Jason Betts, tests.

An Interview with Dr. Jason Betts, B.Sc., Dip.M.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc.: Emerald Alchemist (Part One)^{[1],[2],[3],[4]}

*Footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside?

I was born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia to my German mother and Welsh father, both Christians and educated people of strong family, ethical and social values. They arrived in the 1950’s post WWII Europe and were told to learn English and become Australian, a mostly-UK conformist annex of the world. I currently believe that Australia is a very good place to be in the world, with minimal corruption, rich natural resources, high educational and living standards, firm protection (due to natural geography and governmental support) and a high level of civil liberties and democracy. Australians are lucky.

Australia is a country with a rich diversity in people, geography, nature, opportunities and much more. It truly is the lucky country; no man can fail unless he really tries to. I was raised in an environment where things that occur in other counties are foreign and unknown here, evil … unheard of. It is hard to consider the differences of a normal life (here) and a hard life (there) while watching the international news.

2. What was growing up like for you?

It was difficult. I was different. I was strange – lived in my own world, talked to myself, and understood everything as a commentary between myself and I – in secret, of course, because no-one else would understand what I meant; and even, if (!) I were to explain, they wouldn’t have understood, for while I could not understand mental spacial relationships, my internal thinking was about half pictures and half visual symbolic representations, like some coloured-energy-cloud that breathed and evolved, like pictures coming together and merging, each with its own meanings and intentions understood – so I couldn’t explain these to others, especially as I didn’t like most other people.

I played music at seven years (guitar), then moved into brass instruments from nine until seventeen (trumpet through tuba) and have played the bass guitar since then; I tinker with different musics like pan flutes/wine bottles, vocal toning/chanting, keyboard and am a mad lap-tabletop-drummer if inspired enough.

Always excelling in the classroom, I usually failed exams because I argued the semantics of the questions and the test. I always failed school out of the classroom too, finding solace in the school library. In each school, I worked my way, day-by-day, page-by-page, volume-by-volume, set-by-set, through the encyclopaediae, and then moved onto their psychology, philosophy and science sections. Dewey was my friend.

3. When did you first become aware of or first try to develop your abilities?

I died at the age of seventeen and experienced an out-of-body-experience, viewing my whole body on an operating table and many hospital staff around me, after a road accident. My heart and breathing stopped and I was revived, but I was consciously observing in real-time what was happening to my body, seeing my face and self dying there, a purplish-indigo glow around everything. Until that point, I was a scientist and didn’t go for any religious nonsense; but afterwards, I explored yoga, OOBEs, psychic phenomena and the like.

Soon after, while learning to walk again around the hospital, I could look at a person and tell if they were going to survive or not. They psychically ‘reeked’ of death – a feeling – and also what they felt. As a latter-diagnosed Asperger’s Autistic, this was very new to me – I could ‘feel’ in a new way, new doors of my mind had opened, and – like it or not – it was coming to me, ready or not.

My first profound psychic experience was with my school friend Ryan, whom I am still in-touch with. Mum and Dad were driving me to Ryan’s 18th birthday party along the West Tamar Highway of Launceston, Tasmania. I screamed as I saw a white 4-door car overturn on the other side of the highway. Then, it disappeared. My parents didn’t see it. They said it was the painkillers. Mental, I was. No matter. We went to the party, a sleepover/gaming session. It was a good night, and I told everyone about my vision, and they all agreed with my parents, and we continued to play Archon (a RPG-style video-chess game). Ryan’s older brother even turned up for a few hours and played and then left late that night. We went home late next morning. That afternoon I got a phone call from Ryan saying his brother, who left late the night before, driving his white 4-door car, crashed and overturned on the highway driving back to Launceston, just where I had seen it. That was a very spooky moment. My life was never the same.

4. You have numerous online resources with reference to, or published by, you.^{[5],[6],[7],[8],[9],[10],[11],[12],[13],[14],[15],[16],[17],[18],[19],[20],[21],[22],[23],[24],[25],[26],[27],[28],[29],[30],[31],[32],[33],[34],[35],[36] [37],[38],[39],[40],[41],[42],[43],[44],[45],[46],[47],[48],[49],[50],[51],[52],[53],[54],[55],[56]}^{,[57],[58],[59],[60],[61],[62],[63],[64],[65],[66],[67],[68],[69],[70],[71],[72],[73],[74],[75]} What responsibilities come with this public, professional exposure into the electronic world?

Ah, the internet. The greatest observable library of the World. Ah, the internet. Well, with great responsibility comes great power (lol, but true), and the key virtue to all leadership – for that is the pathway of power – is trust. Trust is earned, demonstrated and kept by keeping integrity. Anyone can be anyone, but their standing, reputation and value to society is ‘held’ by integrity, whatever that may be, whatever their values may be, and whatever their actions may hold them accountable for. I believe that for me to do the work I do, which I’ve not consciously chosen to do – it’s just what has happened – that we must adhere to our True Selves, and be the best we can be, and not for our own reputation, but for the sake of others, and indeed, the World.

5. You wrote a number books, e.g. Zen Master: the Art of Perfection (2008), Maths Experiments for Year 9 (2005), Sapientia Diploma of Metaphysics – Knowledge Master Program (2000), MLM Secrets: Networking in the Y2K (1999), and A Guide to the New Age (1996).^[76]How did these become topics of interest to you?^[77]

Zen seems to appeal to my perfectionist nature and philosophy, MLM Secret was a practical thing, as was Maths Experiments, and Sapientia is my basic instructional manual in the ‘ways of the world’ self-empowerment and how to learn as much as possible and how to think intelligently and spiritually in as short amount of time as possible.

6. What does each book cover?^[78]

A Guide to a New Age was a spin-off from my ‘Tasmanian Directory of Alternative & Natural Therapies’ where I was the editor and publisher. We did 1000 copies for statewide distributor every two years and this started as a brief explanation of the modalities; but because I was drunk, it was midnight and there was a full moon playing with the harquelin of my mind, I decided to write sillilly, and asked a uni mate of mine (Jon Kudelka, now a famous award-winning national political cartoonist) to match them with images. He did. It was. It sold, went national, became a bit famous – it was a hoot.

MLM Secrets was the publication of a set of notes I’d written after a decade in the industry, Maths Experiments was a collection of mathematical experiments I’d used as a high school math teacher and Sapientia was a 1-year personal growth program of applied philosophy that drew from the Hebrew Qabala and medieval mysticism (the topic of my PhD research and thesis). Students come for 3-hours every Wednesday night for 44 weeks and get a Diploma of Sapiential Metaphysics. (Zen is still a work-in-progress.

7. You constructed intelligence tests, high-range intelligence tests, namely: Lux25, WIT, Mathema, Asterix, and others.^.[79],[80]How does one create, develop, refine, administer, statistically norm, and publish a legitimate test?^.[81],[82]
This question is a book unto itself, and so, I cannot answer it. I may describe the answer in a sentence, perhaps: it takes time, experience, cleverness, cunning and a devious attitude to mettling-out the truth. Publishing is easy. Administering is easy if a home-test providing everything in honest (checking IDs etc) and norming can be complicated. Creating ‘tests that work’ as IQ tests is an art and skill. There are many methods that converge to the Ultimate Truth of the Matter. I have found one that works for me.

8. What test provides the most accurate analysis of general intelligence out of the total set of personal tests?^.[83],[84]
Asterix (http://www.psiq.org/*.pdf) is my most accurate test. For those that take my four best tests and find their TrueIQ (a term I coined) then Asterix is the closest to their TrueIQ.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[2] Individual Publication Date: June 1, 2016 at http://www.in-sightjournal.com/an-interview-with-dr-jason-betts-bsc-dipmsc-phd-dsc-part-one; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2016 at https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

[4] Photographs courtesy of Dr. Jason Betts.

[5] Betts, J. (2015). Dr Jason Betts | Mystiq Genius – High-Range IQ Tests. Retrieved from http://psiq.org/lux/.

[6] Betts, J. (2015). Dr Jason Betts | IQ Test Norms – Scoring and Norming Data. Retrieved from http://www.psiq.org/norms/.

[7] Betts, J. (2015). Emerald Alchemy. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/.

[8] World Intelligence Network. (2015). Dr Jason Betts, BSc, DipMSc, PhD, DSc.. Retrieved from http://www.iqsociety.org/win-people/jason-betts/.

[9] Spector, D. (2013, January 6). 16 ways to find out if you’re a genius. Retrieved from http://www.thejournal.ie/16-ways-to-measure-iq-735242-Jan2013/.

[10] Sarfaraz. (2012, October 26). Tag Archives: Jason Betts. Retrieved from https://sarfarazit.wordpress.com/tag/jason-betts/.

[11] ESOTERIQ High IQ Society. (2015). Admission. Retrieved from http://esoteriqsociety.com/admission/.

[12] Gifted High IQ Network. (2015). Gifted High IQ Network. Retrieved from http://www.giftedhighiqnetwork.org/iq-tests.

[13] Spector, D. (2013, January 6). 16 ways to find out if you’re a genius. Retrieved from http://www.thejournal.ie/16-ways-to-measure-iq-735242-Jan2013/.

[14] Global Genius Generation Group (4G). (2015). Global Genius Generation Group. Retrieved from http://www.4g-highiqsociety.org/qualification.

[15] MACH. (2015). Links. Retrieved from http://mach.highrangeiqtests.com/links.html.

[16] Spector, D. (2012, November 20). Geniuses Are The Loneliest People On Earth. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com.au/what-it-feels-like-to-be-a-genius-2012-11.

[17] Mathesia. (2015). THE WORLD’S SECOND-SMARTEST MAN TELLS US WHAT MAKES HIM FEEL STUPID. Retrieved from http://www.mathesia.com/community/the-worlds-second-smartest-man-tells-us-what-makes-him-feel-stupid/.

[18] Odysseus4Gifted. (n.d.). VerbIQ. Retrieved from http://www.odysseus4gifted.de/411828427.

[19] Sauve, J. (2014, December 15). What is the most reliable source to measure IQ on the Internet?. Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-most-reliable-source-to-measure-IQ-on-the-Internet.

[20] Betts, J. (2015). Jason Betts Creations. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/.

[21] Oleinic, A. (2014, September). The Smartest People in the World. Retrieved from http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/11-smartest-people-in-the-world-219221/.

[22] S.I.Q.S. – The Secret High I.Q. Society. (2015). Members. Retrieved from http://www.siqs.org/members/.

[23] World Intelligence Network. (2015). Dr Jason Betts, BSc, DipMSc, PhD, DSc.. Retrieved from http://www.iqsociety.org/win-people/jason-betts/.

[24] Elite High IQ Society. (2015). Exclusive Leading Institute for Thinkers’ Evolution. Retrieved from http://www.elitehighiqsociety.org/qualification.

[25] Betts, J. (2013, January 22). They’re Smarter than You – They’re Smarter than Everyone. Retrieved from http://www.pressking.com/press-room/world-genius-directory/They-re-Smarter-than-You-They-re-Smarter-than-Everyone–041246.

[26] Betts, J. (2013, January 29). Extreme Genius in All Its Weird Glory. Retrieved from http://www.pressking.com/press-room/world-genius-directory/Extreme-Genius-in-All-Its-Weird-Glory-042596.

[27] Richards, S. (2014, November 22). When the second most intelligent man in the world feels dumb.

[28] Wang, N. (2015). Nate Wang High Range IQ Tests. Retrieved from http://weijiewang.gandi.ws/link.

[29] Omnilexia. (2015). People: Jason Betts. Retrieved from http://www.omnilexica.com/?q=jason+betts#.VfjGtBFViko.

[30] Pastor Keith. (2015, January 25). Jesus Chooses His Disciples – and They’re Not Geniuses! Mark 1:14-20. Retrieved from http://www.agtucson.com/sermon%20text/Jesus%20Chooses%20His%20Disciples.pdf.

[31] Pastor Keith. (2015, January 25). Jesus Chooses His Disciples – and They’re Not Geniuses! Mark 1:14-20.

[32] Tetrastic. (2015). Tetrastic. Retrieved from http://www.tetrastiq.com/news.html.

[33] Ghost Radio. (2008, November 2). The People – Jason Betts. Retrieved from http://www.americandownunder.com/phantom/grn/people_jason_betts.asp.

[34] Earth Heart. (2015). Earth Heart. Retrieved from http://earthheart.com.au/.

[35] McNicoll, D.D. (2008, January 8). Prescient Presentation. Retrieved from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/prescient-presentation/story-e6frg6n6-1111115266483.

[36] The On-line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. (2012, August 14). A126359. Retrieved from http://oeis.org/A126359.

[37] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2009, April 17). Buy Order FrequenSea Marine Phytoplankton Deutschland Germany. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcoBANvXssc.

[38] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2011, February 8). Dr Jason Betts – The One – Ep1 Pt1 – Boylost. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyx29HyS_0o.

[39] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2011, February 9). Dr Jason Betts – The One – Ep1 Pt2 – Reiki. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_YTmAkQn1o.

[40] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2011, February 9). Dr Jason Betts – The One – Ep2 Pt1 – Jewellery. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO65qfs7JlU.

[41] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2011, February 9). Dr Jason Betts – The One – Ep2 Pt2 – Container. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwDmcb8CA2E.

[42] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2011, February 9). Dr Jason Betts – The One – Ep2 Pt3 – Olympian. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn7vS4wGNnU.

[43] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2011, February 10). Dr Jason Betts – The One – Ep3 Pt1 – Auracolours. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYnKIfZEvPM.

[44] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2011, February 10). Dr Jason Betts – The One – Ep3 Pt2 – Gravefinder. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfgg4v3WKZc.

[45] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2011, February 10). Dr Jason Betts – The One – Ep3 Pt3 – Rockstar. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVOCwucuAkY.

[46] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2011, February 13). Dr Jason Betts – The One – Ep4 Pt1 – Street. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7sXwuFFtxM.

[47] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2011, February 10). Dr Jason Betts – The One – Ep4 Pt2 – Medical. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW43ZViUj2o.

[48] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2011, February 10). Dr Jason Betts – The One – Ep4 Pt3 – Luggage. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olfi4vVFgc0.

[49] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2011, February 10). Dr Jason Betts – The One – Ep4 Pt4 – Screen. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fpmeS3OZyA.

[50] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2011, July 15). Dr Jason Betts ABC’s Unbelievable! June 2011. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTqXWqgp8II.

[51] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2009, August 23). Dr Jason Betts Adelaide Psychic Expo May 09. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foh5gtNH98Q.

[52] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2009, April 17). Dr Jason Betts Australia’s Top Psychic – 2008 Psychic of the Year. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j9_kRqovJ4.

[53] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2009, April 22). Dr Jason Betts ESO.TV Tarot Reading Oct 08. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyG4O_9dJYQ.

[54] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2009, September 9). Dr Jason Betts Hobart Psychic Expo Jul 09. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub_kIN3BWAg.

[55] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2009, April 18). Dr Jason Betts Launceston Psychic Expo Jan 09. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hhKOiqeGF4.

[56] [Dr Jason Betts, Psychic and MystIQ]. (2011, March 13). Dr Jason Betts LAFM Live Psychic Radio Reading Feb 2011. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgsibepZIew.

[57] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Beauty Inside and Out. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/beauty/.

[58] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Becoming a Romantic Love Magnet. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/romantic_love_magnet/.

[59] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Becoming Smarter. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/becoming_smarter/.

[60] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Confidence and Personal Power. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/confidence_personal_power/.

[61] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Effective Communication. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/effective_communication/.

[62] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Enlightenment. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/enlightenment/.

[63] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Financial Wealth. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/financial_wealth/.

[64] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Fixing the World. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/fixing_world/.

[65] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Life Improvement. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/life_improvement/.

[66] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Losing Weight. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/losing_weight/.

[67] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Quitting Smoking. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/quitting_smoking/.

[68] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Perfect Eyesight. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/perfect_eyesight/.

[69] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Perfect Health. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/perfect_health/.

[70] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Psychic Powers. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/psychic_powers/.

[71] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Raising Children. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/raising_children/.

[72] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Staying Alive. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/staying_alive/.

[73] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Successful Dating. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/successful_dating/.

[74] Betts, J. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Zen Chainsaw Safety. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/zen_chainsaw_safety/.

[75] Betts, J. (n.d.). 1,000 Year Old Super Health Foods. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldalchemy.com/creations/philosophy/super_health_foods/.

[76] PSIQ. (2015). Bio. Retrieved from http://www.psiq.org/bio/.

[77] Ibid.

[78] This references the texts entitled Zen Master: the Art of Perfection (2008), Maths Experiments for Year 9 (2005), Sapientia Diploma of Metaphysics – Knowledge Master Program (2000), MLM Secrets: Networking in the Y2K (1999), and A Guide to the New Age (1996).

[79] PSIQ. (2015). PSIQ. Retrieved from http://psiq.org/lux/.

[80] PSIQ. (2015). Bio. Retrieved from http://www.psiq.org/bio/.

[81] PSIQ. (2015). PSIQ. Retrieved from http://psiq.org/lux/.

[82] PSIQ. (2015). Bio. Retrieved from http://www.psiq.org/bio/.

[83] PSIQ. (2015). PSIQ. Retrieved from http://psiq.org/lux/.

[84] PSIQ. (2015). Bio. Retrieved from http://www.psiq.org/bio/.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Professor Randall Engle: Adjunct Professor, Psychiatry, Emory Medical School; Professional Fellow, Psychology, University of Edinburgh; Principle Investigator, Attention and Working Memory Lab, Georgia Institute of Technology; Director, GSU/GT Center for Advanced Brain Imaging

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/05/22

Abstract

An interview with Professor Randall Engle. He discusses: early influence from university training, influences on educational and professional trajectory, and recommendations about exposure; patience and focus in mentorship from D.D. Wickens; most valuable experience; core domains of interest, interests in professional life, and greatest single problems at the moment; Working memory, short-term memory, and general fluid intelligence: a latent-variable approach (1999); cognitive neuroscience in research and fluid intelligence; brain training efficacy; awards and responsibilities; near and far future research; and advice for young psychological scientists.

Keywords: cognitive neuroscience, fluid intelligence, Randall Engle, psychology.

An Interview with Professor Randall Engle: Adjunct Professor, Psychiatry, Emory Medical School; Professional Fellow, Psychology, University of Edinburgh; Principle Investigator, Attention and Working Memory Lab, Georgia Institute of Technology; Director, GSU/GT Center for Advanced Brain Imaging^[1]^,[2],[3]

*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*

1. You earned a BA at West Virginia State College (WVSC). Your lab and other biographies, and news venues, describe some experiences, expertise, selective background, and short reports on research, even a slice of a lecture.^[4]^{,[5],[6],[7],[8],[9],[10],[11]} One of salience, about WVSC, states:

State was a public all-black college prior to 1954. As a consequence, most of his faculty were outstanding scholars who could not get jobs at top universities. One of his psychology professors was a marvelously well-read scholar named Herman G. Canady, a 1929 Ph.D. from Northwestern and one of the first black ABEP’s. He worked his way through graduate school as a butler. Engle had a Harvard graduate for his math courses, a Yale Ph.D. as a drama teacher, and his French teacher was a black female who received her Ph.D. from the Sorbonne.^[12] (Engle, 2014)

How did these early experiences in university training influence you? How did these diversely-trained educators influence your educational and professional trajectory? Would you recommend this kind of exposure to others – or even improve upon it?

These experiences had a profound effect on my social and political philosophy and made me much more aware of the effects of racial, ethnic, and gender stereotypes. I would very much recommend these experiences to others and tried to re-create them for my own children.

2. Your biography indicates undergraduate training with inclusion of extensive hours in zoology and math in addition to psychology.^[13]^{,[14],[15],[16],[17]} What funnelled interest into these disciplines? How did these influence future psychological research overall?

Science always appealed to me and these experiences and interests have continued to the present day in my research.

3. You continued onward with education. You had admittance into Ohio State University for collaboration with D.D. Wickens.^[18] You note the variables to the man’s mentoring. I want to take him as a case study in relation to you. About his relation to yourself, you state:

He was admitted to Ohio State to work with D.D. Wickens. Wick was a wonderful mentor and was exceedingly patient with a student that wanted to do everything but did not focus on anything long enough to do it well.^[19]

Besides patience and lack of focus, what variables existed with regards to his mentoring? How did this impact you?

Wickens was a marvelous writer – in fact his master’s level work was in literature before he became interested in psychology. He could write about complex scientific topics in clear and accessible prose and I tried to model that style of writing and I try to teach my own graduate students to write that way.

4. What were the most valuable experiences from these educational opportunities and times of varied intellectual experiences?

The most valuable experiences were the opportunities to engage in a wide range of research topics.

5. Your public statement of truncated research interests relate to three universes of discourse: 1) “nature and causes of limitations in working memory capacity,” 2) “role of those differences in real-world cognitive tasks,” and 3) “association of working memory capacity and cognitive control to fluid intelligence.” With respect to these three core areas of research, how do the relevant disciplines define these core domains of interest? When did these interests solidify in professional life to these tinctures? What are these areas greatest single problems, per each domain, at the moment?

They all are facets of the same issue: the role of human limitations in information processing and how that impacts real-world life. That leads to issues of whether those limitations can be modified within the individual and how our environment can be modified to reduce the impact of those limitations.

6. According to Google Scholar, your most cited article, Working memory, short-term memory, and general fluid intelligence: a latent-variable approach (1999), had citation over one thousand times to date.^[20]^,[21],[22] (now nearly 2200 times, Engle) In terms of the specifics in relation to the research career, an interview cannot suffice in complete comprehension of a long, varied, and deep career, which implicates the necessity of selective coverage.

To preface the co-authored paper, you studied 133 participants.^[23] Each performed 11 memory tasks, 2 general fluid intelligence tests, and quantitative and verbal Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT).^[24]^,[25] Memory tasks thought to relate to short-term memory and others to working memory. Structural equation models mean a family of tests intended to test a conceptual or theoretical model. In this 1998 instance, a conceptual or theoretical model of a common construct. There exists a robust relation between working memory and fluid intelligence; a non-robust relation between short-term memory and fluid intelligence. A difference of each abilities’ degree of relation with the intermediary association of fluid intelligence.

Your summative argument in this article states the capacity for working memory and fluid intelligence equate to the ability to “keep a representation active” in spite of distraction or interference. Following, or in addition to, this, you connect this argument to “controlled attention” and the prefrontal cortex. Where does the development of this separation between working memory and short-term memory stand 16 years past the original publication?

We are well beyond that separation and I am interested in just what the relationship between those two ideas is. I expect it may be different at different developmental and ability levels with simple storage of information being more important with younger individuals and with individuals with lower cognitive abilities.

7. I talked to Dr. Anthony Greenwald over dinner a few years ago. At the time of the conversation, he considered cognitive neuroscience the future. I paraphrase him:

The frontier lies in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. However, a first generation of researchers, like the first round of soldiers marching out of the trenches, will fall – making all the necessary mistakes. After that point, the next generation of researchers will have learned from those mistakes to make deep progress.

Of course, his research functions out of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and other areas.^[26]^,[27] Does cognitive neuroscience take a larger role in this research at present compared to the past? What about fluid intelligence (G_f) research at large?

Yes, it plays a very large role in our work. The mind is what the brain does. That means that ultimately we need to understand the two in connection with one another – neither can be understood on its own. Fluid intelligence is, at this point, a largely statistical entity. I am now trying to understand the mechanisms underlying fluid intelligence (Gf) and how those are related to and different from the mechanisms underlying working memory capacity (WMC). I have a recently accepted paper that argues that while WMC and Gf are hugely correlated (.6-.8), they are different. The tasks that we use to reflect WMC emphasize maintenance of information while the tasks used to measure Gf, such as Ravens and number series, emphasize the disengagement from previously attended to information. The two mechanisms are therefore contradictory to one another. They are highly correlated because both rely on limited capacity attention control or executive attention to complete. This is THE mechanism that is responsible for the correlation. When that is measured and statistically removed from the WMC-Gf relationship, the relationship goes to near zero.

8. One can find claims of cognitive improvement programs while some report the more accurate, unfortunate, truths about “brain training” programs, even in numerous mainstream news venues, academic reports, and official consensus statements from the scientific community devoted to professional research into these domains.^[28]^{,[29],[30],[31],[32],[33],[34],[35],[36],[37],[38],[39]} Collation and reportage from numerous venues contrary to the common advertising claims about the improvement of things such as fluid intelligence by the improvement of working memory. Brain training programs remain popular, and, apparently, highly hyped. One article, entitled Does Brain Training Work?, with a partial quote from you, states:

Psychologist Randall Engle’s group at Georgia Tech has previously shown that working memory capacity is highly correlated with complex learning, problem solving, and general attention control. But he pointed out that this correlation does not mean that by increasing working memory capacity, fluid intelligence can be increased. “This idea that intelligence can be trained would be a great thing if it were true,” Engle said.^[40] (Olena, 2014)

Therein lies the issue of brain training giving the appearance of promise for improvements in general cognitive function, but these persist in failure to replicate in practice or actuality. In that, the apparent advertisements en masse do not have proportional empirical support. Even some of the research from Susanne M. Jaeggi et al appears to provide some evidence in line with certain, specialized cognitive training tasks improving G_f, the research came out about the use of a dual n-back task for the improvement of fluid intelligence.^[41]^{,[42],[43],[44]} You attempted to replicate and failed to accomplish this. What does this mean for “brain training” programs? What about training the mind by other means? What tasks, activities, and lifestyle approaches might, or do, delay the onset of cognitive declines or even improve cognitive ability? Does crystallized, fluid, or general intelligence remain mostly influenced by inborn ability, genetic endowment, and innate biological capacity, and minimally influenced by environment, parenting and upbringing, and educational interventions – especially as whole additions of age are taken into account?

Brain training programs work to improve the tasks used during training be the evidence is quite compelling that the training does not generalize to tasks other than those used during training or tasks very much like them. Crystallized intelligence is everything you have learned and the amount and type of information you know is a result of many things including your fluid intelligence at the time you learned it but also motivational factors and what interests you – that is what draws your attention.

9. You continue to earn awards for teaching including the Ace Teacher Award, the Amoco Award for University Teacher of the Year, the Mortar Board Excellence in Teaching Award, the South Carolina Governor’s Professor of the Year, Distinguished Honors College Professor, as well as recognition through the first APA Division 3 Lifetime Achievement Award.^[45]^{,[46],[47],[48],[49],[50]}^,[51]What place do you see for awards for academics? What further duties and responsibilities does the recognition of accomplishments entail to you?

Awards are nice indicators that someone has recognized your work. I have never met a teacher who does what they do best just to win awards however. Awards are like dessert after a nice meal.

10. For more information and publications, individuals with the desire can reference the publications listing within the lab website or connect with the appropriate research databases for further information.^[52]^{,[53],[54],[55],[56]} This interview provides partial, incomplete, and personal rather than majority academic information. What research do you intend to conduct in the near and far future?

I mentioned that I am now interested in the psychological and brain mechanisms underlying WMC and Gf. That will involve substantial psychometric as well as brain imaging work. As I approach retirement age, I am quite amazed that I continue to be as interested in these questions as I ever was and I expect that I will continue trying to answer them, and the questions that arise from the research into those questions, as long as I have the financial resources necessary to run a lab such as mine.

11. In the FABBS foundation description of you, it states:

We also honor Randy for his tireless mentoring of the next generation of psychological scientists. While he has spearheaded the enormously influential research described above, he has also mentored (with similar care and pride to parenting his two now-grown children, Holly and Matt) a long line of grateful undergraduates, graduate students and post-docs, many of whom have gone on to considerable scientific and pedagogical success in cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, quantitative methods, and beyond, teaching and conducting psychological research as faculty members at a remarkably diverse, multi-national collection of institutions, such as Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus, Kenyon College, Maryville College, Michigan State University, Princeton University, University of Burgundy, University of California at Irvine, University of Denver, University of Edinburgh, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, University of Oregon, University of Texas at San Antonio, University of Ulm, Washington University, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Winthrop University, and Wichita State University.[57]

In conclusion for this interview, and based upon the extensive level of mentoring over the decades by yourself for the upcoming generations of psychological scientists, what advice seems the best as a general algorithm, heuristic, rule of thumb, or principle for young psychological scientists in training?

Find a question that really intrigues you and pursue it with passion. Publications, tenure, promotions, etc will all follow that but they should not be the raison d’etra for what you do.

Bibliography

[GTtower] (2014). Dr. Randall Engle – Fall 2013 URK. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/82132468.
Association for Psychological Science (2013, October 8). ‘Brain Training’ May Boost Working Memory, But Not Intelligence. Retrieved from http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/brain-training-may-boost-working-memory-but-not-intelligence.html.
Association for Psychological Science (2015, May 8). New Research From Psychological Science. Retrieved from http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/new-research-from-psychological-science-107.html.
Attention and Working Memory Lab (2015). Attention and Working Memory Lab. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/.
Attention and Working Memory Lab (2015). Curriculum Vita: Randall W. Engle, School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/cvs/rengle_cv-13.pdf.
Attention and Working Memory Lab (2015). Primary Investigator. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/randallengle.html.
Attention and Working Memory Lab (2015). Publications. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/publications.html.
Azvolinski, A. (2014, November). Mind Games: The Truth About Brain-Fitness Programs. Retrieved from http://www.consumersdigest.com/special-reports/mind-games-the-truth-about-brain-fitness-programs/view-all.
Barker, C.B. (2014, October 20). Scientific evidence does not support the brain game claims, Stanford scholars say. Retrieved from http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/october/brain-games-carstensen-102014.html.
Buschkuehl, M., Hernandez-Garcia, L., Jaeggi, S. M., Bernard, J. A., & Jonides, J. (2014). Neural effects of short-term training on working memory. Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 14(1), 147-160. doi:10.3758/s13415-013-0244-9
Cameron, S. (2015). Brain Training Not All It’s Cracked Up To Be. Retrieved from http://singularityhub.com/tag/randall-engle/.
Engle, R. (2014). Randy. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/Randy.html.
Engle, R., Tuholski, S.W., Laughlin, J.E., & Conway, A.R. (1999). Working memory, short-term memory, and general fluid intelligence: a latent-variable approach. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/1999/working-memory2c-short3dterm-memory2c-and-general-fluid-intelligence.pdf.
FABBS Foundation (2015). In Honor Of…Randall W. Engle. Retrieved from http://www.fabbs.org/index.php?cID=641.
Georgia Institute of Technology (2015). Randall W. Engle. Retrieved from http://www.psychology.gatech.edu/people/faculty/engle_randy.php.
Google Scholar (2015). Randall W. Engle. Retrieved from https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=irWRyqcAAAAJ&hl=en.
Griffith-Greene, M. (2015, April 10). Brain training games: No proof they prevent cognitive decline. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/health/brain-training-games-no-proof-they-prevent-cognitive-decline-1.3025212.
Hareer, S. (2015, April 10). Forget Brain Training – Do This For Your Memory Instead. Retrieved from http://www.safebee.com/health/forget-brain-training-do-your-memory-instead.
Harvard University (2015). Project Implicit. Retrieved from http://implicit.harvard.edu/.
human intelligence. (2015). InEncyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/289766/human-intelligence.
Interdisciplinary Centre for Applied Cognitive Sciences (2015). Engle Randall W., Ph.D.. Retrieved from http://www.icacs.swps.edu.pl/icacs/pl/members-2/wspolpracownicy-zagraniczni/176-engle-randall-w-ph-d..
(2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/289799/IQ.
Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl, M., Jonides, J., & Perrig, W. J. (2008). Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America, 105(19), 6829-6833. doi:10.1073/pnas.0801268105
Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl, M., Jonides, J., & Shah, P. (2011). Short- and long-term benefits of cognitive training. PNAS Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America, 108(25), 10081-10086. doi:10.1073/pnas.1103228108
Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl, M., Shah, P., & Jonides, J. (2014). The role of individual differences in cognitive training and transfer. Memory & Cognition, 42(3), 464-480. doi:10.3758/s13421-013-0364-z
Koenig, R. (2014, October 22). Brain-Training Companies Get Advice From Some Academics, Criticism From Others. Retrieved from http://m.chronicle.com/article/Brain-Training-Companies-Get/149555/.
Max Planck Institute for Human Development (2014, October 20). A Consensus on Brain Training from the Scientific Community. Retrieved from http://longevity3.stanford.edu/blog/2014/10/15/the-consensus-on-the-brain-training-industry-from-the-scientific-community-2/.
Myers, D. (2015, May 8). Does Video Game-Playing Sharpen Mental Skills and Speed?. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/talk-psych/201505/does-video-game-playing-sharpen-mental-skills-and-speed.
Olena, A. (2014, April 21). Does Brain Training Work?. Retrieved from http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39768/title/Does-Brain-Training-Work-/.
psychological testing. (2015). InEncyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/481664/psychological-testing.
Research Gate (2015). Randall Engle. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Randall_Engle.
Underwood, E. (2014, October 22). Neuroscientists speak out against brain game hype. Retrieved from http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2014/10/neuroscientists-speak-out-against-brain-game-hype.
University of Edinburgh (2015). University of Edinburgh. Retrieved from http://www.ed.ac.uk/home.
University of Edinburgh (2015). University of Edinburgh: Department of Psychology. Retrieved from http://www.psy.ed.ac.uk/.
University of Edinburgh (2015). University of Edinburgh: Prof Randall Engle. Retrieved from http://www.ppls.ed.ac.uk/people/randall-engle.
University of Washington (2015). Anthony G. Greenwald, PhD. Retrieved from http://faculty.washington.edu/agg/.
Weir, K. (2014, October). Mind Games: Can brain-training games keep your mind young?. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/10/mind-games.aspx.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Adjunct Professor, Psychiatry, Emory Medical School; Professional Fellow, Psychology, University of Edinburgh; Principle Investigator, Attention and Working Memory Lab, Georgia Institute of Technology; Director, GSU/GT Center for Advanced Brain Imaging.

[2] Individual Publication Date: May 22, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/an-interview-with-professor-randell-engle-adjunct-professor-psychiatry-emory-medical-school-professional-fellow-psychology-university-of-edinburgh-principle-investigator-attention-and-working; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2016 at https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

[3] PhD, Ohio State University; MA, Ohio State University; BA, West Virginia.

[4] Attention and Working Memory Lab (2015). Primary Investigator. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/randallengle.html.

[5] Georgia Institute of Technology (2015). Randall W. Engle. Retrieved from http://www.psychology.gatech.edu/people/faculty/engle_randy.php.

[6] University of Edinburgh (2015). University of Edinburgh: Prof Randall Engle. Retrieved from http://www.ppls.ed.ac.uk/people/randall-engle.

[7] FABBS Foundation (2015). In Honor Of…Randall W. Engle. Retrieved from http://www.fabbs.org/index.php?cID=641.

[8] Association for Psychological Science (2013, October 8). ‘Brain Training’ May Boost Working Memory, But Not Intelligence. Retrieved from http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/brain-training-may-boost-working-memory-but-not-intelligence.html.

[9] [GTtower] (2014). Dr. Randall Engle – Fall 2013 URK. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/82132468.

[10] Research Gate (2015). Randall Engle. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Randall_Engle.

[11] Interdisciplinary Centre for Applied Cognitive Sciences (2015). Engle Randall W., Ph.D.. Retrieved from http://www.icacs.swps.edu.pl/icacs/pl/members-2/wspolpracownicy-zagraniczni/176-engle-randall-w-ph-d..

[12] Engle, R. (2014). Randy. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/Randy.html.

[13] Attention and Working Memory Lab (2015). Primary Investigator. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/randallengle.html.

[14] Georgia Institute of Technology (2015). Randall W. Engle. Retrieved from http://www.psychology.gatech.edu/people/faculty/engle_randy.php.

[15] University of Edinburgh (2015). University of Edinburgh: Prof Randall Engle. Retrieved from http://www.ppls.ed.ac.uk/people/randall-engle.

[16] FABBS Foundation (2015). In Honor Of…Randall W. Engle. Retrieved from http://www.fabbs.org/index.php?cID=641.

[17] Research Gate (2015). Randall Engle. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Randall_Engle.

[18] Attention and Working Memory Lab (2015). Primary Investigator. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/randallengle.html.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Engle, R., Tuholski, S.W., Laughlin, J.E., & Conway, A.R. (1999). Working memory, short-term memory, and general fluid intelligence: a latent-variable approach. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/1999/working-memory2c-short3dterm-memory2c-and-general-fluid-intelligence.pdf.

[21] Google Scholar (2015). Randall W. Engle. Retrieved from https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=irWRyqcAAAAJ&hl=en.

[22] IQ. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/289799/IQ.

[23] Engle, R., Tuholski, S.W., Laughlin, J.E., & Conway, A.R. (1999). Working memory, short-term memory, and general fluid intelligence: a latent-variable approach. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/1999/working-memory2c-short3dterm-memory2c-and-general-fluid-intelligence.pdf.

[24] psychological testing. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/481664/psychological-testing.

[25] human intelligence. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/289766/human-intelligence.

[26] University of Washington (2015). Anthony G. Greenwald, PhD. Retrieved from http://faculty.washington.edu/agg/.

[27] Harvard University (2015). Project Implicit. Retrieved from http://implicit.harvard.edu/.

[28] Azvolinski, A. (2014, November). Mind Games: The Truth About Brain-Fitness Programs. Retrieved from http://www.consumersdigest.com/special-reports/mind-games-the-truth-about-brain-fitness-programs/view-all.

[29] Hareer, S. (2015, April 10). Forget Brain Training – Do This For Your Memory Instead. Retrieved from http://www.safebee.com/health/forget-brain-training-do-your-memory-instead.

[30] Weir, K. (2014, October). Mind Games: Can brain-training games keep your mind young?. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/10/mind-games.aspx.

[31] Max Planck Institute for Human Development (2014, October 20). A Consensus on Brain Training from the Scientific Community. Retrieved from http://longevity3.stanford.edu/blog/2014/10/15/the-consensus-on-the-brain-training-industry-from-the-scientific-community-2/.

[32] Myers, D. (2015, May 8). Does Video Game-Playing Sharpen Mental Skills and Speed?. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/talk-psych/201505/does-video-game-playing-sharpen-mental-skills-and-speed.

[33] Cameron, S. (2015). Brain Training Not All It’s Cracked Up To Be. Retrieved from http://singularityhub.com/tag/randall-engle/.

[34] Olena, A. (2014, April 21). Does Brain Training Work?. Retrieved from http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39768/title/Does-Brain-Training-Work-/.

[35] Griffith-Greene, M. (2015, April 10). Brain training games: No proof they prevent cognitive decline. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/health/brain-training-games-no-proof-they-prevent-cognitive-decline-1.3025212.

[36] Underwood, E. (2014, October 22). Neuroscientists speak out against brain game hype. Retrieved from http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2014/10/neuroscientists-speak-out-against-brain-game-hype.

[37] Koenig, R. (2014, October 22). Brain-Training Companies Get Advice From Some Academics, Criticism From Others. Retrieved from http://m.chronicle.com/article/Brain-Training-Companies-Get/149555/.

[38] Barker, C.B. (2014, October 20). Scientific evidence does not support the brain game claims, Stanford scholars say. Retrieved from http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/october/brain-games-carstensen-102014.html.

[39] Association for Psychological Science (2015, May 8). New Research From Psychological Science. Retrieved from http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/new-research-from-psychological-science-107.html.

[40] Olena, A. (2014, April 21). Does Brain Training Work?. Retrieved from http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39768/title/Does-Brain-Training-Work-/.

[41] Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl, M., Shah, P., & Jonides, J. (2014). The role of individual differences in cognitive training and transfer. Memory & Cognition, 42(3), 464-480. doi:10.3758/s13421-013-0364-z

[42] Buschkuehl, M., Hernandez-Garcia, L., Jaeggi, S. M., Bernard, J. A., & Jonides, J. (2014). Neural effects of short-term training on working memory. Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 14(1), 147-160. doi:10.3758/s13415-013-0244-9

[43] Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl, M., Jonides, J., & Shah, P. (2011). Short- and long-term benefits of cognitive training. PNAS Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America, 108(25), 10081-10086. doi:10.1073/pnas.1103228108

[44] Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl, M., Jonides, J., & Perrig, W. J. (2008). Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America, 105(19), 6829-6833. doi:10.1073/pnas.0801268105

[45] Attention and Working Memory Lab (2015). Primary Investigator. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/randallengle.html.

[46] Georgia Institute of Technology (2015). Randall W. Engle. Retrieved from http://www.psychology.gatech.edu/people/faculty/engle_randy.php.

[47] University of Edinburgh (2015). University of Edinburgh: Prof Randall Engle. Retrieved from http://www.ppls.ed.ac.uk/people/randall-engle.

[48] FABBS Foundation (2015). In Honor Of…Randall W. Engle. Retrieved from http://www.fabbs.org/index.php?cID=641.

[49] Research Gate (2015). Randall Engle. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Randall_Engle.

[50] Attention and Working Memory Lab (2015). Primary Investigator. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/randallengle.html.

[51] Ibid.

[52] Attention and Working Memory Lab (2015). Publications. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/publications.html.

[53] Attention and Working Memory Lab (2015). Attention and Working Memory Lab. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/.

[54] Attention and Working Memory Lab (2015). Curriculum Vita: Randall W. Engle, School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/cvs/rengle_cv-13.pdf.

[55] Attention and Working Memory Lab (2015). Primary Investigator. Retrieved from http://englelab.gatech.edu/randallengle.html.

[56] Google Scholar (2015). Randall W. Engle. Retrieved from https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=irWRyqcAAAAJ&hl=en.

[57] FABBS Foundation (2015). In Honor Of…Randall W. Engle. Retrieved from http://www.fabbs.org/index.php?cID=641.

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2023-02-03

Prof. Dr. Kinshuk: Professor, School of Computing and Information Systems, Athabasca University; Associate Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology, Athabasca University; NSERC Industrial Research Chair (Adaptivity and Personalization), School of Computing and Information Systems, Athabasca University (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/05/15

Abstract

Interview with Dr. Kinshuk. Professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at Athabasca University, Associate Dean in the Faculty of Science and Technology at Athabasca University, and NSERC Industrial Research Chair (Adaptivity and Personalization) in the School of Computing and Information Systems at Athabasca University. He discusses: Smart learning – a new approach or simply a new name (2015) and the proper approach to the improvement of the methodology undergirding teaching; Canada remaining competitive on the global educational index; Canada becoming number one; the problem of mismatch between skills and training, and positions from education and the economy; the future of the educational world in the middle of the 21^st century; technological impacts on education inn the 22^nd century; Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute: Research Profile: Dr. Kinshuk (2009) and other aspects of educational technology to improve education for students; negatives from educational technology in terms of resource expenditure for students; and assistance to those with lost educational time and progress via technology.

Keywords: Athabasca University, Canada Research Chair, Educational Technology, Informatics, Professor Kinshuk.

Prof. Dr. Kinshuk: Professor, School of Computing and Information Systems, Athabasca University; Associate Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology, Athabasca University; NSERC Industrial Research Chair (Adaptivity and Personalization), School of Computing and Information Systems, Athabasca University[1]^,[2]^,[3]^,[4]

*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*

12. In Smart learning – a new approach or simply a new name (2015), you discuss the nature of smart systems with the emphasis on teaching in contrast to intelligent systems. What seems like the proper approach to improvement of the methodology undergirding teaching – in possible conjunction with intelligent systems or adaptive systems?

Our current education system has a number of challenges. While there are many efforts to improve education, majority of the system is geared towards average education opportunities instead of focus on individual students. Increasing class sizes do not help either. What we need is a revolution, instead of evolution of educational system. Old pedagogies are very restrictive in terms of taking advantage of the advancements in technologies and the analytics capabilities that allow far more comprehensive analysis of the individual student’s learning environment and situation that was ever possible before. Focus on individual student and longitudinal analysis and support in order to develop the individual strengths at their full capacity while recognizing, as early as possible, need for intervention to remedy any weaknesses, requires a paradigm shift in terms of pedagogical interventions. Technology can provide excellent support but education has to be in driving seat for the process to be successful. I have recently penned some idea on this jointly with some of my collaborators:

Kinshuk; Chen, N.-S.; Cheng, I.-L.; Chew, S. W. (2016). Evolution Is Not Enough: Revolutionizing Current Learning Environments to Smart Learning Environments. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40593-016-0108-x.

13. In reference to, and extrapolation from, the brief article mentioned in the previous question, how might Canadian universities improve the core aspects of pedagogy?

Providing authentic opportunities to the students, where students not only learn the knowledge and skills but also how to actualize what they have learnt, is the key in my opinion. It would be very wrong to say that it is not happening already. There are some excellent efforts out there but they are rather isolated. What we need is a systemic approach, where the focus shifts from “majority benefit” to “benefit for every student” approach. Technology can very much help by providing analytics to identify at-risk students, opportunistic learning instances and other affordances that can take the learning process to next level.

14. The World Economic Forum calculated the competitiveness of countries throughout the globe.[5] Canada ranked 15^th.[6] A decent rank.[7] How might Canada remain competitive in the global educational market?[8]

There is an increasing trend of comparing education to commercial sector, which is worrying. While education needs effectiveness, its efficiency needs to be analyzed by making sure we have graduates that are prepared for the next generation jobs that perhaps do not even exist yet. The only way we can do that is to prepare them for meta-learning skills, such as critical thinking, innovation, collaboration and other so called 21^st century skills. Current focus is on how to make good employees who are ready to undertake generic jobs the day they graduate, does not prepare them for becoming entrepreneur and employers, which is what Canada has historically been known for. That has to change if we are to remain competitive.

15. A more extravagant question than remaining in the upper echelons of the global competitiveness index.[9] How might Canada become number one?[10]

Preparing our next generation to become successful innovators, creators, entrepreneur and critical thinkers will bring Canada to number one in the global competitiveness index. There have been some efforts in this area, but improved support for fundamental research, embracing out-of-the-box ideas, and true support for multidisciplinary research are some avenues where much more effort is required.

16. We have an issue with respect to poor proportion between the credentials acquired from accredited programs, colleges, universities, and higher-learning research institutions, and the jobs/careers in the world. Graduates and students remain in a partial bind.

In addition to this issue, we have the problem of predatory for-profit institutions with questionable credentialing. A link exists between these two; false promises to students and students’ uncritical gaze.

On the one hand, students contain the capability to discern the negative aspects of the educational world in mis-matched institutional programs and false advertising in profit-driven institutions such as the for-profit ones.

On the other hand, accredited programs, colleges, universities, and higher-learning research institutions, create programs with the proposition of their accreditation having connection to the economic world, and non-accredited institutions aimed at profit rather than education.

Together, these create a toxic mix, but students take the brunt of it, economically – which extends into long-term wellbeing, immediate mental health, and SES precariousness. What might solve these problems from the various referents in question – no single individual/collective to harbor complete blame?

There is indeed no one entity to blame. This is an outcome of mismatched agendas, and economic benefits driving educational programs. This relates to what I mentioned earlier – if the desire is to get high salary jobs, then this rat race will continue. If the focus shifts to becoming something that creates jobs for others, then not only institutions will find it important to offer the programs that are not directly linked with economic sector but students will also find it necessary to focus on different skill set. This does not mean that we do not prepare students for the available jobs. Rather, the students will be better prepared for the jobs as they will have the skill sets that help them take their organization to success, instead of simply focusing on nine to five jobs.

17. Our modern technological world continues to shirk responsibility from human beings to machines, to robots. A possibility to leave individual citizens of countries with sufficient gifts and talents to take on more fulfilling work. A good thing.

It leaves those without the gifts and talents without decent-paying jobs in accordance with the value to the market. An actuality to leave these individual citizens of countries without the ability to take on more fulfilling work. A bad thing.

We observe this in assembly lines, for instance. This changes in consonance with the supply and demand of the market, then changes social and cultural life, and then alters the demands on the educational system from the political and governmental recommendations through direct means such as funding.

This change will increase in pace, apparently. We seem to be in an occasion of upheaval, a modern shift, akin to the Industrial Revolution. In light of this, what seems like the future of the educational world for the middle of the 21^st century – 25-50 years from now?

I do not agree that there are people who are without gifts or talents. The problem is that their individual gifts and talents are not recognized properly and they are involved in activities where their individual strengths are not used. That is where we need to start focusing on understanding our students better, identifying their strengths and providing infrastructure and support to make them shine. This is exactly what smart learning intends to do. The change is certainly coming, whether we like it or not, and if we are to make sure that our graduates, all of them, are ready, we need revolution in education!

18. Your expertise seems relevant here. However, it might seem a bit too far into the future, granted. Regardless, how will technology impact education in the 22^nd century?

Technology is making it easier to learn at will, at places where the knowledge and skills are actually needed, and at times when learning makes the most sense. Technology also makes it possible to learn from virtually anyone, in any circumstances, and to make sense of all nuggets of learning, how small or big they may be, to build overall picture. Combine this with empowering our graduates to exercise their creativity and innovation, and we are preparing our path towards 22^nd century education.

19. In Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute: Research Profile: Dr. Kinshuk (2009), it states:

remove some of the barriers to education, especially for people who live in areas with little or no local access to higher education
give students an authentic and rich experienceby adding context to their learning, making it more likely that they’ll complete their programs
encourage and make it possible for more people to take part in the economyand to advance their careers because they can acquire the knowledge they need to do so
capitalize on what people already know and the learning potential that existswhere they live and work
reduce family and community disruption by letting students stay in their home communities and maintain their current employment[11]

What other aspects of educational technology improves the education of students?

There are many areas where educational technologies can help. For example, emerging technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality provide excellent opportunities for merging work experiences to enhance contextual orientation of learning. Learning can be fully immersive within the work environment, so that the transfer of knowledge from learning immediately benefits work and skills acquired in work leverage the next learning experience.

Educational technology also has potential to bring world-class expertise to the students without much expense. Students can get the best that is available without the geographical restrictions.

Of course, none of this would work if appropriate pedagogies to make this happen are not in place. So, pedagogical shift goes hand-in-hand with exploiting advancements in educational technology.

20. What negatives come from educational technology to students’ lives and in terms of resource expenditure?

There are two major issues that need to be considered. First one is that application of educational technology for the sake of adopting new technology is a recipe for disaster. Technology must be governed by the educational needs and the learning should be at the forefront. Second, appropriate pedagogies need to be developed to cater for the new affordances educational technology provides. Changing situations need changing considerations. What used to work with previous generation is not guaranteed to work with the generation that has grown surrounded by technologies and gadgets. Vigorous pedagogical research is needed and the outcomes of those research, once validated, need to be applied to benefit larger student community. This is an area that is critically lagging behind.

So, the problem is not educational technology, but its appropriate use through suitable pedagogy.

21. To close, let’s take, for instance, concrete cases of educational disruption. Syria represents a singular tragedy in the early 21^stcentury. Others exist, but for this conversation represent something unique in a narrow consideration. Namely, the loss of talent and skills through lost time in education. How might technology assist those with lost educational time and progress relative to their international cohort/peers?

This is a very important question, and an opportunity where technology has great potential to help. Technology can break the barriers of geographical restrictions, bring expertise to those who cannot go to the experts themselves, and provide just-in-time learning and training opportunities to provide skills and knowledge that are needed at a particular time and place.

We experienced this first hand during Tsunami of 2004 that affected a large part of Maldives. One of my then PhD students Dr. Ali Fawaz Shareef, who is now the Vice Chancellor of the Maldives National University was able to apply his research in educational technology to facilitate learning for large number of students when teachers could not reach to those students due to the aftermath of Tsunami. Details of his educational technology solution are available in his doctoral thesis: http://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/3764

Furthermore, educational technology is now making it possible to access knowledge in terms of massive open online courses that are accessible anywhere and anytime, which enable people to pick those key nuggets that could help them fill the gaps in their competence that were created due to certain situations, be those be the lost time or simple unavailability of appropriate educational opportunity in their vicinity.

Overall, world is changing rapidly and opportunistic learning scenarios are becoming available more than ever before. All we need is to channel our efforts in right direction, and make sure pedagogy drives the technological applications in education. In the absence of that, technological advancements will have no option than to take over, and that may not bode well for the success in moving education in right direction. We are at the juncture where we need revolution in education to even keep up with the speed of technological evolution!

Thank you for your time, Professor Kinshuk.

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Athabasca University (2015). Experts Guide: Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://mediaspotme.com/athabasca/dr-kinshuk.
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Athabasca University. (2015). Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute: Research Profile: Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from https://tekri.athabascau.ca/content/research-profile-dr-kinshuk.
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Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Professor, School of Computing and Information Systems, Athabasca University; Associate Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology, Athabasca University; NSERC Industrial Research Chair (Adaptvity and Personalization), School of Computing and Information Systems, Athabasca University; Research Fellow (10/96 – 06/99), GMD – German National Research Center for Information Technology, Human Computer Interactions Institute, St. Augustin, Germany (Performance Award: August 1998); Senior Lecturer (06/99-07/01), Information System Department, Massey University, New Zealand; Associate Professor (08/01 – 08/06), Information System Department, Massey University, New Zealand; Director (07/03 – 08/06), Advanced Learning Technologies Research Centre, Massey University, New Zealand (Founding Director); Director (08/06 – 10/10), School of Computing and Information Systems, Athabasca University, Canada; Professor (Since 08/06), School of Computing and Information Systems, Athabasca University, Canada; NSERC Industrial Research Chair (Adaptivity & Personalization, Since 04/10), Athabasca University, Canada; Associate Dean (Research and Graduate Programs, Since 11/10), Faculty of Science and Technology, Athabasca University, Canada.

[2] Individual Publication Date: May 15, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/prof-dr-kinshuk-professor-school-of-computing-and-information-systems-athabasca-university-associate-dean-faculty-of-science-and-technology-athabasca-university-nserc-industrial-research-chai; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2016 at https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

[3] Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) (Honors) (1987-1992), Rajasthan University; Master of Science Mechanical Computer Aided Eng. (1992-1993), Strathclyde University; Doctor of Philosophy (1993-1996), De Montfort University, (Thesis: Computer Aided Learning for Entry Level Accountancy Students).

[4] Images/photographs/portraits/sketches courtesy of Dr. Kinshuk.

[5] World Economic Forum. (2015). Competitiveness Rankings. Retrieved from http://reports.weforum.org/global-competitiveness-report-2014-2015/rankings/.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Athabasca University. (2015). Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute: Research Profile: Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from https://tekri.athabascau.ca/content/research-profile-dr-kinshuk.

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2023-02-03

Prof. Dr. Kinshuk: Professor, School of Computing and Information Systems, Athabasca University; Associate Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology, Athabasca University; NSERC Industrial Research Chair (Adaptivity and Personalization), School of Computing and Information Systems, Athabasca University (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/05/08

Abstract

Interview with Dr. Kinshuk. Professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at Athabasca University, Associate Dean in the Faculty of Science and Technology at Athabasca University, and NSERC Industrial Research Chair (Adaptivity and Personalization) in the School of Computing and Information Systems at Athabasca University. He discusses: geographic, cultural and linguistic background; responsibilities with exposure; relation between informatics and educational technology; electronic exposure and its influence on interactions; stations from the past to the present; research interests and their motivations; instigation for area of teaching; power and responsibility that comes with the associate dean position; Canada Research Chair developments; future research from 2015-202 for the Canada Research Chair position; biggest personal dream for Athabasca University.

Keywords: Athabasca University, Canada Research Chair, Educational Technology, Informatics, Professor Kinshuk.

*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does family background reside?^[5]^,[6],[7],[8]

I was born in west-north part of India and grew up in a Hindi speaking family. I come from a middle income family, and that is perhaps why I always look for the value of the money and the need in everything I do, particularly research. My focus on applied research has a lot of influence from by background.

2. You have representation in numerous publications and online resources – countless.^[9]^{,[10],[11],[12],[13],[14],[15],[16],[17],[18],[19],[20],[21],[22],[23],[24],[25],[26],[27],[28],[29],[30],[31],[32],[33],[34],[35],[36],[37],[38],[39],[40],[41],[42],[43],[44],[45],[46],[47],[48],[49],[50],[51],[52],[53],[54],[55]}Most refer to conferences, papers, and personal profiles. What responsibilities come with this exposure?

I see myself very fortunate to have opportunities where I could contribute, even in small way. None of those would have been possible if I did not have the help, support and guidance of my colleagues, partners and collaborators, including students. So, I see my responsibility as to make sure my research and other activities reflect the confidence everyone has given to me.

3. What core relation exists between informatics and educational technology?

While informatics is critical component of educational technology, it is very important to realize at the outset that technology is to support education. Education is first and foremost. However, informatics provides educational technology many tools that make it possible to provide educational affordances that were very difficult if not impossible before. Being able to use the global content through the medium of Internet is perhaps the biggest example where informatics has benefited educational technology, but recent advances in informatics such as learning analytics allow us to understand the learning process better, identify evidences of learning, and make use of the data available from the learners’ context to provide better support in the learning process. Context-aware systems, another example, allow the level of adaptivity and personalization that has potential to transform the education.

4. How does this electronic exposure influence interactions with the public and private sectors of Athabasca, Alberta, neighbouring provinces, territory, and country, Canada as a whole, and abroad in the globe?^[56]^,[57],^[58]

Electronic exposure has indeed provided the opportunity to showcase the work we are doing within our team and with our partners and collaborators. The outreach through the electronic exposure is something that is beyond what could be achieved otherwise. The interactions as a result have been extremely positive with various stakeholders within the university as well as externally, with communities, government, industry, and other research and academic organizations. It is interesting to observe that such electronic exposure is very much inline with the online nature of Athabasca University. So, the credibility that goes with it also helps the interactions.

5. Let’s time travel from the present into the past: you worked as the vice president for the International Association of Smart Learning Environments (January, 2013-present), editor-in-chief of the Journal of Educational Technology & Society, (October, 1998-present), editor-in-chief of the Smart Learning Environments Journal (January, 2014-present), co-ordinator for the International Forum of Educational Technology & Society (January, 1998), chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technology (January, 2003-December, 2007), president of the Distance Education Association of New Zealand (January, 2005-December, 2006), executive committee member of the Asia Pacific Society for Computers in Education (January, 2009), and chair of the New Zealand Chapter of the ACM SIGCHI (January, 1999-December, 2004), and functioned in numerous other capacities.^[59]^,[60],[61]What duties to the public came/come with these stations?

Once again, credit for all of this really goes to the people around me. It is simply a task too daunting for a person. I am fortunate to have the confidence and support of so many people, who trusted me with these activities. Indeed, these responsibilities have given me so many opportunities to learn. That is where I saw the origin of my duties. Being able to provide my efforts that make these activities useful and meaningful for others, so that these activities serve the purpose of wider community, is the aim I have always strived for. With those responsibilities given to me, I considered achieving the highest quality of the outcomes that serve the target audience as the topmost priority.

6. Your research interests lie in adaptive and personalized learning, smart learning environments, learning analytics, learning technologies mobile, ubiquitous and location aware learning systems, cognitive profiling, and interactive technologies.^[62]^{,[63],[64],[65]}What motivates these research interests for you?^[66]^{,[67],[68],[69]}

I have always been intrigued by use of technology to improve learning. During my PhD studies, I looked at creating intelligent tutoring tools that could help individual learners in learning subject concepts and practical associated skills. Soon after, I realized that the technology is to support learning process and the dimension of adaptive learning systems has significant potential. With wide availability of mobile devices, my research group started to explore how new avenues of learning can be tapped that could take learning outside of classroom. Still there were limitations, since mobile devices had limited functionality and limited availability of bandwidth. However, more recent advances in sensor technology, drop in the cost of mobile data, and wider availability of wireless connectivity now allows us to not only provide online support to the learners but also help them engage in authentic hands-on experience by interacting with physical objects. Better connectivity also means we have possibility for teachers to provide much-needed real-time interventions remotely. These opportunities have tremendous potential for improvement in education. This prospect has kept me motivated over the years.

7. You work as a professor in the school of computing and information systems at Athabasca University.^[70]^{,[71],[72],[73]}What instigated this area of teaching?^[74]^{,[75],[76],[77]}

My interest in improving learning is again the reason why I am in academia. I teach research methods course, where students learn how to do research, wo that they can go on a systematic path for innovation. While creativity plays a critical role in innovation, research methods allow students to ensure that they have explored various possible venues for the data, have identified what has been done previously so as not to reinvent the wheel, and to validate their findings properly, so that their results can be used by other with confidence.

8. You remain associate dean in the faculty of science and technology at Athabasca University.^[78]^{,[79],[80],[81]} What power and responsibility comes with this station?^[82]^{,[83],[84],[85]}

My portfolio as associate dean includes research leadership, overseeing graduate programs, and looking after course development and revision process for the faculty. Identifying networking opportunities for faculty, providing support as well as faculty level endorsement for individual faculty research applications is part of the research portfolio. Ascertaining demands for new programs, analyzing currency of existing programs and courses, and helping faculty to provide the best student experience to our graduate students is part of my graduate programs portfolio. Finally, overseeing the course development and revision process starting from an idea of a new course or revision of a course by a faculty member, to ensuring learning design support, editing, production and visual design, copyright processes, materials management, and other aspects, to ensure smooth operations at every stage, is part of my third portfolio.

9. You have association with the NSERC/CNRL/Xerox/McGraw Hill Industrial Research Chair in Adaptivity and Personalization in Informatics.^[86]^{,[87],[88],[89]}What major developments have come from this Canada Research Chair position?

The extremely rapid growth of wireless and sensor technologies in recent years and the increasing availability of high bandwidth network infrastructures, have opened up new accessibility opportunities for education. In this context, the Chair research program has focused on understanding mobile and online learning environments that overcome the restrictions of classroom or workplace-restricted learning and extend e-learning by bringing the concepts of anytime and anywhere to reality, aiming at providing people with better educational experiences in their daily living environments. The primary goal of the research is to explore and develop different applications and content delivery systems, extending our understanding of mobile learning to provide rich learning experiences in order to not only improve the existing educational environment but also to widen access to education for the disadvantaged, particularly those living in remote and rural communities, who generally do not have access to learning opportunities, and to the disabled, who need specialized devices and applications for learning. Various investigations have taken place to exploit the benefits of location, environment, device and learner modeling, and combine them with mobile technology to achieve personalized delivery of multimedia-rich learning objects. The architecture designed in the research has resulted in a technical infrastructure that is built around a Personalized Adaptive Learning Dashboard (PALD) which provides students and teachers with access to various other components of the system through the student portal and instructor portal. Various software modules have been designed and developed to implement the architecture of multi-agent, multi-platform compatible and distribution systems.

10. What future research will occur 2015-2020 for this Canada Research Chair position?

The Chair research program is now in its second five-year term where the research is moving from mobile and online environments towards investigations of ubiquitous learning environments that have started to emerge with potential to support life-long learning and as a response to the limitations of traditional classroom-based learning that is characterized as not only rigid and artificial but also out-of-context, making it very restricted in fulfilling the demands of real-life experiences and authentic learning needs of today’s society.

The aim is to create an infrastructure that enables teachers and trainers to provide effective instruction and training in the environments where students/trainees undertake learning/training in authentic on-site situations outside of the classroom. This infrastructure will provide teachers and trainers with appropriate technologies to investigate and analyze students/trainees’ learning/training progress and intervene once difficulties in the learning/training process are identified.

Research in this phase will aim at mining relevant information about learners/trainees from various sources and aggregating that information for “ubiquitous learning analytics” in order to provide teachers and trainers with real-time recommendations to improve the learning/training flow of individual and group of learners/trainees.

11. What is the biggest personal dream for Athabasca University for you – its possibilities and promises in Canada?^[90]

My biggest dream is to make learning process of Athabasca University students so personalized, meaningful and contextual that each student can relate what they are learning immediately to their work and living environment. The learning could happen in such a way that the distinction between learning and rest of the life is as little or as much as an individual student desires. While doing so, the evidence of learning remains so clear that for every achievement, it should be possible to clearly identify the knowledge and skills levels, and the evidence of that achievement, so that it can be used unequivocally by the student for any formal assessment or for any career opportunities.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[2] Individual Publication Date: May 8, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/prof-dr-kinshuk-professor-school-of-computing-and-information-systems-athabasca-university-associate-dean-faculty-of-science-and-technology-athabasca-university-nserc-industrial-research-chair-adaptiv; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2016 at https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

[4] Photographs courtesy of Dr. Kinshuk.

[5] Kinshuk. (2015, July 29). Curriculum Vitae & Biography. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/index.php/all-2/.

[6] Athabasca University. (2015). Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://scis.athabascau.ca/scis/staff/faculty.php?id=kinshuk.

[7] Athabasca University. (2015). Featured Researchers: Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://research.athabascau.ca/researchers/kinshuk.php.

[8] Kinshuk. (2015). Kinshuk’s Biography: Biography of Chair. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/.

[9] Kinshuk. (2015, July 29). Curriculum Vitae & Biography. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/index.php/all-2/.

[10] Athabasca University. (2015). Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://scis.athabascau.ca/scis/staff/faculty.php?id=kinshuk.

[11] Athabasca University. (2015). Featured Researchers: Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://research.athabascau.ca/researchers/kinshuk.php.

[12] Kinshuk. (2015). Kinshuk’s Biography: Biography of Chair. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/.

[13] Athabasca University. (2015). Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute: Research Profile: Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from https://tekri.athabascau.ca/content/research-profile-dr-kinshuk.

[14] LinkedIn. (2015). Dr Kinshuk. Retrieved from https://ca.linkedin.com/in/kinshuk1.

[15] Athabasca University. (2009, February 20). Building Tomorrow. Retrieved from http://alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=2535194421966-F35C-2728-738763D8E6219A83.

[16] Well, M. (2015, September 11). Meeting the Minds: Interviewing Dr. Kinshuk, Part, III. Retrieved from http://www.voicemagazine.org/articles/featuredisplay.php?ART=10684.

[17] Well, M. (2015, September 11). Meeting the Minds: Interviewing Dr. Kinshuk, Part, II. Retrieved from http://www.voicemagazine.org/articles/featuredisplay.php?ART=10648.

[18] Well, M. (2015, September 11). Meeting the Minds: Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://www.voicemagazine.org/articles/featuredisplay.php?ART=10618.

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[21] Athabasca University. (2015). Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://scis.athabascau.ca/scis/staff/faculty.php?id=kinshuk.

[22] Athabasca University. (2015). Featured Researchers: Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://research.athabascau.ca/researchers/kinshuk.php.

[23] Kinshuk. (2015). Kinshuk’s Biography: Biography of Chair. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/.

[24] Lyrex. (2015). Partners. Retrieved from https://lyryx.com/about-partners.html.

[25] World Conference on Educational Technology Researchers. (2015). Conference Committee Members. Retrieved from http://www.globalcenter.info/wcetr/organizating.htm.

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[27] Procomun. (2014). Mobile Authoring of Open Educational Resources as Reusable Learning Objects , Dr Kinshuk and Ryan Jesse Athabasca University, Canada. Retrieved from https://procomun.educalab.es/es/articulos/mobile-authoring-open-educational-resources-reusable-learning-objects-dr-kinshuk-and-ryan.

[28] KMEL-Journal. (2015). Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://www.kmel-journal.org/ojs/index.php/online-publication/about/editorialTeamBio/7.

[29] Mouallem, O. (2011). Learning inside a system that’s learning you. Retrieved from http://issuu.com/athabascauniv/docs/openspring2013_web/15.

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[31] International Mobile Learning Festival 2015. (2015). International Programme Committee. Retrieved from http://imlf.mobi/Brochure.pdf.

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[33] Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. (2015). Chairholder Profile. Retrieved from http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Chairholders-TitulairesDeChaire/Chairholder-Titulaire_eng.asp?pid=744.

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[37] The First International Conference on Technology for Education and Learning. (2015). Organizing Committee. Retrieved fromhttp://www.telconf.org/aspx.

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[44] National Taipei University of Education Department of Education Science international exchange zone. (2009, April 17). International exchange activities Description. Retrieved from http://s8.ntue.edu.tw/international/index.html.

[45] ICCE 19th International Conference on Computers in Education. (2011). ICCE Conference on Technology, Pedagogy and Education. Retrieved from http://www.nectec.or.th/icce2011/callForPapers/cfp_c6.php.

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[48] Twitter. (2015). @kinshuk1. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/kinshuk1.

[49] International Conference on New Frontiers in Engineering Education. (2015). Scientific Committee. Retrieved from http://www.icredu.org/infed16.

[50] IJDET. (2015). Editorial Board. Retrieved from http://www.ijdet.net/?pnum=7&pt=Editorial+Board.

[51] KM&EL Lab. (2012). Prof. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://kmel-lab.org/website/Advisory.html.

[52] International Workshop on Technology for Education. (2009, September 1). International Workshop on Technology for Education (T4E’09). Retrieved fromhttp://digit.lk/international-workshop-on-technology-for-education-t4e09/.

[53] CHI UX Indonesia 2015. (2015). Program. Retrieved from http://chiuxindo.uxindo.com/chi-ux-indonesia-2015/.

[54] CAVA 2013. (2013). Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://www.aves.edu.co/cava/cava2010/htmldocs/conferencistas.html.

[55] ICEL 2014. (2014, June). Conference Programme of the International Conference on eLearning ICEL 2014 Chile. Retrieved from http://academic-conferences.org/icel/icel2014/icel14-timetable.htm.

[56] Athabasca University. (2015). Athabasca University. Retrieved from http://www.athabascau.ca/.

[57] Alberta. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/place/Alberta-province.

[58] Canada. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/place/Canada.

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[60] Nickel, C. (2012, June 25). Xerox Canada and AU Work Together to Personalize Learning. Retrieved from https://www.raic.org/resources_archives/newsletters_bulletins/2012/july/documents/Insider%20June%2025,%202012.pdf.

[61] In About the author (2015), it, in full, states:

The author of this blog, Dr. Kinshuk is a leading expert in improving student learning through adaptivity and personalization of different learning activities, and through comprehensive analysis of the learning process using innovative technique known as Learning Analytics. He is Full Professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology, at Athabasca University, Canada. He holds the NSERC/CNRL/Xerox/McGraw Hill Industrial Research Chair for Adaptivity and Personalization in Informatics, funded by the Federal government of Canada, Provincial government of Alberta, and by national and international industries. Kinshuk also serves as the President of the Board of Directors for Smart Informatics Ltd, a recently evolved start-up with focus on improving student learning through innovative fusion of pedagogy and technology. After completing first degree from India, he earned his Masters’ degree from Strathclyde University (Glasgow) and PhD from De Montfort University (Leicester), United Kingdom. His work has been dedicated to advancing research on the innovative paradigms, architectures and implementations of online and distance learning systems for individualized and adaptive learning. He is particularly interested in advancing research in learning analytics; mobile, ubiquitous and location aware learning systems; cognitive profiling; and, authentic learning.

With more than 400 research publications in refereed journals, international refereed conferences and book chapters, he is frequently invited as keynote or principal speaker in international conferences and visiting professor around the world. He has been twice awarded the prestigious fellowship of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (2008 and 2013). He has served as guest editor for numerous prestigious international journals, and continues to serve on a large number of editorial boards of high-impact journals and program committees of international conferences. He receives frequent invitations to serve on grant review panels for the governmental funding agencies of various countries, including the European Commission, Austria, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Qatar, Taiwan and the United States. He also has a successful record of procuring external funding over 13 million Canadian dollars as principal and co-principal investigator.

In his on-going sustained professional activities, he has initiated several professional movements at international and national levels. At the international level, he is Founding Chair of IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technologies, and Founding Editor of the Journal of Educational Technology & Society (SSCI indexed and in top three international journals as per Google matrices in educational technology category). At the national level, he is Founding Chair of the New Zealand Chapter of ACM SIG on Computer-Human Interaction, and Past President of the Distance Education Association of New Zealand.

Recently Dr Kinshuk has been instrumental in founding the International Association for Smart Learning Environments and Springer’s open access Smart Learning Environments journal. He has also initiated the new Springer book series Lecture Notes in Educational Technology, which aims at disseminating research advances in the form of books, proceedings and e-books.

Kinshuk. (2015). About the author. Retrieved from http://www.kinshuk.info/about-the-author/.

[62] Kinshuk. (2015, July 29). Curriculum Vitae & Biography. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/index.php/all-2/.

[63] Athabasca University. (2015). Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://scis.athabascau.ca/scis/staff/faculty.php?id=kinshuk.

[64] Athabasca University. (2015). Featured Researchers: Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://research.athabascau.ca/researchers/kinshuk.php.

[65] Kinshuk. (2015). Kinshuk’s Biography: Biography of Chair. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/.

[66] Kinshuk. (2015, July 29). Curriculum Vitae & Biography. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/index.php/all-2/.

[67] Athabasca University. (2015). Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://scis.athabascau.ca/scis/staff/faculty.php?id=kinshuk.

[68] Athabasca University. (2015). Featured Researchers: Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://research.athabascau.ca/researchers/kinshuk.php.

[69] Kinshuk. (2015). Kinshuk’s Biography: Biography of Chair. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/.

[70] Kinshuk. (2015, July 29). Curriculum Vitae & Biography. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/index.php/all-2/.

[71] Athabasca University. (2015). Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://scis.athabascau.ca/scis/staff/faculty.php?id=kinshuk.

[72] Athabasca University. (2015). Featured Researchers: Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://research.athabascau.ca/researchers/kinshuk.php.

[73] Kinshuk. (2015). Kinshuk’s Biography: Biography of Chair. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/.

[74] Kinshuk. (2015, July 29). Curriculum Vitae & Biography. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/index.php/all-2/.

[75] Athabasca University. (2015). Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://scis.athabascau.ca/scis/staff/faculty.php?id=kinshuk.

[76] Athabasca University. (2015). Featured Researchers: Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://research.athabascau.ca/researchers/kinshuk.php.

[77] Kinshuk. (2015). Kinshuk’s Biography: Biography of Chair. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/.

[78] Kinshuk. (2015, July 29). Curriculum Vitae & Biography. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/index.php/all-2/.

[79] Athabasca University. (2015). Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://scis.athabascau.ca/scis/staff/faculty.php?id=kinshuk.

[80] Athabasca University. (2015). Featured Researchers: Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://research.athabascau.ca/researchers/kinshuk.php.

[81] Kinshuk. (2015). Kinshuk’s Biography: Biography of Chair. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/.

[82] Kinshuk. (2015, July 29). Curriculum Vitae & Biography. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/index.php/all-2/.

[83] Athabasca University. (2015). Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://scis.athabascau.ca/scis/staff/faculty.php?id=kinshuk.

[84] Athabasca University. (2015). Featured Researchers: Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://research.athabascau.ca/researchers/kinshuk.php.

[85] Kinshuk. (2015). Kinshuk’s Biography: Biography of Chair. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/.

[86] Kinshuk. (2015, July 29). Curriculum Vitae & Biography. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/index.php/all-2/.

[87] Athabasca University. (2015). Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://scis.athabascau.ca/scis/staff/faculty.php?id=kinshuk.

[88] Athabasca University. (2015). Featured Researchers: Dr. Kinshuk. Retrieved from http://research.athabascau.ca/researchers/kinshuk.php.

[89] Kinshuk. (2015). Kinshuk’s Biography: Biography of Chair. Retrieved from http://kinshuk.athabascau.ca/.

[90] Athabasca University. (2015). Athabasca University. Retrieved from http://www.athabascau.ca/.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago Deirdre Nansen McCloskey

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/05/01

Abstract

An interview with Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago Deirdre Nansen McCloskey. She discusses: geographic, cultural, and linguistic background, influences and pivotal moments in major cross-sections of early life; backgrounds, and influences and pivotal moments in development converging to determine the personal interest in economics, history, English, and communication; global economy probable future in the next 5, 10, 50, and 100 years; interrelationship of philosophies and positions, and the joke; motivation for perpetual output of productions; ethical responsibilities to the general public, academic world, the economics profession, and fellow Christian Libertarians comes with this extensive media, academic and general public, representation; and greatest emotional struggle in personal or (inclusive) professional life.

Keywords: Christian Libertarian, Deirdre McCloskey, Distinguished Professor, economics, English, global economy, history.

An Interview with Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago Deirdre Nansen McCloskey^{[1],[2],[3],[4]}

*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your personal and familial background reside?

I was raised in Boston, eventually marrying someone from Vermont, and think I understand New England. But both my parents were from the Midwest, and as a child I would stay summers with my grandmother and cousins in Michigan. I have always worked in Chicago or Iowa, with occasional work in California. So I understand the Midwest and New England, what Colin Woodward calls “Yankeedom.” The rest of the country, excepting a glimmer about California, is more or less mysterious. I am Anglophone—indeed monolingual, despite attempts throughout my life to erase the shame with Latin, Greek, French, Italian, German, Dutch, etc., etc. My base culture is British—The World of Pooh and The Jungle Book when little. My first scientific work was in British economic history (I take credit for bringing quantitative economic history to Britain from the US), and I have taught there, and in Australia and South Africa. I am an anglophile of an extreme sort. How extreme? I love the game of cricket!

2. What about influences and pivotal moments in major cross-sections of early life including kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school, high school, and undergraduate studies (college/university)?

That’s a tall order.

I always stuttered, quite badly until I finally stopped being ashamed of it, late in college, and spoke up, whether or not stuttering. I learned decades later that a British teacher of mine described me as “a stutter surrounded by a red beard.” Oddly, the handicap was I think an advantage. I therefore could never imagine myself to be perfect, and was always sympathetic to other humans in a way that a handicap teaches, if you do not dissolve into self-pity.

Age 11 I would fall asleep praying (our home was secular, but I was a bit holy for a while) that I would wake up (1.) not stuttering and (2.) be a girl. At last at age 53 I got the second half, and by then the stutterer was a minor obstacle even to someone who earned her living talking.

My father was a professor at Harvard, my mother an opera singer when young (I am their oldest child of three, born when my mother was 20). So the cultural atmosphere of the house was high, though oddly not pretentious: my dad liked baseball and played billiards and pool expertly; my mother remodeled the house on her own, and mowed the grass. The opera director Sarah Caldwell took me to my first circus. Famous academics drifted in and out of our house.

I went to a good, small, private school in Cambridge for boys (sic) in the eighth grade, which was crucial. The Wakefield schools were not up to snuff. A few teachers at Browne and Nichols encouraged me to think of myself as gifted in literature and in social thought. I got into Harvard in my junior year of high school.

Harvard College was good for me—though not for all my classmates, I must say. I intended to major in history, but found reading so many books onerous, and with my adolescent socialism found economics, and helping the poor. I was a guitar-playing Joan Baez socialist, and to this day know vastly more labor songs than most of my left-wing friends. Studying economics gradually killed my socialism, but not my goal of helping the poor.

3. How did these familial geographic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds, and influences and pivotal moments in development converge to determine the personal interest in economics, history, English, and communication?

It was slow, and by no means settled when I got my first job, at the University of Chicago in 1968 (tenured in 1975). I remember deciding at the tenure age of 33 that, having learned to be an economist, it was not enough. I subscribed to The [London] Times Literary Supplement, which was for me a textbook into the humanities. When I left Chicago in 1980 for the University of Iowa I started taking Latin courses and started the Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry, in which I worked with political philosophers, professors of English and of communication, teachers of rhetoric, and so forth.

4. You remain Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago.^[5] You teach a wide variety of courses in various fields centered on economics.^[6] Furthermore, you have been a Guggenheim Fellow (1983), Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Lecturer (1993), and President of the Economic History Association (1996 to 1997). With this broad suite of expertise, and professional recognition, your analyses and opinion hold weight. In terms of the global economy, what seems like its most probable future – that is, the next 5, 10, 50, and 100 years?

Briefly, highly optimistic. There is no reason at all why Zimbabwe, say, freed of Mugabe, can’t in a two or three generations have a real income equal to that of the USA. It’s happened repeatedly. In 1948 Hong Kong’s real income was down at the $2 a day characteristic of China generally. Now it is $140 a day, above that the the USA. Taiwan, the same story. Botswana, next door to Zim, is the African success story.

5. At Harvard, you had description as “an anarchist, socialist, uneducated Trotskyite. I was Keynesian economist, a social engineer.”^[7] In the recent past, you self-described as a “Christian Libertarian,” “a literary, quantitative, postmodern, free-market, progressive-Episcopalian, Midwestern woman from Boston who was once a man,” and a “postmodern free-market quantitative Episcopalian feminist Aristotelian.”^[8] What interrelates these philosophies and positions?^[9]

Nothing interrelates them. That is the serious joke in my self-descriptions. Anyone who tries to keep philosophical consistency through her life is going be dominated necessarily by her immature plan for philosophy—whatever it was at age 14. It’s like the many intelligent people who decide in their wisdom at age 14 to be courageous, independent-thinking atheists (following slavishly in this most of the intelligent children in their cohort), and then never pause at age 30 or 60 to reexamine the 14-year old’s life plan. It’s childish—though unhappily it characterizes many otherwise intelligent people. I knew slightly the British Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm. In his brilliant autobiography he gave reasons for remaining a Communist (after Stalin, after Hungary) until the British Party disbanded itself, in the early 1990s. The reasons were surprisingly stupid in so intelligent a man. He decided at age 14 to be a Communist, and so he remained until his death at age 95. “A foolish consistency,” wrote Emerson, “is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” Use your mind to discern the truth, which will probably change from age 14 to age 95, unless you’ve shut down your mind in favor a Party Line.

6. You have extensive representation in the media.^[10] You wrote many, many articles and books.^[11]^,[12] Unfortunately, we don’t have time to conduct a comprehensive interview. Even so, as a general commentary on the continuous output of professional work and calls for interviews, what motivates this perpetual output of productions?

Discerning the truth. I keep pursuing it. Instead of grinding away at the same idea I had at age 14 or 24 or 34, as so many people do, I try to think. Yes, I know, it’s irritating: Why doesn’t she settle? Well, too bad. Science is hard, and you need to keep thinking. The thinking should regularly result in new ideas. If not, maybe it’s not thinking.

7. What ethical responsibilities to the general public, academic world, the economics profession, and fellow Christian Libertarians comes with this extensive media, academic and general public, representation?

To tell the truth as I see it, having earnestly pursued it, by thinking and rethinking. I would be deeply ashamed if the “media representation” you speak of arose from some Party Line I was adhering to. I could have had a comfortable career at the University of Chicago, for example, if I had not decided around 1978 that the naïve behaviorism and positivism of Chicago, and the melding of it with MIT-Stanford formalism of “proof,” was a silly form of not-thinking. I left out of vexation. The great poet and Latin textual critic, A. E. Housman, gave an address to the Classical Association meeting in 1921 at Cambridge called “The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism” in which he advised his colleagues to stop using mindless rules (“The more sincere text is the better”; an equivalent rule in economics would be “one must never ask people what they are doing” or “macro must always have micro foundations”) and to actually think about the Latin text at hand, and what the poet might have written.

8. What seems like the greatest emotional struggle in personal or (inclusive) professional life?

Well, obviously my gender change. I was happily married to the love of my life for 30 years, and had two children I love and loved. The three have not spoken to me for 20 years. They will not let me see my three grandchildren. If I had been required to give up my career to become a woman, I would have. Fortunately, though, I didn’t, and aside from the three, I have continued to lead a charmed life.

Thank you for your time, Professor McCloskey.

Bibliography

Finney, J. (2016, March 10). Q&A: Deirdre McCloskey. Retrieved from http://www.hillsdalecollegian.com/2016/03/qa-deirdre-mccloskey/.
McCloskey, D. (2016). Deirdre McCloskey. Retrieved from http://deirdremccloskey.org/.
University of Illinois at Chicago. (2016). Deirdre McCloskey. Retrieved from http://econ.uic.edu/economics/faculty/deirdre-mccloskey.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] UIC Distinguished Professor of Economics and of History Emerita, University of Illinois at Chicago; Professor of English Emerita, University of Illinois at Chicago; Professor of Communication Emerita, University of Illinois at Chicago.

University of Illinois at Chicago University of Illinois at Chicago

[2] Individual Publication Date: May 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/an-interview-with-distinguished-professor-of-economics-history-english-and-communication-at-the-university-of-illinois-at-chicago-deirdre-nansen-mccloskey; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2016 at https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

[3] Ph.D., Harvard University.

[4] Photograph courtesy of Distinguished Professor Deirdre McCloskey.

[5] University of Illinois at Chicago. (2016). Deirdre McCloskey. Retrieved from http://econ.uic.edu/economics/faculty/deirdre-mccloskey.

[6] McCloskey, D. (2016). Courses, Spring 2013. Retrieved from http://www.deirdremccloskey.com/courses.php.

[7] Finney, J. (2016, March 10). Q&A: Deirdre McCloskey. Retrieved from http://www.hillsdalecollegian.com/2016/03/qa-deirdre-mccloskey/.

[8] Formal Biography (2016) states:

Deirdre N. McCloskey has been since 2000 UIC Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Trained at Harvard as an economist, she has written fifteen books and edited seven more, and has published some three hundred and sixty articles on economic theory, economic history, philosophy, rhetoric, feminism, ethics, and law. She taught for twelve years in Economics at the University of Chicago, and describes herself now as a “postmodern free-market quantitative Episcopalian feminist Aristotelian.” Her latest books are How to be Human* *Though an Economist (University of Michigan Press 2001),Measurement and Meaning in Economics (S. Ziliak, ed.; Edward Elgar 2001), The Secret Sins of Economics (Prickly Paradigm Pamphlets, U. of Chicago Press, 2002), The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives[with Stephen Ziliak; University of Michigan Press, 2008], The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Capitalism (U. of Chicago Press, 2006), and Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World (U. of Chicago Press, 2010). Before The Bourgeois Virtues her best-known books were The Rhetoric of Economics (University of Wisconsin Press 1st ed. 1985; 2nd ed. 1998) and Crossing: A Memoir (Chicago 1999), which was a New York Times Notable Book.

Her scientific work has been on economic history, especially British. She is currently finishing a book, the third in a series of three initiated with The Bourgeois Virtues, on Dutch and British economic and social history, Bourgeois Equality: How Betterment Became Ethical, 1600-1848, and Then Suspect. She has written on British economic “failure” in the 19th century, trade and growth in the 19th century, open field agriculture in the middle ages, the Gold Standard, and the Industrial Revolution.

Her philosophical books include The Rhetoric of Economics (University of Wisconsin Press 1st ed. 1985; 2nd ed. 1998), If You’re So Smart: The Narrative of Economic Expertise (University of Chicago Press 1990), and Knowledge and Persuasion in Economics(Cambridge 1994). They concern the maladies of social scientific positivism, the epistemological limits of a future social science, and the promise of a rhetorically sophisticated philosophy of science. Recently she has turned to ethics and to a philosophical-historical apology for modern economies.

Informal Biographical Remarks

Deirdre Nansen McCloskeytaught at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 2000 to 2015 in economics, history, English, and communication. A well-known economist and historian and rhetorician, she has written 17 books and around 400 scholarly pieces on topics ranging from technical economics and statistical theory to transgender advocacy and the ethics of the bourgeois virtues. She is known as a “conservative” economist, Chicago-School style (she taught in the Economics Department there from 1968 to 1980, and in History), but protests that “I’m a literary, quantitative, postmodern, free-market, progressive-Episcopalian, Midwestern woman from Boston who was once a man. Not ‘conservative’! I’m a Christian libertarian.” With Stephen Ziliak in 2008 she wrote The Cult of Statistical Significance, which shows that null hypothesis tests of “significance” are, in the absence of a substantive loss function, meaningless (in 2011 the book figured in a unanimous Supreme Court decision). Her latest book, out in January 2016 from the University of Chicago Press—Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World—argues for an “ideational” explanation for the Great Enrichment 1800 to the present. The accidents of Reformation and Revolt in northwestern Europe 1517–1789 led to a new liberty and dignity for commoners—ideas called “liberalism”—which led in turn to an explosion of trade-tested betterment, “having a go.” The earlier book in the trilogy, Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World(2010) had shown that materialist explanations such as saving or exploitation, don’t have sufficient economic oomph or historical relevance. The first book in the Bourgeois Era trilogy, The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce(2006), had established that, contrary to the clamor of the clerisy left and right since 1848, the bourgeoisie is pretty good, and that trade-tested betterment is not the worst of ethical schools.

McCloskey, D. (2016, April 15). Formal Biography. Retrieved from http://deirdremccloskey.org/main/bio.php#300.

[9] Q&A: Deirdre McCloskey (2016) in the opening question and response stated:

You explicitly push back against people who describe you as “conservative,” and opt instead to define yourself as a “literary, quantitative, postmodern, free market, progressive Episcopalian, Midwestern woman from Boston who was once a man.”

That’s absolutely right. I’m a Christian, but a free-market Episcopalian. I was a guy, now I’m a woman. I’m from Boston, but I’ve always lived as an adult in the Midwest. Being postmodern doesn’t mean you have to be left wing. Being postmodern is to say that I don’t believe in the naïve theory of knowledge that facts are just lying out there, we go collect them, and that’s it. We ask human questions. The Danish physicist Niels Bohr said that back in the 1920s. Physics is not just about the world, physics is what we as humans can say about the world. That is the essential message of the Sophists of ancient Greece, and of Montaigne and Shakespeare in the late sixteenth century, and of the ‘crazy,’ postmodern people in English departments. I’m quantitative: So many social and scientific questions depend on how big things are, numbers, quantities. Yet, I believe truth can be found in poetry, theology, philosophy, and history. It is truth that cannot be translated without loss into propositional statements, like E=mc2. But what is human life about? One kind of answer is there was once a babe born in Bethlehem of the house of David. This other kind of knowing is not propositional, but it’s very important to humans. It’s not softer than math. To talk about knowledge as ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ is sexist — it means girls can’t do math. A stupid distinction. The Greek aorist mood is harder to understand than most calculus. Humanities is not easier than physical and biological sciences.

Finney, J. (2016, March 10). Q&A: Deirdre McCloskey. Retrieved from http://www.hillsdalecollegian.com/2016/03/qa-deirdre-mccloskey/.

[10] McCloskey, D. (2016, April 17). Interviews. Retrieved from http://www.deirdremccloskey.com/interviews/index.php.

[11] McCloskey, D. (2016, April 17). Articles Published or in Press by Deirdre McCloskey. Retrieved from http://www.deirdremccloskey.com/articles/index.php.

[12] McCloskey, D. (2016, April 17). BOOKS WRITTEN and PUBLISHED. Retrieved from http://www.deirdremccloskey.com/books/index.php.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Farouk A. Peru

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/04/22

Abstract

An interview with Farouk A. Peru. He discusses: geographic, cultural, and linguistic background; source of personal interest in Islam; Quranology Blog; Islam’s entrance into personal life; Qur’an’s personal meaning; authenticity and veracity of the text; Prophet Muhammad and other prophets in Islam; Islam’s eschatology; Quranism definition of the soul; Quranism definition of the whole person; Quranism definition of relationship of humanity to Allah; Quranism statement about the sexes; Quranism definition of marriage; daily inspiration through the Qur’an; definition of Quranism; definition of Muslim; Quranism stance on evolution, creationism, and intelligent design; general Islamic stance on evolution, creationism, and intelligent design; possibility of understanding the world as Allah’s work; things Muslims and non-Muslims can do about those giving religion a bad name; reconciliation of human specialness in light of human beings as common productions of natural processes; ways the media can give accurate views of those within the faith community; forces influencing future directions of Islam; whether science denies Allah or not; other plausible interpretations of the scientific evidence; whether religion can survive without faith; whether religions survive increasingly persuasive scientific explanations for natural phenomena; repairing the schisms in Islam; whether they should be or not; and means for those with an interest in becoming involved with the Quranists Network or Islam.

Keywords: Islam, Muslim, Quranism, Quranists Network, religion, science.

An Interview with Farouk A. Peru^{^{[1],[2],[3],[4]}}

*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*

*Please see Appendix II: Qur’an Quotes on Male and Female Spiritual Equality*

*Note from Mr. Peru: “www.quranists.netis about all quranists. It does not have any official views but rather would strive to host all views and debates. www.quranology.nameis a space for my personal views and research. it’s quranist by definition but follows only one approach which is my own”*

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside?

I am from a Malay background. We are the majority ethnic group in Malaysia and my family specifically comes from Penang, an island state in northern Malaysia. We speak English as our first language but are also fluent in Malay.

2. Where does personal interest in Islam source itself?^[5]

My grandfather and uncle who both had a keen interest in Islam. Both were into Islamic mysticism and I grew up reading books on the subject. I suppose my cultural origin as a Muslim gave me a means through which I sought my place in the world. I now see it as a vehicle towards the destination of self-actualization as a human being.

3. You run the Quranology Blog.^[6] In a number of short posts – What is Quran? (2015), What is Quranology? (2015), Sections of Quranology (2015), and How I Arrived Here (2015), you provide the basis and reasons for the Qur’an, Quranology, and personal arrival into the work.^{[7],[8],[9],[10]}What inspired its development into the present status as an online resource?

Since the late 90ies, I have ventured into creating websites and blogs in the past. However, during that time, my thoughts had not yet formed in the way it is now. What was missing back then was a strong theoretical foundation.

The essays you mentioned above represents a map through which a reader may start as a human being and venture forth into the world of Quran (mapped out in the ‘sections of Quranology’). It is important that he starts out from this existential position rather a religious one because, in my view, Quran is not a religious text but an existential one. It speaks to what I call ‘the facticity of existence’ which is the reality of our being as humans.

4. How did Islam come into your life?

My family are culturally and religiously Muslim so the natural familiarity helped form my identity as a Muslim. However I have a deeper involvement as I am involved socially and politically as well. However, I am now on the left side of the Islamic political spectrum. An Islamic liberal, if you will.

5. What does the Qur’an mean to you?^[11]

The Quran to me is a text inspired by the divine force to the historical personality Muhammad son of Abdullah. In this text, we may find the essential truths of human being.

6. What argument and evidences attest to its authenticity and veracity to you?

I see the Quran as a legacy left by the historical Muhammad to his community. The community was encouraged to memorise the text as a cultural practice and in my observation, they have done so immaculately. The contents of the texts is also agreed upon by the Sunni and Shia factions of Islam which attests to its early date of codification. That is my understanding of authenticity.

On the question of veracity, the Quran promotes an experiment to verify that its statements about the human condition are, in fact, true (Chapter 41, Verse 53). I have and am still performing this experiment and am satisfied that the Quran is veracious in this regard.

7. What about Prophet Muhammad?^[12]

Prophet Muhammad in my understanding was the historical personality who first received the Quran. He interpreted and applied it in his own personal subjectivities. I am not obligated to follow these interpretations and applications, even if I do agree about their authenticity.

8. Other Prophets exist in Islam: Adam, Noah,Abraham, Moses, Solomon, and Jesus.^[13]^{,[14],[15],[16],[17],[18]}What status does Islam give them?

They are historical personalities, some of those histories are codified in the Quranic text. The purpose of their codification is to provide archetypes for humanity to evolve (as per Quran Ch 11 Vs 120 and Ch 12 Vs 111).

9. Eschatology relates to the “last things.”^[19] Judaism and Christianity assert and study them through the Torah, Old Testament, and New Testament. Muslims study the texts of the People of the Book in addition to the Qur’an and the Hadith. What is Islam’s eschatology?

As a point of interest, I do not accept the ‘people of the book’ to be Jews and Christians but rather people bound to a certain law or code. Neither do I accept the OT or NT as divinely inspired texts.

In my understanding of the Quran, the last day is when humanity is gathered and their deeds are weighed. Those who pass will go through to the next stage of infinite Being where they rejoin universal consciousness.

10. How does Quranism define the soul?

I can only speak for my organization (Quranology Institute) and not for other Quranists. To me, the soul is the human personality which is our vehicle in this world. Like any vehicle, it needs to be upkept and even improved upon and ultimately after death, it will take us on the journey of reunion with the Divine.

11. How does Quranism define the whole person?

I can only speak for my organization (Quranology Institute) and not for other Quranists. The whole person, in my understanding of the Quran, is the soul (nafs), heart (qalb) and sadr (projection). The heart acts as a compass, the soul as a vehicle. This leads to our projected selves into the world which expands and brings peace (salam).

12. How does Quranism define the relationship of humanity to Allah?

I can only speak for my organization (Quranology Institute) and not for other Quranists. Our fundamental relationship is that of servitude (a matter of choice). When we serve Allah, we imbue ourselves with his baptism (the realization of His attributes). We then actualize these attributes in the world.

13. Numerous quotations in the Qur’an delineate the equality of the sexes.^[20] What does Quranism state about the sexes?

I can only speak for my organization (Quranology Institute) and not for other Quranists. In my understanding, there is no delineation in social roles with the exception of family law and reproduction where the woman who nurses her child needs to be cared for.

14. How does Quranism define marriage?

I can only speak for my organization (Quranology Institute) and not for other Quranists. In my understanding, a marriage is a social contract which recognizes the romantic/sexual relationship between two individuals. This contract must define the terms of their lives together.

15. What inspiration comes from daily life through the Qu’ran for you?

In my daily life, I work with the underprivileged from time to time and when I do so, verses of the Quran which relate to this issue resonate with me deeply. The Quran gives a special position to charity work, placing it right next to worship in no less than four places (2/83, 4/36, 6/151 and 17/23).

16. The Quranists Network’s vision states with clarity its purpose to express the “vision of islam itself.”^[21] In the Introduction (2015) to the Quranists Network, the collective describes Quranism as “a major stream in Islam along with Sunnism and Shiaism.”^[22] In Quranists and the term ‘Quranists’ (2015), you clarify the definition further.^[23] In that, you note Quranism does not equate to another sect of Islam and the necessity of shirking hawa or delusions to become monotheists. In that, one does not develop into a monotheist by dint of accepting the Qu’ran or becoming Muslim. What defines Quranism to you?

Quranism should be seen as a space wherein there are unending discussions about the Quran. Any person can enter this space and can take whatever he or she wishes from it. Quranism must never force dogma upon anyone. The idea is to fertilise thinking and benefit from reading and applying the text.

17. What defines a Muslim to you?

I define a muslim in two ways. One, a Muslim (with a capital ‘M’) part of the world of Islam, which is a religious culture known to the world as Islam. A Muslim in this sense is affliated by birth or conversion to that culture and practices Islam to varying levels.

Another way I see ‘muslim’ (with a small ‘m’) is in the existential sense (which I gather from the Quran). A muslim is one who promotes wholeness and soundness of self and society. He does not have to be religious or even a theist. This definition of muslim is ironically found more in the Western world than the Muslim one.

18. Some religions, or sects within the, reject evolution and accept creationism, or an adapted from entitled intelligent design. Where does the Quranist movement stand with respect to evolution, creationism, and intelligent design?

As a matter of fact, Quranists seem to be pro-evolution and intelligent design. I have hardly seen Quranists who are also creationists. This is probably due to the fact that the Quran does not incline to the literal interpretation of adam. In my reading, it sees adam as a human prototype (as per 7/11)

19. What about the general Islamic world – believers, Islamic states, Arab League, and so on?

The Islamic world tends to be creationists and also very hostile to Traditional Muslims who say otherwise. A friend of mine, one Usama Hassan, received a huge backlash for stating his pro-evolution views.

20. The future of faith and religion as humans become more powerful at controlling and explaining the world. Is trying to understand the world doing Allah’s work?

I believe it is. I believe that the world is a manifestation of our collective souls and in the evolution of souls, we may bring peace to the world. That is Allah’s work. Religion cannot or at least should not be dissociated from our human experience.

21. What can Muslims and non-Muslims about those giving religion a bad name?

I believe that all of humanity needs to bring about a state wherein people can self-actualize. This can be done through overcoming stagnation which happens through poverty. This program would lead to closer human relations and those who give religion a bad name would have the rug pulled from under them

22. How does one present faith in human beings as special in light of scientific knowledge presenting human beings as common productions of natural processes – cosmic, geologic, evolutionary, socio-cultural, and so on?

Faith is an internal experience which should bring about a feeling of peace and security. Scientific knowledge is an external experience. I do not feel that one can do without the other but neither does one compromise the other.

23. With disproportionate time apportioned to the extremists within religion, how can the media present an accurate view of those within the faith community?

If the media were inclined to do so (which I do not think the mainstream media are), they should focus on the social activism of Muslims. There are Muslim organizations which are passionate about battling poverty and they should receive media focus.

24. What forces might push Islam in different directions in the future?

The force of Islamic Reform, I believe, can return Islam to its original trajectory, to become a living tradition which feeds into human evolution. However, Islamic Reform is not an idea which is very proliferant in the Muslim just yet.

25. Does science deny Allah?

Science can neither confirm or deny anything. Like a computer, science can process hypotheses and produce a deduction. The set up of the system is dependent upon the person and hence is subjective. Therefore science can justify both theism and atheism.

26. What other plausible interpretations of the scientific evidence exist to you?

I believe scientific evidence shows that there is a force which pushes the universe to more complex levels of consciousness as opposed to entropy which seems to permeate the universe. This is what the Quran calls ‘rabubiyah’ (lordship) and should be accessed by humanity.

27. Can religion survive without faith?

If by ‘faith’, you mean ‘blind faith’, then I believe it is only way religion can survive – without blind faith. Rather, religion must use reason in order to verify its own internal experience.

28. Can religion survive increasingly persuasive scientific explanations for natural phenomena?

Science can only explain the physical properties of natural phenomena. The metaphysics which underpin reality is something science cannot talk about by definition. This is where our internal faculties are needed. Religion provides vehicles for this internal journey.

29. Can the schisms within Islam be repaired?

I am not optimistic because the rift has widened into a chasm. The identities of the Sunni and Shia sects have become cultures in their own right. While the hostilities can be repaired, I do not think the schisms can.

30. Should they be?

Not necessarily because any sect can be employed to provide a means for spiritual betterment.

31. For those with an interest in subscribing, resources exist such as announcements, bookshop, events, Kindle Books, mp3 audio files, news, QNetTV, Quranists Network Forum, and the subscriber list.^[24]^{,[25],[26],[27],[28],[29],[30],[31],[32]} What other means exist for those with an interest in becoming involved in the Quranists Network or Islam?

They should join our facebook groups – Quranists Reverts, Quranists.net and Quranist Space.

Thank you for your time, Mr. Peru.

Bibliography

Abraham. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Abraham.
Adam and Eve. (2015). InEncyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Adam-and-Eve-biblical-literary-figures.
Islam. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Islam.
Jesus Christ. (2015). InEncyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesus-Christ.
Moses. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Moses-Hebrew-prophet.
Muhammad. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Muhammad.
Noah. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Noah.
Peru, F.A. (n.d.). Quranists and the term ‘Quranists’. Retrieved from http://www.quranists.net/2011/04/13/quranists-and-the-term-quranists/.
Peru, F.A. (2015). Quranology Blog. Retrieved from https://quranology.wordpress.com/author/faroukaperu/.
Peru, F.A. (2015). Sections of Quranology. Retrieved from https://quranology.wordpress.com/introduction/an-explanation-of-the-sections-of-quranology/.
Peru, F.A. (2015). What is Quran?. Retrieved from https://quranology.wordpress.com/introduction/what-is-quran/.
Peru, F.A. (2015). What is Quranology?. Retrieved from https://quranology.wordpress.com/introduction/what-is-quranology/.
Qur’an. (2015). InEncyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Quran.
Quranists Network. (2015). Quranists Network. Retrieved from http://www.quranists.net/.
Solomon. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Solomon.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Founder, Quranology Blog; Administrator, Quranist Network.

[2] Individual Publication Date: April 22, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/an-interview-with-farouk-a-peru; Full Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues.

[3] Ph.D. Candidate, King’s College, London.

[4] Photograph courtesy of Farouk A. Peru.

[5] Islam. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Islam.

[6] Peru, F.A. (2015). Quranology Blog. Retrieved from https://quranology.wordpress.com/author/faroukaperu/.

[7] Peru, F.A. (2015). What is Quran?. Retrieved from https://quranology.wordpress.com/introduction/what-is-quran/.

[8] Peru, F.A. (2015). What is Quranology?. Retrieved from https://quranology.wordpress.com/introduction/what-is-quranology/.

[9] Peru, F.A. (2015). Sections of Quranology. Retrieved from https://quranology.wordpress.com/introduction/an-explanation-of-the-sections-of-quranology/.

[10] Peru, F.A. (2015). How I arrived Here. Retrieved from https://quranology.wordpress.com/introduction/this-blog/.

[11] Qur’an. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Quran.

[12] Muhammad. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Muhammad.

[13] Adam and Eve. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Adam-and-Eve-biblical-literary-figures.

[14] Noah. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Noah.

[15] Abraham. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Abraham.

[16] Moses. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Moses-Hebrew-prophet.

[17] Solomon. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Solomon.

[18] Jesus Christ. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesus-Christ.

[19] In eschatology (2015):

…the doctrine of the last things. It was originally a Western term, referring to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim beliefs about the end of history, the resurrectionof the dead, the Last Judgment, the messianic era, and the problem of theodicy (the vindication of God’s justice). Historians of religion have applied the term to similar themes and concepts in the religions of nonliterate peoples, ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cultures, and Eastern civilizations. Eschatological archetypes also can be found in various secular liberation movements.

eschatology. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/eschatology.

[20] Appendix I: Qur’an Quotes on the Spiritual Equality of the Sexes.

[21] Vision (2015) states:

The primary vision of Quranism is none other than the vision of islam itself. The meaning of ‘islam’ when articulated by the Quran is ‘attaining peace’ and ‘peace’ here is holistic, that is to say peace in all aspects of our lives. If we think about it, all human beings seek a state of peace. We are the same in that respect and only different in how we go about seeking that peace.

What makes Quranism distinct from the other ideologies is that it seeks to extract from the Quran a philosophy which will bring the above effect. It is different from other forms of Islam in the sense that it tries to make the Quran the sole source of that philosophy whereas the others acknowledge other sources as divine sources.

Quranists seek to bring into the world a state of peace. We would like to see justice and equality in the world and an end to corruption, exploitation and oppression. We hope to do this by articulating and disseminating our understandings of the Quran so that anyone may practise those principles in however manner they choose. We hope to help humanity discover the earthly garden.

Our secondary vision is to have Quranism recognised as a legitimate form of Islam. At present, Quranism is seen as either heretical or worse still, totally irrelevant to Islamic discourse. Quranists, we believe, have a legitimate claim to be recognised as a form of Islam. We will therefore promote Quranist Islam through our activities.

Quranists Network. (2015). Quranists Network: Vision. Retrieved from Quranists Network. (2015). Quranists Network. Retrieved from http://www.quranists.net/.

[22] Introduction (2015) states:

Quranism is a major stream in Islam along with Sunnism and Shiaism. Quranism approaches Islam in a unique way compared to the others in that it rejects or at least questions the role of Islamic Traditions. In doing so, Quranists have had to engage with the Quran through fresh eyes and have become a type of Islam which is unusual to most people. However, in recent years with the popularisation of the internet, Quranism has become very high-profile. This website hopes to promote Quranism as a form of Islam.

The Quranists Network is an associationof individuals and institutions who promote Quranism. It is not the owner of the term of Quranists or Quranism. Quranism and Quranists is a public term.

Quranists Network. (2015). Quranists Network: Introduction. Retrieved from http://www.quranists.net/sample-page/introduction/.

[23] Peru, F.A. (n.d.). Quranists and the term ‘Quranists’. Retrieved from http://www.quranists.net/2011/04/13/quranists-and-the-term-quranists/.

[24] Quranists Network. (2015). Quranists Network: Announcements. Retrieved from http://www.quranists.net/category/announcements/.

[25] Quranists Network. (2015). Quranists Network: Bookshop. Retrieved from http://www.quranists.net/bookshop/.

[26] Quranists Network. (2015). Quranists Network: Events. Retrieved from http://www.quranists.net/category/events/.

[27] Quranists Network. (2015). Quranists Network: Kindle Books. Retrieved from http://www.quranists.net/books/.

[28] Quranists Network. (2015). Quranists Network: mp3. Retrieved from http://www.quranists.net/mp3/.

[29] Quranists Network. (2015). Quranists Network. News. Retrieved from http://www.quranists.net/news/.

[30] Quranists Network. (2015). Quranists Network: QNetTV. Retrieved from http://www.quranists.net/qnettv/.

[31] Quranists Network. (2015). Quranists Network: Quranists Network Forum. Retrieved from http://www.quranists.net/forum/.

[32] Quranists Network. (2015). Quranists Network: Subscribe. Retrieved from http://www.quranists.net/subscribe/.

Appendix II: Qur’an Quotes on Male and Female Spiritual Equality

(Qurʾan 16:97) Anyone who works righteousness, male or female, while believing, we will surely grant them a happy life in this world, and we will surely pay them their full recompense (on the Day of Judgment) for their righteous works.”
(Qurʾan 4:124) As for those who lead a righteous life, male or female, while believing, they enter Paradise; without the slightest injustice.”
(Qurʾan 33:35) The submitting men, the submitting women, the believing men, the believing women, the obedient men, the obedient women, the truthful men, the truthful women, the steadfast men, the steadfast women, the reverent men, the reverent women, thecharitable men, the charitable women, the fasting men, the fasting women, the chaste men, the chaste women, and the men who commemorate GOD frequently, and the commemorating women; GOD has prepared for them forgiveness and a great recompense.
(Qurʾan 40:40) Whoever commits a sin is requited for just that, and whoever works righteousness – male or female – while believing, these will enter Paradise wherein they receive provisions without any limits.
(Qurʾan 4:124) As for those who lead a righteous life, male or female, while believing, they enter Paradise; without the slightest injustice.”
(Qurʾan 49:13) O people, we created you from the same male and female, and rendered you distinct peoples and tribes, that you may recognize one another. The best among you in the sight of GOD is the most righteous. GOD is Omniscient, Cognizant.”
(Qurʾan 3:195) “Their Lord responded to them: “I never fail to reward any worker among you for any work you do, be you male or female – you are equal to one another. Thus, those who immigrate, and get evicted from their homes, and are persecuted because of Me, and fight and get killed, I will surely remit their sins and admit them into gardens with flowing streams.” Such is the reward from GOD. GOD possesses the ultimate reward.”
(Qurʾan 3:195) “I shall not lose sight of the labor of any of you who labors in My way, be it man or woman; you proceed one from another…”
(Qurʾan 4:124) “If any do deeds of righteousness,- be they male or female – and have faith, they will enter Heaven, and not the least injustice will be done to them.”
(Qurʾan 16:97) “Whoever works righteousness, man or woman, and has Faith, verily, to him will We give a new Life, a life that is good and pure, and We will bestow on such their reward according to the best of their actions.” (Quran 16:97)
(Qurʾan 49:13) “O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Verily, the most honorable of you with God is the most pious. Verily, God is All-Knowing, All-Aware.”
(Qurʾan 2:228) “. . . Wives have the same rights as the husbands have on them in accordance with the generally known principles.”

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Associate Professor Pei Wang (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/04/15

Abstract

An Interview with Associate Professor Pei Wang. He discusses: resources from the department and position; self-summarization and its relationship to A.I.; mainstream opinion on A.I.; ultimate goal; membership in professional organizations; Non-Axiomatic Reasoning System (NARS) and its contribution to computer science; Three fundamental misconceptions of Artificial Intelligence (2007); probability of the Singularity; immortality; good and bad news for thinking beings with A.I.; powerful A.I. reflecting on human thought; social and legal structure changes with A.I.; humans replaced or combined with A.I.; remnants of humanity with long-term A.I.; other civilizations in the galaxy; constructs of these other civilizations; ‘wants’ of A.I.s; weirdest aspect of living with A.I.; things that might not become weird; possible fragmentation caused by A.I.; percent chance on an A.I. takeover; future political controversies over A.I.; personal heroes; collaborative projects; and solo projects.

Keywords: A.I., Non-Axiomatic Reasoning System, Pei Wang, Singularity.

An Interview with Associate Professor Pei Wang (Part Two)^{^{[1],[2],[3],[4]}}

*Please see the footnotes throughout the interview, and bibliography and citation style listing after the interview.*

31. Now, you hold an associate professorship (2008-Present) at Temple University in the department of computer and information sciences.^[5] What resources does this department and position provide for research into cognitive science and computer science?

I joined this department in 2001 after Webmind bankrupted, mostly because my home was at Philadelphia, so a local job made things easier. In these years my title changed a few times, though the position has been non-tenure track and teaching-oriented. Officially my current full title is “Associate Professor (Teaching/Instructional)”, which means my duty is full-time teaching, and there is little resource provided to my research, though in these years the department has been supportive to my research

32. You self-summarize, as follows:

My research goal is to build a thinking machine (also known as “artificial general intelligence” or “human-level artificial intelligence”). The approach I take is to design and implement a reasoning system, which unifies various cognitive facilities, such as reasoning, learning, categorizing, planning, problem-solving, decision-making, etc. The current achievements of this project can be found at http://nars.wang.googlepages.com/

Specialties: Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science in general, and especially on
* foundation of intelligence,
* reasoning under uncertainty,
* learning and adaptation,
* knowledge representation,
* decision making under time pressure.^[6]

A.I. research studies the ability of a digital computer to perform tasks associated with intelligent beings. Cognitive science studies the mind and its processes. How does A.I. and cognitive science research relate to “foundation of intelligence,” “reasoning under uncertainty,” “learning and adaptation,” “knowledge representation,” and “decision making under time pressure”?

Though it is intuitive to identify “intelligence” as the ability to solve certain problems, in my opinion such an understanding fails to reveal the fundamental difference between the human mind and the conventional computer systems.

One consequence of this understanding of intelligence is that it suggests a “divide-and-conquer” strategy in A.I. research, which is responsible for the fragmentation of the field. For instance, “reasoning”, “learning”, “planning”, “decision making”, “natural language understanding”, and so on, have been traditionally treated as separated tasks to be performed using different theories and techniques, while in the human mind they may actually be different aspects of the same underlying process.

Another consequence is that “the problems solved by intelligent beings” is too broad and vague a notion. For instance, before computer was invented, only the human mind could carry out arithmetic operations on arbitrary numbers. If this task were also associated with intelligence, then a pocket calculator would be considered as an intelligent system. Since all these tasks are carried out by very different methods, it is difficult to find a common theoretical foundation on how intelligence works.

To resolve these issues, I define “intelligence” as “the ability of adaptation under insufficient knowledge and resources”, which is an attempt to provide a unified foundation for A.I., as well as to interpret various cognitive processes, such as reasoning, learning, decision making, etc., in a consistent manner.

Since the aim of my theory is not only to guide the development of A.I., but also to explain how human thinking works, it is a theory of cognitive science, too. However, since currently this field is dominated by cognitive psychology, where the focus are humans, not machines, my work is also out of the mainstream, since my model does not intend to describe the human mind in details, but to capture its basic principles. I do not think an A.I. will be identical to the human mind in all details.

33. What characterizes the “mainstream” opinion in A.I.?

To me, the mainstream A.I. is characterized by two opinions:

“Intelligence” is the ability to solve certain problems that are solvable by the human mind.
The problems associated with intelligence can be solved in the same way as how computers are traditionally used in problem solving.

34. What remains the ultimate goal with these convergent, and unified, interests in research?

The objective of my research is to get three results altogether: (1) a theory of intelligence, cognition, and mind (which are more or less the same thing in this context) in general, in the sense that it is not only applicable to humans, (2) a formal model of the theory, with all the details accurately specified, and (3) a computer implementation of the model, as a general-purpose thinking machine that is comparable to, though not identical with, the human mind in all major aspects.

35. You remain a member in the Artificial General Intelligence Society, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and Cognitive Science Society.^[7]What does membership in these organizations – society and association, respectively – provide for you?

I was one of the founders of the field of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and it is the community I am mostly associated with. At the same time, I am still related to the mainstream A.I. community (represented by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence) and the cognitive science community (represented by the Cognitive Science Society), mainly to keep track of their progress and trends.

36. You have involvement in the Non-Axiomatic Reasoning System (NARS) or the “general-purpose reasoning system.”^[8] You have described the ability of NARS to learn from experience based on insufficiency in both resources and knowledge.^[9] Its purpose is to reproduce cognitive faculties too. All research intersects on “a theory of intelligence,a formal model of the theory, and a computer implementation of the model.”^[10] How does NARS contribute to the discipline of computer science and some researchers’ dreams of the development and foundation of artificial general intelligence?

NARS aims to become the “logic core” of intelligent systems that must handle questions and goals that are beyond their current capability in terms of knowledge and time-space resources. It will directly contribute to artificial intelligence and cognitive science, while also have impact on computer science and many other disciplines.

37. Three fundamental misconceptions of Artificial Intelligence (2007) described the nature of artificial intelligence in prominent conceptualizations, which remain wrong, and provides the correctives to these mis-conceptions.^[11] These mis-conceptions relate to an A.I. identification with “an axiomatic system, a Turing machine, or a system with a model-theoretic semantics.”^[12]

Even though, as the paper notes, the functional utility in these three core notions for A.I. systems, these three attract legitimate criticisms from individuals external to the discipline of artificial intelligence research and create problems for the field itself. In addition to these points of critique and response, the paper introduces a hypothetical, and example, intelligent system entitled NARS. NARS does not use any of the three previous core notions in the discipline of artificial intelligence research. Nonetheless, it provides the theoretical bases for its implementation – in spite of this common triplet rejection – in a standard digital computer, an “ordinary computer.”^[13]

38. All of these conceptualizations, wrong ones by the paper’s analysis, derives from the treatment of empirical reasoning as mathematical reasoning in numerous instances. Nonetheless, what solutions does NARS bring to bear on the problem of the construction of a digital architecture capable of artificially and generally intelligent operations?

The solution proposed in NARS consists of several levels.

At the conceptual and philosophical level, it is the idea that A.I. is not computer science extended, but a separate discipline with its own fundamental assumptions. Roughly speaking, computer science is about how to solve problems with sufficient knowledge and resources, that is, it is the designer of the system who solves the problems, and the computer simply repeats the solution on each instance of the problem; artificial intelligence, on the contrary, should be about how to solve problems with insufficient knowledge and resources, that is, the system is not given all the relevant knowledge for the problems, and nor can the system afford the processing time and memory space to exhaustively try every possible solution, but has to learn to solve the problems on its own.

At the technical level, I formulated a new logic, called “Non-Axiomatic Logic”, to accurately specify the working process of a system that has to work with insufficient knowledge and resources. Concretely speaking, it answers questions like “If there is no way to get an answer that is absolutely correct, which answer is the best?” and “If it is impossible to consider all relevant knowledge when solving a problem, which knowledge should be considered?”, and so on.

39. What seems like the probability of the Singularity?

If “singularity” indicates a time after that A.I. becomes completely incomprehensible, I do not think it will ever happen at all. I believe A.I. can be built to follow the same principles and mechanisms as human intelligence, and it will show all kinds of cognitive functions and capabilities. In applications, A.I. will do many things better than us. However, this can be achieved exactly because we understand how “intelligence” and “cognition” work, so A.I. will be comprehensible in principle, even though we probably will not be able to exactly predict or explain the details in the behavior of an A.I. Actually we often cannot do that already for an ordinary (unintelligence) computer.

Unlike Ray Kurzweil and many other people, I do not see A.I. systems as conventional computer systems with stronger and stronger problem-solving power. Instead, I see it as a different type of computer systems, whose problem-solving power will indeed increase unbounded, but its governing principles (which is where “intelligence” is) remains more or less the same. In the current discussion about A.I., one fundamental confusion is between these two levels of capability. For example, are the present-time scholars “more intelligent” than those lived in the ancient Greek, like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle? We surely have much higher problem-solving ability, but to me, our “intelligence” is more or less the same as them, which is not about “what one can do”, but “what one can learn”. In this way, future A.I. may be like human beings of future generations – more capable, but remains comprehensible to us, at least in principle.

40. Does immortality as argued by Dr. Ray Kurzweil seem reasonable – even with an extended timeline – to you?

No. I have not seen a convincing argument on this topic yet.

41. As we figure out A.I., what good and bad news will it have for us as thinking beings?

Like any major technical breakthrough in history, A.I. will be both an opportunity and a challenge at the same time. For pure intellectual considerations, the good news will be that we have reached a major milestone in the understanding of how “thinking” works, while the bad news is that we will lose our monopoly on this ability, and have to deal with the undesired consequences.

42. Will powerful A.I. show us that human thinking is sloppy and threadbare?

Probably not, since many negative aspects of human thinking are inevitable in all intelligent systems, so we will see them in A.I., too. For example, “forgetting” is often taken as a defect of the human mind, but according to my theory, it is a phenomenon that is certain to occur in an adaptive system working with insufficient knowledge and resources. A.I. will make all kinds of human-like errors.

43. How will social and legal structures change to accommodate non-human beings that are as smart as or smarter than humans?

We will not know for sure until we are close to our objective in this research, so now is too early to speculate the details, except that such changes will surely become necessary.

44. Will humans be replaced by or combine with A.I.?

I do not believe humans will be replaced by A.I. At least I have not seen any argument for that possibility that is not based on a misconception of A.I. It is certainly possible to “combine” human and A.I. in various ways. It is just like some people already cannot live without their cellphones.

45. What remnants will exist of humanity in the long-term if A.I. pans out?

Since human beings will continue to exist after A.I. has been achieved, there is no “remnants” to talk about.

46. Do you think there are other civilizations in our galaxy?

I think that is a valid possibility.

47. What constructs might these civilizations produce for themselves?

I have no idea.

48. What will A.I.s ‘want’ in the future?

I discussed this topic in my AGI-12 paper (Motivation Management in AGI Systems) in detail.^[14] Roughly speaking, an A.I.’s initial goals or motivations are specified by humans (designers or users), then some derived goals are generated from them and the system’s knowledge, which wholly or partly comes from the system’s experience. Therefore, what an A.I. wants will be determined both by its nature and its nurture, but not by either of the two alone. Furthermore, in deciding what action to take, the system will usually consider all active goals, rather than any single one of them, even the initial one.

A common misconception about the motivation/goal of A.I. is to assume that the system’s actions will all be fully decided by a single initial goal, as exemplified by Bostrom’s “paperclip maximizer”. A truly intelligent system will not do that.

49. What will be the weirdest aspect of living with A.I.?

I do not know that yet.

50. What things might not become weird?

Most of them.

51. Will A.I. put pressure on society to fragment into those collectives which embrace A.I. and avoid A.I.?

That may happen, if the situation is not properly handled by politicians and scientists, though I do not see it as an inevitable scenario.

52. What percent would you assign to the risk of an A.I. takeover?

It depends on the definition of “A.I. takeover”. I do not believe it is possible for A.I. to completely take over the world, though it will surely take over certain aspects of our life, such as a large part of traffic control.

53. Will future political controversies over A.I. become as heated as the current enflamed political scene in The United States of America?

I hope not, and will try to avoid that scenario, though cannot guarantee that it cannot happen.

54. When will we elect the first A.I.-augmented politician?

Again, it depends on how “A.I.-augmented” is defined. When a politician depends on computer in decision making, I do not think it is too different if the function is provided by an implant chip or a smartphone.

55. What personal heroes exist in history, in the present, and who most influenced you?

None too special to be singled out.

56. Any upcoming collaborative projects?

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (of NASA and Caltech) is cooperating with my team to apply my results into their system.

57. Any upcoming solo projects?

Nothing major planned, as my current research has already taken all of my time.

Thank you for your time, Professor Wang.

Bibliography

Artificial General Intelligence Society. (2015). Artificial General Intelligence Society. Retrieved from http://www.agi-society.org/.
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2015). Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/.
Indiana University. (2015). Indiana University. Retrieved from http://www.iu.edu/.
LinkedIn. (2015). Pei Wang. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/in/pei-wang-3a46241.
Pei, W. (2007). Three fundamental misconceptions of Artificial Intelligence.Journal Of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, 19(3), 249-268. doi:10.1080/09528130601143109
Peking University. (2015). Peking University. Retrieved from http://english.pku.edu.cn/.
Wang, P. (2015). Dr. Pei Wang. Retrieved from http://cis-linux1.temple.edu/~pwang/.
Wang, P. (2012). Motivation Management in AGI Systems. Retrieved from http://cis-linux1.temple.edu/~pwang/Publication/motivation.pdf.
Wang, P. (2015). NARS: an AGI Project. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/narswang/.
WANG P. PROBLEM SOLVING WITH INSUFFICIENT RESOURCES.International Journal Of Uncertainty, Fuzziness & Knowledge-Based Systems [serial online]. October 2004;12(5):673-700. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed December 3, 2015.

Appendix I: Footnote

[1] Associate Professor (2008-Present), Temple University; Director of Research (2000, January-2001, April), Webmind Inc.

[2] Individual Publication Date: April 15, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com; Full Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

[3] Ph.D. (1991, September-1995, December), Computer Science and Cognitive Science, Indiana University; M.S. (1983-1986), Computer Science, Peking University; B.S. (1979-1983), Computer Science, Peking University.

[4] Photograph courtesy of Associate Professor Pei Wang.

[5] Please see Wang, P. (2015). Dr. Pei Wang. Retrieved from http://cis-linux1.temple.edu/~pwang/.

[6] Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Pei Wang. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/in/pei-wang-3a46241.

[7] Please see Artificial General Intelligence Society. (2015). Artificial General Intelligence Society. Retrieved from http://www.agi-society.org/.

[8] NARS: an AGI Project (2015) states:

NARS (Non-Axiomatic Reasoning System) is a general-purpose reasoning system, coming from my study of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cognitive Sciences (CogSci).

What makes NARS different from conventional reasoning systems is its ability to learn from its experience and to work with insufficient knowledge and resources.

NARS attempts to uniformly explain and reproduce many cognitive facilities, including reasoning, learning, planning, reacting, perceiving, categorizing, prioritizing, remembering, decision making, and so on.

The research results include a theory of intelligence, a formal model of the theory, and a computer implementation of the model.

The ultimate goal of this research is to fully understand the mind, as well as to build thinking machines. Currently this research field is often called “Artificial General Intelligence” (AGI).

Please see Wang, P. (2015). NARS: an AGI Project. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/narswang/.

[9] Please see WANG P. PROBLEM SOLVING WITH INSUFFICIENT RESOURCES. International Journal Of Uncertainty, Fuzziness & Knowledge-Based Systems [serial online]. October 2004;12(5):673-700. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed December 3, 2015.

[10] Please see Wang, P. (2015). NARS: an AGI Project. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/narswang/.

[11] Please see Pei, W. (2007). Three fundamental misconceptions of Artificial Intelligence. Journal Of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, 19(3), 249-268. doi:10.1080/0952813060114310

[12] Please see Pei, W. (2007). Three fundamental misconceptions of Artificial Intelligence. Journal Of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, 19(3), 249-268. doi:10.1080/0952813060114310

[13] Please see Pei, W. (2007). Three fundamental misconceptions of Artificial Intelligence. Journal Of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, 19(3), 249-268. doi:10.1080/09528130601143109

[14] Please see Wang, P. (2012). Motivation Management in AGI Systems. Retrieved from http://cis-linux1.temple.edu/~pwang/Publication/motivation.pdf.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Associate Professor Pei Wang (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/04/08

Abstract

An Interview with Associate Professor Pei Wang. He discusses: geographic, cultural and linguistic background; influence on development; influences and pivotal moments; origination of interest in computer science; appealing sciences in youth; interest in human intelligence; differentiation of “human thinking” from current “artificial intelligence” (A.I.); philosophical assumptions surrounding A.I. and consciousness; interest in A.I.; science fiction genre and stories of possible future possible A.I.; recommended authors; interest in the convergence of human intelligence and A.I.; tools provided by the qualifications; “Mathematical Logic” and “Operating System” influence on the “research oath”; Peking University provisions over other universities; advice to young researchers; Ph.D. under Professor Douglas Hofstadter; “Hofstadter’s “love of intellectual freedom” and the methodology’s limitations; Outstanding Dissertation Award; unique strengths of the Cognitive Science program at Indiana University; doctoral dissertation topic; law, or laws, of thought from the first milestone; the second milestone; the present status of the “laws of thought”; distinguishing traits of Professor Hofstadter; “thinker” status of Professor Hofstadter; “unique manner” of Professor Hofstadter; big lesson in personal and professional life from Professor Douglas Hofstadter; director of research at Webmind Inc. and the position’s tasks and responsibilities; and Ben Goertzel’s personality, talents and abilities, and approach to “making computers think”.

Keywords: A.I., Ben Goertzel, computers, laws of thought, Pei Wang, Douglas Hofstadter.

An Interview with Associate Professor Pei Wang (Part One)^{[1],[2],[3],[4]}

*Please see the footnotes throughout the interview, and bibliography and citation style listing after the interview.*

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside?

I am a Chinese in all these aspects.

2. How did this influence development?

I came to the USA when I was already 33 years old, so my Chinese background remains dominant in my life.

3. What about influences and pivotal moments in major cross-sections of early life including kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school, high school, and undergraduate studies (college/university)?

That period can be roughly divided into two parts. Before entering into Peking University as an undergraduate student in 1979, my beliefs were strongly shaped by the “Cultural Revolution”, which means I believed in all the “truths” told to me. I began to form my own opinions in all domains (political, scientific, personal, etc.) in the early 1980s in Peking University, so those are the defining years of my life.

4. Where did interest in computer science in general originate for you?

As a child, I had an interest in science. Later, that interest gradually focused on electrical devices, then further on computers when I selected computer science as a major.

5. As a child, what science appealed the most to you – for the transition into electrical devices and computer science?

Mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

6. What about interest in human intelligence in particular?

I was curious about how humans think a long time ago, but my study on this topic only began in my college years, driven by my interest in artificial intelligence.

7. What differentiates “human thinking” from current “artificial intelligence” (A.I.)?

The current mainstream A.I. aims at solving practical problems, and does not pay much attention to the principles governing the human thinking process.

8. What philosophical assumptions appear to have tacit assertion in conversation, discussions, media representations, and publications in the possibility for A.I. having consciousness?

One major assumption is that consciousness is something outside the cognitive processes, is something “additional”.

9. What about interest in A.I.?^[5]

As a long-term fan of science fiction, I was exposed to the notion of A.I. many years ago before I decided to pursue it as a career. The possibility of building a thinking machine, especially the first one that “really thinks”, is too strong an attraction compared to all the other career opportunities that have been opened to me. It remains true even after I found my conception of A.I. is fundamentally different from the mainstream, including the cited definition of Encyclopædia Britannica.

10. What science fiction genre and stories portray possible future A.I. in an entertaining and accurate way?

Asimov’s stories and novels on robotics and Kubrick’s movie “2001: The space odyssey” are among the classics that are both insightful and entertaining, though I won’t call any of them “accurate”.

11. Any recommended authors?

Beside Isaac Asimov, I want to recommend “The Mind’s I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self & Soul” by Daniel Dennett and Douglas Hofstadter.

12. What about interest in the convergence of human intelligence and A.I.?

In terms of application, I am sure in the future we will witness a convergence of human intelligence and A.I. as the best way to solve many problems, and I look forward to it. However, my current research is not directly oriented or driven by this vision. Instead, it is about how to build an A.I. that is fully autonomous, that is, it does not depend on human intervention, though can still be influenced, or even controlled, by human beings.

13. You earned a B.S. (1979-1983) in Computer Science from Peking University, M.S. (1983-1986) in Computer Science from Peking University, and a Ph.D. (1991, September-1995, December) in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from Indiana University.^[6]^,[7] Based on the interest in human intelligence and artificial intelligence, and their correspondence with computer science and cognitive science, respectively, what tools did these qualifications provide for research into the convergence of these areas?

These two universities gave me experiences that are very different, and even complementary in a sense.

As mentioned above, Peking University taught me to think using my own mind, as well as providing me a solid foundation in computer science and mathematics, among other knowledge. However, in my college years, A.I. was not even in the curriculums of Chinese universities – it was very new, so there was few faculty doing it. “Cognitive science” was mostly unheard of, though I managed to audit a cognitive psychology course in the psychology department. The courses that have the strongest influence to my research path are “Mathematical Logic” and “Operating System”.

On the other hand, Indiana University has one of the best Cognitive Science Programs in the world, which is truly interdisciplinary. Through this training, I learned how to approach a problem from different perspective, as well as how to combine the knowledge from different backgrounds and traditions.

14. How did “Mathematical Logic” and “Operating System” influence this personal, long-term, and in-depth “research path”?

Influenced by my study of mathematical logic, my approach toward A.I. is to summarize the “laws of thought” observed in the human mind into a “formal logic” to govern the problem solving in a computer system. Operating system, on the other hand, includes ideas about how to let a computer to manage its own resources, such as processor time and storage space.

15. What experience did Peking University seem to provide at the time compared to other possible universities for your B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer science?

The most important lesson I learned from Peking University is that I should study the very fundamental problems in a domain, and that it is OK to challenge authority if I have enough reason to do so.

16. “I should study the very fundamental problems in a domain” seems like good advice to young researchers. Any further comments on it?

Young researchers are often told that they should “start with small problems, then gradually move to big problems”. For example, if you want to study A.I., you should accept the existing opinion on what intelligence is and how it should be achieved, and try to make progress on the path most people are taking. This advice of course makes a lot of sense, but it also has the effect that after following other people’s steps, your ideas are restricted by the traditional assumptions whose validity has not been carefully checked.

On the contrary, the students of Peking University has the tradition of attacking the “big problems” in a domain at the very beginning, without depending on the tradition. In my case, I began my work by considering how “intelligence” should be understood in this context and what the most promising approach toward it is, instead of accepting the majority opinions on these issues as my starting point.

17. What about Indiana University for the PhD under Professor Douglas Hofstadter in Computer Science and Cognitive Science?

The most important influence I got from Indiana University, especially from Professor Douglas Hofstadter, is the love of intellectual freedom, that is, a researcher should pursue research topics according to personal passion, rather than to pragmatic considerations such as funding opportunity, career path, etc.

18. Does Professor Hofstadter’s “love of intellectual freedom” have limitations in its methodology, or philosophical considerations – something which limits absolute consideration of intellectual subjects outside standard limitations of time, monetary resources, and talent and ability?

Of course, each methodology has its strength and weakness. If intellectual freedom is stressed too much, the results are often unrealistic or unpractical. For the health of a research community, it is necessary to have different types of researchers.

19. You earned the Outstanding Dissertation Award in the Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University in March, 1996.^[8] What does this award mean to you?

It means a lot. Unlike most PhD dissertations, including most of them from Hofstadter’s group, my dissertation topic and most of the main ideas in it had been formed before I became a PhD student – I had worked on those ideas for about 8 years in China. Professor Hofstadter did not fully agree with me on those ideas – he considered some of them brilliant, though did have deep doubts about some others. Even so, he gave me full support to pursue those ideas. I was very happy when I saw that my dissertation not only got his approval, but also the acknowledgement of the prestigious program.

20. What unique strengths come from the Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University compared to others before 1996 and after it into the present?

Cognitive Science is handled very differently in different universities over the world. One extreme is to have a “Cognitive Science Department”, just like other traditional departments. Another extreme is to take it as a cooperation of several departments by allowing the students to enroll in courses offered by the other disciplines. The Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University is somewhere in between. It is still a cooperation of the participated departments, though the Program offers courses specially designed for students with different backgrounds. Also, the faculty members from different disciplines have close relationship in their research.

21. What was your doctoral dissertation research topic?

It is the same topic that I’ve devoted my whole career to, that is, to find the “laws of thought” for all forms of intelligence, including human and A.I., and then to build computer systems accordingly. My first milestone in this research was my Master Thesis finished in Peking University in 1986, and my doctoral dissertation in 1995 was the second major milestone.

22. Your “first milestone” and “second major milestone” represent the discovery of aspects of the “laws of thought.” What law, or laws, of thought emerged from the first milestone?

In my Master Thesis I defined “intelligence” as the ability of adaptation with insufficient knowledge and resources, and designed a very simple reasoning system to achieve this possibility. The system was primitive, though it shows the possibility of taking such an approach.

23. What about the second milestone?

My doctoral dissertation includes a much more powerful system, with detailed discussions of the related issues and ideas.

24. Where do the “laws of thought” stand now?

I published two monographs and many papers, and turned the system into an open source project. Most of the materials on this project can be accessed at the project’s homepage at https://sites.google.com/site/narswang/home.

25. What distinguished Professor Hofstadter from other researchers?

He is more of a “thinker” in the original sense than a “researcher” in the current academic world. His works are completely driven by his personal interest, while most other researchers are more and more driven by funding, promotion, peer pressure, etc. Though he has been a legend in the field for decades, he does not really belong to the research community of either A.I. or cognitive science, but has been doing everything in his own unique manner.

26. Two things ‘stand out’ to me. One, his “thinker” status; two, his “unique manner.” What defines this Professor Hofstadter as a thinker?

His attention is always on conceptual problems he considered as interesting and essential, rather than on technical details.

27. What characterizes Professor Hofstadter’s unique manner, or methodology for problem solving and creativity?

He relates many problems to each other, rather than follows the common practice of focusing on narrowly specified problems in a limited domain and described using special jargons.

28. What big lesson in personal and professional life stuck with you through the supervision of Professor Douglas Hofstadter?

His passion for pure intellectual pleasures.

29. You were director of research at Webmind Inc. from January, 2000 to April, 2001. What tasks and responsibilities came with this position?

I joined the company in April 1998 (when its name was IntelliGenesis) as its first paid employee. I was attracted to it by an opening announcement requiring for “a passion for making computers think”. Then I met the founder of the company, Ben Goertzel, and immediately started our collaborator-and-competitor relationship, which has lasted until the present. From 1998 to 2001, my title in the company had changed a few times, while my responsibility remained more or less the same, that is, to combine my research results into the company’s software, as well as to contribute to the conceptual designs of the software on other topics.

30. What defines Goertzel’s personality, talents and abilities, and approach to the “making computers think” to you?

He is a very smart person, and learns new ideas quickly. He considers “intelligence” as the ability to “solve complex problems in complex environments”, and attempts to build A.I. by integrating many techniques together into a single system.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Associate Professor (2008-Present), Temple University; Director of Research (2000, January-2001, April), Webmind Inc.

[2] Individual Publication Date: April 8, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/an-interview-with-associate-professor-pei-wang-part-one; Full Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues.

[3] Ph.D. (1991, September-1995, December), Computer Science and Cognitive Science, Indiana University; MS (1983-1986), Computer Science, Peking University; B.S. (1979-1983), Computer Science, Peking University.

[4] Photograph courtesy of Associate Professor Pei Wang.

[5] artificial intelligence (2015) states:

Artificial intelligence (AI), the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing systems endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience. Since the development of the digital computer in the 1940s, it has been demonstrated that computers can be programmed to carry out very complex tasks—as, for example, discovering proofs for mathematical theorems or playing chess—with great proficiency. Still, despite continuing advances in computer processing speed and memory capacity, there are as yet no programs that can match human flexibility over wider domains or in tasks requiring much everyday knowledge. On the other hand, some programs have attained the performance levels of human experts and professionals in performing certain specific tasks, so that artificial intelligence in this limited sense is found in applications as diverse as medical diagnosis, computer search engines, and voice or handwriting recognition.

Please see artificial intelligence (AI). (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/technology/artificial-intelligence.

[6] Please see Peking University. (2015). Peking University. Retrieved from http://english.pku.edu.cn/.

[7] Please see Indiana University. (2015). Indiana University. Retrieved from http://www.iu.edu/.

[8] Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Pei Wang. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/in/pei-wang-3a46241.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Dr. Katie Gibbs

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/04/01

Abstract

An interview with Dr. Katie Gibbs. She discusses: background in science; self-definition as a “scientist, organizer, and advocate for science and evidence-based policies”; social and political campaigning; tasks and responsibilities as the executive director for Evidence for Democracy; public scientific organizations with the intent to inform public policy personal importance; organization for the “Death of Evidence” rally; professional research background influence on work at E4D; purposes of E4D; core message for the public; responsibilities to the public, scientific, and public policy communities with exposure in the media as a central representative of E4D; observed impacts of E4D on policy and decision-making; and E4Ds near and far goals.

Keywords: Canada, Death of Evidence, Dr. Katie Gibbs, Evidence for Democracy, E4D, science.

An Interview with Dr. Katie Gibbs^[1]^,[2],[3],[4]

*Please see the footnotes throughout the interview, and bibliography and citation style listing after the interview.*

1. What is your background in science growing up and into the present?

I did my Ph.D. at the University of Ottawa in biology, but more specifically in conservation biology through looking at factors that affect endangered species. I did work on assessing legislation that aimed to protect endangered species, what aspects were working and what ones were not working.

2. You self-define as a “scientist, organizer, and advocate for science and evidence-based policies.”^[5] What does each title mean to you?

That’s a great question. The science is very much my background, my education. The thing is doing a Ph.D. in science is that it changes the way you think, even if you don’t go on to actually actively do science. You still always think like a scientist. I think there’s a lingering effect of thinking like a scientist – always being critical in a good way. Always trying to second-guess yourself, push yourself on really trying to look at evidence. The organizer, for me, that is really about organizing other people. It is about getting other people excited. For the past four years, E4D has really been to try and organize the scientific community. So, I have enjoyed work with them and letting scientists know there is nothing wrong in standing up for science. It doesn’t make you any less of a scientist. Advocate, it is really similar. It is about pushing on these issues: funding for science, muzzling of government scientists, and putting them in a more political way.

3. Your background extends into social and political campaigning.^[6] What kind of social and political campaigning?

Actually, I did most of my organizing and political background in volunteering for the Green party for many years. While I was doing my Ph.D., I did a lot of volunteering. I was the co-chair of the first youth wing of the Green Party. A lot of work building the youth wing of the party for many years. I was the President of my local riding association in Ottawa, and in the 2011 election, I took a break from my studies and worked in the central Green Party office in Ottawa in attempting to get Elizabeth May elected.

4. You founded Evidence for Democracy (E4D).^[7] You are its Executive Director. What responsibilities and tasks come with this position?

Pretty much everything, when you’re the Executive Director of a small organization, you end up with a lot on your plate, and a big diversity in the things that you do. There are the things that you’d expect such as doing media interviews, travelling and giving talks around the country – both things I enjoy. Monitoring communication, making sure that the tone of everything that goes out fits with our work. Emails that go to our supporters, what goes into social media, when we put out op-eds and having a hand in crafting those. Other things include fundraising, administration stuff such as bookkeeping and governance are all in order, organizing board meetings, and all of that stuff.

5. Why are public scientific organizations with the intent to inform public policy important to you?

Part of what happens during my Ph.D. was that I was very interested in science for the sake of informing policy, and grew more frustrated that most science is never used, much less even seen by policy makers; I always found that very frustrating. We have all of these crisis issues facing humanity, and I think that science and evidence, and research, is really our best way to find solutions to those problems. We have the research. The science is already done, but the policy makers do not actually use it. That seems very frustrating to me. I was interested in forming an organization that really was pushing for the role of science and evidence in public policy-making.

6. As a Ph.D. student, you were one of the lead organizers for the “Death of Evidence” rally.^[8] What took place there?

We had a mock funeral procession to commemorate the Death of Evidence in Canada. It was in response to a number of recent bills in motion that the Conservative government put through that really cut science funding and closed some really important science institutions and changed a bunch of pieces of science legislation. The science community was quite outraged over this. We want to demonstrate that outrage in a public and visible way. We had a mock funeral where we walked through downtown Ottawa from starting near campus here down to Parliament. Then, we had a bunch of speakers on the hill. It was a huge success. We were expecting a few hundred people. We ended up getting a few thousand.

7. In addition, on the Ph.D. front, how does this professional research background assist in work at E4D?

I think a lot of what we’re asking for is science. I would not have this same passion for science and its essential role if I didn’t have that science background. That instilled the value and appreciation for science in me. I think there is bit of a credibility factor there too. I work a lot on science issues. I do have that background and with the Ph.D. after my name that it shows I do know the science and do know what I’m talking about. It really influences the way that I think. I think that sometimes we’re more rigorous in some ways than other non-profit organizations and that because through a science base we have to be so, so, careful that everything we put out is based on facts and that we have the evidence to back up what we’re saying. That really comes from having a science background as well.

8. What are the purposes of E4D?

We are trying to create the public and political demand for evidence-based decision-making. We’re trying to mobilize the scientific community, get people who aren’t scientists to understand why these issues are important, and then try to harness and mobilize that support into political action.

9. You have been featured in numerous media outlets such as CBC, The Globe and Mail, The Hill Times, and the National Post, and others.^[9]^{,[10],[11],[12],[13],[14],[15],[16],[17]} What core message do you wish to get to the public?

(Laughs) It’s kind of hard to boil down to one key message. The key message is recognizing and appreciating that science is one of the strongest forces in our lives. It is science that keeps our food supply, our drinking water, safe. It is science that develops new medicines that your doctor can prescribe to you. It is science that creates the new technology including powering your smart phone. A lot of it is behind the scenes.

10. What responsibilities to the public, scientific, and public policy communities comes with this exposure as the central representative of E4D?

I think part of it is being really clear when I’m representing E4D and when I’m giving my personal opinion on something. It is about us making sure our work is evidence-based. That is really something that is a core value of ours.

11. What have been the observed impacts of E4D on policy and decision-making?

I think the biggest thing is looking at the last election period and, normally, there is almost no discussion of science during the election period. The biggest thing we were trying to impact during this last election was to influence the conversation and try to get Canadians and Candidates and the party leaders talking about science. I think we were hugely successful at that. We saw almost every outlet covering science issues. We saw so many candidates tweeting about science, mentioning science in the debates. We saw people going to the local debates and talking about science. We were really able to influence the conversation around the election. The policy changes we’re really going to see those with the new government. Part of the work that we did before the election was really trying to push for the parties to include some of our recommendations in their platforms, and the Liberals did take our recommendations, and made them part of their election promises.

12. What are its near and far goals?

The near goals are continuing our work at the federal government level, working to get a new communication policy that makes it clear that scientists can talk to the public and the media, and making sure that the long-form census gets re-instated, working with the government to create a Chief Science Officer position. Those are all of the short-term goals. I think the long-term goals are more about shifting the culture in Canada to one that values science and its role in public policy in our democracy.

Thank you for your time, Dr. Gibbs.

Bibliography

[Parkland Institute]. (2013, December 13). No Science, No Evidence, No Truth, No Democracy – Katie Gibbs. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtnkVpL10tM.
[Science for the People]. (n.d.). SCIENCE AND THE CANADIAN FEDERAL ELECTION #338. Retrieved from http://www.scienceforthepeople.ca/episodes/science-and-the-canadian-federal-election.
[Voices-Voix]. (2016, April 1). Katie Gibbs – Silencing dissent in Canada 3/10. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_S2bBkp9Qo.
Belliott, E. (2015, November 22). Ottawa residents shortlisted for Everyday Political Citizen of the Year. Retrieved from http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ottawa-residents-shortlisted-for-everyday-political-citizen-of-the-year.
(2015, May 19). Federal gov’t accused of muzzling Canadian scientists. Retrieved from http://canadaam.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=616173&playlistId=1.2379962&binId=1.815911&playlistPageNum=1&binPageNum=1.
Davison, J. (2012, July 9). UPDATED Scientists rally on Parliament Hill to mourn ‘death of evidence’. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/scientists-rally-on-parliament-hill-to-mourn-death-of-evidence-1.1237215.
Death of Evidence. (2016). Death of Evidence. Retrieved from http://www.deathofevidence.ca/.
Evidence for Democracy. (2015). Evidence for Democracy. Retrieved from https://evidencefordemocracy.ca/.
Gibbs, K.,Houben, A., Hutchings,, Mooers, A., Trudeau V.L., & Orihel, D. (2012, July).
‘The Death of Evidence’ in Canada: Scientists’ Own Words. Retrieved from http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/07/16/Death-of-Evidence/.
Gibbs, K. & Westwood, A. (2015, August 25). We need a national debate on science. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/08/12/we-need-a-national-debate-on-science.html.
(2016). Katie Gibbs. Retrieved from https://ca.linkedin.com/in/katie-gibbs-30997917.
Sementiuk, I. (2015, October 9). Scientist urges straight talk on research ahead of federal vote. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/scientist-urges-straight-talk-on-research-ahead-of-federal-vote/article26764369/.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Executive Director, Evidence for Democracy.

[2] Individual Publication Date: April 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com; Full Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

[3] PhD, University of Ottawa.

[4] Photographs courtesy of Dr. Katie Gibbs.

[5] Evidence for Democracy. (2015). Katie Gibbs. Retrieved from https://evidencefordemocracy.ca/en/users/katie-gibbs.

[6] LinkedIn. (2016). Katie Gibbs. Retrieved from https://ca.linkedin.com/in/katie-gibbs-30997917.

[7] Evidence for Democracy. (2015). Evidence for Democracy. Retrieved from https://evidencefordemocracy.ca/.

[8] Death of Evidence. (2016). Death of Evidence. Retrieved from http://www.deathofevidence.ca/.

[9] [Voices-Voix]. (2016, April 1). Katie Gibbs – Silencing dissent in Canada 3/10. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_S2bBkp9Qo.

[10] Gibbs, K. & Westwood, A. (2015, August 25). We need a national debate on science. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/08/12/we-need-a-national-debate-on-science.html.

[11] Davison, J. (2012, July 9). UPDATED Scientists rally on Parliament Hill to mourn ‘death of evidence’. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/scientists-rally-on-parliament-hill-to-mourn-death-of-evidence-1.1237215.

[12] [Parkland Institute]. (2013, December 13). No Science, No Evidence, No Truth, No Democracy – Katie Gibbs. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtnkVpL10tM.

[13] Sementiuk, I. (2015, October 9). Scientist urges straight talk on research ahead of federal vote. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/scientist-urges-straight-talk-on-research-ahead-of-federal-vote/article26764369/.

[14] Belliott, E. (2015, November 22). Ottawa residents shortlisted for Everyday Political Citizen of the Year. Retrieved from http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ottawa-residents-shortlisted-for-everyday-political-citizen-of-the-year.

[15] [Science for the People]. (n.d.). SCIENCE AND THE CANADIAN FEDERAL ELECTION #338. Retrieved from http://www.scienceforthepeople.ca/episodes/science-and-the-canadian-federal-election.

[16] Gibbs, K., Houben, A., Hutchings, J., Mooers, A., Trudeau V.L., & Orihel, D. (2012, July).
‘The Death of Evidence’ in Canada: Scientists’ Own Words. Retrieved from http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/07/16/Death-of-Evidence/.

[17] CTVNews. (2015, May 19). Federal gov’t accused of muzzling Canadian scientists. Retrieved from http://canadaam.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=616173&playlistId=1.2379962&binId=1.815911&playlistPageNum=1&binPageNum=1.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Alana Westwood

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/03/22

Abstract

An interview with Alana Westwood. She discusses: background in science; national research coordinator position for Evidence for Democracy, and its tasks and responsibilities; importance of public scientific organizations; research informing professional work; purposes of Evidence for Democracy; summary statement on published articles; hypothetical worst case scenario for Canadian citizens without accurate scientific information; hypothetical best case scenario for Canadian citizens without accurate scientific information; technological assistance in prevention of animal extinction; Canada becoming the next great nation in the middle and latter half of the twentieth century; observed impacts of E4D on policy and decision-making; and E4Ds near and far goals.

Keywords: Alana Westwood, Canada, E4D, Evidence for Democracy, science.

An Interview with Alana Westwood^{[1],[2],[3],[4]}

*Please see the footnotes throughout the interview, and bibliography and citation style listing after the interview.*

1. What is your background in science growing up and into the present?

In terms of science formal training, I have an undergraduate degree in science from the University of Winnipeg. As well, I am almost finished my PhD at the University of Dalhousie department of biology in conservation biology with a focus on endangered species research. Informally, I’ve been doing science and science-related field work for over ten years now. It started as a young teenager: my summer job was counting mosquitoes, taking them out of traps, and sorting them into a genus. It’s been a long experience with hands-on field-based science, particularly in conservation biology and the study of the environment.

2. You have the position of national research coordinator for Evidence for Democracy (E4D).^[5]What responsibilities and tasks come with this position?

E4D is an organization that has been around for over two years. We are a young organization. We have four staff members and hundreds of volunteers. My position involves administration and development for the research program, and work with volunteers. We have volunteers leading research projects. Each has volunteers to work on these projects. Other projects are led by me. E4D is small. Even so, I write, work with media, and so on.

3. Why are public scientific organizations with the intent to inform public policy important to you?

It is a needed voice. An unheard voice in Canada. Scientists, those involved in science, have a training, expertise, and unique perspectives and insights – not to mention the opportunities to discover more. Before E4D, no cohesive voice existed for scientists and science in Canada. We need a healthy environment, healthy population, good science, good support for science, and good evidence-based decision-making for an innovative nation. We had a vacuum before. There were fringe organizations. No one on the national stage said, “We need public policies backed by evidence-based decision-making.” There is a huge demand for this. We see this as supporters and volunteers. They come from every unlikely place, politically and occupationally.

4. You are a PhD candidate on avian species at risk in forest landscapes at Dalhousie University under the supervision of Dr. Cindy Staicer. You have four refereed publications in relation to biology, ecology, and geo-informatics. Therefore, you have developed the relevant professional skills and knowledge for professional work in Evidence for Democracy. How does this research inform professional work at Evidence for Democracy?

You need to understand science to be an advocate and voice for science. You need to understand collection, dissemination, researcher collaboration, basic research consequences into areas of innovation, and monitoring and baseline characterizations for understanding the next steps in the research. To be honest, I never felt right in science. Other scientists seem more curious curiosity-driven and passionate for natural systems in their research, not me. I was coming from a point of view of conservation and pragmatics. I derive means of informing decision-making for practical applications. In my case, I am working with endangered species. I wanted to do research to address the declines of these species. I wanted to do a Ph.D. in science as opposed to environmental studies or philosophy. I needed to understand science. I needed to understand data gathering, data validation, and peer-review. If you do not know that information, how can you tell good science from bad science? When presented with facts, how can you evaluate conflicts of interest, even mistakes? It’s important to examine data sources and conclusions. I’ve worked with amazing scientists. I see the work, and the linkages and connections in their work. I work with federal scientists too. I have insight into their working conditions. It is something E4D is highly vocal about: wanting to change working conditions and the funding situation for federal scientists. For those reasons, especially with E4D for me, it would be impossible without the foundation in more traditional science.

5. What are the purposes of Evidence for Democracy?^[6]

To promote evidence-based decision-making at all levels of government. To advocate for scientists for access to stable funding, and to communicate their research. We serve to educate and inform the public.

6. You wrote articles such as We need a national debate on science, Stephen Harper’s Blatant Hypocrisy on Science, and The need for evidence-based policies.^[7],^[8],^[9],^[10],^[11],^{[12],[13],[14],[15]} An obvious stream of concern to do with evidence-based information innervating the world of public policy.^[16] What is the summary statement on these, and other, published articles?

I write more broadly (such as nature journalism and fiction). However, my E4D work into this previous election has been focused making sure Canadians know science is an important election issue. We have faced serious challenges to science with the past government. I want to ensure Canadians had the information necessary to their decision about support for science by the time of polling.

7. Hypothetical worst case scenario: if Canadian citizens do not have accurate science information when making decisions about public policy, how would this affect their everyday lives?

It would be hard to draw an immediate connection to a particular reduction and say, “Okay, this is the effect.” However, we would see severe indirect effects. For example, public-funded science is responsible for monitoring food safety and inspection, water quality, ocean health, and toxicology. We lost people from every department. If you do not have these checks and balances, problems will occur. When you cut science and stifle science, people think, “Okay, we’ll have less research for new discoveries.” However, a lot is maintaining the baseline, figuring out where we are, and tasks needing doing to keep people safe and healthy. It is important to ensure that the environment is not degraded to the point of inability to provide necessary ecological services.

8. Hypothetical best case scenario: if Canadian citizens do have accurate science information when making decisions about public policy, how will this affect their everyday lives?

Let’s say all governmental levels embrace evidence-based decision-making, parliamentary debate will become slow in the development of legislation. Why? Government would need to evaluate more facts and reports. We would need a Parliamentary Science Officer. The Liberals pledged to create one. Policies would receive further study with eventual implementation in solid evidence. A good example is crime. Global consensus is increasing punishment for less serious offences increases recidivism. Other countries are moving from this model. Canada ignored the evidence for the previous four years. We saw minimum sentencing move up. On the flip side, if you were to have evidence-based decision-making, you would see reduction in small crime imprisonment, and increased focus on better health outcomes and better family outcomes for offenders.

9. With respect to species at risk, for instance, bird species at risk, how can technology assist in preventing extinction of species that are risk such as various avian species?

Technology assists comprehension. For example, we utilize advanced geo-spatial mapping methods, modelling methods, to understand bird migration and habitats. All of the time we are putting geo-locator tags on birds. As the technology improves, the tags get smaller. We track migration patterns and find at-risk habitats. Technology provides an idea of the needed conservation action. Ultimately, it comes down to the political realm whether conservation efforts happen, or not. Whether land is protected from development, climate policy, and climate change is a serious factor facing multiple bird species. Evidence-based decision-making commitment becomes a necessity. Indeed, technology can support more information. Even so, one’s use of the information is equally important, if not more important. In general, for bird extinction, technology will not save them. Only we develop the better relationship with resource efficiency and utilization.

10. Could Canada become the next great nation in the middle and latter half of the twentieth century with respect to improvements in ecological and environmental science policy?

It depends on if the social and political will is there. The way that we’ve seen things go in the last ten years has been the opposite. It will remain within the direction this new majority Liberal government takes for Canada.

11. What have been the observed impacts of E4D on policy and decision-making?

One big impact is raising consciousness and awareness. Science became an election issue. We were able to mobilize hundreds of volunteers. Thousands attended events and educational evenings, candidate debates, and panels organized by E4D and partner groups over the last few years. It highlights the importance of science to citizens of Canada, evidence-based decision-making, and what this means for a democracy. Every major newspaper covered the issue. The international community is aware. It catapulted into the public, which has never been seen before in Canada, ever.

12. What are its near and far goals?

We accomplished one major goal with the recent election. We focused information for citizens to scientifically-informed election choices. Future goals include holding the majority Liberal government to their promises with respect to science, support for science, and evidence-based decision-making. We want to continue work on this at other levels – at other organizational and governmental levels, to do a lot more public education. Canadians do want evidence-based public policy decision-making.

Bibliography

[LegacyTVLive]. (2014, May 23). The Evidence for Democracy Alana Westwood (May 7 14) Host Parkland Institute. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn7bjef4rMg.
[TheRealNews]. (2015, October 22). Trudeau Pledge Tracker: Reinstating 40 Million in Science Funding and Appointing a Chief of Science. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wozj-lPhno.
Barker, N., Fontaine, P., Cumming, S., Stralberg, D.,Westwood, A., Bayne, E., Sólymos, P., Schmiegelow, F., Song, S., and Rugg, D. 2015. Ecological monitoring through harmonizing existing data: lessons from the Boreal Avian Modelling Project. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 39(3). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281343963_Ecological_Monitoring_Through_Harmonizing_Existing_Data_Lessons_from_the_Boreal_Avian_Modelling_Project.
Evidence for Democracy. (2016). Evidence for Democracy. Retrieved from https://evidencefordemocracy.ca/en.
Westwood, A. (2015, March). How to save a bird nobody likes. Retrieved from http://www.sco-soc.ca/picoides/archive/Picoides28_1_2015.pdf.
Westwood, A. (2015, November 13). Over the past 10 years this deadly fungus has nearly wiped out North America’s bats. Retrieved from http://community.lovenature.com/2015/11/13/over-the-past-10-years-this-deadly-fungus-has-nearly-wiped-out-north-americas-bats/
Westwood, A. (2014, April 8). Redefining Recovery: A New Model for Saving Species At Risk. Retrieved from http://www.alternativesjournal.ca/community/blogs/wild-side/redefining-recovery-new-model-saving-species-risk.
Westwood, A. (2015). Sailing Without a Map: The need for evidence-based policies. Retrieved from http://www.humanistperspectives.org/issue193/westwood.html.
Westwood, A. (2014, June 6). Stephen Harper’s blatant hypocrisy on science. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/06/06/stephen_harpers_blatant_hypocrisy_on_science.html.
Westwood, A. (2015, August 12). We need a national debate on science. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/08/12/we-need-a-national-debate-on-science.html.
Westwood, A., Conciatori, F., Tardif, J., Knowles, K. 2012.Effects of Armillaria root rot disease on the growth of Picea mariana in the boreal plains of central Canada. Forest Ecology and Management 266: 1-10. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112711006815.
Westwood, A., Reuchlin-Heugenholtz, E., Keith, D. 2014. Re-defining recovery: A generalized framework for assessing species recovery. Biological Conservation 172: 155-162. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320714000925?_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_origin=gateway&_docanchor&md5=b8429449ccfc9c30159a5f9aeaa92ffb&ccp=y

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Research Coordinator, Evidence for Democracy; Contributing Scientist, Boreal Avian Modelling Project; Instructor, Department of Biology, Dalhousie University.

[2] Individual Publication Date: March 22, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com; Full Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

[3] PhD, Candidate in Biology, Dalhousie University (2011-present); Hons BSc, Applied Environmental & Forest Ethics, University of Winnipeg (2011).

[4] Photograph courtesy of Alana Westwood.

[5] Evidence for Democracy. (2016). Evidence for Democracy. Retrieved from https://evidencefordemocracy.ca/en.

[6] [TheRealNews]. (2015, October 22). Trudeau Pledge Tracker: Reinstating 40 Million in Science Funding and Appointing a Chief of Science. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wozj-lPhno.

[7] Westwood, A. (2015). Sailing Without a Map: The need for evidence-based policies. Retrieved from http://www.humanistperspectives.org/issue193/westwood.html.

[8] Westwood, A. (2014, June 6). Stephen Harper’s blatant hypocrisy on science. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/06/06/stephen_harpers_blatant_hypocrisy_on_science.html.

[9] Westwood, A. (2015, August 12). We need a national debate on science. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/08/12/we-need-a-national-debate-on-science.html.

[10] Westwood, A. (2015, November 13). Over the past 10 years this deadly fungus has nearly wiped out North America’s bats. Retrieved from http://community.lovenature.com/2015/11/13/over-the-past-10-years-this-deadly-fungus-has-nearly-wiped-out-north-americas-bats/.

[11] Westwood, A. (2014, April 8). Redefining Recovery: A New Model for Saving Species At Risk. Retrieved from http://www.alternativesjournal.ca/community/blogs/wild-side/redefining-recovery-new-model-saving-species-risk.

[12] Westwood, A. (2015, March). How to save a bird nobody likes. Retrieved from http://www.sco-soc.ca/picoides/archive/Picoides28_1_2015.pdf.

[13] Barker, N., Fontaine, P., Cumming, S., Stralberg, D., Westwood, A., Bayne, E., Sólymos, P., Schmiegelow, F., Song, S., and Rugg, D. 2015. Ecological monitoring through harmonizing existing data: lessons from the Boreal Avian Modelling Project. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 39(3). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281343963_Ecological_Monitoring_Through_Harmonizing_Existing_Data_Lessons_from_the_Boreal_Avian_Modelling_Project.

[14] Westwood, A., Reuchlin-Heugenholtz, E., Keith, D. 2014. Re-defining recovery: A generalized framework for assessing species recovery. Biological Conservation 172: 155-162. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320714000925?_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_origin=gateway&_docanchor&md5=b8429449ccfc9c30159a5f9aeaa92ffb&ccp=y.

[15] Westwood, A., Conciatori, F., Tardif, J., Knowles, K. 2012. Effects of Armillaria root rot disease on the growth of Picea mariana in the boreal plains of central Canada. Forest Ecology and Management 266: 1-10. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112711006815.

[16] [LegacyTVLive]. (2014, May 23). The Evidence for Democracy Alana Westwood (May 7 14) Host Parkland Institute. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn7bjef4rMg.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Dr. Fr. Paul Gabor, S.J. (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/03/15

Abstract

An interview with Dr. Fr. Paul Gabor, S.J. He discusses: description of research areas and the reason for personal interest in these areas; entering the ranks of the Vatican Observatory, and the main misconception about the purpose of the Vatican Observatory’s Research Group in Tucson, Arizona and the Vatican Observatory in general; source of ability to speak eight languages and the assistance in current work; convictions in Roman Catholicism, and arguments and evidences for the truth of Christianity in general and Roman Catholicism in particular; and the current activities at the Vatican Observatory and the aim of the research in the future.

Keywords: Fr. Paul Gabor, Roman Catholicism, Vatican Observatory.

An Interview with Dr. Fr. Paul Gabor, S.J. (Part Two)^[1]^,[2],[3]

6. Your research interests lie in “tests of achromatic phase shifters, stabilization (through optical path dithering), wave front filtering (with single mode fibers), polarization and other issues regarding the implementation of nulling interferometry, techniques and instrumentation that can be used to discover planets orbiting other stars.”^[4] In brief, could you describe each of these areas? Furthermore, could you provide the reason for your personal interest in this research?

Interferometry can be used also with optical telescopes. It is very hard, though. Since radio waves have wavelengths of inches or even miles, the instruments needed to manipulate them are of comparable size and the quality of the machining (tolerance of bumpy surfaces) suffices to be at a similar level. In optical astronomy, wavelengths are about one hundredths of a human hair, and therefore the quality of the surfaces needs to be a million times better than with radio instruments. This is one reason why optical interferometry is so much harder than radio interferometry.

Let’s return to exoplanets. In order to learn more about them we need to develop techniques allowing us to separate the exoplanet’s light from its host star’s. This can be done using a particular interferometric method, called nulling. A nulling interferometer makes the star appear much fainter than it is, while leaving the exoplanet at full brightness. It does it by cleverly combining the troughs and crests of optical waves. Since we need to overcome a contrast of ten orders of magnitude (1 unit to 10 billion), the level of control we need to have over the optical waves needs to be on a corresponding level. In other words, the instrument needs to control the geometric lengths of all optical paths within it (usually hundreds of meters) with an accuracy of a thousandth of a wavelength, i.e., a thousandth of a hundredth of a human hair: that is about the size of a single atom. It can be done. In fact, it was one of the things I did to earn my Ph.D.

Several ways of separating planet light from starlight are currently studied. Nulling interferometry is just one them. What remains to be seen is which of these methods is best and decide a plan of action, building advanced facilities on the surface of the Earth and in orbit.

7. In the September of 2010, you entered the ranks of the Vatican Observatory^[5].^[6]You had assignment to the Vatican Observatory’s Research Group in Tucson, Arizona^[7], and became the Vice Director in September 2012.^[8] What do you consider the main misconception about the purpose of the Vatican Observatory’s Research Group in Tucson, Arizona and the Vatican Observatory in general?

The Vatican Observatory is a standard research institute in the field of astrophysics. It is an institution of the Vatican City State, and its research staff are members of the clergy. The Observatory’s activity, however, is quite ordinary astrophysical research. There are numerous misconceptions about the Observatory’s work. People sometimes think we make horoscopes for the Pope or that we have been charged with resolving the enigma of the Star of Bethlehem. None of this is true.

And speaking of misconceptions, the word “observatory” itself is somewhat misleading. Literally, it designates a place where observation is conducted. Many astrophysical research institutes are called “observatories” because in the past they truly were places of observation. The institutions, still called “observatories” by inertia, conduct observations today in remote locations where they have placed their telescopes and other observing facilities to escape light pollution. The institution’s headquarters remain in the original locations, often with some historical instruments still on the premises. This is also the case of the Vatican Observatory. The institution has two sites with offices, libraries, meeting rooms, etc. One is at the Papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, and the other is in the main building of the Department of Astronomy of the University of Arizona in Tucson. Currently we operate only one telescope. It is on Mt Graham in Arizona, about 3 ½ hour drive from campus.

8. You speak eight languages at various proficiencies with great proficiency in English, Polish, Czech, Slovak, and French, and elementary proficiency in Italian, German, and Hungarian.^[9] Where does this polyglot^[10] ability source itself? How does this assist in your current work?

I am very fortunate that I was exposed to multiple languages at an early age. My mother was an English teacher, and we had English friends who would spend time at our home. She taught me English in such a natural way that I do not recall learning it. I have only vague snippets of memories of playing with my mother, and, as she told me later, she would sometimes use English, and of listening to a recording of Alice Through the Looking Glass over and over (I don’t know why it held such a sway over me). I believe that exposure to languages at an early age is a necessary, although not sufficient, condition for good aural comprehension and good pronunciation. I grew up hearing Slovak, Czech, Hungarian, and English on a daily basis. When I learned Russian, German, French, Polish and Italian, comprehension and pronunciation came to me easily. A Czech friend of mine in Paris did some research into the issue because she wanted to know how to bring up her children to be bilingual. She found that exposure to several languages at an early age may cause some children problems. I would say that it is well worth the risk. Each language is a new world and if you master it, it is a new home.

9. In terms of the relationship between science and theology, much writing, and modern discourse emerges with rediscovery of prior theologians, religions, and irreligious thinkers, and some in groups such as the The New Atheists, where does your conviction in Roman Catholicism lie? In particular, what arguments and evidences most convince you of the truth of Christianity in general and Roman Catholicism in particular?

Raymond of Sabunde in the early 15^th century developed the doctrine of the Two Books. The roots of this teaching may be found already in St Paul (Rom 1:20) and several Church Fathers. The idea is simple: In his desire to reveal himself to us, God gave us two books, the Book of Nature and the Book of Scripture. Neither are an easy read but both are from the same Author, and therefore cannot be in contradiction. Galileo embraced the idea and developed it further, noting that the language of the Book of Nature is mathematics.

This doctrine implies that the faithful should not be leery of science. People often confuse Science herself with what the Enlightenment, French positivism and other philosophical currents mistakenly ascribed to her: an assault on Mystery. It is true that philosophy in general, and natural philosophy in particular have demythologized the educated person’s view of the world. But the demise of animism, hylozoism and ancient mythologies among ordinary people must be attributed to the disproportionate effectiveness of the Gospel in transforming human hearts and societies.

Unlike myth, however, Mystery is an irreducible reality. It cannot be reduced to simpler terms. It is a dimension of reality. Either you perceive it or you do not. And most scientist do perceive it and marvel at it, regardless of their religious confession. Let me quote Richard Feynman, whom nobody would accuse of religious belief, “Why nature is mathematical is a mystery. […T]he fact that there are rules [laws of nature] at all is a kind of miracle.” Mystery with a capital “M” cannot be explained away. Scientists feel it as a subtle and intriguing beckoning. Rudolph Otto called this aspect of Mystery, mysterium fascinosum. Science is a dialogue between attentive students of the Book of Nature and its Author. It is a path leading ever deeper into Mystery.

Look at those who undertake the journey and at its effects on them. They feel incredibly privileged that Mystery invites them to its intimate presence. Galileo wrote, “I am infinitely grateful to God who has deigned to choose me alone to be the first to observe such marvelous things which have lain hidden for all ages past.” Gratitude is the foundation of all true religion.

Creator, the Author of the Book of Nature, wants to be known. The God of Israel reveals Himself, “I [Wisdom] was daily his [God’s] delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. [… Wisdom] has killed her beasts; she has mingled her wine; she has also furnished her table […] She cries upon the highest places of the city, ‘Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled’.” (Prov 8:30-31; 9:2-5) Science would be consummate impiety, presumptuous vanity and odious sacrilege if God chose to stay hidden. Faith in a God who wants to be known, who goes to extreme ends to be known, who “came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man”, is in perfect harmony with the adventurous undertaking we call science.

Science also implies a certain ethics. Here are a few examples. Science can be done only in a society valuing truth above courtesy. Those who are too arrogant and egocentric cannot do science. At some point in their career, their expectations will be frustrated, the experiments will falsify their hypotheses, empirical facts will contradict them. When that happens, the arrogant and egocentric ultimately have only two choices: become humble or leave science. The Czech poet Otakar Brezina called science “asceticism most sublime”. It is the enthusiastic and spontaneous asceticism of children at play, immersed in their game, forgoing and forgetting everything else. If aliens come in spaceships, conquering cosmic distances, we can be sure that we will have a lot in common because their society, like ours, will have engaged in science. Assiduous reading of the Book of Nature (like that of the Book of Scripture) transforms individuals and societies – very slowly and painfully but inexorably.

10. What current research activities does the Vatican Observatory conduct at the moment? What does the group aim to research in the near and far future?

Most people think that a research institute is like an enterprise, with some strategic plan of activity. Some institutes have one, but this is not particularly useful. In our case, research at the Vatican Observatory is multiple and varied. It is not because we have some clever plan to cover key areas of current research but rather because we have a limited pool from which we can recruit research staff. Leo XIII in 1891 wanted to show clergy doing science, and therefore our research staff is exclusively clergy. As a result, our research is a function of the individuals and their interests.

We do have two major assets representing the Observatory’s research infrastructure. The first one is the Vatican collection of meteorites. Meteorites are samples of Solar-System bodies, of asteroids and comets, and some are also samples of the Moon and Mars. Some contain grains that have been unaltered since the time before the formation of the Solar System. Meteorites are an incredibly rich source of information for planetary science.

The second is the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) on Mt Graham in Arizona. Its primary is the prototype spin-cast mirror, made by Roger Angel and his team in the mid 1980s. It is parabolic, with a diameter of 1.8 metres and an equal focal length. Using the same technology, the Mirror Laboratory has since produced a number of 6.5-metre and 8.4-metre mirrors, the largest monolithic mirrors ever produced. VATT was dedicated in September 1993, and in order to produce good science for a few more decades, we decided to automate it together with University of Arizona’s two other telescopes, creating a robotic telescope network.

Classic telescope-time management implied that scientists would submit observing proposals, and then telescope time would be allocated to them as a number of whole nights because observing meant going up to the telescope, operating it and acquiring data. This meant that each night the telescope would serve only one science case.

With larger, more costly and more complicated facilities, the system is different. The telescope is operated by a specialist operator. Data acquisition is sometimes conducted by the scientists themselves but increasingly also this is done by specialized personnel. There are major advantages to such a system. The facilities are exclusively in the hands of people who are efficient at what they are doing. Several science cases can be accommodated in a single night, adapting the programme to the conditions. The disadvantage is the cost.

Smaller telescopes cannot afford to employ the necessary specialists. The answer is robotic operation. What is more, it turns out that robotic facilities are more efficient at certain types of tasks, such as repetitive monitoring of a large number of targets. Even the best trained humans cannot be expected to hop from one target to another after only a couple of minutes all night long, every night. The robot reduces the overhead time between data acquisitions (e.g., slewing and pointing) to a minimum. As a result, robotic facilities can conduct research programmes that have not been thinkable with human operators.

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Gabor, P. (2014, December 13). “Everybody knows” Part I. Retrieved from http://www.vofoundation.org/blog/everybody-knows-part-i/.
Gabor, P. (2014, December 16). “Everybody knows” Part II. Retrieved from http://www.vofoundation.org/blog/everybody-knows-part-ii/.
Gabor, P. (2014, December 17). “Everybody knows” Part III. Retrieved from http://www.vofoundation.org/blog/everybody-knows-part-iii/.
Gabor, P. (2014, December 5). International Year of Light: Cosmic Light in Arizona. Retrieved from http://www.vofoundation.org/blog/international-year-of-light-cosmic-light-in-arizona/.
Gabor, P. (2014, April 14). Introducing the Vatican Observatory. Retrieved from http://astro.physics.muni.cz/cz-eso-2014/images/Gabor.pdf.
Gabor, P. (2014, December 5). Newton Center. Retrieved from http://www.vofoundation.org/blog/newman-center/.
Gabor, P. (2014, December 5). Terrifying Silence or Wondrous Generosity. Retrieved from http://www.vofoundation.org/blog/terrifying-silence-or-wondrous-generosity/.
Gabor, P. (2014, December 5). The Deepest Picture Ever. Retrieved from http://www.vofoundation.org/blog/the-deepest-picture-ever/.
P. (n.d.). The Heavens and Timekeeping, Symbolism and Expediency. Retrieved from http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/futureofutc/2011/program/presentations/AAS_11-663_Gabor.pdf.
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Gabor, B. Chazelas, F. Brachet et al. (2008)Stabilising a nulling interferometer using optical path difference dithering, 365-369. In Astronomy and Astrophysics 483 (1). http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008A%26A…483..365G.
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Pavel Gabor, Bruno Chazelas, Peter A. Schuller et al. (2008)Stabilising a nulling interferometer using optical path difference dithering: an update, 70131R-70131R-9. In Proceedings of SPIE. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008SPIE.7013E..51G.
Pavel Gabor, Peter A. Schuller, Bruno Chazelas et al. (2008)Tests of achromatic phase shifters performed on the SYNAPSE test bench: a progress report, 70134O-70134O-11. In Proceedings of SPIE. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008SPIE.7013E.147G.
Peter A. Schuller, Olivier Demangeon, Alain Leger et al. (2010)The NULLTIMATE test bench: achromatic phase shifters for nulling interferometry, 77342E-77342E-16. In Optical and Infrared Interferometry II. Edited by Danchi. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010SPIE.7734E..74S.
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Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Vice Director, Vatican Observatory Research Group.

[2] Individual Publication: March 15, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/an-interview-with-fr-paul-gabor-sj-part-one; Full Issue Publication: May 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/an-interview-with-fr-paul-gabor-sj-part-one.

[3] MSc (1988-1994), particle physics, Charles University in prague; BA (1997-1999), philosophy, Ignacjanum; BA (2000-2003), theology, Centre Sèvres; and PhD (2005-2009), Astrophysics, Université Paris Sud (Paris XI).

[4] Please see Vatican Observatory Foundation (2014). Paul Gabor, S.J.. Retrieved from http://vaticanobservatory.org/about-us/personnel-and-research/73-personnel-and-research/paul-gabor-sj/332-paul-gabor-sj.

[5] Please see Vatican Observatory Foundation (2014). History. Retrieved from http://vaticanobservatory.org/about-us/history.

[6] Please see Vatican Observatory Foundation (2014). Paul Gabor, S.J.. Retrieved from http://vaticanobservatory.org/about-us/personnel-and-research/73-personnel-and-research/paul-gabor-sj/332-paul-gabor-sj.

[7] Please see Tucson. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/608409/Tucson.

[8] Please see Vatican Observatory Foundation (2014). Paul Gabor, S.J.. Retrieved from http://vaticanobservatory.org/about-us/personnel-and-research/73-personnel-and-research/paul-gabor-sj/332-paul-gabor-sj.

[9] Please Please see LinkedIn (2014). Paul Gabor: Vice Director, Vatican Observatory. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pub/paul-gabor/16/469/171.

[10] An individual with knowledge of multiple language. Someone with an aptitude for acquisition of languages, i.e. someone capable of speaking many languages with fluency.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Dr. Fr. Paul Gabor, S.J. (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/03/08

Abstract

An interview with Dr. Fr. Paul Gabor, S.J. He discusses: childhood and adolescence trajectory influence on him, pivotal moments in personal development towards an interest in science and theology, the gains from the research and professional experiences; motivation for interest in philosophy and theology; the way that the priesthood entered and benefits personal life, and the greatest intellectual stimulation from within the Jesuits; origin of interest in physics, the physics of the small scale, and the instrumental side of particle physics; PhD work and entailed work, explanation for the lay person, and the esoteric aspects of this research.

Keywords: CERN, Dr. Fr. Paul Gabor, Košice, Particle Physics, science, Company of Jesus, theology, Vatican Observatory.

An Interview with Dr. Fr. Paul Gabor, S.J. (Part One)^[1]^,[2],[3]

1. You were born and raised in Košice, Slovakia^[4]. You studied Particle Physics^[5] at Charles University^[6] in Prague, Czech Republic^[7] from 1988 to 1995^[8]. You did instrumental work and participated in the development of the A Toroidal LHC Apparatus^[9] (ATLAS) detector of the Large Hadron Collider^[10] (LHC) at The European laboratory for Particle Physics^[11],[12](CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland^[13].^[14] How did childhood and adolescence influence this trajectory? What pivotal events in personal development lead to an interest in science and theology? What did you most gain from these research and professional experiences?

I must have had a vocation to priesthood since childhood. Growing up behind the Iron Curtain, however, meant that I had a very convenient excuse not to do anything about it. You see, the avenue to public ministry passed through a couple of secret police-controlled seminaries. And so, in 1987, following in the footsteps of the Prophet Jonah, I applied to study particle physics at Charles University in Prague instead of heeding my vocation.

2. Furthermore, and with specifics, how did this interest in physics, physics of the small scale, and the instrumental side of Particle Physics enter your life?

Unlike Jonah whose detour was not very pleasant (he was thrown overboard and swallowed by a sea monster which then took him where the Lord had intended), my sojourn among particle physicists was unexpectedly pleasant. The Iron Curtain fell, and I found myself working in Geneva and Grenoble as well as in Prague among research scientists whom I discovered to be, by and large, very generous and great people.

3. Upon completion of this research and work, you entered the Company of Jesus^[15]^,[16],[17] in 1995.^[18] You completed a two-year novitiate in Kolin, Czech Republic^[19].^[20] You studied Philosophy for two years in Cracow, Poland^[21], and taught philosophy for one year in Olomouc, Czech Republic^[22].^[23]^,[24] In addition to this extensive training, you studied Theology in Paris, France and had ordination in the Priesthood in 2004.^[25]What motivated interest in Philosophy and Theology?

By 1995, however, God’s nagging became so overwhelming that I joined the Jesuits. The moment I stepped foot into the novitiate, the nagging stopped, and I felt a profound peace that comes from knowing that things have fallen into place. The novitiate itself was fairly depressing but, despite the turmoil and frustration of the more superficial strata of my being, there was an underlying peace. As for science, I thought that joining the Jesuits put an end to that. I thought that with my background I might perhaps be suited to do some apostolic work among scientists but that my days in the laboratory were over.

After noviciate, I was sent to Cracow to study philosophy. I spent two years there, 1997/1999. Looking for intellectual stimulation, I soon found a unique seminar, held by Michael Heller (Templeton Prize 2008), a diocesan priest, philosopher and mathematical physicist. The participants were undergraduates as well as professors, from a very broad range of disciplines – from logic and mathematics, through physics to psychology. One spring day in 1999, Professor Heller told me, “The Church needs you at the Vatican Observatory.” It came out of the blue, and I did not really think it realistic, considering the priorities of my immediate superiors.

I returned to Czechia to teach philosophy for a year in Olomouc. After that, in 2000, I went to do my theological studies in Paris. In January 2001, I received an invitation from Fr. George Coyne, Director of the Vatican Observatory, to come for an extended visit in the summer, ostensibly for the 4-week VOSS (Vatican Observatory Summer School; held typically every two years since 1986). I got permission and went. It was a very positive experience. In C. P. Snow’s terms, most Jesuits are firmly attached to the culture of humanities, and Jesuit scientists stand out in our communities as exceptions to the rule.

4. How did the Priesthood enter your life? How does the Priesthood benefit you? Where do you find the greatest intellectual stimulation within the Jesuits?

During my early years in the Society of Jesus, I had come across a few Jesuit scientists who worked in research institutes while leading somewhat isolated lives in Jesuit communities, with the divide between Snow’s Two Cultures running deep across the common room. The Vatican Observatory, however, represents a Jesuit community where a scientist can feel at home. I saw that these Jesuits did scientific apostolate and had daily support of others sharing their mission.

Back in Prague, when I spoke to my Provincial, I did not tell him that I wanted to join the Vatican Observatory staff but my description of the Observatory’s apostolate must have been so enthusiastic that the Provincial told me straight away to looking into attending some classes in astrophysics during my spare time in Paris. By November 2001, it was decided that my formation will continue under the assumption that I would be joining the Vatican Observatory. That meant going back to Olomouc in 2003, ordination to the priesthood in 2004, exercise of pastoral duties in the University parish, return to Paris in 2005 for a “refresher” in physics which took the form of a second M.Sc. in 2006, and then a doctorate in astrophysics in 2009.

My Jesuit formation was then rounded off by seven months of tertianship (an Ignatian repetition of the novitiate, with another 30-day retreat, lots of prayer and reflection) in Australia in January-August 2010. I joined the Observatory in September 2010 and pronounced my final solemn vows in the presence of Father General Nicolas at the Roman Church of Il Gesu` (the Name of Jesus) where St Ignatius is buried on December 8, 2010.

Speaking of my formation as a member of a religious order, I must touch upon one additional point. When I was twelve, I went through few very dark months resulting in my first conversion. It was very similar to Pascal’s wager, and as such, it was an intellectual conversion. Fifteen years later, my philosophical studies in Cracow brought about a second dark period when I realized that in spiritual matters, intellect cannot provide the level of certainty which I had attributed to it. It was not until my theological training in Paris, another five years down the road, that I admitted to myself that my faith had been a form of intellectual conviction. At about the same time, I began to realize that for decades I had been overlooking something precious and important. When I was fifteen, I had a mystical encounter with God’s mercy. It was not until 2010, during my tertianship in Australia, that I started drawing from this source. The moral of the story is that the most important things can take surprising amounts of time, that even decades of formation in a religious order can be a very slowly acting remedy, and that perhaps many people mistake the significance of their various encounters with God’s grace.

5. You entered a PhD program in Astrophysics with Alain Léger^[26], the individual that proposed the Darwin space observatory^[27], after ordination and earned the PhD in 2009.^[28] You chose instrumentation and research at the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale^[29],University of Paris XI^[30]. You focused on “two optical test beds, SYNAPSE and NULLTIMATE.” What did this work entail? How can you explain this for the lay person? (In particular, the two optical test beds.) What count as the more esoteric aspects of this research?

Exoplanets. Astrobiology. Nulling interferometry.

Since the discovery of the first exoplanet (planets orbiting other stars than our Sun) in 1995, thousands have been found. Apart from a handful which are very large and very far from their host star, we cannot take pictures of them. In fact, we only discover them by carefully analyzing the light of their host stars. For instance, if we see that the star grows periodically fainter, it may be an indication that there is a transiting planet and it obscures a part of the star’s light when passing between us and the star.

These indirect methods allow us to learn interesting things about the exoplanets but we would like to learn more. In particular, we would like to be able to measure the chemical composition of atmospheres of Earth-size exoplanets to see whether there is anything hard to explain by pure inorganic chemistry. In other words, to find biosignatures. If alien astronomers are studying the Earth they may wonder why there is water vapour, carbon dioxide, and oxygen in our atmosphere. Oxygen is so highly reactive that it cannot remain in an atmosphere in such abundance without being replenished constantly by some production mechanism. Otherwise, it would form oxides with various minerals on the planet’s surface, and free oxygen would soon disappear from the atmosphere. Therefore, the simultaneous presence of water vapour, carbon dioxide, and oxygen is a biosignature. The alien astronomer could deduce from it the existence of life on Earth. If we find an exoplanet with such biosignatures, then we would have a target that might mobilize enough interest in the world that nations would agree to go to have a closer look.

In order to do that we need to learn how to distinguish the light coming from the exoplanet from the much brighter light coming from its host star. When seen from a distance, say by a hypothetical alien astronomer, the Earth is 10 billion times fainter than the Sun in the visible light. What is more, the Earth would be so close to the Sun that, from the point of view of the alien astronomer, the two would blur into a single point of light. It is like looking at the headlights of a distant vehicle: you cannot tell how many there are; they blur into a single source of light. The huge contrast plus the tiny separation between the planet and its host star represent two of the major obstacles to learning more about exoplanets. It can be done, though. One approach is interferometry.

The idea of “beams of light” focused by the eye’s lens is how geometrical optics describes vision. With this simple model of how lenses work, optical astronomers produce images and work with them. When optical astronomers want to know the size of a galaxy, they take a picture, measure the apparent size and multiply it by the scale factor. Radio astronomers, on the other hand, cannot really obtain classical images in this way. Radio waves and light waves obey the same physics but the wavelengths are very different: radio waves are more than a million times longer. This means that if a radio telescope was to have the same resolving power as your eye it would have to be at least a couple of miles across! So, if radio astronomers want to know the size of a galaxy, instead of taking a picture and measuring it, they use a trick called interferometry. It has to do with comparing the time of arrival of the wave at different locations. Instead of one impossibly large radio telescope, with a dish spanning hundreds of miles, radio astronomers use arrays of small dishes separated by large distances. Then they compare the arrival times and other properties of the wave measured in those separate locations and this allows them to measure properties of radio sources, e.g., sizes of galaxies. In a way, they bypass taking pictures and obtain the desired quantities directly from the properties of the waves.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Vice Director, Vatican Observatory Research Group.

[2] Individual Publication: March 8, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/an-interview-with-fr-paul-gabor-sj-part-one; Full Issue Publication: May 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/an-interview-with-fr-paul-gabor-sj-part-one.

[4] Please see Kosice. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/322696/Kosice.

[5] Please see particle physics. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/445074/particle-physics.

[6] Please see Charles University (2014). Charles University. Retrieved from http://www.cuni.cz/UKENG-1.html.

[7] Please see Prague. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/473739/Prague.

[8] Please see LinkedIn (2014). Paul Gabor: Vice Director, Vatican Observatory. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pub/paul-gabor/16/469/171.

[9] Please see ATLAS Experiment (2014). ATLAS Experiment. Retrieved from http://atlas.ch/.

[10] Please see Large Hadron Collider (2014). Large Hadron Collider. Retrieved from http://home.web.cern.ch/topics/large-hadron-collider.

[11] Please see CERN (2014). CERN. Retrieved from http://home.web.cern.ch/.

[12] Please see CERN (2014). About CERN. Retrieved from http://home.web.cern.ch/about.

[13] Please see Geneva. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/229000/Geneva.

[14] Please see Vatican Observatory Foundation (2014). Paul Gabor, S.J.. Retrieved from http://vaticanobservatory.org/about-us/personnel-and-research/73-personnel-and-research/paul-gabor-sj/332-paul-gabor-sj.

[15] A religious order founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola given the original appellation “The Company of Jesus.”

[16] Please see Jesuit. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/302999/Jesuit.

[17] Please see Society of Jesus (2014). The Jesuit Curia in Rome. Retrieved from http://www.sjweb.info/.

[18] Please see Vatican Observatory Foundation (2014). Paul Gabor, S.J.. Retrieved from http://vaticanobservatory.org/about-us/personnel-and-research/73-personnel-and-research/paul-gabor-sj/332-paul-gabor-sj.

[19] Please see Czech Republic. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/149085/Czech-Republic.

[20] Please see Czech Republic. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/149085/Czech-Republic.

[21] Please see Republic of Cracow. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/141562/Republic-of-Cracow.

[22] Please see Olomouc. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/427902/Olomouc.

[23] Please see Olomouc. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/427902/Olomouc.

[24] Please see VOS Caritas Olomouc (2014). VOS Caritas Olomouc. Retrieved from http://www.caritas-vos.cz/en.

[25] Please see VOS Caritas Olomouc (2014). VOS Caritas Olomouc. Retrieved from http://www.caritas-vos.cz/en.

[26] Please see Ollivier, M. & Léger, A. (2006). Darwin: A Space Observatory for the Direct Detection of Exoplanets. Retrieved from http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2006ESASP1306..505O.

[27] Please see Ollivier, M. & Léger, A. (2006). Darwin: A Space Observatory for the Direct Detection of Exoplanets. Retrieved from http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2006ESASP1306..505O.

[28] Please see LinkedIn (2014). Paul Gabor: Vice Director, Vatican Observatory. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pub/paul-gabor/16/469/171.

[29] Please see Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (2014). Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale. Retrieved from http://www.ias.fr/en.

[30] Please see University of Paris XI (2014). University of Paris XI. Retrieved from http://www.u-psud.fr/en/index.html.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Pat O’Brien (Part Three)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/03/01

Abstract

An interview with Pat O’Brien. He discusses: role of exemplars for movements without direct religious affiliation; relationship with religious belief systems connected to humanist proclivities with secular humanist movements in history; interrelationship of theistic and non-theistic humanisms, and their mutual futures; the importance of the absolute division between church and state; evidences and arguments that make a transcendental being seem impossible, implausible, or unreasonable; and evidences and arguments that might make a transcendental entity possible, plausible, or reasonable.

Keywords: belief system, British Columbia Humanist Association, Center for Inquiry Canada, humanism, Humanist Canada, non-theistic, Pat O’Brien, theistic.

An Interview with Pat O’Brien (Part Three)^[1]^,[2],[3]

16. Exemplars manifest themselves under the umbrella of “no religious affiliation,” at least in standard interpretations such as a lack of formal religion. An array of unmentioned artists, columnists, scientists, and writers.^[4] What role do exemplars perform for these movements without direct religious affiliation?

Unfortunately we live in a world where the “cult of personality” influences many people. By creating our own “stars” we are better able to communicate our message. But when an existing star such as Ricky Gervais or Bill Nye take up the cause, people listen. Some in our community see this as a bit of a sell out. I disagree, as long as the message is consistent and not dumbed down, using famous people and TV and Movie stars is a very good way to give your message some credibility.

17. Apart from non-theistic – e.g. agnostic, atheistic, deistic, und so weiter – humanisms, plural manifestations, under the banner of Humanism, singular concept, some religious formulations ground themselves, in socio-cultural and ethical life, in belief systems translatable into humanism. An argument articulated by Dr. Susan Hughson, another past president of the British Columbia Humanist Association, in conversation with David Berner about Judaism, which could extend to others, as noted.^[5]^{,[6],[7],[8],[9]} What relationship do religious belief systems connected to humanist proclivities have with the secular humanist movements in history?

For most of recorded history the concept of an atheist did not exist. It was taken for granted that there was an unseen world inhabited by goblins, ghosts, gods etc. It was not until relatively recently that the idea of a worldview that carried no supernatural baggage was even possible. There were pockets of it, some Greek philosophers are a good example but mostly the world was made up of people who had some kind of supernatural belief. So it was the religious, looking for something more, who began the slow intellectual march towards Humanism, Erasmus is a good example. Today he would be considered a religious person but in his day he had many ideas that did not endear him to either the Catholic or the burgeoning Protestant church. He is considered by many to be the founder of Humanism. Today, most religious Humanists seem to come from the Jewish tradition. Jews have a history of doubt and questioning so this does not come as a surprise, in fact the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University is almost exclusively the product of Jewish Humanists.

18. With respect to their positive or negative interrelationship, the theistic and non-theistic humanisms, how might their mutual futures turn out to you?

If you are talking about theistic Humanism, I find that a contradiction. I don’t use the term as I think it has outlived its usefulness. Either you believe in God and are a theist or you do not and you are an atheist, many atheist adopt the Humanist worldview but Humanism and atheism do not necessarily go together. So I see a conflict between theists and Humanist and so the term Theistic Humanist is meaningless to me.

19. You noted, astutely, the separation of church and state in the United States of America, but not by necessity in Canada.^[10] Preaching the Word of Atheism notes the forceful nature of creationism into Canadian schools and bias against atheists in the family court system too.^[11] What remains the highest importance about this separation, the absolute division between church and state?

Religion is a personal matter as are family and personal relationships. In a free and democratic society, the only guarantee that you can keep your personal religious beliefs or your family structure or maintain the relationships that are important to you is by keeping government and by extension, laws, out of those areas. When someone tells me that their religion should inform how we are governed my first questions is, which of the thousands of versions of your religion do you want? Which interpretation of you scripture do you want to live under. Religion is something not even the religious can agree on how on earth could we form a societal structure that at its core is purely personal and introspective? The only way to design a society and laws so as to serve the most number of people is to base them on the things we have in common, not those things that divide us and religion is the great divider. The problem we secularists face is that the religious have had it their way for thousands of years. They do not want to give up any ground, this is understandable. But when someone asks for the same rights you have, it is not taking away you rights, many religious people see it this way and we need to fight this notion.

20. Carl Sagan gets quoted a lot. A great science communicator who carved the paths for numerous artists, fellow science communicators, professional scientists, and public intellectuals to express personal wonder for the universe. One quote, attributed to him, became immortalized about extraordinary claims with the need for proportioned evidence, which states, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,” even quoted in the CFI Canada updates, for instance.^[12]^,[13] An adaptation from Marcello Truzzi’s quotation, which states, “An extraordinary claim requires extraordinary proof.”^[14]^,[15]You typed one coda sentence, and in other forms throughout the article On Atheists:

Claiming there is an unseen transcendental being who is outside space and time and created the entire universe is a pretty extraordinary claim so the evidence had better be pretty extraordinary.^[16]

What evidences and arguments make a transcendental being seem impossible, implausible, or unreasonable to you?

It is not the evidence or arguments for the existence of god that are unreasonable, it is the lack of evidence and sound argument that makes gods highly improbable. I have read dozens of books both for and against, seen dozens of hours of debates with brightest and the best of both sides and after all that I have yet to hear a convincing argument in favour of a god. The arguments in favour of a god could fill an encyclopaedia and after all that human effort, no one has proved anything, every argument seems to end with “well ya gottta have faith”, that to me is an admission of defeat.

21. What evidences and arguments might make a transcendental entity or object with some, most, or all of the traditional “divine attributes” appear possible, plausible, or reasonable to you?^[17]

I have given this a lot of thought over the years and every bit of evidence that I can think of that might convince me that there is a god, I can think of a naturalistic explanation. In other words, I honestly cannot think of any evidence that could convince me. But that does not mean there isn’t any, other wise I am guilty of the argument from ignorance fallacy. No, if there really is a god who literally created my mind, then that god would know exactly what kind of evidence could convince me. So if there is a god, the evidence is trivial for it to produce. The fact that this evidence is not forthcoming gives me comfort that there is none. Of course the theists would say “Ya gotta have faith”, and that, QED, is the worst kind of evidence.

Thank you for your time, Mr. O’Brien.

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Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Board Vice-Chair, Center for Inquiry Canada (CFIC/CFI Canada); Past President, Humanist Canada; Past President, British Columbia Humanist Association.

[2] Individual Publication: March 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/an-interview-with-pat-obrien-part-three Full Issue Publication: May 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/an-interview-with-pat-obrien-part-three.

[3] Bachelor of Science & Bachelor of Education, Science, Biology, and Education.

[4] Exemplars including, but not limited to, (the late) Dr. Albert Einstein, Ann Druyan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, (the late) Dr. Bertrand Russell, (the late) Betty Friedan, Bill Nye, (the late) Dr. Carl Sagan, Dr. Carol Tavris, Dr. Daniel Dennett, Dr. E.O. Wilson, Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, Dr. Eugenie C. Scott, Dr. Gloria Steinem, (the late) Dr. Isaac Asimov, James “The Amazing” Randi, (the late) Dr. Jonas Salk, (the late) June Callwood, Dr. Lawrence Krauss, Margaret Atwood, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, (the late) Dr. Paul Kurtz, (the late) Pearl S. Buck, (the late) Dr. R. Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller, Dr. Richard Dawkins, (the late) Simone de Beauvoir, Dr. Steven Weinberg, Dr. Susan Blackmore, and (the late) Dr. Victor J. Stenger.

[5] Please see [David Berner] (2015, April 8). Episode #151, DR. SUE HUGHSON, SHAW TV, David Berner April 8, 2015. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9ukJ1hDcJ0.

[6] Please see Society for Humanistic Judaism (2015). Society for Humanistic Judaism. Retrieved from http://www.shj.org/.

[7] Please see Unitarian Universalist Association (2015). Unitarian Universalist Association. Retrieved from http://www.uua.org/.

[8] Please see Flynn, T. (2012, August 23). What Is Religious Humanism-Really?. Retrieved from http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/entry/what_is_religious_humanism_–_really/.

[9] Too many to provide a comprehensive list of the organizations and individuals involved in this endeavour of theistic humanism. However, these should provide sufficient information for the ideas contained within this extension and adaptation of humanism for the transformation of standardized theist beliefs and theological concepts.

[10] Please see Egan, D (2007, January 17). Preaching the Word of Atheism. Retrieved from http://thetyee.ca/Life/2007/01/12/Atheism/.

[11] Please see The Vancouver Sun (2006, April 6). 2) No God, no good. When it comes to intolerance, America’s a match for Afghanistan. Retrieved from http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/columnists/story.html?id=92ae2eb3-7d80-42b9-befb-7a207192f1f1&p=3.

[12] Please see CFI Canada (2015, May 12). Critical Links 2015/05/12: CFIC’s Updates and News on Science and Secularism. Retrieved from https://extraordinarybus.wordpress.com/2015/05/12/critical-links-20150512-cfics-updates-and-news-on-science-and-secularism/.

[13] Please see CFI Canada (2015, June 16). Critical Links 2015/06/16 CFIC News and Updates. Retrieved from https://extraordinarybus.wordpress.com/2015/06/16/critical-links-20150616-cfic-news-and-updates/.

[14] Even further backward in the historical record, David Hume in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748) – Section X, Of Miracles. Part I. – enunciates a synonymic principle, as follows:

Nothing is so convenient as a decisive argument of this kind, which must at least silence the most arrogant bigotry and superstition, and free us from their impertinent solicitations. I flatter myself, that I have discovered an argument of a like nature, which, if just, will, with the wise and learned, be an everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusion, and consequently, will be useful as long as the world endures. For so long, I presume, will the accounts of miracles and prodigies be found in all history, sacred and profane. Though experience be our only guide in reasoning concerning matters of fact; it must be acknowledged, that this guide is not altogether infallible, but in some cases is apt to lead us into errors. One, who in our climate, should expect better weather in any week of June than in one of December, would reason justly, and conformably to experience; but it is certain, that he may happen, in the event, to find himself mistaken. However, we may observe, that, in such a case, he would have no cause to complain of experience; because it commonly informs us beforehand of the uncertainty, by that contrariety of events, which we may learn from a diligent observation. All effects follow not with like certainty from their supposed causes. Some events are found, in all countries and all ages, to have been constantly conjoined together: Others are found to have been more variable, and sometimes to disappoint our expectations; so that, in our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence. In such conclusions as are founded on an infallible experience, he expects the event with the last degree of assurance, and regards his past experience as a full proof of the future existence of that event. In other cases, he proceeds with more caution: He weighs the opposite experiments: He considers which side is supported by the greater number of experiments: to that side he inclines, with doubt and hesitation; and when at last he fixes his judgement, the evidence exceeds not what we properly call probability. All probability, then, supposes an opposition of experiments and observations, where the one side is found to overbalance the other, and to produce a degree of evidence, proportioned to the superiority. A hundred instances or experiments on one side, and fifty on another, afford a doubtful expectation of any event; though a hundred uniform experiments, with only one that is contradictory, reasonably beget a pretty strong degree of assurance. In all cases, we must balance the opposite experiments, where they are opposite, and deduct the smaller number from the greater, in order to know the exact force of the superior evidence. [Emphasis, bolded, added.]

Please see Hume, D. (1748). An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Section X, Of Miracles. Part I.. Retrieved from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/9662/9662-h/9662-h.htm.

[15] Please see Hume, D. (1748). An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Section X, Of Miracles. Part I.. Retrieved from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/9662/9662-h/9662-h.htm.

[16] Please see O’Brien, P. (2014, August 12). On Atheists. Retrieved from http://www.companyofdisciples.com/on-atheists-by-pat-obrien-of-cfi-canada/.

[17] Divine attributes tend to emerge in the theological literature about an architect, creator, or designer to the universe. Some include all-good, all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful, and so on.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Pat O’Brien (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/02/22

Abstract

An interview with Pat O’Brien. He discusses: earned positions on the board of the B.C. Humanist Association, as President of British Columbia Humanist Association, on the board of Humanist Canada, and as President of Humanist Canada; operation of the British Columbia Humanist Association at the provincial-scale; common problems in the midst of leadership at national and provincial magnitudes; personal and social fulfillment, and duties, necessitating involvement with grassroots initiatives and ambassadorship such as Center for Inquiry Canada and Atheist Alliance International; personal career as a Proper Master in film and television; conduct, duties, and responsibilities as the Board Vice-Chair for Center for Inquiry Canada; duties and responsibilities that come from influencing the public mind whilst holding an important position; and the importance of flagship publications.

Keywords: Atheist Alliance International, British Columbia Humanist Association, Center for Inquiry Canada, Humanist Canada, Pat O’Brien.

An Interview with Pat O’Brien (Part Two)^[1]^,[2],[3],[4]

8. You earned positions including “board of the B.C. Humanist Association (BCHA), President of BCHA and then on the board of Humanist Canada (HC), eventually taking over as President of HC.”^[5]^,[6]^,[7]HC, as an organization, exists within the philosophy of “education, reason, and compassion.”^[8] With more depth, the organization defines itself:

Founded in 1968, Humanist Canada has its roots in the former Humanist Fellowship of Montreal. This fellowship was an organization of humanists that was founded in 1954 by Drs. R. K. Mishra, Ernest Poser, and Maria Jutta Cahn. Lord Bertrand Russell and Dr. Brock Chisholm were its first patrons.^[9]

As the past president of Humanist Canada, your insight, from experience, into the membership involvements and activities, organizational structure and internal dynamics, theory and practice, positions and tasks, internal humanist membership sustainability and national public outreach, seems deep, comprehensive, and relevant to me.^[10] How does one run a large organization from the national scale?^[11]

You don’t, you let it run itself. It has been said many times that trying to get Humanists to agree on something is like trying to herd cats. I learned early on that as a leader I could not rule from above, or make unilateral decisions. The membership is highly educated and smart they do not respond well to decrees or being told what to do or what position they should take on a matter so one learns to be inclusive, trying to reach consensus. Without going into too much detail, the reason I resigned was because I felt in a particular circumstance unilateral action was the best course to take and still believe I made the right decision, but it lead to me being forced to resign. In the end, my decision was upheld.

9. You held the presidency of the BCHA too.^[12] How does one operate a provincial-scale organization?^[13]

It is easier because you meet regularly with members, they know who you are and there tends to be more trust. Again though, the members are smart, sceptical people who will question everything so you have to not only know what you are talking about but must be willing to compromise. All Humanist groups function democratically and all decisions must be discussed and voted on at least the board level. The other thing about running a local group is that it is easier to plan and hold events. Most of the work that gets done even in a national organization is initiated and run by local groups.

10. What common problems emerge, and solutions require implementation, in the midst of leadership at the national and provincial magnitudes?^[14]^,[15]

The biggest problem is fundraising. It is difficult to get Humanists to part with their money. We can’t offer eternal salvation so when we do fundraise it has to be a specific initiative. Even then, most Humanist living in Canada do not feel the need to be out there advertizing and being social activists, most are happy with weekly or monthly meetings where they discuss topics of interest. This does not require much money so the donations reflect this.

11. Your biographic information from CFI Canada concludes:

In the interim Pat was an ambassador for Atheist Alliance International, sitting briefly on their board. Pat is involved in many grassroots initiatives in his hometown of Vancouver where he has a successful career as a Props Master in the film and television industry. Pat is also an award winning documentary filmmaker.^[16]

What personal and social fulfillment, and duties, necessitate involvement with grassroots initiatives and ambassadorship?^[17]

I am someone who wants to make a difference in my community. I like being part of social change and I think we need more people like that who are willing to take on leadership roles to try and make our society better. I really do believe, and the evidence is on my side, that the world would be a better place with less religion. My goal is not to stamp out religion but to show people there is an alternative to living a full rewarding life that does not include believing in the unbelievable and hopefully they will see us as a suitable alternative.

12. What does “Props Master in the film and television industry,” personal career, implicate for you, e.g. tasks, responsibilities, projects involved in, capabilities and limitations, and so on?^[18]

My job is what I do so I can afford to do the things I really enjoy such as being part of the Humanist/Skeptical community (and playing golf). I am also very lucky to have a job I really like. It is very rewarding to know that my work entertains people and allows them an escape from their daily lives.

13. You work for CFI Canada. Another secular organization, a registered educational charity, devoted to “educate and provide training to the public in the application of skeptical, secular, rational and humanistic enquiry through conferences, symposia, lectures, published works and the maintenance of a library.”^[19] Your core position exists within the board, as Board Vice-Chair.^[20] What conduct, duties, and responsibilities remain expected with this position within CFI Canada?^[21]^,[22]

As the board member from BC I keep an eye on things in the west and try to engage the membership here. I also am the media representative in BC so if a story is in the news and they need the Humanist/Atheist side, I often will get the call. As Vice Chair, all that really means is that I take over the duties of the Chair if he or she is unavailable.

14. Your representation in the media emerges in numerous avenues internal and external, obscure and mainstream, pro and con, to CFI Canada, and Humanist Canada.^[22]^{,[23],[24],[25],[26],[27],[28],[29],[30],[31],[32],[33],[34],[35],[36],[37],[38],[39],[40],[41],[42],[43],[44]}What duties and responsibilities come from influencing the public mind through the media, especially whilst holding an important position in an organization in the educational charity sector?

I think it is the most important thing I do. Communication is the key to understanding and I take my responsibility as a communicator very seriously. It sometimes means I have to tone down the message I would like to give, when one is on TV talking to the masses, one must be succinct and clear, without putting people off to the point where they turn the dial. It is a fine line because to many religious types my very existence as an atheist is offensive to them. So my job is show them that I am a regular person with some (I hope) interesting things to say, and if I can educate one person or show one person a new way of looking at an issue then I call that a win.

15. Many, many organizations, formal and informal, with concomitant publications exist for the distribution of principles and values interrelated with critical thinking, humanism, naturalism, and secularism. For example, the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP, the old title)/The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI, the new title) publishes Skeptical Inquirer.^[45]^,[46],[47] What importance do flagship publications, such as Skeptical Inquirer, have for the “no religious affiliation” individuals and groups?^[48]

They are very important. It is vital that our point of view is out there in the public. Magazines, TV and radio programs are essential to both creating a sense of community and as a means of education, without being pedantic.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Board Vice-Chair, Center for Inquiry Canada (CFIC/CFI Canada); Past President, Humanist Canada; Past President, British Columbia Humanist Association.

[2] Individual Publication: February 22, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/an-interview-with-pat-obrien-part-two; Full Issue Publication: May 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/an-interview-with-pat-obrien-part-two.

[3] Bachelor of Science & Bachelor of Education, Science, Biology, and Education.

[4] Please see Trapper, J. (2011, October 10). Dr. Robert Buckman, renowned oncologist, comedian and Star columnist, dead at 63. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2011/10/10/dr_robert_buckman_renowned_oncologist_comedian_and_star_columnist_dead_at_63.html.

[5] Please see Humanist Canada (2015). Humanist Canada. Retrieved from https://www.humanistcanada.ca/.

[6] Please see Twitter (Humanist Canada (2015). @Humanist_Canada. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/Humanist_Canada.

[7] Please see Twitter (Humanist Canada (2015). @Humanist_Canada. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/Humanist_Canada.

[8] Explicit statement of the values, mission, and vision, as follows:

Values Our key values are to uphold honesty, reason, critical thinking and cooperation in every facet of human interdependence. Mission We promote the separation of religion from public policy and foster the development of reason, compassion and critical thinking for all Canadians, through secular education and community support. Vision Our vision is a world where reason and compassion guide public policy and beliefs are respected— provided that they are compatible with the rights of others.

Please see Humanist Canada. (2015). Humanist Canada Brochure. Retrieved from https://www.humanistcanada.ca/images/docs/HC-brochure-2015.pdf.

[9] Please see Humanist Canada (2015). Humanist Canada. Retrieved from https://www.humanistcanada.ca/.

[10] Please see Humanist Canada (2015). Humanist Canada. Retrieved from https://www.humanistcanada.ca/.

[11] Please see British Columbia Humanist Association (2015). British Columbia Humanist Association. Retrieved from http://bchumanist.ca/.

[12] Please see British Columbia Humanist Association (2015). British Columbia Humanist Association. Retrieved from http://bchumanist.ca/.

[13] Please see Humanist Canada (2015). Humanist Canada. Retrieved from https://www.humanistcanada.ca/.

[14] Please see British Columbia Humanist Association (2015). British Columbia Humanist Association. Retrieved from http://bchumanist.ca/.

[15] Please see Center for Inquiry Canada (2015). CFI Canada Board of Directors. Retrieved from http://centreforinquiry.ca/about-us/cfi-canada-board-of-directors/

[16] Please see Atheist Alliance International (2015). Atheist Alliance International. Retrieved from https://www.atheistalliance.org/.

[17] Please see Atheist Alliance International (2015). Atheist Alliance International. Retrieved from https://www.atheistalliance.org/.

[18] Please see CFI Canada (2015). About Us. Retrieved from http://centreforinquiry.ca/about-us/.

[19] Please see Center for Inquiry Canada (2015). CFI Canada Board of Directors. Retrieved from http://centreforinquiry.ca/about-us/cfi-canada-board-of-directors/.

[20] Please see Adriaans, E. (2014, December 18). Center for Inquiry Canada Code of Conduct. Retrieved from http://centreforinquiry.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Centre-For-Inquiry-Canada-Code-of-Conduct-Dec-18th-2014.pdf.

[21] Some definitions within the Center for Inquiry Canada Code of Conduct define a board member as “community,” as follows, ““CFI Canada’s Community” means any and all clients, personnel, members, Board Members, Friends of the Centre, Councillors, donors, supporters and all those individuals and organizations who have a responsibility toward CFI Canada and an interest in its success.” In addition to this definition, other statements have value within in with respect to the position of board members. In sections G and H.2., the Center for Inquiry Canada Code of Conduct: “A breach of the Code of Conduct is subject to disciplinary or legal action in accordance with applicable policies and procedures as approved by the Board of Directors from time to time. The nature of disciplinary action will take into account harm to the individual, harm to CFI Canada and its reputation, and whether or not there was an unequal power relationship. Disciplinary action includes dismissal, where circumstances warrant…H. Responsibilities 2. Members of the Board of Directors, Branch Directors, the National Executive Director and other Officers of CFI Canada are responsible for oversight, applying and implementing this policy in each of their respective jurisdictions.” In other words, a serious position with responsibilities for particular activities and, therefore, consequences for certain misconduct.

[22] Please see Global TV (n.d.). BC1- Atheist ad rejected in Vancouver. Retrieved from http://globalnews.ca/video/embed/1016280/.

[23] Note, the title of “Center for Enquiry Canada” in the Global TV interview provided a faulty title for the educational charity within the interview for O’Brien. The correct title remains “Center for Inquiry Canada.”

[24] Please see Abbass, V. (2014, June 18). Pacific Spirit. Retrieved from http://www.canadianatheist.com/pacific-spirit/.

[25] Please see Johnson, P. (2014, June 12). Pacific Spirit: Atheists demand proof for God’s existence. Retrieved from http://www.vancourier.com/community/pacific-spirit-atheists-demand-proof-for-god-s-existence-1.1127233#sthash.ehr1flAN.dpuf.

[26] Please see The Agenda with Steve Paikin (2013, December 13). How to Get Atheism in Advertising. Retrieved from http://theagenda.tvo.org/blog/agenda-blogs/how-get-atheism-advertising.

[27] Please see CFI Canada (2012). If we raise $40,000 by December 31, 2012 a generous donor will match it!. Retrieved from http://action.centerforinquiry.net/site/MessageViewer?em_id=33841.0.

[28] Please see Peat, D. (2009, March 6). Humanists see light at end of subway tunnel. Retrieved from http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/03/06/8647786-sun.html.

[29] Please see Canada Press (2009, March 6). More Godless Advertising. Retrieved from http://www.marketingmag.ca/advertising/more-godless-advertising-7384.

[30] Please see Egan, D (2007, January 17). Preaching the Word of Atheism. Retrieved from http://thetyee.ca/Life/2007/01/12/Atheism/.

[31] Please see The Drew Marshall Show (2009, March 7). Special Guests. Retrieved from http://drewmarshall.ca/show/090307.

[32] Please see Context with Lorna Dueck (2007, June 19). Atheism: Is Faith Stupid. Retrieved from http://www.contextwithlornadueck.com/episodes/atheism-is-faith-stupid.

[33] Please see Mcelheran, T. (2009, February 4). Group wants atheist ads on city buses. Retrieved from http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/80494/group-wants-atheist-ads-on-city-buses/.

[34] Please see Randi, J. (2009, February 5). Next, They’ll Be Hunting Witches in Nova Scotia!. Retrieved from http://archive.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/424-next-theyll-be-hunting-witches-in-nova-scotia.html.

[35] Please see CBC News (2009, February 3). ‘Good without God’ ad campaign raises questions in Vancouver. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/good-without-god-ad-campaign-raises-questions-in-vancouver-1.833983.

[36] Please see Kiely, B.J. (2009, January 25). Atheism II- Humanism. Retrieved from http://www.uce.ca/ministry/sermon_archive/other/20091025Atheism%20II-%20Humanism.pdf.

[37] Please see O’Brien, P. (2007, January 17). Restructuring HAC. Retrieved from http://www.americanhumanist.org/hnn/archives/?id=283&article=9.

[38] Please see O’Brien, P. (2006, August 2). Morality Into Wine. Retrieved from http://www.americanhumanist.org/hnn/archives/?id=254&article=1.

[39] Please see Rau, K. (2009, March 24). Religious believers less likely to notice own mistakes: study. Retrieved from http://www.dailyxtra.com/canada/religious-believers-less-likely-notice-mistakes-study-52764.

[40] Please see AsianPost (2009, February 19). Outloud! With Gurpreet Singh. Retrieved from http://www.southasianpost.com/article/2653-outloud-gurpreet-singh.html.

[41] Please see Akkad, O.E. (2009, April 10). This is your brain on religion. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/this-is-your-brain-on-religion/article1149526/.

[42] Please see Laidlaw, S. (2008, march 15). Darwin exhibit survives thanks to unlikely backers. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2008/03/15/darwin_exhibit_survives_thanks_to_unlikely_backers.html.

[43] Please see Tam, C. (2013, December 7). Atheism group says ad rejected by Vancouver billboard company. Retrieved from http://globalnews.ca/news/1016292/atheism-group-says-ad-rejected-by-vancouver-billboard-company/.

[44] Please see O’Brien, P. (2014, August 12). On Atheists. Retrieved from http://www.companyofdisciples.com/on-atheists-by-pat-obrien-of-cfi-canada/.

[45] Please see Frazier, K. (2006, December 4). It’s CSI Now, Not CSICOP.

[46] Please see The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (2015). The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved from http://www.csicop.org/.

[47] Please see The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (2015). Skeptical Inquirer. Retrieved from http://www.csicop.org/si.

[48] Please see The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (2015). Skeptical Inquirer. Retrieved from http://www.csicop.org/si.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Pat O’Brien (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/02/15

Abstract

An interview with Pat O’Brien. He discusses: geographic, cultural, linguistic, and family background; Center for Inquiry Canada and intellectual affirmation of skepticism; other moments that piqued interest in humanism, secularism, and other “-isms” associated with the skeptical worldview; Humanists see light at end of subway tunnel and the definition of humanism and formalized statements about the humanist worldview, and the big and small aspects of humanism; unique opportunities and representations for the sub-population of the “unaffiliated,” “no religious affiliation,” “no religion,” “none,” and so on, in British Columbia (B.C.), Canada; Without God, The Story of Secular Humanism and work with Dr. Robert Buckman; and the core message meant from Without God, The Story of Secular Humanism and the apparent reaction to the final production.

Keywords: Center for Inquiry Canada, Dr. Robert Buckman, God, humanist, humanism, Pat O’Brien, Vancouver.

An Interview with Pat O’Brien (Part One) ^[1]^,[2],[3],[4]

*Please see the footnotes throughout the interview, and bibliography and citation style listing after the interview.*

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside?

Vancouver B.C.

2. Your biographic information from the Center for Inquiry Canada (CFIC/CFI Canada) website describes brief personal information about the pivotal moment for transformation into the skeptic mentality, as follows:

At the age of 8 when told “watched water never boils”, Pat put a pot of water on the stove and proved the adage wrong, thus began the life of a skeptic. Pat did not begin his official involvement in the secular/skeptical movement till 2001 when he was researching a documentary on Humanism.^[5]^,[6],[7]

What other pivotal moments in early life stimulated intellectual affirmation of skepticism?^[8]

I was raised a Catholic but from an early age I liked to ask questions and the church never seemed to have satisfactory answers. My education from grade 1 – 5 was in a Catholic school where we were taught by nuns and they did not have any answers either so it was a gradual realization that the teaching of the church, since they could not be backed up by facts, must be in some way wrong.

3. What about other moments which piqued interest in humanism, secularism, and other “-isms” with relative correspondence, or reasonable conceptual overlap, with aspects of the skeptical worldview?

I was always a contrarian. I liked to take the “other” side of an argument because it seemed the best way to learn about the argument. I never took someone’s word for anything, I always wanted proof. This is the basis of scepticism and although I did not know it at the time, that is the first step towards atheism.

4. In an article entitled Humanists see light at end of subway tunnel, you defined humanism, as follows:

Humanism is neither a religion nor a theology and the fact that a person can live a moral life, without deferring to any deity, has been recognized and accepted by religious and secular communities.^[9]^,[10]

Organizations such as American Humanist Association, for instance, defined humanism within the Humanist Manifesto, in one of its three forms, in a similar frame of reference.^[11]^{,[12],[13],[14],[15]} A suite of associations, societies, and organizations exist for the secular humanist community – which can create a chary sense in the less secular, less humanistic, and more religious – in British Columbia, other provinces, the territories, and the nation at large.^[16]^{,[17],[18],[19],[20],[21],[22]}^{,[23],[24],[25],[26],[27],[28]}Of course, the major continental and international organizations for the secular humanist movement exist too.^[29]^{,[30],[31],[32],[33],[34],[35]}These remain theories and collectives, though. What does humanism look like in one’s real life to you – big and small aspects?

This will sound arrogant and is something I criticize the religious for but I believe that we are all Humanist at our core. I don’t think people get their morality from religion, I think religion gets its morality from humans and our shared evolutionary past that imprinted morality not on our hearts but in our DNA. So to answer the question, Humanism is the articulation of that morality that is inherent in most of us (there will always be the Clifford Olsen’s) and our shared humanity, our feeling of what is right and wrong is innate in us, in a naturalistic way. So unlike religion where one must constantly have their religious version of morality reinforced by prayer church attendance etc. we Humanists simply live a moral life without much thought to it most of the time.

5. What unique opportunities and representations exist for the sub-population of the “unaffiliated,” “no religious affiliation,” “no religion,” “none,” and so on, in British Columbia (B.C.), Canada?^[36]^,[37]^{,[38],[39],[40],[41],[42]}

I think we have a lot to offer the general public, mostly in the area of science and the discovery of the natural world and how that creates a most beautiful way of looking at the world. Some, like Oprah, think atheists cannot have awe or wonder. I think the opposite is true because we see things as they really are, not as we would like them to be. The beauty of a rainbow is not enhanced by thinking a celestial painter did it, but by the understanding of light and refraction. To paraphrase one of the brightest physicists of the 20^th century, Richard Feynman; is it not more awe inspiring to have a complete understanding of the way a phenomenon like a rainbow is created than to have an answer that is almost certainly wrong?

6. Your CFI Canada biography continues with elucidation of some professional film work:

The documentary “Without God, The Story of Secular Humanism” with Dr Robert Buckman aired on Vision TV, and CBC Newsworld.^[43]

What instigated involvement with Dr. Robert Buckman for the filming, editing, and eventual production of Without God, The Story of Secular Humanism?^[44]^{,[45],[46],[47],[48],[49],[50],[51],[52],[53],[54],[55],[56]}

I was researching the documentary when I happened to come across the B.C. Humanist Association. I sent an email to the web site and got a reply from their board. I met with several of them who proved to be most helpful in the making of the film. It was one of them that suggested Rob. When I contacted him he was very excited about the project and jumped on immediately. We decided that he would be an excellent on air narrator as he had a lot of experience in front of the camera and with that one of the most influential relationships of my life began.

7. What core message did Dr. Robert Buckman and yourself want to come across with, and what seemed to emerge from the viewership in reaction to, the final product of Without God, The Story of Secular Humanism?^[57]^{,[58],[59],[60],[61],[62]}

We wanted to show two things, first of all, what exactly a Humanist is and more importantly, why we are in fact as, or more moral, that the religious. It is well known that atheists have a bad reputation and we wanted people to know that we are just like every one else with the same basic hopes, dreams and sense of right and wrong.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Board Vice-Chair, Center for Inquiry Canada (CFIC/CFI Canada); Past President, Humanist Canada; Past President, British Columbia Humanist Association.

[2] Individual Publication Date: January 22, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/2016/02/15/an-interview-with-pat-obrien-part-one ; Full Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com/2016/02/15/an-interview-with-pat-obrien-part-one .

[3] Bachelor of Science & Bachelor of Education, Science, Biology, and Education.

[4] Photograph courtesy of Pat O’Brien.

[5] Please see Center for Inquiry Canada (2015). CFI Canada Board of Directors. Retrieved from http://centreforinquiry.ca/about-us/cfi-canada-board-of-directors/.

[6] According to the reportage of Pat Johnson, with partial quotations from O’Brien, in the article entitled Pacific Spirit: Atheists demand proof for God’s existence (2014):

When Pat O’Brien was eight or nine years old, his father told him that a watched pot never boils. “So I got a pot, put it on the stove, never took my eyes off it and it boiled,” says O’Brien. “From that moment on I was a skeptic. I wouldn’t believe anything until I actually saw it for myself.” Pretty soon, he was applying the same criteria to religion. . . . [Pat] is a board member of the Centre for Inquiry Canada, whose mission is to advance “skeptical, secular, rational and humanistic inquiry.

Please see Johnson, P. (2014, June 12). Pacific Spirit: Atheists demand proof for God’s existence. Retrieved from http://www.vancourier.com/community/pacific-spirit-atheists-demand-proof-for-god-s-existence-1.1127233#sthash.ehr1flAN.dpuf.

[7] Please see Johnson, P. (2014, June 12). Pacific Spirit: Atheists demand proof for God’s existence. Retrieved from http://www.vancourier.com/community/pacific-spirit-atheists-demand-proof-for-god-s-existence-1.1127233#sthash.ehr1flAN.dpuf.

[8] Please see Center for Inquiry Canada (2015). CFI Canada Board of Directors. Retrieved from http://centreforinquiry.ca/about-us/cfi-canada-board-of-directors/.

[9] Please see Peat, D. (2009, March 6). Humanists see light at end of subway tunnel. Retrieved from http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/03/06/8647786-sun.html.

[10] In addition to this definition of humanism, other terms within the canon of the unaffiliated with religion have definition by O’Brien; for instance, in On Atheists, he defined atheism in the following manner:

Atheist: noun – One who holds the position that the theists have not met their burden of proof…Atheism is simply one position on one issue; whether a god or gods exist. Atheism says nothing about a person; except that they are not convinced by the evidence the theists have shown, that a god exists.

Please see O’Brien, P. (2014, August 12). On Atheists. Retrieved from http://www.companyofdisciples.com/on-atheists-by-pat-obrien-of-cfi-canada/.

[11] The American Humanist Association Humanist Manifesto connects to the Humanist Manifesto I (1933), Humanist Manifesto II (1973), and Humanist Manifesto III (2003). The Humanist Manifesto III provides the cultural, ethical, philosophical, and scientific codification of the humanist worldview. Each development – 1933, 1973, and 2003 – provides an incremental improvement, an accruement, of the ideological values for humanists with explicit statement for them. Here’s one segmented quotation for some perception of the four prior categorizations of humanist belief:

Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity… Knowledge of the world is derived by observation, experimentation, and rational analysis. Humanists find that science is the best method for determining this knowledge as well as for solving problems and developing beneficial technologies… Humans are an integral part of nature, the result of unguided evolutionary change. Humanists recognize nature as self-existing… Humanists ground values in human welfare shaped by human circumstances, interests, and concerns and extended to the global ecosystem and beyond… Humanists long for and strive toward a world of mutual care and concern, free of cruelty and its consequences, where differences are resolved cooperatively without resorting to violence… Humanists are concerned for the well being of all, are committed to diversity, and respect those of differing yet humane views… The responsibility for our lives and the kind of world in which we live is ours and ours alone.

Please see American Humanist Association (2015). Humanist Manifesto III: Humanism and Its Aspirations. Retrieved from http://americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_III.

[11] Please see American Humanist Association (2015). Humanist Manifesto I. Retrieved from http://americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_I.

[12] Please see American Humanist Association (2015). Humanist Manifesto II. Retrieved from http://americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II.

[13] Please see American Humanist Association (2015). Humanist Manifesto III: Humanism and Its Aspirations. Retrieved from http://americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_III.

[14] Please see Society of Ontario Freethinkers (2015). Our Humanist Principles. Retrieved from http://www.sofree.ca/our-humanist-principles/.

[15] Please see Secular Connexion Séculaire (2015). Goals and Principles. Retrieved from http://www.secularconnexion.ca/goals-principles.html.

[16] A non-exhaustive list of the national, provincial, and territorial unaffiliated with religion organizations under individuated banners of humanist, secular, and so on.

[17] Please see Ontario Humanist Society (2015). Ontario Humanist Society. Retrieved from http://ontariohumanists.ca/.

[18] Please see Humanist Association of Toronto (2015). Humanist Association of Toronto. Retrieved from http://humanisttoronto.blogspot.ca/.

[19] Please see British Columbia Humanist Association (2015). British Columbia Humanist Association. Retrieved from http://bchumanist.ca/.

[20] Please see Secular Connexion Séculaire (2015). Secular Connexion Séculaire. Retrieved from http://www.secularconnexion.ca/.

[21] Please see Society of Ontario Freethinkers (2015). Society of Ontario Freethinkers. Retrieved from http://www.sofree.ca/.

[22] Please see Vancouver Skeptics (2015). Vancouver Skeptics. Retrieved from http://vancouverskeptics.org/.

[23] Please see Canadian Secular Alliance (2015). About. Retrieved from http://secularalliance.ca/about/.

[24] Please see Center for Inquiry (2015). Center for Inquiry: Vancouver. Retrieved from http://www.cficanada.ca/vancouver.

[25] Please see Comox Valley Humanists (2015). Comox Valley Humanists. Retrieved from http://cvhumanists.org/.

[26] Please see Center for Inquiry (2015). Center for Inquiry: Okanagan. Retrieved from http://centreforinquiry.ca/author/cfi-okanagan/.

[27] Please see British Columbia Humanist Association (2015). Fraser Valley Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists. Retrieved from http://bchumanist.ca/communities/fraser-valley/114-welcome-fraser-valley-humanists.

[28] Please see British Columbia Humanist Association (2015). Vancouver Island Humanists. Retrieved from http://bchumanist.ca/communities/oceanside.

[29] A non-exhaustive list of the international humanist, secular, and other organizations.

[30] Please see International Humanist and Ethical Union (2015). International Humanist and Ethical Union. Retrieved from http://iheu.org/.

[31] Please see Atheist Alliance International (2015). Atheist Alliance International. Retrieved from https://www.atheistalliance.org/.

[32] Please see The European Humanist Federation (2015). The European Humanist Federation. Retrieved from http://humanistfederation.eu/.

[33] Please see Rationalist International (2015). Rationalist International. Retrieved from http://www.rationalistinternational.net/.

[34] Please see International League of Humanists (2015). International League of Humanists. Retrieved from http://www.intlh.com/bh/.

[35] Please see Sunday Assembly (2015). Sunday Assembly. Retrieved from http://sundayassembly.com/.

[36] Bearing in mind, the global number of individuals in the unaffiliated categorization equates to about 16%. The continental, North American, count comes to 17.1%. The national, Canadian, count comes to 16%. The provincial, British Columbian, quantity sits around 35.88% or ~35-36%. Please see following footnotes for appropriate bibliographic reference redirections.

[37] Those without affiliation with religion come with numerous self-identifications including agnostic, atheist, “bright,” “freethinker,” humanist, non-believer, non-religious, skeptic, and many others, with an emphasis on a novel definition, which includes many of the previous definitions in relation to religion, “unaffiliated.” Both national and international evidence attest to the comparable affiliation with religion, in December of 2012, to the Canadian quantification, in 2001, at ~16%, and the higher than global number with the province of BC’s affiliation with religion at ~35.88%. A BC “no religious affiliation” sub-population divided by the total BC population: 1,388,300/3,868,875=~35.88%.

PEW Research Center (2015, April 2). The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050. Retrieved from http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/.

[38] Please see PEW Research Center (2015, April 2). The Future Of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050: North America. Retrieved from http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/north-america/.

[39] Please see British Columbia Humanist Association (2013, June 19). BC Religious and Secular Attitudes. Retrieved from http://bchumanist.ca/news/110-bc-religious-and-secular-attitudes-poll.

[40] Please see PEW Research Center (2012, December). The Global Religious Landscape. Retrieved from http://www.pewforum.org/files/2014/01/global-religion-full.pdf.

[41] Please see PEW Research Center (2012, December 12). The Global Religious Landscape. Retrieved from http://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/.

[42] Please see Statistics Canada (2005, January 25). Population by religion, by province and territory (2001 Census): (Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon). Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo30c-eng.htm.

[43] Please see Statistics Canada (2005, January 25). Population by religion, by province and territory (2001 Census): (Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon). Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo30c-eng.htm.

[44] Please see IMDB (2015). Rob Buckman. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0118721/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm.

[45] Duly note, the late Dr. Robert Buckman held the presidency of the Humanist Association of Canada in 2004. A doctor and author with a specialty in oncology, or the study and treatment of tumors. He died in sleep during a transatlantic flight.

[46] Please see Langan, F. (October 11, 2011). Renowned oncologist Robert Buckman dies at age 63. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/renowned-oncologist-robert-buckman-dies-at-63/article2198113/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=National&utm_content=2198113.

[47] Please see Jones, T. (2011, October 12). Rob Buckman Obituary. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/12/rob-buckman.

[48] Please see The Times (2011, October 15). Rob Buckman. Retrieved from http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/obituaries/article3194806.ece.

[49] Please see Q&Q Staff (2000, October). Robert Buckman hits the funny bone. Retrieved from http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/robert-buckman-hits-the-funny-bone/.

[50] Please see The Telegraph (2011, October 30). Rob Buckman. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/medicine-obituaries/8985526/Rob-Buckman.html.

[51] Please see [DocAlTulonge] (2007, August 9). Without God – Part 1 of 5. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7IoSDKBAMU.

[52] Please see [DocAlTulonge] (2007, August 9). Without God – Part 2 of 5. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8BAgfVlbbA.

[53] Please see [DocAlTulonge] (2007, August 9). Without God – Part 3 of 5. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN0nKsiY7qA.

[54] Please see [DocAlTulonge] (2007, August 9). Without God – Part 4 of 5. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqIEBY1Gsi0.

[55] Please see [DocAlTulonge] (2007, August 9). Without God – Part 5 of 5. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG1-yGZJk1Y.

[56] Duly note, one obituary written by the famed Terry Jones of Monty Python. Therefore, a query in direct relation to instigations brings the fame of popular British comedy, such as Monty Python, into the fray with Dr. Robert Buckman, a comedian; not an accident for this phraseology.

[57] Please see IMDB (2015). Rob Buckman. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0118721/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm.

[58] Please see [DocAlTulonge] (2007, August 9). Without God – Part 1 of 5. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7IoSDKBAMU.

[59] Please see [DocAlTulonge] (2007, August 9). Without God – Part 2 of 5. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8BAgfVlbbA.

[60] Please see [DocAlTulonge] (2007, August 9). Without God – Part 3 of 5. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN0nKsiY7qA.

[61] Please see [DocAlTulonge] (2007, August 9). Without God – Part 4 of 5. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqIEBY1Gsi0.

[62] Please see [DocAlTulonge] (2007, August 9). Without God – Part 5 of 5. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG1-yGZJk1Y.

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Professor Junye Wang (Part Three)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/02/08

Abstract

An interview with Professor Junye Wang. He discusses: Modelling nitrous oxide emissions from grazed grassland systems (2012); Pressure drop and flow distribution in a mini-hydrocyclone group: UU-type parallel arrangement (2013); utilization of findings for commercial and industrial applications; Barriers of scaling-up fuel cells: Cost, durability and reliability (2015); most probable future for commercialization and industrialization of fuel cells in Athabasca, Alberta, and Canada; Theory and practice of flow field designs for fuel cell scaling-up: A critical review (2015); inter-relationship of CAIP Research Chair position, the Athabasca River Basin and Alberta, and the commercialization and industrialization of productions such as fuel cells from the laboratory scale of production; environmental impacts of the oil sands; environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing; and top three energy sources for the next 10, 25, and 100 years.

Keywords: Alberta, Athabasca River Basin, Athabasca University, CAIP Research Chair, commercial, fuel cells, industrial, LinkedIn, oil sands, Professor Junye Wang.

An Interview with Professor Junye Wang (Part Three)^[1],^[2],^[3],^[4]

*Please see the footnotes throughout the interview, and bibliography and citation style listing after the interview.*

24. In Modelling nitrous oxide emissions from grazed grassland systems (2012), the paper describes the grazed grassland systems and their role in the global carbon cycle in addition to influence on global climate change based in the identical emissions types from Development and application of a detailed inventory framework for estimating nitrous oxide and methane emissions from agriculture (2011) – namely: nitrous oxide and methane.^[5]You, and others, note the uncertainty involved in the parameterisation of process-based, or dynamic, models for grazed grassland systems, which emerges out of the enormous biodiversity of flora and fauna in these grassland systems that are grazed. Insofar as the descriptive models are concerned, the dynamic models work in the United Kingdom, the DeNitrification-DeComposition (DNDC) or the “process-based biogeochemistry model” was used there.^[6] What did the paper discover about the observations and its correspondence with the model?

The IPCC inventory methodology (Question 19 and 20) is a practical, first-order approach that uses simple default emission factors (EFs) and addresses the anthropogenic effects on sources and sinks of GHGs using a series of default EFs. However, emissions from livestock depend on a range of factors, such as animal type, their weight and age, proportion of time spent grazing, type of animal housing, type of manure and its storage and application, weather and soil type. The variability of all these control EFs, both in time and space, results in very heterogeneous GHG emissions. To contribute towards more reliable estimates of N₂O emissions from grazing systems, the process-based model and its corresponding validation technology in the UK were developed to provide a useful tool for integrating our knowledge of key processes and driving variables to estimate N and C trace gas emissions from grazed pastures.

The model generally captured the timing and intensity of N₂O pulses following rainfall, N fertilizer application or grazing events. The results imply that the external parameters used as inputs to run UK-DNDC take into account the main factors dominating variations of N₂O emissions from the grazed plots. However, discrepancies exist between the modelled results and observations. For example, the model missed some observed high peaks of N₂O emissions, especially the high peaks related to the high fertilizer rates and grazing intensity at the Cae Banadl site. Future improvements in the scientific processes of the model could provide opportunities to reduce the uncertainties in modelling N₂O emissions from grazing systems. Understanding the uncertainties or challenges is critically important for us to accurately address questions regarding the impact of land-management practices and future climate changes on GHG emissions.

25. Pressure drop and flow distribution in a mini-hydrocyclone group: UU-type parallel arrangement (2013) describes miniature hydro-cyclones based on the advantages for increased “separation precision, low cost, easy operation and high stability,” where the single or multiple mini-hydro-cyclones need linkage in parallel for industrial utilization.^[7] Of course, the article describes the great difficulty in the development of parallel single and multiple miniature hydro-cyclones for industrial application. The paper provides a general mathematical model for these parallel miniature hydro-cyclones known as the UU–type parallel mini-hydro-cyclone group.^[8] What did the results of the research show about the parallelization of the UU-type?

Hydrocyclone separation technology has been widely applied in petroleum refining, petrochemical industry, coal liquefaction, coal separation, natural gas purification, methanol-to-olefin conversion, mineral processing, textile and pulp, and other environmental industries. Miniature hydrocyclones have received increasing attention due to their advantages of higher separation precision, low cost, easy operation, and high stability. However, because of small treatment capacity of a single mini-hydrocyclone, numerous mini-hydrocyclones need to be connected in parallel to meet the requirements of industrial scale treatments. Such a system of numerous mini-hydrocyclones in parallel connection can meet the requirement of large scale of industrial applications and at the same time achieve its maximum efficiency of separation. This is another example of repeated units that the performance of a successful hydrocyclone is repeated by all other hydrocyclones in the system. Under the ideal operating conditions, every mini-hydrocyclone separation efficiency is similar as other hydrocyclones and the efficiency of the system is the highest. This paper extended the theory of flow distribution in manifolds into the more complex system of parallel miniature hydro-cyclones known as the UU–type parallel mini-hydro-cyclone group. The results demonstrate the capability of the present model to improve the separation efficiency and to meet treatment capacity for large-scale industrial applications.

26. How might this become utilized for commercial and industrial applications?^[9]

The UU-type hydrocyclone group has been used successfully for many fields, such as wastewater treatment of delayed coking, washing soil contaminated by a variety of heavy metals and radioactive contaminants, separation of animal and microbial cells, and the recycling of sewage slurry with alkali and sulfur in many industrial projects in China.

27. Barriers of scaling-up fuel cells: Cost, durability and reliability (2015) describes the foundation of the fuel cell from 170 years ago in addition to its present status, industrially, as “fledgling,” and the mainstream nature of the technology is, apparently, nil.^[10]The article poses some problems with respect to the commercialization and industrialization of fuels cells:

Why has scaling-up of fuel cells failed so often when many researchers have stated their successes in the small scale? Why do fuel cell stacks have lower durability, reliability and robustness than their individual cells? Could investments of a hydrogen fueling infrastructure stimulate advancements in the key issues of durability, reliability and robustness and substantially reduce fuel cell costs?^[11]

How did the paper answer each query?

The immediate aim of this paper was to stimulate debate on the open issues of fuel cell technology, and to propose changes for improvement. Unless one understands the challenges of commercialization, there is little chance of meeting them. In this paper, I analyzed and confronted these critical questions to address the challenges of scaling-up technologies and identify key barriers. Further, root causes for the challenges of durability, reliability and robustness of fuel cells were analyzed. I elaborated on why durability and reliability of fuel cells are the biggest technical barriers to commercialization rather than establishing hydrogen fueling infrastructures. Future opportunities for the commercialization of fuel cells have been discussed with recommendations for change of priorities. An integrated approach is required for the fuel cell technology to substantially improve the durability and reliability of fuel cells and reduce their costs. I examine options and suggest a procedure for change to ensure that scaling-up targets for durability and reliability are met.

28. What seems like the most probable future for commercialization and industrialization of fuel cells in Athabasca, Alberta, and Canada?

Fuel cell technologies have clear advantages of high efficiency, low emission and low noise over conventional engines, such as internal combustion (IC) engines and gas turbines. High efficiency means a low bill and low emissions. If the reliability and durability of fuel cells are comparable to IC engines or boilers, many end-users will choose the low bill engines even if a little bit of high capital. Particularly, if consider environmental-friendly, more and more end-users will choose the new technologies. Therefore, as a core technology of future engine and energy, fuel cells will play a pivotal role in revolutionizing the way we power our world; offering cleaner, more-efficient alternatives to the IC engine in vehicles and gas turbines or coal fired boilers and steam turbines at distributed power generating stations.

29. Finally, Theory and practice of flow field designs for fuel cell scaling-up: A critical review(2015) demarcates the laboratory and industrial scale fuels cells, akin to some problems involved with the commercialization and industrialization described in the earlier articles, and the scaling upwards of the “throughput, operating lifetime, cost, reliability and efficiency.”^[12] How does this article tackle these issues?

As an assembly of repeated units, the maximum power output of a stack should ideally be a linear sum of all cells in the stack and the lifetime, reliability and durability of a stack are determined by its worst individual cell. Although there are various outward appearances of scaling-up failures, such as water, heat and material issues, the failure of scaling-up is because of poor designs, leading to uneven gas intake of each cell in the stack due to uneven flow distribution. The performance degradation or failure of scaling-up is essentially due to some channels in a cell or some cells in a stack deviating from their design conditions due to an uneven gas intake distribution. As long as uneven flow distribution and pressure drop exceeds its operating windows, there will be a series of deteriorations, leading to an uneven chemical reaction. The uneven chemical reaction is the main cause of uneven water, heat, and current productions. An uneven heat production leads also to a heterogeneous distribution of temperature and thermal stress, an important indicator of duration and life of the cell. This deviation can significantly exceed the capacity of water removal and heat diffusion in a channel or a cell, leading eventually to larger issues, such as flooding, drying, and hotspots. This review addresses two key barriers facing engineers in flow field designs of fuel cells. One is how to find an optimal combination with high performance (high uniformity and low pressure drop) from thousands upon thousands of combinations among configurations, channel and header shapes, and flow conditions (pressure, flow rate, temperature and humidity). Another is to assess how far a fuel cell is from its optimal/given operating conditions and how a flow field design can be improved to meet specific operating ranges. Flow field designs are a strategic solution and provide a major opportunity to improve the durability and reliability of large scale stacks. To this end, remarkable progresses in the theory and tool of flow field designs have been achieved to establish a direct and explicit relationship of configurations, structures, flow conditions and performance that can be used to evaluate different design alternatives regarding the various structural and flow conditions with respect to performance and predictive capability. All these studies demonstrate the possibility of designs for fuel cell configurations to achieve an optimal performance, reliability, and durability of fuel cell scaling-up in terms of good flow distribution, low pressure drop and transient response through the four characteristic parameters.

30. What appears to inter-relate the CAIP Research Chair position, the Athabasca River Basin and Alberta, and the commercialization and industrialization of productions such as fuel cells from the laboratory scale of production?

A river basin such as the Athabasca River Basin (ARB) is a complex system which consists of terrestrial and aquatic systems. All processes of physics, chemistry, biology and society interact at different scales but such a system is artificially separated into different components according to their disciplines. This artificial separation is not due to the essence of the system but the limitation of our knowledge and understanding. In fact, a river basin has no clear boundaries of different disciplines. It is clear that such an analysis of the real system requires the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research and integration. However, it is unclear which discipline should be included or which discipline could definitely not be related to the complex system. This may be called their scientific identity crisis. Knowledge from other disciplines may make an important contribution to a river basin research. As you may know, engineering has provided research instruments and equipment for the development of many disciplines, such as chemistry, biology and society. Fuel cells are a type of energy devices but they can be developed for a specific instrumentation. Here, the biogeochemical processes in soil architecture are at the micro-scale. Soil pores permit the coexistence of air, chemicals such as nutrients, and water essential to soil microbial activities. Pore and channel structures determine how easily microbes can extract water and nutrients, and the rate of diffusion of nutrients and water into and out of the soil architecture. However, it is difficult to measure the pore-scale processes in the below ground using the conventional laboratory and field experiments because that requires very high resolution. Therefore, a specially designed microreactor has potentials to enable systematical tests for complex interactions of microbial and nutrients in porous media. For example, microbial fuel cells are commonly used for wastewater treatment or biosensors. Fuel cells are a special type of microreactor. Their theory can be fundamental to design special microreactors or microbial fuel cells for measurement of pore scale processes. This technology may deepen our understanding of soil processes; findings and knowledge at the micro-scale will be used to develop and improve the large-scale CAIP modelling framework of integrated terrestrial and aquatic systems. The goals and the evolution of this CAIP program have led to a growing integration of our research with that which is being undertaken by other researchers, while at the same time providing a stimulus for, and a new perspective on, the work on current issues in watershed management which is being carried out in the program.

31. What remain the environmental impacts of the oil sands?

Extraction of oil and gas from oil sands, are often associated with industrial processes. Wastewater and tailings can be generated in large quantities that contain constituents that are potentially harmful to human health and the environment. Cumulative effects can last hundreds of years if without appreciate remediation and reclamation.

32. What remain the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing?

Development of hydraulic fracking, from seismic and core hole exploration, production well pads, roads and pipelines, can create significant disturbance to the forest and grassland, which can negatively impact biodiversity of animals and plants. A growing number of active wells and inactive and abandoned wells are incurring significant environmental impacts because of the potential dangers of well leaching and spill from flow-back, such as contamination of groundwater, methane pollution and its impact on climate change and air pollution, exposure to toxic chemicals, blowouts due to gas explosion, waste disposal and large volume water use in water-deficient regions. This potentially harmful wastewater and gas creates a need for appropriate wastewater management infrastructure and practices. There are also major knowledge gaps in how the flow-back and leaching pollutants will degrade and diffuse through the biogeochemical and hydrological processes above and below ground once they are inputted to a site or a watershed.

33. What seem like the top three energy sources for the next 10, 25, and 100 years?

In the next 10 years, fossil and nuclear energy will still be dominant. In next 25 years, renewable energy will increase gradually their share with fossil and nuclear energy. Finally, renewable energy will replace fossil and nuclear energy in the future.

Thank you for your time, Professor Wang.

Bibliography

Huang, C., Wang, J., Wang, J., Chen, C., & Wang, H. (2013). Pressure drop and flow distribution in a mini-hydrocyclone group: UU-type parallel arrangement.Separation & Purification Technology, 103139-150. doi:10.1016/j.seppur.2012.10.030
Junye, W., & Geoffrey H., P. (2009). Flow simulation in a complex fluidics using three turbulence models and unstructured grids.International Journal Of Numerical Methods For Heat & Fluid Flow, 19(3/4), 484-500.
LinkedIn. (2015). LinkedIn. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/.
Wang, J. (2015). Barriers of scaling-up fuel cells: Cost, durability and reliability.Energy, 80509-521. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2014.12.007.
Wang, J. (2011). Theory of flow distribution in manifolds.Chemical Engineering Journal, 168(3), 1331-1345. doi:10.1016/j.cej.2011.02.050
Wang, J., Cardenas, L. M., Misselbrook, T. H., & Gilhespy, S. (2011). Development and application of a detailed inventory framework for estimating nitrous oxide and methane emissions from agriculture.Atmospheric Environment, 45(7), 1454-1463. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2010.12.014
Wang, J., Cardenas, L. M., Misselbrook, T. H., Cuttle, S., Thorman, R. E., & Li, C. (2012). Modelling nitrous oxide emissions from grazed grassland systems.Environmental Pollution, 162223-233. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2011.11.027
Wang, J., & Wang, H. (2012). Discrete approach for flow field designs of parallel channel configurations in fuel cells.International Journal Of Hydrogen Energy, 37(14), 10881-10897. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.04.034
Wang, J., Zhang, X., Bengough, A. G., & Crawford, J. W. (2005). Domain-decomposition method for parallel lattice Boltzmann simulation of incompressible flow in porous media.Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, And Soft Matter Physics, 72(1 Pt 2), 016706.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Professor and CAIP Chair, Science and Technology, Athabasca University.

[2] Individual Publication Date: February 8, 2016 at http://in-sightjournal.com/2016/02/08/an-interview-with-professor-junye-wang-part-three/; Full Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2016 at http://in-sightjournal.com/2016/02/08/an-interview-with-professor-junye-wang-part-three/.

[3] Ph.D. (1993 – 1996), Chemical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology; M.Sc. (1986 – 1989), Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Harbin Shipbuilding Engineering Institute.

[4] Photograph courtesy of Professor Junye Wang.

[5] Please see Wang, J., Cardenas, L. M., Misselbrook, T. H., Cuttle, S., Thorman, R. E., & Li, C. (2012). Modelling nitrous oxide emissions from grazed grassland systems. Environmental Pollution, 162223-233. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2011.11.027

[6] Please see Wang, J., Cardenas, L. M., Misselbrook, T. H., Cuttle, S., Thorman, R. E., & Li, C. (2012). Modelling nitrous oxide emissions from grazed grassland systems. Environmental Pollution, 162223-233. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2011.11.027

[7] Please see Huang, C., Wang, J., Wang, J., Chen, C., & Wang, H. (2013). Pressure drop and flow distribution in a mini-hydrocyclone group: UU-type parallel arrangement. Separation & Purification Technology, 103139-150. doi:10.1016/j.seppur.2012.10.030

[8] Please see Huang, C., Wang, J., Wang, J., Chen, C., & Wang, H. (2013). Pressure drop and flow distribution in a mini-hydrocyclone group: UU-type parallel arrangement. Separation & Purification Technology, 103139-150. doi:10.1016/j.seppur.2012.10.030

[9] Please see Huang, C., Wang, J., Wang, J., Chen, C., & Wang, H. (2013). Pressure drop and flow distribution in a mini-hydrocyclone group: UU-type parallel arrangement. Separation & Purification Technology, 103139-150. doi:10.1016/j.seppur.2012.10.030

[10] Please see Wang, J. (2015). Barriers of scaling-up fuel cells: Cost, durability and reliability. Energy, 80509-521. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2014.12.007.

[11] Please see Wang, J. (2015). Barriers of scaling-up fuel cells: Cost, durability and reliability. Energy, 80509-521. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2014.12.007.

[12] Please see Wang, J. (2015). Theory and practice of flow field designs for fuel cell scaling-up: A critical review. Applied Energy,157: 640-663. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.01.032

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Professor Junye Wang (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/02/01

Abstract

An interview with Professor Junye Wang. He discusses: most effective means of teaching students through an online education; benefits to the professor-researcher; LinkedIn self-description and breadth of experience brought to Athabasca University; unifying theme for select research articles; Domain-decomposition method for parallel lattice Boltzmann simulation of incompressible flow in porous media (2005); pragmatic implications for implementation to research on the Athabasca River Basin; Flow simulation in a complex fluidics using three turbulence models and unstructured grids (2009); Development and application of a detailed inventory framework for estimating nitrous oxide and methane emissions from agriculture (2011); extrapolations about average annual emissions in the United Kingdom 2011 to the present and in the next decade; Theory of flow distribution in manifolds (2011); greater generality create more or less functionality; Discrete approach for flow field designs of parallel channel configurations in fuel cells (2012); and Modelling nitrous oxide emissions from grazed grassland systems (2012).

Keywords: Athabasca River Basin, Athabasca University, CAIP Research Chair, LinkedIn, Professor Junye Wang.

An Interview with Professor Junye Wang (Part Two)^[1]^,^[2]^,^[3]^,^[4]

*Please see the footnotes throughout the interview, and bibliography and citation style listing after the interview.*

12. What is the most effective means of teaching students through an online institution such as Athabasca University?

E-learning, digital course, and distance learning has been very important part of higher education. An online course could aim at unlimited participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, a massive open online course can provide interactive user forums to support community interactions between students, professors, and teaching tutors. AU is internationally a leader in open and distance education. AU is dedicated to the removal of barriers that restrict access to and success in university-level study and to increasing equality of educational opportunity for adult learners worldwide through widely researched development in distance education, such as mobile learning, multi-media, and online activities.

13. What benefits come to the professor-researcher such as yourself?

My basic research is on multi-scale and multidisciplinary modelling. The CAIP program provides long-term funding so that I can focus on development of an ambitious framework: the modelling framework of integrated terrestrial and aquatic systems.

14. According to LinkedIn, circa 2015, you self-describe, as follows:

Junye’s research mainly focus on energy, environment and sustainability. [He] has over 30 year experience of multi-scale and multidisciplinary modeling and is internationally recognized as a leader in energy, environment and sustainability. His research program is aimed at integrating agroecosystem, land use change and Geographic Information System (GIS) to assess environmental impacts of expanding biogas, bioenergy crops and land use change with emphasis on their interactions. He has developed various modeling and simulation of various physical, chemical and biological systems using various numerical and empirical approaches, such as lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and agroecosystem modelling (IPCC and process-based approaches) with a broad range of applications, such as agroecosystems, soil carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas emission and mitigation, nutrient cycling, water and hydrology, fuel cells/microbial fuel cells, thermofluid systems, porous media and bioenergy. His researches were highlighted by governments and organisations, such as European Commission in Science for Environment Policy, Earth Emphasis and Renewable Energy Global Innovation. He looks to expand capacity of agroecosystem modeling and computational sustainability to develop an integrated framework for assessment of environmental impacts of unconventional oil and gas (oil sands and hydraulic fracturing) production on agroecosystem and identify key factors of the cumulative effects for watershed management across Alberta and Canada. He has authored about 50 refereed journal papers and serves associate editor and editorial board member of several international journals. He is a reviewer of papers for about 40 journals and a reviewer of proposals and final reports for three research councils in the UK (EPSRC, NERC and ESRC).^[5]

What does this breadth of experience bring to the educational and research work at Athabasca University?

A river basin is a complex system of physical, chemical and biological processes. Any single method is insufficient to build such an ambitious research hub and infrastructure. It is necessary to integrate multiple approaches and disciplines for establishing a relationship between physical, chemical and biological processes that reflects real-world problems. I have the unique background and experience of various modelling methods, from high-resolution numerical approaches such as the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) (e.g., PHYSICA multi-physics package and the Rolls-Royce HYDRA CFD code) to process-based models (e.g., DNDC and Roth-C). As a professional modeller, I have a strong experience of a variety of numerical methods and an exceptional ability to select the most suitable approach for a specific real-world problem and to integrate numerical methods for their mutual enhancement. Thus, my expertise and experience make it easier to adopt a whole systems approach and multidisciplinary collaboration to study dynamic interactions of nutrients, water, energy, pollutants, human activities and land-use management in river basin research. On the other hand, my experience and expertise in multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary integration and collaboration, can promote research-driven teaching and learning at AU. A cutting-edge research usually requires students to face various challenges. Thus, it is an excellent opportunity for students to acquire skills of critical thinking and problem-solving through the real problems-driven learning.

15. You have authored a number of articles including Domain-decomposition method for parallel lattice Boltzmann simulation of incompressible flow in porous media(2005),Flow simulation in a complex fluidics using three turbulence models and unstructured grids (2009), Development and application of a detailed inventory framework for estimating nitrous oxide and methane emissions from agriculture (2011), Theory of flow distribution in manifolds (2011), Modelling nitrous oxide emissions from grazed grassland systems (2012), Discrete approach for flow field designs of parallel channel configurations in fuel cells (2012), Pressure drop and flow distribution in a mini-hydrocyclone group: UU-type parallel arrangement (2013), Barriers of scaling-up fuel cells: Cost, durability and reliability (2015), and Theory and practice of flow field designs for fuel cell scaling-up: A critical review (2015)^[6]^,^[7]^,^[8]^,^[9]^,^[10]^,^[11]^,^[12]^,^[13]^,^[14]Before exploration of these particular articles, what core theme unites these research articles, and, more generally, their respective topics and sub-topics?

These articles are on various topics from chemical engineering and energy, to environment and biogeochemical processes. A core theme is on energy, environment and sustainability. The world consists of fluid and solid. Despite very different phenomena in the real world, they are all essentially interactions between fluids, solids or fluid and solid, which are controlled by three transports (mass, energy and momentum) and two reactions (chemical and biological). These articles are to establish relationships between the three transports and the two reactions for different real-world problems using various analytical and numerical methods.

16. Domain-decomposition method for parallel lattice Boltzmann simulation of incompressible flow in porous media(2005) describes the lattice Boltzmann method for the simulation of flow in porous media, and a “cell-based domain-decompositions method for the parallel lattice Boltzmann simulation of flow in porous media.”^[15] It relates to parallel or high performance computation. What are the advantages in this method? How was this cell-based domain-decompositions method utilized in this paper?

A personal computer does not have capacities to complete a large scale simulation in time. Parallel computation is a type of computation in which a big job of simulation is divided uniformly into many smaller ones. Then, these smaller jobs are distributed on many CPUs. Thus, many calculations are carried out simultaneously, operating on the principle that each CPU takes approximate job load. Therefore, it is central in the parallel computation how a big job is divided uniformly into many smaller ones, which is called “domain-decompositions.” The algorithm of the cell based domain decomposition is a generalized method of domain-decompositions for complex geometries. It has the following advantages: i) automatically decomposes a complex flow domain, ii) optimizes computer memory using sparse matrix that only store fluid cells, iii) exact load balance, iv) simple communication pattern and nearest communication connection among processors, and v) high parallel efficiency in agreement with the theoretical efficiency. Therefore, the algorithm is flexible, efficient and reliable for modeling flow in any complex geometry and is superior to other similar methods for complex geometries.

17. What seem like some of the pragmatic implications for implementation to research on the Athabasca River Basin?

Ensuring sustainable resource development is a top priority of Alberta strategic plans. The development of next generation modeling tools is key to drive new and deeper understanding in terrestrial and aquatic systems for sustainable resource management. Such an analysis of the real system such as the Athabasca River Basin based on the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research and integration will enforce systematic, quantitative and comprehensive clarification of concepts and assumptions and impose rational methods for approaching the problem of sustainable resource development and management in a river basin. It is likely that the research results will offer new approaches and improved technologies to achieve sustainable resource development and management in the Athabasca River Basin system.

18. Flow simulation in a complex fluidics using three turbulence models and unstructured grids(2009) aimed to simulate “symmetrical turn-up vortex amplifier (STuVA)” for the maximal flow-rate of an “eight-port STuVA.”^[16] The paper described the utilization for the methodology as 3 turbulence models known as the standard k-epsilon”, the renormalization group (RNG) k-epsilon ” model and the Reynolds stress model (RSM)”; wherein, each of them has simulated flow in an eight-port STuVA for maximum flow minus swirling in the flow. From this, the article compared, or better contrasted, with the flow rate in ambient conditions. RSM appeared to match the experimental observations and measurements more than RNG and the standard k-epsilon How can research in different models of flow rate be utilized in the Athabasca River Basin – in practical terms?

Fluid mechanics is fundamental to studies of hydrological processes. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a high-resolution method of fluid mechanics to simulate three transports (mass, energy and momentum) and two reactions (chemical and biological). Though the background of this article is on STuVA, the three turbulence models and numerical algorithms of the CFD in this paper are the same as those of various industrial and hydrological problems. In practice, there have been many applications of the CFD in hydrological modelling, such as coast wave modelling, flooding and flume diffusion. Therefore, the CFD is not unsuitable for the watershed modelling but computers lack sufficient power and memory. At least the numerical treatments and algorithms of the CFD can inspire our thinking in the watershed modelling during simplifying hydrological models.

19. In Development and application of a detailed inventory framework for estimating nitrous oxide and methane emissions from agriculture (2011)²⁰, the team utilized Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) default or country-specific emission factors (EFs) with census data from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales to develop a detailed inventory framework for the estimation of nitrous oxide (N₂O)and methane (CH₄).^[17]This framework was used to calculate the mean annual emissions of CH₄ and N₂O from crops and livestock, as well as leaching or runoff for nations bound within the United Kingdom. What other findings came from this research?

The UK ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 1993 and the Convention came into force in March 1994. Parties to the Convention are committed to developing, publishing and regularly updating national inventories of GHG emissions. The inventory framework was constructed to resolve local differences and regional heterogeneity. Thus, local-level EFs were replaced easily using either local-specific EFs (Tier 2) or more complex ones from process-based models (Tier 3). Here we demonstrated a capability of the present framework for the estimate of a national inventory with four country-level resolution. The emissions from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, were estimated separately using the IPCC approach. The total emission from the four countries was aggregated to the U.K. national total. Although the framework was illustrated using four country-level data, it is easy to be extended to higher resolution without any code structural change. Furthermore, it is ready to integrate with Geographic Information System (GIS) to resolve spatial variation and map emissions pattern.

20. What extrapolations remain relevant to the current condition of average annual emissions in the United Kingdom from 2011 to the present, and in the next decade?^[18]

The IPCC inventory approach is simple, comparable, transparent and global coverage for estimate of GHG inventory. The IPCC inventory is based on statistical approach to report national greenhouse gas (GHG) with a view to providing internationally acceptable inventory methodologies. Therefore, the IPCC inventory is not for prediction of GHGs but for reporting national GHG emissions though IPCC inventory allows different policy options and different land-use to be compared and to be evaluated.

21. Theory of flow distribution in manifolds (2011) delineates the theory of flow distribution and pressure drop in the prediction of dynamic performance and efficiency for manifold systems which occurred within the methodological and the theoretical models.^[19]The paper unified existing models, momentum theory, Bernoulli theory, and discrete & continuum models – a novel generalised model without a concomitant neologism. End result: a user-friendly design tool to evaluate the interaction among structures, operational conditions, and manufacture “tolerance.” Could this model become more generalized through incorporation of more (disparate) models?

Flow distribution in manifolds is fundamental issue of fluid mechanics and encounters in a wide range of areas, from radial flow reactors in chemical engineering and boiler header in mechanical engineering, to fuel cells in energy engineering and irrigation in agricultural engineering. In the past fifty years, hundreds of different models have been developed for flow distribution in manifolds that are scattered in different areas. However, some models are empirical and most of all the existing models are only suitable for some specific flow region or specific manifold structure. A generalized theory is suitable for all the flow conditions and more general manifold structure, but it is a well-known challenge to develop a generalized theory in the past fifty years. The point is not to incorporate more models in manifolds, but to solve the practical problem of flow distributions. This theory has included the main models and methods that have been developed in the past fifty years. In other words, these existing models and methods become a special case of this generalized theory.

22. Would this greater generality create more or less functionality?

No, this generality is not to create more or less functionality, but to be useful for more structures and operating conditions.

23. In Discrete approach for flow field designs of parallel channel configurations in fuel cells (2012), the paper describes the difficulty, the problem, in transformation of single, or multiple, laboratory scale fuel cells into industrial scale production for mass utility, which involves a number of problems to maintain “throughput, operating life, low cost, reliability and high efficiency in R&D offuelcells.”^[20]You intended the research to find a uniform flow distribution and pressure drop in a homogenous, or parallel, set of channel setups, or “configurations.”^[21] How did the “present approach” improve upon the performance of “different layout configurations, structures, and flow conditions”?^[22]

The upscaling of fuel cells is based on a basic assumption of repeat units that a successful cell performance can be repeated by all other cells in the stack since they use the same materials, seals, catalyst and structures, and undertake the same electrochemical processes. This means that the issues of chemistry, materials, water, and heat have been solved in a single cell scale. For this type of designs using repeat units, the uniformity of the flow distribution in a manifold system often determines efficiency, durability and cost of the unit stack. Under the ideal operating conditions, the electrochemical reaction is uniform over all the cells and the efficiency of the fuel cell stack is the highest and its reliability and durability is comparable to that of its individual cell. Therefore, the development of the theoretical model is to evaluate if the performance of a successful cell is repeated by all other cells in the fuel cell stack and if all the cells in the stack operate in the same operating conditions, such as flow rates and pressure drops. Thus, a design can be improved by optimization of flow conditions and structure.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Professor and CAIP Chair, Science and Technology, Athabasca University.

[2] Individual Publication Date: February 1, 2016 at http://in-sightjournal.com/2016/02/01/an-interview-with-professor-junye-wang-part-two/; Full Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2016 at http://in-sightjournal.com/2016/02/01/an-interview-with-professor-junye-wang-part-two/.

[4] Photograph courtesy of Professor Junye Wang.

[5] Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Junye Wang. Retrieved from https://ca.linkedin.com/pub/junye-wang/15/a87/a87.

[6] Please see Wang, J., Zhang, X., Bengough, A. G., & Crawford, J. W. (2005). Domain-decomposition method for parallel lattice Boltzmann simulation of incompressible flow in porous media. Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, And Soft Matter Physics, 72(1 Pt 2), 016706.

[7] Please see Junye, W., & Geoffrey H., P. (2009). Flow simulation in a complex fluidics using three turbulence models and unstructured grids. International Journal Of Numerical Methods For Heat & Fluid Flow, 19(3/4), 484-500.

[8] Please see Wang, J., Cardenas, L. M., Misselbrook, T. H., & Gilhespy, S. (2011). Development and application of a detailed inventory framework for estimating nitrous oxide and methane emissions from agriculture. Atmospheric Environment, 45(7), 1454-1463. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2010.12.014

[9] Please see Wang, J. (2011). Theory of flow distribution in manifolds. Chemical Engineering Journal, 168(3), 1331-1345. doi:10.1016/j.cej.2011.02.050

[10] Please see Wang, J., Cardenas, L. M., Misselbrook, T. H., Cuttle, S., Thorman, R. E., & Li, C. (2012). Modelling nitrous oxide emissions from grazed grassland systems. Environmental Pollution, 162223-233. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2011.11.027

[11] Please see Wang, J., & Wang, H. (2012). Discrete approach for flow field designs of parallel channel configurations in fuel cells. International Journal Of Hydrogen Energy, 37(14), 10881-10897. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.04.034

[12] Please see Huang, C., Wang, J., Wang, J., Chen, C., & Wang, H. (2013). Pressure drop and flow distribution in a mini-hydrocyclone group: UU-type parallel arrangement. Separation & Purification Technology, 103139-150. doi:10.1016/j.seppur.2012.10.030

[13] Please see Wang, J. (2015). Barriers of scaling-up fuel cells: Cost, durability and reliability. Energy, 80509-521. do

i:10.1016/j.energy.2014.12.007.

[14] Please see Wang, J. (2015). Theory and practice of flow field designs for fuel cell scaling-up: A critical review. Applied Energy,157640-663. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.01.032

[15] Please see Wang, J., Zhang, X., Bengough, A. G., & Crawford, J. W. (2005). Domain-decomposition method for parallel lattice Boltzmann simulation of incompressible flow in porous media. Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, And Soft Matter Physics, 72(1 Pt 2), 016706.

[16] Please see Junye, W., & Geoffrey H., P. (2009). Flow simulation in a complex fluidics using three turbulence models and unstructured grids. International Journal Of Numerical Methods For Heat & Fluid Flow, 19(3/4), 484-500.

[17] Please see Wang, J., Cardenas, L. M., Misselbrook, T. H., & Gilhespy, S. (2011). Development and application of a detailed inventory framework for estimating nitrous oxide and methane emissions from agriculture. Atmospheric Environment, 45(7), 1454-1463. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2010.12.014

[18] Please see Wang, J., Cardenas, L. M., Misselbrook, T. H., & Gilhespy, S. (2011). Development and application of a detailed inventory framework for estimating nitrous oxide and methane emissions from agriculture. Atmospheric Environment, 45(7), 1454-1463. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2010.12.014

[19] Please see Wang, J. (2011). Theory of flow distribution in manifolds. Chemical Engineering Journal, 168(3), 1331-1345. doi:10.1016/j.cej.2011.02.050

[20] Please see Wang, J., & Wang, H. (2012). Discrete approach for flow field designs of parallel channel configurations in fuel cells. International Journal Of Hydrogen Energy, 37(14), 10881-10897. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.04.034

[21] Please see Wang, J., & Wang, H. (2012). Discrete approach for flow field designs of parallel channel configurations in fuel cells. International Journal Of Hydrogen Energy, 37(14), 10881-10897. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.04.034

[22] Please see Wang, J., & Wang, H. (2012). Discrete approach for flow field designs of parallel channel configurations in fuel cells. International Journal Of Hydrogen Energy, 37(14), 10881-10897. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.04.034

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2023-02-03

An Interview with Professor Junye Wang (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/01/22

Abstract

An interview with Professor Junye Wang. He discusses: geographic, cultural, linguistic, and family background; influence on development; influences and pivotal moments in major cross-sections of early life including kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school, high school, and undergraduate studies (college/university); origination of interest in science and technology; educators that inspired in youth; previous professional positions including research scientist at Scottish Crop Research Institute (The James Hutton Institute) from July, 2003to November, 2004, research associate at Loughborough University from November, 2004 to February, 2008, and principal research scientist at Rothamsted Research from March, 2008 to May, 2013, and the research experience from them; greatest take-home message from these positions; responsibilities to the public with these positions; current position is professor and CAIP Research Chair at Athabasca University beginning in August, 2013 and its targeted teaching objectives in addition to duties to the public and students; research objectives and concomitant responsibilities with the CAIP Research Chair position; and implications in funding and research for the CAIP Research Chair.

Keywords: Athabasca University, CAIP Research Chair, Loughborough University, Professor Junye Wang, responsibilities, Scottish Crop Research Institute.

An Interview with Professor Junye Wang (Part One)^[1]^,[2]^,[3]^,[4]

*Please see the footnotes and citation style listing after the interview.*

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside?

In the late 1950s, many state farms were built in Jiangxi province, China. Thus, many educated urban youth cadres and veterans were mobilized, and sent to these state farms by the movement of “up to the mountains and down to the villages.” My parents were sent to the Comprehensive Reclamation and Cultivation Farm at Yunshan. I was born in the state farm in the year just after Great Leap Forward and “Three Bitter Years” started. My childhood was difficult, and meals were meager. Because my parents were busy with their careers, my maternal grandmother came to Yunshan to look after us children. She was not accustomed to life in Jiangxi and was missing her hometown, Shuangpai village, Lanxi, Zhejiang province. Therefore, my grandmother brought me and my sister to travel between the hometown and the place that my parents worked. When she came to Yunshan, she brought us to Yunshan. When she came back to the hometown, I was with her to live in Shuangpai and we weren’t living with my parents. Thus, I had many friends of peasant children. The peasant children were more hardship than the state farm children. Some of them had to take care of their younger brother/sisters and fed pigs because their parents had no salaries. I saw some classmates to bring their young sister or brother to school. In China, life in cities was much better than our own. My family wanted to move back to the cities from the farm. However, the great majority of those at the farm found themselves trapped in the countryside, condemned to a life of back-breaking labor, and hoping for a recall to the city that never came. My family was the same. In Yunshan, our time there would be lengthy, perhaps permanent. The students did not need to study for both Shuangpai or Yunshan school due to the Cultural Revolution. I didn’t have any forehead mark indicating that I have any special abilities, and I didn’t have any opportunities to study, so my childhood and teenage years were mainly full of activities that I enjoyed, and labor work such as collecting firewood, fishing in creeks, and collecting wild fruits.

2. How did this influence development?

Rural youths in developing countries had fewer opportunities than those in the cities due to poor educational resources. They needed to make more of an effort as a result. However, difficult circumstances can temper one’s will. I did not have a good education, but I was educated by our experiences during the Cultural Revolution and rural hardship.

I had no experiences of kindergarten. My grandmother looked after my preschool and primary school. Like those who lived in rural regions in China, their grandmothers were a housewife for cooking and looking after their grandsons and granddaughters. When I attended primary school, the Cultural Revolution broke out, and the school was changed into a forum for political propaganda. All the students in the school recited Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong and became Little Red Guards. They criticized Capitalism and revisionism in their terms, and studied a little math, physics, and chemistry. For the rural students, they also learned weeding rice plots in Spring and rice harvest in Summer and Fall from the poor and lower-middle peasants. When I was 14 years old, I did not attend high school, but The Communist Labor University at Yunshan [John Cleverley, In the Lap of Tigers: The Communist Labor University of Jiangxi Province, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (March 1 2000)]. All students in the branch worked for periods in field or forest without exception. Although, I was the youngest student in the university, no one was exceptional to undertake the heavy labor work because our branch was on demands of students for rice production throughout. Generally, two days were in field or forest and 3 days were in class rooms like that described by John Cleverley. However, in my memory, the physical labor time on demand were much more than study time because of too many busy farming seasons, such as seeding, weeding rice plots in Spring, and harvesting rice in Summer and Fall, and building/maintaining the irrigation system and cultivating economic trees in Winter. All days were in fields except for breakfast and lunch. The rice was weeded and harvested by hand using a sickle. This was harder work: “back to the sky, face to the land.” Cuts to legs and arms easily became infected and leeches followed water motion disturbed by legs to attach to bare feet scars. Despite the heavy physical work required, it did not feel hard to do these labor jobs for a rural youth. As a student who was major in the forest, I was also required to cultivate trees in Winter and Spring. Also, we studied basic soil sciences and forest surveys. Studying English would have been impossible because that was realized to be impractical. After I graduated from the University in early 1976, I was assigned to do a similar job. Therefore, what I regret most is that I didn’t get a good education in my teenage years, there is a best age for studying, and we missed it. That was the torrent of the times, you couldn’t resist it. We have to let history judge.

In 1977, the National Higher Education Entrance Examination was officially restored as the traditional examination based on academics. Like most of the hopefuls who had accumulated during the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, I simply wanted to try my luck to emerge from society for the examination. Due to my poor school education, I failed in 1977 and then I had a distinction in the national examination in 1978. I entered the College of Jiangxi Electric Power to study thermal energy and power engineering for a three-year technical college diploma. The examination was highly competitive and admission rate in both 1977 and 1978. In late 1970s, the admission rates were much low in the history of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). We treasured the college years, and we studied harder than the current generation of students. After I graduated, I was assigned to Jiujiang Power Plant, where I worked for 5 years. Although, I was satisfied with my job. I had a dream of higher education in a prestigious university. Thus, I started to be a self-learner by studying university courses for the National Postgraduate Entrance Examination, which was highly competitive too. I needed to study until midnight every day because I had a full-time job. I faced numerous challenges. For example, I needed a university curriculum and syllabus that I could follow, and then I could buy textbooks. Furthermore, a diploma student was not eligible to participate in the National Postgraduate Entrance Examination, except for an approval letter from your company. However, this was not easy to have such a letter from your units. After I failed twice, I had a distinction in National Postgraduate Entrance Examination in 1986. Particularly, I earned the highest score in the Advanced Mathematics examination among all participants in the Harbin Shipbuiding Engineering Institute (Harbin Engineering Institute). As an exception of diploma students, I was admitted to the Master’s program by the Institute history under direction of my first supervisor, Prof. Bingcheng Sang. The institute admitted a first by being the 1st to give the Master’s admission to a technical diploma student. I started my research project on laser measurement of propellant combustion. I became confident after National Postgraduate Entrance Examination. I found myself capable of doing things that other students thought were impossible. It might be important that I found effective and efficient learning methods.

4. Where did interest in science and technology originate for you?

My original interests were in engineering, particularly energy engineering, which originated from problem-solving. Energy engineering is certainly an old science that constitutes multiple areas of special interest in this respect, since the most important theoretical issues and the contentious relations with other sciences are clear. However, energy issues could not be solved by a single discipline of energy science and technology itself. Environmental pollution and sustainability are closely related to energy consumption, security and technology development. Thus, because of the adaptability to such an interdisciplinary issue, some profound changes have taken place, which leads to my transformations from energy to environment and sustainability. With regard to these transformations, many traditional disciplinary boundaries should be broken as the interdisciplinary nature. Therefore, my motives for the interdisciplinary research are to transform and integrate in my research when faced complex problems with conceptual and methodological changes. This adaptability is for the problems of today, and out of an interest for the past unrelated to present-day concerns from within the discipline itself or from a more general starting point.

5. Any key educators which inspired you in youth?

I grew up in a cultural revolution. In this special era, knowledge is nothing and education is not useful. However, my grandmother and mother believed in the importance of education. Though I did not agree with them in my childhood and youth, I realized the importance of the education as I grew up. In the latter 1970s and 1980s, only knowledge could change your fate for the rural youths in China. Higher education was a unique way that a Chinese youth could move to a city from the countryside.

6. You held previous professional positions including research scientist at Scottish Crop Research Institute (The James Hutton Institute) from July, 2003to November, 2004, research associate at Loughborough University from November, 2004 to February, 2008, and principal research scientist at Rothamsted Research from March, 2008 to May, 2013.[5] What research experience came from these professional experiences?

In these jobs, I worked on different problems from chemical engineering, aeronautical engineering to biogeochemical processes in agroecosystems using analytical, numerical and experimental approaches. I have acquired the experiences of various modelling methods, from high-resolution numerical approaches such as the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) (e.g., PHYSICA multi-physics package and the Rolls-Royce HYDRA CFD code) to process-based models of agroecosystems (e.g., DNDC and Roth-C). As a professional modeler, I am deeply familiar with a variety of numerical methods and have an exceptional ability to select the most suitable approach for a specific real-world problem and to integrate numerical methods for their mutual enhancement in modelling. Particularly, my experiences on multidiscipline lead to rethinking about the problem of today. As mentioned in Question 4, these experiences allow me to adopt a whole systems approach to complex watershed modelling. Our emphasis is on interdisciplinary and multiscale research and integration to support systematic, quantitative and comprehensive clarification of concepts and assumptions as we study the problems of sustainable resource development and management.

7. What were the greatest take-home messages which came from these positions?

Persistent efforts, keep going, do not give up, and fight to the end.

8. What responsibilities to the public came from these positions?

The Athabasca River Basin (ARB) is an ecologically and economically significant resource for the development and sustainability of northern Alberta communities. This oil sand resource helps establish Canada as a stable, dependable source of oil and natural gas for national and international markets. However, concerns over the extraction and management of this resource are causing public resistance from citizens and stakeholders because of the potential dangers, such as water contamination, toxic and known carcinogens from flow-back.

My basic research on multi-scale and multidisciplinary modelling will benefit Albertans and Canadians by leading to integrated watershed management, and recommendations for land- and water-use decisions for sustainable development of northern Alberta communities.

9. Your current position is professor and CAIP Research Chair at Athabasca University beginning in August, 2013.[6] What does the professorship include in terms of targeted teaching objectives? What duties to the public and students comes with this prestige?

As a CAIP Chair, I promote research-driven teaching and learning at AU. A cutting-edge research project is usually an example to face various challenges. Thus, it is an excellent opportunity for students to acquire skills of critical thinking and problem-solving through the real problems-driven learning. Through the cutting-edge research, research students can be involved in discussions by asking interesting questions on the project or by facing challenging concepts and sometimes paradoxes from the real world. Particularly many cutting-edge research projects require teamwork, which helps students view different problems from different perspectives and disciplines. This program is to provide a hub for student training in multidisciplinary collaboration and one of the main outcomes will be the delivery of highly trained researchers, including postdoctoral research fellows, visiting scholars, graduate students and technical staff who will undertake cutting edge science, with specific training in computational modelling, experimental design, biogeochemistry, microbiology, integrating qualitative and quantitative data, statistical analyses, report writing and presentation of research.

10. What about research objectives in addition to concomitant responsibilities with the CAIP Research Chair position?

The Athabasca River Basin (ARB) is a natural resource, and its sustainable resource development is a priority of the 2012 Alberta Research & Innovation Plan. Alberta’s Water for Life Strategy and Land-use Framework include the necessity of managing cumulative effects from both agricultural and oilsands industrial activity in the ARB. Athabasca University’s research foci and expertise align closely with these provincial priorities. It is essential for Canada’s and Alberta’s competitiveness to take advantage of available resources and to have the knowledge and technology to perform complex quantitative simulations of integrated terrestrial and aquatic systems. The CAIP Chair research program is to establish a modelling framework of integrated terrestrial and aquatic systems through coupled biogeochemical and hydrological processes so that we can directly simulate dynamics of nutrients, water and pollutants in the ARB, as well as GHGs. This is currently a significant knowledge gap, and therefore will generate new evidence to increase understanding of non-point source pollution and to develop improved technologies to mitigate GHGs and toxic pollutants, thereby providing a new tool of land-use management and decision-making for managing and protecting watersheds. This information could then be used to develop ‘Opportunity Mapping for Optimised Resource Development in the Athabasca River Basin,’ a concept which the program will demonstrate. In the long-term, such spatially-resolved data will provide a framework and methodology for those interested in delivering a low-carbon economy, sustainable resource development and climate change that can be adapted to other river basins and industries in Canada and beyond and will thus be of wide significance.

11. What does the CAIP Research Chair implicate – in funding and research?

Alberta is really interesting, particularly the Athabasca River basin, because there is no other place that has to deal with water, oilsands, agriculture, environment and sustainability. My basic research on multi-scale and multidisciplinary modelling will benefit Albertans and Canadians by leading to integrated watershed management, and recommendations for land- and water-use decisions. The CAIP program provides long-term funding. This allows me to focus on development of an ambitious framework: the modelling framework of integrated terrestrial and aquatic systems.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Professor and CAIP Chair, Science and Technology, Athabasca University.

[2] Individual Publication Date: January 22, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com; Full Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

[4] Photograph courtesy of Professor Junye Wang.

[5] Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Junye Wang. Retrieved from https://ca.linkedin.com/pub/junye-wang/15/a87/a87.

[6] Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Junye Wang. Retrieved from https://ca.linkedin.com/pub/junye-wang/15/a87/a87.

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2023-02-01

Braille Shadows

Publisher: In-Sight Publishing

Publisher Founding: February 1, 2014

Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com

Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada

Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Journal Founding: August 2, 2012

Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year

Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed

Access: Electronic/Digital & Open Access

Fees: None (Free)

Volume Numbering: 11

Issue Numbering: 2

Section: B

Theme Type: Idea

Theme Premise: “Outliers and Outsiders”

Theme Part: 27

Formal Sub-Theme: None.

Individual Publication Date: February 1, 2023

Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2023

Author(s): Richard May/May-Tzu

Author(s) Bio: Richard May (“May-Tzu”/“MayTzu”/“Mayzi”) is a Member of the Mega Society based on a qualifying score on the Mega Test (before 1995) prior to the compromise of the Mega Test and Co-Editor of Noesis: The Journal of the Mega Society. In self-description, May states: “Not even forgotten in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), I’m an Amish yuppie, born near the rarified regions of Laputa, then and often, above suburban Boston. I’ve done occasional consulting and frequent Sisyphean shlepping. Kafka and Munch have been my therapists and allies. Occasionally I’ve strived to descend from the mists to attain the mythic orientation known as having one’s feet upon the Earth. An ailurophile and a cerebrotonic ectomorph, I write for beings which do not, and never will, exist — writings for no one. I’ve been awarded an M.A. degree, mirabile dictu, in the humanities/philosophy, and U.S. patent for a board game of possible interest to extraterrestrials. I’m a member of the Mega Society, the Omega Society and formerly of Mensa. I’m the founder of the Exa Society, the transfinite Aleph-3 Society and of the renowned Laputans Manqué. I’m a biographee in Who’s Who in the Brane World. My interests include the realization of the idea of humans as incomplete beings with the capacity to complete their own evolution by effecting a change in their being and consciousness. In a moment of presence to myself in inner silence, when I see Richard May’s non-being, ‘I’ am. You can meet me if you go to an empty room.” Some other resources include Stains Upon the Silence: something for no one, McGinnis Genealogy of Crown Point, New York: Hiram Porter McGinnis, Swines List, Solipsist Soliloquies, Board Game, Lulu blog, Memoir of a Non-Irish Non-Jew, and May-Tzu’s posterous.

Word Count: 11

Image Credit: Richard May.

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): 2369-6885

*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citations, after the publication.*

*Excerpt from Stains Upon the Silence.*

Abstract

A poem written by the inimitable Richard May pumped up with Zen references.

Keywords: Buddha, haiku, Koan, May-Tzu, mind, Richard May, Spring.

Braille Shadows

Buddha mind blossoms.
Spring morning dew scatters light,
koan petals fall.

Bibliography

None

Footnotes

None

Citations

American Medical Association (AMA 11^th Edition): May R. Braille Shadows. February 2023; 11(2). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/braille-shadows

American Psychological Association (APA 7^th Edition): May, R. (2023, February 1). Braille Shadows. In-Sight Publishing. 11(2). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/braille-shadows.

Brazilian National Standards (ABNT): MAY, R. Braille Shadows. In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, Fort Langley, v. 11, n. 2, 2023.

Chicago/Turabian, Author-Date (17^th Edition): May, Richard. 2023. “Braille Shadows.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 11, no. 2 (Winter). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/braille-shadows.

Chicago/Turabian, Notes & Bibliography (17^th Edition): May, R “Braille Shadows.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 11, no. 2 (February 2023). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/braille-shadows.

Harvard: May, R. (2023) ‘Braille Shadows’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, 11(1). <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/braille-shadows>.

Harvard (Australian): May, R 2023, ‘Braille Shadows’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 11, no. 2, <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/braille-shadows>.

Modern Language Association (MLA, 9^thEdition): May, Richard. “Braille Shadows.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vo.11, no. 2, 2023, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/braille-shadows.

Vancouver/ICMJE: Richard M. Braille Shadows [Internet]. 2023 Feb; 11(2). Available from: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/braille-shadows

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Based on work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen, or the author(s), and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors copyright their material, as well, and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

2023-02-01

Sound of Morning Light

Publisher: In-Sight Publishing

Publisher Founding: February 1, 2014

Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com

Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada

Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Journal Founding: August 2, 2012

Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year

Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed

Access: Electronic/Digital & Open Access

Fees: None (Free)

Volume Numbering: 11

Issue Numbering: 2

Section: B

Theme Type: Idea

Theme Premise: “Outliers and Outsiders”

Theme Part: 27

Formal Sub-Theme: None.

Individual Publication Date: February 1, 2023

Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2023

Author(s): Richard May/May-Tzu

Word Count: 13

Image Credit: Richard May.

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): 2369-6885

*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citations, after the publication.*

*Excerpt from Stains Upon the Silence.*

Abstract

A poem by May-Tzu on an offbeat bird.

Keywords: robin, haiku, May-Tzu, morning light, Richard May.

Sound of Morning Light

Sound of morning light,
spring robin dances haiku,
missed 5—7—5 beat.

Bibliography

None

Footnotes

None

Citations

American Medical Association (AMA 11^th Edition): May R. Sound of Morning Light. February 2023; 11(2). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/light

American Psychological Association (APA 7^th Edition): May, R. (2023, February 1). Sound of Morning Light. In-Sight Publishing. 11(2). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/light.

Brazilian National Standards (ABNT): MAY, R. Sound of Morning Light. In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, Fort Langley, v. 11, n. 2, 2023.

Chicago/Turabian, Author-Date (17^th Edition): May, Richard. 2023. “Sound of Morning Light.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 11, no. 2 (Winter). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/light.

Chicago/Turabian, Notes & Bibliography (17^th Edition): May, R “Sound of Morning Light.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 11, no. 2 (February 2023). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/light.

Harvard: May, R. (2023) ‘Sound of Morning Light’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, 11(1). <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/light>.

Harvard (Australian): May, R 2023, ‘Sound of Morning Light’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 11, no. 2, <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/light>.

Modern Language Association (MLA, 9^thEdition): May, Richard. “Sound of Morning Light.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vo.11, no. 2, 2023, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/light.

Vancouver/ICMJE: Richard M. Sound of Morning Light [Internet]. 2023 Feb; 11(2). Available from: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/light

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Based on work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen, or the author(s), and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors copyright their material, as well, and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

2023-01-29

An Interview with Marco Ripà, B.Econ.Sc. (Part Three)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/01/15

Abstract

An interview with Marco Ripà. He discusses: interest in arts and culture, children, economic empowerment, human rights, education, and science and technology; accrued benefits from them; changes to the educational systems of the world; development of an educational system to provide for the needs of the gifted population; most important global problems; solutions to them; policies and economic system for “equitable redistribution”; remedies for problems of diet, fitness, and social connections; a general moral, intellectual, spiritual, and emotional progression or development; ultimate relationship between consciousness and the universe; differentiation of “mankind” from the rest of the animal kingdom; relationship of mathematics to the operation of the universe; ease of correspondence due to accident/chance, design/teleology, or an alternate possibility; reasonableness of artificial intelligence with consciousness in the near future; major organizations devoted to similar causes; Gino Strada and his wife; myths around the gifted and talented population; possible motivation for the one third of underachievers in the gifted population; truths to dispel the myths; shared concern for the gifted population, especially the young; responsibilities of the gifted population towards society and culture; reason for thinking this; argument for provision for this sector of society; person of most influence on him; personal heroes in history; personal heroes in the present; smartest person he’s ever met, Evangelos Katsioulis; most creative people he’s ever met, Manahel Thabet and Enrico Preziosi; most intelligent person to have ever lived in human history without necessary overlap with IQ; the future for gifted and talented education in Italy; best untimed, power, intelligence test; technological advancement and the gifted and talented landscape influence in education, in governmental policy, in socio-cultural life, in their definition; upcoming collaborative projects; upcoming solo projects; and near and far future for the ultra-high-IQ community.

Keywords: Evangelos Katsioulis, gifted, Gino Strada, IQ, mankind, Marco Ripà, talented, ultra-high-IQ, universe, young.

An Interview with Marco Ripà, B.Econ.Sc. (Part Three)^{[1],[2],[3],[4]}

*Please see the footnotes throughout the interview, and bibliography and citation style listing after the interview.*

41. You have in interest arts and culture, children, economic empowerment, human rights, education, and science and technology.^[5]Why these interests?

When you feel that something is wrong around you and inside you, almost every day of your life, you start to search a response, but there is no solution and every answer brings two or more questions. An endless process, a continuous search for the unknown.

42. What benefits accrue from them?

Keep thinking in order to avoid what I prefer to forget, I mean: “To preserve a flexible and curious brain”, just as children do.

43. If you could, how would you change the educational systems of the world?

My dream would be to see an educational system that is not stereotyped, that can adapt itself to individualities, allowing pupils, children and boys to express their full potential and capabilities for the benefit of society. There should not be “better” or “worse”, just different people on the same world.

44. In particular, how would you develop an educational system to provide for the needs of the gifted population?

Through acceleration, curricular enrichment and curriculum compacting, this means to let the educational system be more flexible, introducing a preliminary screening for every pupil of a class. A good solution would be to combine a collective IQ test with an individual one (e.g., Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices with a cut-off at the 90^th percentile plus WISC for pupils above 120 SD=15). You can find more info here: http://www.slideshare.net/marcokrt/identifiyng-gifted-children-and-dyslexia-early-diagnosis-risk-of-cheating-on-iq-tests

45. What global problems do you consider most important at the moment?

Food. Food is life and there is a very strong link between food and global health: unfortunately this is still a massive issue for too many people around the world.

46. How would you solve them?

Reducing the inequality of income and wealth, forcing towards a more equitable redistribution of them, spreading the growth opportunities from the most privileged people to the forgotten ones.

47. What policies and economic system would further this “equitable redistribution”?

Inequality directly undermines equality of opportunities: it entrenches immobility also affecting opportunity on a daily basis, leading to inefficiency. Thus, the classic and aforementioned trade-off between equity and efficiency is not a dogma, if we can find a good approach to use the new “capabilities” for achieving and sustaining the growth. So, my favorite model is definitely Martha Naussbaum’s theory of justice: it is focused on some fundamental capabilities, dignity and a threshold, expanding Sen’s capabilities approach.

48. Insofar as the global health issues relate to poor diet – noted in question 45, poor fitness regimens, and poor social connections with the introduction of modern technology too, what means seem to provide the remedies for each of these problems of diet, fitness, and social connections aside from equitable redistribution?

Informing children and their families about the risks of those “modern age mistakes”, as much as possible, would be a good starting point.

49. If you do consider a general moral, intellectual, spiritual, and emotional progression or development, how do you view development from the basic to most advanced levels at the individual and collective level?

This is a hard question for me and I can only guess something about living in peace as a group rather than living for ourselves looking for others approval, hoping in their envy to be recognized as “winners”. I do not know why I am here, on this strange world, nor if there exists any reason to be here, but here we are and I feel that it is important to help those who are unlucky to be proud of us. We cannot forget that we are just men, calling us “mankind”.

50. What is the ultimate relationship between consciousness and the universe?

Being conscious of ourselves is what makes us to feel alive. The whole universe is around and inside us: an exterminate, multidimensional, place in the pocket of a single brain.

51. Based on personal analysis, what differentiates “mankind” from the rest of the animal kingdom?

As Albert Einstein explained to a little child, we are smart animals, but just animals: our brain should be the key to raise mankind above animal level, and a good help was given by the opposable thumb. Unfortunately there would be a second answer to the same question: human beings are more cruel than the rest of the animal kingdom, what a big difference a smart brain makes!

52. What explains the relationship of mathematics to the operation of the universe?

This is the task of the philosophy of mathematics and I do not want to take away the big answer to Hilary Putnam and his heirs.

53. Does this ease of correspondence seem based on accident/chance, design/teleology, or an alternate possibility to you?

The only thing I can argue here is that both mathematics and the Universe seem to equipoise their rules and formulas, Galois showed this with his group theory too. I like very much asymmetrical formulas such as Maxwell’s equations, describing all classical electromagnetic phenomena. Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental forces (interactions) of Nature, indeed.

54. Does the creation of an artificial intelligence with consciousness seem reasonable in the near future?

I do not think so, but… “Who knows?”. It is very hard to predict this: I am still trying to answer to “Why am I conscious about myself?” I think about it since I was a child and I have not solved the riddle after so many years.

55. What other major organizations devoted to similar causes can you recommend for resources and support?

UNICEF and Emergency (an Italian humanitarian NGO founded by Gino Strada and his wife in 1994).

56. Please expand, who are Gino Strada and his wife?

He is a brave medical doctor (surgeon) who said about himself “I am not a pacifist: I am against war!”. He and his wife, Teresa (who died in 2009), founded the humanitarian medical organization “Emergency”, officially not recognized as a NGO, with the aim to provide basic medical services to civilians in many countries devastated by wars. He is also an author and he openly opposed the Italian government for its support to the NATO in a peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan (the ISAF Operation).

57. What myths exist around the gifted and talented population?

It is quite common to assume that a gifted person should be good at school or that he will live a happy life: on the contrary, there is about one third of the gifted population that is composed of underachievers. Moreover, too many gifted men are nihilists or depressed, feeling sad most of the time.

58. What might motivate this one third of underachievers in the gifted population to begin to achieve to some small, or even large, degree?

They need to find a subject to study both challenging and interesting for them, feeling good at school and inside their class. It is not easy at all to achieve such a goal, but we have to do our best in order to reduce this big loss.

59. What truths dispel them?

“Truth” is relative and, in my humble opinion, it would have to be declined in as many meanings as we can see different cases and situations to apply it. Gifted or not, talented or not, first we are men who dream to be accepted as we are.

60. You share a concern of mine. In particular, the sincere desire to assist the gifted population in flourishing, especially the young. Now, many organizations provide for the needs of the moderately gifted ability sectors of the general population, most often adults and sometimes children. However, few provide for the needs of children (and adults) in the high, profound, exceptional, or ‘unmeasurable’ ability sectors of the general population. Some organizations and societies provide forums, retreats, journals, intelligence tests, literature, or outlets for the highest ability sub-populations. What can individuals, organizations, and societies do to provide for the gifted population?

It is just a matter of priority: “in primis” gifted children need to be accepted and supported by their family and by their school. Thus, they need to be identified during their early childhood… I think that this would be a very good starting point. We can do more for them, such as focusing our attention on their relationships with peers, the third pillar of a gifted children development in addition to “family” and “school” according to many experts (Monks et al.).

61. In turn, what responsibilities do the gifted population have towards society and culture?

If they are well-supported starting from their childhood, they will gain more chances to bring significant benefits to society contributing to science and human arts. In addition, they have to develop a deeper comprehension of mankind and the need of social justice, because they have the tools to better understand the world and the human behavior.

62. Why do you think this?

Because I am a gifted myself, I guess. Who knows?

63. What argument most convinces you of the need to provide for this sector of society?

It would be very sad to waste talent, because it is not true that gifted people always create their own opportunities if they cannot be supported by a good environment to let them grow-up in the right way. This would be a pity and a great loss for the whole society.

64. Who most influenced you?

When I was young, I was inspired by Dante Alighieri and Voltaire. Now that I am over 30, I still admire rebel geniuses, such as Évariste Galois and Friedrich Nietzsche.

65. What personal heroes exist in history?

I like very much Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, but some of my favorite historical heroes are Socrates, William Wallace, Newton, Tesla, Ettore Majorana, Mahatma Gandhi, the Tank Man and the Italian carabineer Salvo D’Acquisto.

66. What about in the present?

Three Nobel Laureates fighting poverty for more global justice: Malala Yousafzai, Kailash Satyarthi, Amartya Sen and his “Capability Approach”.

67. Who is the smartest person you’ve ever met?

This is a really hard question, but, basing my guess on IQ performances only, my best choices are Evangelos Katsioulis and an Italian fellow student I met when we both attended Physics courses, his name is Sergio Simonella. I think he is a mathematician now and I remember he was really smart, a fast thinker too.

68. Who is the most creative person you’ve ever met?

Someone I see almost every time, walking next to a mirror… but I have not met a lot of people in my life. However, a couple of very creative person I met years ago are the entrepreneurs Manahel Thabet and Enrico Preziosi (owner of a famous toys brand).

69. Who appears to be the most intelligent person to have ever lived in human history – not by necessity an overlap with IQ?

In order to answer this question we should previously agree about a embraceable definition of “intelligence”. Anyway, could I guess “Johann Wolfgang von Goethe” instead of “Leonardo da Vinci” without making my compatriots getting angry? Perhaps it would be better to choose “the one who invented the wheel” and stay in peace.

70. What lies in the future for gifted and talented education in Italy?

Unfortunately, I cannot see any good news on the horizon. People keep talking about their “professional work” in this field, pushing parents to pay for a private screening, but nothing is moving in Italian children’s future, gifted or not. Considering how many spots about gambling our children watch, I fear a (big) blind future for them.

71. What untimed, power, intelligence test seems the best to you?

My favourite untimed test for the high range is Lato’s LS36, because IMHO it still remains the best Gf loaded HRT. You can find similar ideas in latest HRTs and this proves that LS36 is a great test and that newest ones can suffer from the learning contamination effect, as explained here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/144702702/HRTs-Big-Flaws.

72. How will the continued increase in the pace of technological advancement alter the gifted and talented landscape, for example, in education, in governmental policy, in socio-cultural life, in their definition, and so on?

Looking at the Flynn effect, we could argue that the technological advancement increases people’s IQ (gifted or not) as well. It is clear that computer based skills will become more and more important but, if you want to know more, I have to take the crystal ball and tie my turban.

73. Any upcoming collaborative projects?

I am currently involved in two “big” collaborative projects dealing with IQ: the first one will be an 8 hands platform to connect high IQ people and smart jobs offers, while the second one is the aforementioned implementation of the Dynamic Spatial IQ Tests. I and Roberto Enea will work on it for the most part of the 2016 in order to achieve this ambitious goal. We have already started making a prototype of the system that let us check all the transformations we are going to use for every test. This tool will let us deepen the study of the tests in order to detect error conditions (e.g., multiple solutions) and it has been developed as a stand-alone application, even if our aim is to turn it into a web application during the first step and later into a smartphone application. In the web application we are going to apply all the security features necessary to guarantee the correctness and non-hackability of the test and at the same time the privacy of the scores.

74. Any upcoming solo projects?

I am currently focused on my YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/user/marcokrt] and I am still working on a few math papers concerning primes and the extended “Nine Dots Puzzle” [http://nntdm.net/volume-20-2014/number-1/59-71/].

75. What near and far future seems most probable for the ultra-high-IQ community?

In the near future I think that we keep on arguing about who has the highest IQ (sometimes taking many low quality tests and reporting only the top score). Many of us will continue to quietly writing books, feeling frustrated about the small numbers of people to talk to, and probably slightly more contact with one another online through Google Glass or so, ignoring bigger problems related with food lack, resources shortage, terrorism and overpopulation. I hope there will not be a third world war and it will come true just my prediction concerning who has the highest IQ and Google Glass. Time will tell.

Thank you for your time, Mr. Ripà.

Bibliography

Ripà, M. (2012). Congetture su interrogativi inediti: tra speculazioni, voli pindarici e riflessioni spicciole. Simplicissimus. https://books.google.it/books?isbn=8863699461.
Elite High IQ Society. (n.d.). Elite High IQ Society. Retrieved from http://www.elitehighiqsociety.org/.
(2015). LinkedIn. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/.
Ripà, M. (2012, July 15). Identifying Gifted Children and Dyslexia Early Diagnosis: Risk of Cheating IQ Tests. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/marcokrt/identifiyng-gifted-children-and-dyslexia-early-diagnosis-risk-of-cheating-on-iq-tests.
Ripà, M. (2014). The rectangular spiral or the n₁× n₂ × … × n_k Points Problem. Notes on Number Theory and Discrete Mathematics, 20(1), 59-71.
Ripà, M. (2013, July). X-Test Solutions Finally Revealed!. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/publication/251238254_X-Test_Solutions_Finally_Revealed%21.
sPIQr Society. (2015). sPIQr Society. Retrieved from http://www.spiqrsociety.com/.
World Intelligence Network. (n.d.). World Intelligence Network. Retrieved from http://www.iqsociety.org/.
World IQ Foundation. (n.d.). World IQ Foundation. Retrieved from http://wiqf.org/.
Ripà, M. (2006, October 18). MarcoKRT Channel. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/user/marcokrt.
Ripà, M. (2013, May 30). HRTs (Big) Flaws. Retrived from http://www.scribd.com/doc/144702702/HRTs-Big-Flaws.
Ripà, M. (2014). 1729 – Il numero di Mr. 17-29. Eracle. http://www.ibs.it/code/9788867430574/ripagrave/1729-numero-29.html.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Founder, sPIqr Society; Co-Founder & Co-President, World IQ Foundation (WIQF).

[2] Individual Publication Date: January 15, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com; Full Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

[3] B.Econ.Sc. (magna cum laude), University of Roma Tre.

[4] Photograph courtesy of Marco Ripà.

[5] Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Marco Ripà. Retrieved from https://it.linkedin.com/pub/marco-rip%C3%A0/14/991/950.

License

Copyright

2023-01-29

An Interview with Marco Ripà, B.Econ.Sc. (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/01/08

Abstract

An interview with Marco Ripà. He discusses: positives and negatives in the world of the high-IQ and ultra-high IQ; famous flames in the high-IQ and ultra-high IQ; personality difference among the gifted generalists and gifted specialists; creating, developing, and sustaining the sPIqr Society up to the present; total number and personality profile of the sPIqr Society membership; source of linguistic talent; accrued benefits for professional and personal life; YouTube channel; aerobic, balance, and strength health recommendations; source of aforementioned interests; Asperger’s Syndrome advantages and disadvantages; utilization of advantages and adaptation of disadvantages of Asperger’s Syndrome; Tim Page, Glenn Gould, friendship, companionship, and Asperger’s Syndrome; audio-visual media for self-expression and its contrast with print media; most correct general philosophy; most correct ethical philosophy; most correct political philosophy; most correct social philosophy; most correct economic philosophy; and the singular philosophical framework of the most correct general, ethical, political, social, and economic philosophy in civilization.

Keywords: Asperger’s Syndrome, Dr. Manahel Thabet, Dubai, Glenn Gould, high-IQ, intelligence test, Marco Ripà, Tim Page, ultra-high-IQ, United Arab Emirates, X-Test, YouTube.

An Interview with Marco Ripà, B.Econ.Sc. (Part Two)^{[1],[2],[3],[4]}

*Please see the footnotes throughout the interview, and bibliography and citation style listing after the interview.*

18. You co-founded WIQF with Dr. Manahel Thabet. How did this collaboration develop and influence the growth of WIQF up to the present?

The WIQF would not have been founded without Dr. Manahel Thabet. The original idea come-up in my mind a few years ago. At the time, my thought was that high IQ people should ask for a more reliable and strict ranking than the WGD. People tend to report only their top scores forgetting the rest, but this partial info would lead to inflated scores, so I reported this issue to Manahel and we finally decided to create the WIQF: she helped me with the WIQF formula, its registration, with the website and later bringing inside the group (as advisory board members) Prof. Tony Buzan and the chess Grandmaster Raymond D. Keene OBE. One year later, WIQF does not count many members, but the average level is really good.

19. With respect to the X-Test and other high-range intelligence tests, how does one create, develop, refine, administer, statistically norm, and publish a legitimate test?^[5]

The X-Test is no longer in use since May 2013, because I analyzed the main problems related to high range tests. You can find the whole story here: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/251238254_X-Test_Solutions_Finally_Revealed!

By the way, high range tests (even my ENSDT 20 and ENSDT Prototype) cannot be an exact science not because their norm cannot be based on thousands of testees, norms are usually based on z-score, I mean on the scores achieved by a testee on most reliable, recognized and supervised tests. It is not easy to do, but I hope to provide a useful tool to guess the ultra-high-IQ taking a Gf loaded test at home, without any time limit.

20. How did the opportunity arise to present in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates?

It was Dr. Manahel Thabet to give me this opportunity and I am really grateful for having had the chance to present a couple of papers about gifted children features and their needs, plus a screening method to easily identify gifted pupils inside the school. It was a great experience and a memory that will last a lifetime.

21. What positives and negatives exist in the world of the high-IQ and ultra-high IQ?

In my humble opinion, the world of the high-IQ is not very different from common life. High-IQ groups are groups of different people, from different countries, religions, ideas and so on. We usually talk in English or Spanish and sometimes a flame can be hard to be resolved, especially if you are talking about an IQ related topic. The best gift I have received from high IQ people is a 360° understanding, sharing a lot of interesting ideas and projects, while on the other side of the coin I can see some lack of self-confidence and existential loneliness.

22. Based on the response, flames in the high-IQ community remain hard to extinguish at times. However, most should self-exhaust because most societies most of the time continue to persist, even grow and adapt to internal changes. Any famous flames which continue in high-IQ and ultra-high-IQ community?

A famous personal flame is the one against the Fiqure test (by N. Soulios and L. Papadioti), since I started it asking for its norm to the authors: as I got no response, I guessed that Fiqure has not any serious norm. Now I am trying to avoid this topic, keeping the focus on my own online (dynamic) IQ tests.

23. A panoramic perspective can come from the gifted, but numerous gifted individuals specialize and think deep thoughts about a single topic. What personality characteristics seem to separate the gifted generalists and the gifted specialists?

First of all, their persistence and the interest in the specific topic, but there could be so many elements that we should take into account. Modern sciences require to do so if we hope to achieve something great. Perhaps, the last person with a very deep knowledge of an entire field of science was the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi.

24. How did you create, develop, and sustain sPIqr Society up to the present?^[6]

I founded sPIqr at the beginning of 2010, creating a website and a mailing list while, a few months later, I created the Facebook group too. I cover its costs using the small (one time) membership fee paid by members who join the 1/5000 society, even if I let somebody join for free if he has a real reason that prevent him from paying.

25. What is the total number and general personality profile of the sPIQr membership – aside from nationality and IQ rarity?

sPIqr full members are obviously very smart, we have a member who gained his bachelor degree as a teenager and a few other child prodigies, but there are also some gifted underachievers. The full membership status requires to go beyond the 153 SD=15 mark on two different kind of tests, so sPIqr members are usually skilled in different fields, loving mathematics, poetry, writing and so on. Many of them are listed on a lot of high IQ societies and they like logics and IQ tests, caring about the cause of the group: to try and help gifted pupils in their schools, spreading IQ knowledge and related issues all over the world.

26. You speak five languages at various levels of proficiency including Italian (native), English (professional), French (professional), Spanish (limited working), and Latin (limited working).^[7] Where does this linguistic talent source itself?

I do not consider myself very good at languages, including English. However, trying to understand what I read I have learnt some English by myself and a little Spanish in just two weeks when I was at the university (in Italy we study Latin during our high school years, translating ancient poets and statesman from Latin to Italian). Last year I started to study French because my (former) girlfriend and I were planning to go and live in Geneva, together. Unfortunately our relationship broke-off before our common project could have been realized.

27. What benefits have accrued throughout professional and personal life because of them to you?

Let me skip this point answering the question with another one: “Can we say that this wonderful interview is not enough?”

28. You host an Italian language (with English translation possibilities) YouTube channel.^[8] What is the core content of the channel?

Well, thanks for asking. I opened the channel in 2006 when YouTube was far smaller than the large community we can see nowadays… it was just a (small) fitness channel focused on home training: I used the channel to share my lifts on a thematic forum to improve my form and technique.
A few months ago I decided to move the channel on IQ related topics, talking about giftedness, IQ tests, Asperger Syndrome (yeah, I am an Aspie too), physics, etc… I would like to share the first spatial dynamic IQ test and the other project (related to IQ as well) we are working on through this powerful platform at the right time (very soon).

29. Fitness training regimens can differ in the scope and intensity of recommendations for the trainees by the trainer. In terms of the long-term fitness training regimen recommendations from you, such as those through the YouTube channel, what general fitness training regimen recommendations should most people most of the time practice for general health in terms of aerobic, balance, strength, and stretch health?
My personal suggestion is to avoid powerlifting and bodybuilding, while aerobic training and/or practicing a good martial art as an amateur would be a good idea. I regret the hard lifts I did in the past ten years.

30. Where do these interests source themselves for you?

Very hard to say, I guess they can be in some way related to the giftedness plus Asperger combo. I do not think that I could have been influenced by family, peers or school in this way.

31. Asperger’s Syndrome exists as a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD). Insofar as this ubiquitous developmental disorder expresses itself in the daily lives of those with its symptoms across its spectrum, and from the 31 years of personal experience, if I may ask, what advantages and disadvantages come with Asperger’s Syndrome?

I tried and explained what Asperger is in a video loaded on Youtube a couple of months ago. However, generally speaking, living with the Asperger is not very nice and Aspies are hardly understood by neurotypicals. We are hypersensitive people, reconnecting ourselves with our childhood; we can feel depressed for no reason, there is an higher risk of suicide and meltdowns are not so infrequent between us. I admitted to have the Asperger as an adult and I simply lived my life without caring so much about this PDD, my thought was that I was simply “uncommon”, with my occasional fixations and hobbies.

32. How can an individual with the syndrome capitalize on the advantages, and re-formulate thoughts and behaviour around the disadvantages, to create a better life for their self and those of value to them?

As I just said, forgetting to be “so strange” (sometime) could be a good strategy to avoid to use the Asperger’s Syndrome as an excuse for not achieving our best in everything we start. On the contrary, being an Aspie can turn into an advantage too, because it helps us to stay more focused on the project we are involved in. As an example, you can think to Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of the Pokémon!

33. Some stories come to mind about the nature of someone living with Asperger’s Syndrome and the need for companionship. In light of this line of discussion, if I may, I will relate one narrative for a moment. Tim Page, a music critic, lives with Asperger’s Syndrome, and the late Glenn Gould, had, quite probably, either autism or Asperger’s Syndrome, and Page notes the loneliness for himself in a life with the syndrome and without friendship and companionship in terms of relationship with kin. Once Page met Gould, Page described that as a friendship at first sight – so to speak. Music existed as a deep passion for them and the bridge for the oft-sought friendship and companionship for them. For those in the present or the far future who happen to read this portion of the interview and live with Asperger’s Syndrome, any advice to them on acquiring the kinship of mind desired by possibly some, or even most, with Asperger’s Syndrome?

It would be very hard to predict when “friendship” and/or “love” will knock at your door, but if you will keep it open no one will knock at it… thus, Asperger individuals have a good chance to open it at the right person, bearing in mind that we are hypersensitive too. I met my best friend when we were 5 years old and he is a neurotypical man, even if many people I know teasingly call me “Sheldon”, referring to the famous BBT character.

34. What does audio-visual media provide in contrast to print media for self-expression?

I think that both of them can reach the same goal through different paths, it depends on who uses them and how he communicates to his audience. In general, the audio-visual can be a more informal way to share yourself and your character, while print media are more professional and better to communicate, technical and professional contents. To be more specific, I found YouTube very good for tutorials.

35. What general philosophy seems the most correct to you?

“Est modus in rebus”. It is a quote by the Latin poet Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) from his “Satires 1” that resumes the idea of “Aurea Mediocritas”, meaning that extremes are dangerous and it would be better to try and reach moderation in everything. This is what I would like to achieve, even if I am still far from this personal goal.

36. What ethical philosophy seems the most correct to you?

I have a strong set of moral and ethical values. I am aware of the fact that morality is derived from evolutionary rules of mankind looking at man as a “social animal” by nature; despite of this my keywords are: benevolence, meritocracy (in employment settings) and social justice.

37. What political philosophy seems the most correct to you?

Italy is well known for its food and for Mafia, so I have to put my two cents on a governance or authority able to enforce justice, laws and to establish a legal code that remains the same for every citizen.

38. What social philosophy seems the most correct to you?

I think that every human being should have the same opportunities: the true substantive equality is the enhancement of individuality.

39. What economic philosophy seems the most correct to you?

Considering the tradeoff between efficiency and equality, I would choose the second one…

40. General moderation, and benevolence, meritocracy, and social justice grounded in evolutionary theory, and enforcement of justice, laws, and a legal code for each citizen by governance, and true equality through enhanced individualism, and a focus on economic equality. What unites these in a singular philosophical framework?

Civilization.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Founder, sPIqr Society; Co-Founder & Co-President, World IQ Foundation (WIQF).

[2] Individual Publication Date: January 8, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com; Full Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

[3] B.Econ.Sc. (magna cum laude), University of Roma Tre.

[4] Photograph courtesy of Marco Ripà.

[5] Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Marco Ripà. Retrieved from https://it.linkedin.com/pub/marco-rip%C3%A0/14/991/950.

[6] Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Marco Ripà. Retrieved from https://it.linkedin.com/pub/marco-rip%C3%A0/14/991/950.

[7] Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Marco Ripà. Retrieved from https://it.linkedin.com/pub/marco-rip%C3%A0/14/991/950.

[8] Please see YouTube. (n.d.). Marco Ripà. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/user/marcokrt.

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An Interview with Marco Ripà, B.Econ.Sc. (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/01/01

Abstract

An interview with Marco Ripà. He discusses: geographic, cultural, and linguistic familial background; influence on personal development; pivotal moments; loneliness and associated fear in youth, and its frequency in gifted youth; physique sculpting and personal combat training; B.Econ.Sc., magna cum laude; autodidactic proclivities; expertise and knowledge and its benefit for personal and professional life; contents of the big IQ projects; inspiration for mathematics competitions, papers in number theory, and the creation of integer sequences for OEIS; title, contents, and interest in the discrete mathematics book; academic papers on currency speculation, market failures, social justice, and sub-prime mortgage crisis; common intelligences with lower than expected occurrence and flourishing; a society that provides for the gifted and talented; summarization of the research subjects completed by him; entrance into the high-IQ and ultra-high-IQ world; and the inter-relationship development up to the present between the high-IQ, and ultra-high-IQ, community and himself.

Keywords: gifted youth, high-IQ, IQ, Marco Ripà, mathematics, research, society, ultra-high-IQ.

An Interview with Marco Ripà, B.Econ.Sc. (Part One)^{[1],[2],[3],[4]}

*Please see the footnotes throughout the interview, and bibliography and citation style listing after the interview.*

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside?

I was born in Rome (Italy), 31 years ago, and I still live here. My parents’ IQ is average and my family belongs to the Catholic middle class (let’s say, none of them talks a second language or knows how to create a P.D.F. file – sad but true), despite this I became agnostic at the age of 17 and I started to read foreigner thinkers such as Nietzsche, Voltaire, Goethe, Rousseau and so on…

2. How did this influence personal development?

I think that this environment has not influenced my cultural development in a positive way, even if I opened my mind and started to think deeper about myself when I discovered the World Wide Web and Google.

Well, when I was a child I was afraid of school (I was in a kindergarten just for one year or so). The loneliness was triggering the fear but, sometimes, the fear of being rejected by others was driving the loneliness itself… I started feeling better during my high school years, practicing karate (wado-ryu style at agonistic level) and starting to lift some weights. From my very personal point of view, it could be good to change something in your lifestyle in order to make a change in the way you relate with others and to make them feel good with you, starting to listen more their words rather than just talking.

4. You noted the fear brought on by loneliness in youth. Does this happen with frequency among the gifted?

I think so. Obviously, it is not a general rule, but I think that it can be a very common condition, especially if you have some Asperger traits too.

5. You mentioned weightlifting and karate, “wado-ryu style.” What does physique sculpting and personal combat training provide for you?

I started practicing karate during my second High School year. My initial thought was that it would be helpful to gain some respect in my classroom, to avoid myself from getting bullied. Keep training, I gained many injuries and I started to realize what is the real meaning of this discipline, looking at it not just as a sport. Later I started to train myself also at the gym, hoping to become stronger and I gradually reduced my commitment in karate, looking for something more flexible to practice during my college years. At the end of the journey I can say that I have gained many injuries and a lot of respect for the sports, their practitioners and their common values.

6. You earned a B.Econ.Sc., magna cum laude.^[5]What expertise and knowledge comes with this qualification?

I consider myself a self-taught man with a wide range of interests (including Psychometrics, Statistics, Divergent Thinking and Mathematics) but, at the time, my thought was that a degree in Economics would have been better than a degree in Physics, so I left the “Physics and Astrophysics” course and I spent a few years studying Keynes, Friedman, Wicksell, Hayek and their ideas about the trade-off between equity and efficiency. I did not appreciate Economic theories very much, because I prefer more abstractive and rigorous subjects, so I finally left university when the sub-prime mortgage crisis reached my country.

7. “Psychometrics, Statistics, Divergent Thinking and Mathematics” provide a solid foundation for research into intelligence. Intelligence research observes and examines the gifted and talented. Gifted and talented individuals might tend towards autodidactic education. Your own autobiography given before describes this. As a general rule about and for the gifted and talented, do autodidactic proclivities seem true about them to you?

I read being a self-taught person as a natural response to an inner discomfort, when you cannot find enough challenge in the school or if it cannot put you in the right perspective. I do not know if a general rule exists, but I think that any unrecognized gifted individual can easily develop many interests in the world wide web era. Speaking about talented people, it is probably true that if they can taste their passion (at least) one time, they can usually find the way to follow it.8

8. How did this expertise and knowledge benefit personal and professional life?

To be honest with you, I have to say that I did not use very much what I learned in the Economics field. When I left the College/University (here in Italy they are basically the same thing) I participated in a few projects within the private sector, unfortunately my colleagues did not keep their word about them… so, during the last few years, I have worked alone on some projects involving abstract conceptualization, 3D modeling, giftedness and proficiency analysis. By the way, I am currently working, as a member of two different teams, on two big projects relating to IQ.

9. With respect to those two different teams purposed to the study of IQ in big projects, what remain the contents of those projects?

Well, the aim of the first project is to establish a not yet existing link between the high IQ world and the job world, for an interesting exchange never realized, where very selected “brains” are offered for companies searching for special abilities: this is “BrainsJob”, indeed. The second project is the implementation of my spatial dynamic IQ tests (ENSDT): the original idea was explained in my ebook “https://books.google.it/books?isbn=8863699461” in 2012.

10. You earned an honor prize in high school and second place in the high school mathematics competition around the same time. In addition to these accomplishments, you authored papers on number theory and created some integer sequences for OEIS. What inspired taking part in these for you?

As previously mentioned, since I was a child I liked discrete mathematics very much. Thus, after the undergraduate degree I started to write a novel involving cryptography and a book about hyperoperations. This book focused on the p-adic convergence of tetration contains many integer sequences and a few of them were not listed on the OEIS, thus I decided to submit them. To date I have contributed to the OEIS with more than 40 new sequences.
I have published also a few papers on peer-reviewed journals (such as “Notes on Number Theory and Discrete Mathematics” and “Matematicamente”) relating to prime numbers and a couple of papers about the classic Nine Dots Puzzle extended to any k-dimensional space (k>2), the latest paper will be published soon on the same journal.

11. Regarding the title of the book based on discrete mathematics and personal interest in it, what was the title of the book and its contents?

“La strana coda della serie n^n^…^n” is a book that I have published in 2011 and it is focused on hyperoperators and their p-adic convergence properties. In particular, I presented some new results about tetration (or hyper-4).
To easy understand what tetration is, you can take a look at the following relations,

addition : multiplication = multiplication : exponentiation = exponentiation : tetration .

12. You authored academic papers on currency speculation, market failures, social justice, and sub-prime mortgage crisis. Why these topics?

I wrote them in Italian. The first one was relating to my essay “International organizations facing the current crisis” and then I shared my thoughts about social justice: I think that it is very important in order to reduce the gap in education due to economic factors or constraints. Some constraints of a subjective nature, ethics, morals and various prejudices may still persist: intelligence is not focused in specific areas or specific regions of the planet. This implies that, anywhere, in different social, religious, economic and environmental situation, we may find the presence of intelligences that, under the right conditions, might be able to put to use their gift. Thus, contexts in which the dynamics of social, religious, environmental but also economic and infrastructure aspects do not allow personal development, could drive us to miss the great chance to give these humans like us the opportunity to develop their talents. And this could be done with the intelligence as well with artistic talents. Moreover, social issues (religious, environmental, and so on…) can affect the development of the personality of “gifted” children and “gifted” adults.

13. With respect to the underutilization of gifts and talents of the gifted and talented, what common intelligences seem to have lower than expected occurrence and flourishing?

Very hard to say, and I am not a big fan of Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. Could I argue for a quite common lack of “relational skills” or so? This would be the main key, in my opinion.

14. What society appears to provide for the gifted and talented?

If we assume that we live in a modern country where liberalism and laissez-faire capitalism belong to the mainstream, and where the idea of the self-made man (such as Jobs, Gates, and so on) is often embodied by gifted and/or talented people, we could imagine a good scenario, even if it cannot be the best of all. Gifted and talented individuals sometime need to be understood, supported and feeling themselves to be appreciated by others, unconditionally.

15. What summarizes each of these research subjects completed by you?

Mathematics is my first love and I need to deal with her occasionally, while the hope to support gifted children is my main goal and now I am very happy about what me and my associate, Roberto Enea, are doing in this field: we are implementing the first dynamic spatial IQ test in the world with a unique norm and immune from the risk of cheating! It would be a dream that become reality one day, to have this new generation of tests to be, administrated to measure cognitive abilities with a clinical approach.

16. You have deep involvement in the high-IQ world. For examples, you founded the sPIqr Society, co-founded the World IQ Foundation (WIQF), constructed the X-Test, presented at the 12th Asia-Pacific Conference on Giftedness in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai (2012), and hold memberships in about thirty high-IQ societies.^[6]^,[7],[8] In addition, you have an interesting proposal for a new computer-based intelligence test for the high-range.^[9] How did this entrance into the high-IQ and ultra-high-IQ world begin for you?

Good question, thanks for letting me tell this story. I discovered IQ tests in early 2009, searching for something to relax my brain after my last exam. I found the M-FACE/L test and I took it. A few months later I took the 916 test by Laurent Dubois scoring well in either cases… I put the blame on Google.

17. How did this inter-relationship develop up to the present between the high-IQ, and ultra-high-IQ, community and yourself?

When I discovered my giftedness I started to learn more about this topic and I sadly understood that in my country the word “gifted” is almost unknown and there is not any support in our schools (no acceleration, no curriculum compacting nor curricular enrichment). Thus, I decided to found the sPIqr Society after I joined some well-known high-IQ groups. Now I have many pen friends all over the world and I can see our society from a lot of different perspectives.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Founder, sPIqr Society; Co-Founder & Co-President, World IQ Foundation (WIQF).

[2] Individual Publication Date: January 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com; Full Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2016 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

[3] B.Econ.Sc. (magna cum laude), University of Roma Tre.

[4] Photograph courtesy of Marco Ripà.

[5] Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Marco Ripà. Retrieved from https://it.linkedin.com/pub/marco-rip%C3%A0/14/991/950.

[6] Please see sPIQr Society. (2015). sPIQr Society. Retrieved from http://www.spiqrsociety.com/.

[7] Please see World IQ Foundation. (n.d.). Organizers. Retrieved from http://wiqf.org/international-titles/organizers/.

[8] Please see World Intelligence Network. (n.d.). SPIQR. Retrieved from http://www.iqsociety.org/win/societies/spiqr/.

[9] “High-range” defined as “at or above 3 standard deviations or 3 sigma from the norm.”

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An Interview with J.J. Middleway (Part Four)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/12/22

Abstract

Interview with J.J. Middleway. He discusses: community provisions for The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids for members’ personal growth and sense of social life; common ritual practices in druidism; role of elders and chiefs; necessary knowledge prior to the druid path; druid and pagan exemplars for personal inspiration; articles, books, general resources, and organizations, societies, and orders for those with an introductory interest in Druidry; unlisted resources for self-development and support; and the development of the current crop of individuals in Druidry.

Keywords: druid, druidism, Druidry, J.J. Middleway, pagan, The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids.

An Interview with J.J. Middleway (Part Four)^{^[1],}^{^[2]}

*Please see the footnotes and citation style listing after the interview, respectively.*

20. The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids have a number of resources online with short documentaries, trailers, songs, lectures, interviews, and others.^{^[3],}^{^[4],}^{^[5],}^{^[6],}^{^[7],}^{^[8],}^{^[9],}^{^[10],}^{^[11],}^{^[12],}^{^[13],}^{^[14],}^{^[15],}^{^[16],}^{^[17],}^{^[18],}^{^[19],}^{^[20],}^{^[21],}^{^[22],}^{^[23],}^{^[24],}^{^[25],}^{^[26],}^{^[27],}^{^[28],}^{^[29],}^{^[30],}^{^[31]} A number of insights to demystify the spiritual practices and mystical aspects of the druid path for individuals and in collective celebrations, gatherings, and lessons. What does the community of The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids provide for its members in personal growth and sense of druid social life?^{^[32],}^{^[33],}^{^[34]}

This very much depends upon the inclination and disposition of the individual. For some, the term ‘Hedge Druid’ might apply, which means they prefer a more solitary or less social path. Such individuals might simply follow the OBOD correspondence course over several years or more. They would also receive the monthly ‘in house’ magazine, called ‘Touchstone’. They might, or might not, opt to join one of the on-line forums in order to network and share questions and experiences.

In addition to the above:

Others are part of a worldwide network of many dozens of Druid Groves and ‘Seed Groups’; particularly throughout Europe, USA, Canada and Australia, but more widely too. This would likely include meeting together to celebrate the ‘Wheel of the Year’ – the eightfold seasonal cycle of the seasons (e.g. Winter Solstice). Such celebrations might extend more widely to include others in the local community.

Then there are various Druid camps and gatherings in both the Southern and Northern hemispheres, again often aligned to seasonal festivals. These offer an extended community experience of ‘living Druidry’.,

Twice a year, near to Summer and Winter Solstice, there are larger Assembly gatherings, typically of two hundred or so members and friends, and occasionally even larger gatherings, such as for the 50th anniversary gathering, which accommodated circa 400. Typically, these take place in Glastonbury, England, and will involve open ritual either upon Glastonbury Tor summit, or in the sacred Chalice Well gardens. There would typically be inspiring talks and teachings coupled with what is termed an ‘Eisteddfod’ – an opportunity for the Bards, poets, storytellers, singers and musicians of OBOD, to entertain, bedazzle and amuse.

The Three part correspondence course, referred to above, forms the heart of the teachings, learning and practice of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. This is the framework connecting all members, commencing with ‘Bard’, where individuals essentially learn how to ‘flower unto themselves’, creatively expressing through such media as poetry, story, song and art.

Then follows the deeper, often more intense, Ovate studies; to do with aspects such as, Ancestors, Trees, Divination, Healing, Death…and Rebirth.

Next comes the Druid element of the course- essentially drawing it all together and seeking to be of ‘service in the world’.

I hope this gives some inkling of the opportunities for personal growth and of Druid social life available via OBOD: Of course many OBOD friends just like to get together where possible and simply share good company – accompanied perhaps by a glass of ‘Druids Delight’ -golden “mead”, made from honey (the bee symbolising community in Druid teaching).

21. What remain the common ritual practices, their names and purposes, for those in the world of druidism to express various public initiations or important moments of life in the druid path of the individual and community?

I have already referred to the ‘Eightfold Wheel of the Year’, where key points in the cycles of the Sun and Moon are honoured and celebrated. This provides an insightful framework for better understanding the cycle of life and key points within it – both for oneself and the wider natural world.

Key rituals on a life path might include ‘Naming’: – the allocation and honouring of a new name being given to a baby or young child.

‘Handfasting’: – The sacred union through love of two individuals – Hence the term ‘tying the knot’.

‘Parting’ – witnessing and marking the passing of a soul from this ‘seen’ world to another ‘unseen’ realm.

Additionally, there are sometimes rituals to mark the transition to ‘Elder’ within a community.

In all cases, there is generally a significant benefit through connection – both to oneself, to others and often to something mysterious – ‘beyond’. The process of experiencing, witnessing and honouring key moments in the natural cycle and within an individual life, help give purpose, meaning and inspiration to community, family and tribe. It may be that the original meaning of religion – ‘to re-bind’, ‘to re-connect’ is reflected to some degree through these practices. However, Druidry does not particularly classify itself as religion, but rather as a set of guiding principles; a philosophy and practice through which a virtuous and amusing life can be manifested.

22. The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids does have structure and history.^{^[35],}^[36],^{^[37]} Ross Nichols founded the order and Philip Carr-Gomm remains the current chief of it.^{^[38],}^{^[39]}What role do elders and chiefs perform for the druid community?

Principally, such individuals would provide vision and leadership.

The focusing and facilitating of rituals and gatherings – especially the larger ones, is often, but not necessarily, performed by an elder. It is for the chief and elders to provide guidance, counsel and teaching to enable the flourishing and enrichment of the wider community. Others may do this too, but it would naturally fall to those recognised as embodying the characteristics of an elder – such as wisdom, compassion, humour; humility, presence and experience.

It is through providing effective and simple role models of these behaviours, that the overall health of the Order – and indeed the wider world – is enhanced.

23. To better comprehend the knowledge and understand some of the organizations involved in the world of druidism and paganism, numerous resources and organizations exist for personal research and self-development, if one does have that inclination, including the Order of Bards Ovates & Druids.^{^[40],}^{^[41],^[42],^[43],^[44],^[45],^[46],^[47],^[48],^[49],^[50]}Insofar as those with an interest in the general aspects of druidism based in skimmed reading and glances at the publications of the druid community, what core aspect does the individual in search of the druid path need to know prior to, or at least in the early stages of, the journey provided the druidic ways?

The simple desire or intent to manifest one’s true self in the world.

The knowledge that it’s not just you who doesn’t know, and that its perfectly ok to ‘not know’.

The wisdom to allow oneself to be the fool.

Also the knowledge that there is no pressure to continue – it is ok to change your mind at any time and look elsewhere.

As in freedom you come, so in freedom you may leave at any time.

24. What druid or pagan exemplars inspire you?

The Oak Tree; The Birch and The Yew.

The Moon, The Sun and The Stars.

You, Me, Everyone!

25. What articles, books, general resources, and organizations, societies, and orders seem worth pursuing for those with an introductory interest in druidism?

My honest answer? It’s all on the OBOD website.

(including reference to, and recommendation of, other organisations)

My own path has been greatly aided by books by Joseph Campbell, such as ‘The Masks of God’ and ‘Myths to Live By’. Also those by Christmas Humphries; especially ‘Studies in the Middle Way’ and “Buddhism”.

Others which come to mind and have inspired me:

John Welwood’s ‘Journey of the Heart’,
John and Caitlin Matthews ‘The Western Way’.
Jonathan Briggs – ‘Mistletoe’,
and numerous others too many to mention,
although here are a couple more: ‘The Sacred Yew’, Anand Chetan and Diana Brueton.
‘Anam Cara’ – John O’Donohue.
And ‘The Natural Death Handbook’ published by the Natural Death Centre.

You can see that these are not all overtly ‘druidic’. Each of us must find our own way if we so choose. My own experience is of a ‘perennial wisdom’ which suffuses and transcends all paths. While druidry works well for me, it does not suit all. I am just as happy with terms such as ‘The Nameless Path’ or ‘The Path of the Open Heart’

26. In consideration of the same organizations and resources, and unlisted others, how does the individual member of the druid community turn to these organizations and resources for further self-development and support, respectively?^{^[51],}^{^[52],^[53],^[54],^[55],^[56],^[57],^[58],^[59],^[60]}

By opening the heart, daring to ask and trusting the process.

One might also add; ‘by applying common sense, modest effort and intuition’.

27. Formal, and informal, general descriptors of druidism exist in multiple websites, articles, and so on. This includes the Order of Bards Ovates & Druids, which, in What is Druidry (n.d.), states:

“The Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids works with Druidry as a spiritual way and practice that speaks to three of our greatest yearnings: to be fully creative in our lives, to commune deeply with the world of Nature, and to gain access to a source of profound wisdom. Each of these yearnings comes from a different aspect of ourselves that we can personify as the Singer, the Shaman and the Sage…Druidry, or Druidism as it is also known, manifests today in three usually separate ways: as a cultural enterprise to foster the Welsh, Cornish and Breton languages; as a fraternal pursuit to provide mutual support and to raise funds for good causes; and as a spiritual path…The practice of Druidry was replaced with Christianity by the seventh century…Like seeds that have lain dormant for centuries before suddenly flowering again, Druidry began a process of revival, started by scholars in Britain, France and Germany who became fascinated by the subject…Druidry appeals in particular to people who have become disenchanted with much of conventional religious practice, and who are seeking a sense of spiritual connection with the land, and with their ancestors. In today’s fast-moving and environmentally-threatened world, they are looking for a sense of rootedness in Time and in Place, and for a sense of reverence for the Earth.”^{^[61]}

Where will this growing crop develop, based on current trajectories, for the previously dormant seed?

From the acorn grows the Oak.

This growing crop of motivated souls is already sprouting. Taking OBOD as a microcosm of the wider whole, more and more individuals are waking up to the notion that the earth is sacred and cannot continue to be desecrated and abused as it has been.

A movement is underway; a conflagration of ‘warriors of the heart’.

Where once there were a few, now there are growing numbers.

For me it is like this: In the 1960’s (my youth) emerged the spark of this movement. Somewhere – quite possibly ‘on some weird hippy field’ – a fire was lit. From this fire, a brand was carried to several distant lands.

Over the years, I have witnessed and been privileged to experience, a range of camps or gatherings all round the world. Initially it seemed like these were rare and each camp or tribal movement tended to think it was the only fire in the darkness of the forest. I glimpsed that there were more fires than superficially evident.

Over time, and especially in the last ten to fifteen years, the number of fires being lit, has grown, such that in each poetic landscape, individual ‘hearth fires of the forest’, can now see a range of other fires in the distance; across the valley, or further up the mountainside, like fireflies dotting the side of a creek.

These are still slowly, yet ever more rapidly, growing; each taking sustenance and encouragement from the other.

A ‘confidence through communion’ is taking place, such that this phenomenon (for that is what it is) is now linking fires, linking arms, in order to light up the world.

I sense the ‘growing crop’ developing in every land, across every nation and eventually, if not exactly ‘in every heart’, then certainly in enough hearts to make a paradigm shift inevitable.

Come dream the world anew

For the time it is upon us

As the land cries out

Let consciousness be stirred.

Re-dream the sacred sites

So long silent, so long dormant

For the time is ripe

Moonlight dance is in the air.

Re-imagine rivers flowing

Re-envision forests merging

As the drums now beat

Re-incarnate Goddess Earth

Bibliography

Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship. (2015). Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship. Retrieved from https://www.adf.org/.
Awen Grove Canada. (2014). Awen Grove Canada. Retrieved from http://awencanada.com/.
Bertrand, I.J. (n.d.). Album. Retrieved from http://www.ingridbertrand.be/album/.
Brown, N. (2014, October 21). Druid chants. Retrieved from https://druidlife.wordpress.com/2014/10/21/druid-chants/.
Carr-Gomm, P. (2014, May 23). On Behalf of the Earth. Retrieved from http://www.philipcarr-gomm.com/on-behalf-of-the-land/.
CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. (2015). CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. Retrieved from http://www.ucc.ie/celt/.
Daily Mail (2009, September 12). Rock ‘n’ Roll, druids and the real wedding of the year. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1212087/Rock-n-roll-druids-real-wedding-year.html.
Druid Camp. (2015). Who’s On: JJ Middleway. Retrieved from http://www.druidcamp.org.uk/whats-on-2015/this-year-at-druid-camp/.
DruidCast. (2012).DruidCast – A Druid Podcast Episode 36. Retrieved from http://podbay.fm/show/257048136/e/1269348240?autostart=1.
Gathering Around the Linden Tree. (2014). Workshop: Earth Healing Ritual. Retrieved from http://lindenhain.eu/eng/jj_earthhealing.html.
Druid Camp. (2015, March 15). Druid Camp. Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/8043282-druid-camp.
Henge of Keltria. (2015). Henge of Keltria. Retrieved from http://www.keltria.org/.
IMBAS. (2015). IMBAS. Retrieved from http://www.imbas.org/imbas/.
International Association of Reiki Professionals. (2015). International Association of Reiki Professionals. Retrieved from http://iarp.org/what-is-reiki/.
LinkedIn. (2015). Jj Middleway. Retrieved from https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/jj-middleway/59/117/240.
LinkedIn. (2015). Yukon Assignment. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=4999455&goback=%2Enpp_jj*5middleway%2F59%2F117%2F240.
Middleway, J.J. (2015). Enchanting the Void. Retrieved from http://enchantingthevoid.co.uk/.
Middleway, J.J. (2012, March 14). Great poem with a message. Retrieved from http://carnation-creations.blogspot.ca/2012/03/great-poem-with-message.html.
MidSussex Times. (2009, September 10). Richard Branson’s nephew marries Lady Cowdray’s eldest Eliza. Retrieved from http://www.midsussextimes.co.uk/news/local/richard-branson-s-nephew-marries-lady-cowdray-s-eldest-eliza-1-1550589.
Newman, P. (2014, August 1). Dance of Life…. Retrieved from http://storyfolksinger.blogspot.ca/2014/08/dance-of-life.html.
Reformed Druids of North America. (2015). Reformed Druids of North America. Retrieved from http://rdna.info/.
The British Druid Order. (2015). The British Druid Order. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.co.uk/.
The Druid Network. (2015). The Druid Network. Retrieved from http://druidnetwork.org/.
The Henge of Keltria. (2015). The Henge of Keltria. Retrieved from http://www.keltria.org/.
The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/.
Tuathail, S.A. (1993). Foclóir Draíochta – Dictionary of Druidism. Retrieved from http://www.imbas.org/articles/focloir_draiochta.html.
YouTube. (2015). YouTube. Retrieved from www.youtube.com.

Appendix I: Footnotes

^[1] Druid; Member, The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids; Celebrant; Healer; Mentor/Elder/Witness, UK – Boys2Men; Ritualist; Druid Mentor, Elder, and Witness.

^{^[2]} First publication on December 22, 2015 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

^{^[3]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2015, June 19). OBOD 50^th Anniversary 2014. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x00Imc9ZG2o.

^{^[4]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2015, Jan 10). OBOD 50^th Anniversary 2014 TRAILER. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yqi2In_V3E.

^{^[5]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2013, July 2). OBOD from the Archive. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04zuz0idDLI.

^{^[6]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2012, November 15). OBOD Mount Haemus Lectures, Salisbury, 29th September 2012. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y3D0GtkjkY.

^{^[7]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2012, November 4). A Druid Tree Meditation. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnVRE8yME9g.

^{^[8]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2009 October 6). Pt – 6: Beyond Belief – a talk by Philip Carr-Gomm at the Glastonbury Symposium July 2009. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGGNsXb5kdE.

^{^[9]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2009, October 6). Pt – 5: Beyond Belief – a talk by Philip Carr-Gomm at the Glastonbury Symposium July 2009. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRQLGzdM4Pw.

^{^[10]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2009, October 6). Pt – 4: Beyond Belief – a talk by Philip Carr-Gomm at the Glastonbury Symposium July 2009. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiVb9ytrLWE.

^{^[11]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2009, October 6). Pt – 3: Beyond Belief – a talk by Philip Carr-Gomm at the Glastonbury Symposium July 2009. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnaNg7ppYlA.

^{^[12]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2009, October 6). Pt – 2: Beyond Belief – a talk by Philip Carr-Gomm at the Glastonbury Symposium July 2009. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOF5uMsAxDA.

^{^[13]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2009, October 5). Philip Carr-Gomm in conversation with Henry Tricks. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FA39Q0CzCo.

^{^[14]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2009, August 6). David Curtis and Rachel Rose – OBOD 2009. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29dYl4yT5Sk.

^{^[15]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2009, August 6). Corwen and Kate – Cruel Sister – OBOD 2009. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evI0heU2wYM.

^{^[16]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2009, February 18). OBOD Summer Gathering Ritual – Glastonbury 2008. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guhPZPqfF-4.

^{^[17]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2008, December 5). Philip Carr-Gomm on the Paul O’Grady Show March 2008. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xu4BF8xoKA.

^{^[18]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2008, July 8). Introduction to the Order’s Mount Haemus Lectures 2004. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z56BUx8lRjk.

^{^[19]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2008, July 6). OBOD Summer Gathering 2008. Damh the Bard – Fith Fath Song. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7XWOf126wg.

^{^[20]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2008, May 1). Seven Gifts of Druidry (higher definition version). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NccJ89BupI.

^{^[21]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2008, January 31). You were meant to be here – Ideas on the spiritual life. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqO93g-FofA.

^{^[22]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2007, December 18). OBOD Summer Solstice 2006 Public Ritual on Glastonbury Tor. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agGrwPo911s.

^{^[23]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2007, November 6). The Seven Gifts of Druidry. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dV7dOBMdcA.

^{^[24]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2007, August 2). OBOD Glastonbury Summer Eisteddfod 2007 – Damh the Bard 2. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRblSc0CM0s.

^{^[25]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2007, August 2). OBOD Glastonbury Summer Eisteddfod 2007 – Paul and Greg. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsomX_Tsh9w.

^{^[26]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2007, August 2). OBOD Glastonbury Summer Eisteddfod 2007 – Damh the Bard. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnTHrFh2T4k.

^{^[27]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2007, March 23). Lughnasadh in 60 Seconds (05). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3lBj-rsHcQ.

^{^[28]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2007, March 23). The Wickerman Dance (06). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75RDi77JaoE.

^{^[29]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2007, March 23). Summer Solstice ritual at Stonehenge, Summer 2000. Part 1. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEj_ctdF5PE.

^{^[30]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2007, March 21). Ritual at Stonehenge, Summer 2000 Part 2. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZBjUjj1Idg.

^{^[31]} Please see [Order of Bards Ovates and Druids]. (2012, November 15). OBOD Ritual on Glastonbury Tor, Summer 2000. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR41P0NJAEw.

^{^[32]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/.

^{^[33]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). About The Order. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/about-us/about-order.

^{^[34]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/about-us/frequently-asked-questions.

^{^[35]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). Who Runs The Order? How Is It Structured?. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/about-us/who-runs-order-how-it-structured.

^{^[36]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). The Order as a Five Dimensional Network. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/about-us/who-runs-order-how-it-structured/order-five-dimensional-network.

^{^[37]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). Ross Nichols – The Founder. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/about-us/ross-nichols-founder.

^{^[38]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). Ross Nichols – The Founder. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/about-us/ross-nichols-founder.

^{^[39]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). Philip Carr-Gomm – The Current Chief. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/about-us/philip-carr-gomm-current-chief.

^{^[40]} Please see Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship. (2015). Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship. Retrieved from https://www.adf.org/.

^{^[41]} Please see Awen Grove Canada. (2014). Awen Grove Canada. Retrieved from http://awencanada.com/.

^{^[42]} Please see CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. (2015). CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. Retrieved from http://www.ucc.ie/celt/.

^{^[43]} Please see IMBAS. (2015). IMBAS. Retrieved from http://www.imbas.org/imbas/.

^{^[44]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/.

^{^[45]} Please see Reformed Druids of North America. (2015). Reformed Druids of North America. Retrieved from http://rdna.info/.

^{^[46]} Please see The British Druid Order. (2015). The British Druid Order. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.co.uk/.

^{^[47]} Please see The Druid Network. (2015). The Druid Network. Retrieved from http://druidnetwork.org/.

^{^[48]} Please see The Henge of Keltria. (2015). The Henge of Keltria. Retrieved from http://www.keltria.org/.

^{^[49]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/.

^{^[50]} Please see Tuathail, S.A. (1993). Foclóir Draíochta – Dictionary of Druidism. Retrieved from http://www.imbas.org/articles/focloir_draiochta.html.

^{^[51]} Please see Awen Grove Canada. (2014). Awen Grove Canada. Retrieved from http://awencanada.com/.

^{^[52]} Please see CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. (2015). CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. Retrieved from http://www.ucc.ie/celt/.

^{^[53]} Please see IMBAS. (2015). IMBAS. Retrieved from http://www.imbas.org/imbas/.

^{^[54]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/.

^{^[55]} Please see Reformed Druids of North America. (2015). Reformed Druids of North America. Retrieved from http://rdna.info/.

^{^[56]} Please see The British Druid Order. (2015). The British Druid Order. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.co.uk/.

^{^[57]} Please see The Druid Network. (2015). The Druid Network. Retrieved from http://druidnetwork.org/.

^{^[58]} Please see The Henge of Keltria. (2015). The Henge of Keltria. Retrieved from http://www.keltria.org/.

^{^[59]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/.

^{^[60]} Please see Tuathail, S.A. (1993). Foclóir Draíochta – Dictionary of Druidism. Retrieved from http://www.imbas.org/articles/focloir_draiochta.html.

^{^[61]} In What is Druidry? (n.d.)., it, in full, states:

Druidry, or Druidism as it is also known, manifests today in three usually separate ways: as a cultural enterprise to foster the Welsh, Cornish and Breton languages; as a fraternal pursuit to provide mutual support and to raise funds for good causes; and as a spiritual path. Each of these different approaches draws upon the inspiration of the ancient Druids, who were the guardians of a magical and religious tradition that existed before the coming of Christianity, and whose influence can be traced from the western shores of Ireland to the west of France – and perhaps beyond. Caesar wrote that the Druids originated in Britain.

The practice of Druidry was replaced with Christianity by the seventh century, and even though little is known about these ancient sages, groups in Britain who were inspired by the idea of the Druids began to form in the early eighteenth century. Like seeds that have lain dormant for centuries before suddenly flowering again, Druidry began a process of revival, started by scholars in Britain, France and Germany who became fascinated by the subject, and continued today by a small but rapidly growing number of people around the world who are inspired by the tradition, rituals and teachings that have evolved over the last two and a half centuries, which draw upon mythology and folklore whose origins lie in the pre-Christian era.

Druidry appeals in particular to people who have become disenchanted with much of conventional religious practice, and who are seeking a sense of spiritual connection with the land, and with their ancestors. In today’s fast-moving and environmentally-threatened world, they are looking for a sense of rootedness in Time and in Place, and for a sense of reverence for the Earth.”

Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (n.d.). What is Druidry?. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/what-druidry.

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2023-01-29

An Interview with J.J. Middleway (Part Three)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/12/15

Abstract

An interview with J.J. Middleway. He discusses: most moving initiation experience of boys becoming men; most radical transformation observed between 2010-2013 for UK – Boys2Men; important aspects of leadership to him; most spectacular moments in the druid path; most meaningful and inspiring moments in the druid path; and the ethics and values required of druids on their paths.

Keywords: Boys2Men, druid, druidism, ethics, initiation, J.J. Middleway, leadership, values.

An Interview with J.J. Middleway^{^[1],}^{^[2]}

*Please see the footnotes and citation style listing after the interview, respectively.*

14. What experience with initiation for boys becoming men most moved you?

In recounting and replying to these questions, you have inadvertently stirred memories from an unlikely source, and well beyond when I more formally became involved with Boys2Men or similar.

I mentioned earlier about the young man from Chile who had been in prison for murder (As an ‘anti- fascist’ (sic), he had knifed someone who held alternative views, at a parade in Santiago, as I understand and recall. When he appeared ‘on camp’ in region XI of Chile, he proceeded to hoist a giant ‘Jolly Roger’ skull and crossbones flag above his tent and was carrying a knife. I say ‘knife’ – but given that it was about 18 inches to two feet long it was halfway to a sword.

It fell to me (‘the buck stops here’) to deal with him. I can’t say I wasn’t in some trepidation at the prospect. He was wearing a very unusual and, for me, beautiful T -shirt depicting two horses – one white, one black and one upright, the other upside down. They were framed by a full moon, a quarter moon and a star. After all these years, I can still picture it clearly, as you see. I made comment on and complimented him on the T-shirt and this may well have ‘saved me’ in some way. We talked a bit about it and then I told him that I would need to take the knife away as it was too dangerous. He was loathe to do so, as you might imagine, but eventually consented when I gave him my personal assurance that I would give it back to him at the end of the expedition. He trusted me for some reason. I said he could fly the Jolly Roger until sunset and then it was to come down.

He was a most unusual fellow; tall and quite gaunt and originally from the region we were in for the expedition; so he knew the landscape and was most adept at reading the landscape and could run full pelt between two steep sloped hillsides – one summit to the other – just like a gazelle – supremely graceful. I can still picture him – it was unique and quite awesome I can assure you. So he was useful to the expedition for his local knowledge and affinity with the land. Yet there was an unnerving coldness and callousness about him. I remember him finding and then skinning a large insect with some despotic glee in his eyes. Scary.

So the weeks passed and the initial phase completed. Reports came in of how difficult and unpredictable and even fearsome he could be. And also of how strong and powerful and useful he could be.

Then, during the second phase (each of the three phases lasted a month) I found myself up in the wild hills with his group. I never got to do a full phase, but visited different groups to deal with problems or sort out leadership issues and so on. I remember, the group had been out all day and there was some problem, which I can’t specifically recall just now, which necessitated getting news back to base camp asap. I think the radio had broken, so people at camp might fear the worst (this was pre mobile and satellite days). Anyhow, this guy (I can’t remember his name- let’s call him Luis) reckoned he knew a way back which was much quicker but necessitated going over the edge of the cliff in front of us. Nobody was prepared to go with him (too dangerous!) and he wasn’t allowed to go on his own, so somebody had to be with him. So, after a few seconds and in a rash moment, I piped up “I’ll go with you”. Everyone’s jaw dropped: After all, not only was I the ‘old man’ – tho still in those days ‘fairly fit’, but I was also the DEL (Deputy Expedition Leader) and was expected to show some sense and example.

Well, in the end, I didn’t go with him; someone else did. It was agreed, and I knew it was necessary, for me to not be reckless, but to stay with the main group and hold things together rather than launching off stupidly. Yet in that moment when I spoke to Luis, and said I would go with him, I saw something register in his eyes – almost of disbelief. He knew I meant it. And in the days and weeks that followed, he mellowed: his attitude changed and he became helpful and a key member of the groups he was in – valued and respected. He would occasionally turn to me to check something out and I was aware he was continually testing out the degree to which I was prepared to ‘be there for him’.

I’m glad I didn’t end up going with him ‘over the edge’ for another reason: Rather than being quicker, it took them twice as long as the main party to get back to base and was quite an ordeal, with much more difficult terrain than Luis had predicted.

As the end of the expedition approached, I remember a very powerful and moving conversation with Luis. He told me how his Father had left when he was very young; how he had felt abandoned and neglected and unloved. How angry and bitter he had become and how this had spiraled out of control when he killed somebody. He told me that something major had shifted for him during this expedition (as it pretty much did for everyone), and how he had somehow opened up to his sensitivity and softer side. He pinpointed the moment of the ‘cliff edge’ as having been the seminal point in this, and how he had learned to trust again. He was far from ‘sorted’ (aren’t we all!) yet something dramatic had come to pass. He went on to say that it would be his Father coming to meet him and ‘take him home’ afterwards and that it was a huge moment in his life and how grateful he was. He was in tears as he handed me a present of the T-shirt I had admired at the outset. And I was in tears as I handed him back his large knife. What happened with Luis was some form of initiation – they always vary, and are unique to the individual. I have witnessed a whole host of transformations, but I guess this stands out because it was so dramatic and the first of real note. And also because I was going through just as powerful and transformative a journey of my own in that time. However, I think what I have related answers the question.

Oh yes, and the reason I can remember the T-shirt so well? Because it is sitting here on the chair beside me now. I dug it out to recount this tale. Maybe it won’t surprise you that it has brought tears to my eyes seeing it again.

15. What individual had the most radical transformation in your judgment of professional work from 2010-2013 for UK – Boys2Men?

Myself. (half joking, but there is truth in that)

The fact is, that just about everyone who gets actively involved, experiences dramatic and valuable transformation. That goes for boys and men alike: Those organising and running it gain and learn every bit as much from “the boys” as the participants ever learn from “the men”.

16. You have involvement with The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids for 21 years with 17 as a mentor or tutor.^{^[3],}^{^[4],^[5],^[6],^[7]} You do not perceive of yourself as an academic, or intellectual, but as slightly unorthodox. Moreover, you see personal value in expression of authenticity, grace, humility, and humor, even in light of a highly busy schedule – which you hold in spite of reduced contact with the world through electronic means of communication. For example, your recent work, in July, 2015, worked in sharing a journey of initiation for young men, where you held the title of ritual elder and took on its concomitant responsibilities. Or another outing which involved leading a group into sacred singing, which you give the appellation “Enchanting the Void,” or conducting a Handfasting (alternative wedding) in Somerset for a couple from Hong Kong and another in Upper New York State (Hudson), which describes a bountiful life provided by the druid path.^{^[8]} What aspects of leadership, such as the aforementioned, mean the most to you?

I think that sums it up pretty well in most respects. It feels like a very rich harvest these past few years: so much abundance in my life that I need to be mindful of taking too much on (like answering random magazine interview requests like this 🙂 – which I am truly grateful for and only joking when I say that; I find it very valuable – and humbling too as I approach my latter years. Yes, as Autumn Equinox 2015 now approaches – it will mark 21 years since I first attended a Druid Grove meeting in Bristol. On that same evening, two other people were attending for the very first time; one Professor Ronald Hutton (perhaps the foremost authority on Paganism in the world) and another – Adrian Rooke – a valiant and vibrant ‘spiritual warrior’. Both have become dear to my heart and most valued as friends. We shall meet again together as we have all these years, to mark the ‘wheel of the year’ and the ‘wheel of our lives’. Each of us has supported and witnessed the other as we have evolved into our respective forms of Druidry and in life. We have honoured each other’s evolution on this path. Goodness what a journey we have shared. I know they would echo that. So, deep friendship is one aspect of what this path has brought me; many others too numerous to mention here.

17. What remain the most spectacular moments in the druid path for you?

The remarkable arrival and unfolding of each new day. The Beauty in a rose.

As Hafiz expressed it in the 13th century I think:

“How did the rose ever flower and give to the world of its beauty?

It felt the encouragement of light upon its being”

So, the ‘most spectacular’ for me is to be found within the everyday.

The ordinary becomes the extraordinary.

Einstein put it succinctly and wisely for me:

“There are two ways to live a life: One is to experience everything as a miracle. The other is to experience nothing as being a miracle”

I have paraphrased from memory so it may not be word perfect, but you get the gist of it. The thing that I would add is that he missed a key part out; ‘we get to choose’. How phenomenal is that? Which points to another wonderful Hafiz poem:

“The words I speak, create the home I live in.”

18. What remain the most meaningful and inspiring moments in the druid path for you?

I could list a whole host of experiences and recollections. So I will 🙂

Or at least a few. I might recollect three days and nights spent inside an ancient, between 2,000 and 4,000-year-old, hollow yew tree in Wales, 18 years ago, as a key part of my journey; a death and rebirth. Without food and water and with just my Druid cloak. Some might say “’tis madness sir”. Maybe so, but it taught me much; not least that water is the elixir of life. After 72 hours without it, the exquisite ambrosia which is H2O, becomes a magical substance, never to be forgotten. The ancient yew tree is also ‘a magical being’ in my experience.

Or I might celebrate four beautiful children – three girls and one boy – and the remarkable good fortune of an equally beautiful Mother to those children and a fabulously enriching experience of recently becoming a grandparent. Being Father and Husband has been a key part of the unfolding of my Druid path and a prime focus of my life. Supremely challenging and supremely rewarding.

I would also celebrate the friends and lovers who have held and encouraged and inspired me. Particularly in this moment the woman in my life right now.

I might recall visits to the sacred and special Island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland. Of ‘skinny dipping’ during two separate Novembers (Brrrr!) in the ‘Spring of Eternal Youth’ at the top of Dun I – the only ‘mountain’ (it’s really a big hill) of Iona. And of taking a boat from there to Fingal’s cave on Staffa- a quite Magical place – where I feel my actual Druid initiation took place on one of those visits.

Or perhaps the unfolding of the journey after my time in Patagonia and South America. I recalled above how leading that expedition was the most challenging and demanding experience I had experienced ‘at that time’ i.e. “If I can survive this, then I can survive anything” is how it felt. Yet what happened subsequently was even more challenging. The breakup of my 30-year marriage shredded me to pieces and shattered my heart. And that in its turn, prepared me for an almost mythical journey of healing and redemption in regard to one of our three daughters – a pilgrimage spanning several years, with spells in Nepal and the next year in India, trying to locate and rescue her from what was, at the time, every parent’s worst nightmare. A life process for which I have invented the word “Humilification” since I don’t think there is word to adequately describe the process of being humbled, often through humiliation, and returned in humility, to the earth (which is where the Hum in our Human name comes from: We are creatures of this earth.) The life process offers us – certainly it has offered me – the opportunity for humilification. The words Humour, Humus and Humanity are pointers on that journey.

So, unlikely as it might appear as a candidate at first viewing, it is the supreme humbling through humilification which has moulded and made me the man I now am, and thus paradoxically qualifies as being one of ‘the most meaningful and inspiring moments on the Druid path for me.”

Here is the poem I wrote a few years back to sum it all up (it also goes a long way toward telling you where I am now) All things pass – and I know I’ll get over it, however my life feels as blessed and as graced, at every level, such as a simple fool of a man as this, could ever have imagined or wished for.

I have relinquished

I now accept

I am surrendered

Without regret.

I’m blown wide open

I’m stripped quite bare

I stand in silence

Beyond despair.

Reduced to nothing

I have it all.

Forsake illusion

Embrace the fall.

I would also like to honour and bless the five years I spent living alone, in a yurt in the woods, in Oxfordshire England, including two particularly cold winters. Of connecting deeply and being healed by ‘sleeping upon the earth’ – (metaphorically, since I did at least have sheepskins to lie on 🙂 )

19. What do ethics and value require of druids on their own paths?^{^[9],}^{^[10],^[11],^12]}

‘First know thyself; then to that self be true.’ – A guiding principle of the Western Mystery Tradition.

It is for each of us to find that unique blend which best describes us, and then act accordingly in response. We may help each other find our own path in that quest; however, to ‘tell’ another ‘this is the truth’ or to point and say ‘this is the way’, are not ‘the druid way’ – at least not as I understand it. To enable another to directly experience their own personal unfolding, then see this embodied in ‘a virtuous way of being’ is the reflection of ethics and value in action I think.

What also comes to mind is one of my favourite Druid Triads (so called because each one always has three lines or component parts):

Hearth as Altar

Work as Worship

Service as Sacrament.

This too has been a welcome guide in relation to ethics and values upon my path.

‘Hearth’ can perhaps be seen as the inner work of lighting and tending the fire of the soul. Though it might equally be seen as an outer activity.

‘Work’ – as has come to be the case for me – which complements and is fully in accord with one’s values and ethics; and therefore based in, and an expression of, love.

And ‘Service’ – The subjugation and at the same time magnification, of the lesser ego driven self, in service to the greater ‘Self’ – that which furthers and unconditionally aids the needs of others.

Appendix I: Footnotes

^[1] Druid; Member, The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids; Celebrant; Healer; Mentor/Elder/Witness, UK – Boys2Men; Ritualist; Druid Mentor, Elder, and Witness.

^{^[2]} First publication on December 15, 2015 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

^{^[3]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/.

^{^[4]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). Druid Beliefs. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/druid-beliefs.

^{^[5]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (n.d.). Ethics & Values in Druidry I. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/what-druidry/ethics-values-druidry.

^{^[6]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (n.d.). Ethics & Values in Druidry II. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/what-druidry/ethics-values-druidry/ethics-values-druidism.

^{^[7]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). Druid Beliefs. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/druid-beliefs.

^{^[8]} Please see Middleway, J.J. (2015). Enchanting the Void. Retrieved from http://enchantingthevoid.co.uk/.

^{^[9]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). Druid Beliefs. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/druid-beliefs.

^{^[10]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (n.d.). Ethics & Values in Druidry I. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/what-druidry/ethics-values-druidry.

^{^[11]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (n.d.). Ethics & Values in Druidry II. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/what-druidry/ethics-values-druidry/ethics-values-druidism.

^{^[12]} Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (n.d.). How Beautiful Are They— Some Thoughts on Ethics in Celtic and European Mythology. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/what-druidry/ethics-values-druidry/how-beautiful-are-they%E2%80%94-some-thoughts-ethics-celtic-and.

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2023-01-29

An Interview with J.J. Middleway (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/12/08

Abstract

An Interview with J.J. Middleway. He discusses: prominent interests in personal life; interest in healing, energy healing, Chakra balancing, Reiki, holistic health, and meditation; response to protagonists and antagonists in consideration of these practices; Yukon Assignment and the overarching theory and implemented practices, and plans for the future; why, and how, he became involved; “Mentor/Witness/Elder” from 2010-2013 for the United Kingdom Boys2Men organization and duties which came from this position; and the enrichment of personal skills for druid practices in the domain of leadership and mentorship.

Keywords: Boys2Men, Chakra, druid, druidism, elder, J.J. Middleway, leadership, mentor, Reiki, witness, Yukon Assignment.

An Interview with J.J. Middleway (Part Two)^{^[1],}^{^[2]}

*Please see the footnotes and citation style listing after the interview, respectively.*

7. What sub-set of these interests seem most prominent in personal life?

A term that isn’t used above, but which perhaps links them all, is ‘holding space’ which, in my experience, has an intimate link with ‘presence’. Those in turn link with a paradoxical ability to both ‘be fully out in the world’ and yet concurrently hold a space of inner refuge – what might be termed ‘a sanctuary of solitude’ – at my core. So, I see that in my life, I spend a lot of time creating celebratory and reverential space – for instance for handfasting/wedding ceremonies, or baby naming ceremonies or for Parting/Funeral services. I have been told that I have a capacity to create a form of magical space, in which and through which, others may express and share of their humanity -and indeed of their divinity. Again, I have heard it said that Shaman, Priest or ‘Walker between the worlds’ best describe what I do. For me it doesn’t matter so much what I am called as how I manifest my love in the world.

I also find it necessary and important to take solitary time; in nature, by the sea or simply ‘as is’, wherever that might be. I like to meditate; however this can include many forms; from parking one’s bum on a meditation stool, to washing dishes or chopping wood (mindfully! :-))

Therefore it is not so much a case of which sub-sets of these interests are most prominent in my personal life. Rather, these sub-sets are but examples – part of the kaleidoscope of colours – which go toward making a composite whole, which, in its entirety reflects the magnificence, foolishness and uncertainty of a fully lived life.

8. You have an interest in healing, energy healing, Chakra balancing, Reiki, holistic health, and meditation – among others.^{^[3]} Many consider these crucial to their reduction of stress and improved wellbeing, and general wellness.^{^[4]} Others for personal development in conjunction with their or their community’s druid path. Even further, others see these as pseudoscience and without merit, especially because of, by definition, existing in the alternative health domains rather than mainstream medicine for improved wellbeing. What seems the most reasonable stance with respect to these and other practices to you?

To maybe start from a place of ‘I don’t know’. That seems a good place to start.

Strangely enough, it was in the sciences that I furthered my education (in the mistaken and, with hindsight, slightly comical notion that I might qualify as a medical doctor). And also perhaps unconsciously, following what I think is Kirkegaard’s wise advice, in that to know who you are, you must first go by the way of who you are not. So I will freely state that I am no scientist. Yet I hold science and the rational as honourable and worthy members of a wider family of attributes of the human condition.

Just as science has the wisdom of ‘laws’ which acknowledge that ‘to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction’, I am sometimes puzzled why this can’t be applied to the full panoply of life. i.e. just as there is a rational, visible world view, why should its opposite – namely an irrational, invisible world view, not have equal status? Then the apparent ‘opposites’ might be reconciled into a wiser and a healthier union; the magical and mystical fusion of opposites which is the very birth spring of life.

Re-reading the terms and practices used in your question, I just note that, for the most part, these have been chosen by others to describe what I offer. Healing and meditation I recognize and own. The other terms, I respect and accept since others have experienced it so; however, for me these have come out of what I would term ‘presence’ and ‘love’.

So the most reasonable stance for me in relation to the above practices and treatments is to to acknowledge that for me, where they work, I offer them to myself and others from a place of integrity and with love. For anyone who chooses to believe or practice otherwise, I respect and indeed value that.

9. How might one respond to those protagonists and antagonists on either side of these practices – those with outright acceptance and rejection?

With humour – Good humour. 🙂

10. You have association with the Yukon Assignment.^{^[5],}^{^[6]} What amounts to its overarching theory and implemented practices, and plans for the future?^{^[7],}^{^[8]}

The Yukon assignment is a wonderful example of courage, devotion and skill. It is a great role model for boys and men in particular and an inspiration for women disillusioned by poor examples of manhood.

In essence, a ‘grown up son’ teams up with his middle aged father to plan and embark upon ‘the journey of lifetime’. Having been dropped off by helicopter, with basic supplies, they spend months kayaking down hundreds of miles of sparsely mapped river, in an extremely remote area of the Yukon. Both men have experience of ‘the great outdoors’ yet push themselves to the limits of challenge and endurance to forge and celebrate their link to the land, the wider community (through their example) and to each other as Father and Son. These are my words and that is my understanding.

It is designed to inspire and motivate others to ‘go for their dream’ and to forge their destiny through actively embracing adversity. So the plan is to use it as a model in relation to adventure training and life development. I believe the intention is to take it into schools to encourage and inspire young people in their development.

11. Why, and how, did you get involved in it?

It would be a gross over-exaggeration to say that I am ‘involved’. I am an active supporter – that’s as far as my involvement goes at the moment. However it does tie in with other work I am involved in, concerning mentoring and supporting teenage boys in their journey to manhood, so there is a strong link in that way.

What is more interesting is how I come to be associated with the Yukon Assignment in the first place, and my own ‘great adventure’.

In January 2006 I headed off to the remote wilds of Patagonia as Deputy Expedition Leader for a Raleigh International Expedition involving 77 young men and women aged between 18 to 25, along with 36 staff – for whom I was largely responsible – mostly aged between 25 and 35. So, aged 54 at the time, I was the ‘old man’ of the bunch. It is fair to say that, at that time, it was the toughest and most challenging thing I had ever had to deal with. The first week felt like climbing Everest. (emotionally, physically and mentally). The second week, like climbing Annapurna – and on it went, relentlessly. I was often working 18 hour days. And although the title said “Deputy Expedition Leader”, I had been warned , and found it to be true – “This is the most demanding role of all”.

The basic idea was for groups of around 12 to 15 youngsters, under the leadership and direction of 2 to 3 project staff, to go off for a month on an environmental project adventure, ( tree planting or deer census) then return for a few days at base camp, before getting mixed up and going off for a month on a community project (building an old people’s centre or a children’s play area – we are talking fairly remote areas here) with a third month on an adventure project (e.g trekking across the Northern Ice cap or canoeing in the wild seas off the coast of southern Chile.) I had the responsibility of coordinating, monitoring and organizing all that. It was fantastic because it mixed up very privileged youngsters from the most prestigious schools in England (Prince William had been on it the previous year) along with inner city recovering drug addicts and alcoholics. There were some local youngsters from Chile on it too, including an 18-year old convicted murderer – but that’s another story.

I learned an awful lot about myself and others on that trip – an in particular, that I could lead through inspiration and respect.

You’re waiting for the link to the Yukon Assignment – and here it is. One of the adventure projects (there were three – two trekking, one canoeing) was led by a young man aged 25 at the time (the same age as my son as it happens). His name was Chris Lucas. I was amazed at his maturity, capabilities in the wild and inspirational leadership. We became good friends.

After the expedition proper, about 17 of the staff, went on our own adventure together, with Chris and another couple of mountain leaders, guiding us towards a dramatic – quite possibly unclimbed -glacier. Four of the party – including Chris and I, together with Leanne -an inspiring nurse from Australia – and Wim – an extremely tall canoeist from Belgium, climbed up the glacier and spent a remarkable and never to be forgotten night perched on ledges in the ice. We didn’t sleep; the ice was creaking and groaning around us and we genuinely wondered if we’d make it down – or at least I did. I made a vow to shave my head if I got off safely (which I did and it has stayed short ever since!) .

Chris, his girlfriend and I travelled on together through Chile, Bolivia and Peru after the expedition. We forged a strong bond of mutual respect and friendship. That’s how I come to know of the Yukon Assignment – Chris is ‘the son’ I spoke of above.

12. You held the position of “Mentor/Witness/Elder” from 2010-2013 for the United Kingdom Boys2Men organization.^{^[9]} What duties came with this position?

The application of ‘Mentor/Witness/Elder’ as a term in my working life, extends well beyond Boys2Men or Journeyman UK. I think the vagaries of LinkedIn, or more likely the vagaries of my relationship to it, have conspired to mislead. 🙂

The situation is, that I have indeed offered those skills in a Boys2Men arena over the past few years; most recently over a four day spell in the woods, six weeks ago, with 34 men and 16 boys on a journey of initiation (for the men as it turned out, as well as the boys). My role was to ‘hold space’ as previously referred to, and to be fully present. To support and if needed, nurture, the lead team, by dealing with upset individuals or mediating between parties. I also ended up accompanying a boy to hospital to be checked out after an accident.

More generally, I facilitated and led the ceremony of blessing and initiation at the end. A great honour and privilege – and very humbling too.

That work continues and is current. It extends to include a number of groups/tribes/clans of varying descriptions, and largely of low or nil profile on the web. Not because they are in any way ‘secret’; merely that they operate ‘low key’ and function simply. There are advantages to that, and not everything of value is to be found online – although clearly, much of value is 🙂

The role of elder is an interesting one. As with much else in my life, this seems to have ‘come to me’ rather than ‘me to it’. It seems that while eldership is linked to age in terms of requiring some life experience to support it, it does not relate directly to being of a particular age: More that it reflects a way of being in relation to a stage in life. So I find myself invited naturally into that role in number of spheres of activity – Druidry being one of them.

The duties which come with the position of mentor/witness/ Elder more generally, are the by now familiar chestnuts of being honourable, being present and being true.

13. How did this enrich personal skills for druid practices in the domain of leadership and mentorship?

In reviewing my life and often asking “how did it come to this?” I see how each phase or experience in life has prepared or ‘enabled me’ for the next. They seem to link together in some kind of ‘random- yet ordered’ array of ‘teachings’.

So, just as my experiences with the boys work, have complemented and fed into my Druidry, so too have my leadership and mentorship skills learned in the Druid arena, fed into and enabled the boys2men work. Indeed, those leadership, mentoring and eldership type roles have emerged significantly, through cross fertilization between two seemingly unlikely bedfellows: Druidry and the Ministry of Defence (MOD) with some ‘compassion for each from the other’ on my part, along the way.

A prime example perhaps of ‘walking between worlds’ – and also of being unconventional. I could move almost as easily (though not always as comfortably) between Brigadiers and Wing Commanders at a Board Room table, as I could amongst Hippies on a Field. A strange combination I know. Those days are gone; however, for a considerable period of my life, I straddled this ‘complementary duality’ as I would see it now, each teaching something to the other and me learning to acknowledge and hold both. Thus were my leadership and mentorship skills in MOD as much informed and aided by my experiences in Druidry, as they were ‘the other way round’. It is for instance, interesting on reflection to observe that much of my work in the MOD involved mediating and acting as ‘a bridge’. You get the idea I hope, as this cross fertilization of unlikely bedfellows has come to pervade my life somehow. For instance, my work these days (which isn’t work in the conventional sense, but rather a vocation which I love) takes me almost literally “from Palace to Ditch” as I term it, and encompasses “All Faiths and None”.

If you imagine a floor of wooden boards: Whilst most people might live their lives mainly in one ‘channel’ or single board, perhaps occasionally straying slightly out of comfort zone by visiting the boards on either side of ‘theirs’, my life seems to take me from one side of the floor to the other: Across all the boards – and occasionally off the edges too – although I have learned from experience where those are now, and lived to tell the tale, so hopefully less likely. 🙂

Appendix I: Footnotes

^{^[1]} Druid; Member, The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids; Celebrant; Healer; Mentor/Elder/Witness, UK – Boys2Men; Ritualist; Druid Mentor, Elder, and Witness.

^{^[2]} First publication on December 8, 2015 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

^{^[3]} Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Jj Middleway. Retrieved from https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/jj-middleway/59/117/240.

^{^[4]} Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Jj Middleway. Retrieved from https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/jj-middleway/59/117/240.

^{^[5]} Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Jj Middleway. Retrieved from https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/jj-middleway/59/117/240.

^{^[6]} Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Yukon Assignment. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=4999455&goback=%2Enpp_jj*5middleway%2F59%2F117%2F240.

^{^[7]} Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Jj Middleway. Retrieved from https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/jj-middleway/59/117/240.

^{^[8]} Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Yukon Assignment. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=4999455&goback=%2Enpp_jj*5middleway%2F59%2F117%2F240.

^{^[9]} Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Jj Middleway. Retrieved from https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/jj-middleway/59/117/240.

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2023-01-29

An Interview with J.J. Middleway (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/12/01

Abstract

An Interview with J.J. Middleway. He discusses: geographic, cultural, and linguistic background; pivotal moments leading into druidism; responsibilities to the druid community with public exposure; “the love of all existences” and its meaning; the ways in which “the love of all existences” affects thinking and behavior in personal life; and broad-based interests and convergence on the druid path.

Keywords: culture, druid, druidism, geography, J.J. Middleway, linguistic, meaning, responsibilities.

An Interview with J.J. Middleway (Part One)^{^[1],}^{^[2]}

*Please see the footnotes and citation style listing after the interview, respectively.*

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside?^{^[3]}

That’s an interesting question. Each of us being so strongly influenced and moulded by these factors.

I was born and brought up in Birmingham, the second largest city in England, after London. My early years were in Handsworth, a very multicultural environment and immigrant area, near the centre of the city. It was a very poor area financially, yet very rich culturally, and – as I now see it – spiritually. The majority of the neighbourhood were of Afro Caribbean or Indian subcontinent origin, with a smattering of Irish and Polish immigrants. And then there was us. Handsworth offered cheap accommodation in an industrial city needing labour.

My Mother was effectively a refugee of the Second World War and originated from a small village in the mountains of Tirol in the Austrian Alps. I can trace my ancestors back several hundred years in the same valley; in the same farmhouse even; with the glaciers and mountains all around. I was deeply influenced and affected by my visits there; once as a three year old, then twice in my teens, learning the local dialect by living with my uncle and aunt and my four cousins, on their farm with cows and hens and pigs living under the old wooden farmhouse. Also spending days in the high pasture, as my uncle and three sons scythed hay and I raked and helped bring it in on huge wooden sledges to a log cabin where we slept in the new mown grass. My Father came from Kinross in central Scotland, a small town near Perth, with the lochs and Highlands of Scotland nearby: Very scenic and rural – yet a distinctly impoverished background, with his ten brothers and sisters in a very small two bedroomed house. At 14, he left school and went down the local coal mine to work. So, I found myself as an outsider amongst outsiders – a white child living in a predominantly black community. An Englishman with no English blood on either side whatsoever. Brought up a Catholic, because that was my Mother’s faith, yet with a staunchly Atheist Father. I learned through that, how love transcends religious boundaries: My parents loved each other deeply and I was fortunate in being deeply loved by each of them. I thought at the time that this was ‘the norm’; I have learned since, how relatively unusual it is.

So, into this world of paradox and opposites, add the fact that my Father was 21 years older than my Mother, and thus had personal experience as a signalman of fighting in Afghanistan in the early part of the 20th century (the first time round, with the British Army) He also served in India while it was still part of the British Empire, and in Palestine before the formation of Israel.

I gained a range of perspectives on the Second World War from my parents’ direct experience and found that each was very different. My Mother’s experience of loss and deprivation in particular, gave me the ‘outsiders’ view. I see now how my whole life was shaped and based on ‘walking between worlds’ – I was an outsider who somehow learned the capacity to ‘go anywhere’ and be comfortable wherever that was. I learned how to cross bridges and how to be a bridge myself.

2. What seem like pivotal moments in personal life leading into druidism?

I have always felt extremely close to nature, even though I was brought up in the middle of a city with very little greenery around. I think it fair to say that as a child I was a natural mystic. I could seemingly ‘feel into’ persons or situations. I could somehow ‘almost become’ and therefore ‘understand from within’, pretty much anything or anyone – because I sensed how deeply we are ultimately ‘all one’. What I later learned in Sanskrit – Tat Tvam Asi – ‘That Art Thou’ – I somehow knew intuitively as being true from birth. Although this capacity became less vivid and somewhat attenuated as I grew older, I have never lost that sense of connection: So my birth is perhaps the pivotal moment in my Druidry.

However, I have learned since, how a series of experiences shortly after birth may have shaped my life and my Druidry. My parents lived in a rented room in an old house with a number of other occupants. As a baby, if I cried, my Mother would take a lot of flak from one woman in particular, who equated crying (a natural childhood expression) with maltreatment. And of course, if I cried at night, it caused resentment among other residents who couldn’t sleep. So my Mother, frightened and scared, developed a technique of putting her hand over my mouth and stopping me crying by suffocating me. I can still recall that very early experience. My Mother felt terrible about it in later years and we used to joke about it. However, I think in retrospect it gave me a link to the otherworld. In the weirdest and strangest of ways, it gave me an unintended initiation. I think it is perhaps another reason I am comfortable ‘between worlds’.

3. You have mention in a number of listings, publications, and reports.^{^[4],}^{^[5],^[6],^[7],^[8],^[9],^[10],^[11],^[12],^[13],^[14],^[15]}What responsibilities to the druid community come with public exposure to you?

It’s a funny thing; Public exposure seems to have somehow ‘come to me’ and not ‘me to it’. So, for a large part, the listings, publications and reports you refer to, are at others behest, and often a surprise to me. The responsibilities that come with any ‘public exposure’ as you put it (though we need to be careful, since ‘public exposure’ can have a different connotation over here – and possibly with you too 🙂 ) – are no less than if that public exposure were not there. I suppose that my responsibility to Druidry, the public and all I care for, starts and ends with responsibility to myself.

It is perhaps worth saying here, that Druidry is part of rich framework for me, encompassing and embodying a whole tapestry of other threads and colours. For instance I am privileged and grateful to be part of the MKP (ManKind Project) community. There, my mission statement is “I create a world of authenticity, courage, laughter, love and song, by daring to fully open my heart and by taking the risk of fully revealing my soul”. The shortened form might read ‘I create a world of love, by living a life of love’. That pretty much sums up my intention and what I aspire to. It doesn’t mean I get it right all the time. Far from it: – Perfection for me, is in the imperfection.

Similarly, Druidry for me (and if you ask a hundred Druids what Druidry is, you’ll likely receive a hundred and one answers 🙂 ) – is an aspiration – something to work towards. In that sense, I believe that titles such as Druid and Poet are maybe best regarded as being posthumous.

4. In your LinkedIn profile, you write, “The love of all existences.”^{^[16]} You define personal work in this manner beginning on January, 1994, and continue to say, “Honouring and healing ceremonies for the Land. Naming, Handfasting and Parting ceremonies for the people. Blessing and celebration of all that lives.”^{^[17]}What does “The love of all existences” mean, in full, to you?^{^[18]}

Wow; there’s a question and a half!

My involvement with The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids (OBOD) began in 1994. You could say that was manifesting my Druidry in the world, although as I’ve said, Druidry (though I didn’t know it by that name at the time) has been ever present in my life.

I’ve alluded to my innate sense of connection ‘with all that is’, when talking of my early childhood. It is what mystics have always talked of, and something that I have naturally felt – both simply yet deeply – from very earliest memories and experience. I took it that everyone would naturally feel similarly (what child doesn’t think that what they experience is ‘the norm’?). Clearly it is not the norm.

What hasn’t come out particularly thus far, is that poetry is also a key part of my ‘tapestry’. So the best way of me answering such a profound question, is perhaps not best done via prose, but rather through a poem I wrote around twenty to twenty five years ago:

A Passion for this Earth I feel

Compassion which is so, so real

My blood flows through Earth’s laval veins

My tears reflected in her rains.

The winds which circulate this Earth

Breath in and out of me from Birth

The cyclic rhythm of her tides

Is matched by how I feel inside

Yet most remarkable of all

Open your heart to hear the call

The essence which I know is me

Is here in everything I see.

– – – – –

The term “the love of all existences” is part of the Druid Prayer, so that is why I quote it.

Here is the prayer in full:

“Grant oh God/dess thy protection

And in protection, strength

And in strength, understanding

And in understanding, knowledge

And in knowledge, the knowledge of justice

And in the knowledge of justice, the love of it

And in the love of it, the love of all existences

And in the love of all existences, the love of the god/dess and all goodness.

It is for each of us to find what works and what best reflects who and what we are. For me, ‘the love of all existences’ is what it says. I think that all that is perhaps truly left of us when we die is our legacy of love. (Or not of course 🙂 ) So the question for me might be along the lines of “How much love can I generate, recycle, return, during my lifetime?”

5. How does this affect thinking and behavior in personal life?^{^[19]}

It brings the challenge of being aware. Or rather of trying to bring awareness of that statement into being. Of course it is relatively easy for me to love trees and streams and mountains as part of my shared existence; who wouldn’t? – (yet some don’t). Less easy perhaps for me to love a concrete building or a drunken lout or a murderer. Yet that is where the challenge lies for me. To at least bring into awareness, that at some level we are all connected. It doesn’t mean condoning actions which might be branded evil or wrong. However, it does challenge me to at least consider that ‘there but for fortune, go you or I’ as the Joan Baez song so eloquently puts it. Or to at least try and open my heart to love and compassion in respect of the less loved and less loveable aspects or members of ‘planet earth’. In seeking to love everyone, it doesn’t mean I necessarily have the capacity to like everyone. And that’s ok.

It also means that in taking risks in life I will be foolish or even downright stupid on occasion.

“It takes so much to be a human being,

That there are very few who have the love and courage to pay the price.

One has to abandon all together the search for security,

And reach out to the risk of living, with both arms.

One has to embrace life like a lover”.

That quotation has been one of my guiding aphorisms in life. I think it originates from someone called Morris West- but I’m not sure, and the full name eludes me these days.

I aspire to bring compassionate awakening into being through my thoughts actions and deeds. It doesn’t mean I get it right – like everyone else, I screw things up regularly; however I try. At least some of the time.

It means for me, allowing for ‘not knowing’; of respecting others views if not always necessarily agreeing with them; of responding to situations with as much heart as I can summon in the moment. It’s not always easy, but without it life loses purpose and meaning.

6. Your interests remain broad-based in involvement with the druid community.^{^[20]} These include “Ritualist, Celebrant And Master of Ceremonies,” “Ceremonies,” “Healing,” “Meditation,” “Wellbeing,” “Energy Healing,” “Parties,” “Personal Development,” “Stress Management,” “Coaching,” “Teaching,” “Chakra Balancing,” “Energy Work,” “Reiki,” “Relaxation,” “Mindfulness,” “Wellness,” “Holistic Health,” “Life Transitions,” “Self-Esteem,” “Stress,” and “Treatment.”^{^[21],}^{^[22]} Each spreads across the landscape of relevant conceptual overlap with the druid and pagan paths. How does each of these come together to influence the personal druid path developed by you?^{^[23]}

Many of those terms are what I might call ‘gifts from others’. I didn’t particularly choose them. Others have allocated them and I’ve chosen to accept that. In part this is a reflection and limitation of web-world, (in balance to its many benefits.). What it does reveal is the diverse and interlinked nature of a life; my life in this instance. It is also interesting for what it leaves out. For example Buddhism has played and continues to play a significant part in my life. I have come to see Druidry as a Western form of Buddhism and Buddhism as an Eastern form of Druidry. That’s just my take on it; others might disagree, and that’s fine. Despite obvious differences, I find that Zen Buddhism in particular embodies the Druid ethos and Druid way. What I particularly value, is that neither put much store on dogma.

A key phrase from the Buddhist side of my learning, which may help answer the question you ask, is “Love says I am everything. Wisdom says I am nothing. Between those two, my life flows freely”. The first sentence was a given in my life (unusual but true). The second sentence has been the the journey of much of my life. The third sentence seeks to bring it all together in balance – which ties in with the Druid prayer and the answers to previous questions.

How it perhaps relates to this question, is that in seeking to put everything into practice that I have talked about, has somehow resulted – almost magically as I look at it now – in the manifestation of all the streams referred to above. And others which aren’t referred to there. I don’t so much ‘bring all that together to influence my Druid path’; rather, it seems as though, ‘all that brings me together to reflect it’.

Appendix I: Footnotes

^{^[1]} Druid; Member, The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids; Celebrant; Healer; Mentor/Elder/Witness, UK – Boys2Men; Ritualist; Druid Mentor, Elder, and Witness.

^{^[2]} First publication on December 1, 2015 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

^{^[3]} In Speakers & Workshop Leaders (n.d.), Middleway’s biographic information states:

“JJ Middleway – Teacher, focaliser & facilitator, healing, massage, singing, drumming: experience in delivering a wide variety of workshops and of focalising and facilitating gatherings in the UK, Holland and Italy, across a broad spectrum – Druid, Buddhist, Other. “The meditations, the talking-stick, the chants, the rituals the massages, everything just very naturally and logically seemed to lead from one thing to another. It was a warm, wonderful inspiring weekend. And it has fed me spiritually. It feels a bit like it changes my DNA in a very subtle way, I don’t know yet how much it will change but I can feel it shifting. But the best thing of this weekend is the feeling that it will not be an isolated experience, I can take it home into my everyday life”. Jet, Holland
“JJ works with intuition, compassion and grace. I felt deeply honoured, cared for and nurtured during his session. This feeling stayed with me for a long time. I love the way JJ combines bodywork with singing and drumming.” Satu.”

Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids (n.d.). Speakers & Workshop Leaders. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/about-us/speakers-workshop-leaders.

^{^[4]} Please see Daily Mail (2009, September 12). Rock ‘n’ Roll, druids and the real wedding of the year. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1212087/Rock-n-roll-druids-real-wedding-year.html.

^{^[5]} Please see Carr-Gomm, P. (2014, May 23). On Behalf of the Earth. Retrieved from http://www.philipcarr-gomm.com/on-behalf-of-the-land/.

^{^[6]} Please see Brown, N. (2014, October 21). Druid chants. Retrieved from https://druidlife.wordpress.com/2014/10/21/druid-chants/.

^{^[7]} Please see Newman, P. (2014, August 1). Dance of Life…. Retrieved from http://storyfolksinger.blogspot.ca/2014/08/dance-of-life.html.

^{^[8]} Please see DruidCast. (2012).DruidCast – A Druid Podcast Episode 36. Retrieved from http://podbay.fm/show/257048136/e/1269348240?autostart=1.

^{^[9]} Please see Gathering Around the Linden Tree. (2014). Workshop: Earth Healing Ritual. Retrieved from http://lindenhain.eu/eng/jj_earthhealing.html.

^{^[10]} Please see Bertrand, I.J. (n.d.). Album. Retrieved from http://www.ingridbertrand.be/album/.

^{^[11]} Please see GoodReads. (2015, March 15). Druid Camp. Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/8043282-druid-camp.

^{^[12]} Please see Middleway, J.J. (2015). Enchanting the Void. Retrieved from http://enchantingthevoid.co.uk/.

^{^[13]} Please see MidSussex Times. (2009, September 10). Richard Branson’s nephew marries Lady Cowdray’s eldest Eliza. Retrieved from http://www.midsussextimes.co.uk/news/local/richard-branson-s-nephew-marries-lady-cowdray-s-eldest-eliza-1-1550589.

^{^[14]} Please see Middleway, J.J. (2012, March 14). Great poem with a message. Retrieved from http://carnation-creations.blogspot.ca/2012/03/great-poem-with-message.html.

^{^[15]} Please see Druid Camp. (2015). Who’s On: JJ Middleway. Retrieved from http://www.druidcamp.org.uk/whats-on-2015/this-year-at-druid-camp/.

^{^[16]} Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Jj Middleway. Retrieved from https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/jj-middleway/59/117/240.

^{^[17]} Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Jj Middleway. Retrieved from https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/jj-middleway/59/117/240.

^{^[18]} Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Jj Middleway. Retrieved from https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/jj-middleway/59/117/240.

^{^[19]} Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Jj Middleway. Retrieved from https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/jj-middleway/59/117/240.

^{^[20]} Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Jj Middleway. Retrieved from https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/jj-middleway/59/117/240.

^{^[21]} Please see LinkedIn. (2015). Jj Middleway. Retrieved from https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/jj-middleway/59/117/240.

^{^[22]} Please see International Association of Reiki Professionals. (2015). International Association of Reiki Professionals. Retrieved from http://iarp.org/what-is-reiki/.

^{^[23]} Please see International Association of Reiki Professionals. (2015). International Association of Reiki Professionals. Retrieved from http://iarp.org/what-is-reiki/.

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2023-01-29

An Interview with Grand Secretary Jerry W. Kopp (Part Four)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/11/22

ABSTRACT

Interview with RW Bro. Jerry W. Kopp. He discusses: the incorporation of symbols into initiations and rituals; Masonic Higher Education Bursary Fund, and the philanthropy’s fulfillment for individuals and lodges of freemasonry; attributes of the Grand Architect of the Universe or the Supreme Being; alignment of freemasons with The Grand Architect of the Universe or Supreme Being; and the near and far future for the 5,000,000 active freemasons.

Keywords: freemasons, Grand Architect of the Universe, Grand Secretary, initiation, Jerry W. Kopp, philanthropy, rituals, Supreme Being, symbols, The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons.

An Interview with Grand Secretary Jerry W. Kopp^[1]^,[2]

23. Symbols perform important functions in ritual magic for numerous organizations including the aforementioned.^[3] How do Freemasons incorporate unique symbols into their initiations and rituals? (Of course, this will not implicate divulgence of the non-secret society’s secrets.)

It’s interesting. If we go back to the stone mason times, before there was speculative freemasonry, we had stone masons, which was the operative. There was a hierarchy in there. And the hierarchy, of course, existed through experience. Now, some of the people that were hired on as entered apprentice might not have been, or couldn’t read, linguistics where they were illiterate. They may have been illiterate. So, first of all, in any of these stone masons, it’s interesting, when they were building these cathedrals the word “law” actually derived from the operative masons.

On the cathedral or temple, they had a lean-to, or something similar to that, against the building they were building, and that was called the “lodge.” What happened in that lodge? That was a gathering place for those employees. It was social area for those employees. It was an area where they received instructions. And they had devotional aspects in the lodge. They went out on job sites, and did evotionals before taking lunch, you name it. That’s the name “lodge” comes from.

Now, the lessons that were taught to some of these illiterates, and they would already be starting to say, “Okay, you know, the square is — means square actions. Square, ninety degrees, and they’ll put interpretation of the Creator on there, that when you approach somebody beyond the square, be square.” In other words, be honest; so if you saw the square, it would remind you also of your spiritual or your faith, to say, ‘Oh, I see the square. That means I need to square. Oh, yea, I got to think about being honest, being on the level.” In other words, we’re all on the level. We’re all born on the level.

So they gave into the, on the speculative side, meaning to each of the symbols that were incorporated into the building of any of these cathedrals or temples. And that’s where the symbolism comes from. And, of course, now, we’re talking about passage. You wouldn’t want to hire a guy that’s an entered apprentice, and go on to the 9^th floor of the temple to do the fine works. He hasn’t been skilled enough to do that. Get what I mean?

In other words, he can cut a 2×4, but he cannot make it look fancy yet because he hasn’t got those skills. Or, let’s go to modern times, we send somebody off to school to get his training in electrical work. Now, we’re not going to take that trainee and go down to the petro-Canada building and wire up the building. And put him in charge because he doesn’t have the skills yet. So how do we stop anybody from going and getting into that area? I see. Now, we’re going to use, in the operative sense, maybe, a grip and password. And that basically goes back to biblical times as well.

The movement of people in the Middle East, they could tell people by how they pronounced certain words, and if they could pronounce a certain would, you could go, “Oh, he cannot pronounce that certain word. He can’t be one of ours.” And so, that’s where the pass-words and pass-grips come from. They were secret to those in the trade. They were secret to those qualified to work on the 9^th floor. So if he goes up there, and he didn’t know the word or the grip, he didn’t on the floor to go onto that 9^th floor.

24. The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons conducts charitable functions for the public. For instance, in the area of education, the Masonic Higher Education Bursary Fund provides funds for these.^[4]^,[5]What does philanthropy and magnanimity fulfill for individuals and lodges of freemasonry?

It goes right back to the initial here, where you described part of a charge. It’s, “Do you see a man who quietly and modestly moves through the sphere of his life?” We don’t want notoriety. We will just do the good for the benefit of the society. And our charity work is the same way. We do it quietly with no fanfare, no recognition. Although, I think in some ways, that philosophy has changed somewhat. In that, we do take the opportunity for some photo sessions to show the community that somebody has benefitted from the Masonic Higher Education Bursary. Or the Masonic Foundation, where a lodge said, “You know, the hospital needs a machine that lifts patients out of the bed and puts them in the bath tub, but the hospital cannot afford them.”

So the lodge engages in a fundraiser, and then they go to the Masonic Foundation to double-up those funds, and purchase one of those units. And we also have another charity that’s totally within the organization, totally within the organization. It doesn’t have any connection with anybody outside. It is not a recognized charity. It is not involved in the government. It’s just within, and that’s our personal money is put into an account and when we find a brother of a lodge that has suddenly come on financial hard times – for whatever reason. It may be that he got in a car accident and lost his job, so we can give him some financial support, temporarily.

So that’s a type of thing. And you go to other countries, and I take a look at New Zealand and Australia. They have philanthropies down there that, you know, they have hospitals — not hospitals, like senior complexes. They had schools at one time for children in need, no necessarily for freemason’s children – for all children. That’s the thing with the Higher Education Bursary or the Masonic Foundation. We cannot, under government law, limit that access to those kinds of funds to masons only; otherwise, we cannot be a recognized charity. It has to be open. It has to available to everybody. Many of our students have no masonic connections.

And I think that’s good, that’s excellent. That’s beauty of the freemasons.

25. The Grand Architect of the Universe or the Supreme Being holds great weight in freemasonic theory. According to The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons, what are the of attributes this entity?

What are the attributes? I’d say He’s given us lots of rules, if you are of a Christian background and then he’s given us the Ten Commandments. If you’re of another faith, there’s six commandment, two commandments, and I think greatest of them all, of which applies to all religions, is you treat others the way you expect to be treated. And the thing is with the description of God, many religions do it as well, he is the Great Architect, the Grand Geometrician, who else can be? Where would all of this intelligence stem from? From God, that’s our interpretation. That may not necessarily be the interpretation of another religious group or an atheist. An atheist may not necessarily agree with us.

But we look at God as the greatest, give him any title you want: Supreme King, you name it. He is it. He’s the guy that has designed everything in front of us, and we live in, and what have you. He has given us the universe.

26. How might an individual freemason align themselves with The Grand Architect of the Universe through fraternity, ritual, service, and general worship?

We’ve basically said it all in all the previous questions. We continue to say that live by the principles of God: be in harmony with each other, use the rituals, which are an extraction of much of the work is in our written, sacred, writings. And our service, of course, is a natural phenomenon, in that we help each other. And the general worship being, of course, if you’re of a religious person to continue with your faith and practice your faith, but above all to believe in God and spirituality.

27. What near and far future seems most probable for the current 5,000,000 active freemasons?

Well, I think in a lot of respects we have a lot of work to do. I think that many — I’m a speaker. So I do a lot of speaking on freemasonry and try to energize people in freemasonry. There’s the old saying, “A lodge needs to give the best bang for the buck.” And so, when you go to a lodge meeting, we don’t just want to hear minutes, accounts, have lunch, and then go home. We need to have teachings. I do a lot of that. I teach and I try and motivate people to, you know, get them involved, and to get them to read books that are of importance, i.e. the sacred writings, your ritual, and books that are — describe freemasonry.

I think you’ve listed quite a few books or references here that — as a matter of fact you listed references that I haven’t seen before. Are you studying for a doctorate degree by any chance? (Laughs)…

…Well, I’m an undergraduate (Laughs)…

…Well, you’ve got some references here, and highly intelligent references…

…Oh, that’s very kind, thank you…

…Well, I think freemasonry in its current condition is going to see a decline in its membership. We’re going to see a further decline in some countries we see increases in membership, but we’re going to see a further decline worldwide until we come to the realization that we need to give something in lodges that enthuses the membership. And, you know, our churches, our places of worship, are in the same trouble as we are as freemasons. We’re not giving a good-enough session to maintain interest in our churches and our lodges. And we need to grab onto that.

And once we start to motivate people to think that way, think and get the close connection between our principles and God’s principles, I think a lot of people don’t understand that. Really, what I’m saying is; that, although we have many people that aren’t freemasons that don’t understand anything about freemasonry and are quick to make judgment, we also have freemasons within the organization that don’t understand freemasonry at all. I suppose they become a burden to us. I mean, you know, they’re in it for the wrong reason.

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Western philosophy. (2015). InEncyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Western-philosophy/Shifts-in-the-focus-and-concern-of-Western-philosophy.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Grand Secretary, The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons; Retired Member, Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

[2] First publication on November 22, 2015 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

[3] As listed in question 18, it says, “Scottish Rite, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (the “Shriners”), Order of the Eastern Star, the Order of DeMolay, the Order of Builders, the Order of Job’s Daughters, the Order of Rainbow.”

[4] The Masonic Higher Education Bursary Fund states, “The Masonic Higher Education Bursary Fund was founded by a Resolution passed at the Grand Communication of 1957 under GM Ross Sheppard, to be the official Outreach Charity of the Grand Lodge of Alberta.”

Please see Masonic Higher Education Bursary Fund. (2015). Masonic Higher Education Bursary Fund. Retrieved from http://www.mhebf.com/.

[5] A summary description of its philosophy in relation to the public through the Masonic Higher Education Bursary Fund says, “Do the good act, not for yourself, but for the cause of the good.” Please see The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/.

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An Interview with Grand Secretary Jerry W. Kopp (Part Three)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/11/15

Abstract

An interview with Grand Secretary Jerry W. Kopp. He discusses: falsehoods about the freemasons; truths to dispel the falsehoods; means of solicitation in relation to the freemasons; greatest lesson for the public to know about the freemasons; freemasons and the Catholic church; their current disagreement; differences between the freemasons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; atheists and agnostics in relation to the freemasons; and conspiracy theories.

Keywords: agnostics, atheists, Catholic Church, conspiracy theories, falsehoods, freemasons, Grand Secretary, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jerry W. Kopp, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, truths.

An Interview with Grand Secretary Jerry W. Kopp (Part Three)^[1],[2]

*Please see the footnotes and citation style listing after the interview, respectively.*

14. …What falsehoods exist about the freemasons?

I think falsehoods are that we’re devil worshippers. We’re a cult. We’re involved in conspiracies. It goes on and on. The first thing is the public needs to understand what we stand for. We stand for delivering and living by the principles of God. We have nothing against God in anyway, far from it. We’re not into devil worshipping or any of this. Conspiracies and overthrowing governments, we do not even time to organize ourselves as far as I’m concerned. Conspiracies, it takes a great deal of intelligence and time, and we’re all working people. We don’t have the time for that kind of nonsense.

15. What truths dispel them?

Well, I think how to get rid of it is to let people of the public know what we really stand for. We stand for the individual mason, we give the lessons through our initiations and degree work and that you as an individual “you need to live this way and the way that God meant us to be.” Now, I can tell you that it’s your responsibility for that self- improvement. There’s a saying “we take good men and make them better men.” That to me is a fallacy, I give you the lessons and now it’s up to you to follow them through. I cannot improve you if you do not follow those lessons. It’s like taking the horse to the water. You can take them to water but you can’t make them drink. And it’s the same with Freemasonry. I can give you the lessons. Our priest, bishops and so on, can give the lessons, but now it’s our responsibility to go out and live by those lessons, to practise those lessons that we have been given. Does that make it clear?

16. Yes, I will draw one analogy. I request interviews with other Grand Lodges’ representatives, e.g. Manitoba, and so on. On some of the websites, I noticed the use of the phrase “making good men better…” Your solution to that is to draw it back to the individual’s own responsibility to manage themselves to become that better person. The lessons are there and provided. That goes to a larger point about the freemasons that differs from the Jehovah’s Witnesses or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. As far as I know, they will come to your door and solicit you. To the freemasonic lodges, it remains up to the individual to request possible consideration in joining.

You got it right on the mark. We do not solicit. They have to come to us. If you want to become a Freemason, you come and talk to me or anyone that is a Freemason. And we will take the information and we may do some inquiries in the community. “What is this man like?” Whatever have you and we’ll say, “Okay, if you want to continue on with this pursuit, we’ll give you some documents.” And then we’ll run it past the membership in the Lodge and giving proper notice then we’re going to ballot on an individual, and if the ballot is approved then we will proceed with the ceremonies that requires you to become a full-fledged Mason in the hopes that you’ll carry on with the principles.

17. What remain the greatest lessons for the general public to learn about the freemasons?

I think the greatest lesson that we have is to live by God’s principles, God’s Plan and it is a way of life. It is – God has given us the tools and here is the way of life and we all need to live by that. When we talk about living by those lessons we have to set aside if there is any prejudices with respect to race, creed, color, religion, you name it. We need to all work together and live together and make this a happy world.

18. An uneasy relationship exists between the freemasons and the Roman Catholic Church.^[3]^,[4]The Roman Catholic Church does not agree with freemasons. What seems like the source of this tension and outright rejection to you?

I think it goes back to some of the Papal Bulls. I think it goes back to some of the misunderstanding. I don’t think there are people within the Roman Catholic Church or other churches as far as that goes, that understand what our teachings are. We have in the past – and you know, let’s put it this way, there have been Roman Catholics and Roman Catholic Priest and Roman Catholic Bishops that have been Freemasons.

We know that. I know having spoken to a Roman Catholic Priest from Spokane, Washington here in Calgary, I mentioned to him that I’m a retired Mounted Policeman, but that I’m in another job. And I said, “I don’t know if you’ll agree with me and the job that I’ve got, but I’m the Grand Secretary with the Freemasons.” And he jumped with joy. He thought the Freemasons were the greatest guys going.

What I think it is, I think there are some people – they always want to put a myth or something negative toward any organization that isn’t spun off from their Church. With them not understanding and what we stand for, that’s where the issue lies, and we have people that will say, “Well you cannot belong to this church anymore because you are a Freemason. And the individual doesn’t know what a Freemasons is. I think there’s a lack of education out there with respect to Freemasons.

19. Where does this current disagreement lie?

Well, I don’t know with the current Pope, what his position is. I can tell you that John XXIII had no problem with the Freemasons. I can tell you Pope Paul, I don’t remember what his number was, he was after John, there was nothing really mentioned. John Paul II, I don’t know what position was, but I know that Pope Benedict had a total disrespect, a total dislike, for the Freemasons. Prior to him becoming Pope, he wrote a big paper about Freemasons and saying, “They’re evil” – and whatever have you.

I would suggest that the current Pope, I like the current Pope Francis, the disposition that he has and the thinking that he has, we probably fall right in line with him. It is because he’s a Jesuit? I don’t know. I’d like to learn more about Pope Francis. Eventually, maybe, we’ll see something come out from his office, it’s hard to say, but know for sure that Pope Benedict didn’t like us.

20. Something, as far as I can discern, unique to the freemasons emerges out of their insistence on the free will of the individual to inquire or join the freemasons.^[5] A far different approach than Jehovah’s Witnesses or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, where these groups tend to come door-to-door. How does this emphasis on the freedom of the will for the individual to inquiring or joining freemasonry link to its fundamental principles?

It probably – the fact that you come of your own free will and accord is one. The Fact that the Creator has given you the leeway of allowing yourself to be free and think for yourself, and to do whatever you see would be correct in the eyes of the Creator. That you don’t necessarily need to be guided by God’s will constantly. I don’t know what else to say. You’re not controlled. That’s the bottom line; you’re not controlled and not being pestered to join the Fraternity much as you say with the Jehovah’s Witness and the Church of the Latter-Day Saints.

Interesting enough, the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, they do have Freemasons. Utah is a good example of it. There are many Mormans in Utah and well there are a lot of Masons down there. And I know a few Masons that are Freemasons and they are good Masons. They’ll tell you there’s nothing against the teaching of Freemasonry that goes against any aspect of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints.

Now, I’m not aware of any Jehovah’s Witnesses being in Freemasonry, but maybe one day there will be. And as long as he believes in a Supreme Being or God – God or a Supreme Being it doesn’t matter. God is the Supreme Being, Supreme Ruler or Supreme Architect.

21. What status do those of, for instance, an atheistic or agnostic stance hold within the freemasonic tradition?

We do not accept people that are atheists. We make that quite clear. They have to believe in God, or again the Supreme Being.

22. Conspiracy theories and theorists glom onto freemasons. Sometimes without distinctions between the Scottish Rite, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine(the “Shriners”), Order of the Eastern Star, the Order of DeMolay, the Order of Builders, the Order of Job’s Daughters, the Order of Rainbow, and others, or even a modicum of connection to the natural world. What seems like the foundation of this phenomena to you?

Well I don’t belong to many of these organizations. But I do see them – that their principles are the same. They probably do an extension of the teachings of God. They might go into another area. They might go into the building of King Solomon’s Temple. They might go into an area – there’s the Red Cross of Constantine which is an invitational body, there you have be a Christian. They teach on the Christian side. What we’re looking at in Freemasonry it the teachings which fall in line with The Bible or the Holy Writings. It doesn’t matter what religion you’re dealing with.

Eventually, Freemasonry extends into Christianity in the order. But these are bodies that in the base of Freemasonry which is Craft Masonry, which I belong to. For further teachings or for further development of the Creator, God’s teaching which may be taught in other Freemasonry bodies.

Maybe not so much in the Shrine, they’re kind of the happy-go-lucky boys. They all have to belong to the Craft. The way their Constitution and Regulations read right now. Whether they’ll ever be separated from us, I don’t know. I don’t think they really teach a whole lot of the lessons about the Creator.

They’re more of charitable organization. They’re a charity organization and that’s where they will likely remain and focus on charity. Again, conspiracy theories, it’s only speculation on the part of those that don’t understand the various bodies of Freemasonry or the extensions or its associated bodies. I don’t see where there’s any conspiracies at all with any of these Masonic Bodies or Orders.

Again, the armchair quarterbacks that sit back and try to come up with theories that try to discredit somebody. That’s what these conspiracy people do. They’ll say “They’re devil worshipers.” Which they’ve done with the Shrine and others. If they understood the scope of the teachings within Freemasonry they may change their views.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Grand Secretary, The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons; Retired Member, Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

[2] First publication on November 15, 2015 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

[3] Please see Bradley, R.I. (Catholicism vs. Freemasonry)

[4] What is Freemasonry? (2015) states:

“Because of their belief in universal principles and freedoms Freemasons have been prosecuted and seen historically as threats by tyrants and despotic dictators. Intolerance towards Freemasons even emanated at one time from the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Various Roman Catholic Popes have published condemnations of Freemasonry, starting with Bull, In Eminenti, by Pope Clement XII, on 28 April, 1738. Although Roman Catholic Canon Law does not specifically mention Freemasonry, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Roman Catholic Church still views association as a serious sin. Furthermore, Freemasonry had been outlawed in Germany by Hitler and the Nazi’s during WW II, by Mussolini in 1925, by Franco in Spain in 1941, suppressed by the Communists of Russia, Romania and Hungary, and in Iran by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. The countries where Freemasonry openly exists are in counties that are tolerant and more or less democratic.”

Please see The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). What is Freemasonry?. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/freemasonry.html.

[5] What is Freemasonry? (2015) states:

“Every man comes, of his own free will and accord, with his own individual needs and interests. One man may join so that he can associate with other men who believe that only by improving themselves can they hope to improve their society. Another man may join because he is looking for a focus for his charitable inclinations. And yet another may be attracted by a strong sense of history and tradition. Many join simply because they knew a friend or relative who was a freemason and they admired that man’s way of living his life. All who join and become active discover a bond of brotherly affection and a community of mutual support; a practical extension of their own religious and philosophical beliefs.”

Please see The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). What is Freemasonry?. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/freemasonry.html.

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2023-01-29

An Interview with Grand Secretary Jerry W. Kopp (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/11/08

Abstract

An interview with Grand Secretary Jerry W. Kopp. He discusses: The History of Freemasonry by Otto Klotz in 1868, March 15 and the ideal freemason, and “Entered Apprentice,” “Fellow of the Craft,” and “Master Mason,” and those higher in the organizational structure of authority, power, and influence; Grand Secretary of The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons duties and responsibilities; other core positions in freemason lodges in Canada; the purpose for the structural and membership hierarchies for the freemasons; and Grand Master Message from MW Bro. Chris Batty, the Grand Master of Alberta, and the solutions to the three problems, identical to Batty’s, proposed by the Premier Grand Lodge in 1717 for individuals and collectives.

Keywords: Chris Batty, Entered Apprentice, Fellow of the Craft, freemason, freemasonry, Grand Master, Grand Secretary, Jerry W. Kopp, Master Mason, Otto Klotz, Premier Grand Lodge.

An Interview with Grand Secretary Jerry W. Kopp (Part Two)^[1]^,[2]

*Please see the footnotes and citation style listing after the interview, respectively.*

9. In The History of Freemasonry by Otto Klotz in 1868, March 15, Klotz enunciates the ideal of freemasonry in the individual in the “Ideal Freemason,” as follows:

“If you see a man who quietly and modestly moves in the sphere of his life … The man who is free from superstition and free from infidelity; who in nature sees the finger of the Eternal Master … The man who towards himself is a severe judge, but who is tolerant with the debilities of his neighbour … The man who, without courting applause, is loved by all noble-minded men, respected by his superiors and revered by his subordinates … If you, my Brethren meet such a man, you will see the personification of brotherly love, relief and truth …”^[3]

It continues in similar fashion to enunciate the varieties of attributes contained in this ideal freemason.^[4] With respect to attempts to reach this high moral standard, what aspects seem the easiest and the most difficult to achieve for freemasons including “Entered Apprentice,” “Fellow of the Craft,” and “Master Mason,” and those higher in the organizational structure of authority, power, and influence?^[5]^,[6]

First of all, we, as individuals, should be living again by God’s principles, and doing all of this Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth, without having to brag about, to bring attention to “hey look what good I’ve done, we just do it without the fanfare. And if somebody happens to notice us, that’s good and we will get noticed for what we stand for. But we do not try to bring attention to ourselves as to what we’re doing. And that’s the way our upper echelon in Freemasonry should also act. They’re not superior to anybody. Everybody’s on the same level. They should practise that, and there is no superiority. If I was to be present with, say King Hussein, who may well be, may have been a Mason, in other words, him and I would talk on the same level, Brother to Brother. There would be no airs on. He may well be the King of Jordan, but we still talk on a level and treat each other with the same respect and so on.

10. You earned the position of Grand Secretary of The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons.^[7] What general duties and responsibilities come with this station?

Oh my gosh, first of all, I’m the administrator for the organization here in Alberta. Each province has a Grand Lodge. So each Grand Lodge has a Grand Secretary. I’m here to monitor all of the Lodges that we have to ensure that they follow the Constitution and Regulations, and their own by-laws. And if there is something that goes askew, I remind them that their by-laws state that they’re not able to do this. And so I set them straight. I offer any interpretations of the Constitution and Regulations and maybe some of the ritual work that we do, my responsibilities are that, exactly that.

But my further responsibilities in the Grand Lodge is that each of the Lodges pays a per capita, and we also receive monies for charities. I monitor two big charity funds, which are registered charities. And I look after, in the neighbourhood of 3.5 – 4 million dollars, which we put out for education, for children in need or students in need. It sounds like we have lots of money, but we have money that’s tied in what is called bereavement or trust funds. It is willed to us by families. That money has to be invested and it stays invested and the only money that can be extracted off that investment is the monies that we gain through interest and we disperse that through university bursaries in the neighbourhood of $5000 per student for 40 -45 students with a total amount of $220,000 per year.

Our main focus is to look after those students in need. A family that makes $300,000 a year is not in need. The one thing that I noticed that there are a lot of single parents out there, single mothers that have two or three children to support. Very intelligent children with the mom’s income of $35,000 to $40,000, she can’t afford to send them to university. So this is where the Masonic Higher Education Bursary comes in. When the child intends to go to university he/she submits his/her application and the application is considered, and we review anywhere between 200 – 400 applicants and find suitable candidates which is about 40 – 45 students receive $5,000 each.

11. In terms of their titles and functions, what other core positions exist in freemason lodges in Canada?

I guest the Grand Treasurer is a core person. A core position probably could mean the Grand Master, Deputy Grand Master and the Wardens, and then you have different committees and different boards. And it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdictions. Some jurisdiction might have a Board of General Purposes or a Board of Directors or they may even be where just the principal officers of the Grand Lodge are the Board of Directors. It is complicated from one jurisdiction to another.

12. Freemasonic collectives divide in lodges, districts, and halls.^[8] Ranks exist among the earliest to the lattermost membership of the freemasons too. What purpose do these structural and membership hierarchies serve for the freemasons?

Well, how can I put this, it’s probably much the same as the hierarchy in the RCMP. Let’s use the RCMP for instance, they have detachments. In the detachment they have a commander. If the detachment is big enough, they may have commanders that are under the commander. They might be shift supervisors who report to a commander. Freemasonry is much the same thing, each Lodge has its Master of the Lodge. They have a Secretary and they have a Treasurer and they have several other positions. Once you get to be the Master, you are what they call a Worshipful Master, a Worshipful Brother. You are always a Brother no matter what, okay? But it is a title while you hold that position and you can carry the Worshipful title on after you are out of office. Then we go to the District Level, in the province of Alberta we are divided into fourteen districts. There are districts as small as having only four Lodges and we have other districts that have as many as fourteen Lodges within a District. Each District as a District Deputy Grand Master that oversees that district on behalf of the commander for Freemasonry in Alberta, who is the Grand Master. Of course, the Grand Master has a Deputy Grand Master underneath him, much the same as a Police Chief who has a Deputy Chief of Police. The District Deputy Grand Master helps clarify points for the Lodges within that District, much like I do as the Grand Secretary.

13. In the Grand Master Message from MW Bro. Chris Batty, the Grand Master of Alberta, Batty asserts three main problems in current society are identical to those in 1717, the year of origin or formation of the Premier Masonic Grand Lodge, as follows:

“The greatest fear we have is to stand and speak in public.
The greatest challenge in the work place is the people problems.
The greatest challenge in marriage is the ability to effectively communicate with each other.”^[9]

What solutions does freemasonry propose for these problems for individuals and collectives (lodges, districts, and halls, and their respective societies such as Canada)?

It’s applying God’s principles, in many respects, and as many of us know, God’s word can be twisted around by people. That’s one of the greatest challenges. I used to manage people, there are people who have problems with directives, not all directives, but some directives. Standard directives that are not followed, that’s a people problem when not followed.

As a matter of fact, those that have joined Freemasonry sometime become very good speakers and may never have spoken in front of crowd prior to joining Freemasonry that is the confidence builder within the organization. For instance, myself 35 – 40 years ago, I was afraid to stand up in front of classroom, now I can stand in front of a stadium filled with 18,000 people if I have to, that’s type of confidence it has given me.

With respect to marriage, I guess I’m a poor one to talk because I am divorced (Laughter). But I think that the ability to effectively communicate with each other is a breakdown in many, many marriages – failing to communicate. And we emphasize in Freemasonry the need to communicate and continue to communicate.

Communicate with each other, communicate with our spouses and communicate with our friends. That’s about it, communicate. And I think we all know that, through the mediums, through the social media, as a matter of fact, now in my opinion it has become one disconnect to verbal communications with one person to another in our society. In other words, we’d rather text each other than talk to each other. Probably, you as young fellow should know that pretty well. (Laughter)

…This is true. (Laughs) I try to limit use. I have more productive things to do…

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Grand Secretary, The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons; Retired Member, Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

[2] First publication on November 8, 2015 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

[3] According to the The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons website, in the History of Freemasonry, M.W. Bro. Otto Klotz on 1868, March 15, wrote:

“If you see a man who quietly and modestly moves in the sphere of his life; who, without blemish, fulfils his duty as a man, a subject, a husband and a father; who is pious without hypocrisy, benevolent without ostentation, and aids his fellow man without self-interest; whose heart beats warm for friendship, whose serene mind is open for licensed pleasures, who in vicissitudes does not despair, nor in fortune will be presumptuous, and who will be resolute in the hour of danger; The man who is free from superstition and free from infidelity; who in nature sees the finger of the Eternal Master; who feels and adores the higher destination of man; to whom faith, hope and charity are not mere words without any meaning; to whom property, nay even life, is not too dear for the protection of innocence and virtue, and for the defense of truth; The man who towards himself is a severe judge, but who is tolerant with the debilities of his neighbour; who endeavors to oppose errors without arrogance, and to promote intelligence without impatience; who properly understands how to estimate and employ his means; who honours virtue though it may be in the most humble garment, and who does not favor vice though it be clad in purple; and who administers justice to merit whether dwelling in palaces or cottages. The man who, without courting applause, is loved by all noble-minded men, respected by his superiors and revered by his subordinates; the man who never proclaims what he has done, can do, or will do, but where need is will lay hold with dispassionate courage, circumspect resolution, indefatigable exertion and a rare power of mind, and who will not cease until he has accomplished his work, and then, without pretension, will retire into the multitude because he did the good act, not for himself, but for the cause of good! If you, my Brethren meet such a man, you will see the personification of brotherly love, relief and truth; and you will have found the ideal of a Freemason. If you, my Brethren meet such a man, you will see the personification of brotherly love, relief and truth; and you will have found the ideal of a Freemason.”

Please see The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/.

[4] The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/.

[5] Please see The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). What is Freemasonry?. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/freemasonry.html.

[6] One should bear in mind the importance of the differences involved in the common – mistaken based on assumptions and assertions – conception of the freemasonic traditions and the purposeful representation to the external world, the general public, as delineated in the Grand Master Message, in which the Grand Master of Alberta, MW Bro. Chris Batty, states:

“Becoming a Freemason does not give you any particular power, or the ability to understand the secrets of the universe, but it does provide a set of principles and doctrines, and the environment where a man can practice important life skills.

Freemasonry embraces men of all religions and faiths. We do not discuss religion or politics in any of our meetings. We must understand that the tenets and principles of Freemasonry are not aligned to everyone. It is, therefore paramount that we ensure that men who come to our doors are doing so for the right reasons.

If Freemasonry interests you and you wish to associate with like-minded men, men of honour, men of integrity, men who are loyal to their fellow man, if you are a seeker of deeper knowledge, self-improvement or you wish to participate in doing the good act for the benefit of mankind. Then Freemasonry will be there for you.”

Please see The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). Grand Master Message. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/gm_message.html.

[7] For some history into The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons, on its foundation, the website, after description of the difficulties involved in the endeavour, states:

“It would be a sad occasion, even today, if the Grand Lodge of Alberta did not receive at its Annual Communication a delegation from its Mother Grand Lodge.

History rolls on and political changes do come. It now became expedient to divide the huge North West Territories into smaller political sections. Thus the Government of Canada on the first day of September 1905 carved out two new provinces, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Alberta must now separate itself from the Grand Lodge of Manitoba and separate they did. Five months following the Constitution of the Grand Lodge of Alberta the First Annual Communication was held in Medicine Hat on February 20, 1906. At this meeting R.W. Bro. Oswald Kealy was elected and installed as Grand Master.

From these beginnings, Alberta was a new and quickly growing Province, truly serving as a hub for the settling of the Canadian west, as eastern Canadians, Americans and new citizens from throughout the Commonwealth and continental Europe came in waves to the Great Prairie in search of opportunity, freedom, fortune and hope for a better life and station for their heirs and descendants. And nowhere more so, than in early Alberta, was Freemasonry more apparently refreshed by the amalgamation of the diverse Masonic rites and cultural customs brought by the founders of these new communities. Among the wealth of customs, traditions and cultural attachments that came with them, was of course the continuance of the great Order of Freemasonry and more lodges sprang up like wild roses to the foundations we have in this day and age. So may it continue until time shall be no more. And in the latin that emblazes our Grand Lodge crest AUDI VIDE TACE may we HEAR, SEE, BE SILENT.” [Emphasis added.]

Please see The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). History. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/history.html.

[8] In the Lodges and District section of the The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons website, it states:

“The Grand Lodge of Alberta A.F & A.M. is divided into 14 administrative Districts each headed by the representative of the Grand Master with the title of District Deputy Grand Master. Included are two Research Lodges. Please view below info

mation on each District and corresponding Lodges within.“

Please see The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). Lodges & Districts. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/districts_lodges.html.

[9] Please see The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). Grand Master Message. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/gm_message.html.

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2023-01-29

An Interview with Grand Secretary Jerry W. Kopp (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/11/01

Abstract

An interview with Grand Secretary Jerry W. Kopp. He discusses: geographic, cultural, and linguistic family background; pivotal moments in personal life leading into freemasonry; the “grand design of being happy” and “communicating happiness” in freemasonic theory and the freemasonic tradition; “Man Know Thyself” based in one maxim from ancient Greece, and “Three Great Principles,” namely: “Brotherly Love,” “Relief,” and “Truth”; Thales of Miletus, of the Milesian school of the pre-Socratics; Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, and a possible adaptation from Thales into the Christian tradition; principles’ influence on the engagement of freemasons with the larger Canadian culture through the three Great Principles of brotherly love, relief, and truth; and freemasons’ self-definition as a “way of life.”

Keywords: Anaximander, Anaximenes, freemasonic theory, freemasonic tradition, freemasonry, grand design, Grand Secretary, Jerry W. Kopp, Thales.

An Interview with Grand Secretary Jerry W. Kopp (Part One)^[1]^,[2]

*Please see the footnotes and citation style listing after the interview, respectively.*

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside?^[3]

My family background has no masonic connections whatsoever, I am of German origin and I’m originally from Saskatchewan.

2. What seem like pivotal moments in personal life leading into freemasonry?^[4]

I was in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for 31 years, and became good friends with a couple of Freemasons that I worked with in the Mounted Police. I like what I’d seen from the two individuals and decided to make an application.

3. The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons states their one aim, as follows, “To please each other and unitein the grand design of being happy and communicating happiness.”^[5] What equates to the “grand design of being happy” and the means of “communicating happiness” in freemasonic theory and the freemasonic tradition as per the tradition of The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons?^[6]

The Grand Design is God’s Will. His design is to have happy people. We teach Freemasons to be of the Characteristics of what God expects us to be. Communicating happiness, of course, which means is to always communicate in a happy way and forget the negative.

4. The aim continues with the phrase “Man Know Thyself” based in one maxim from ancient Greece.^[7]^,[8] Freemasonry contains foundational principles, the “Three Great Principles,” namely: “Brotherly Love,” “Relief,” and “Truth.”^[9]^,[10]^,[11] What does each great principle mean in theory and practice?

“Brotherly Love” of course, is for each of us to care for each other. “Relief” to provide whatever relief is necessary. In some cases, it might not be monetary. In some cases, it might be simply to visit. And “Truth”, we need to be truthful with each other. “Man know thyself” is actually a quotation that comes out of the Bible in the Book of Timothy.

5. Do you think this might come from Thales of Miletus, of the Milesian school of the pre-Socratics, which pre-dates the Christian faith?

Run that by me again.

6. In the pre-Socratics, before Socrates and the Christian faith, there was the Milesian school of philosophy, which is probably the oldest in the Western tradition. There was Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes. Thales thought the world was made of water. In that, some quotes are attributed to him such as “nothing is excess” and “know thyself.” Do you think that might be an adaptation from Thales into the Christian tradition?

I have no doubt in my mind that it has a great deal of connection. I think that if you look at the Buddhist faith. Much of the Buddhist faith is, really when you stop and look at it, is exactly what our God, our Creator has given us and that’s what Freemasons should live by as well.

7. How do these principles influence the engagement of freemasons with the larger Canadian culture?^[12] With the three Great Principles of brotherly love, relief, and truth, you provided some examples, but those remain particular examples. I mean a general stance of freemasons towards the cultures in which they happen to find themselves, and how those principles influence a freemasonic stance in the culture in which they find themselves.

Freemasonry fits into every Culture, Canadian culture or whatever. It may not necessarily be accepted by all cultures. It is certainly by those who are acquainted with Freemasonry and what Freemasonry stands for, which is really a continuance of our spiritual beliefs in God and practising and living by it. But some cultures may not accept us at all. And if their culture within our country, like they may be Canadians, but they may not be true Canadian Culture. Somebody comes from the Middle East. They may have some differences with us. Although we do have a lot of Muslims, particularly Muslims, who belong to our Fraternity.

8. Freemasons might demarcate their practice through self-definition as a “way of life” as opposed to a religion.^[13]^,[14] Although, freemasonry remains open to individuals from “all nationalities, religions, occupations and ages.”^[15] [Emphasis added.] What sets freemasonry apart from religion and alternate ways of life?^[16]^,[17]

First of all, each Mason is to practise his faith. Whether he is Hindu, Christian or whatever have you, we are set apart in that we’re not a religious organization. We teach the principles that God has given us, but were very much spiritual. Now, having said that, in many cases, we find that our Brethren who may not have been religious in their life may have their faith strengthened by being a freemason and then becoming a religious person. You know it has my case, it has strengthened my belief of God and his principles. Because we focus in more on the teachings of God than perhaps transfers into some of religions, really.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Grand Secretary, The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons; Retired Member, Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

[2] First publication on November 1, 2015 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

[3] RWBro Jerry Kopp (2012) in The Alberta Freemason, describes, in brief, some of Kopp’s background:

“Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Alberta RWBro Jerry W. Kopp hails from Loon Lake, Saskatchewan, and was born on 15 March 1948 to immigrant parents from Czechoslovakia. He grew up and was educated at Loon Lake….In May 1970 Brother Kopp joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and took his training at “Depot Division” of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Training Centre in Regina. His first posting took him to Drumheller…Brother Kopp attained the rank of Sergeant and retired from the RCMP on 31 October 2000 with almost 31 years of service…He was transferred to Milk River in January 1978 and affiliated with Century Lodge No. 100 at Milk River. During a 10-year posting in Edmonton, Brother Kopp became active in Freemasonry by visiting many of the Edmonton and area Masonic Lodges. While in Edmonton, he was a member of the joint RCMP/Edmonton Police Service Master Masons Degree Team…Brother Kopp affiliated with Strathmore Lodge in 1991 and was Worshipful Master in 1995, 2003 and in 2011. He was the first Worshipful Master to serve a second term in the history of the Strathmore Lodge…In the fall of 1995 Brother Kopp was elected as District Deputy Grand Master for the Dinosaur District. He served this office in 1996–97 under Most Worshipful Brother Basile Costouros as Grand Master…On 1 November 2000, he was hired by the Grand Lodge of Alberta as Assistant Grand Secretary and was invested as Grand Secretary in June 2001. Brother Kopp continues to be a very active ritualist in his Lodge and in other Lodges that may require assistance.”

Please see The Alberta Freemason. (2012, January). RWBro Jerry Kopp. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/AbFM/ABF1201.pdf.

[4] Please see Freemasonry. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/order-of-Freemasons.

[5] For further information, The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons 2015) states:

“Freemasonry is a way of life and is composed of people of all nationalities, religions, occupations and ages. Freemasons believe in truth, tolerance, respect, and freedom. Anyone may petition to be a Mason so long as they meet a few requirements. Freemasons believe in “making good men better” which implies that its adherents should seek continual improvement and growth. A maxim in ancient Greece, “Man Know Thyself”, has echoes in modern ceremonial Freemasonry and implies the importance of learning about self, for by becoming a more enlightened and principled individual it is most probable that a person will in turn be a contributing citizen to their society. It is important that a Mason be a good family member, friend, neighbor and employee. Freemasons believe in living a life of positive contribution and to the building up of self, society and the world. Masonry is not a substitute for a person’s chosen faith but rather supplements faith, spirituality, life and living.”

Please see The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/.

[6] Please see The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/.

[7] “Man Know Thyself” comes from the tradition of ancient Greece, possibly, from the earliest philosopher in the Western tradition within the Milesian school. A man named Thales of Miletus, along with Anaximander and Anaximenes in the Milesian tradition too. Bear in mind, the Encyclopedia Britannica entry states:

“No writings by Thales survive, and no contemporary sources exist. Thus, his achievements are difficult to assess. Inclusion of his name in the canon of the legendary Seven Wise Men led to his idealization, and numerous acts and sayings, many of them no doubt spurious, were attributed to him, such as “Know thyself” and “Nothing in excess.” [Emphasis added.]

Please see Thales of Miletus. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Thales-of-Miletus.

[8] Please see The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). What is Freemasonry?. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/freemasonry.html.

[9] According to The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons, “brotherly love” means, “Every true Freemason will show tolerance and respect for the opinions of others and behave with kindness and understanding to his fellow creatures.” “Relief” means, “Freemasons are taught to practice charity and to care – not only for their own – but also for the community as a whole, both by charitable giving and by voluntary efforts and works as individuals.” Finally, “truth” means, “Freemasons strive for truth, requiring high moral standards and aiming to achieve them in their own lives.” Other principles, or beliefs, include “truth, tolerance, respect, and freedom,” but do have partial containment in the other great principles too.

Please see The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/.

[10] Please see The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). What is Freemasonry?. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/freemasonry.html.

[11] The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). What is Freemasonry?. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/freemasonry.html.

[12] According to What is Freemasonry? (2015), on the relationship of freemasonry to society, it states:

“Freemasonry demands from its members a respect for the law of the country in which a man works and lives. Its principles do not in any way conflict with its members’ duties as citizens, but should strengthen them in fulfilling their public and private responsibilities. The use by a Freemason of his membership to promote his own or anyone else’s business, professional or personal interests is condemned, and is contrary to the conditions on which he sought admission to Freemasonry. His duty as a citizen must always prevail over any obligation to other Freemasons, and any attempt to shield a Freemason who has acted dishonorably or unlawfully is contrary to this prime duty and the teachings of Freemasonry itself.” [Emphasis added.]

Please see The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). What is Freemasonry?. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/freemasonry.html.

[13] One can find an indirect description of this ideal in statements peppered throughout the thorough and concise contents of the website. For instance, What is Freemasonry? (2015) states:

“Freemasonry is: Kindness in the home, honesty in business, courtesy in society, fairness in work, resistance toward the wicked, pity and concern for the unfortunate, help for the weak, trust in the strong, forgiveness for the penitent and, above all, love for one another and reverence and love for God.

Freemasonry is a way of life.”

What is Freemasonry? (2015), in addition to the previous quote, says:

“Freemasonry is composed of people of all nationalities, religions, occupations and ages. Freemasons believe in truth, tolerance, respect, and freedom. Anyone may petition to be a Mason so long as they meet a few requirements.

Freemasons believe in “making good men better” which implies that its adherents should seek continual improvement and growth. A maxim in ancient Greece, “Man Know Thyself”, has echoes in modern ceremonial Freemasonry and implies the importance of learning about self, for by becoming a more enlightened and principled individual it is most probable that a person will in turn be a contributing citizen to their society. It is important that a Mason be a good family member, friend, neighbor and employee. Freemasons believe in living a life of positive contribution and to the building up of self, society and the world. Masonry is not a substitute for a person’s chosen faith but rather supplements faith, spirituality, life and living.”

Finally, the same article describes the difference between the freemasonic way of life and religious way of life, especially with regards to their compatibility – freemasonry and religion, as follows:

“Freemasonry is not a religion, nor is it a substitute for religion. It has no theology and does not teach any route to salvation. It deals in a man’s relationship with his fellow man not in a man’s relationship with his God. Although every lodge meeting is opened and closed with a prayer and its ceremonies reflect the essential truths and moral teachings common to many of the world’s great religions, no discussion of religion is permitted in Masonic meetings. The one essential qualification means that Freemasonry is open to men of many religions and it expects and encourages them to continue to practice his religion and to regard its holy book as the unerring standard of truth. The Bible will always be present in a lodge but as the organization welcomes men of all faiths, it is called the Volume of the Sacred Law. Thus, when the Volume of the Sacred Law is referred to in ceremonies, to a non-Christian it will be the holy book of his religion and to a Christian it will be the Bible.”

Please see The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). What is Freemasonry?. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/freemasonry.html.

[14] The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). What is Freemasonry?. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/freemasonry.html.

[15] The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). What is Freemasonry?. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/freemasonry.html.

[16] The Grand Lodge of Alberta Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons. (2015). What is Freemasonry?. Retrieved from http://www.freemasons.ab.ca/freemasonry.html.

[17] Please see Freemasonry. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/order-of-Freemasons.

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2023-01-29

An Interview with Athelia Nihtscada (Part Four)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/10/22

Abstract

An interview with Athelia Nihtscada. She discusses: past druid and pagan schism management based in personality conflicts, or ideological and philosophical disagreements; present schism management; druidism and paganism foundation in Celtic traditions, persistent ethics in the present framework in addition to the relevant transformations, and ethics and morality in druidism; important initiations and rituals in their way of life; systematized philosophies and ideal types which embody the ethics and moral values and thoughts on the ideal druid, or druids; the most probable near and far future trajectory for druidism; and further information for those with an interest in Nihtscada and associated organizations, and advice to them.

Keywords: Athelia Nihtscada, Celtic, druid, ethics, ideological, Kondatriev, morality, pagan, philosophical, rituals.

An Interview with Athelia Nihtscada (Part Four)^[1]^,[2],[3]

*Please see the footnotes and citation style listing after the interview, respectively.*

16. How did the druid and pagan groups manage schisms in the past based in personality conflicts, or ideological and philosophical disagreements?

The one thing I find interesting about the main modern Druid organizations around the world is that they all started as a protest or quiet rebellion. The Reformed Druids of North America started out as a group of students who protested the university’s mandatory Sunday Service attendance rule. Rather than go to church, these young people decided to develop their own little “religion” and hold their own services. It was all meant as a joke at first, but it grew. Eventually, the university dropped the requirement, yet the RDNA has lived on for over 40 years!

A young fellow by the name of Isaac Bonewits, joined RDNA, but ended up starting his own group, Ar’ nDraoicht Fein (ADF), because he wanted an all-Pagan Druid group that would become a religion. These Druids could pick an Indo-European hearth culture, study it and develop their practise from there. A few years later, a group of disgruntled ADF members would tape a list of “theses” on Bonewits’ van because they wanted their Druidism to be strictly Celtic. Thus, the Henge of Keltria was born.

It was no different across the pond in the United Kingdom. In the early 60s, it came time to elect a new Arch Druid for the Ancient Druid Order (one of the Revivalist orders that is still in operation today). A Cambridge academic by the name of Phillip Peter Ross Nichols was approached for the position, but he wanted to see more focus on Celtic mythology and celebrating the 8 seasonal festivals. (Fun fact: Gerald Gardner, the founder of Gardnerian Wicca was also a member of ADO. Mr. Nichols was a good friend of Mr. Gardner and influenced the development of what we know as Gardnerian Wicca today.) Ross Nichols founded the well-known Order of Bards Ovates and Druids (OBOD) in 1964. A few members of OBOD would eventually start their own group, the British Druid Oder. From there, the Druid Network came into existence.

This, of course, is my very simplistic explanation of the development of modern Druid organizations. Ronald Hutton delves into this subject in far greater detail in his book “Druids: A History” (Hambledon Continuum, UK, 2007).

17. How about the present?

The best example I can give is of one of our members. Ten years ago, this member was very shy and slightly adverse to performing rituals with a group; preferring solitary ritual. Over time, the member began to show a large amount of aptitude for leadership and found that the Grove was not providing her with what she needed. The member started a Grove with one of the larger Druid orders in response.

This easily could have ended up as a schism with hurt feelings all around, but I considered our standards of conduct and looked at the situation for what it actually was: a member had developed excellent leadership skills, a desire to start a separate Grove, and was ready to “leave the nest” as it were. Instead of a schism, I recognized the member by awarding a Third Order and publicly recognizing the person as a peer. The member had been worried about losing friendship or starting some sort of conflict, but was relieved when I said it was simply a matter of growth and change. Our two Groves operate on their own and both of us are happy with the outcome. We are still friends as well.

I know there have been schisms in other groups, but I do not have the details and cannot speak to whether they were positive or negative.

18. The historical perspective into the nature of druidism and paganism provides the basis for connection with the Celtic traditions.^[4]^,[5] As noted by the website excerpt of Laurie (2010) from Meyer (1906), the ethics persist into the current framework with relevant transformations for incorporation into the modern delineation of the druid traditions.^[6]^,[7] How much do ethics and morality come into the theory of druidism?

Ethics provide the moral framework on which all good societies are built. Without them, there would be no trust, no integrity, no communication, no decency and no respect. Knowing the ethical framework of our history allows us to incorporate an ethical base for modern practise. In Awen Grove, ethics and morality are quite important and are the cornerstones of the Grove. Looking at many online message boards and organizational websites, ethics and morals are subjects of much debate and importance. I would say ethics come into the theory of Druidism quite a lot.

19. Furthermore, what personal observations exemplify this through actions and practices by druids in everyday, mundane life to the most important initiations and rituals of this way of life?

I believe that maintaining integrity and taking responsibility for one’s own actions are ways that modern Druids can exemplify ethics and morality. Through consideration of others, as well as the ability to remain steadfast in one’s own ethics, a Druid will find that everything from the mundane to the esoteric will reflect that.

20. Systematized philosophies in the world tend towards formalization of an ideal type, and the ethics and moral values in which this ideal comes to embody, which seems to mirror some of the particular values in the druid and pagan traditions, as noted by Kondatriev.^[8] What remains the ideal druid, or remain the ideal druids?

I have always enjoyed “Celtic Values” by Alexei Kondratiev and have used the article as an example of virtue ethics. Recently, I came up with my own set of virtues, gleaned from the Audacht Morainn, which could be seen as ideas for modern Druids.

Rectitude – Maintaining a standard of moral integrity. I believe in maintaining a high standard of morality. This has always been a touchy subject among many Neo-Pagans who may feel that agreeing on morals and ethics will dogmatize them and violate all that Pagans hold dear in the way of personal freedom. Morals are morals and are not the exclusive domain of one religion or another. Good moral standards uphold good moral people, no matter what their faith path happens to be.
Truth – Morann states that a ruler must “exalt truth” and that it is the “Truth of the Ruler” that will achieve great things. I believe this can apply to all people since truth is not exclusively the domain of leaders. We all seek it, most people value truthfulness in other people and the truth is often inescapable in the end.
Mercy/Compassion – Morann states that a ruler who exalts mercy will find that mercy exalts him. One of my heroes, the Dalai Lama, says that one way to be happy is to practice compassion. If one is feeling down, practice compassion. Caring for the world around us not only benefits everyone else, but it benefits ourselves as well.
Wisdom from Experience – Morann instructs the younger ruler to watch the older charioteer. Watch how the man’s experience causes him to see things that a newer driver would miss. A lot of wisdom is gained by sampling experiencing something. Our best lessons are often learned through experience.
Justice/Fair Judgment – In my opinion, a Druid not only has to uphold justice, but practice fair and honest judging. I also see this when it comes to accusations. Will someone provide all information and research facts before jumping to conclusions or spreading rumours?
Commitment to Oaths – Keeping any commitment or promise would fall under this one in my opinion. Whether one makes an official oath or a promise to someone, it is beneficial for the person to keep that oath or promise. He or she will be seen as a reliable and true person.
Hospitality – One of the cornerstones to a good society, hospitality was vitally important to the Celts. It is also a value that many modern Druids hold sacred.
Steadfastness – The ability to be true to one’s beliefs, standards and commitments is another cornerstone to good society in my opinion.
Impartiality – I find the best way to be is to be objective in all situations. When being impartial, it is easier for me to see things from more than one just one emotionally-driven angle. This helps me to make a clear judgment about something.
Generosity – No one likes a miser, but being a spendthrift is also not good. Generosity, like hospitality, shows that a person is willing to share his good fortune with others. Generosity in the true sense also shows that a person is capable of living within one’s means.
Eloquence in speech – As a Toastmaster, I know the value of eloquence and excellent communication skills. A species that is based on verbal and non verbal communication as human kind is, a good communicator is a respected person, no matter what the culture. Excellent communication skills will take a person far in life if he is virtuous.
Competence – Best for him who knows what he is doing! If one is going to undertake any task, one must be competent or trained.

21. With respect to the trajectory of druidism into the near and far future, what seems like the most probable future for the world’s druids?^[9]

By using the wisdom of the past and remaining in the moment, the Druid of the future will certainly be there to serve in whatever capacity is needed at the time. Just as the Druids of the past and present have been.

22. For this with further interest in Nihtscada and associated organizations (at one time or another), please see the footnotes to this sentence.^[10]^{,[11],[12],[13],[14],[15],[16]} If you could talk to someone with an interest in the druid path, as if yourself from 1991, what advice comes to mind for them?

Before anything else, know who you are and what your personal beliefs and ethics are; your Core Values.

Take some time to sit down, contemplate and write down what your values are. If you’re stuck, think about certain situations. Where do you stand on topics in life, such as the environment, hunting, abuse, politics or religion? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What do you admire or dislike in other people, faith paths, or political circles? What attracts you to them or pushes you away?

Knowing these will assist you in making the right choices with regards to your spiritual path and education. When approaching a potential teacher or group, look at their core values in comparison to yours. Do they fit or do they clash? Knowing your values inside and out will overrule the glamour that often accompanies a new spiritual path or teacher. If your core values do not match, there may be a feeling of extreme discomfort, which will leave you vulnerable and prone to being hurt in the process of learning this is not the right path for you. If your core values do match, you will feel a synergy unlike any other because you are in tune enough with yourself to know what is right for you. (This is actually good knowledge for any aspect of life, from relationships to vocation.)

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The British Druid Order. (2015). The British Druid Order. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.co.uk/.
The Druid Network. (2015). The Druid Network. Retrieved from http://druidnetwork.org/.
The Henge of Keltria. (2015). The Henge of Keltria. Retrieved from http://www.keltria.org/.
The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/.
Tuathail, S.A. (1993). Foclóir Draíochta – Dictionary of Druidism. Retrieved from http://www.imbas.org/articles/focloir_draiochta.html.
(2015). @athelia143. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/athelia143.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Founder and Arch Druid, Awen Grove; Member, Third Order of the Reformed Druids of North America; Member, Order of Bards Ovates and Druids; Member, The British Druid Order; Member, Henge of Keltria; Member and Past Regional Coordinator, Druid Network; Member and Past Regional Druid of Western Canada, Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship (ADF).

[2] First publication on October 22, 2015 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

[3] Photograph courtesy of Athelia Nihtscada.

[4] Please see Meyer, K. (1906). The Triads of Ireland.

[5] Please see Laurie, E.R. (2010). The Truth Against the World: Ethics and Model Celtic Paganism. Retrieved from http://www.seanet.com/~inisglas/ethics.html.

[6] Please see Meyer, K. (1906). The Triads of Ireland.

[7] Please see Laurie, E.R. (2010). The Truth Against the World: Ethics and Model Celtic Paganism. Retrieved from http://www.seanet.com/~inisglas/ethics.html.

[8] Please see Kondatriev, A. (n.d.). Celtic Values. Retrieved from http://www.imbas.org/articles/celtic_values.html.

[9] Ibidem.

[10] Please see Awen Grove Canada. (2014, November 22). Contact Us. Retrieved from http://awencanada.com/Contact.html.

[11] Please see Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship. (2015). Send an Email: Contact Us. Retrieved from https://www.adf.org/contact.html.

[12] Please see Henge of Keltria. (2015). Contact Us. Retrieved from http://www.keltria.org/contact.htm.

[13] Please see Order of Bards Ovates and Druids. (2015). Contact Us. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/contact-us.

[14] Please see Reformed Druids of North America. (2015). Reformed Druids of North America. Retrieved from http://rdna.info/.

[15] Please see The British Druid Order. (2015). Contact the BDO. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.co.uk/about-the-bdo/contacts/.

[16] Please see The Druid Network. (2015). The Druid Network. Retrieved from http://druidnetwork.org/.

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An Interview with Athelia Nihtscada (Part Three)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/10/15

Abstract

An interview with Athelia Nihtscada. She discusses: Basic Deity Types (1997) from Kondratiev in relation to the purpose of gods and goddesses, and the panoply of deities in druid initiations, rituals, traditions, and worship services; and Kuno Meyer in The Triads of Ireland (1906) in relation to the ethics of druidism and paganism to bring social and cultural cohesion for druids and pagans.

Keywords: Athelia Nihtscada, deity, druidism, Kondatriev, Kuno Meyer, paganism, rituals, traditions, worship.

An Interview with Athelia Nihtscada (Part Three)^[1]^,[2],[3]

*Please see the footnotes and citation style listing after the interview, respectively.*

14. In Basic Deity Types (1997), Kondratiev describes some of the generalized deities within the druid world including land and tribal deities.^[4] What purpose do the gods and goddesses, and the panoply of deities serve in the druid initiations, rituals, traditions, and worship services?^[5]

The purpose depends on the individual, of course. Some Druids see Druidry as a philosophy that can either be incorporated into another religion (e.g.: Christianity, Buddhism, etc.) or followed with no religious context at all. For this question, I am answering for myself who practises Druidism is a religion on its own.

I am quite far away from the deities of my ancestors’ land and culture and personally do not know or identify with deities indigenous to the land I actually live in. Local deities have not made themselves known to me, but certain deities from the lands of my ancestors have connected with me as “patrons”. I believe a lot of Druids in North America or in lands outside of Europe also have found connection with European deities in a similar fashion.

Practitioners of “Druidcraft”, a hybrid of Druidism and Wicca, may be duotheistic in that all Gods are aspects of one God and all Goddesses are aspects of one Goddess: the Lord and Lady. For me, each God and Goddess is an individual with his or her own personality, preferences, wisdom and reason for connecting with me.

When I first started on my path and read about the various Gods and Goddesses in the Welsh and Irish pantheons, I found that certain ones seemed to invoke that tug in my heart; much like the one I felt when I discovered Druids in the first place. I also began to notice certain omens, such as seeing crows everywhere, as well as dreams of meeting the deities. Like my father had said, the best connection with the Divine is the one forged for oneself. I opened myself to their wisdom and was then “called” by the ones who wished to connect with me. I had never felt that kind of feeling before and was happy to finally feel this divine connection that so many of my friends in Catholic school had claimed with their God. Over time, I learned how to “tune in” to each one’s presence and knew whether I was making the right offerings, learning the right lessons, or not. For me, it was like befriending someone important and those relationships have grown over time. I am not one who subscribes to the practise of calling upon certain deities based on correspondence charts in order to get what I want. A relationship with deity needs to be respectful, mutually beneficial and consistent. If I need something, I may ask my patron deities for help finding a direction or strength to make it happen.

When I founded Awen Grove, certain deities also made it clear that they were going to be “patrons” for the group itself. Each member found themselves connecting with those deities in their own way. This purpose would be very similar to tribal deities.

In short, I believe the various deities’ purpose is to guide us, teach us, and help us along the way toward spiritual and personal growth and development.

15. Kuno Meyer in The Triads of Ireland (1906) states:

How do the ethics of druidism and paganism bring about social and cultural cohesion for druids and pagans?

Ethics has always been an interest of mine because it is a paradox of simplicity and complexity. Some people feel that ethics are the same as morals or laws of virtue, which can be forced upon others. Morals and laws of virtue can be unmovable, or at least some sort of debate or process will need to be undertaken to change them. These are usually decided by more than just one person and are external.

For me, ethics are fluid and personal. We all have values and personal codes of conduct, which are the cornerstones of our ideas of right and wrong. In normal situations, we have a pretty fair idea of what we would and would not do. Throw in an unusual situation or factor which doesn’t really fit within that framework of values. What if something deeply challenges a value and causes one to rethink it? What if one has always said they would do something a certain way, but when push comes to shove, they find themselves torn? This is how an ethical dilemma starts. No one can take ethics away from a person or impose their own ethics on another, because the human being has the free will to choose what to do in any given situation. We make choices based on our own personal code of conduct and we must take responsibility for the consequences of those choices. Can we stand by those choices? Do we feel they are right? Are the choices aligned with our values and morals?

Bring that concept to a larger picture, such as a group setting, and one is now dealing with other people who have their own internal codes of ethics. Each person has their own idea of what is “right” and what is “wrong”. It is useful to discuss these differences as a group and come up with ethics that will guide the choices of individuals and the group in general.

Reading Kuno Meyer’s quote, I am in complete agreement with the need for social and cultural cohesion as well as a well-defined set of ethics. Without those standards of conduct and ethics, things do become very self-serving and manipulative in the magical and social sense. We are not exempt from society or its rules of conduct. I have been witness to many attempts to come up with some sort of unified statement of ethics in groups and with Paganism in general. Usually, these attempts arise from some sort of scandal, such as a pedophile claiming to be a Druid, or just out of general interest of having such a unified statement. There is much debate and then it sort of fizzles out, never to be discussed until the next person raises the subject. Why is this so difficult?

Phillip Carr-Gomm makes an interesting observation as to why this is such a difficult undertaking in his online article, “Ethics & Values in Druidism II” (http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/what-druidry/ethics-values-druidry/ethics-values-druidism). “…little has been written about ethics in contemporary Druidism since most Druids are keen to avoid the problems caused by dictating a morality to others. So much suffering has resulted throughout history because one group of people have decided that it is good to do one thing and bad to do another. Just as most Druids have avoided dictating which type of theology someone should adopt, so too have they avoided telling each other, or the world, how to behave.” I believe this might be one of the main reasons behind the lack of ethical standards of conduct: the fear of dictating behavioural standards due to past experiences with other religions.

This is the main reason I started Awen Grove in the first place. I did not want to ‘dictate’ a moral code, but I wanted ethics to be one of the cornerstones of the Grove. It took us about 2 – 3 years to come up with a unified statement, but it was done. Granted, most of that time was spent researching other codes of conduct with the goal of rewriting the original Statement of Ethics that I had written in 2003. It took only a handful of meetings to actually come up with a Statement of Ethics we could all agree upon, and it was not a difficult process at all. That statement is quite simple and is as follows:

We believe:

In following a sincere Path of Service
In upholding the Truth – Starting withourselves
In upholding the respect and dignity of each of us and our Community
In maintaining a healthy balance of personal, professional, environmental and spiritual priorities
That abuse of any sort is unacceptable and will not be condoned

Awen Grove has been in existence for the past 12 years, with very little drama. Why? Because we took the time to come up with a standard of conduct that we could all agree upon and work with.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Founder and Arch Druid, Awen Grove; Member of the Third Order of the Reformed Druids of North America; Member, Order of Bards Ovates and Druids; Member, The British Druid Order; Member, Henge of Keltria; Member and Past Regional Coordinator, Druid Network; Member and Past Regional Druid of Western Canada, Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship (ADF).

[2] First publication on October 15, 2015 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

[3] Photograph courtesy of Athelia Nihtscada.

[4] Please see Kondratiev, A. (1997). Basic Deity Types. Retrieved from http://www.draeconin.com/database/deitytypes.htm.

[5] Kondratiev, in Basic Deity Types (1997), states:

“The Celtic “Mercury”…The Celtic “Mars”…The Celtic “Jupiter”…The Celtic “Silvanus” or God With Antlers (Karnonos/Cernunnos)…The Celtic “Minerva”…Because horses played such a large part in the Celts’ military successes in Europe, the horse was a symbol of sovereignty and political power (as opposed to cattle, which were a symbol of the Land and of material wealth). Thus the goddess who gave legitimacy to the power of the tribe was portrayed as riding on a horse, or as a mare herself. This (Epona, “Great Mare”) was a particular aspect of the sovereignty goddess, distinct from, say, Rosmerta, who gives rulers the intoxicating drink of flaith/wlatis. The Celtic “Minerva”, on the other hand, was a more general representation of goddess-energy, who could be invoked in a far greater range of situations: she gave the energy of rulership to rulers, but also provided every other kind of energy wherever it was needed….The Hindu model can be very useful in helping us understand the Celtic view of goddesses, which was quite similar. For Hindus, goddesses are sources of energy, and they are often referred to collectively as simply Shakti (which can be personified as Durga, the supreme virgin goddess who is the source of all energy in the universe). But when the energy is applied to a specific purpose, the goddesses become differentiated: as Sarasvati (culture and creativity), Lakshmi (fertility and wealth, material comfort) or Kali (destruction and rebirth)…’Sucellos’ (“Good Striker”). (i.e. giving death with one side, life with the other). This is evidently the same god-type that became known as the ‘Dagda’ “Good (=Efficient) God” in Ireland. He is often chosen to represent the trifunctional tutelary god of a tribal territory (‘Toutatis’). His consort is the territorial river goddess. In southern Gaul he was sometimes interpreted as “Silvanus” (both he and Cernunnos had cauldrons)…’Maponos’ (meaning “Superboy”, essentially!)…The Divine Twins. The only literary survival of these important Indo-European divinities consists of Nisien and Efnisien in the Second Branch of the Mabinogi…The Celtic “Apollo”.”

Please see Kondratiev, A. (1997). Basic Deity Types. Retrieved from http://www.draeconin.com/database/deitytypes.htm.

[6] In full, Meyer states:

“One of the most important things that defines a people as a distinct social and cultural group is how they act toward one another; what they expect from each other socially, what their rules of conduct are, and how they deal with those who step outside the boundaries of what their culture considers “proper behavior.” These social rules, whether “don’t stare at strangers” or “thou shalt not kill,” are among the cultural guidelines to ethical behavior within any given group. Ethics govern not only these social interactions, but also what is acceptable in religious ritual, and the whys and whens of the appropriate use of magic. Without an ethical structure of some sort, religion and magic become self-serving, meaningless beyond the single individual. Magic can easily become manipulative rather than transformative, serving only the needs of this moment rather than the needs of a lifetime, or of an individual rather than a community. Religion and social interaction become a minefield where killing your neighbor because you want tomatoes from her garden is as valid a method of obtaining your dinner as trading for them. Within many public NeoPagan organizations there are no agreed upon ethics, no generally accepted rules of conduct. While individual freedoms are a good thing, and one which should be supported and striven for, it is also useful to have a groundwork upon which we can assume that one person will not lie to or about another, that oaths will not be falsely sworn, and that the organization’s land fund won’t be used to buy the group treasurer a new pickup truck. These things may indeed be generally deplored by individuals in the group, but without stated guidelines objections become irrelevant and the cause of the objection is often lost in the ensuing muck-throwing contest, while the group debates what actually constitutes a lie, whether or not theft is actually theft, and whether any act is ever legally or ethically actionable. Where there are no standards of behavior, it is difficult for community and trust to develop. Without trust between individuals, there can be no tribe. Groups with known and expressed ethical guidelines seem to be spared the worst aspects of this kind of struggle. People know where they stand and what the boundaries of interpretation are. Trust develops more easily, and community becomes more than a group of people who claim they believe similar things. Known guidelines don’t guarantee absolute compatibility and social cohesion, but they certainly make it easier to determine the boundaries of acceptable behavior, make it possible for minor and major breaches of those codes of conduct to be pointed out, and create a starting point for dealing with those situations when they inevitably arise. Clear group ethical models also offer something for people to build their individual ethics upon. Ethics can be based upon ancient or modern models, derived from some philosophical source or created by mutual agreement and discussion. Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism recognizes the need for a set of ethical guidelines and bases its structure upon that of the ancient Celts. This is not to say that our ethical structure is identical to that of the early Celts, or directly derived from early Irish or Welsh laws. Many things laid out in those laws and illustrated in the tales are distasteful to us as moderns, no longer either acceptable or legal within the overculture under which we must all live. Trial by ordeal, death by exposure in pits and slavery for forfeiture of contracts are some of the more blatant examples of things that our Celtic forbears did which we would find abhorrent. Knowing our ethical history allows us to intelligently modify those beliefs into modern applications for Celtic Reconstructionist Pagans.”

Please see Meyer, K. (1906). The Triads of Ireland. Royal Irish Academy, Todd Lecture Series vol XIII, Hodges, Figes & Co., Dublin

[7] Please see Laurie, E.R. (2010). The Truth Against the World: Ethics and Model Celtic Paganism. Retrieved from http://www.seanet.com/~inisglas/ethics.html.

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An Interview with Athelia Nihtscada (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/10/09

Abstract

An interview with Athelia Nihtscada. She discusses: druidism and its interrelationship with existentialism, psychology, psychotherapy; personal meaning of druidism in the search for the Self; different druid organizations; organizations’ influence in the personal development of druids; research and practices into druidism; druidism practiced apart from the organizations; the upward scale in qualifications for the local and global druids; On Being a Druid Today (2011) and difference between druids in the past and present; and Awen Grove Canada’s orders: first, second, and third.

Keywords: Athelia Nihtscada, Awen Grove Canada, druid, druidism, existentialism, order, qualifications, psychology, psychotherapy.

An Interview with Athelia Nihtscada (Part Two)^[1]^,[2],[3]

*Please see the footnotes and citation style listing after the interview, respectively.*

5. You remarked on existentialism in reflection upon personal research into psychology and psychotherapy in the article entitled A Bit About Existentialism (2011).^[4] You list the five “givens” of existentialism including “Death, Human Limitation,” and “Finiteness, Freedom, Responsibility,” and “Agency, Isolation and Connectedness,” “Meaning vs. Meaninglessness, and Emotions,” “Experience, and Embodiment.”^[5] How does druidism interrelate with existentialism, psychology, and psychotherapy?^[6]

For me, Druidism is a very cerebral path. It encourages a lot of thought, introspection, and examination of beliefs. It is also about taking responsibility for one’s actions. While we may not always have control over our situations, we always have control over how we respond to them. I’ve adopted the philosophy that “I never lose. I either win or I learn.” I can either play the victim or see the lesson in the situation. I’m done playing the victim and have embraced the power and responsibility of how I respond to situations.

Life is about being aware of one’s limits, understanding the isolation of being an individual and the need to connect with others, and experiencing life as it is. From a psychotherapeutic perspective, these ideas match what is often taught in cognitive behaviour therapy: empowering oneself through changing one’s outlook.

6. Individuation: The Quest for Self (2011) describes the nature of the Self and search for the individual, of the quest for the individual.^[7]^,[8]What does druidism mean in the search for the Self?

Much of the work involved in modern Druidism involves self-development. Abraham Maslow studied and wrote about self-actualization, which is a similar process to Carl Jung’s theory of individuation. Simply put, it is about learning about the different aspects of one’s personality, as well as the general concepts of relationships, interaction with the world, one’s dark side, etc.; and then putting it all together like a puzzle. The result is supposed to be more enlightened and complete person. It does not make one any better or worse than another person; nor does it exclude a person from suffering. It makes a person more well-rounded and prepared to handle these things. If the soul is on its own path of discovery and growth, why not help it along by striving to understand and develop oneself? When one is balanced and aware of self-care, it is easier to serve and care for others.

7. You have past, or present, involvement with numerous druid organizations including Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship (ADF), Awen Grove Canada, Henge of Keltria, Order of Bards Ovates and Druids (OBOD), Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA), The British Druid Order (BDO), The Druid Network (TDN).^[9]^{,[10],[11],[12],[13]}^,[14],[15]What have these different organizations taught you?

They have taught me that while there is a certain continuum of commonalities, there are many ways of approaching them. When I started on my path, I did not have the connection to Druids and Druid groups that I have today. I feel that being a member of these groups has shown me the value of different perspectives as well as enabled me to help seekers find the group or path that best fits them, should they want that. At the basic level, I’m providing a service I wish I’d had access to when I started. At a more advanced level, I am broadening my own horizons and knowledge.

8. What does each organization bring to bear in personal development as a druid?

It depends on what one is looking for. For seekers looking for a defined religious structure and want to follow an Indo-European hearth culture (pantheon of Gods and way of practise), I would recommend ADF. If one were looking for a strictly Celtic religious structure, I’d recommend the Henge of Keltria. For those looking for a structured, introspective experience that can become either their religion or philosophy (or both), I would recommend OBOD’s correspondence course. The self-starter who wants to look at various options before committing to a specific group, or one who has a set path but wants to connect with others, might want to start with something like The Druid Network.

9. How do these various organizations interrelate their research and practices into druidism?

Each organization has its own approach to Druidism based on its own history, research and methods of practise that work for them. Many of them seem to incorporate the aspects of service, truth, connection, reverence for nature, the belief in the immortal soul, and honouring the ancestors. These aspects are based on Celtic and Indo-European lore and history.

10. Can one learn druidism apart from the organizations to some level of proficiency, even mastery, or does one require these organizations for self-development in alignment with the core values and practices of druidism?

I believe it is possible, if one is comfortable with self-study and is willing to do the work needed to become known as a Druid. There is a whole line of debate over what constitutes a Druid today, but most will agree that scholarship, service to others in the capacity, and building relationships with other Druids and groups. One must be completely committed to Druidism and “walking the talk” as it were. Others must recognize a person as a Druid in order for one to be called a Druid, in my opinion. Otherwise, they are considered “on the Druid path” until one makes a positive mark and is ‘seen’.

Like a degree from a credible university, joining one of the established groups and completing their training will definitely make it easier to be recognized by others in the Pagan communities.

11. How does one scale upwards in the ranks of knowledge, capabilities, and responsibilities within the local and global druid associations, orders, organizations, and societies – through certifications, positions, requirements, and titles?

For many groups, it’s a matter of completing all of the coursework and being officially recognized. Like most organizations, the more one puts into serving the group, the more one gets out of it. A person can take the courses and get a piece of paper, but rising in the ranks on a social level involves going beyond mere study. It means forging positive relationships, being willing to do the extras like organize an event, serve on a Board or lead a Grove.

12. In On Being a Druid Today (2011), you note the differences between druidism in the past and the present.^[16] Also, you describe the different social status, training, and literacy of druids across time.^[17] In addition to this, you describe the focus on “service,” “education,” “love of nature,” “connection,” “belief in the immortality of the soul,” and “seeking truth.”^[18] If you could update views on this observation and reflection, what seem like the overarching, core differences between druidism of the past and the present?

Per my answer to question 3, looking at what we know of the ancient Druids, the writings of the Revivalist Druids, and what is considered Druidism today, there are a few common threads that appear: truth, service, connection, reverence of nature, ancestor worship and the belief that the soul is immortal and can transmigrate from life to life.

13. You founded Awen Grove Canada.^[19] In the website, on the page entitled The Druid Path (2014), you recommended numerous resources for this with general curiosity or genuine interest in becoming a druid.^[20]^{,[21],[22],[23],[24],[25],[26],[27]}You include some personal commentary and resources too.^[28] Awen Grove Canada contains three orders in their course of study: first, second, and third.^[29] What does each order implicate in terms of lessons and eventual qualifications?^[30]

Awen Grove’s tradition is the one I have founded and I based the “grade” system on the Reformed Druids of North America Order system. It is a work in progress as the tradition grows and changes. I have always held true to the tenet of seeking truth against the world, so I am not the most structured of teachers. I believe in providing the base knowledge and having the student progress from there. Many organizations require seekers to go through each structured grade. In my system, there are certain things one needs to know, but I tailor teaching to each person. Some are completely new to Druidism and need to start from scratch. Others have been practising for many years and may only need to hone certain skills, such as leadership. There are modules that each student must work through because they are the foundations of the tradition itself: self-assessment of beliefs, ethics, path of service, history and comparative spirituality. From there, it is a matter of what the students wants to achieve.

The First Order involves the basic foundations of the tradition, as well as a looking at the history of Druidism through the ages and the common factors, ritual practises, seasonal observances, etc. The Second Order is focused on Service, where students discover the type of service that they are passionate about. The Third Order is focused on Leadership, taking one’s place in the larger community, and starting one’s own Grove.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Please see Nihtscada, A. (2011, July 28). A Bit About Existentialism. Retrieved from https://athelia143.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/a-bit-about-existentialism/.

[2] Ibidem.

[3] Ibidem.

[4] Nihtscada opens the essay with the following:

““Know Thyself” was inscribed above the Oracle of Delphi in Ancient Greece and the search for the true nature of oneself was important to Ancient Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Plato… Two-thousand years later, is humanity closer to knowing the nature of their true selves and achieving psychological maturity? Can one attain complete knowledge and acceptance of one’s true Self in a life-time? Dr. Carl Gustav Jung believed that this was possible, but it would take a lot of inner-work to make it so. Jung theorized that a person’s personality is made up of many aspects that, when integrated into the conscious, become the Self, the true centre of being (Feist & Feist, 2006). He called this process “Individuation” or “Self-Realization” and provided criteria that would have to be met in order for this to be achieved (Jung, 1968). In this paper, the process of fulfilling those criteria is examined as well as its practical therapeutic applications.”

Please see Nihtscada, A. (2011, July 28). Individuation: The Quest for Self. Retrieved from https://athelia143.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/17/.

[5] One can find the appropriate reference material for the quote “Man Know Thyself,” which comes from the tradition of ancient Greece, possibly, from the earliest philosopher in the Western tradition within the Milesian school. A man named Thales of Miletus, along with Anaximander and Anaximenes in the Milesian tradition too. Bear in mind, the Encyclopedia Britannica entry states:

Please see Thales of Miletus. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Thales-of-Miletus.

[6] Please see Reformed Druids of North America. (2015). Reformed Druids of North America. Retrieved from http://rdna.info/.

[7] Please see The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. (2015). The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.org/.

[8] Please see The British Druid Order. (2015). The British Druid Order. Retrieved from http://www.druidry.co.uk/.

[9] Please see The Druid Network. (2015). The Druid Network. Retrieved from http://druidnetwork.org/.

[10] Please see The Henge of Keltria. (2015). The Henge of Keltria. Retrieved from http://www.keltria.org/.

[11] Please see Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship. (2015). Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship. Retrieved from https://www.adf.org/.

[12] Please see Awen Grove Canada. (2014). Awen Grove Canada. Retrieved from http://awencanada.com/.

[13] In About (n.d.), Nihtscada, stated:

“In 2005, Athelia completed the Dedicant Path with ADF and was initiated as a Third Order Druid with the Reformed Druids of North America. Athelia is also a member of the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids, The British Druid Order and the Henge of Keltria. Currently, Athelia serves as the Regional Coordinator for Western Canada (Westview) on behalf of the Druid Network and the Regional Druid of Western Canada for ADF.”

Please see Nihtscada, A. (n.d.). About. Retrieved from https://athelia143.wordpress.com/about/.

[14] Please see Nihtscada, A. (2011, August 12). On Being a Druid Today. Retrieved from https://athelia143.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/on-being-a-druid-today/.

[15] Please see Nihtscada, A. (2012, July 26). Druid Writer – Athelia Nihtscada Voices on the Path. Retrieved from http://paganbookshelf.blogspot.ca/2012/07/druid-writer-athelia-nihtscada-voices.html.

[16] Nihtscada, on the differences between druids of the past and the present, states:

“The Druids of old always struck me as being quite in line with their times and up to date on the knowledge and atmosphere of their times. They were very involved with their times because they had to be. They were not trying to “recreate” a history like many of us are today. The ancient Druids lived in a different time than we do. The needs, technology and culture of the people in that time were vastly different from what it is like today. I’m fairly certain that they didn’t just wax philosophically, practise Druidry when they weren’t busy living their lives or doing their jobs, and performing rituals. They were heavily involved with their world: they advised leaders, served their community, healed, taught, negotiated, etc. We live in the 21st Century and our needs and circumstances have changed dramatically since ancient times.”

Please see Nihtscada, A. (2011, August 12). On Being a Druid Today. Retrieved from https://athelia143.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/on-being-a-druid-today/.

[17] Ibidem.

[18] Ibidem.

[19] Please see Awen Grove Canada (2014). Awen Grove Canada.

[20] Please see MacAnTsaoir, I., & O’Laoghaire (1999). Why Wicca Is Not Celtic v.3.0.

[21] Of note, in the article entitled When is a Celt not a Celt: An Irreverent peek into Neopagan views of history (n.d.)., Hautin-Mayer states:

“Many Neopagans and Wiccans feel at odds with written history in general because they consider it to be “patriarchal” and highly biased. And for many people the academic atmosphere often associated with the study of the past can be intimidating. Curious amateurs may feel out of their depth. For these same people, the believe that “mundane” history has little bearing on “us” Neopagans has degenerated into the notion that, because we don’t like the history we have–for whatever reason–we have every right to create a history for ourselves that we do like. Hence we don’t need to document where we really come from and what has really happened to us; we can simply invent a history to suit ourselves. I need not go into detail about how ill-advised such behavior is, but I will say that we ought to consider our history to be a foundation and starting point for all our actions. Even with an unpleasant but honest history, we are in a better position for creating change; without a real history we are lost. There is also a strong bias in certain circles of the Neopagan community against critical thinking. The view is that spiritual matters should not be judged from such a mundane perspective. In our eagerness to embrace alternative belief systems, we are too often uninterested in determining how authentic and accurate these beliefs may be. It is true that much of profound metaphysical significance often cannot be expressed sufficiently in mundane terms. Yet this need not always be the case.”

Please see Hautin-Mayer, M. (n.d.). When is a Celt not a Celt: An Irreverent peek into Neopagan views of history.

[22] With concision, the core aspects of the Celtic spirit come to the fore in Laurie’s article entitled Following a Celtic Path (1995):

“First is reverence for Celtic deities…Second, connection with ancestors and land spirits…Third, poetry as intrinsic to the structure of magick…Fourth, a connection with the past…Fifth, a sense of early Celtic cosmology; doing things in terms of three realms rather than the classical Greek four elements, using Celtic symbols like triskeles and spirals rather than pentagrams, celebrating Celtic holidays rather than (or more deeply than) the holidays of other religions, threes and nines as ritually important, use of a sacred/cosmic tree and well combination. Much of this cosmology has had to be painstakingly reconstructed from fragmentary hints, and it goes back again to the argument that historical research is important to learning about and preserving the Celtic spirit. Sixth, I think that inclusiveness is important…Seventh, respect for women was a definite part of the Celtic spirit…Eighth, an appreciation of the complex and intricate…Ninth, personal responsibility and a deep sense of self are a part of the Celtic spirit.”

Please see Laurie, E.R. (1995). Following A Celtic Path.

[23] Please see Kondratiev, A. (1997). Basic Deity Types.

[24] Please see Laurie, E.R. (1998). The Cauldron of Poesy.

[25] Please see CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. (2015). CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts.

[26] Please see Tuathail, S.A. (1993). Foclóir Draíochta – Dictionary of Druidism.

[27] Please see O’Dubhain, S. (1997). The Elements of the Dúile.

[28] Please see Nihtscada, A. (2014, November 22). The Druid Path; Frequently Asked Questions.

[29] Please see Awen Grove Canada. (2014). Learning About Modern Druidry.

[30] Ibidem.

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2023-01-29

An Interview with Athelia Nihtscada (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/10/02

Abstract

An interview with Athelia Nihtscada. She discusses: geographic, cultural, and linguistic background; pivotal moments in personal life leading into druidism; other spiritual and religious traditions with differences in core beliefs about the structure and function of the universe, the interrelationship with human beings at individual and collective levels, and the common and esoteric separations of druidism; and the lessons from 20+ years of druidism.

Keywords: Athelia Nihtscada, common, druidism, esoteric, human beings, religion, spiritual, universe.

An Interview with Athelia Nihtscada (Part One)^[1]^,[2],[3]

*Please see the footnotes and citation style listing after the interview, respectively.*

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside?

My parents and older brother immigrated to Canada from London, England in 1974. I was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada just over a year later. My father was born in Nottinghamshire, the son of a RAF fighter pilot and a socialite. Because of his father’s military career, he and his family moved around often.

2. What seem like pivotal moments in personal life leading into Druidism?^[4]^,[5]

For the first 10 years of my education, I attended Catholic school. Although my parents were not fond of organized religion, they had heard that the Catholic education system was better than the public. I never quite fit in because I openly questioned my teachers about matters of the spirit. If the soul were immortal, why would it only have the span of one human life to prove its worth and then be consigned to either Heaven or Hell? A human life span is merely a drop in the bucket to an immortal being. When I was 8 years old, I asked my father what the soul was. He explained that the soul is like a driver and the body is like a car. The driver switches on the ignition and drives the car everywhere it needs to go. The car would break down, or end up in a collision, but could be fixed. Eventually, a time would come when the car could no longer be fixed because the damage was too great. That is death of the body. I asked what the driver did after that. Dad said that he supposed that the driver would just get a new car.

Later that same year, while on vacation at Mara Lake in British Columbia, I was playing in the lake and got in over my head. One moment, I was scared and could not swim to the surface. Suddenly, I was standing in a large field, with the sun beating down on me; a few people were standing around me. They were all very kind, but I did not know who they were. Turning around, I saw a large grove of trees and I asked the people if I could see it. They said it was not yet time. All of a sudden, I felt like something was grabbing me by the back of the neck. I then found myself on the beach at Mara Lake, sputter and cold. My brother had pulled me out of the water.

When I started high school at the age of 15, I befriended a girl who was very aware of her Scottish Heritage. She told me about her family’s tartan, crest, customs, etc. I knew our family was not directly from Scotland, but what was our heritage? I asked my mother and she said we were descended from the Celts. Over the Summer, she brought me a book from the library called “The Celts” by Frank Delaney. I felt a certain ‘tug’ in my chest when I read about the history and religion of the ancient Celts. Something was there, but I did not know what.

After that first year, I switched to a very unique public school, which focused on self-directed learning, accountability and democratic process. For the first time in my life, I was happy at school and excelled academically. The year was 1991. I fit right in with the culture of the school and it was there that I found my spiritual path.

Some of my schoolmates had discovered Wicca and were reading up on it at the library. I kept myself occupied with reading books about the Celts. That tug in my heart had become stronger and I knew that it had something to do with the Druids. For some reason, I really wanted to be one, despite knowing that the original Druids had died out a long time ago. Why would I be pining so much for something unattainable? It made no logical sense!

I attended a Wiccan teaching circle with a few of my schoolmates and found that it was close to what I was looking for, but did not feel 100% right. Later that evening, I was approached by an older woman who offered to “teach me the Wiccan Way”. I politely declined, but did ask if there was such a thing as Druids in the modern world. Instead of looking at me like I had three heads, she said yes and that more information about modern Druid practice could be found in the bookstores. I spent the next six years amassing quite a collection of books about modern Druid practises and books about the history of the Celts. Above all, I was thrilled to know that my desire to become a modern Druid was actually quite attainable.

3. Other spiritual and religious traditions differ markedly in the core beliefs about the structure and function of the universe, and the interrelationship with human beings at individual and collective levels.^[6] What sets druidism apart in theory and practice, in common and esoteric contents?^[7]

At the most basic level, Druidism is based on what we know of Celtic spirituality from myths, written accounts and lore. Druids were a large part of society in Celtic countries such as Ireland and Wales.

I can only speak from my own perspective as the main tenet of Druidism is “seeking truth against the world”. There is a joke that if you ask a group of Druids one question, you will receive many different answers. Seeking truth against the world can be simply interpreted as finding one’s own truth through study, experience and belief. It is not a matter of simply accepting the truth as dictated by others, but using that knowledge to find one’s own answers. It is also important to know that some modern Druids view their path as their religion, while others see it as a philosophy that can work with any spiritual practise. In my case, Druidism is my religion, so I approach it from the angle of worshipping the Gods, serving my community and striving to better myself as a person through spiritual practice and practical study. I call it the Path of Service: Service to the Gods, Service to the Community and Service to the Self. (‘Self’ being used in the Jungian context of the higher self or complete self that comes with the practise of individuation.)

I believe in the Source; what some might call God. However, I do not believe it is a person, but rather a universal force. It is the energy that makes molecules vibrate and form matter. It is the spark that is life. We are all made of it, and we are all connected to it. The Gods are people who have reached a higher spiritual level. This not detract from their power or status for they are the ones who guide us toward our spiritual destiny, whatever that might be. Will our souls eventually progress to a similar state? I believe so. I believe the spirit is on a path of learning and growth. Our bodies are merely the vessel in which the soul fulfills certain aspects of its development. This is how I can explain the span of a human life-time versus the immortality of the soul. Like a grade in school, the soul learns and grows through its experience, gets its review and rest after the body’s death and then moves on.

Looking at what we know of the ancient Druids, the writings of the Revivalist Druids, and what is considered Druidism today, there are a few common threads that appear: truth, service, connection, reverence of nature, ancestor worship and the belief that the soul is immortal and can transmigrate from life to life.

The ancient Druids were considered the learned class. They served and advised the leaders and people alike in their capacity as philosophers, judges, physicians, teachers, keepers of history, and priests. Many ancient writings about the Druids tell us that they believed in the immortality and transmigration of the soul, as well as being drawn to sacred groves of trees. The Druids themselves wrote nothing down, so we do not have the benefit of getting that information from the source. Julius Caesar had an agenda to vilify the Celts and make it worth the while of Senators to approve expenses for continuing wars. However, writers who were not as invested in making the Celts look like savages also made similar observances with regard to the Druids’ role in society, their belief in the soul’s immortality, the importance of keeping the history of the people, their tendency toward worship in wooded groves, and their knowledge overall.

The Revivalist movements of the 18^th and 19^th centuries, in the form of Masonic-like “orders” of Druids, also followed the common threads in their own manner. Many of them were well-educated and sought to revere nature. Some even recreated stone circles on their properties. Many believed in the immortality of the Soul and sought to revive the stories of old. They were quite prolific in their writings and wrote about the pursuit of truth, etc. (While many of those writings are simple “forgeries” of supposed ancient documents, they do seem to adhere to the common factors.) Their orders were also “service clubs” of a sort. They raised money for charities, built hospitals and connected people to social services.

The Modern Druid movement arose in the 60s and is still going strong today. There are a number of large Druid groups and Orders that one can join; as well as sources of learning online for solitary practitioners. Many of today’s Druids appear to be well-educated and pursue truth through study. They strive to honour nature through environmentalism or “getting back to nature”; serve their communities in various capacities, believe in the transmigration of the immortal soul, and are connected to the world in a way that neither the revivalists or ancients could even imagine through the internet.

Each Druid’s practice is unique to the Druid, but the common threads are there: truth, service, connection, reverence for nature, honouring of the ancestors, and the belief in the immortality of the soul. Throughout each “age”, Druids have lived and served in their time, according to what is needed and what is happening.

4. In the article Hello World! (2011) from The Once and Future Druid website, you said:

“I’ve been on the Druid path since 1991 and I have been fortunate to meet a lot of wonderful people, gain insight into many different views on Druid spirituality and philosophy, and grow as a result. Some might find some value in these posts…”^[8]

Furthermore, in Druid Writer – Athelia Nihtscada Voices on the Path (2012), you said:

“I follow a tri-fold path of service: Service to the Gods (through meditation, ritual, etc.), Service to the Community (through volunteer work, teaching, being an active part in the global community) and Service to the Self (through learning and growing, taking care of my health, etc.).”^[9]

With respect to druidism, and some of the previous personal commentary in mind, what have the previous 20+ decades taught you?

I have learned about the common threads that connect each “age” of Druidism, as well as how to incorporate my spirituality into everyday life. I’ve learned that there is truth in every belief system and that no one path corners the market on access to the Divine and the workings of the universe. Everyone can learn about these things from each other and from experiencing the world with an open mind. Some of the greatest lessons I have learned have been through ordinary experiences and interactions with people and the world around me.

I’ve come to know the Gods and Goddesses who have called me into their service, and have learned from them.

The last 20+ years have also taught me to question what I learn, to approach things like a scholar as well as a spiritual being. I have learned to look at things from a number of viewpoints and see the value of them.

Above all, I have learned the importance of balance; whether it be balance of the spiritual and mundane, the balance of responsibilities, or the balance of body, mind and spirit. For things to work in harmony, there must be some sort of balance.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[2] First publication on October 1, 2015 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

[3] Photograph courtesy of Athelia Nihtscada.

[4] In I am a Druid (2010), Nihtscada stated:

“My name is Athelia Nihtscada and my journey along the Druid path started back in 1991. My husband and I live outside of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. When I started out, there were no Druids in my locale that I could find so I did much of my studying alone and under a few teachers (in other traditions) for the first 6 years. While most of my early years were spent in solitary practice, I did become involved in the local Pagan Community starting in 2000. In 2003, I decided to form Awen Grove…In 2005, I completed the Dedicant Path with ADF and was initiated as a Third Order Druid with the Reformed Druids of North America…I love the diversity of our global Druid community and find that I have learned a lot from every tradition and am grateful to be able to provide seeking Druids in my locale with information on each group so that they can find their best fit. Druidry is about Service to me and I am honoured to serve the Global Druid Community in any way I can.”

Please see Nihtscada, A. (2010, July 1). I am a Druid. Retrieved from http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Am-A-Druid/1091403.

[5] In addition to the previous statement, Nihtscada, in Druid Writer – Athelia Nihtscada Voices on the Path, said:

“I am 36 years old, married and living in Southern Alberta, Canada with our 3 cats. Currently, I am employed as a manager of volunteers at a non-profit organization and also work part time as a freelance IT consultant. My hobbies are: writing, drawing, singing, playing guitar and piano and making jewelery…I first began walking this path in 1991 when I learned about my Celtic heritage. Upon reading about the Celts, I found myself strongly drawn to the Druids and their spirituality. I asked around and soon found myself pointed in the right direction and beginning my studies.”

Please see Nihtscada, A. (2012, July 26). Druid Writer – Athelia Nihtscada Voices on the Path. Retrieved from http://paganbookshelf.blogspot.ca/2012/07/druid-writer-athelia-nihtscada-voices.html.

[6] Major groups including the Christianity (Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and Anglicanism), Islam (Shia, Sunni, Sufi, and Kharijite), Hinduism, Chinese Traditional Religions, Buddhism, various Ethnic Religions, African Traditional religions, Sikhism, and so on. Inor groups including Christianity (Restorianism, Chinese Originated Churches, Church of the East, and Unitarian Universalism), Juche, Spiritism, Judaism, Bahá’í, Jainism, Shinto, Cao Dai, Zoroastrianism, Tenrikyo, Neo-Paganism, Rastafarianism, Scientology, Pastafarianism, Mormonism, Arceusology, Discordianism, Paganism, Crowleyites, and so on.

[7] Please see Nihtscada, A. (2007). The Once and Future Druid: A Continuum of Druid Belief and Practice from Ancient Times to Today. Retrieved from http://awencanada.com/Druidpath1.html.

[8] Please see Nihtscada, A. (2011, July 28). Hello World!. Retrieved from https://athelia143.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/hello-world/.

[9] In full, Nihtscada stated:

“I would describe myself as a very down to earth modern Druid who incorporates spirituality into my everyday life. I follow a tri-fold path of service: Service to the Gods (through meditation, ritual, etc.), Service to the Community (through volunteer work, teaching, being an active part in the global community) and Service to the Self (through learning and growing, taking care of my health, etc.). Ethics and scholarship in my practice is very important to me as well.”

Please see Nihtscada, A. (2012, July 26). Druid Writer – Athelia Nihtscada Voices on the Path. Retrieved from http://paganbookshelf.blogspot.ca/2012/07/druid-writer-athelia-nihtscada-voices.html.

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2023-01-29

An Interview with Edith (Edie) Bijdemast (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/09/22

Abstract

An interview with Edith (Edie) Bijdemast. She discusses: her geographic, cultural, and linguistic family background; the Netherlands Association “Je Maintiendrai” and the Dutch Network web site; the Dodenherdenking ceremony (May 4th Remembrance Day), the Bevrijdingsdag celebration (May 5th Liberation Day), and V-E Day (May 8th Victory in Europe); the bonds between the Netherlands and Canada forged by the rescue efforts of Canadians at the end of WWII; the emotional impact on Dutch-Canadians relating to these events; and her volunteer efforts leading to the honour of Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau.

Keywords: Bevrijdingsdag, Canadian Veterans, Dodenherdenking, Dutch culture, Dutch-Canadian, Dutch Network, Edith (Edie) Bijdemast, Greater Vancouver Dutch Network, Holland, immigrants, immigration, Je Maintiendrai, Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau, Koningsdag, liberation, Netherlands, Netherlands Association, president, Remembrance Day, Sinterklaas, V-E Day, WWII, World War II.

An Interview with Edith (Edie) Bijdemast (Part Two)^[1],^[2],^[3],^[4]

*Please see the photographs, footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*

For those in the senior cohort, what feelings appear most prominent in relation to V-E day and Dodenherdenking for them?

Emotions run high when I speak with the senior members of the Dutch-Canadian community about the May 4^th Dodenherdenking (Remembrance Day). They were children or teenagers during WWII. Many are still suffering with Post Traumatic Stress symptoms, fear of the dark, small places, loud noises such as thunder, and the sound of airplanes flying overhead. Some tell stories about fighting in the resistance and surviving the concentration camps. Others lost their family members to the gas chambers. For some, the memories that the Dodenherdenking brings to mind are so painful that tears well up in their eyes and they are simply unable to speak about it. The seniors are filled with a profound sadness of the tremendous loss of life and express an eternal gratitude for the bravery and sacrifice of the Canadians that fought for their liberation. They will never forget and they wish to ensure that future generations also remember. This year, 2015, the Netherlands celebrated the 70^th Anniversary of the liberation of their country by Canadian troops. Although there are few members of my Mother’s generation still with us, the memories, and the bonds of friendship between the Netherlands and Canada live on. To read a story about how the Dutch respect their Canadian WWII liberators, click >>Here<<.

8. What inspired the foundation of the Greater Vancouver Dutch Network for you?

In 2005, I had just accepted a volunteer position on the board of Directors for the not-for-profit Netherlands Association “Je Maintiendrai” (N.A.J.M.). As I began to research Dutch-Canadian local affairs on behalf of the Association, the community appeared to be fractured to me with small groups working in isolation. At that time, as a high school teacher, I was learning the software program FrontPage 2003 in order to create web sites for my Science 9 and Biology 11 classes. So I decided to create the Dutch Network web site at the same time. My goal was to provide a convenient communication portal for the local Dutch community and to improve awareness of the not-for-profit society. It was clear that if N.A.J.M. was to grow, a presence on the internet was needed. Once the Dutch Network web site went on-line, I began to receive an ever increasing number of e-mails from local Dutch-Canadians and Dutch abroad, as well as from organizations around the world. Thus, N.A.J.M. obtained a global voice. In an effort to connect with the younger generation, a Dutch Network page was created on Facebook in 2010 and to date it has received 504 “Likes”. These methods of communication create a platform for Dutch-Canadians, and Dutch abroad, to connect, share ideas, and support each other.

9. The Netherlands Association “Je Maintiendrai” hosts a diverse array of activities such as Coffee Clubs, Brunches, Family events, the April Koningsdag, the May Dodenherdening (Remembrance), summer Bicycling events, monthly Pub Nights, weekly Nature Walks, and other special events as well.^[5]How do these activities provide for the various generational divides among Dutch-Canadians?

In 2005, the Netherlands Association “Je Maintiendrai (N.A.J.M.) was catering to my Mother’s generation with their 4 annual dinner-dances. Twenty-eight years younger than my Mother, I also enjoyed the dances, but it was clear that the younger generation had other interests. So N.A.J.M. began to branch out by offering a wide range of events that appealed to different age groups. Generally speaking, the Dutch Coffee Clubs are a favourite among seniors, whereas the Pub Nights appeal to the younger set. However, sometimes young Dutch-Canadians also visit the Coffee Clubs and, occasionally, seniors join in on a Pub Night. Families with young children enjoy the Pot-Luck Lunch and Easter Egg Hunt. I enjoy the Nature Walks each Friday morning. Each generation has its own set of interests, discussion topics, and different time slots during the day and week when they are free to come together and socialize. Currently, N.A.J.M. is starting up a new monthly event, a Pot-luck Lunch and Dutch Sing-Along, and is looking forward to hosting other new activities as well. All we need is enthusiastic volunteers to come up with ideas and take charge.

10. How about for crossing the generational divides among Dutch-Canadians?

Currently, there are two key events where all age groups of the local Dutch-Canadian community celebrate enthusiastically together and those are Koningsdag and Sinterklaas. A national holiday in the Netherlands, Koningsdag (King’s Day) celebrates King Willem-Alexander’s birthday on the 27^th of April. Most Dutch people wear orange clothing on Koningsdag to honour the House of Orange-Nassau. Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) is celebrated on December 5^th in the Netherlands. Poems are read, presents are given, and cinnamon speculaas cookies, chocoladeletters (chocolate letters), and lots of pepernoten (tiny pepper nut cookies) are enjoyed. These two core celebrations bridge the generation gaps, unite all the age groups, and create a sense of unity.

11. The Greater Vancouver Dutch Network hosts a “Dutch Library” too.^[6] What purpose does this serve for the Dutch-Canadian community?

The Netherlands Association “Je Maintiendrai” (N.A.J.M.) aims to preserve, enhance, and celebrate, Dutch heritage, language and cultural traditions. N.A.J.M.’s Dutch Library at the Holland Shopping Centre (H.S.C.; www.hollandshop.com) located at 141 East Columbia Street in New Westminster, provides access to free books for reading pleasure in a comfortable community venue. It is N.A.J.M.’s goal to help members of the Dutch-Canadian community maintain and improve reading fluency and comprehension, as well as oral language and writing skills. Every effort is made to have a wide variety of books available in the Dutch Library to stimulate the curiosity and imagination of readers of all ages. Although there is now a shift towards digital books, most people still enjoy the tactile pleasure of reading a book in print. Thus, the N.A.J.M. Dutch Library aims to preserve Dutch literature, to create connections between Dutch authors and readers, to keep people informed, to improve literacy by providing educational material that enables people to learn and discover, and ultimately to inspire readers.

12. What seems like the most valuable book in the collection?

Overall, no book in the Dutch Library collection is more “valuable” than another. However, to me personally, the first 50 books that were placed on the shelves on March 4^th 2013 to start the project, have special significance. That was a very special day. The Netherlands Association “Je Maintiendrai” (N.A.J.M.) had hoped to start up a Dutch library for many years. However, affordable, adequate space and the logistics of managing personnel for such an undertaking were always allusive. So it was finally decided to take an alternative approach to enable the project to go ahead. The books are donated by members of the Dutch-Canadian community and dropped off at the Holland Shopping Centre (H.S.C.; www.hollandshop.com) located at 141 East Columbia Street in New Westminster. The H.S.C. has donated shelf space for the books and the Dutch Library is managed by N.A.J.M. volunteers. Photographs of the books are posted on-line at www.dutchnetwork.ca so that readers may virtually browse the titles and authors prior to coming to the library. The books may be kept, passed on, or returned to the library shelves. As of August 18th 2015, we are proud to say that 1040 books have been made available to the Dutch-Canadian community in this manner. Since “value” is in the eyes of the beholder, any of the books may turn out to be a rare treasure to an individual browsing the collection.

13. For those with an interest to contribute to the cultural legacy of the Dutch-Canadian community, how can individuals become involved through volunteering, donations, and other activities/actions?^[7]

Purchasing a Netherlands Association “Je Maintiendrai” (N.A.J.M.) membership helps to fund new activities and enables N.A.J.M. to continually improve its services to the local Dutch-Canadian community. One could also give a membership to a family member &/or friend. A twelve month N.A.J.M. membership is $35. Cheques for memberships &/or donations should be made payable to “N.A.J.M.” and mailed to N.A.J.M. President, Edie Bijdemast, #306 – 15389 Roper Avenue, White Rock, BC, V4B 2G2. Multiple year memberships may also be purchased, thus, we currently have some members paid up to the year 2020. Donations may be made to support specific events or projects.

Volunteers are always welcome. It is via a team effort that projects are accomplished. The N.A.J.M. Board of Directors is open to fresh perspectives and new ideas. Volunteers may join a specific committee such as the Dutch Library, Koningsdag, Dodenherdenking, or Sinterklaas. They are also welcome to organize a new event that appeals to them, be it weekly, monthly, annually, or simply helping out with an event every now and then. Each volunteer is unique and contributes in his or her own way, as they are able. Assisting with even the smallest of tasks can make a big difference to others. For those that prefer home-based volunteering, there are also opportunities to assist via phone and computer. There are letters to write, newsletters to publish, E-mail to handle, and a web site and Facebook page to manage. Volunteering is a great way to learn new things and meet new people. It is a way to take part in fulfilling activities and have fun at the same time. By reaching out, volunteers make a positive impact on the community. For further information, volunteers can contact Edie Bijdemast at 604-536-3394 or ediebijdemast@telus.net. Passion and a positive attitude are the only requirements and all efforts are greatly appreciated.

14. What does the Greater Vancouver Dutch Network plan in the near and far future?

Currently celebrating its 50^th Anniversary, the Netherlands Association “Je Maintiendrai” (N.A.J.M.) has many exciting avenues to explore. In order to pursue them, the current web site (www.dutchnetwork.ca) needs to be reconstructed to conform with the requirements of today’s rapidly changing technology. New brochures need to be designed and distributed to raise awareness of the Association and increase the number of supporting members. The more members and volunteers N.A.J.M. has, the more projects can be completed and events offered. In the near future, a virtual heritage project to collect Dutch-Canadian stories might be an appropriate project to celebrate the 150^th Anniversary of Canadian Confederation in 2017. In regards to the far future, N.A.J.M. will continually need to adapt and evolve in creative new directions to meet the ever-changing needs of new waves of Dutch immigrants joining the multi-generational Dutch-Canadian community. In order to do this, it is imperative that each generation is equally represented by enthusiastic volunteers on the N.A.J.M. Board of Directors, to help guide the way.

15. How does the Greater Vancouver Dutch Network’s intentions interconnect with the global Dutch community?

There are over sixty links on the Dutch Network web site to other Dutch clubs around the globe. When I read each club’s introduction, they all seem to mirror the goals of Netherland Associations “Je Maintiendrai” (N.A.J.M.): “to preserve, enhance, and celebrate, Dutch heritage, language and cultural traditions.” Thus, each club’s intentions interconnect via a shared common theme. The last twenty years have seen rapid change though technology, enabling even greater connectedness. Platforms such as Facebook, Linked-in, and Skype are changing the way we communicate. However, there is still nothing better than meeting in person, face to face. New immigrants, students, and tourists, enjoy N.A.J.M.’s monthly Dutch Pub Night which is a comfortable way to meet new people, share stories and information, and make beneficial connections. Dutch new immigrants tend to integrate rather quickly into Canadian society. Over the years, I have met many young Dutch exchange students, some on their first visit abroad. It is always a pleasure to connect with them and show them the local sites. They meet the Dutch-Canadian community here and feel as if they are amongst relatives. It always amazes me that Dutch people on holidays for only two weeks in Vancouver still manage to find us at the Dutch Pub Night &/or Dutch Coffee Clubs. Place of origin and language create such strong bonds. Cultural clubs around the world provide a welcome spot to feel connected in a foreign environment, a place to obtain an “inside” perspective, providing a supportive network for new immigrants, students, and tourists alike, and everyone benefits.

Appendix I: Photos

Schiphol Airport Amsterdam - November 1956

Henny (holding Irma) and Henk Bijdemast (holding Edie) saying good bye at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam on their way to Canada on November 28th 1956.

Edie and Henny Bijdemast celebrating Henny’s 80th birthday with their Shelti, Falene, on September 28th 2003.

EdieHennyBijdemast-JaapHille-Dodenherdenking - May 4th 2005

Forever grateful, Edie and Henny Bijdemast place a wreath on behalf of N.A.J.M., with the help of Jaap Hille, on May 4th 2005 for the Dodenherdenking (Remembrance) at the Victoria Square Cenotaph in Vancouver.

Edie receiving Knight in the Order of Orange-Nasssau award - April 26th 2014

Edie Bijdemast receiving the Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau Award, on April 26th 2014, from Johannes Vervloed (Consul General of the Netherlands) and his wife.

Edie and Henny Bijdemast by the waterfront “Passenger” statue in White Rock, BC, where they currently reside, 7th June 2015.

Appendix II: Bibliography

[TulipTVShow] (2012, January 12). TulipTV meets Edie Bijdemast, NL Ass. Je Maintiendrai. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2BsQq0o9JE.
[TulipTVShow] (2012, July 8). TulipTV – NAJM, Princess Christina Contest, Calgary Stampede Ranch. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhjebpBwycc.
Balen, E.V. (2013, May). Dutch community comes alive at orange events. Retrieved from http://thelasource.com/en/2013/05/06/dutch-community-comes-alive-at-orange-events/.
Bijdemast, E. (2004). Science 9 with Ms. Bijdemast. Retrieved from http://www3.telus.net/public/edithbij/About.htm.
Davison J. (2015, May 4). VE-Day: Why Dutch-Canadian connections have stayed so strong. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/canada/ve-day-why-dutch-canadian-connections-have-stayed-so-strong-1.3057318.
Greater Vancouver Dutch Network. (2015). Greater Vancouver Dutch Network. Retrieved from http://www.dutchnetwork.ca/.
Journal of the Entomological Society of Canada (1994). Journal of the Entomological Society of Canada: No 2 (1994) Occasional Paper (Entomological Society of British Columbia). Retrieved from http://journal.entsocbc.ca/index.php/journal/issue/view/113.
Massah, S. (2014, May 5). A bond that has stood the test of time. Retrieved from http://www.peacearchnews.com/community/258024241.html.
van der Heide, A. (2005). Holland Remembers exhibit well received by appreciative visitors. Retrieved from http://www.godutch.com/newspaper/index.php?id=796.
White Rock Seniors Computer Club (n.d.). 2015 Executive Committee: Edie Bijdemast. Retrieved from http://wrscc.ca/contacts/2015-executive-committee.

Appendix III: Footnotes

[1] President, Netherlands Association “Je Maintiendrai” (N.A.J.M.); Founder, Greater Vancouver’s Dutch Network; Program Coordinator, White Rock Seniors Computer Club.

[2] First publication on September 22, 2015 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

[3] Bachelor of Science & Bachelor of Education, Science, Biology, and Education.

[4] Photographs courtesy of Edith (Edie) Bijdemast.

[5] Please see Greater Vancouver Dutch Network (2015). 2015 Events: Mark Your Calendars. Retrieved from http://www.dutchnetwork.ca/Events.htm.

[6] Please see Greater Vancouver Dutch Network (2015). Dutch Library. Retrieved from http://www.dutchnetwork.ca/DutchLibrary2014.htm.

[7] Please see Greater Vancouver Dutch Network (2015). Volunteer. Retrieved from http://www.dutchnetwork.ca/Volunteer.htm.

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2023-01-29

An Interview with Edith (Edie) Bijdemast (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/09/15

Dedication

To my Mother, Henderika (Henny) Bijdemast.

As a teenager you watched your sweetheart taken away to war.

After liberation you looked abroad, dreaming of a home and more.

Leaving the Netherlands hand-in-hand with young children in tow.

You moved to Vancouver, western Canada, and watched your family grow.

Flights back and forth to Europe kept our family connections strong.

Summers spent driving relatives in BC, all singing a Dutch song.

Cooking Pannenkoeken, erwtensoep, boerenkool, and vla for us as treats.

Enjoying Hollandse haring at the vendors along Haarlem city streets.

Our Dutch traditions and language are an intrinsic part of who we are.

Thoughts of the birth place where we came from are never very far.

Dutch coffee socials and Klaverjas card games, such fun to do.

Dancing the jive to Nederlandse liedjes resulted in much laughter too.

So many gezellig moments we have shared together over the years.

All cherished, and more to be created, as your 92^nd birthday nears.

Met veel liefs, je dochter, Edith (Edie) Bijdemast

Abstract

An Interview with Edith (Edie) Bijdemast (Part One)^[1]^,[2],[3],[4]

*Please see the photographs, footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside?

My family’s ancestry resides in the Netherlands. My mother was born in Haarlem and my father in Amsterdam. They met during WWII in 1944 and married in 1950. My sister and I were both born in Haarlem. As a result of a housing shortage, my parents reluctantly decided to pack their bags and leave the Netherlands in 1956. I remember the flight across the Atlantic, the train ride across Canada, and the ferry trip to Victoria vividly, as if it were yesterday. Back then, I was 5 years old with my nose and hands pressed tight against any available window space during the entire trip.

Although now a devoted Canadian citizen, like so many other immigrants, my original heritage still calls to me. I have spent the majority of my life in south western British Columbia. As a child in Victoria and Vancouver, my parents still spoke Dutch to me at home. However, within the first year of attending elementary school, I began to reply to them in English. My grandparents visited us for ten months in 1960. And I feel that the need to act as interpreter for them was one of the factors that helped me retain my native tongue.

At the age of 18, I married a Canadian and we spent our spare time hiking in the local mountains and sailing along the west coast. Thus, geographically, my heart was captured by the Canadian west-coast rainforest. When I think of “home” I see eagles swooping down in front of the sailboat lifting salmon into the air. I hear the spiraling song of the Swainson’s Thrush in the woods and the haunting call of the Loon echoing over the water. I see the artistic shapes of the unique Arbutus trees and the pitted sandstone sculptures of the Gulf Islands. Memories of exciting close encounters with killer whales and black bears also come to mind.

Blindsided by our divorce in 1985, I felt an urgent need to reconnect with my family in Europe. Thus, I returned to the Netherlands for the first time at the age of 33 and spent two months there reconnecting with relatives. I was taken aback at the emotional connection and the intense feeling of being at “home” when I arrived there. During subsequent visits in 2010 and 2013, those intense emotions remained. Tears sprang to my eyes and a lump gripped my throat when the bus I was riding drove into Haarlem, the city where I was born. So geographically, it seems my heart has two homes, one on either side of the vast blue Atlantic Ocean.

In 1993, my father passed away suddenly at the young age of 68. In tears, my Mother said “I will never dance again”. With those words ringing in my ears, I found the Netherlands Association “Je Maintiendrai” (N.A.J.M.) that hosted 4 dinner dances annually. We became members and danced the jive together to upbeat tunes played by the live bands. At one of the N.A.J.M. dinner-dances in 2005, I was asked to join the Board of Directors. When I created the Dutch Network web site to help boast N.A.J.M. membership, e-mails written in Dutch began to arrive. Thus, I had to attend night school for two years to learn to read Dutch.

I have spoken English for the majority of my life. Struggling to read Dutch on a daily basis has done a great deal to improve my spoken Dutch. Now that I am retired, I speak Dutch about fifty percent of the time. As an N.A.J.M. volunteer, I attend quite a few Dutch-Canadian events each month and speak Dutch there. We wish to maintain our language and that can only occur with practise. Accustomed to the more subtle Canadian style of communication, I do sometimes raise an eyebrow at the spoken directness of new Dutch immigrants. As my Mother has aged, we have progressively shifted to speaking more Dutch together. I feel there is something quite unique about speaking ones native tongue. In Dutch, we would call it “gezeligheid” which is a difficult word to translate. It encompasses a feeling of comfort and belonging.

Culturally, I would say I am 75% Dutch and 25% Canadian, gravitating towards Dutch food, sports, and entertainment. There are Blue Delft ornaments on my shelves, orange Dutch soccer T-shirts and Vollendam traditional outfits in my closet, and wooden shoes on my balcony. Tulips, windmills, accordions, harmonicas, Dutch cheese, chocolate, and double salted licorice all bring a big smile to my face. At home, my mother cooked traditional Dutch cuisine such as erwtensoep (pea soup) thick enough to stand a spoon in, hutspot (mashed potatoes with carrots) sweetened with appelmoes (apple sauce) and she often served vla (custard) for dessert. Rijsttafel (a medley of Indonesian dishes) is also a Dutch favourite, reflecting the countries colonial past. We enjoy eating pannekoeken (pancakes) and bitterballen (bite-size, deep-fried, pureed meatballs) at local De Dutch restaurants. In addition, no Dutch-Canadian special event would be complete without Poffertjes (quarter-sized mini-pancakes) which are always in big demand. If readers are interested in expanding their culinary talents, a collection of Dutch recipes can be found at www.godutch.com/newspaper/recipes.php and www.thedutchtable.com. To purchase Dutch imported food locally, readers can visit the Holland Shopping Centre at 141 East Columbia Street in New Westminster or Karl’s Dutch Meat Market at 2621 West Railway Street in Abbotsford. When travelling in the Netherlands, I recommend that visitors stop at one of the many Dutch “zoute haring” (salted herring) street vendors to savour a taste of Dutch tradition that dates back to the Middle Ages.

2. Your representation within the media tends to connect to education, celebrations of the Dutch and Dutch-Canadians, Dutch-Canadian relations, and even a pen and ink drawing.^[5]^{,[6],[7],[8],[9],[10]}What is the importance of having Dutch-Canadian voices, lay people and leaders, out in the public of Greater Vancouver?

During my working career, I was a research assistant in the Zoology Department at UBC and did some biological art work and insect collecting in the field to complement articles on insect taxonomy. More recently, I taught science and biology at Fleetwood Park Secondary School in Surrey. As a Netherlands Association “Je Maintiendrai” (N.A.J.M.) volunteer, I help to organize Dutch-Canadian events.

Dutch Culture is one unique thread among many in the Canadian Multicultural tapestry. Each culture has its own perspective, communication styles, customs, nuances in logic and humor, and stories to share. When traveling in Canada, I bump into Dutch-Canadians everywhere and it seems that sharing a point of origin and language sparks an instant connection. Celebrating and sharing cultural traditions and stories with the public leads to increased understanding, appreciation, and acceptance, which enables us all to work better together, and results in synergy.

3. In 2014, you were surprised to earn an important public recognition of excellence: the Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau.^[11] What does such an honor mean to you?

I felt very humble to receive the honor of Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau. One does not volunteer to be recognized. Most of the projects and tasks that get accomplished are the result of the hard-work of a team of dedicated volunteers. This year, the Netherlands Association “Je Maintiendrai” (N.A.J.M.) is celebrating its 50^th Anniversary since incorporation. In order to achieve this milestone, the Association had to undergo quite a substantial metamorphosis over the last 10 years to bridge the gap between three generations of Dutch-Canadians. I feel that the award belongs to all the volunteers of N.A.J.M. and that it is a reflection that the Association is progressing in the right direction.

4. You earned numerous positions including president of the Netherlands Association, founder of the Greater Vancouver Dutch Network, and executive committee member of the White Rock Seniors Computer Club. In general, what duties and responsibilities does each position require of you?

In 2005, I created the Dutch Network web site and newsletter in an effort to unite the local Dutch-Canadian community. Initially, the Newsletter was distributed in print format, however, it is now sent out via e-mail. Over the years, I have maintained the web site, designed and distributed over 60 editions of the Newsletter, and answered the interesting stream of e-mail correspondence that results from them both.

I began my duties on the Board of the Netherlands Association “Je Maintiendrai” (N.A.J.M.) as Public Relations director in 2005 and have been President since 2006. Over the 10 years on the Board, I have taken on other tasks as well such as Secretary, Treasurer, Program Director, Event and Volunteer Coordinator, and Library Manager, as the need arose.

The White Rock Seniors Computer Club (WRSCC; www.wrscc.ca) meets each Wednesday from 12:30pm to 2:30pm (September to May) at the Kent Street Seniors Center. I joined the club in September 2014 and as their Program Coordinator, I research, invite, and book guest speakers to give presentations, on computer related topics, to the WRSCC membership. Currently, I am in the process of booking the September 2015 to May 2016 session and recruiting and training volunteers to form a WRSCC Program Committee.

5. You note one of the strong bonds between the Netherlands and Canada with V-E day.^[12] In particular, the Dutch and Dutch-Canadians, in addition to Canadians, celebrate Dodenherdenking or Remembrance Day because of the liberation and rescue efforts of Canadians. For those without the appropriate background knowledge about V-E day and Dodenherdenking, its relation to the Netherlands and Canada, and the modern Dutch-Canadian, and Canadian with Dutch heritage, community, what remains the importance of V-E day and Dodenherdenking?^[13]

The Dodenherdenking held annually on May 4^th in the Netherlands is a ceremony to remember those who have died during war and in peace-keeping operations. The Vancouver Netherlands Consulate and the Netherlands Association “Je Maintiendrai” (N.A.J.M.) have hosted Dodenherdenking services locally on May 4th to commemorate the end of WWII in the Netherlands, to remember the sacrifices of the liberating armies, notably the Canadian army, of which thousands gave their lives to allow the Dutch to live in peace and freedom. This year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper attended the service in the Netherlands. Click >>Here<< to read the article.

On May 5^th 1945 in Wageningen, Nazi Germany officials signed documents surrendering the Netherlands. To commemorate the end of occupation by Nazi Germany during WWII, the Netherlands has an annual holiday on May 5^th called “Bevrijdingsdag” (Liberation Day). There are liberation festivals in every province across the country and Dutch crowds fill the city streets to celebrate their cherished freedom.

May 8^th 1945 marks the formal acceptance by Allies of WWII of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces and marked the end of WWII in the rest of Europe. It is celebrated as V-E (Victory in Europe) Day each year in Canada, the USA, and across Europe.

Veterans Affairs Canada provides background information on Canada’s role in the Liberation of the Netherlands.

6. What emotions come to the fore for the Dutch-Canadian community in relation to these events and their appropriate remembrance?

When I place a wreath at the cenotaph each year on May 4th it is a heartfelt thank you for the lives of our family and a remembrance of the more than 7,600 Canadian soldiers that made the ultimate sacrifice to free my oppressed native homeland overseas. During WWII, my parents were teenagers. My father was taken away into forced labor camps in Germany and he was in Berlin when it was bombed flat. After the war, he returned to find his family home bombed and two of his sisters injured with shrapnel. My mother survived on sugar beets and tulip bulbs during the last year of the war. I think of the Canadian soldiers buried in the Netherlands and the Dutch children tending their graves. Everyone of my Mother’s generation in the Dutch-Canadian community has similar and more horrific memories of WWII. These memories must be preserved and passed down from generation to generation so we can learn from them and hopefully have a more peaceful future.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] President, Netherlands Association “Je Maintiendrai” (N.A.J.M.); Founder, Greater Vancouver’s Dutch Network; Program Coordinator, White Rock Seniors Computer Club.

[2] First publication on September 15, 2015 at www.in-sightjournal.com.

[3] Bachelor of Science & Bachelor of Education, Science, Biology, and Education; Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau.

[4] Photographs courtesy of Edith Ursula Bijdemast.

[5] Please see Balen, E.V. (2013, May). Dutch community comes alive at orange events. Retrieved from http://thelasource.com/en/2013/05/06/dutch-community-comes-alive-at-orange-events/.

[6] Please see Massah, S. (2014, May 5). A bond that has stood the test of time. Retrieved from http://www.peacearchnews.com/community/258024241.html.

[7] Please see Davison J. (2015, May 4). VE-Day: Why Dutch-Canadian connections have stayed so strong. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/canada/ve-day-why-dutch-canadian-connections-have-stayed-so-strong-1.3057318.

[8] Please see goDutch.com (n.d.). Holland Remembers exhibit well received by appreciative visitors. Retrieved from http://www.godutch.com/newspaper/index.php?id=796.

[9] Please see White Rock Seniors Computer Club (n.d.). 2015 Executive Committee: Edie Bijdemast. Retrieved from http://wrscc.ca/contacts/2015-executive-committee.

[10] Please see Journal of the Entomological Society of Canada (1994). Journal of the Entomological Society of Canada: No 2 (1994) Occasional Paper (Entomological Society of British Columbia). Retrieved from http://journal.entsocbc.ca/index.php/journal/issue/view/113.

[11] Please see Massah, S. (2014, May 5). A bond that has stood the test of time. Retrieved from http://www.peacearchnews.com/community/258024241.html.

[12] Please see Davison J. (2015, May 4). VE-Day: Why Dutch-Canadian connections have stayed so strong. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/canada/ve-day-why-dutch-canadian-connections-have-stayed-so-strong-1.3057318.

[13] Ibidem.

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2023-01-29

Dara Parker: Executive Director, Qmunity (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/09/08

Abstract

Interview with Dara Parker. Executive director of Qmunity and co-president of the board (Vancouver) for the United Nations Association of Canada. She discusses: family geography, culture, and language; academic qualifications; skills and knowledge from volunteering; previous work experience for present position; earning executive director position of Qmunity, media appearances in video and writing, and responsibilities of this public representation; definition and sub-populations contained within the umbrella term “queer”; queer sub-population numbers; import for unified services of Qmunity; most important provision of Qmunity to the queer community; importance of inclusive provisions by Qmunity; Reconciling Injustices in a Pluralistic Canada at Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue quote with international, national, and provincial context and possible futures; and ways to become involved with Qmunity or the queer community in general.

Keywords: binary, bisexual, British Columbia, Canada, Dara Parker, executive director, gender identity, non-profit, Qmunity, queer, sexual orientation, trans, United Nations, Vancouver.

Dara Parker: Executive Director, Qmunity (Part Two)

7. Approximately, how much of the British Columbian and Canadian general population might fit into this categorization of “queer”?

Well, that is a challenging question. A lot of people ask. A lot of people have various theories of response. The short answer is we do not count it in census data. We do not ask about sexual orientation. We ask about gender identity, but only in a binary concept, which is very limited in our perspective. You are still not capturing folks who are transgender versus cisgender. We just don’t know. So there isn’t any countrywide survey data that accurately represents, and so you’re drawing conclusions from other indicators. You might look at how many people self-identify on a smaller-scale survey. And you get varying ranges of answers from that. I would suggest that it is an underreported population because there is still fear of discrimination, a fear of being out. And so when you are asking folks to report, they might not be fully answering. And the studies that do exist, if you compare self-reporting versus behaviours, so for example, a man who has sex with a man who does not identify as gay. That is my long answer that does not give a number

8. Qmunity provides a number of support services including Bute Street clinic, counselling, naturopathic clinic, older adult services, referrals, support groups, and youth services.^[1]^,^[2]^,^[3]^,^[4]^,^[5]^,^[6]^,^[7]What remains the greatest importance of these services in unison through Qmunity?^[8]^,^[9]^,^[10]^,^[11]^,^[12]^,^[13]^,^[14]

Ultimately, we exist to improve queer and trans lives. And I think there are multiple pathways to doing that. And so we like to think we do our work in four pillars. We believe in meeting individual needs and empowering people where they’re at by providing direct support. So, for example, that would be something like the counselling program, the naturopathic clinic, or our peer-facilitated support group, but we also believe that sometimes just having physical space is critically important to building healthier lives, and so we provide meeting rooms, and volunteer opportunities in our centre, as well as coming out special events like our queer prom and our honoring our elders tea in order to create spaces for people to connect and engage, and feel safe. We also do a lot of education and training. So we go out into community, businesses, government, other service providers to provide workshops on how to create more inclusive spaces, and we develop our own resources. For example, our LGTBQ glossary, which you were perhaps quoting earlier, which provides tools for people on language, which is a tricky thing to navigate. And then lastly, the media work that we do. We might be called on to share expertise around queer and trans lives. We consider that some of our advocacy work around raising visibility and providing queer expertise in the community.

9. Of these provisions, what one gives the most services to the queer community?

It depends on how you’re measuring it. I would suggest that our youth program is our most active programs if you’re just looking at number of participants. We have two weekly drop-ins that regularly serve between 40 and 60 youth that come from across Metro Vancouver, and sometimes beyond. So that’s one of the core programs that our organization offers.

10. Qmunity hosts a number of events including Spring Fling (Adults 55+), International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia Breakfast (Fundraising event), Honouring our Elders High Tea (Adults 55+), Queer Prom (Youth 14-25), Pride Parade (All ages), Gab Youth Summer and Winter Cabarets (Youth 14-25), Volunteer Appreciation Party (Active Volunteers), Stack the Rack (Fundraising event), and Holigays Celebration (Adults 55+).^[15] How does bringing in every sector (age, gender, orientation, and so on) of the queer community provide the necessary environment of inclusion through Qmunity?

As an umbrella organization, we do serve a very diverse population. We try to provide opportunities for everyone in the community to come together. We also recognize there is a need to serve individuals of communities within the much larger community. And so, we do a combination of both. Some of our programs are restricted by identity. We have women-specific programming, trans-specific programming, youth-specific programming, et cetera, cutting along various identity lines. And some of our programming is open to everyone, and encourages bringing various identities together to connect, share, engage, learn.

11. In your speech entitled Reconciling Injustices in a Pluralistic Canada at Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue, you said, “Canadians are fortunate to live in one of the most progressive countries in the world when it comes to queer rights. This is especially important in a world where being queer is a criminal act in 76 countries and punishable by death in 5 countries.”^[16]With some of these statements from last year in mind, what near, and far, future seems most likely for the queer community internationally, nationally, and provincially?

Those contexts are very different when looking from both a policy and cultural perspective, and those two things intersect. So I think the differences will be extreme. The good news, I think, is we’re all headed in the right direction. I think, as evidenced by the SCOTUS decision. You know, there are many of my colleagues in the states who never thought they’d see marriage equality in their lifetime. And now, the US has declared marriage equality across all 50 states. So that’s pretty exciting. I think we’re moving in the right direction, progress is being made toward more inclusion, more equity for queer and trans folks, and simultaneously, yes, there are many countries where it’s illegal to be gay and in 5 of those countries you can be punished by death. While I see the conversation shifting, even internationally, I think it’s happening much more slowly in some of those contexts. And I also see that sometimes when progress happens in certain regions, for instance the US recognizing that, there are places that are more regressive. There can be backlash against that progression because people are afraid. In Turkey, the Pride Parade was cancelled in Istanbul. I do not know why they did that, but it is interesting that as one region gains rights another used tear gas and rubber bullets to restrain a previously-approved Pride Parade in Istanbul. I think we have to be conscious that there are communities that might suffer disproportionately when rights are gained in other areas. And then fundamentally, in contexts like Vancouver, BC, Canada, where the majority of our legal rights have been enshrined for over a decade, it doesn’t necessarily mean they translate into lived equalities. That is where our work is centered in taking those legislative changes and shifting culture to raise the visibility, create more inclusion, safety, acceptance, et cetera.

12. For those with an interest now or in the future, how can individuals donate, volunteer, become a member, or take action through Qmunity, or for the queer community in general?^[17]

A good place to start is the website. If you are new to the organization, you can find all of the details on some of the options you just listed: volunteering, donating, or getting involved in other ways. And I think a more general starting point is to learn and embrace [allies]. And that’s both for folks in our community and external too. I think we all have the potential to be allies. As a white, cisgender, queer, able-body, Canadian, woman, I am an ally to almost everyone I work with. I am an ally to gay men, queer people of color, trans folk, et cetera. I think there’s an opportunity for all of us to do learning around our own communities and people we can be allies to, within, and outside our own communities. We can do that by using the internet. (Laughs) There are an incredible number of resources out there in terms of articles, and films, and books. You know, to get to know culture outside your own, and learn how to be a good ally.

Footnotes

[1] See Qmunity (2015). Youth Services.

[2] See Qmunity (2015). Older Adult Services.

[3] See Qmunity (2015). Support Groups.

[4] See Qmunity (2015). Counselling.

[5] See Qmunity (2015). Referrals.

[6] See Qmunity (2015). Bute Street Clinic.

[7] See Qmunity (2015). Naturopathic Clinic.

[8] See Qmunity (2015). Youth Services.

[9] See Qmunity (2015). Older Adult Services.

[10] See Qmunity (2015). Support Groups.

[11] See Qmunity (2015). Counselling.

[12] See Qmunity (2015). Referrals.

[13] See Qmunity (2015). Bute Street Clinic.

[14] See Qmunity (2015). Naturopathic Clinic.

[15] See Qmunity (2015). Special Events.

[16] See [Dara Parker] (2013, September 13). Here’s The Deal Sept 11.

[17] See KCR (2015). Qmunity: BC’s Queer Community Resource Centre.

Bibliography/References/Reference Listing

[Dara Parker] (2014, March 28). Here’s The Deal. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1YSKxYGNnQ.
[Dara Parker] (2013, December 6). Here’s The Deal Dec 4. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJRAy1BsGjc.
[Dara Parker] (2013, December 19). Here’s The Deal Dec 18. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abKctbhzVZs.
[Dara Parker] (2014, February 13). Here’s The Deal Feb 12. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q0des1zSsc.
[Dara Parker] (2014, February 25). Here’s The Deal Feb 24. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlAiDmkJt1k.
[Dara Parker] (2014, March 11). Here’s The Deal Feb 26. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIIyLxxi8zg.
[Dara Parker] (2014, January 16). Here’s The Deal Jan 15. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv6wvof6BVw.
[Dara Parker] (2014, January 28). Here’s The Deal Jan 27. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RKRLsKnwhk.
[Dara Parker] (2014, March 11). Here’s The Deal Mar 10. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyjcfG980FA.
[Dara Parker] (2013, November 21). Here’s The Deal Nov 20. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMjZBBHzZus.
[Dara Parker] (2013, October 8). Here’s The Deal Oct 7. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x4W1l3pgDA.
[Dara Parker] (2013, October 24). Here’s The Deal Oct 23. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG4D04uC3bE.
[Dara Parker] (2013, September 13). Here’s The Deal Sept 11. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mX2WcgvrbY.
[Dara Parker] (2013, September 26). Here’s The Deal Sept 25. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aInMRGDL2sk.
[Dara Parker] (2015, February 19). Inclusion Café at BC Housing. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib9hECzvxbk.
[Dara Parker] (2015, January 15). Unfiltered January 9, 2015. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWWEcUST6AY.
[SFU Centre for Dialogue] (2014, January 31). Dara Parker, Reconciling Injustices in a Pluralistic Canada. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaJp9XfKZFg.
admin (2013, February 27). Thank Q. Retrieved from http://pinq.ca/news-community/thank-q/.
Ball D. (2015, August 5). Pregnancy a greater risk for lesbian, gay and bisexual B.C. teens, study finds. Retrieved from http://www.thewhig.com/2014/08/05/pregnancy-a-greater-risk-for-lesbian-gay-and-bisexual-bc-teens-study-finds.
Barsotti, N. (2012, November 25). Staff shakeup at Qmunity. Retrieved from http://www.dailyxtra.com/vancouver/news-and-ideas/news/staff-shakeup-at-qmunity-3376.
Bernardo, M. (2015, June 26). Vancouver advocates cheer top US court ruling on same-sex marriage. Retrieved from http://www.am730.ca/syn/112/81961/vancouver-gay-advocates-cheer-top-us-court-ruling-on-same-sex-marriage.
Brocki, L. (2013, November 21). Vancouver city council approves 30-year vision for West End. Retrieved from http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/861283/vancouver-city-council-approves-30-year-vision-for-west-end/.
Carney, L. (2013, August 29). Five Vancouver restaurant faves from QMUNITY’s Dara Parker. Retrieved from http://www.vancouverobserver.com/food/five-vancouver-restaurant-faves-qmunitys-dara-parker.
Cassell, E. (2013, June 20). Canada marks 10 years of marriage equality ruling. Retrieved from http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=68868.
Chan, K. (2014, May 16). International Day Against Homophobia Breakfast Celebrates Being Gay and Grey. Retrieved from http://www.bcliving.ca/entertainment/international-day-against-homophobia-breakfast-celebrates-being-gay-and-grey.
Chhibber, A. (2014, August 6). Canada: LGBs more at risk of teenage pregnancy, says British Columbia study. Retrieved from http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/08/06/canade-lgbs-more-at-risk-of-teenage-pregnancy-says-british-columbia-study/.
CTV (2015, June 19). Business owner under fire. Retrieved from http://www.castanet.net/news/BC/142589/Business-owner-under-fire.
Dedyna, K. (2014, November 22). C. says ‘no one came forward’ for gender-alignment surgery. Retrieved from http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/b-c-says-no-one-came-forward-for-gender-alignment-surgery-1.1617243#sthash.ZTWTxlFG.dpuf.
Dimera, M. (2012, May 24). People see Qmunity as relevant, says new ED. Retrieved from http://www.dailyxtra.com/vancouver/news-and-ideas/news/people-see-qmunity-relevant-says-new-ed-3940.
Edmiston, J. (2013, July 25). ‘Heteronormative’ Burger Family no threat to LGBT, rights tribunal says after receiving ‘outrageous’ complaint. Retrieved from http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/heteronormative-burger-family-no-threat-to-lgbt-rights-tribunal-says-after-receiving-outrageous-complaint.
Fellows, O.Z. (2013, October 21). Davie Village aims to grow from gay roots. Retrieved from Davie Village aims to grow from gay roots. Retrieved from http://thethunderbird.ca/2013/10/21/davie-village-aims-to-grow-from-gay-roots/.
Filipenko, J. (2013). Aging with Uncertain. Retrieved from http://langaraprm.com/2013/07/aging-with-uncertaintyolder-members-of-the-lgbtq-community-face-unique-challenges/.
Flock, E. (2013, August, 1). Russia’s Olympic Anti-Gay Threats Come After 2010’s ‘Gayest Olympics Ever’. Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/08/01/russias-olympic-anti-gay-threats-come-after-2010s-gayest-olympics-ever.
Fumano, D. (2015, February 2). ‘A tragic day’: Ritch Dowrey, victim of violent 2009 West End gay bashing, dies. Retrieved from http://www.theprovince.com/life/tragic+Ritch+Dowrey+victim+violent+2009+West+bashing+dies/10779164/story.html.
KCR (2015). Qmunity: BC’s Queer Community Resource Centre. Retrieved from http://kelowna.cioc.ca/record/KNA0094.
Lee, F (2012, September 28). Robust belief in inclusion brings globe trotter to West End QMUNITY. Retrieved from http://www.vancourier.com/community/robust-belief-in-inclusion-brings-globe-trotter-to-west-end-qmunity-1.377626.
Lewis, S. (2015, January 22). City still searching for new site for Qmunity centre. Retrieved from http://www.dailyxtra.com/vancouver/news-and-ideas/news/city-still-searching-new-site-qmunity-centre-98152.
Lewis, S. (2015, April 14). Qmunity to begin consultations on new queer community centre. Retrieved from http://www.dailyxtra.com/vancouver/news-and-ideas/news/qmunity-begin-consultations-new-queer-community-centre-101908.
Lewis, S. (2013, April 16). Tight budget pushes Qmunity to plan programming changes. Retrieved from http://www.dailyxtra.com/vancouver/news-and-ideas/news/tight-budget-pushes-qmunity-plan-programming-changes-58985.
LinkedIn (2015). Dara Parker. Retrieved from https://ca.linkedin.com/pub/dara-parker/22/548/790.
Mertl, S. (2014, September 23). Gay seniors fear going into care means going back in the closet: report. Retrieved from https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/gay-seniors-fear-going-into-care-means-going-back-in-225942011.html.
Mietunnen, A. (2014, February 27). Community Voices: Responses to the West End Plan. Retrieved from http://gordonhouse.org/blog/2014/02/27/community-voices-responses-to-the-west-end-plan/.
Morris, K. (2014, August 11). Canadian Study Finds Gay and Lesbian Teens More Likely to Become Pregnant. Retrieved from http://theseattlelesbian.com/canadian-study-finds-gay-lesbian-teens-likely-become-pregnant/.
Mui, M. (2013, October 17). Reprimanded teacher questioned whether parent was homophobic. Retrieved from http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/2013/10/17/reprimanded-teacher-questioned-whether-parent-was-homophobic.
News 1130 Staff (2015, June 26). Local gay community says SCOTUS ruling about same-sex marriage is ‘overwhelming’. Retrieved from http://www.news1130.com/2015/06/26/gay-marriage-legal-across-the-us-scotus/.
News Staff (2015, March 11). Hurtful messages from father after finding out son is gay raises questions on parental response. Retrieved from http://www.news1130.com/2015/03/11/hurtful-messages-from-father-after-finding-out-son-is-gay-raises-questions-on-parental-response/.
Nursall, K. (2013, August 20). Anti-homophobia policies in schools reduce alcohol abuse for all students, UBC study finds. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/08/20/antihomophobia_policies_in_schools_reduce_alcohol_abuse_for_all_students_ubc_study_finds.html.
Parker, D. (2000, September 19). A few thoughts on being a girl. Retrieved from http://www.queensjournal.ca/story/2000-09-19/opinions/few-thoughts-being-girl/.
Janssen, M. (2015, May 27). Community Building 101. Retrieved from http://davievillagepost.ca/3908/community-building-101/.
Parker, D. (2015, June 1). Have you forgotten already?. Retrieved from http://qmunity.ca/news/neverforget/.
Parker, D. (2013, August 3). It’s not safe for queer athletes at Sochi 2014 Olympics. Retrieved from http://www.vancouverobserver.com/politics/commentary/russian-brutality-it%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2s-not-safe-queer-athletes-sochi-2014-olympics.
Parker, D. (2013, September 25). Qmunity. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/ewwqvjkzsxel/qmunity/.
Parker, D. (2015, April 2). Qmunity’s Dara Parker: Proving queerness a challenge for LGBT refugees in B.C.. Retrieved from http://www.straight.com/news/424136/qmunitys-dara-parker-proving-queerness-challenge-lgbt-refugees-bc.
Parker, D. (2014, November 5). Qmunity’s Dara Parker: Three reasons why queer citizens should vote. Retrieved from http://www.straight.com/news/765781/qmunitys-dara-parker-three-reasons-why-queer-citizens-should-vote.
Parker, D. (n.d.) Urban Travel Tales: About. Retrieved from http://daraparker.com/about/.
Parker, D. (n.d.). Urban Travel Tales. Retrieved from http://daraparker.com/.
Perelle, R. (2015, June 4). Qmunity centre consultation seems transparent and sincere. Retrieved from http://www.dailyxtra.com/vancouver/news-and-ideas/opinion/qmunity-centre-consultation-seems-transparent-and-sincere-108036?m=0.
Positive Living Society of British Columbia (n.d.). Qmunity launches community consultations for new LGBT centre. Retrieved from https://positivelivingbc.org/qmunity-launches-community-consultations-for-new-lgbt-centre/.
Qmunity (2015, March). Aging Out. Retrieved from http://qmunity.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/AgingOut.pdf.
Qmunity (2015). Bute Street Clinic. Retrieved from http://qmunity.ca/get-support/bute-street-clinic/.
Qmunity (2015). Counselling. Retrieved from http://qmunity.ca/get-support/counselling/.
Qmunity (2015). Naturopathic Clinic. Retrieved from http://qmunity.ca/get-support/free-naturopathic-clinic/.
Qmunity (2015). Older Adult Services. Retrieved from http://qmunity.ca/get-support/olderadults/.
Qmunity (2015). Referrals. Retrieved from http://qmunity.ca/get-support/referrals/.
Qmunity (2015, April). Routes to Roots. Retrieved from http://qmunity.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/QMUNITY-R2R-2014-EDITED-vf.compressed.pdf.
Qmunity (2015). Special Events. Retrieved from http://qmunity.ca/connect/special-events/.
Qmunity (2015). Staff: Dara Parker. Retrieved from http://qmunity.ca/about/staff/.
Qmunity (2015). Support Groups. Retrieved from http://qmunity.ca/get-support/support-groups/.
Qmunity (2015, March). Supporting LGBTQ Folk Experiencing Relationships Abuse. Retrieved from http://qmunity.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Supporting_LGBTQ_survivors_Digital_Draft_3_MOBILE.pdf.
Qmunity (2015). Youth Services. Retrieved from http://qmunity.ca/get-support/youth/.
com (2015). Dara Parker. Retrieved from http://queerbio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dara_Parker.
Robins, M. (2012, June 20). 20 Questions With QMUNITY’s Dara Parker. Retrieved from http://gayvancouver.net/community/20-questions-with-qmunity-executive-director-dara-parker/.
Robins, M (2012, November 13). Spend 69 seconds with … Dara Parker. Retrieved from http://gayvancouver.net/69-seconds-with/spend-69-seconds-with-dara-parker/.
Russell, R. (2013). Free to be me. Retrieved from https://www.vancouverfoundation.ca/stories/oct-29-2013/free-be-me.
Schmunk, R. (2015, March 13). ‘This Is Worse Than Death’: B.C. Dad Reacts To His Son Coming Out. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/03/13/vancouver-teen-comes-out-dad-response_n_6859974.html.
Simon Fraser University Centre for Dialogue (2015, June 4). In the Media: Daily XTRA and The Georgia Straight Credit QMUNITY Consultation. Retrieved from http://www.sfu.ca/dialogue/news-and-events/archives/2015/daily-xtra-and-the-georgia-straight-credit-qmunity-consultation.html.
Simon Fraser University Centre for Dialogue (n.d.). Reconciling Injustices in a Pluralistic Canada. Retrieved from https://www.sfu.ca/dialogue/programs/blaney-award/reconciling-injustices/feature-speaker-bios.html.
Takeuchi, C. (2013, December 20). Qmunity’s Dara Parker tackles homophobia against gay tenant in Retrieved from http://www.straight.com/blogra/553826/qmunitys-dara-parker-tackles-homophobia-against-gay-tenant-vancouver.
Takeuchi, C. (2015, May 19). Speakers express challenges of being LGBT refugees and parents of trans children. Retrieved from http://www.straight.com/life/453406/speakers-express-challenges-being-lgbt-refugees-and-parents-trans-children.
The Globe and Mail (2014, November 12). Transgender man files complaint against B.C. health ministry over surgical delay. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/transgender-man-files-complaint-against-bc-health-ministry-over-surgical-delay/article21569050/.
The Vancouver Sun (2012, July 27). Dara Parker fell in love with Vancouver when she was 18. ‘I hate being cold. So for me, the trade-off of grey and wet here over being shivering cold in Toronto was a good one.’. Retrieved from http://www.vancouversun.com/Dara+Parker+fell+love+with+Vancouver+when+hate+being+cold+trade+grey+here+over+being+shivering+cold+Toronto+good/7003760/story.html.
The Vancouver Sun (2012, August 4). Video: The winding road back. Retrieved from http://www.vancouversun.com/news/whoarewe/Video+winding+road+back+Dara+Parker/7042878/story.html.
The University of British Columbia (2015). Student Leadership Conference: Featured Presenters. Retrieved from http://students.ubc.ca/slc/register/schedule/featured-presenters.
Twitter (2015). Dara Parker. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/parkerdara.
org (2008). 3Q’s. Retrieved from http://www.voluntourism.org/news-3qs41.htm.
WTC Café XXIV: LGBT2Q+ Café (2015, January 24). WTC Café XXIV: LGBT2Q+ Café. Retrieved from http://womentransformingcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/wtc-one.pdf.
YouTube (n.d.). Dara Parker. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/user/daraparker1.
Yuzda, L. (2015, March 25). Vancouver Police accused of failing to update discrimination policies. Retrieved from http://www.cknw.com/2015/03/25/69401/.

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2023-01-29

Dara Parker: Executive Director, Qmunity (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/09/02

Abstract

Interview with Dara Parker. Executive director of Qmunity and co-president of the board (Vancouver) for the United Nations Association of Canada. She discusses: family geography, culture, and language; academic qualifications; skills and knowledge from volunteering; previous work experience for present position; earning executive director position of Qmunity, media appearances in video and writing, and responsibilities of this public representation; definition and sub-populations contained within the umbrella term “queer”; queer sub-population numbers; import for unified services of Qmunity; most important provision of Qmunity to the queer community; importance of inclusive provisions by Qmunity; Reconciling Injustices in a Pluralistic Canada at Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue quote with international, national, and provincial context and possible futures; and ways to become involved with Qmunity or the queer community in general.

Keywords: binary, bisexual, British Columbia, Canada, Dara Parker, executive director, gender identity, non-profit, Qmunity, queer, sexual orientation, trans, United Nations, Vancouver.

Dara Parker: Executive Director, Qmunity (Part One)

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside?

Geography, culture, and language, I am a Canadian born Anglophone who was raised in suburbia Toronto, and has been in Vancouver for the last ten and a half years.

2. You earned a partial Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in politics from University of Melbourne with its full completion from Queen’s University, a masters of planning in urban planning (international development) from The University of British Columbia, and a certificate of non-profit management executive from Duke University.^[1]^,[2] What instigated the personal interest or need in these qualifications for personal and professional life?

I’m not sure if I was particularly strategic when thinking about a career path when choosing the formal education I’ve engaged in. The driving principle has always been to study things that I interested in. And so that led to acquiring a bachelor of art, honours, in politics and drama, for my undergrad, and doing my masters in urban planning. And both of those were valuable educational experiences, but they certainly weren’t with the lens that one day I’d become the executive director of a queer non-profit. Although, I think certain aspects of those trainings were invaluable in leading me here. And then the most recent certificate in non-profit management was quite deliberate and in line with what I’m doing now. I was awarded a fellowship this year to complete that non-profit management training, and then part of the fellowship I’ll be doing leadership training towards the end of the year.

3. You volunteered on the Board for Ship for World Youth and remain the Co-President of the Board (Vancouver) for the United Nations Association of Canada.^[3]^,[4] What skills and knowledge did you gain from these experiences to date?

I think it’s incredibly valuable if you work in the non-profit if you also volunteer on the board of a non-profit because you can see what managing a non-profit looks like from both perspectives. Being on the board of UNA Canada was particularly useful because it was an organization with a paid staff, and often gave me a glimpse into the perspective of my own board members at Qmunity would have. And Additionally, I think it’s incredibly important to volunteer. I have been a lifelong volunteer. I think I started to volunteering when I was 15. And, for me, it’s personally important to give back to community, and that’s one of the ways that I can do that.

4. You worked for the Kids Help Phone (leadership director), Busabout, HAGGiS & Shamrocker Adventures (tour guide), Lesotho National Olympic Committee (Project manager), United Nations Association of Canada (Program Manager), City of Burnaby (Social Planner), UN-HABITAT United Nations Human Settlements Programme (Advisor), and Cuso International (Public Engagement Manager).^[5]^,[6] Throughout this vast experience in numerous sectors for your career up to the present, how did these assist in the current position of executive director of Qmunity?^[7]^,[8]

I think the common thread throughout my diverse career has been a commitment to social justice and social change. As in that, positions have been quite different, certainly my work in non-profit helped prepare me for this role. I think the value in working in multiple organizations is seeing multiple ways to doing things. Some that work really well. Some that you are able to throw out because they are not as effective. So it was the combination of all of those experiences that led me to this role.

5. In addition, you earned the position of executive director of Qmunity.^[9]^,[10],[11] You have numerous media appearances in video and writing too.^[12]^{,[13],[14],[15],[16],[17],[18],[19],[20],[21],[22],[23],[24],[25],[26],[27],[28],[29],[30],[31],[32],[33],[34],[35],[36],[37],[38],[39],[40],[41],[42],[43],[44],[45],[46],[47],[48],[49],[50],[51],[52],[53],[54],[55],[56],[57],[58],[59],[60],[61],[62],[63],[64],[65],[66],[67],[68],[69],[70],[71],[72],[73],[74],[75],[76]} What additional duties and responsibilities come with this prominent, public, and respected position connected to attention from the media?

Being an executive director of a small non-profit means that you wear a lot of hats, you are often looking at finance and human resources and program development and fundraising, and everything in between. And of course, you are often the spokesperson for the organization. And for our organization, that means a lot of media engagement. We’re a small organization, but we ae the unique umbrella organization for LGBTQ communities across BC. And so we do get a lot of requests from media to comment on various issues, and to help highlight what contemporary concerns are for our queer communities. So that’s part and parcel. But most of the EDs that I know who are the spokespeople for the organization, depending on the issue that you are working on, that you may have more or less media attention on that issue. And I think queer and trans issues continue to receive a decent amount of media coverage.

6. “Queer,” as a term, means “someone with a non-normative sexual orientation or gender identity.”^[77] Within this umbrella term, according to the general mandate of Qmunity, what sub-populations become implicated in it?

We welcome everyone under the rainbow umbrella that identifies, queer or trans, so anyone with a non-normative sexual orientation or gender identity, as you noted. Some of those identities within those communities would include gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, two-spirited, intersex, asexual, pansexual, gender, queer, and lots of word that we get to use to name ourselves. And then, we’re also looking at the intersection of our gender identity and sexual orientation that we carry. For instance, being a person of color, or having a disability, or being a newcomer, et cetera.

[1] See LinkedIn (2015). Dara Parker.

[2] See QueerBio.com (2015). Dara Parker.

[3] See LinkedIn (2015). Dara Parker.

[4] See QueerBio.com (2015). Dara Parker.

[5] See LinkedIn (2015). Dara Parker.

[6] See QueerBio.com (2015). Dara Parker.

[7] See LinkedIn (2015). Dara Parker.

[8] See QueerBio.com (2015). Dara Parker.

[9] See LinkedIn (2015). Dara Parker.

[10] See Qmunity (2015). Staff: Dara Parker.

[11] See QueerBio.com (2015). Dara Parker.

[12] See [SFU Centre for Dialogue] (2014, January 31). Dara Parker, Reconciling Injustices in a Pluralistic Canada.

[13] See YouTube (n.d.). Dara Parker.

[14] See [Dara Parker] (2013, September 26). Here’s The Deal Sept 25.

[15] See [Dara Parker] (2013, October 8). Here’s The Deal Oct 7.

[16] See [Dara Parker] (2013, October 24). Here’s The Deal Oct 23.

[17] See [Dara Parker] (2013, November 21). Here’s The Deal Nov 20.

[18] See [Dara Parker] (2013, December 6). Here’s The Deal Dec 4.

[19] See [Dara Parker] (2013, December 19). Here’s The Deal Dec 18.

[20] See [Dara Parker] (2014, January 16). Here’s The Deal Jan 15.

[21] See [Dara Parker] (2014, January 28). Here’s The Deal Jan 27.

[22] See [Dara Parker] (2014, February 13). Here’s The Deal Feb 12.

[23] See [Dara Parker] (2014, February 25). Here’s The Deal Feb 24.

[24] See [Dara Parker] (2014, March 11). Here’s The Deal Mar 10.

[25] See [Dara Parker] (2014, March 11). Here’s The Deal Feb 26.

[26] See [Dara Parker] (2014, March 28). Here’s The Deal.

[27] See [Dara Parker] (2015, January 15). Unfiltered January 9, 2015.

[28] See [Dara Parker] (2015, February 19). Inclusion Café at BC Housing.

[29] See VolunTourism.org (2008). 3Q’s.

[30] See The Vancouver Sun (2012, August 4). Video: The winding road back.

[31] See Robins, M. (2012, June 20). 20 Questions With QMUNITY’s Dara Parker.

[32] See Parker, D. (2000, September 19). A few thoughts on being a girl.

[33] See Twitter (2015). Dara Parker.

[34] See Parker, D. (2015, June 1). Have you forgotten already?.

[35] See Barsotti, N. (2012, November 25). Staff shakeup at Qmunity.

[36] See Takeuchi, C. (2013, December 20). Qmunity’s Dara Parker tackles homophobia against gay tenant in Vancouver.

[37] See Carney, L. (2013, August 29). Five Vancouver restaurant faves from QMUNITY’s Dara Parker.

[38] See Lewis, S. (2015, April 14). Qmunity to begin consultations on new queer community centre.

[39] See Lewis, S. (2013, April 16). Tight budget pushes Qmunity to plan programming changes.

[40] See Lewis, S. (2015, January 22). City still searching for new site for Qmunity centre.

[41] See Robins, M (2012, November 13). Spend 69 seconds with … Dara Parker.

[42] See Parker, D. (2015, April 2). Qmunity’s Dara Parker: Proving queerness a challenge for LGBT refugees in B.C..

[43] See Takeuchi, C. (2015, May 19). Speakers express challenges of being LGBT refugees and parents of trans children.

[44] See Parker, D. (2014, November 5). Qmunity’s Dara Parker: Three reasons why queer citizens should vote.

[45] See Lee, F (2012, September 28). Robust belief in inclusion brings globe trotter to West End QMUNITY.

[46] See Simon Fraser University Centre for Dialogue (2015, June 4). In the Media: Daily XTRA and The Georgia Straight Credit QMUNITY Consultation.

[47] See Positive Living Society of British Columbia (n.d.). Qmunity launches community consultations for new LGBT centre.

[48] See News Staff (2015, March 11). Hurtful messages from father after finding out son is gay raises questions on parental response.

[49] See WTC Café XXIV: LGBT2Q+ Café (2015, January 24). WTC Café XXIV: LGBT2Q+ Café.

[50] See Parker, D. (2013, August 3). It’s not safe for queer athletes at Sochi 2014 Olympics.

[51] See The Globe and Mail (2014, November 12). Transgender man files complaint against B.C. health ministry over surgical delay.

[52] See Mertl, S. (2014, September 23). Gay seniors fear going into care means going back in the closet: report.

[53] See Yuzda, L. (2015, March 25). Vancouver Police accused of failing to update discrimination policies.

[54] See admin (2013, February 27). Thank Q.

[55] See Chan, K. (2014, May 16). International Day Against Homophobia Breakfast Celebrates Being Gay and Grey.

[56] See Russell, R. (2013). Free to be me.

[57] See Janssen, M. (2015, May 27). Community Building 101.

[58] See Perelle, R. (2015, June 4). Qmunity centre consultation seems transparent and sincere.

[59] See News 1130 Staff (2015, June 26). Local gay community says SCOTUS ruling about same-sex marriage is ‘overwhelming’.

[60] See Filipenko, J. (2013). Aging with Uncertain.

[61] See CTV (2015, June 19). Business owner under fire.

[62] See Brocki, L. (2013, November 21). Vancouver city council approves 30-year vision for West End.

[63] See Fellows, O.Z. (2013, October 21). Davie Village aims to grow from gay roots. Retrieved from Davie Village aims to grow from gay roots.

[64] See Bernardo, M. (2015, June 26). Vancouver advocates cheer top US court ruling on same-sex marriage.

[65] See Dedyna, K. (2014, November 22). B.C. says ‘no one came forward’ for gender-alignment surgery.

[66] See Mui, M. (2013, October 17). Reprimanded teacher questioned whether parent was homophobic.

[67] See Schmunk, R. (2015, March 13). ‘This Is Worse Than Death’: B.C. Dad Reacts To His Son Coming Out.

[68] See Fumano, D. (2015, February 2). ‘A tragic day’: Ritch Dowrey, victim of violent 2009 West End gay bashing, dies.

[69] See Nursall, K. (2013, August 20). Anti-homophobia policies in schools reduce alcohol abuse for all students, UBC study finds.

[70] See Edmiston, J. (2013, July 25). ‘Heteronormative’ Burger Family no threat to LGBT, rights tribunal says after receiving ‘outrageous’ complaint.

[71] See Mietunnen, A. (2014, February 27). Community Voices: Responses to the West End Plan.

[72] See Chhibber, A. (2014, August 6). Canada: LGBs more at risk of teenage pregnancy, says British Columbia study.

[73] See Flock, E. (2013, August, 1). Russia’s Olympic Anti-Gay Threats Come After 2010’s ‘Gayest Olympics Ever’

[74] See Cassell, E. (2013, June 20). Canada marks 10 years of marriage equality ruling.

[75] See Ball D. (2015, August 5). Pregnancy a greater risk for lesbian, gay and bisexual B.C. teens, study finds.

[76] See Morris, K. (2014, August 11). Canadian Study Finds Gay and Lesbian Teens More Likely to Become Pregnant.

[77] See [Dara Parker] (2013, September 13). Here’s The Deal Sept 11.

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2023-01-29

Eric Adriaans: National Executive Director, Center for Inquiry Canada/CFIC/CFI Canada (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/08/15

ABSTRACT

Interview with Eric Adriaans. National Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry Canada (CFI Canada), and charitable sector leader, legislative drafting student, and writer. He discusses: work history up to the present with insights from the diverse and extensive experiences throughout professional work and leadership, and commentary on charitable sector work for those without religious affiliation; current earned position of national executive director of Center for Inquiry Canada, CFI Canada’s Statement of Values and its representation and general activities; duties and responsibilities which come from influence upon the public mind with an emphasis on the simultaneous holding of an important position in the educational charity sector; and the probable near and far future of CFI Canada.

Keywords: charitable sector, Center for Inquiry Canada, Eric Adriaans, humanism, leadership, National Executive Director, secularism, self-expression, skepticism.

*Incomplete, common reference style listing without access dates.*

5. You worked for the Canadian Diabetes Association (District Coordinator, 1991-1997), The Kidney Foundation of Canada ((A) Executive Director, 1997-1999), The Arthritis Society (Associate Director, Ontario North & East, 1999-2001), Ottawa Humane Society (Manager, Development and Outreach, 2001-2002), Canadian Federation of Humane Societies (Director, Development & Finance, 2002-2005), Avocado Press (Director, Business Development, 2005), The Lung Association (Fundraising Coordinator, 2006), and the Canadian Red Cross Society (Director, Regional Operations, 2006-2014).^[1]^{,[2],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7],[8],[9]} This work occurred in diverse areas including Thunder Bay, New Zealand, North Superior, Ottawa, and Western Ontario. With respect to these diverse and extensive experiences throughout professional work and leadership, what insights come to mind, and seem relevant, about the nature of the charitable sector, especially for those without religious affiliation?

The charitable sector is about making the world better – not accepting the status quo. It doesn’t matter where you live, things can be made better. No charity I have ever worked for has said “OK, our job is done.” Just as with science, any question or problem that is investigated brings up a host of new questions and problems. Charitable organizations, big or small, will always need more resources and more time.

The charitable sector is the most socially productive counter-authoritarian undertaking I can think of. Charities tell authorities, whether they are governments, media, religions, judiciaries, political parties, corporate forces or any other form of authority that they must not rest. It is the charitable sector which pushes for human rights, education, health or any priority.

Charities are the community expression and engagement of non-religious people. People get involved with issues that matter to them through charities. Charities are the modern secular replacement for churches. There’s nothing supernatural about showing up at a foodbank to help out, coaching a children’s sports team or protesting violence or bigotry.

6. Your earned the current position of national executive director of the Center for Inquiry Canada (CFI Canada) on March, 2014.^[10]^{,[11],[12],[13],[14]}You drafted the Statement of Values, in addition to its revision, which, in part, states:

To educate and provide training to the public in the application of skeptical, secular, rational and humanistic enquiry through conferences, symposia, lectures, published works and the maintenance of a library…I. CFI Canada values people above ideas…the leading international voice for critical thinking, secularism, skepticism, humanism, and free-thought…III. CFI Canada values Humanism…IV. CFI Canada values skepticism; we strive to ensure that information or messages we circulate do not require the audience to accept it without validation of evidence…V. CFI Canada values science, rational thought and critical thinking…VI. CFI Canada values free thought…VII. CFI Canada values human rights…VIII. CFI Canada values education…IX. CFI Canada values the wellness of people…X. CFI Canada values excellence…XI. CFI Canada values transparency…XII .CFI Canada is an open and diverse community of individuals that embraces individuals regardless of sex/gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.^[15]

Of course, more information exists with thorough answers to relevant questions about humanistic values, for instance, in the CFI Canada Statement of Values and elsewhere.^[16]^{,[17],[18],[19],[20],[21]}Regarding the representation and functions of CFI Canada, what does CFI Canada represent – in terms of direct and indirect constituents, and function as – in terms of its general activities, within the general population of Canada?

CFIC’s mission statement includes the term “secular humanist” as a key feature. It also includes key words like freethought and skepticism. All of these words are charged with history and significance for the people who use them. There are even degrees of identity politics associated with them.

Secular humanist is a very near synonym for atheist. Recently I have started to encourage the use of the phrase “Your Community For Science and Secularism” to feature the basic values of an evidence-based approach to matters such as education and healthcare and the separation of religion from governance of people.

Many people have assumed that CFIC is therefore an organization specifically for anyone who self-identifies as atheist, skeptic, agnostic, secularist, secular humanist, humanist, rational, free-thinker or rational. To the extent of active members and volunteers, that is mostly true.

I argue, however, that the organization is for the majority of society, whether they view themselves as religious or not, because it is my perspective that all of society benefits when evidence-based practices are in place and when religious freedom and freedom from religion is assured. I sense that CFIC represents the view of most Canadians, they just don’t know it yet.

I very much want people to move beyond arbitrary and partial labels which will never adequately describe any whole person and get to the work that is done to make the world a better and more satisfying place for more and more people.

7. You have numerous representations in the media.^[22]^{,[23],[24],[25],[26],[27],[28],[29],[30],[31],[32],[33],[34],[35],[36],[37],[38],[39],[40],[41],[42],[43]}What duties and responsibilities come from influencing the public mind through the media – especially whilst holding an important position in an organization in the educational charity sector?

When I joined CFI Canada, I submitted a statement to the Board of Directors with some thoughts closely related to this question. I’ll sample that earlier statement here (and modified slightly from my perspective prior to joining):

Thank you again for the opportunity to address CFI Canada on matters of leadership and community service. I greatly appreciate the thoughtful and conscientious approach you are taking; your approach demonstrates great care for CFI Canada’s current and future work….I have been asked me to clarify whether I would be comfortable leading CFI Canada in context of its atheist, free-thinking, reason and science-based perspectives and to comment on my confidence to act as an effective defender and advocate of CFI Canada’s tactics. I hope that I can now give you more perspective on who I am as an individual and demonstrates my position on these matters.

On a personal level my outlook is consistent with post-theism; I think the concept of god (or gods, as the case may be) is rooted in humanity’s ancient and overwhelmed past and not worth very much of my personal attention. When interacting with friends and family from day to day, I have usually maintained a position of polite agnosticism; I have always felt a greater motivation to accept others for who they are than to attempt to convince them that they should share my views. I feel this is a reflection of my fundamental belief in respect, tolerance, equality and diversity.

This is fine for me on a personal level. Except that there are people who continue to use the institutions of religion and the fundamental insecurities and fears of vulnerable people to cause harm and to promote their own interests at the expense of others. This is when the comfort of a post-theist perspective and interpersonal politeness are not adequate. When harms are done, we cannot waive the tactics, lies and illusions that are used by others. We can’t win with our hands tied.

As a leader of CFI Canada, I actively promote the values and principles of CFI Canada to achieve the objectives of the organization and to protect vulnerable persons. As a leader of CFI, I accept the responsibility to be the best example of the organization’s aims. I would present affirmation, aspiration and conviction in my work. As a leader of CFI Canada, my approach is as an inclusive secular humanist; I will employ the methods demanded by the situation or issue at hand.

People have a great attraction to confidence. Indeed, it seems to me that religious leaders (and other placebo purveyors) utilize this attraction to their advantage…or perhaps more pertinently, they exploit insecurity. To contrast this exploitation, I would present a credible, assertive and affirmative CFI Canada voice. My intent would be to educate, lead and inspire while exposing, opposing and preventing the harms perpetrated by purveyors of falsehood in religion, medicine and health, pseudo-science and other areas where people’s insecurity and vulnerability are exploited. Not only will I focus on demonstrating the confidence of the CFI Canada message, but I will also ensure that earning respect for this message is a top priority.

CFI Canada’s Secular Proverb Ad campaign is a good example of tactics and leadership. As I understand the situation, there are people who prevent atheist messages from being placed in public. This blockage is an anti-atheist act; it is an attempt to stifle and oppress. In a secular society, the law must protect the opinions and expression of all individuals and groups and groups like CFI Canada must pursue the rights confirmed in law. If any religious views may be publicly promoted, then all religious and non-religious views must be allowed. Tolerance and diversity demands that any views which do not promote the harm of others must be equally respected and promoted. This is a case where – to paraphrase Marshall McLuhan – the ability to use the medium is the message.

I encourage adoption of a Code of Conduct document as a very useful tool to establish and enable the organization’s principles and values. In the ever-more-complex society in which we live, a Code of Conduct provides individuals and organizations with guidance to foster the desired outcomes of the organization. A Code of Conduct allows the organization to secure the expressed commitment to tactics as well as core perspectives; A Code of Conduct also provides a tool for the organization to protect itself from inappropriate and/or inconsistent behaviour of staff or volunteers that could arise from time to time. A Code of Conduct is not an attempt to stifle free-thought but a realistic tool to guide and focus attention on the organization’s mission.

8. Insofar as the near and far future of personal and professional activities connected to CFI Canada concern themselves – and you, what direction seems most probable for the future of CFI Canada to you?^[44]

CFI Canada is likely to continue to be a leader in identifying the most egregious harms of pseudoscience, religion and superstition and the most significant gaps in Canadian and international systems to bring those to public attention. CFIC may be expected to continue to grow and be more responsive to a diverse membership base and to be more sophisticated and creative in the solutions it develops. The intelligence and talent of the organizations members and volunteers is simply too great not to have that result. More diversity in the leadership in term of gender, culture, age and perspective will be obvious; the work of the organization will continue to be democratically driven by the membership.

In the near future I will be working toward the abolition of Canada’s blasphemy law, bringing and understanding of the dangers of superstitious thinking which create a situation where people with albinism are hunted for their body parts in Eastern Africa, and addressing health system issues here in Canada where pseudoscience or religion are threatening the health of people and the sustainability of the system.

In the longer run, I expect to see CFIC launch very significant targeted educational programs and to be the leverage organization known for its ability to partner and lead the Canadian secular and skeptical movement.

As regards, myself, I think I recognize my skills and my limitations. Organizations need different types of leaders at different times in their history. I will need to recognize when I am getting in the way of the organization’s will or ability to move forward. It will be a tough thing to recognize but there will be a point that I need to hand the guidance of CFIC over to a different leader with an ability to carry the organization to a new and higher level. Perhaps by then I will have learned and benefited sufficiently to be ready for a next opportunity.

[1] Please see LinkedIn (2015). Eric Adriaans: National Executive Director at Centre For Inquiry Canada.

[2] Please see Canadian Diabetes Association (2015). Canadian Diabetes Association.

[3] Please see The Kidney Foundation of Canada (2015). The Kidney Foundation of Canada.

[4] Please see The Arthritis Society (2015). The Arthritis Society.

[5] Please see Ottawa Humane Society (2015). Ottawa Humane Society.

[6] Please see Canadian Federation of Humane Societies (2015). Canadian Federation of Humane Societies.

[7] Please see Avocado Press (2015). Avocado Press.

[8] Please see The Lung Association (2015). The Lung Association.

[9] Please see Canadian Red Cross Society (2015). Canadian Red Cross Society.

[10] French title of Le Centre pour l’enquête.

[11] Please see CFI Canada (2015). About Us.

[12] Please see CFI Canada (2015). Contact Us.

[13] Please see CFI Canada (2015).

[14] Please see Adriaans, E. (2015, February 26). Centre for Inquiry Canada Statement of Values.

[15] Please see Adriaans, E. (2015, February 26). Centre for Inquiry Canada Statement of Values.

[16] Please see Adriaans, E. (2015, February 26). Centre for Inquiry Canada Statement of Values.

[17] For those with an interest in explicit statements of the principles undergirding humanism, the Humanist Manifesto I, Humanist Manifesto II, and Humanist Manifesto III, provide in depth information about values interrelated with those through the stipulation about section “III.” of the CFI Canada Statement of Values. Please see the next three footnotes for the versions of the humanist manifesto from 1933, 1973, and 2003, respectively, from the American Humanist Association.

[18] Please see American Humanist Association (2015). About The American Humanist Association.

[19] Please see American Humanist Association (2015). Humanist Manifesto I.

[20] Please see American Humanist Association (2015). Humanist Manifesto II.

[21] Please see American Humanist Association (2015). Humanist Manifesto III: Humanism and Its Aspirations.

[22] Please see CFI Canada (2015). Eric Adriaans appointed NED of CFI Canada.

[23] Please see Nasser, S. (2015, January 19). Blasphemy Is Still Illegal in Canada Even Though It’s 2015.

[24] Please see London Health Sciences Centre (2013, July 30). Lunching for a Cause: LHSC employee organizes fundraiser to help flood-ravaged Alberta.

[25] Please see Tucker, E. (2015, January 8). Charlie Hebdo attack prompts push to strike Canadian blasphemy law.

[26] Please see Nasser, S. (2015, January 8). Canada urged to seek release of journalist sentenced to flogging.

[27] Please see Abbass, V. (2014, February 10). Announcing CFI Canada’s New NED.

[28] Please see Nugent, M. (2015, February 12). Atheist Ireland meets with CFI Canada to announce charter of International Coalition Against Blasphemy Laws.

[29] Please see Beatty, G. (2015, April 30). God and Government.

[30] Please see Nasser, S. (2015, January 30). Atheist groups join forces to call for end of blasphemy laws around the world.

[31] Please see Chignall, S. (2015, march 27). Comments about atheism made by Duck Dynasty patriach show non-believers still face discrimination.

[32] Please see McGuire, S. (2014, December 27). CFI & Humanist Canada: Yey! ORF: Meh..

[33] Please see Advance, B. (2011, March 14). Donations pour in.

[34] Please see Laychak, G. (2015, April 1). Dawkins book denied distribution in Chilliwack schools.

[35] Please see CFI Canada (n.d.). Carl Sagan Day 20114 at CFI Canada!.

[36] Please see Nasser, S. (2015, January 24). In wake of Charlie Hebdo attacks, secularist groups to seek end of Canada’s blasphemy law.

[37] Please see Mehta, M. (2015, January 31). Atheist Groups Around the World Have Formed a Coalition To Eliminate Blasphemy Laws Everywhere.

[38] Please see CBC News (2015, April 17).Could the Canadian anthem be banned at NHL playoffs, jokes Naheed Nenshi.

[39] Please see Summer, S.A. (2006). THUNDER BAY RED CROSS MOVE TO CENTRAL LOCATION.

[40] Please see Gershman, J. (2015, January 8). Charlie Hebdo Attack Spurs Effort to Abolish Canada’s Blasphemy Law.

[41] Please see Government of Canada: External Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (2015, June 24). External Advisory Committee to the Office of Religious Freedom.

[42] Please see Teotonio, I. (2012, August 17). Recycling wheelchairs, medical devices proves challenging, but Red Cross can help.

[43] Please see Adamczyk, E. (2015, January 8). Canadian groups seek repeal of blasphemy law..

[44] Please see CFI Canada (2015). About Us.

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2023-01-29

Eric Adriaans: National Executive Director, Center for Inquiry Canada/CFIC/CFI Canada (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/08/08

ABSTRACT

Interview with Eric Adriaans. National Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry Canada (CFI Canada), and charitable sector leader, legislative drafting student, and writer. He discusses: geographic, cultural, and linguistic family background; pivotal moments in personal belief, personal life, with respect to humanism, secularism, skepticism, and with commentary on other “-isms”; personal writing and poetry through novel personal websites, and the inspiration for this self-expression; and academic, professional, and experiential qualifications with an emphasis on the assistance of each qualification to personal and professional life up to the present day.

Keywords: academic, charitable sector, Center for Inquiry Canada, Eric Adriaans, humanism, leadership, legislative drafting, National Executive Director, poetry, religious affiliation, secularism, self-expression, skepticism, writer.

*Incomplete, common reference style listing without access dates.*

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside?

My family and I currently reside in SouthWestern Ontario but we have lived just about everywhere a highway will take you in Ontario from Thunder Bay to Ottawa and from Elliot Lake to St. Thomas.

We are primarily Anglophones but like most Canadians and almost everyone who has spent significant time in Ottawa, we have a working knowledge of French. My daughter, Chloe-Lynne, and I have both attempted to pick up some German. She’s far more likely to be successful with that than I am.

Culture is an interesting question, isn’t it? My father was born in Germany but when he obtained Canadian citizenship, he proudly identified as Canadian. I don’t recall that he ever used the hyphenated language (ie. German-Canadian) that people use today. My mother’s family has English roots but has been in Ontario for many generations. Our home was a secular home – meaning religion did not play any significant role in my upbringing. I expect that my parents would have claimed a belief in a supernatural power but there was no religion in my upbringing. Our house was a blue-collar home with a healthy counter-authoritarian independent streak. Education and intelligence was, and is, valued in my family. Literature and reading were core expectations in my family.

For most of my elementary school years, we lived in Ontario’s Durham Region and were connected through my father and sister to the labour movement and the NDP. In today’s language, we might fairly be called social democrats.

My wife, who has been one of the most important influences on me as a cultural person is from a small town north of Montreal. In a way that is very Canadian, our slightly different cultures have come together in our house to create our own family culture that I would call contemporary Canadian. We love the diversity that this country offers.

2. What seem like pivotal moments in personal belief, and personal life, with respect to humanism, secularism, skepticism, and the associated suite of “-isms” relevant to you?

I consider myself fortunate to have been raised outside of religion in a home that was open to and embracing of people from other cultures. My earliest childhood friends were variously…. two kids from first nations families, a brother and sister whose family had immigrated to Canada from India and a couple of brothers from England. Basically, if you were different than me, I wanted to meet you and hang out. That eagerness for diversity and wanting to treat everyone as a valuable and equal person was fundamental. I observed the same trends in my older siblings, so I know it was part of how our family worked.

We were very reluctant to associate with “isms” and I continue to be uncomfortable with labels or the assumptions that come with them. That being said, there are perspectives which gain prominence. I suppose my skepticism came from a basic rule of our family. “Don’t believe them just because they say it’s so,” I heard that about everyone from employers and politicians to teachers or priests. Any authority figure was not to be accepted at face value.

Humanism is a term that I struggle with a bit; I prefer humanitarianism; that is charitable work done for the benefit of people, society, animals and the environment…that general “leave the world a better place” ethic but done without any religious framework. When I was in second-year University, I was choosing between English Literature studies and Psychology. Wanting to avoid significant student debt, I worked during the day. As chance would have it, I was out with a friend who was looking for work and learned about a job at the Canadian Diabetes Association. I was amazed that it was possible to have a career in the charitable sector (I assumed it was entirely volunteer driven) and the path for me was suddenly clear. The idea that my working life could be focused on helping people was simply too compelling not to act on. Humanism and humanitarianism seem to me to be intimately connected as philosophy and application.

Although the organizations I’ve worked for have always been secular (i.e. not religiously affiliated and embracing modern diversity), I was not a part of the specifically secular movement until I joined CFIC in 2014. As most Canadians have been exposed to issues of faith-based bigotry and violence, so was I. From religious opposition to women’s health progress or physician assisted dying to issues of fanaticism or terrorism…the harms and dangers of religion seemed to have become more prominent to everyone’s attention. I recognized that my former status as a polite agnostic might need to shift to impolite atheist-agnostic in order to defend basic human rights.

3. You have done some writing and poetry through personal websites.^[1]^{,[2],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7],[8],[9],[10],[11]}Your writing remains new. In that, the outlets exist, to date, for only a short time. What inspires these forms of self-expression?

Creative writing and journalling has always been an extremely important part of my self-development. Writing allows me to work out my thoughts and try on new ways to communicate. In my poetry, I’ve explored what I think may be new rhyme structures while retaining a deep respect and appreciation for highly formalized structures like sonnets or haiku. I suppose it is the challenge of expressing an idea or creating an image within a pre-determined structure that appeals to me. So often people think they want to do something that is “outside the box” when they may not even know what they can do inside the box.

Whether it is writing or some other undertakings, I am something of a nomad. I am interested in some pursuits for what I can learn or explore. So my writing is sometimes retained only for a short period of time until I’m ready to move on. I don’t hold my prior accomplishments up as significant unless they are informing something that I am working on now or wish to work on in the future. What I do now is intended to help me drive forward.

Sometimes my pursuits are to help me learn something or work on a part of my character. I spent several years watching CFL football and listening to the commentary, because I wanted to understand if the many football metaphors I noticed in the language of business and day-to-day life held any validity. I did eventually become a football fan but it started as an intellectual exercise rather than as a passion. Recently I took up motorcycle riding. I was amazed by the experience of learning a new basic physical skill – the interactions of balance, controlling fear, focusing awareness, coordinating movements.

Self-expression is about communicating something of yourself to others. We do it for strategic reasons whether it is through the way we dress, what we write or anything we do as an attempt to reach others. For me that is all about what I’m learning today, helping others, growing as a person and preparing for tomorrow.

4. You earned a Bachelor of Arts, psychology and English, from 1987 to 1992 at Carleton University.^[12]^,[13] In addition to this, you hold the following certifications: Volunteer Development (1994), Fundraising Management (1999), FDZ Licence (2005), Certified Automotive Fleet Manager (2010), PB Diploma (2014) – with continued education in Legislative Drafting at Athabasca University.^[14]^,[15],[16]Within each domain, the consistent pragmatic elements of charitable leadership and work, management of individuals, and clear communication seem prominent to me, how does each qualification assist in personal and professional life to the present day?

What we learn as individuals today helps to make future options either possible or out of reach. I wanted to learn how to drive large commercial vehicles at one time my life and that positioned me as a uniquely qualified candidate for a specific career opportunity at the Canadian Red Cross Society – not many people have a long charitable sector management background and the capacity to operate commercial vehicles). That career opportunity gave me the opportunity to study legislation and how to communicate the need for regulatory compliance to a variety of people, which in turn led to further studies and opportunities. It may be that my most valuable skills have been literary, an ability to recognize strategically important information and to communicate what I learn.

If you aren’t able to communicate what you know, then the information isn’t of much value to anyone. That to me has been the value of my English literature and language studies.

Leadership in the charitable sector has always been a very clear situation to me. Given the dependence of charitable organizations on volunteers, if people don’t like you or what you’re trying to do, they won’t help. Pretty simple. So I have always looked at it as a situation of creating an environment where people are not only able to do the work of the organization but actively want to do it. You have to show that you are aspiring to be the best representative of the organization that you can be.

I actively manage myself more than anybody else; in life and in charitable organizations we have to learn, understand, communicate and drive forward to new and better circumstances and outcomes. We’re here to make things better. The status quo is always a launching point to a better tomorrow.

[1] See Adriaans, E. (n.d.). BlackerletterWorks.

[2] See Adriaans, E. (2015, June 21). Expand.

[3] See Adriaans, E. (2015, June 21). During Those Years.

[4] See Adriaans, E. (2015, June 25). Csikzentmihalyi’s Flow Model.

[5] See Adriaans, E. (2015, June 26). Canada’s Criminal Code Section 14.

[6] See Adriaans, E. (2015, June 27). Something to Consider: Part One.

[7] See Adriaans, E. (2015, June 27). On Offence.

[8] See Adriaans, E. (2015, June 28). Clenching.

[9] See Adriaans, E. (n.d.). Commuter.

[10] See Adriaans, E. (n.d.). Home: Leviathan.

[11] See Adriaans, E. (n.d.). Shovel the Circumstance.

[12] See LinkedIn (2015). Eric Adriaans: National Executive Director at Centre For Inquiry Canada.

[13] See Carleton University. (2015). Carleton University.

[14] Ibid.

[15] See Adriaans, E. (n.d.). Eric Adriaans.

[16] See Athabasca University (2015). Athabasca University.

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2023-01-29

Paul Cooijmans: Independent Psychometitor; Administrator, The Giga Society; Administrator, The Glia Society (Part Five)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/08/01

ABSTRACT

Interview with Paul Cooijmans. Independent psychometitor and administrator of The Glia Society and The Giga Society. He discusses: consistent theme of humor or dry humor with samples, and purpose of humor in the high-range intelligence testing business; and the final question from another interview from September, 2011, answered about Mr. Cooijmans by Mr. Cooijmans.

Keywords: administrator, dry humor, high-range intelligence testing, humor, Paul Cooijmans, psychometitor, The Giga Society, The Glia Society.

*Incomplete, common reference style listing without access dates.*

13. You write on topics including intelligence with analyses connected to definitions.^[1]^{,[2],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7],[8],[9],[10],[11],[12],[13],[14],[15],[16],[17],[18],[19],[20],[21],[22],[23],[24],[25],[26],[27],[28],[29],[30]}Furthermore, you wrote on Asperger’s syndrome, psychology, personality and other tests, Psi tests, human evolution, the occult, ethics, music, interviews, and even books.^[31]^{,[32],[33],[34],[35],[36],[37],[38],[39],[40],[41],[42],[43],[44],[45],[46],[47],[48],[49],[50],[51],[52],[53],[54],[55],[56],[57],[58],[59],[60],[61],[62],[63],[64],[65],[66],[67],[68],[69],[70],[71],[72],[73],[74],[75],[76],[77],[78],[79],[80],[81],[82],[83],[84],[85],[86],[87],[88],[89],[90],[91],[92],[93],[94],[95],[96],[97],[98],[99],[100],[101],[102],[103],[104],[105],[106],[107],[108],[109],[110],[111],[112],[113],[114],[115],[116],[117],[118],[119],[120],[121],[122],[123],[124],[125]}You wrote on running, economics, politics, philosophy, informatics too.^[126]^{,[127],[128],[129],[130],[131],[132],[133],[134],[135],[136],[137],[138],[139],[140],[141],[142],[143],[144],[145],[146],[147],[148],[149],[150],[151],[152],[153],[154],[155],[156],[157],[158]}Even further, you, with generosity, provide hyperlinks to extensive resources and others’ writings – even tests.^[159]^{,[160],[161],[162],[163],[164],[165],[166],[167],[168],[169],[170],[171],[172],[173],[174],[175],[176],[177],[178],[179],[180],[181],[182],[183],[184],[185],[186],[187],[188],[189],[190],[191],[192]}What inspires the breadth of intellectual interests for you?

The inspiration has remained the same as in childhood: the desire to know and understand everything. I can not stand it when I do not know and understand the essence of something. Over time, this has driven me to look at an ever wider range of topics. I fear it is a weakness rather than a strength; a sustained focus on one field would have been better to reach my potential, but one has forgotten to explain that to me when I was young. I believe this wide scope if interests is characteristic of intelligent individuals, and also has to do with a lack of guidance, with there being no one to push you in the right direction.

14. One consistent theme, connected to the presence of information relevant to the high intelligence world, remains humor, sometimes dry humor.^[193]^{,[194],[195],[196],[197],[198],[199],[200],[201],[202],[203],[204],[205],[206],[207],[208],[209],[210],[211],[212],[213],[214]} For instance, in the contact information web page under a heading called Legally required public health warning, you state:

Communication with Paul Cooijmans has proven stressful and traumatic for a small minority of correspondents, and may lead to involuntary hospitalization of persons thus disposed. Please take no chances with your mental health; have a good strong cup of coffee before initiating correspondence, and keep telephone numbers of emergency services within reach. If needed, consult your physician or psychiatrist first.^[215]

Further, I bring to bear some of the individual photographs based in the sets of photographs from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s.^[216]^{,[217],[218],[219],[220],[221],[222],[223],[224],[225],[226]}Other sets of photographs remain more regular, mundane of various local objects and areas.^[227]^{,[228],[229],[230],[231],[232],[233],[234],[235],[236],[237],[238],[239],[240],[241],[242],[243],[244],[245],[246],[247],[248],[249],[250],[251],[252]}^,[253],[254]What purpose does humor serve in the independent psychometric business from the view of the psychometitor? (For those harboring further desire for contact information, these hyperlinks exist too, in the following footnotes of this sentence.^{[255],[256],[257],[258],[259]})

Humour is an extremely powerful and robust test of intelligence and associative horizon, of which it is a combination. One can cheat when taking an I.Q. test, but one can not feign a sense of humour. When I once announced that candidates not satisfied with their score could buy additional I.Q. points from me, quite a few indignant reactions followed, most notably from at least two (2) admissions officers of I.Q. societies, who therewith involuntarily exposed their low level of comprehension. When chumps like that are in charge of a society’s admission policy, that explains the ineffectiveness thereof, explains the acceptance of many tests lacking any validity in the relevant I.Q. range, and explains the large numbers of clearly unqualified members in such societies.

15. To conclude this interview, you were asked in an interview from September 2011 about desired questions from interviewers.^[260]You responded:

There are many such questions, and it would take the rest of my life to list and answer them. But a few that come to mind are: “How on Earth is it possible that someone of your quality is not married or otherwise reproducing his genetic material, given that, from the viewpoint of eugenics, those of higher ability should procreate lavishly?”^[261]

Therefore, I ask, “How on Earth is it possible that someone of your quality is not married or otherwise reproducing his genetic material, given that, from the viewpoint of eugenics, those of higher ability should procreate lavishly?^[262]

That is an excellent question, and I could hardly have phrased it better myself. The answer is that girls and women tend to have extraordinarily bad taste in men, presumably as a relic of earlier stages of evolution when the men who made the most kills in tribal warfare or hunting acquired the greatest procreative results. Not for nothing do or did many cultures entertain the so attractive custom of arranged marriages. When mate choice is left free, the best are left over, as my case so painfully illuminates.

To repair this, may I suggest the implementation of a delightful array of measures to encourage and facilitate the breeding of those of higher quality, who in modern society are at risk of reduced fertility: think of (genome-based) matchmaking services with binding outcome, sperm and ovum banks, and D.N.A. banks. This includes both the natural mode of procreation and methods like artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, and in certain cases cloning; cloning is the only way to retain a precise genetic configuration underlying genius.

On the other side of the spectrum, it is imperative that criminals are forcefully kept from reproducing; after all, one does not want to be mopping with the tap running, does one? The current softness on crime, with the disproportionately high reproductive fitness of violent evildoers in particular that results therefrom, is a deceptive dead end on our path to a world of peace and safety for all the good people.

There are two modes of contributing to society: procreation and creation. The procreative person passes one’s genes on to posterity, the creative individual produces scientific or artistic work for generations to come. Imagine the two biblical arks as symbolizing these modes; Noah’s ark housed a male and a female of each species, the Ark of the Covenant contained the laws. Schemes as advised above reconcile the two arks, feeding the modes back into each other in an upward spiral of human quality, leading to a world without violence, crime, terror, or war. Our magnum opus is to realize that Arcadia.

[1] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). I.Q. and real-life functioning.

[2] See Cooijmans, P. (2010, August). I.Q. development with age modelled.

[3] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Beware of megalomaniacs.

[4] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Sex differences in intelligence.

[5] See Cooijmans, P. (2013, September). Sex differences on high-range I.Q. tests analysed.

[6] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Hardness.

[7] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.) Statistics explained.

[8] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The g factor.

[9] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.).Accepting high-range mental ability tests for admission purposes.

[10] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Estimate g factor loading.

[11] See Cooijmans, P. (2010, August). Extended intelligence scale.

[12] See Cooijmans, P. (2009, August). Why “I.Q.” is spelt with periods.

[13] See Cooijmans, P. (2008). Robustness, validity and reliability.

[14] See Cooijmans, P. (2014, December). Findings versus expectations: In the study of high-range mental testing.

[15] See Cooijmans, P. (2013, October). The differentiation hypothesis of g tested.

[16] See Cooijmans, P. (2010, July). Why quoting percentages of I.Q.’s betrays incompetence.

[17] See Cooijmans, P. (2004). Interpretation of Childhood I.Q..

[18] See Cooijmans, P. (2006, December). Correlation versus causation.

[19] See Cooijmans, P. (2006, December). Ability types measured by high-range tests.

[20] See Cooijmans, P. (2006, April). The size of the vocabulary disadvantage in a non-native language.

[21] See Cooijmans, P. (2008, March). Reasons to avoid the term “gifted”.

[22] See Cooijmans, P. (2010, May). Recommendations for conducting high-range intelligence tests.

[23] See Cooijmans, P. (2010, December). Pitfalls for high-range psychometricians.

[24] See Cooijmans, P. (2013). Norming of high-range I.Q. tests.

[25] See Cooijmans, P. (2013). Issues in the norming of high-range tests.

[26] See Cooijmans, P. (2013). Reasons to express I.Q. with a standard deviation of 15.

[27] See Cooijmans, P. (2006). On the relative weight of item types in a mixed-item test.

[28] See Cooijmans, P. (2014). The location of the 99.9^th centile.

[29] See Cooijmans, P. (2014). Individualism: the plague of the high-I.Q. community.

[30] See Cooijmans, P. (2006). On the admission of psychologists.

[31] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Straight talk about asperger syndrome.

[32] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Gifted Adult’s Inventory of Aspergerisms.

[33] See Cooijmans, P. (2009, September). Asperger’s 1944 article summarized.

[34] See Cooijmans, P. (2014, October). Some thoughts on Bettelheim’s The Empty Fortress.

[35] See Cooijmans, P. (2003). Spatial ability and autism.

[36] See Cooijmans, P. (2010). Body language: The walking ink blot.

[37] See Cooijmans, P. (2011, March). Mistaking inquiry for request.

[38] See Cooijmans, P. (2014, May). Recognizing pseudoscience.

[39] See Cooijmans, P. (2005). The psychology of false information.

[40] See Cooijmans, P. (2005). The psychology of the occult.

[41] See Cooijmans, P. (2004). Genius, Gifted, Prodigy, or Savant?.

[42] See Cooijmans, P. (2006). Early Memories.

[43] See Cooijmans, P. (2014). Introversion versus extraversion.

[44] See Cooijmans, P. (2005). Comment on the Unabomber’s Manifesto.

[45] See Cooijmans, P. (1999). Definition of G.

[46] See Cooijmans, P. (1999). Explanation of G.

[47] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). GAIA: Gifted Adult’s Inventory of Aspergerisms.

[48] See Cooijmans, P. (2009, September). Gifted Adult’s Inventory of Aspergerisms (GAIA) – Statistical Report.

[49] See Cooijmans, P. (2007). Personality Scales for Intelligent Adults (P.S.I.A.).

[50] See Cooijmans, P. (2012). Explanation of the Personality Scales for Intelligent Adults.

[51] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Old articles.

[52] See Cooijmans, P. (1995, July). Test For Genius.

[53] See Cooijmans, P. (1996, February). Letter about Test For Genius.

[54] See Cooijmans, P. (1994, June 21). Graduator.

[55] See Cooijmans, P. (1997, September). The Nemesis Test – Introduction.

[56] See Cooijmans, P. (2014, February). The Nemesis Test – Statistics.

[57] See Cooijmans, P. (1998, January). Letter about Test For ESP.

[58] See Cooijmans, P. (1998, March). Editorial policy.

[59] See Cooijmans, P. (1998, June). Letter about awareness.

[60] See Cooijmans, P. (1998, September). Institute For Advanced Study.

[61] See Cooijmans, P. (2012). Psi Tests.

[62] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Personality tests.

[63] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Psychology.

[64] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Asperger syndrome.

[65] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). GliaWeb I.Q. Societies.

[66] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Intelligence.

[67] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Challenge Distinction: Brennan Martin Prize for ESP.

[68] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). PSIMETRIC REMOTE VIEWING EXAMINATION: The World’s Most Difficult PSI Test.

[69] See Cooijmans, P. (2006). Test for psychokinesis.

[70] See Cooijmans, P. (2007, July). Interview with Craig Smith.

[71] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). References regarding the possible mechanism behind psi phenomena.

[72] See Cooijmans, P. (2010). Human evolution.

[73] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). I.Q. and real-life functioning.

[74] See Cooijmans, P. (2014, May). The paradox of inherited homosexuality.

[75] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Eating meat.

[76] See Cooijmans, P. (2008, April). Interview with Sarah Kraak.

[77] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Developments in the 21st century.

[78] See Cooijmans, P. (2005). The psychology of the occult.

[79] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Initiation.

[80] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Transmutation.

[81] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Decoding the trice-greatest.

[82] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Ethics.

[83] See Cooijmans, P. (2015, January). Test for extrasensory perception (E.S.P.).

[84] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Test for E.S.P. – The cards.

[85] See Cooijmans, P. (2004, April). Interview with Wim Rietjik.

[86] See Cooijmans, P. (2012, December). Field of eternal integrity.

[87] See Cooijmans, P. (2012, December). What the Hanged Man sees.

[88] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Short truths.

[89] See Cooijmans, P. (2008). The pacifist’s fallacy.

[90] See Cooijmans, P. (2010, February). Arguments against punishment countered.

[91] See Cooijmans, P. (2010, January). The fallacies of “victimless crime” and “idiot tax”.

[92] See Cooijmans, P. (1999, June). Crime and sentence.

[93] See Cooijmans, P. (2014, November). Pro-doping arguments refuted.

[94] See Cooijmans, P. (2015, February). Abbreviations and altruism.

[95] See Cooijmans, P. (2015, May). Who abuses whom in prostitution.

[96] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Qoymans Court – Supreme Court over the United Universes.

[97] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Qoymans Court Verdict room.

[98] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Qoymans Court Rejected cases.

[99] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Archived verdicts.

[100] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Negative reactions.

[101] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Death Threat.

[102] See Cooijmans, P. (2009). Borrowed and never returned.

[103] See Cooijmans, P. (2007, July). Suicide attacks.

[104] See Cooijmans, P. (1990). The neddiH dlroW of Interval.

[105] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Analysis of J.S. Bach’s Prelude I.

[106] See Cooijmans, P. (2002). Qoymans Intervallic Converter.

[107] See Cooijmans, P. (1998, January). Stairway to Heaven, or… lleH ot yawhgiH?.

[108] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). .Music books for sale.

[109] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Hit selection 1964-1984.

[110] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Articles related to music.

[111] See Cooijmans, P. (2013, April). Undergoing a herniated disk operation.

[112] See Cooijmans, P. (2011, October). Undergoing an ingrown toenail operation.

[113] See Cooijmans, P. (2013). Treating tics with haloperidol.

[114] See Cooijmans, P. (2012, July). Teeth grinding damage.

[115] See Cooijmans, P. (2009). Side effects of paroxetine.

[116] See Cooijmans, P. (2014, July). Exercises for knees, back, and neck.

[117] See Cooijmans, P. (2015, February). Measures against chilblains.

[118] See Cooijmans, P. (2010, July). The donor organ shortage resolved.

[119] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Medical.

[120] See Cooijmans, P. (2003). Memory game.

[121] See Cooijmans, P. (2008). Vocabulary #1.

[122] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 10 Puzzle IQ Test (Randomly Generated).

[123] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Supernerd Crossword Test.

[124] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Crosswords.

[125] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Crosswords.

[126] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Running.

[127] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Race results.

[128] See Cooijmans, P. (2015, January). Safer, better, faster.

[129] See Cooijmans, P. (2007, May). Trainable variables in running.

[130] See Cooijmans, P. (2014). Training statistics.

[131] See Cooijmans, P. (2006). Running and paroxetine.

[132] See Cooijmans, P. (2014). Running.

[133] See Cooijmans, P. (1998, March). Cooper Test estimated percentiles.

[134] See Cooijmans, P. (2014, July). Fallacies and false arguments in economics.

[135] See Cooijmans, P. (2008, January). Why lotteries are bad.

[136] See Cooijmans, P. (2010). Money.

[137] See Cooijmans, P. (2005). Coins.

[138] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Hypothetical party program.

[139] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Politics.

[140] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Vote weighting.

[141] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Organizational structures.

[142] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Philosophy.

[143] See Cooijmans, P. (2006). The “prisoner’s dilemma” solved.

[144] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Truth – The proof of its existence.

[145] See Cooijmans, P. (2011, February). The difference between “aware” and “on purpose”.

[146] See Cooijmans, P. (2002). Principles and dichotomies.

[147] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Supreme Oracle of the United Universes.

[148] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Oracle – X.

[149] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Instant Oracle.

[150] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Oracles Archive.

[151] See Cooijmans, P. (2008, August). The Verification Coordinate.

[152] See Cooijmans, P. (2008). The Time Window – A Physical Approach to Awareness.

[153] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Informatics.

[154] See Cooijmans, P. (2011). How to participate in an e-mail forum.

[155] See Cooijmans, P. (2014). Intelligent web design.

[156] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Writing text in HTML for beginners.

[157] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Keyboard use in Windows.

[158] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Cooijman’s Canal Run.

[159] See Kaczinksi, T. (n.d.). Industrial Society and Its Future.

[160] See Johnson, S.C.(n.d.). Psychological Evaluation of Theodore Kaczynski.

[161] See Johnson, S.C.(n.d.). Psychological Evaluation of Theodore Kaczynski (continued).

[162] See Johnson, S.C.(n.d.). Psychological Evaluation of Theodore Kaczynski (continued).

[163] See Johnson, S.C.(n.d.). Psychological Evaluation of Theodore Kaczynski (continued).

[164] See Cooijmans, P. (2011, February). Undergoing an M.R.I. scan.

[165] See The Brussels Journal (2015). The Brussels Journal.

[166] See Dubois, L. (2001). 9I6.

[167] See Harris, B. (n.d.). Brendan Harris.

[168] See Ivec, I. (n.d.). NUMERUS BASIC.

[169] See Lygeros, N. (n.d.). G-test.

[170] See Soulios, N.U.(n.d.). Mach (spatial).

[171] See Durgin, S. (n.d.). Love Poetry.

[172] See Martin, B. (n.d.). World I.Q. Challenge.

[173] See Herkner, A. (n.d.). Sequentia Numerica – Form I.

[174] See Wai, J. (2002). Strict Logic Sequences Examination – Form I.

[175] See Wai, J. (2004). Strict Logic Sequences Examination – Form II.

[176] See Wai, J. (2003). Strict Logic Spatial Examination 48.

[177] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Tests by others.

[178] See Durgin, S. (n.d.). Life is short.

[179] See Durgin, S. (n.d.). Enigma 10.

[180] See Durgin, S. (n.d.). Enigma 9.

[181] See Durgin, S. (n.d.). Enigma 8.

[182] See Durgin, S. (n.d.). Enigma 7.

[183] See Durgin, S. (n.d.). Enigma 6.

[184] See Durgin, S. (n.d.). Enigma 5.

[185] See Durgin, S. (n.d.). Enigma 4.

[186] See Durgin, S. (n.d.). Enigma 3.

[187] See Durgin, S. (n.d.). Enigma 2.

[188] See Durgin, S. (n.d.). Enigma 1.

[189] See Vincelette, B. (n.d.). Cultural Hygiene Machines.

[190] See Durgin, S. (n.d.). Redemption.

[191] See Durgin, S. (n.d.). Hidden.

[192] See Durgin, S. (n.d.). Ainsoph.

[193] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Expressions Of Gratitude From Satisfied Customers!.

[194] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Watch It Grow!.

[195] See Cooijmans, P. (1997, January). Computer Defeats Vagant.

[196] See Cooijmans, P. (2001, October 2). Maximum joins gigalo.

[197] See Cooijmans, P. (2001, June 13). Maximum Orange Attempts Spaced-out Admission Test – Pass?.

[198] See Cooijmans, P. (2001, August 9). The Strange Case of Dr Fabius and Mr Lang.

[199] See Cooijmans, P. (2001, September 7). Philosophers Improve Gene Pool.

[200] See Cooijmans, P. (2002, January 1). Maximum Orange’s Last Move.

[201] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Interview with P.A. John W. Cageman.

[202] See Cooijmans, P. (2001, March). Who’s Who in Upperland.

[203] See Cooijmans, P. (1998). The Ultimate Sleep: I The Lecture – Inspector Longone – Dr Hölin’s House.

[204] See Cooijmans, P. (1998). The Ultimate Sleep: II Dr Hölin – The Chez Maxim Talk – The Meeting.

[205] See Cooijmans, P. (1999). The Ultimate Sleep: III Dr Fabius – Dr Cageman – The Black Sisterhood.

[206] See Cooijmans, P. (1999). The Ultimate Sleep: IV The White Lodge.

[207] See Cooijmans, P. (1999). The Ultimate Sleep: V Mr Fredriks –sloBrain – The White Lodge.

[208] See Cooijmans, P. (1999). The Ultimate Sleep: VI Wendy – Eric Hart.

[209] See Cooijmans, P. (2003, February). The Ultimate Sleep: VII – Eric Hart.

[210] See Cooijmans, P. (1998, July). The Time Lords.

[211] See Cooijmans, P. (1998, August). HEAVEN.COM.

[212] See Cooijmans, P. (1998, October). Official Report from Dr. What.

[213] See Cooijmans, P. (1998, September). Footnote.

[214] See Cooijmans, P. (1998). True Story of Mr Pants, Mr Young and Dr Cageman.

[215] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Contact information.

[216] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Photos of Paul Cooijmans.

[217] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 1965 – Recording early compositions.

[218] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 1966 – Inspecting the real estate.

[219] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 1968 – Renewing the pavement.

[220] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 1971 – Supervising the woodworking class.

[221] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 1988 – On a dark road.

[222] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 1993 – Branches growing out of my head.

[223] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 2003 – Briefly after the lobotomy.

[224] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 2010 – With blue mirror-sunglasses from 1980 (see relevant photo of 1980 above) and matching shirt from early 1970s.

[225] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Catweazle rehearsal 1984: Paul Cooijmans taking a photograph of Paul Cooijmans while looking upward.

[226] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 2013 – You may get some strange looks now and then in the streets, but it does help with a stiff neck.

[227] Each of the following footnotes referencing photos have copyright from 1978 to the present, as stated in the index for them. Therefore, their reference dates shall list 2015 rather than some other references with “n.d.” standing for “no date.”

[228] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Photos taken around Lieshout, winter 1979.

[229] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Winter 1979, around the house.

[230] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Room interior of Paul Cooijmans, 1979.

[231] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Photos taken around Lieshout, summer 1979.

[232] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Autumn 1979, near Lieshout.

[233] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Winter 1980, near Lieshout.

[234] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Winter 1980 (2), near Lieshout.

[235] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Pinkpop 1980 – Photos.

[236] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Photos of Paul Cooijmans’ room interior, 1980.

[237] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Photos taken around Lieshout, summer 1980.

[238] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Room interior and Sinterklaas 1981.

[239] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). School journey to England, 1981.

[240] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Room interior and moped, 1982.

[241] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Ampeg VT22 guitar amplifier and lock, 1983.

[242] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Room interior, 1984.

[243] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Catweazle rehearsal 1984.

[244] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Room interior and studio recording session, 1985.

[245] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Various photos while a conservatory student, 1988.

[246] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Summer 1992.

[247] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Summer 1992, interior and around the house 1993.

[248] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Interior and recumbent, 1995.

[249] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Index of /photography/f2001mariahout.

[250] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Index of /photography/f2001canal.

[251] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Index of /photography/f2001dec.

[252] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Index of /photography/interior2000s.

[253] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Index of /photography/f2005autumn.

[254] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Index of /photography/f2007toren.

[255] For those with further information, especially with respect to newsletters, personal contacts, the footnotes following this one give some appropriate web pages.

[256] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Contact information.

[257] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Paul Cooijmans.

[258] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Glia Society: Contact Information.

[259] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Contact Information: I.Q. Tests for the High Range.

[260] See Cooijmans, P. 2011, September). Interview with Paul Cooijmans.

[261] Ibid.

[262] Ibid.

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Cooijmans, P. (2015). Interior and recumbent, 1995. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1995/.
Cooijmans, P. (2014). Intelligent web design. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/informatics/web.html.
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Cooijmans, P. (1998, September). Institute For Advanced Study. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/old/ifas.html.
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Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Initiation. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/occult/initiation.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Informatics. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/informatics/.
Cooijmans (2009). Inferiority – the opposite of genius. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/genius/inferior.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014). Individualism: the plague of the high-I.Q. community. Retrieved from http://www.gigasociety.com/iqsocieties/individualism.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Index of /photography/interior2000s. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/interior2000s/.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Index of /photography/f2007toren. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f2007toren/.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Index of /photography/f2005autumn. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f2005autumn/.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Index of /photography/f2001dec. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f2001dec/.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Index of /photography/f2001mariahout. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f2001mariahout/.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Index of /photography/f2001canal. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f2001canal/.
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Cooijmans, P. (2010, September). Human degeneration. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/evolution/human_degeneration.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2011). How to participate in an e-mail forum. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/informatics/how_to_participate_in_an_email_forum.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, July). Hold leg up. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/medical/exercises/hold_leg_up.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Hit selection 1964-1984. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/music/hit.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2007). High-range score distribution. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/old/hr_distr.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015, January). High-range I.Q. Scores by year. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/hr_years.html
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). High-range I.Q. scores by age group. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/age.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1998, August). HEAVEN.COM. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/prose/upperland/heaven.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Hardness. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/hardness.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, July). Hanging on door. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/medical/exercises/hanging_on_door.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Guitars owned by Paul Cooijmans. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/music/guitars/.
Cooijmans, P. (1994, June 21). Graduator. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/old/graduator.gif.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). GliaWeb running average (GRAVE). Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/grave.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). GliaWebNews. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/gwn/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). GliaWeb I.Q. Societies. Retrieved from http://www.gigasociety.com/iqsocieties/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Glia Web Young and Intelligent. Retrieved from https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Glia_13_19/info.
Cooijmans, P. (2003). Glia Society Memory Game. Retrieved from http://www.gliasociety.org/games/memory.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Glia Society Mastermind. Retrieved from http://www.gliasociety.org/games/mastermind.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Glia Society Crossword. Retrieved from http://www.gliasociety.org/games/cross.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2009, September). Gifted Adult’s Inventory of Aspergerisms (GAIA) – Statistical Report. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/gaia.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015, March). Genius Association Test statistics. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/gat.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). GAIA: Gifted Adult’s Inventory of Aspergerisms. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/personalitytests/asperger.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2004). Genius, Gifted, Prodigy, or Savant?. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psychology/genius_gifted_prodigy_savant.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Genius and Creativity. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/genius/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Genius. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/genius/genius.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2011). Gazelle Tour de France. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/medical/gazelle_tour_de_france1978.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Frequently encountered fallacies regarding test-related statistics. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/fallacies.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Frequently Asked Questions To The Giga Society. Retrieved from http://www.gigasociety.com/faq.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1998, September). Footnote. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/prose/upperland/footnote.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, December). Findings versus expectations: In the study of high-range mental testing. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/intelligence/findings.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2012, December). Field of eternal integrity. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/prose/field_of_eternal_integrity.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, July). Fallacies and false arguments in economics. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/economics/fallacies.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2010, August). Extended intelligence scale. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/intelligence/extended_intelligence_scale.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Expressions Of Gratitude From Satisfied Customers. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/boost_your_iq.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2012). Explanation of the Personality Scales for Intelligent Adults. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/personalitytests/psia_scales.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1999). Explanation of G. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psychology/gex.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, July). Exercises for knees, back, and neck. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/medical/exercises/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Ethics. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/ethics/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Estimate G Factor Loading. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/estimated_g_factor_loading.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1992). Een traktaat over de negrobrev dlerew der intervallen. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.nl/muziek/traktaat/.
Cooijmans, P. (1998, March). Editorial policy. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/old/edit_pol.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Eating meat. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/evolution/eating_meat.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2006). Early Memories. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psychology/early_memories.html.
Cooijmans, (2001). Early Guitar Compositions. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/compositions/egc.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Do You Qualify For The Giga Society?. Retrieved from http://www.gigasociety.com/qualification.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Developments in the 21st century. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/occult/century21.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Detailed personal information. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/profile.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1999). Definition of G. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psychology/gdef.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Decoding the trice-greatest. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/occult/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Death Threat. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/ethics/death_threat.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Crosswords. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/crosswords/crosswords_x1234.pdf.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Crosswords. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/crosswords/.
Cooijmans, P. (1999, June). Crime and sentence. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/ethics/crime.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2009, February 25). Creativity and Personality. Retrieved from http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Creativity_and_Personality.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Covariance. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/covariance.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Correlation with national I.Q.s Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/correlation_with_national_iqs.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2006, December). Correlation versus causation. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/intelligence/cor_cause.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Correlation. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/correlation.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Correction for attenuation. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/correction_for_attenuation.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Cooijman’s Canal Run. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/running/ccr/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Contact Information Of The Giga Society. Retrieved from http://www.gigasociety.com/contact.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Contact Information: I.Q. Tests for the High Range. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/contact.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Contact information. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/contact.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Constitution. Retrieved from http://www.gliasociety.org/constitution.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2010). Conscientiousness. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/genius/conscientiousness.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Congruence coefficient. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/congruence_coefficient.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1997, January). Computer Defeats Vagant. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/prose/upperland/compdef.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014). Compound score computer. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/compound.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Compositions by Paul Cooijmans. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/compositions/.
Cooijmans, P. (2005). Comment on the Unabomber’s Manifesto. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psychology/unabomber.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1998, March). Cooper Test estimated percentiles. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/running/coopertest.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2005). Coins. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/economics/coins.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Cloning: or otherwise reproducing the genetci material of Paul Cooijmans. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/cloning.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Challenge Distinction: Brennan Martin Prize for ESP. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psi/esp.html#bmartin.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Catweazle rehearsal 1984: Paul Cooijmans taking a photograph of Paul Cooijmans while looking upward. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1984rehearsal/f17_lamp.jpg.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Catweazle rehearsal 1984. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1984rehearsal/.
Cooijmans, P. (2009). Borrowed and never returned. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/ethics/theft.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2010). Body language: The walking ink blot. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psychology/body_language.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2011) Bicycles own by Paul Cooijmans. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/bicycles/banana1.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Beware of megalomaniacs. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/intelligence/megalomaniacs.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Balanced g factor loading. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/balanced_g_factor_loading.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Awards To High-Range I.Q. Test Candidates. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/awards.html
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Autumn 1979, near Lieshout. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1979autumn/.
Cooijmans, P. (2010). Associative Horizon. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/genius/associative_horizon.html
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Assessment. Retrieved from http://www.gliasociety.org/assessment.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Asperger syndrome. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/asperger/.
Cooijmans, P. (2009, September). Asperger’s 1944 article summarized. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/asperger/asperger_summarized.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Articles related to music. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/music/.
Cooijmans, P. (2010, February). Arguments against punishment countered. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/ethics/arguments_against_punishment_countered.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Archived verdicts. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/ethics/court/verdict_archive.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Analysis of J.S. Bach’s Prelude I. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/music/treatise/prelude.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Ampeg VT22 guitar amplifier and lock, 1983. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1983/.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, July). Against door. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/medical/exercises/against_door.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2009, January). Adjustment of the protonorms to norms conversion – Old report. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/old/normadjust_old.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2013, December 25). Adjustment of the protonorms to norms conversion (males). Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/normadjust.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2011, January 27). Adjustment of the protonorms to norms conversion. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/normadjust.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2013, December 25). Adjustment of the protonorms to norms conversion (males). Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/normadjust.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.).Accepting high-range mental ability tests for admission purposes. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/admission.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2006, December). Ability types measured by high-range tests. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/intelligence/hr_abilities.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015, February). Abbreviations and altruism. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/ethics/abbrev.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 2013 – You may get some strange looks now and then in the streets, but it does help with a stiff neck. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/paulcooijmans/pc2013nekstretcher.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 2010 – With blue mirror-sunglasses from 1980 (see relevant photo of 1980 above) and matching shirt from early 1970s. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/paulcooijmans/pc2010blueglasses.jpg.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 2003 – Briefly after the lobotomy. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/paulcooijmans/pc2003grimas.gif.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 1993 – Branches growing out of my head. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/paulcooijmans/pc1993.jpg.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 1988 – On a dark road. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/paulcooijmans/pc1988sepdarkroad.jpg.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 1971 – Supervising the woodworking class. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/paulcooijmans/pc1971school.jpg.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 1968 – Renewing the pavement. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/paulcooijmans/pc1968work.jpg.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 1966 – Inspecting the real estate. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/paulcooijmans/pc1966garden.jpg.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 1965 – Recording early compositions. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/paulcooijmans/pc1965.jpg.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). 10 Puzzle IQ Test (Randomly Generated). Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/10_puzzle_iq_test.html.
Cerebral’s Society (n.d.). Cerebral’s Society. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/link.html#iqsoc.
Bush, K. (n.d.). Kate Bush. Retrieved from http://www.dongrays.com/kate-bush/mp3/.
Brand, C. (2008). The gFactor – General Intelligence and its Implications. Retrieved from http://www.douance.org/qi/brandbook.htm.
Bergman (2015). Bergman’s IQ Test. Retrieved from http://www.bergmandata.com/.
Barnes, H.G. (2015, February 19). Los 9 clubes exclusivos en los que jamás te van a dejar entrar. Retrieved from http://www.elconfidencial.com/alma-corazon-vida/2015-02-19/los-9-clubes-exclusivos-en-los-que-jamas-te-van-a-dejar-entrar_714091/.
Ayawawa (n.d.). Ayawawa. Retrieved from http://blog.sina.com.cn/ayawawa.
Autism Research Centre. (n.d.). Autism Research Centre. Retrieved from http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/.
Aspires (n.d.). Aspires. Retrieved from http://www.aspires-relationships.com/.
com (n.d.). The Antiquity of Man: Anatomical and Behavioural Edition: Introduction. Retrieved from http://www.antiquityofman.com/index.html.
American Rennaissance (1992, September). A Conversation with Arthur Jensen, Part II. http://www.amren.com/ar/1992/09/.
American Rennaissance (1992, August). A Conversation with Arthur Jensen. Retrieved from http://www.amren.com/ar/1992/08/.
com (n.d.). IQ Tests. Retrieved from http://alliqtests.com/categories/.
Aha! Puzzles (n.d.). Aha! Puzzles. Retrieved from http://www.ahapuzzles.com/.
com (n.d.). 3SmartCubes.com – IQ & Personality Tests. Retrieved from http://www.3smartcubes.com/.
[z457731] (2013, June 8). Is there an accurate online IQ test for measuring 160+ Iqs?. Retrieved from http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/3600/is-there-an-accurate-online-iq-test-for-measuring-160-iqs.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2011, April 11). Walking with herniated disk L5-S1. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqy83zS-sM8
[Paul Cooijmans] (2011, December 12). Ut !. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VgSqP__xn4.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2013, November 8). Third miserable Paul Paulmans blues. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0oRDkF9TvI.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2013, March 7). Second miserable Paul Paulmans blues. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nIT4Nh1A0g.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2014, June 9). Sanctus (motet). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVQJPtwvNC4.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2008, December 18). New Amsterdam Times – Computer beats Vagant. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9NK-VUif04.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2010, May 16). Murine Dinner. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcoPWXrNnp8.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2009, January 5). Liquidatie (fragment). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11tcaQ1SEVM.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2009, February 16). Interview 1999 (Fragment). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdPDg_aYkJs.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2009, February 21). Interview 1996. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMUg15Ec9HE.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2011, December 22). If music and sweet poetry agree. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDW70IfLCpU.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2014, December 14). I wonder…. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ds_c_-soCU.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2011, December 14]. Jan met de pet. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ww1iKGGsoU.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2011, November 5). Fugue #3. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj4DgpJZoCo.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2011, November 23). Fugue#2. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqbb8DU5BE8.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2012, January 2). Fugue #1. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwOfzUCyrxo.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2009, April 21] Fugue, dedicated to apathy. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwmacp1AVpE.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2013, November 29). Fourth miserable Paul Paulmans blues. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dndiQxMNeQ.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2011, November 29). For who loves truth, the garrote called “life” is daily tightened a turn. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPoVDwAkXIM.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2008, December 13). Flying rhomb #2, December 2008. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKbU7DU2RWk.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2008, December 13). Flying rhomb #1. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIguRrBBazY.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2008, December 17). Flying rhomb #0, Autumn 2001. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gfkF6wOylQ.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2012, March 22). First miserable Paul Paulmans blues. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjlCyBA_Rn4.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2012, December 29). Field of eternal integrity – introduction. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG2IgD3ydak.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2008, December 29). En plezier doen. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2imIN8vI2Ss.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2009, April 21). Composition, dedicated to the singing of a very strange little bird. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqrQeRNdeag.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2011, October 26). Composition, dedicated to Pietje. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZshvNh8j5Ns.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2014, February 14). Chromatic Phantasy. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C41nyEOjIX8.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2012, January 20). Canon, 2-part, d Dorian (1987). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kumfyg8XpRM.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2011, November 12). Anti-hero. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB45teH1o7w.
[Paul Cooijmans] (2008, December 25). Absurd composition in plusminus B flat. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD2uWB1_UZg.
[irritatedattheprinter] (2014). Aphorisms by Paul Cooijmans-memorable quips for arguing. Retrieved from http://imgur.com/gallery/BZyQG.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Personality tests. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/personalitytests/.
Cooijmans, P. (2001, September 7). Philosophers Improve Gene Pool. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/prose/upperland/philosophers.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/philosophy/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Photos of Paul Cooijmans. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/paulcooijmans/.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Photos of Paul Cooijmans’ room interior, 1980. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1980interior/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Photos taken around Lieshout, summer 1979. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1979lieshout/.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Photos taken around Lieshout, winter 1979. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1979winter/.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Photos taken around Lieshout, summer 1980. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1980summer/.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Pinkpop 1980 – Photos. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1980pinkpop/.
Cooijmans, P. (2010, December). Pitfalls for high-range psychometricians. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/intelligence/pitfalls_for_high_range_psychometricians.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Politics. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/politics/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Preliminary norms. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/preliminary_norms.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2002). Principles and dichotomies. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/philosophy/principle.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Prize Of The Beheaded Man. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/prize_behead.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, November). Pro-doping arguments refuted. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/ethics/doping.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Proportion outscored. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/proportion_outscored.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Protonorms. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/protonorms.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Protonorms to norms conversion table. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/protonorms/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Protonorms to norms conversion table (lower values). Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/protonorms/lower.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2012). Psi Tests. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psi/.
Cooijmans, P. (2010, September). PSIA System Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/psia/sys.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). PSIMETRIC REMOTE VIEWING EXAMINATION: The World’s Most Difficult PSI Test. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psi/preview.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Psychology. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psychology/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Qoymans Court – Supreme Court over the United Universes. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/ethics/court/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Qoymans Court Rejected cases. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/ethics/court/rejected_cases.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Qoymans Court Verdict room. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/ethics/court/verdict.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2002). Qoymans Intervallic Converter. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/music/interval.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2011, October). Qoymans Multiple-Choice #5 Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/qmc5.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Qualification. Retrieved from http://www.gliasociety.org/qualification.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Quality. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/quality.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Quality of norms. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/quality_of_norms.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Quartile deviation. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/quartile_deviation.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Race results. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/running/race_results.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Range. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/range.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2006). Rareness and discontinuity of genius. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/genius/rar_disc_genius.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Raw score. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/raw_score.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2008, March). Reasons to avoid the term “gifted”. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/intelligence/gifted.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2013). Reasons to express I.Q. with a standard deviation of 15. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/intelligence/sd15.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, May). Recognizing pseudoscience. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psychology/pseudoscience.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2010, May). Recommendations for conducting high-range intelligence tests. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/intelligence/recommend.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). References regarding the possible mechanism behind psi phenomena. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psi/references.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Registration. Retrieved from http://www.gliasociety.org/registration.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Reliability. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/reliability.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Report Fraud In Qualifying For The Giga Society. Retrieved from http://www.gigasociety.com/report_fraud.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Resolution. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/resolution.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2008). Robustness, validity and reliability. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/intelligence/validity.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Room interior, 1984. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1984interior/.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Room interior and moped, 1982. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1982/.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Room interior and Sinterklaas 1981. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1981interior/.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Room interior and studio recording session, 1985. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1985/.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Room interior of Paul Cooijmans, 1979. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1979interior/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Running. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/running/.
Cooijmans, P. (2014). Running. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/running/running.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2006). Running and paroxetine. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/running/running_parox.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015, January). Safer, better, faster. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/running/safer.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). School journey to England, 1981. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1981england/.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, July). Scoliosis. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/medical/exercises/scoliosis.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Section statistics. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/section_statistics.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2013, September). Sex differences on high-range I.Q. tests analysed. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/sex_differences.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Sex Differences in Intelligence. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/intelligence/sex_differences.html
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Short truths. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/ethics/short.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2009). Side effects of paroxetine. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/medical/paroxetine.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2004). slo Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/slobrain/.
Cooijmans, P. (2015, April). Solar activity and behaviour — A causal hypothesis). Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/genius/solar_activity.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, October). Some thoughts on Bettelheim’s The Empty Fortress. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/asperger/empty_fortress.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2003). Spatial ability and autism. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/asperger/spatial_ability_autism.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1998, January). Stairway to Heaven, or… lleH ot yawhgiH?. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/music/stairway.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Standard deviation. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/standard_deviation.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Standard error of measurement. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-com/statistics/explained/standard_error_of_measurement.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Standard score. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/standard_score.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2008, November). Statistics for the Spatial section of the Test For Genius – Revision 2004. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/tfg_s.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2010, April). Statistics for the Verbal section of the Test For Genius – Revision 2004. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/tfg_v.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.) Statistics Explained. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/.
Cooijmans, P. (2009, October). Statistics of A Paranoiac’s Torture: Intelligence Test Utilizing Diabolic Exactitude. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/paranoiac.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2011, June). Statistics of Associative LIMIT. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/alt.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2013, January). Statistics of Cartoons of Shock. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/cart.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, June). Statistics of combined Numerical and Spatial sections of The Marathon Test. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/marathon_ns.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, February). Statistics of Cooijmans Intelligence Test – Form 3. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/cit3.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, June). Statistics of Cooijmans Intelligence Test – Form 4. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/cit4.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2013, September). Statistics of Cooijmans Inventory of Neo-Marxist Attitudes. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/cinema.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, December). Statistics of Cooijmans On-Line Test — Two-barrelled version. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/colt2.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, November). Statistics of Daedalus Test. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/daed.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2013). Statistics of Female Intelligence Test. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/fit.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, March). Statistics of Gliaweb Riddled Intelligence Test – Revision 2011. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/grit.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2010). Statistics of IGNIT – Individuele Gesuperviseerde Nederlandstalige Intelligentie Test. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/ignit.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, October). Statistics of Intelligence Quantifier by assessment. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/intelligence_quantifier.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2008, October). Statistics of Isis Test. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/isis.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2007, March). Statistics of Laaglandse Aanlegtest. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/lat.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, November). Statistics of Labyrinthine LIMIT. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/lab.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2007, March). Statistics of Letters. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/letters.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2005). Statistics of Low Countries Aptitude Test. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/lcat.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, November). Statistics of Narcissus’ last stand. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/narcissus_last_stand.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, November). Statistics of Numerical section of Test For Genius – Revision 2010: Integrity Must Prevail Above Loathsome Evil. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/tfg_n.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2013, December). Statistics of Numerical section of The Marathon Test. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/marathon_n.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, November). Statistics of Numerical and Spatial sections of Test For Genius – Revision 2010. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/tfg_ns.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, November). Statistics of PIGS of the first degree. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/pigs1.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015, January). Statistics of Problems In Gentle Slopes of the second degree. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/pigs2.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, January). Statistics of Psychometric Qrosswords. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/pq.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, January). Statistics of Psychometrically Activated Grids Acerbate Neuroticism. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/pagan.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2011, August). Statistics of Reason – Revision 2008. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/reason_r.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2011, October). Statistics of Reason Behind Multiple-Choice – Revision 2008. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/rbmc_r.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, March). Statistics of Reflections In Peroxide. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/reflections_in_peroxide.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2013, December). Statistics of Spatial section of The Marathon Test. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/marathon_s.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2008, November). Statistics of Test For Genius – Revision 2004. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/tfg.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015, March). Statistics of Test For Genius – Revision 2010. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/tfg10.html.
Coojmans, P. (2014, January). Statistics of The Alchemist Test. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/alch.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, July). Statistics of The Final Test – Revision 2013. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/fin13.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2010, September). Statistics of The Hammer Of Test-Hungry. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/the_hammer_of_test_hungry.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015, January). Statistics of The Hammer Of Test-Hungry – Revision 2013. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/hammer13.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2011, September). Statistics of The LAW. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/law.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2013, February). Statistics of the Lieshout International Mesospheric Intelligence Test. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/limit.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Statistics of The Marathon Test. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/marathon.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, September). Statistics of The Sargasso Test. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/sarg.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, March). Statistics of The Test To End All Tests. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/the_test_to_end_all_tests.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2013). Statistics of Test of the Beheaded Man. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/behead.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2012, October). Statistics of Verbal section of The Marathon Test. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/marathon_v.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, November). Statistics of Words. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/words.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Statistical reports (continued). Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/index2.html#nolonger.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Straight talk about asperger syndrome. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/asperger/straight_talk_about_asperger.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2010, August). Subgroups of traits clarified by their low ends. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/genius/subgroups_of_traits_clarified.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2007, July). Suicide attacks. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/ethics/suicide_attacks.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Summer 1992. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1992/.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Summer 1992, interior and around the house 1993. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1993/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Supernerd Crossword Test. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/supermodels/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Supreme Oracle of the United Universes. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/philosophy/oracle.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2010, July). Synergy. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/genius/synergy.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). T-scores. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/t_scores.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, July). Table. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/medical/exercises/table.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2012, July). Teeth grinding damage. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/medical/teeth_damage.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Television series. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/tvseries.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2012, January). Test data structure. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/test_data_structure.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Test for E.S.P. – The cards. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psi/esp_cards.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015, January). Test for extrasensory perception (E.S.P.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6PFS5o-gvE.
Cooijmans, P. (1995, July). Test For Genius. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/old/tfg.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2006). Test for psychokinesis. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psi/psychokinesis.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Tests by others. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/others/.
Cooijmans, P. (2009, November). The “10 000” model of the high-range population. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/old/normadjust_old.html#m10000.
Cooijmans, P. (2011, February). The difference between “aware” and “on purpose”. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/philosophy/the_difference_between_aware_and_on_purpose.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2013, October). The differentiation hypothesis of g Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/differentiation_hypothesis.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2010, July). The donor organ shortage resolved. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/medical/donor_organ_shortage_resolved.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2008, March 19). The fascination with high-range intelligence testing. Retrieved from http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/the_fascination_of_high_range.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2003, May). The Final Test statistics. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/the_final_test.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The g Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/g.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2010, January). The fallacies of “victimless crime” and “idiot tax”. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/ethics/victimless_crime.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Glia Society. Retrieved from http://www.gliasociety.org/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Glia Society: Animated Presentation. Retrieved from http://www.gliasociety.org/animation.html
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Glia Society: Contact Information. Retrieved from http://www.gliasociety.org/contact.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Glia Society: General Information. Retrieved from http://www.gliasociety.org/general_information.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Grail Society. Retrieved from http://www.gigasociety.com/iqsocieties/grail.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The History Of I.Q. Test For The High-Range. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/history/.
Cooijmans, P. (2014). The location of the 99.9^th Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/intelligence/percentile999.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1990). The neddiH dlroW of Interval. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/music/treatise/intro.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1997, September). The Nemesis Test – Introduction. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/old/nemesis_intro.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, February). The Nemesis Test – Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/nemesis.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2008). The pacifist’s fallacy. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/ethics/pacifist.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, May). The paradox of inherited homosexuality. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/evolution/homosexuality.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2006). The “prisoner’s dilemma” solved. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/philosophy/prison.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2005). The psychology of false information. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psychology/false_information.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2005). The psychology of the occult. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psychology/occult.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2006, April). The size of the vocabulary disadvantage in a non-native language. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/intelligence/lang_disadv.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2001, August 9). The Strange Case of Dr Fabius and Mr Lang. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/prose/upperland/fabius.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1998, July). The Time Lords. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/prose/upperland/timelords.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2008). The Time Window – A Physical Approach to Awareness. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/philosophy/timewindow.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1998). The Ultimate Sleep: I The Lecture – Inspector Longone – Dr Hölin’s House. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/prose/upperland/ultsleep1.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1998). The Ultimate Sleep: II Dr Hölin – The Chez Maxim Talk – The Meeting. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/prose/upperland/ultsleep2.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1999). The Ultimate Sleep: III Dr Fabius – Dr Cageman – The Black Sisterhood. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/prose/upperland/ultsleep3.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1999). The Ultimate Sleep: IV The White Lodge. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/prose/upperland/.
Cooijmans, P. (1999). The Ultimate Sleep: V Mr Fredriks –sloBrain – The White Lodge. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/prose/upperland/ultsleep5.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1999). The Ultimate Sleep: VI Wendy – Eric Hart. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/prose/upperland/ultsleep6.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2003, February). The Ultimate Sleep: VII – Eric Hart. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/prose/upperland/ultsleep7.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2008, August). The Verification Coordinate. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/philosophy/verify.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Thoth. Retrieved from http://www.gigasociety.com/iqsocieties/thoth.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Total proportion selected on two tests with known correlation. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/total_proportion_selected.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2007, May). Trainable variables in running. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/running/variables.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014). Training statistics. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/running/training.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Transmutation. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/occult/transmutation.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2013). Treating tics with haloperidol. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/medical/treating_tics_with_haloperidol.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2014, July). Trousers. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/medical/exercises/trousers.html.
Cooijmans, P. (1998). True Story of Mr Pants, Mr Young and Dr Cageman. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/prose/upperland/pants.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Truth – The proof of its existence. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/philosophy/truth.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2013, April). Undergoing a herniated disk operation. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/medical/undergoing_a_herniated_disk_operation.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2011, October). Undergoing an ingrown toenail operation. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/medical/undergoing_an_ingrown_toenail_operation.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2011, February). Undergoing an M.R.I. scan. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/medical/undergoing_an_mri_scan.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Variance. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/variance.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015). Various photos while a conservatory student, 1988. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/photography/f1988/.
Cooijmans, P. (1996). Video portrait 1996. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/interviews/videoportrait1996.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2008). Vocabulary #1. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/vocabulary/.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Voluntary Giving. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/contr.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Vote weighting. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/politics/voteweight.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Watch It Grow!. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/iqanim.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Weighted median. Retrieved from http://www.iq-tests-for-the-high-range.com/statistics/explained/weighted_median.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2012, December). What the Hanged Man sees. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/occult/rider_waite_tarot_explained.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2015, May). Who abuses whom in prostitution. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/ethics/prostitution.html.
Cooijmans, P. (2001, March). Who’s Who in Upperland. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/prose/upperland/who.html.
Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Writing text in HTML for beginners. Retrieved from http://www.paulcooijmans.com/informatics/html_tutorial.html.
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2023-01-29

Paul Cooijmans: Independent Psychometitor; Administrator, The Giga Society; Administrator, The Glia Society (Part Four)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/07/22

ABSTRACT

Interview with Paul Cooijmans. Independent psychometitor and administrator of The Glia Society and The Giga Society. He discusses: high-range intelligence testing, three core interests of high-range intelligence testing, a brief warning on megalomaniacs, and the positives and negatives of the ultra-high IQ world; restrictions/qualifications based on specific tests and test scores, issues related to intelligence assessment, and the two groups which join high IQ societies, and the foundation of GliaWebNews, Young and intelligent?, Order of Thoth, The Glia Society, Order of Imhotep, The Giga Society, and The Grail Society with an emphasis on The Glia Society and The Giga Society.

Keywords: administrator, high-range intelligence testing, GliaWebNews, megalomaniacs, Order of Imhotep, Order of Thoth, Paul Cooijmans, psychometitor, The Giga Society, The Glia Society, The Grail Society, Young and Intelligent?.

*Incomplete, common reference style listing without access dates.*

11. You describe the continuous fascination with high-range intelligence testing, especially in the “gifted” ranges of high-range intelligence tests.^[1] With respect to the three core interests in these high-range intelligence tests, you state:

The attraction of these tests, to the testee, lies in three aspects: One may derive pleasure from taking them, similar to solving difficult puzzles. Also one learns how one’s score compares to those of other high-range candidates, and thus gains insight into one’s performance level on different types of hard problems. And finally, there is a wide array of high-IQ societies that accept scores on the tests.^[2]

However, and intimately linked to these positive interests, there exist negative reasons for entrance into the world of high-range intelligence testing.^[3] You wrote about this one article, Beware of megalomaniacs.^[4] You have joked about intelligence tests for the high range as a “megalomaniac’s waterloo.”^[5]You describe, quite frankly, the nature of serious problem behaviors within the intelligence testing business.^[6] For Instance, you wrote:

The truth is there are people, well known in and sometimes outside high-I.Q. circles, who have based their reputation on certain high test scores they claim. They use those scores for publicity, mention them in interviews, have them listed in biographical reference works, put themselves on self-published lists of “highest I.Q. scores” with their own score on top as the god-king with the world’s highest I.Q., and so on. The scores help them to become and stay famous, sell books, and make money.^[7]

What other positives and negatives exist in this rare and rarefied world of the ultra-high IQ?

Apart from the megalomania and fraud with tests and scores, a negative development I observe in some I.Q. societies are the committees of quack therapists, occultists, and psychics of all sorts, some using hollow “doctor” titles, who have clearly joined to prey on unsuspecting members. This has to do with the notion, popular in those circles, that “giftedness” is a kind of problem or disorder, and that one needs “help” with it. On several occasions I have attended “Giftedness day” in the Netherlands, and most of the stands were occupied by vultures like this, eager to get their claws on anyone “diagnosed” with “giftedness” and “help” them with methods including astrology, tarot, clairvoyance, and so on. And what is worse, there is an abundance of easy meat for them in I.Q. circles.

But the biggest disappointment about the high-I.Q. world is the lack of females. The higher the pass level, the greater the male/female ratio. When selecting strictly and without compromise at the 99.9th centile, one gets about 15 times more men than women. For males interested in eugenic mate selection, I.Q. societies are thus not the ideal place to be. This phenomenon is not unique to high-range mental testing, but seen in other fields with high cognitive demands too, be it professions, hobbies, or sports; wherever high intelligence is needed, you tend to find more males than females. While answering this interview, I saw a newspaper article about a “high frequency trading” company. The journalist asked an officer of the firm why there were only men sitting behind all of those computer screens, and if women were not interested in the job. He replied, “Oh yes, we get many female applicants. But our standards are high and we test candidates thoroughly before hiring them. Women just do not seem to get through the selection procedure. They are very welcome though”. At moments like that, almost by accident, one is confronted with a truth one would perhaps rather not know.

To avoid misunderstanding, I should add that men are not necessarily smarter than women on average. But when focusing on the high range, one sees more men than women. I have tried to attract more females to high-range testing, and even constructed a test consisting exclusively of tasks on which females are known to outscore males, but to no avail. The low representation of females remains a serious shortcoming of high-I.Q. societies.

The biggest plus about I.Q. societies, or at least about the good ones among them, is that they offer possibilities for publication and self-realization to creative individuals who are too unusual, deviant, original, or far ahead of their time to be accepted by the mainstream media or scientific world. Another good thing is that one can get in contact with intellectual equals. Since the rise of the Internet though, those purposes are also served outside the I.Q. societies.

12. Qualification for high IQ societies requires restrictions. Restrictions based on the specific test and test scores.^[8] You have described with typical clarity the issues related to assessment or measurement of intelligence.^[9] In addition, you provide the relevant definitions of assessment, measurement, and statistical terminology too.^{[10],[11],[12],[13],[14],[15],[16],[17],[18],[19],[20],[21],[22],[23],[24],[25],[26],[27],[28],[29],[30],[31],[32],[33],[34],[35],[36],[37],[38],[39],[40],[41]}You note, in an interview from 2002, two apparent groups take tests and join societies. You wrote:

About people joining societies and taking tests, there seem to be two groups, probably with some overlap: the “mainstream” and the “outsiders.” The latter are the ones who initiate things like IQ societies. The first start coming in once a group is growing well, and when the group gets to be a certain size – maybe like 300 to 400 – the “mainstream” tends to take over, maybe because of their better persuasive/manipulative skills which do well in democratic and group processes.

Once the “mainstream” is in power, which I think is the case in larger Mensa chapters, the ISPE and Triple Nine in some of its periods, the freedom goes and the censorship comes. The “mainstream” want things like a journal that is suitable for the whole family, professionalism, official status, tax exemption, etc. They keep adversary things out of the journal, without ever admitting to censorship, they use euphemisms like “editing for length and civility.” (This was a Triple Nine term.) Perhaps a certain organizational structure could avoid the “mainstream” from getting into power.^[42]

You founded high intelligence societies including GliaWebNews, Young and intelligent?, Order of Thoth, The Glia Society, Order of Imhotep, The Giga Society, and The Grail Society.^[43]^{,[44],[45],[46],[47],[48],[49],[50]}Two seem like core societies: The Giga Society and The Glia Society.^[51]^{,[52],[53],[54]}The Giga Society as on “honorary society for very high scorers on my tests.”^{[55],[56],[57],[58],[59],[60]}The Glia Society for provision of “a forum for intelligent individuals and assisting in research after high intelligence.”^[61],[62]Each devoted to individuated and interrelated personal interests with provision of journals, games, fora, tests, and general means of fulfillment for the high-range.^[63]^{,[64],[65],[66],[67]} How did you create, develop, and sustain these societies up to the present?

I started in the mid-1990s by formulating the outline of a type of society for which I felt a need, and that did not exist at the time: Nerve-centred in Europe, strict admission requirements, allowing members to express themselves in their own way and at their own level without censorship or editing (so, a verbatim journal that does not make the author look smarter or stupider than one is) and without formal democratic organs and procedures (to prevent the riff-raff from taking over). Thus, I hoped, the society would remain faithful to the real anarchistic-from-within outsiders, and not regress to a mainstream type of club with members of barely above-average I.Q’s in official positions and spoiling it for the few truly intelligent ones, whom they see as a burden and would expel if they could.

This became the Glia Society. The first several years were offline, with only a paper journal, and went excellently. In 2001, the transition to an online presence was made with success. A few years thereafter, with a few hundred members meanwhile, occasional problems began to occur with people sending offending messages to the electronic mail forum, which, because of its ease of use, facilitates such behaviour by unconscientious persons, makes them rise to the surface. In a traditional journal, filled with copy by members, one would never hear of such trolls, because the effort involved in writing a proper essay or letter is too high a hurdle for them. It became needed to have “netiquette” rules on the forum, and of course there were one or two idiots who purposely began to break the rules to provoke their expulsion from the forum, to see how far they could go. After having been removed temporarily (not expelled from the society though) such specimens sometimes play victim and act as if they are the ones who have been wronged.

In the late 2000s, the admission policy was improved with regard to homogeneous (one-sided) tests, requiring two qualifying scores on two different types of such tests for admission, while only one qualifying score remained needed on a heterogeneous test. This works to satisfaction. A bit later, an “assessment” procedure was added to facilitate the admission of candidates without qualifying scores on accepted tests. This became useful as a result of the vast number of tests today available on the Internet; it is not doable to establish suitability for admission purposes for every single test separately.

To make an observation about I.Q. societies in general, striking is the individualism: much disagreement, low sense of loyalty to the group, no sense of a common goal, little willingness to conform to rules, tending to treat non-members the same as members, speaking negatively of the group to non-members, joining and leaving multiple societies on a whim, and more. Such behaviours are typical of I.Q. society members, and less likely to be seen in political parties, religious cults, ideological interest groups, hobby groups, business enterprises and so on. This individualism is the achilles heel of I.Q. societies, and the answer to the question, “if they are so smart, then why do they not solve the world problems?” There is no group synergy in a group of high-I.Q. individualists. Rather, the outer appearance of the group tends to be determined by the least able members; intelligence is recessive in the group as a result of the members’ individualism. What the world sees of high-I.Q. societies is mainly the loud-mouthed braggers and fraudulent claimants of the highest I.Q.

[1] See Cooijmans, P. (2008, March 19). The fascination with high-range intelligence testing.

[2] See Self-Growth.com (2015). Paul Cooijmans: High-range intelligence test Expert.

[3] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Beware of megalomaniacs.

[4] Ibid.

[5] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). I.Q. Tests For The High Range.

[6] Ibid.

[7] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Beware of megalomaniac’s.

[8] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Qualification.

[9] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Assessment.

[10] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Balanced g factor loading.

[11] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Congruence coefficient.

[12] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Correction for attenuation.

[13] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Correlation.

[14] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Correlation with national I.Q.s

[15] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Covariance.

[16] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The g factor.

[17] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Frequently encountered fallacies regarding test-related statistics.

[18] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Hardness.

[19] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). I.Q..

[20] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Median.

[21] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Normalization.

[22] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Number of candidates.

[23] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Preliminary norms.

[24] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Proportion outscored.

[25] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Protonorms.

[26] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Quality.

[27] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Quality of norms.

[28] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Quartile deviation.

[29] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Range.

[30] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Raw score.

[31] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Reliability.

[32] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Resolution.

[33] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Section statistics.

[34] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Standard deviation.

[35] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Standard error of measurement.

[36] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Standard score.

[37] See Cooijmans, P. (2012, January). Test data structure.

[38] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Total proportion selected on two tests with known correlation.

[39] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). T-scores.

[40] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Variance.

[41] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Weighted median.

[42] See Cooijmans, P. (2002). An interview with Paul Cooijmans.

[43] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). GliaWebNews.

[44] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Glia Web Young and Intelligent.

[45] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Young and Intelligent?.

[46] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Thoth.

[47] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Glia Society.

[48] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Imhotep.

[49] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Giga Society.

[50] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Grail Society.

[51] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Giga Society.

[52] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Glia Society.

[53] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The History Of I.Q. Test For The High-Range.

[54] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Glia Society: Animated Presentation.

[55] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Paul Cooijmans.

[56] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Latest Insights Regarding The Giga Society.

[57] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Contact Information Of The Giga Society.

[58] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Do You Qualify For The Giga Society?.

[59] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Letters of Appreciation To The Giga Society.

[60] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Frequently Asked Questions To The Giga Society.

[61] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Paul Cooijmans.

[62] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Constitution.

[63] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Mind Games: Glia Society Mind Games.

[64] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Glia Society Crossword.

[65] See Cooijmans, P. (2003). Glia Society Memory Game.

[66] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Glia Society Mastermind.

[67] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). I.Q. Tests For The High Range.

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Paul Cooijmans: Independent Psychometitor; Administrator, The Giga Society; Administrator, The Glia Society (Part Three)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/07/15

ABSTRACT

Interview with Paul Cooijmans. Independent psychometitor and administrator of The Glia Society and The Giga Society. He discusses: public recognition of excellence through awards and their personal meaning; personal work, development of intelligence tests separated by verbal, numerical, spatial, and logical factors, and the creation, development, refinement, administration, statistical norming, and publication of a legitimate test; nature of creativity, genius, and human functioning, and associative horizon, conscientiousness, and intelligence; and the existence of alien and extraterrestrial life, absolute as opposed to relative scales of intelligence, average intelligence of previous human civilizations, variegated intelligence of the contents of the universe; and the evolution of intelligence in the possible future.

Keywords: administrator, awards, creativity, genius, human civilizations, intelligence, logical, numerical, Paul Cooijmans, psychometitor, spatial, The Giga Society, The Glia Society, universe, verbal.

*Incomplete, common reference style listing without access dates.*

7. You earned a number of awards.^[1],^[2]These include Winnaar Rabohank Scholenkwis 1976 Peelland (voor Mariaschool, Lieschout) in April of 1976, second prize in the composition content of Brabants Conservatorium in October of 1990, and the Raadselige Roos 1994 for Prose (literature prize) in December of 1994.^[3]What does each public recognition of excellence mean to you?^[4]

Concerning the composition and literature prizes, they tell me that recognition, success, awards and the like are bad indicators of quality. Those works are not the best I have written, and if they had been, I would not have won the prizes. My experience is that when I make something according to my own insights and to the best of my ability, it tends not necessarily to be hugely successful, but is at best appreciated by a rather small audience. Adaptation to a more mainstream taste or to some in-group paradigm does not suit me, and neither do “networking” or any kind of “marketing” trick. I can only use my own intuition to guide me, having been born such that trying to go against it makes me vomit in unpleasant convulsions.

The 1976 school quiz is a different matter. Each school could send four participants, obviously the best they had. We won easily, and someone said afterwards I had had all the questions right. I had announced our victory beforehand in the bus driving to the quiz, and that I would eat my coat in case we did not win. In the week before the quiz, we had been preparing by reading books and following the news, and attending special classes for the four of us, led by our teacher (the nun). This was the only form of “enrichment” I have ever seen in my school years.

The prize, 500 guilders, was used to redecorate the manual training room at school. Since I hated that subject, I was not pleased.

8. You have summarized personal work in the following terms:

Designing high-range intelligence tests and studying high intelligence, personality, creativity and genius; Providing communication fora for intelligent individuals; Writing articles and literary prose in English and Netherlandic; Composing music (mainly in the past); Guitar playing and (in the past) teaching; Computer programming and making web sites. Focus is on the intelligence-related matters. A major goal is to explain creativity in terms of personality features

Specialties: Statistical processing of data from high-range intelligence tests, and designing such tests.^[5]

You developed a number of intelligence tests of varied difficulty separated by verbal, numerical, spatial, and logical factors – even one with a possible prize entitled Prize of the Beheaded Man.^[6]^,[7],[8]Other awards too.^[9]^,[10]How does one create, develop, refine, administer, statistically norm, and publish a legitimate test?

Those are many questions, but I will try to briefly sketch the procedure. One needs to gather problems to include in the test, either newly created ones or problems from earlier tests or proof tests. The problems should require the candidate to utilize mental abilities, and span a range of difficulty levels. Test administration nowadays goes chiefly via the Internet and electronic mail, and is unsupervised. In the 1990s it was still done by regular mail and publication or advertising in I.Q. society journals or other magazines or newspapers. I have also created a few supervised tests, but extremely few have tried them, possibly because of the need to travel here.

Norming a high-range test is mostly achieved by anchoring it to one or (mostly) more other tests, with methods like rank equation or z-score equation. Norming, in statistical terms, means to predict one variable (for instance I.Q.) from another (raw score or scaled score on the test). The word “predict” is used here in the statistical sense, not as in fortune telling.

The tests are now published as electronic documents and delivered via the Internet or e-mail. When I started publishing tests though, I used to type them on a typewriter and make photocopies, which I sent by mail to people who responded to calls I placed in magazines and papers. My very first, unpublished, tests were written with fountain pen on paper. I have almost always been my own publisher when it comes to tests.

Tests can be refined by studying incoming answers and comments, and by statistical item analysis. One can thus identify bad items and remove or revise them.

Regarding the working mechanism of I.Q. tests, it can be said that intelligence is an all-pervasive unhideable trait that involuntarily expresses itself in virtually everything a person does or says. As a result, it is surprisingly difficult to design a test that does not measure intelligence, hence the relative success of the many dilettante high-range test constructors active today. Indeed, it is easier to create a functioning high-range I.Q. test than it is to create a test that purposely lacks any validity in the high range; the latter may take some quite intricate statistical labour.

The Prize of the Beheaded Man, and other awards and honorary societies, serve to encourage people in taking the tests, thus bringing in more data for norming and other statistical purposes.

Finally, one needs to deal with various forms of fraud, like illegal unauthorized criminal discussing, spreading, and publishing of test items and answers by evil candidates seeking an unfair advantage. For security reasons I can not reveal the strategies used to counteract this, but we are working on a tight network of excutators to track down such offenders and kindly and humanely keep them from repeating. My novel “Field of eternal integrity” provides extensive details as to the treatment of offenders in high-range mental testing.

9. Your personal research into the nature of creativity, and genius separates facets of human functioning. You wrote on the nature of genius based on “wide associative horizon and large amounts of conscientiousness and intelligence.”^[11]^{,[12],[13],[14],[15],[16],[17],[18],[19],[20]}You wrote on creativity too, which you have summarized in the following manner:

My current view on creativity (and therefore genius) could be summarized as:

Conscientiousness contributes to creativity but disposes for neurosis;

Associative horizon contributes to creativity but disposes for psychosis;

Intelligence contributes to creativity but disposes for normality.^[21]

In addition, in an interview, you stated:

There are three groups of personality traits or aspects that are important to be creative: Ability, Conscientiousness, and Associative horizon. The combination or synergy thereof is what enables the individual to bring into being what was not there before. All three are needed; Each one is of limited value without the other two. And they do not always go together. In fact it is rare to find them combined in large amounts into one individual, and when that happens, you have a genius.^[22]

Furthermore, in the same interview, you wrote:

In terms of personality, genius is the high end of creativity, and creativity in turn is a synergy of conscientiousness, ability, and associative horizon. There exists also another type of definition of genius, which says a genius is someone who makes a lasting contribution in any field, but that is of course an “after the fact” definition. Two of the three elements in my definition are related to psychiatric disorders; conscientiousness to neurosis, associative horizon to psychosis. The trick is to have exactly the right amounts of those, so that you stay just below the threshold where you would have a debilitating neurotic or psychotic illness.

Intelligence, when that term is used in relation to human personality, is the cognitive aspect of personality, the aspect that comprises mental ability. The word “intelligence” is unfortunately often used in a number of other meanings too, so that is it not usable in scientific contexts; the best term for it is probably “g”, the general factor in mental ability. In the above definition of genius, intelligence would belong to the ability element.^[23]

What sets of sub-traits exist within each of the core traits of associative horizon, conscientiousness, and ability?

I have written a number of articles about that, but in short I see associative horizon as consisting of three groups of traits: (1) Divergent abilities like fluency in association and mental flexibility. (2) Resistance to narrowing mammalian phenomena, like resistance to conformism, to suggestion, to conditioning, to automating tasks, to non-verbal communication, to socialization, to empathy, and to emotion. (3) Vulnerabilities, such as high sensitivity, disposition for the placebo effect, and disposition for psychosis (but not actual psychosis).

Conscientiousness too has three divisions: (1) Ability-fostering traits, such as accuracy, carefulness, coherence, consistency, dependability, diligence, perfectionism, persistence, punctuality, respect for detail, self-discipline, and tolerance of repetitive work. (2) Ego-strength, such as being determined, driven by inner motivation, holding on to insights despite opposition, impulse-controlling, insensitive to habituation, strong-willed, and uncompromising. (3) Ethics-related traits, such as being fair, loyal, respectful, responsible, sincere, trustworthy, and truthful regardless of consequences.

Ability cascades from the most general level – general intelligence – to the most specific abilities. The more specific an ability is, the greater the degree to which it can be learnt or improved. The more general, the greater the degree to which the ability is inborn.

10. In one previous interview, you answered a query on the existence of alien and extra-terrestrial life, as follows:

Yes, I believe extraterrestrial aliens exist. Whether they have visited Earth is a different matter. I think that would be known worldwide instantly, and not possible to cover up. I also think the vast majority of civilizations in the universe are at a lower level than current human civilization (but those smart enough to travel here would be at a higher level, naturally). I have estimated the average I.Q. of civilizations in the universe at about 80. When rising far above that, forces of a decadent-degenerative nature become active that pull society back toward that more primitive level. This can be observed throughout the history of Earth humans – all civilizations have fallen so far – and it seems reasonable to assume it will be no different on other planets. The development of civilization is not a straight upward line, but is discontinuous in time and space. While theoretically some civilization somewhere in the universe could reach the point where interstellar travel becomes feasible, we have not seen that yet, and it is not a priori certain that such is possible at all. In any case it is very naive to think that the current rate of technological improvement in our civilization will always continue.^[24]

You have measured intelligence in absolute, as opposed to relative, terms. From this line of reasoning, and researching, you developed an absolute scale for intelligence in addition to linkages with expectations of civilizations’ development at each I.Q. score. You discussed the average intelligence level of previous human civilizations, or even the variegated intelligence of the contents of the universe.^[25]^,[26],[27] What might be the mean intelligence level of the human species (or of novel species developed through speciation from Homo sapiens) decades, centuries, millennia, hundreds of thousands, or millions of years from the present time, especially in the light of rapid scientific and technological advances in the 20th century alone?

On the short term, say decades to centuries, there are mixed prospects. On the one hand, genetic intelligence is going down in Western countries through dysgenic effects, and therewith the basis for scientific and technological advance is disappearing. During the twentieth century, this decline has been masked by the “Flynn effect”, but that rise of test scores (probably environmental and partly hollow with respect to general intelligence) seems to have maxed out and levelled off meanwhile, so that the true development is becoming more visible and felt. When average I.Q. sinks too much, progress will stop, and society may even regress to a pre-technological state. All civilizations have ended so far, and it would be a naive and fatal mistake to exclude the West from that rule.

On the other hand, the latest few sunspot cycles indicate that a long-term solar minimum is likely imminent, and such a minimum, according to research by the German psychologist S. E. Ertel, appears to cause an increase of the productivity of eminent scientists and artists, which might counteract a possible decline. Under such a minimum, one may also expect less war, uproar, revolutions, mass migrations, and other such negativity.

And, there is little doubt that a long-term minimum cools the global climate, may even cause a little ice age. Colder conditions stimulate the evolution of genetic intelligence, so help to invert the dysgenic trend, while also discouraging migration from warm (low-I.Q.) regions to moderate and cold (high-I.Q.) regions. As a word of caution, from my privileged position of knowledge I feel responsible to warn that a colder climate will also result in many deaths through decreased food production, and this will hit humanity particularly hard after having been misled by decades of political drum-beating on a coming “warming” by greenhouse gasses emitted by humans.

If the dysgenic trend wins out, average I.Q. may in a bad scenario drop to around 80 in the next several centuries. We are still Homo sapiens then, but technological civilization will have to start over from scratch. If eugenic times return, I believe that biological humans can theoretically reach averages around 130 in that time frame, and eventually form a new species. Cyborgs or completely artificial beings could go higher. But a problem is that the high civilization that results from high average I.Q. levels tends to introduce dysgenic factors that pull the mean down again, so that it is exceedingly hard to reach the stage where biological humans obtain averages of 130 to 140, and where cyborgs, robots, or computers reach, say, I.Q. 200 or more.

In the long run, I fear that humans or their descendants will keep regressing toward 80, with brief periods of blossoming, and if you wait indefinitely – like hundreds of millions of years – there may once be a group, species, or genus with I.Q.’s in the 200-250 range. Those would likely be capable of interstellar and/or time travel. But the fact that we have not been contacted by extraterrestrials or extracontemporaries – and what is more, that my predicted flying saucer abduction has not materialized yet! – tells us it is extremely rare and difficult to reach and sustain such heights.

Far more important than scientific feats and astronomical I.Q. numbers is the inverse and causal relation between I.Q. and evils like violence and crime. Were average human I.Q. to rise to a mere 115, I dare say we would be rid of most of that, and peace and happiness all around. For information, the present world average I.Q., depending on whether or not one weights the national average I.Q.’s by population sizes, is about 90 (weighted) to 84.5 (unweighted). This is based on national I.Q.’s published by Lynn and Vanhanen. It explains why our world is not yet the place of peace we are yearning for.

[1] See Letter Kundig Museum (n.d.). Literaire prijzen.

[2] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Detailed personal information.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Paul Cooijmans.

[6] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). List of Tests.

[7] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Prize Of The Beheaded Man.

[8] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Awards To High-Range I.Q. Test Candidates.

[9] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Imhotep.

[10] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Thoth.

[11] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Straight talk about asperger syndrome.

[12] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). I.Q. Tests For The High Range – Goals.

[13] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Genius and Creativity.

[14] See Cooijmans, P. (2010). Conscientiousness.

[15] See Cooijmans, P. (2010). Associative Horizon.

[16] See Cooijmans, P. (2010, July). Synergy.

[17] See Cooijmans, P. (2010, August). Subgroups of traits clarified by their low ends.

[18] See Cooijmans, P. (2015, April). Solar activity and behaviour — A causal hypothesis.

[19] See Cooijmans, P. (2006). Rareness and discontinuity of genius.

[20] See Cooijmans (2009). Inferiority – the opposite of genius.

[21] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Genius.

[22] See Cooijmans, P. (2009, February 25). Creativity and Personality.

[23] See Volney, K. (2013, September 2). Interview with Paul Cooijmans: Administrator of the Giga Society.

[24] See Ibid.

[25] See Cooijmans, P. (2010). Human evolution.

[26] See Cooijmans, P. (2010, September). Human degeneration.

[27] See Cooijmans, P. (2010, August). Extended intelligence scale.

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2023-01-29

Paul Cooijmans: Independent Psychometitor; Administrator, The Giga Society; Administrator, The Glia Society (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/07/08

ABSTRACT

Interview with Paul Cooijmans. Independent psychometitor and administrator of The Glia Society and The Giga Society. He discusses: 1986 to 1993 attendance at Brabants Conservatorium, acquisition of academic qualifications through studies in conservatory, composition and guitar, and additional qualifications in the middle of life including programming (2002), web design (2003-2004), CompTIA Network+ (2004, not certified), Cisco C.C.N.A. (2004), and Basic Bookkeeping (2006), and the interest for formal certification in the middle of life; written musical compositions with personal photography or movies, and other productions, published through YouTube, extensive productions on the main website, and inspiration for musical composition, photography and filming; and personal interests in Asperger’s disorder, composition, counterpoint, creativity, eugenics, genius, guitar, human quality, intelligence, justice, running, Tourette syndrome, and truth, with emphasis on the interests in Asperger’s disorder, eugenics, genius, and intelligence, and the development of these prominent, relatively varied, but focused, interests.

Keywords: administrator, Asperger’s disorder, Brabants Conservatorium, composition, conservatory, counterpoint, creativity, eugenics, genius, guitar, human quality, intelligence, justice, Paul Cooijmans, psychometitor, running, The Giga Society, The Glia Society, Tourette syndrome, truth, undergraduate studies, YouTube.

*Incomplete, common reference style listing without access dates.*

4. From 1986 to 1993, you attended Brabants Conservatorium.^[1] You earned one bachelor degree while studying “conservatory, composition and guitar.”^[2]^,[3] You have upgraded personal education with programming (2002), web design (2003-2004), CompTIA Network+ (2004, not certified), Cisco C.C.N.A. (2004), and Basic Bookkeeping (2006).^[3] What produced the interest in these areas of study for formal certification in the middle of life?^[5]^,[6]

By my own counting, I have two bachelor degrees, to wit one for guitar and one for composition, but I am uncertain if the conservatory counts that way too. The Netherlandic title is “baccalaureus” (abbreviated bc.) and the papers that go with it say I can call myself “Bachelor” (B.) in English. This was the highest degree possible at a conservatory at the time. The programming, web design, and network courses (CompTIA and Cisco) were taken because I was trying to find work in informatics. The bookkeeping course was to be able to do the bookkeeping for my own business, which I formally started in 2005.

5. You write musical compositions with personal photography or movies, and publish other productions, through YouTube.^[7]^{,[8],[9],[10],[11],[12],[13],[14],[15],[16],[17],[18],[19],[20],[21],[22],[23],[24],[25],[26],[27],[28],[29],[30],[31],[32],[33],[34],[35],[36]} You provide extensive productions on the main website too.^[37]^{,[38],[39],[40],[41],[42],[43],[44],[45],[46],[47],[48],[49],[50],[51],[52],[53],[54],[55],[56]}What provides inspiration for musical composition, photography, and filming for you?

The musical compositions are written to make others experience how I undergo life, or how my thinking goes, how it feels to be inside my head. I should emphasize that not all of my available compositions achieve this; it is hard to get musicians to play one’s music, so that of a huge part of my high-quality work there exist no recordings. The recordings that are available are mostly of pieces that I can play myself or could realize through MIDI, or of pieces that I wrote because my composition teacher now and then wanted me to write something more simple than my usual work, so that amateurs would be able to play it, and in those pieces I did not always succeed in getting my own sound idiom.

The inspiration for photography was the 1970s Netherlandic television series “Q en Q”, in which a boy by accident photographs a murder victim, not dissimilar to what happens in my favourite film “Blow up”. Photography has only been a hobby, I never reached any level of significance in it, and my talents do not seem to lie in visual-spatial fields. Actual filming I have never done, and I have never owned a film camera. The film “Liquidatie” was shot by a class mate, with me as the director, and almost all of my YouTube videos are collages of still photos. I made those videos primarily to make the music in it available through YouTube and thus reduce the amount of heavy M.P.3 sound files on my own web site. I could just put one photo over an entire composition and leave it at that, but that is too easy for me, I tend to want to make something special out of it, and even include labour-intensive stop-motion animation here and there.

The reason that many photos are of small objects is that my digital camera is from 2001 and only has two megapixels, which is not enough for landscapes or other big things. Macrophotography is what it does best. It still works on the original rechargeable battery.

6. According to LinkedIn – personal profile, your interests lie in Asperger’s disorder, composition, counterpoint, creativity, eugenics, genius, guitar, human quality, intelligence, justice, running, Tourette syndrome, and truth.^[57] How did these prominent, relatively varied, but focused, interests emerge throughout the years, including ones of some controversy in the modern world, e.g. Asperger’s disorder, eugenics, genius, and intelligence?^[58]^,[59],[60]

First, I would like to add that my original childhood interests lie in fields like astronomy and physics, as said in an earlier answer. While I have not formally studied those subjects, I have attended a number of lectures on astronomical topics over the years, and am looking at the relation between solar activity and human behaviour, which involves both astronomy and psychology.

The other interests emerged at various points in my life: Truth and justice (in the sense of righteousness) are innate dedications; I was born with absolute sense of justice and the inability to lie. This has everything to do with high intelligence, as logic, which is a faculty of intelligence, is the basis of righteousness. Life is an everlasting confrontation with lies, liars, and injustice, so these interests are inevitably stimulated daily whether one likes it or not. It took me decades to figure out that much of the lying, truth-denial, and injustice stems from ideological motivations, and that many believe in lies as a result of purposeful political indoctrination.

Guitar, composition, and counterpoint are music-related interests that began in puberty as already explained. Once having started playing guitar, composing was natural to me, and was the main motivation to learn to play. I was an autodidact until going to conservatory. Counterpoint, the technique of writing melody and polyphony (= multiple rhythmically independent melodies sounding at the same time) is the summit of the development of music. It started in the Middle Ages when Gregorian chant was embellished with extra voices, resulting in organum, cantus firmus technique, Ars antiqua, Ars nova, and then Renaissance polyphony, the highest and purest form of music. Although still practised and further developed in the baroque era, the harmonic aspect was becoming too important then, and after Bach it has really only gone downhill. This deterioration from roughly the Renaissance to the present day can be observed in other art forms too, especially and conspicuously in visual art and architecture. I link this to a decrease of visual-spatial ability in Western peoples. Musical ability is somehow related to that, in the brain.

In music, melody (= notes sounding after each other) corresponds to thinking, while harmony (= tones sounding at the same time) corresponds to emotion (do notice that I avoid the word “feeling” here, as that would create a confusion with the tactile sense and other forms of physical sensation). The decadence of polyphony into music with more emphasis on harmony, eventually resulting in homophony (= one melody accompanied by harmonies) corresponds to a decline of raw intelligence and overvaluation of emotion. Nowadays, virtually all the music one hears is strictly homophonic, and can be appreciated and created by persons of quite limited ability, as one may observe daily in the popular media.

Interest in the Asperger and Tourette syndromes arose because I appeared to have those conditions. Regarding Tourette, this became clear to me in my teenage years when I saw someone with Tourette in a television program, and at once recognized I had that too. I had been having tics since about age six. I have never received the diagnosis though, because I mainly have the tics when alone. They stay mostly away in the company of others, so a psychiatrist can not see them, and a diagnosis requires the tics having been observed by a professional. This lacuna in the diagnostic practice is a point of concern, as is the underestimation of the physical damage caused by tics. While the psychosocial problems of Tourette receive attention, it is less known that tics persisting for decades may damage or wear out the pertinent parts of the body, in my case the teeth, jaw joints, and neck. And any damage or wear of the neck may ultimately have neurological consequences, including paralysis and death.

Of Asperger’s disorder I only became aware in the late 1990s, and, as with Tourette, immediately understood that it could explain many of my experiences and traits, which I had hitherto put down to either psychological trauma or to a lack of intellectual peers. Unlike with Tourette, doctors had no problem recognizing these symptoms in me. Interesting about Asperger is its possible relation to creativity; a thing that worries me is its confusion with autism. In fact, in the current diagnostic manual, the Asperger label is even absent, due to a consensus among psychiatrists that Asperger and autism are identical conditions, which I believe is a mistaken view.

Running is an interest that began when I was 21, in bad shape, and too heavy. Since graduating from secondary school I had not had much exercise any more, as my prior physical activities had consisted of gymnastics class and bicycle rides to and from school. While I had always been bad at gymnastics, running was the only thing I was good at, and around age 16, I ran 100 metres in 13.5 seconds at school. There was a boy who belonged to an athletics club and was faster than I; at some point he claimed to be a psychic medium and predicted I would once be abducted by a U.F.O. He advised me to stay in good shape to be able to endure what would happen then. Well, having become 21, I finally took that to heart. I remember the first time I went out to run as an adult in 1986; I ran about 1500 metres slowly, stopped, turned around, and ran the same distance back. Laurel and Hardy were on television when I got home, I think it was “A chump at Oxford”. Running improved my health and shape a lot, and is certainly the best single thing one can do for self-improvement.

Late 1988 I got the idea to compete in a local 5 km race to be held in April 1989. I became 11th in 18:44, which was surprisingly good, and ever since I have been trying to do well in races when I get the chance. It would take until 2007 to improve my 5 km time to 18:39 though, as I tend to get problems with the kinetic apparatus that hold me back. In 2014, I learnt of a training method that seemed to agree with me and began to apply it. My latest race was in April 2015, 3.8 km in 14:15 (first place). My running now consists almost exclusively of interval training of moderate intensity, and I have also switched to forefoot landing and am transitioning to minimalist shoes.

Intelligence, creativity, genius, human quality, and eugenics are fields of interest that came forth from the test-related activities and studies of psychometrics since 1994. Human evolution is another such interest.

[1] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Paul Cooijmans.

[2] Ibid.

[3] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Detailed personal information.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] For those with complete interest in personal information, the article entitled Detailed personal information provides additional resources on Mr. Cooijmans. In addition, and as stated in the core of the interview, there exist thorough representations of personal views within the website. This interview cannot provide the whole suite of interests and information within the question and response format. However, and in light of that consideration, this interview, through a separate venue, might perform a complementary role to the general research and background information in his own resources, e.g. websites, articles, music, photography, and others.

[7] A select set of footnotes relevant to the compositions by Mr. Cooijmans following this one.

[8] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2011, November 23). Fugue#2.

[9] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2012, January 2). Fugue #1.

[10] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2011, November 5). Fugue #3.

[11] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2011, December 14]. Jan met de pet.

[12] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2014, June 9). Sanctus (motet).

[13] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2013, November 29). Fourth miserable Paul Paulmans blues.

[14] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2014, February 14). Chromatic Phantasy.

[15] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2013, November 8). Third miserable Paul Paulmans blues.

[16] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2013, March 7). Second miserable Paul Paulmans blues.

[17] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2012, March 22). First miserable Paul Paulmans blues.

[18] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2012, January 20). Canon, 2-part, d Dorian (1987).

[19] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2011, December 22). If music and sweet poetry agree.

[20] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2011, December 12). Ut !.

[21] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2011, November 12). Anti-hero.

[22] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2011, October 26). Composition, dedicated to Pietje.

[23] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2009, April 21). Composition, dedicated to the singing of a very strange little bird.

[24] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2009, April 21]. Fugue, dedicated to apathy.

[25] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2008, December 25). Absurd composition in plusminus B flat.

[26] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2009, January 5). Liquidatie (fragment).

[27] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2008, December 18). New Amsterdam Times – Computer beats Vagant.

[28] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2014, December 14). I wonder….

[29] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2012, December 29). Field of eternal integrity – introduction.

[30] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2011, April 11). Walking with herniated disk L5-S1.

[31] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2011, November 29). For who loves truth, the garrote called “life” is daily tightened a turn.

[32] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2010, May 16). Murine Dinner.

[33] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2008, December 29). En plezier doen.

[34] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2008, December 17). Flying rhomb #0, Autumn 2001.

[35] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2008, December 13). Flying rhomb #2, December 2008.

[36] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2008, December 13). Flying rhomb #1.

[37] See Cooijmans, P. (2015). Compositions by Paul Cooijmans.

[38] See Cooijmans, (n.d.). op. -3, 1982-1983: Introduction (played before “Words”).

[39] See Cooijmans, (2001). Early Guitar Compositions.

[40] See Cooijmans, (1987). op. 10, 1987-1989: Christ lag in Todesbanden (Motet in Renaissance style, 2-part, in e Frygian, 1987).

[41] See Cooijmans, (1987). op. 10, 1987-1989: Allein Gott (Motet in Renaissance style, 2-part, in a Aeolian, 1987).

[42] See Cooijmans, (1987). op. 10, 1987-1989: O bone Jesu (Motet in Renaissance style, 2-part, in g Dorian, 1987.

[43] See Cooijmans, (1987). op. 10, 1987-1989: Agnus Dei (Motet in Renaissance style, 2-part, in d Dorian, 1987).

[44] See Cooijmans, (1987). op. 10, 1987-1989: Asperges me (Motet in Renaissance style, 3-part, in g Dorian, 1987).

[45] See Cooijmans, (1987). op. 10, 1987-1989: Kyrie (Motet in Renaissance style, 3-part, in G Myxolidian, 1987).

[46] See Cooijmans, (1987). op. 10, 1987-1989: Ricercar #1 in Renaissance style (3-part, in e Frygian, 1987).

[47] See Cooijmans, (1987). op. 10, 1987-1989: Ricercar #2 in Renaissance style (3-part, in d Dorian, 1987).

[48] See Cooijmans, (1987). op. 10, 1987-1989: Ricercar #3 in Renaissance style (3-part, in g, 1987).

[49] See Cooijmans, (1990). op 12b, 1990: Tja.

[50] See Cooijmans, (1989). op. 13, 1989: First to third composition for piano.

[51] See Cooijmans, (1991). op. 21, 1991: “Easy introduction” to the art of advanced music-making
4-part setting, instruments undefined + 3 voices, percussion, piano 3:45 Recording of middle part.

[52] See Cooijmans, (1991). op. 21A, 1991: “That’s a long story and the sting is in the tail…”
choir.

[53] See Cooijmans, (n.d.). op. 21b.: Ick ging op eenen morgen.

[54] See Cooijmans, (1993). op. 34A, 1993: 2-part setting of “Mijn hertze en can verbliden niet”.

[55] See Cooijmans, (1995). op.i (unnumbered), 1995 Educational pieces: Blues (guitar).

[56] See Cooijmans, (n.d.). Later work, op. 41, 2004: Glia Society Canon.

[57] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Paul Cooijmans.

[58] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). GAIA: Gifted Adult’s Inventory of Aspergerisms.

[59] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Straight talk about asperger syndrome.

[60] See Cooijmans, P. (2010, September). Human degeneration.

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2023-01-29

Paul Cooijmans: Independent Psychometitor; Administrator, The Giga Society; Administrator, The Glia Society (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/07/01

ABSTRACT

Interview with Paul Cooijmans. Independent psychometitor and administrator of The Glia Society and The Giga Society. He discusses: main personal work, information from personal websites, three main websites, and presentation of personal information, publications, and societies, numerous, diverse interests centered in high-range intelligence and its measurement, and family background with respect to geography, culture, and language; the influence of these on development; and additional influences and pivotal moments in major cross-sections of early life including kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school, high school, and undergraduate studies (college/university).

Keywords: administrator, background, culture, elementary school, family, geography, high-range intelligence, high school, junior high school, kindergarten, Paul Cooijmans, psychometitor, publications, societies, The Giga Society, The Glia Society, undergraduate studies.

*Incomplete, common reference style listing without access dates.*

1. Your main collections of personal work and information come from personal websites.^[1]^{,[2],[3],[4],[5],[6]} Of those with an interest in this, the three main websites provide plenty of collected works on subject matter of interest to you.^[7]^,[8],[9] You have presentation of personal information, publications, and societies elsewhere.^[10]^{,[11],[12],[13],[14],[15],[16],[17],[18],[19],[20],[21],[22],[23],[24],[25],[26],[27]} One can find numerous, diverse interests centered in high-range intelligence and its measurement.^[28]^,[29],[30] To begin this conversation, in terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside?^[31]

My family is from the south of the Netherlands, from the eastern part of the province of Noord-Brabant, and of a Roman Catholic non-intellectual working class background. My first language is the local dialect as spoken in the village of Lieshout. I learnt Standard Netherlandic later, in primary school. People in this region are anecdotally said to be Burgundians, meaning they are keen on the good life, food, wine, beer, and feasting, but it is uncertain to what extend they are genealogically descended from the Burgundians (this part of Europe did belong to the Duchy of Burgundy in the past). In any case, most inhabitants of the south of the Netherlands are of Frankish descent, and many, including us, are descendants in line of Charlemagne; the Franks settled here in the early Middle Ages.

2. How did this influence your development?^[32]

The influence of this family background lies mainly in the non-intellectual and social aspects. In this milieu, only physical labour counts, and any kind of intellectual activity is looked down upon, is not respected, not considered work. Studying, and certainly anything beyond secondary school, is not encouraged but seen as “not for our kind of people”, and it is customary and expected to leave school early and find a job. There is no understanding of the fact that one may have talents in intellectual fields, and that pursuing those may lead to societal success and social mobility. These things have changed meanwhile, and I am probably one of the last generation to grow up like this.

Regarding social matters, one is not taught social and communication skills, including manners and self-care skills, as required in highbrow or posh circles, so that one is unlikely to end up in the right company to get on in life, to end up in the nepotistic networks where the jobs and the money are divided. In fact, I only just escaped needing dentures in early adulthood; in my family it was usual to have one’s teeth pulled and get artificial ones by one’s mid-twenties. This, too, has changed now, but my childhood fell just in the days when customs and standards of the 1950s and before had not disappeared yet. The circumstance that my parents were already over forty at my birth will have contributed to these old-fashioned, almost anachronistic conditions.

Being an intelligent child from a non-intellectual background as just sketched, I was an outsider both in my family and in the outer world. I was on my own and had to invent and discover for myself how to get through the maze of life, in the absence of any guidance or beaten path. The overall effect of that is a being slowed down in one’s development, leading to late-blooming. A good analogy for that can be seen in the land speed records for freely moving vehicles (“cars”) as opposed to vehicles guided by a rail (“trains”); the former is only just over the speed of sound, the latter more than ten thousand kilometres per hour, so about eight times as fast. With guidance, one is clearly faster. However, when moving into unknown terrain, there can exist no guidance. There lie no tracks on land where no man has gone before.

This is a very broad and comprehensive question, so the answer is according:

The educational system in the Netherlands is not the same as that in the United States, and its components can not necessarily all be mapped on to the American concepts in the question, but I did go to kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, and the conservatory (academy of music). A fact that has been influential is that, in those days and in the area where I grew up, there was no notion of “gifted children”, and therefore no special attention to such, no dedicated classes where one was among intellectual peers, no “enrichment” or acceleration or how one calls it. All of that came about a decade too late for me. I think it could have made much difference. For a highly intelligent child, to be put through the same curriculum at the same pace in the same classroom as dozens of age peers of much lower ability, that is about the cruelest form of child abuse imaginable.

The first day in kindergarten – late in the summer of ’69 – was a pivotal moment; it ended my freedom. I hated being forced to go to school, I was attached to being boss over my own time and activities. I have hated school every single day from then on to the end of secondary school. I strongly felt no one had the right to tell me what to do and claim my time and mental focus. Only decades later I would learn that this is typical of Asperger syndrome, and that Hans Asperger described it in his 1944 article, which I summarized in English in 2009. It is the being self-driven, only feeling well when doing things that come from within, not being able to bear being steered. It is an anarchism from the inside.

A telling example of my way of apprehending the world took place in these kindergarten years: The teacher asked us to make a drawing of little cupboards filled with clay. I set myself to it, although drawing was not my strongest side. When all were ready, our drawings were compared, and to my utter astonishment I was the only one who had got it right, who had actually drawn little cupboards filled with clay! All the other kindergarteners had, by some bizarre misunderstanding, drawn a man; a big black man, with boxing gloves on. For background information, it may be good to mention here that the Netherlandic for “little cupboards filled with clay” sounds almost exactly like “Cassius Clay”, the name then still being used for Muhammed Ali, who had defended his world championship title the night before.

Primary school was fairly thorough in those days, especially in a small village where the school had priorly been run by nuns; there was still one nun left at that time. I was excellent at all subjects except for music, gymnastics, drawing, and manual training. When returning after a two-week illness, the class was taking a very difficult examination for which I had not been able to prepare, but the teacher let me try it anyway. Another pupil who had also been ill was told, “No, you had better not take the test without preparation. We are not all called Paul Cooijmans!” It turned out the exam was so hard that, apart from my perfect score, everyone failed and had to redo it. In that period, as well as later in secondary school, it was common that, when a teacher asked a difficult question to the group, a remark would be added along the lines of “Paul does not need to answer, he always knows everything”.

It was during the primary school years that I developed a scientific mind, a desire to know and understand all there is. My greatest interests were astronomy, physics, and chemistry (none of which was taught at school) and I was fascinated by the theory of relativity. I read any books I could get from the library about such matters, independently of school, and was aware that I knew far more than I was supposed to. In fifth grade, the teacher – the nun – told us that the sun was the biggest star; obviously I knew that was not true, but said nothing, thus saving her the embarrassment of being corrected by a child. I mention this to illustrate I was not only intellectually superior to my environment, but also had the emotional maturity and constraint to handle my being thus, in defiance of the prejudice of “high I.Q. equals low E.Q.”

For secondary school I had to travel to a nearby city, 8 to 9 kilometres twice daily on a bicycle. Children were much coarser, ruder, and more intolerant there, and there were competing street gangs. My bicycle got stolen once, under the eyes of a few students. A bystander proposed to steal a new one for me for fifty guilders, and they were genuinely amazed when I refused that kind offer. The next few years, basically my puberty, were the worst period of my life, and I turned to music and started playing guitar and composing, more or less neglecting my scientific interests. Although it went extremely bad with me emotionally, I kept excelling at almost all subjects, again with the exception of those already mentioned. Once on a parents’ evening, the chemistry teacher called me a “unicum”. I also began writing, mainly short stories, and made a film of one of them, a science-fiction horror story called “Liquidatie”, wherein the main character is dissolved in concentrated sulphuric acid. At the end of secondary school I formed a rock band called Catweazle, which would exist, in varying forms, until 1987.

By way of background information, it is relevant that my youth, to my misfortune, fell in the heyday of egalitarianism; no one was supposed to be better than another. There were no honours to be earned at school, and there existed no cum laude predicate when graduating, which I with certainty have deserved. There was also no I.Q. testing of children or students, and no concept of “giftedness” or high intelligence. In short, the hostile and egalitarian environment of secondary school changed my path from science – my biggest strength – to music and writing.

The conservatory was in an old convent, and a dance academy was housed in the same building, so all in all it was much as in the television series “Fame”. The curriculum was extremely thorough and demanding, and I devoted all of my time and energy to it. I actually studied even in my dreams, which is what happens spontaneously when one is occupied with something constantly. I was particularly good at a subject called counterpoint, which deals with writing melody and polyphony. One day, the teacher wanted us to write the exposition (the first part) of a fugue in baroque style. When I came to the next lesson I had finished an entire fugue. The teacher played it on the piano with all the students sitting around him, as was common. After my piece had died away, there was an unusual silence. When people resumed breathing, the teacher looked at me and asked, “Did you write this?” I said, “Yes”. He said, “Then you must have been moved by the Spirit”. None of the other students had more than a few bars completed.

A bit later, in the early 1990s, my scientific interest returned to some extent, and I occupied myself with an aspect of music theory, making a significant contribution to it (the quantification of discordance, not to be confused with dissonance, and involving the discovery of 96 chords that have never yet sounded). To my frustration, no one I presented it to could fully understand it. “When I see those things, that is where it ends for me”, said my composition teacher, pointing at a radical sign in my work. He would also describe teaching me as “observing an internal process develop”.

Pivotal was also the time when the psychology teacher told us that lying is normal social behaviour, and that everyone does it many times a day. Since I had never lied, that was an extreme insult to me, and I could have killed him on the spot, had it not been for my exceptional emotional constraint; again, one sees that high I.Q. equals not low E.Q. I understood that something had to be seriously wrong with the social sciences if falsehood like that was being presented as established fact. It would take me a few decades more to understand the motivation behind this spreading of lies by people posing as scientists. Around that time I wrote an essay on “giftedness”, as an assignment for psychology class, and an expert in that field whom I consulted advised me to join a certain I.Q. society, which I did a few years thereafter. By that time I was teaching guitar, and as such created a scale to express a guitarist’s level of advancedness. In 1994, that led me to try my hand at constructing I.Q. tests, which seemed to me a logical step. From early 1995 on, that became my main activity.

[1] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Detailed personal information.

[2] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Paul Cooijmans.

[3] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Giga Society.

[4] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Giga Society: Introduction.

[5] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Glia Society.

[6] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Glia Society: General Information.

[7] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Paul Cooijmans.

[8] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Giga Society.

[9] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Glia Society.

[10] See Self-Growth.com (2015). Paul Cooijmans: High-range intelligence test Expert.

[11] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). I.Q. Tests For The High Range.

[12] See Morollo, M.K. (2014, August 28).10 of the world’s most exclusive member’s clubs.

[13] See [z457731] (2013, June 8). Is there an accurate online IQ test for measuring 160+ Iqs?.

[14] See Barnes, H.G. (2015, February 19). Los 9 clubes exclusivos en los que jamás te van a dejar entrar.

[15] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Paul Cooijmans.

[16] See Thompson, D. (2015, April 4). We don’t think of highly gifted people as mentally disabled. Perhaps we should.

[17] See Lulu.com (n.d.). Author Information: Paul Cooijmans.

[18] See Google+ (n.d.). Paul Cooijmans.

[19] See [irritatedattheprinter] (2014). Aphorisms by Paul Cooijmans-memorable quips for arguing.

[20] See Volney, K. (2013, September 2). Interview with Paul Cooijmans: Administrator of the Giga Society.

[21] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2009, February 16). Interview 1999 (Fragment).

[22] See [Paul Cooijmans] (2009, February 21). Interview 1996.

[23] See Cooijmans, P. (1996). Video portrait 1996.

[24] See Cooijmans, P. (1999). Interview 1999 (fragment).

[25] See Peden, C. (2011, September). Interview with Paul Cooijmans.

[26] See n.a. (2002). An interview with Paul Cooijmans.

[27] See Thorbes, S. (2004). Interview with Paul Cooijmans.

[28] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Paul Cooijmans.

[29] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Giga Society.

[30] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). The Glia Society.

[31] See Cooijmans, P. (n.d.). Detailed personal information.

[32] Ibid.

[33] Ibid.

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2023-01-29

Ben Best: Director of Research Oversight, Life Extension Foundation (Part Three)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/05/15

ABSTRACT

Interview with Ben Best, director of research oversight, Life Extension Foundation (LEF). In part three, he discusses the following subject-matter: possible venture capitalist philanthropy towards the LEF’s endeavours and initiatives; the technological singularity and life extension; independent computer science research and current work; miscellaneous writing and book pitch; conference reports and the most surprising finding from them; different definitions of nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals in addition to the government industry favouring pharmaceuticals over nutraceuticals; and motivation for his life’s work.

Keywords: aging, Ben Best, computer science, conference reports, Life Extension Foundation, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, philanthropy, venture capitalist.

18. Some prominent venture capitalists consider the efforts for life extension of utmost importance. Furthermore, an endeavour thought in high regard because of the financial evidence in the record of one-way distribution of funds, i.e. from venture capitalist to individual, research group, company, or organization. Some venture capitalists provide tremendous amounts of money from personal wealth to research and further the aims of organizations for the increased quality life expectancy of human beings.

For instance, Peter Thiel[1] funds numerous initiatives with inclusion of the aforementioned Dr. Aubrey de Grey[2][3]. He provided financial backing to Dr. de Grey in the early stages of development of The Methusaleh Foundation[4].[5] An amount of $3.5 million towards antiaging research.[6] Of course, he’s worth over $2 billion dollars.[7]

Does the LEF receive substantial funds from venture capitalists or others with a philanthropic proclivity? What does the LEF need to pursue more of its bold research projects?

All of LEF money spent on research comes from supplement sales. More revenue from sales would allow for more research. Less harassment by government agencies (currently the IRS) would be of great benefit.

19. Insofar as individuals and groups predict the future of medicine and technology, some in the community of transhumanism predict the singularity.[8] A metaphor from astrophysics about the center of a black hole, or a singularity, a point of zero volume and infinite density. Light cannot escape it and, hence, one cannot see past it. No light; no sight.

Similarly, some posit the technological singularity. Technology’s continued increase in pace of progression at some future point creates an unpredictable future past that moment. A time in the future in which technology will advance beyond predictive capabilities. Same metaphor. It depends on emphasis. How probable does the technological singularity future seem to you? How might this improve the future of life extension research?

I am more concerned with the near future than the far future. By definition it is impossible to think about anything post-singularity. I am not convinced of technological singularity, but I am expecting continued accelerating progress. Possibly there will be a law of diminishing returns rather than a singularity. But if that happens, I hope it happens after aging and disease have been eliminated.

20. You include a number of articles on computer science.[9] About half connected to the idea of Y2K. About another half on topics with more modern import: An Overview of Neural Networks[10], Artificial Intelligence and the Preservation of Mind[11], and Object-Oriented Programming and APL Language[12].[13]

Each covers a significant amount of territory on subject matter in computer science. Associated with the expertise from the degree earned from SFU in computer science. How does this stream of independent research assist you – as director of research oversight?

Everything I have ever done or studied was not done for the sake of a job (my current job), which I did not anticipate having until a few years ago. I suppose anyone can say that anything they have every learned has somehow been helpful to them in their current endeavors.

21. You have one portion of the website devoted to miscellaneous writings.[14] Those outside the extensive core of written work. Far fewer exist there: The Uses of Financial Statements[15], Bees Man[16], and Ancient DNA & Preservation in Amber[17].[18] Have you thought of a compilation of organized and miscellaneous writings for inclusion into a pitch for mainstream book publishers?

My only past effort in submitting a book for publication was SCHEMERS IN THE WEB, which was rejected by every publisher I sent it to. So I self-published by putting on my website: http://www.benbest.com/history/schemers.html. All my writings have either been self-publishing on my website or magazine articles. I have never again considered a book, although some of my articles have been included as chapters in books edited by others.

22. With respect to some of the work necessary for the LEF, attendance at and reportage from conferences seems necessary, especially to remain apprised on the pre-publication information of academic papers. In fact, you wrote a number of conference reports for the LEF.[19][20] In them, you covered the, at the time, most recent research into life extension at these conferences. In the midst of research into these topics, what finding most surprised you?

The prospect of genetic engineering and gene therapy with the advent of CRISPR/Cas9 is probably the biggest breakthrough in recent years.

23. In the Nutraceutical Topic Index, you write a frank description of the difference between pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals.[21] In a firm tone, you state:

Pharmaceuticals are substances which have (or have had) patent protection as a result of expensive testing to conform to the specifications of a government agency. Many nutrients will never receive government approval because no one could justify the expense of government testing requirements for substances & uses which cannot be protected by patent. Both pharmaceuticals & nutrients can both cure & prevent disease — but only pharmaceuticals have government sanction. Many pharmaceuticals have their origin in plants & animals — and are no less “natural” than nutrients.[22]

I found this poignant and concise. What other implications of this expensive government testing requirements of substances in addition to the government sanction for pharmaceuticals (but not nutraceuticals) need statement to you?

As I wrote in my review of the World Stem Cell Summit in the June 2013 issue of LIFE EXTENSION magazine, I favor the repeal of the 1962 Kefauver-Harris Amendment that added a proof-of-efficacy requirement to the proof-of-safety requirements for FDA drug approval. Requiring efficacy in addition to safety in the wake of the 1962 thalidomide scare was pure politics; thalidomide was entirely a safety issue.

http://www.lef.org/Magazine/2013/6/World-Stem-Cell-Summit-2012/Page-01

The effect of the Kefauver-Harris Amendment was to reduce the availability of new drugs to the public. The average number of new drugs introduced dropped from 40 per year before 1962 to 16 per year soon after 1962. Average time from filing to approval for new drugs rose from 7 months before 1962 to 7.8 years by 1998. A 2006 study estimated the cost to bring a new drug to market at between $500 million to $2 billion.

After FDA approval, safety rather than efficacy is mainly what matters because physicians are free to prescribe the drug “off label” for any indication they please. And FDA-approved drugs are not very safe, anyway. The American Medical Association has reported that adverse reactions to FDA-approved drugs in American hospitals is a leading cause of death.

24. With respect to the core ideas of life extension, you wrote numerous other articles on the topic. Some written work covers the personal thoughts on extension of life. Some mentioned earlier in addition to the novel (relative to this interview) articles: Why Life Extension? Or Why Live At All?[23], Causes of Death[24], Alzheimer’s Disease: Molecular Mechanisms[25], Is Longevity Entirely Heritable[26], Can Deprenyl (Selegiline) Extend Human Lifespan?[27], “Smart Drugs” & the Aging Brain: A Superficial Review[28], Whey Protein and Life Extension[29], and Life Extension Benefits of Methionine Restriction[30], and numerous other articles and resources on life extension.[31][32]

To close with a quote and question, in Why Life Extension? Or Why Live At All?[33], you wrote:

Existentialists often say “life is meaningless” with the implication that they are describing an objective meaning outside themselves, and independent of any human being. But it is humans who care about things and have feelings. Humans are the source of value and the process of valuation. A mother filled with love for her newborn baby does not wonder whether life is meaningful. An Existentialist who says life is meaningless is describing his or her own emotional state (a statement of values), not a fact about the universe. It is humans who find (or can’t find) meaning in life because of what they value (or don’t value).

What motivates this life’s work?

The prospect of a vastly long, healthy and youthful life motivates me.

[1] See Forbes Magazine (2015, April 18). #12 Peter Thiel.

[2] See SENS (n.d.). Executive Team.

[3] See de Grey, A. & Jacobsen, S.D. (2014, June).

[4] See Methuselah Foundation (2008). Methuselah Foundation.

[5] See Methuselah Foundation (2008). Paypal Founder pledges $3.5 Million to antiaging research.

[6] Ibid.

[7] See Forbes Magazine (2015, April 18). #12 Peter Thiel.

[8] See Vinge, V. (1993). What is the Singularity?.

[9] See Best, B. (n.d.). Topic Index for Articles about Computer Science by Ben Best.

[10] See Best, B. (n.d.). An Overview of Neural Networks.

[11] See Best, B. (n.d.). Artificial Intelligence and the Preservation of Mind.

[12] See Best, B. (n.d.). Object-Oriented Programming and APL Language.

[13] See Best, B. (n.d.). Topic Index for Articles about Computer Science by Ben Best.

[14] See Best, B. (n.d.). Topic Index for Miscellaneous Writings by Ben Best.

[15] See Best, B. (n.d.). The Uses of Financial Statements.

[16] See Best, B. (n.d.). St. Bees Man.

[17] See Best, B. (n.d.). Ancient DNA & Preservation in Amber.

[18] See Best, B. (n.d.). Topic Index for Miscellaneous Writings by Ben Best.

[19] See Best, B. (n.d.). Conference Report: Ellison Medical Foundation Colloquium on Aging.

[20] See Best, B. (n.d.). Report: The 2014 Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Symposium.

[21] See Best, B (n.d.). Nutraceuticals Topic Index.

[22] Ibid.

[23] See Best, B. (n.d.). Why Life Extension? Or Why Live At All?.

[24] See Best, B. (n.d.). Causes of Death.

[25] See Best, B. (n.d.). Alzheimer’s Disease: Molecular Mechanisms.

[26] See Best, B. (n.d.). Is Longevity Entirely Heritable?.

[27] See Best, B. (n.d.). Can Deprenyl (Selegiline) Extend Human Lifespan?.

[28]See Best, B. (n.d.). “Smart Drugs” & the Aging Brain: A Superficial Review.

[29]See Best, B. (n.d.). Whey Protein and Life Extension.

[30]See Best, B. (n.d.). Life Extension Benefits of Methionine Restriction.

[31] More resources exist in the website. Those articles listed for some further reading. One section of the personal website hyperlinks to a number of references and resources sectioned by “General References,” “BioMedical References,” “General Science/Technology References,” “Computing and Internet References,” “Literature References,” “Geographical Orientation,” “Time Orientation,” “Telephone Orientation,” “Space,” and “Generalized and Specialized News or Information.”[31] I found these resources akin to the ubiquitous contents of the website. In general, you express thoughtful and coherent arguments for topics of interest in addition to the provision of useful information bolstered by references and resources. See next footnote for reference.

[32] See Best, B. (n.d.). Links: References and Resources.

[33] See Best, B. (n.d.). Why Life Extension? Or Why Live At All?.

Bibliography

Best, B. (n.d.). A Case for Free Will AND Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/philo/freewill.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). A Simplified History of China. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/history/China.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALCAR). Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/nutrceut/ALCAR.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Alzheimer’s Disease: Molecular Mechanisms. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/Alzheimer.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). An Austrian Theory of Business Cycles. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/polecon/buscycle.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). An Overview of Neural Networks. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/computer/nn.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Ancient DNA & Preservation in Amber. Retrieved fromhttp://www.benbest.com/misc/DNAamber.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Articles about Caloric Restriction with Adequate Nutrition (CRAN). Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/calories/calories.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Artificial Intelligence and the Preservation of Mind. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/computer/ai.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Bavarian Illuminati. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/history/bavarian.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Ben Best in a Nutshell. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/personal/nutshell.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Business/Investment Data and Information. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/business/business.html/.
Best, B. (n.d.). Caloric Restriction with Adequate Nutrition – An Overview. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/calories/cran95.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Can Deprenyl (Selegiline) Extend Human Lifespan?. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/deprenyl.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Causes of Death. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/causes.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). CoEnzyme Q₁₀(Ubiquinone, Ubiquinol and Semiquinone). Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/nutrceut/CoEnzymeQ.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Conference Report: Ellison Medical Foundation Colloquium on Aging. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org/magazine/2013/1/Conference-Report-Ellison-Medical-Foundation-Colloquium-on-Aging/Page-01.
Best, B. (n.d.). Cryonics – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/cryonics/CryoFAQ.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). DHA for Hearts and Minds. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/health/dha.html.
Best, B. (n.d.) DHEA Hormone Replacement. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/nutrceut/DHEA.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Diogenes of Sinope. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/philo/diogenes.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Egyptology, Rosicrucianism, and the Quest for Immortality. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/history/egypt.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Fats You Need — Essential Fatty Acids. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/health/essfat.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Financial Statements in the “New Economy”. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/business/newecon.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Fixed-Income Securities: Money-Markets & Bonds. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/business/debt.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Funding Cryonics with an Estate. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/cryonics/estate.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Investing & Trading in Equities: Art & Science. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/business/investing.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Is Longevity Entirely Heritable?. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/longgene.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Mechanisms of Aging. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/aging.html#radical.
Best, B. (n.d.). My Health Regimen – Exercise, Diet, Supplements. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/personal/regimen.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). L-Carnosine and Related Histamine-Derived Molecules. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/nutrceut/carnosine.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Life Extension Benefits of Methionine Restriction. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/calories/Meth.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Links: References and Resources. Retrieved fromhttp://www.benbest.com/resource/resource.html.
Best, B (2014). LinkedIn: Ben Best. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pub/ben-best/3a/45/65a.
Best, B. (n.d.). Links to some of my favorite sources of IMAGES/PICTURES/ ANIMATIONS. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/images/images.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Monetary Systems and Managed Economies. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/polecon/monetary.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). N-AcetylCysteine (NAC). Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/nutrceut/NAC.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). North American Credit Scoring & Reporting. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/business/credit.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Nutraceuticals Topic Index. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/nutrceut/nutrceut.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Object-Oriented Programming and APL Language. Retrieved fromhttp://www.benbest.com/computer/oopapl.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Offshore Options for Cryonicists. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/cryonics/offshore.html.
Best, B. & de Grey, A. (2006, February). Profile: Aubrey de Grey, PhD An Exclusive Interview with the Renowned Biogerontologist. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org//Magazine/2006/2/profile/Page-01.
Best, B. (2013, January). Report: 2013 Keystone Diabetes Conference. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org//Magazine/2013/10/2013-Keystone-Diabetes-Symposium/Page-01.
Best, B. (2013, January). Report: Conference Report Ellison Medical Foundation Colloquium on Aging. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org/Magazine/2013/1/Conference-Report-Ellison-Medical-Foundation-Colloquium-on-Aging/Page-01.
Best, B. (n.d.). Report: The 2014 Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Symposium. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org/magazine/2014/7/The-2014-Cardiovascular-Disease-Prevention-Symposium/Page-01.
Best, B. (1990). Schemers in the Web: A Covert History of the 1960’s Era. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/history/schemers.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). “Smart Drugs” & the Aging Brain: A Superficial Review. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/smart.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Some Thoughts About Wisdom. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/philo/wisdom.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). St. Bees Man. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/misc/stbees.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). The Duplicates Paradox (The Duplicates Problem). Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/philo/doubles.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). The FDA versus the Life Extension Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/polecon/fdalef.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). The Major American Equity Indices: DOW, Nasdaq, S&P 500, Russell 2000 and Wilshire 5000. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/business/indexusa.html.
Best, B. (2015, January). The Las Vegas A4M Conference. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org//Magazine/2015/1/The-Las-Vegas-A4M-Conference/Page-01.
Best, B. (n.d.). The New West Co-op Houses: An Essay in Recognition of the 20th Anniversary. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/history/coop.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). The Uses of Financial Statements. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/business/finance.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). The Wace, Texas Massacre. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/history/waco.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Thoughts on Exploitation Theory. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/polecon/exploit.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Timing the Market: Patterns in American Stock Market Movements. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/business/timing.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Topic Index for Articles about Computer Science by Ben Best. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/computer/computer.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Topic Index for Articles about Life Extension by Ben Best. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/lifeext.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Topic Index for Essays on Philosophy by Ben Best. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/philo/philo.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Topic Index for Essays on Political Economy by Ben Best. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/polecon/polecon.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Topic Index for Miscellaneous Writings by Ben Best. Retrieved fromhttp://www.benbest.com/misc/misc.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Vitamin E (Tocopherols and Tocotrienols). Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/nutrceut/VitaminE.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Welcome to the World of Ben Best. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/.
Best, B. (n.d.). Whey Protein and Life Extension. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/whey.html.
Best, B. (n.d.). Why Life Extension? Or, Why Live At All?. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/whylife.html.
Blaylock, R.L. (2008, January). Report: DHA Supports Brain Development and Protects Neurological Function. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org//Magazine/2008/1/report_dhafishoil/Page-01.
Buchanan, L. (2013, January). CoQ10: The Longevity Factor. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org//Magazine/2013/1/CoQ10-The-Longevity-Factor/Page-02.
de Grey, A. & Jacobsen, S.D. (2014, June 8). Aubrey de Grey: SENS Research Foundation, Chief Science Officer and Co-founder; Rejuvenation Research, Editor-in-Chief. Retrieved from http://in-sightjournal.com/2014/06/08/dr-aubrey-de-grey-rejuvenation-research-editor-in-chief-methuselah-foundation-co-founder-sens-foundation-co-founder/.
Forbes Magazine (2015, April 18). #12 Peter Thiel. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/profile/peter-thiel/.
Gael (n.d.) Ben Best in Another Nutshell. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/personal/gael.html.
Goepp, J. (2008, April). Report: Newly Discovered Health Benefits of Vitamin C. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org/magazine/2008/4/Newly-Discovered-Benefits-Of-Vitamin-C/Page-01.
Kurzweil, R. (2004, October 7). Fantastic Voyage; Live Long Enough to Live Forever. Retrieved from http://www.kurzweilai.net/fantastic-voyage-live-long-enough-to-live-forever.
Kurzweil, R. (2014). Kurzweil: Accelerating Intelligence. Retrieved from http://www.kurzweilai.net/.
Kurzweil, R. (2014). Ray Kurzweil biography. Retrieved from http://www.kurzweilai.net/ray-kurzweil-biography.
Kurzweil, R. (2001, March 7). The Law of Accelerating Returns. Retrieved from http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns.
Kurzweil, R. (2009, April 28). TRANSCEND: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever. Retrieved from http://www.rayandterry.com/transcend/overview.php.
Life Extension Foundation (2009, October). Abstracts: Iodine. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org//Magazine/2009/10/Iodine-Cognitex-and-Bioidentical-Hormones/Page-01.
Life Extension Foundation (2014). Acetyl-L-Carnitine. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org/Vitamins-Supplements/item01524/Acetyl-L-Carnitine.
Life Extension Foundation (2014). CAL / MAG. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org/Vitamins-Supplements/item16026/CAL—MAG.
Life Extension Foundation (2014). DHEA Complete. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org/Vitamins-Supplements/item01478/DHEA-Complete.
Life Extension Foundation (2014). DMAE: Dimethylaminoethanol. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org/Vitamins-Supplements/item01540/DMAE-Bitartrate-dimethylaminoethanol.
Life Extension Foundation (2014). Life Extension Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org/.
Life Extension Foundation (2014). Life Extension Mix™ Capsules. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org/vitamins-supplements/Item01954/Life-Extension-Mix-Capsules.
Life Extension Foundation (2005, October 18). Life Extension Update. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org/Newsletter/2005/10/Alpha-tocotrienol-protects-against-stroke-damage/Page-01#prod2.
Life Extension Foundation (2014). N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org/Vitamins-Supplements/item01534/N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine.
Life Extension Foundation (2014). Natural Vitamin E. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org/Vitamins-Supplements/item01763/Natural-Vitamin-E.
Life Extension Foundation (2014). Super Ubiquinol CoQ10 with Enhanced Mitochondrial Support™. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org/Vitamins-Supplements/item01426/Super-Ubiquinol-CoQ10-with-Enhanced-Mitochondrial-Support.
Life Extension Foundation (2014). TMG. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org/Vitamins-Supplements/item01859/TMG.
Mark Twain. (2015). InEncyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/610829/Mark-Twain.
Methuselah Foundation (2008). Methuselah Foundation. Retrieved from http://methuselahfoundation.net/.
Methuselah Foundation (2008). Paypal Founder pledges $3.5 Million to antiaging research. Retrieved from http://mfoundation.org/index.php?pagename=newsdetaildisplay&ID=0107.
NASA (2015). Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive. Retrieved from http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html.
Ray and Terry Longevity Products (2011). Terry Grossman – Full Biography. Retrieved from http://www.rayandterry.com/bio-grossman.
Stokel, K. (2011, January). Carnosine, Exceeding Scientific Expectations. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org/magazine/2011/1/Carnosine-Exceeding-Scientific-Expectations/Page-01.
Stokel, K. (2011, January). Report: Critical Importance of Gamma E Tocopherol Continues to Be Overlooked. Retrieved from http://www.lef.org//Magazine/2011/1/Critical-Importance-of-Gamma-E-Tocopherol-Continues-to-Be-Overlooked/Page-02.
(2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1998212/transhumanism.
S. Food and Drug Administration (2014). US Food and Drug Administration. Retrieved from http://www.fda.gov/.
Vinge, V. (1993). What is the Singularity?. Retrieved from http://mindstalk.net/vinge/vingesing.html.
Vyff/Trice, S. (n.d.) Ben Best as I Have Known Him. Retrieved from http://www.benbest.com/personal/shannon.html.

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2023-01-29

Ben Best: Director of Research Oversight, Life Extension Foundation (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/05/08

ABSTRACT

Interview with Ben Best, director of research oversight, Life Extension Foundation (LEF). In part two, he discusses the following subject-matter: LEF and prediction of the near, and far, future; Caloric Restriction with Adequate Nutrition (CRAN), and the main factors and processes of CRAN; LEF’s legal battle with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Insurance Revenue Service (IRS); an in-progress essay entitled Mechanisms of Aging with condensed information in relation to the variegated mechanisms of aging; thoughts on three key mechanisms of aging including metabolic damage, cellular senescence and death, and toxic & non-toxic garbage accumulation; academic and professional venues for the public to read more about aging; brief listing of interest in writing in philosophy, political economy, historical writing, and computers; commentary on articles on personal writings on business/investment based in knowledge and personal opinion, and the emphasis of a libertarian philosophy with reasons for its strength as a philosophy; the possibility of many figures’ extrapolation of technological change into the singularity and if this plays into his plan to live for thousands of years.

Keywords: aging, Ben Best, business, caloric restriction with adequate nutrition, computers, health, historical writing, Internal Revenue Service, investment, Life Extension Foundation, philosophy, political economy, singularity, supplements, The University of British Columbia.

9. How does the LEF research program split organizationally? Where do you project each stream of research in the near and far future?

I have mostly answered the first question in 6 above. As the Danish proverb says, prediction is hard, especially about the future. This implies lack of control, which is not accurate, but I cannot foresee changes to the current policies in the near future and the far future is beyond my vision.

10. Some of the best means of life extension amount to the reduction of calories relative to one’s daily recommended amount of caloric intake.[1] You describe one of the most robust means of life extension: Caloric Restriction with Adequate Nutrition (CRAN).[2] You write about this in the article Caloric Restriction with Adequate Nutrition – An Overview[3]. In brief, how does caloric restriction extend life and improve health – main factors and processes?[4]

Whether CRAN would extend maximum lifespan in humans is an open question, but I think there is plenty of evidence that it improves health and reduces the chance of all aging-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, and certainly type 2 diabetes (which accelerates aging). Luigi Fontana has studied humans practicing CRAN, and I reported on Dr. Fontana’s discoveries in the June 2014 issue of LIFE EXTENSION magazine.

11. With respect to reading many of your productions, one article stood out to me: The FDA versus the Life Extension Foundation[5]. In the piece, you describe the S. Federal Drug Administration[6] (FDA) legal battle with the LEF in a “long & vicious battle against the Life Extension Foundation,” which had conclusion in “February, 1996” because “this charge was dropped. It was the first time in the history of the FDA that the agency had given-up on a criminal indictment against a political opponent.”[7] Where does the current relationship lie between the FDA and the LEF? What about the relation of other organizations to the LEF with regards to legal battles? Does research of this nature tend to come under intense scrutiny?

LEF is not currently fighting the FDA, but LEF is currently fighting the IRS. This fight has been going on for a few years and has put a damper on LEF research funding. The issue resolves around the relationship between LEF (which funds research) and the Buyer’s Club (which sells supplements, generating money for LEF funding of research). Negotiations have been proceeding somewhat encouragingly between LEF and the IRS. Some structural changes will be made between LEF and the Buyer’s Club, and there is reason to believe that the conflict will be resolved soon.

12. You have an ongoing manuscript in production entitled Mechanisms of Aging. You intend to continue research for this manuscript for some time. It contains tremendous amounts of condensed information in relation to the variegated mechanisms of aging. What inspired the original production of this work-in-progress?

As I have mentioned, I am highly motivated to live thousands of years. See my article “Why Life Extension?”

13. Too much to cover here. You state three categories for summarization of personal research into the mechanisms of aging: 1) Metabolic damage, 2) cellular senescence and death, and 3) toxic & non-toxic garbage accumulation.[8] What comprises each category? How might these rank-order in terms of their general contributions with respect to general aging?

The Summary & Conclusions section of “Mechanisms of Aging” specifies what comprises each category. I am not sure which is worse between 1) and 3), but I am not too concerned about 2) in the context of the next 30 years because I think stem cells and organ replacement will make that form of damage less important. 1) and 3) will remain important because the brain, which is the one organ which cannot be replaced. As for my essay, I have become so engrossed in my work at LEF, that my maintenance of that essay in the context of developing science has fallen behind.

14. What academic and popular venues can professionals and lay-persons alike read on their own time about aging in full detail?

I recommend my essays “Mechanisms of Aging” and “Alzheimer’s Disease: Molecular Mechanisms” as well as Aubrey de Grey’s book ENDING AGING: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs that Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime.

15. You have taken an interest in a variety of other arenas of research and expression. I point to writing in philosophy[9],[10],[11],[12], political economy[13],[14], historical writing[15],[16],[17],[18],[19],[20],[21], computers[22],[23], and many others.

I recommend readers to other articles in the bibliography and website for complete information. However, for our purposes, we can discuss some of these ideas in brief. Undoubtedly, these form personal interests relevant to your intellectual pursuits. What do you consider the core discovery in personal research into philosophy, political economy, history, and computers? How do these, and other major areas of research, factor into framework for understanding the world.

Like many libertarians, I have been inspired by the works of Ayn Rand and by Mises’s book HUMAN ACTION, as well as Rothbard’s MAN, ECONOMY, AND STATE. I am highly critical of central banks, and am hopeful the cryptocurrencies will replace government money. I have been irritated by the attacks on rationality by those claiming to interpret quantum physics. What I enjoyed especially about my time working with computers, was the way computers will immediately let you know of flaws in your thinking. But programming in APL not only corrected my rational faculties, but inspired my creative imagination.

16. You wrote on business/investment. In fact, a number of articles on aspects of the economy based in knowledge and educated opinion: Investing & Trading in Equities: Art & Science [24], An Austrian Theory of Business Cycles[25], Fixed-Income Securities: Money-Markets & Bonds[26], North American Credit Scoring & Reporting[27], The Major American Equity Indices: DOW, Nasdaq, S&P 500, Russell 2000 and Wilshire 5000[28], Timing the Market: Patterns in American Stock Market Movements[29], The Uses of Financial Statements[30], Financial Statements in the “New Economy”[31], Monetary Systems and Managed Economies[32], Funding Cryonics with an Estate[33], Offshore Options for Cryonicists[34], among other articles and recommendations.[35]

Other writings and redirections in relation to “indices and charts,” “investment information news,” and “investment research – links and resources.” You mentioned libertarianism. Sprinkles of this philosophy seem to exist in indirect quotes from articles. In Offshore Options for Cryonicists[36], you quote Mark Twain[37], who said, “The difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector is that the taxidermist only takes your skin.” With respect to libertarianism and its evidentiary grounding, what evidence most convinces you? What argument most convinces you? What seem like drawbacks to you?

State power is driven by the self-aggrandizement of politicians, who seek to enhance their power by creating benefits for their constituents through plundering others, which is pleasing to the constituents who are the recipients of the plunder and often initiate soliciting the plunder. Regulators may think that they are benefiting the economy by their actions, but they usually do more harm than good. The arguments for a free market are not something I can summarize in a short answer. As for drawbacks, even (so-called) libertarians can be drawn into the self-aggrandizing addiction to power resulting from involvement in the political process.

17. With regards to one community of researchers, dependent and independent, numerous respected individuals, in and out of the mainstream, emerge in the literature and media including Aubrey de Grey[38],[39], Dr. Peter Diamandis, M.D.[40], Dr. Ray Kurzweil[41], Dr. Terry Grossman[42], M.D.[43], Saul Kent[44] of the Life Extension Foundation[45], and many, many others.

Most probable in highest prominence –as a figure, Dr. Ray Kurzweil, posits the Law of Accelerating Returns – an extension of Moore’s Law – to extrapolate from past and present technological achievements and trends into possible, even probable, future achievements and trends in the progress of technology.[46],[47],[48],[49],[50]

Of course, alterations and improvements in technology, especially medical technology and knowledge, yield the possibility for betterment of the human condition. Does the technological singularity work into your personal expectations and plans, i.e. intention to live for thousands of years?

I don’t think about technological singularity very much. Robert Ettinger, hosts of science fiction writers, and many others have expected continuing technological progress long before Kurzweil. I hope and expect for continued, accelerating technological progress which is what anyone would expect by extrapolating the past into the future. And I hope and expect that this progress with lead to vastly improved heath, youth, and longevity.

[1] Ibid.

[2] See Best, B. (n.d.). Caloric Restriction with Adequate Nutrition – An Overview.

[3] Ibid.

[4] See Best, B. (n.d.). Articles about Caloric Restriction with Adequate Nutrition (CRAN).

[5] See Best, B. (n.d.). The FDA versus the Life Extension Foundation.

[6] See U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2014). US Food and Drug Administration.

[7] See Best, B. (n.d.). The FDA versus the Life Extension Foundation.

[8] See Best, B. (n.d.). My Health Regimen – Exercise, Diet, Supplements.

[9] See Best, B. (n.d.). A Case for Free Will AND Determinism.

[10] See Best, B. (n.d.). Some Thoughts About Wisdom.

[11] See Best, B. (n.d.). The Duplicates Paradox (The Duplicates Problem).

[12] See Best, B. (n.d.). Topic Index for Essays on Philosophy by Ben Best.

[13] See Best, B. (n.d.). Thoughts on Exploitation Theory.

[14] See Best, B. (n.d.). Topic Index for Essays on Political Economy by Ben Best.

[15] See Best, B. (1990). Schemers in the Web: A Covert History of the 1960’s Era.

[16] See Best, B. (n.d.). Bavarian Illuminati.

[17] See Best, B. (n.d.). Egyptology, Rosicrucianism, and the Quest for Immortality.

[18] See Best, B. (n.d.). The New West Co-op Houses: An Essay in Recognition of the 20th Anniversary.

[19] See Best, B. (n.d.). St. Bees Man.

[20] See Best, B. (n.d.). The Waco, Texas Massacre.

[21] See Best, B. (n.d.). A Simplified History of China.

[22] See Best, B. (n.d.). An Overview of Neural Networks.

[23] See Best, B. (n.d.). Topic Index for Articles about Computer Science by Ben Best.

[24] See Best, B. (n.d.). Investing & Trading in Equities: Art & Science.

[25] See Best, B. (n.d.). An Austrian Theory of Business Cycles.

[26] See Best, B. (n.d.). Fixed-Income Securities: Money-Markets & Bonds.

[27] See Best, B. (n.d.). North American Credit Scoring & Reporting.

[28] See Best, B. (n.d.). The Major American Equity Indices: DOW, Nasdaq, S&P 500, Russell 2000 and Wilshire 5000.

[29] See Best, B. (n.d.). Timing the Market: Patterns in American Stock Market Movements.

[30] See Best, B. (n.d.). The Uses of Financial Statements.

[31] See Best, B. (n.d.). Financial Statements in the “New Economy”.

[32] See Best, B. (n.d.). Monetary Systems and Managed Economies.

[33] See Best, B. (n.d.). Funding Cryonics with an Estate.

[34] See Best, B. (n.d.). Offshore Options for Cryonicists.

[35] See Best, B. (n.d.). Business/Investment Data and Information.

[36] Ibid.

[37] See Mark Twain. (2015).

[38] See SENS (n.d.). Executive Team.

[39] See de Grey, A. & Jacobsen, S.D. (2014, June).

[40] See Diamandis, P.H. (2014). Peter H. Diamandis.

[41] See Kurzweil, R. (2014). Kurzweil: Accelerating Intelligence.

[42] See Ray and Terry Longevity Products (2011). Terry Grossman – Full Biography.

[43] See Grossman, T (n.d.). Dr. Terry Grossman’s Story.

[44] See Biomarker Pharmaceuticals (n.d.). Board of Directors: Saul Kent Director, Founder..

[45] See LEF (n.d.). Life Extension Foundation.

[46] See Kurzweil, R. (2004, October 7). Fantastic Voyage; Live Long Enough to Live Forever.

[47] See Kurzweil, R. (2014). Kurzweil: Accelerating Intelligence.

[48] See Kurzweil, R. (2014). Ray Kurzweil biography.

[49] See Kurzweil, R. (2001, March 7). The Law of Accelerating Returns.

[50] See Kurzweil, R. (2009, April 28). TRANSCEND: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever.

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2023-01-29

Ben Best: Director of Research Oversight, Life Extension Foundation (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/05/01

ABSTRACT

Interview with Ben Best, director of research oversight, Life Extension Foundation (LEF). In part one, he discusses the following subject-matter: Ben Best in a Nutshell, general letters of personal description from Gael and Shannon, and the struggle in remaining honest; BSc (1970-1974) in pharmacy from The University of British Columbia (UBC), BSc (1977-1987) in computer science and physics from Simon Fraser University (SFU), BBA (1977-1987) in accounting from SFU, and earning the greatest number of credit hours ever accumulated by an SFU student; reasons for interest in those disciplines; positions held prior to involvement with the Life Extension Foundation (LEF); positions of president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Cryonics Institute (CI), and feasibility of cryonics; Dr. Aubrey de Grey’s subdivision of aging into seven separate categorizations; an old daily regimen for health and wellbeing including supplements; and the five best supplements for the extension of life.

Keywords: aging, Ben Best, cryonics, Cryonics Institute, Dr. Aubrey de Grey, health, honest, Life Extension Foundation, Simon Fraser University, supplements, and The University of British Columbia.

1. Based on the frankness expressed within your works, I leave those with the desire to understand you better to the article Ben Best in a Nutshell[1] for some preliminary background for this interview. In addition to this, I direct attention to supplementary articles – more general letters – by “Gael”[2] and “Shannon”[3].

Gael says, “Honesty is his number one value. The expression ‘honest to a fault’ might apply here. It sometimes feels like he is rubbing his honesty in your face to get some kind of reaction.”[4]

Shannon says, “Ben is scientific and like a monk in how he sequesters himself to work. He is devoted to topics that interest him, he will do what he says he will do and he usually attempts to be very honest.”[5]

Any response to these commentaries past the preliminary comments online? Do they hinge tacitly on the article Diogenes of Sinope[6]?

Gael’s comment that I am intentionally trying to rub something about honesty in her (or other people’s) face is an incorrect interpretation. I struggle to be honest, but it is a continual struggle. I have a hard time relating well with people who intentionally lie, or who lie without scruple or even without consciousness that they are doing so because the process is so automatic. I certainly can’t say that I have never lied or never intend to lie, but I try to be very conscious and concerned about the matter. The argument is correctly made that lying to Nazis about Jews in your attic is justified because saving lives is a higher moral objective than not lying. Sometimes I do feel that it is necessary to lie to survive, and when confronted with situations where the truth could be terribly hurtful to another person, I have chosen silence. My Diogenes of Sinope and “Some Philosophizing about Lying” articles were inspired by my interest in this topic. It is never a closed subject, and with time I will try to explore the topic more and clarify my understanding of the issues.

2. You earned a BSc (1970-1974) in pharmacy from The University of British Columbia (UBC), BSc (1977-1987) in computer science and physics from Simon Fraser University (SFU), and BBA (1977-1987) in accounting from SFU. Of particular note, as you recount in Ben Best in a Nutshell, you write, “I took two degrees, one in Physics & Computing Science and another in business (concentrations in Accounting & Finance) ending with the largest number of credit hours ever accumulated by a student in the history of SFU.”[7] [Emphasis added] Why accumulate such a large number of credits towards accreditation beyond the first degree at UBC? How have these disciplines and degrees assisted in the intellectual activities pursued in your own life?

I certainly wasn’t attempting to accumulate a record number of credits. I enjoy learning greatly, and I particularly am interested in learning about subjects that can objectively improve my thinking or understanding of the world. I have also always been very concerned about my health, which motivated me to get a degree in Pharmacy. Unlike many people, I have not been interested in health because of health problems. The pharmacy degree also gave me a health profession where I could work evenings and weekends while being a full-time student. I was able to use my computing and finance degrees in my profession as a Senior Programmer Analyst at Scotiabank where I supported the largest bond database system in Canada. As President of the Cryonics Institute, my accounting background helped me greatly improve the accounting systems there. And the physics, computing, and pharmacy training gave me great understanding of research that I pursued to improve cryonics procedures. I have been treasurer of a few organizations on a volunteer basis, namely MENSA, the New Westminster housing co-op and the SFU sailing club, where I applied my accounting skills for the benefit of these organizations.

3. What provided the interest in these particular disciplines for you?

I have mostly answered this in question 2, but I will add that I am an avid learner. Most of what I know about biology is self-taught or, at least, learned independent of what I learned in the process of getting my pharmacy degree. My current occupation has me going to scientific conferences related to health and longevity, and learning from the top scientists in these fields and writing about them. My love of learning is closely related to my love of life and my desire to live thousands of years. While I am currently immersed in biological topics related to aging, I hunger for more education in math, physics, chemistry and computing. This motivation is purely psychological and personal. But I love my job and I can’t expect to be doing everything at once.

4. Following these accomplishments, and prior to involvement with the Life Extension Foundation[8] (LEF), you held numerous roles at varied organizations. What organizations? Why choose work within these organizations? What motivated the transition from these organizations to the LEF two and a half years ago, i.e. into the position of director of research oversight? How do you find the position up to the present?

I have mostly answered this in question 3. Aside from the volunteer work, I have not worked for many organizations on an extended full-time basis. Before LEF I was at the Cryonics Institute for 9 years and before that I was at Scotiabank for 15 years. Before that I did not work full-time at anything. I worked part-time or temporarily as a pharmacist, truck driver, taxi driver, computer instructor, computer operator, and lots of odd jobs. I left the Cryonics Institute because I had become ineffectual and I had become the whipping-boy of too many people, which caused me more suffering than I wanted to endure. I have move to a job that I love at LEF. In my early days at CI I had been very effective in making dramatic changes, which I found to be very satisfying, but that situation changed more and more the longer I stayed at CI.

5. In a previous line of work, you held the high-ranking positions of President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Cryonics Institute (CI). Those with deep interest can ascertain deep information in the article Cryonics – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)[9]. Where does cryonics stand now – as a practice? What do you consider the strongest argument against the possibility – even feasibility – of the ultimate goals of cryonics?

Cryopreservation still involves many forms of damage, notably cracking damage and cryoprotectant toxicity (and too often freezing or ischemic damage due to poor planning or unfavorable circumstances, despite the fact that vitrification is intended to eliminate this). Possibly future medicine will be able to repair this damage, but possibly not. Possibly we will develop technologies to prevent this damage, but possibly not.

6. Aubrey de Grey[10],[11] defines the colloquial term “aging” through subdivision into seven processes: 1) cell loss and cell atrophy, 2) division-obsessed cells[12], 3) mitochondrial mutations, 4) death-resistant cells, 5) extracellular crosslinks, 6) extracellular aggregates, and 7) intracellular aggregates. Does this figure into the LEF research program at all? If so, how much?

Aubrey de Grey has become an LEF advisor since I introduced him to Bill Faloon a couple of years ago. LEF has provided funding for a couple of projects at Aubrey’s SENS Foundation, but that is only a tiny part of LEF research funding. Much of LEF research funding is cryonics-related, which is handled by Saul Kent, not by me. I mostly handle the research funding specifically designed for anti-aging effects, although there is a small amount of overlap. Most of the anti-aging research funding that I have inspired lies outside of Aubrey’s SENS paradigm. One project in particular is contrary to Aubrey’s claim that nuclear DNA damage does not contribute to aging. With LEF funding, Victoria Belancio at Tulane University has shown that retrotransposon nuclear DNA damage increases with age (probably contributing to both aging and cancer). I am most proud of helping to fund the world’s second largest naked mole rat facility, where the fact that naked mole rats are virtually immune from cancer (and show no signs of aging) has been explained – causing the naked mole rat to be named “Vertebrate of the Year” for 2013 by SCIENCE magazine.

7. Based on the personal experimentation catalogued within your website[13], I would like to make this concrete to provide a sense of the depth of research. For instance, your morning supplement regimen described in My Health Regimen – Exercise, Diet, Supplements[14] consists of the following supplements:[15]

Life Extension Mix4 capsules[16]
CoEnzyme Q10capsule 100 mg[17],[18],[19]
N-AcetylCysteine(NAC) capsule 600 mg[20],[21]
Vitamin E(alpha-tocopherol) capsule 400 mg[22]_,[23]
Vitamin E (gamma-tocopherol) capsule 340 mg[24],[25]
Vitamin C time-release tablet 1000 mg[26]
Carnosinecapsule 500 mg[27],[28]
Max DHA capsule (50%DocasaHexaenoeic Acid, 250 mg)[29],[30],[31]
Kelp 1000 mg[32]
Acetyl-L-Carnitinecapsule 500 mg[33],[34]
TMG(TriMethylGlycine = Betaine) tablet 500 mg[35]
DHEA capsule 30 mg (if available)[36],[37]
DMAEGinkgo capsule (if available)[38]
Pure Gar capsule (Garlic 1600 mg, EDTA 200 mg)[39]
Cal Mag tablet (Calcium 300 mg, Magnesium 300 mg)[40]

The description of my diet and supplements on the webpage you cited is badly outdated, although my exercise regimen has not changed much, except for the addition of 30 push-ups. To compensate for my ever-changing supplement regimen I have added Section I “Update” which contains an EXCEL file of my latest supplements

http://www.benbest.com/personal/Supplements.xls

although even this does not include changes made within the last couple of weeks, with includes addition of MitoQ and Product B (better than TA-65 for telomere lengthening) and deletion of ribose (which is more glycating even that fructose). I am now taking LEF’s vegetarian sourced DHA and have not taken garlic for many years.

My diet is still undergoing radical changes. For the last several months I have been working on getting on a lacto-ovo vegetarian low-protein ketogenic diet, which I am monitoring with urine and blood test kits. This continues to undergo changes almost on a weekly basis. I have also been attempting intermittent fasting – I had my first 4-day fast a few weeks ago.

8. Within this subset of the supplement and comprehensive regimen described in the article and elsewhere by you, of these fifteen items, what five supplements appear to provide the most return on investment (ROI) for specific and overall health?[41]

The omega-3 fatty acid DHA rates pretty high on the list, but should be combined with anti-oxidants insofar as PUFAs are vulnerable to oxidation, so gamma tocopherol and N-acetylcysteine are important. Also, exercise increases free radicals, although there is some argument that anti-oxidants reduce at least some of the benefits of exercise. Since becoming an LEF employee, I get my supplements at employee prices, so I mostly use LEF products these days. Exceptions to that would include Product B and Mito Q. Most free radical occurs within the mitochondria. LEF’s Mitochondrial Energy Optimizer attempts to address this problem (especially with the combination of Acetyl-L-Carnitine and Lipoic acid), but MitoQ is a newer product which gets into the mitochondria and is not an LEF product. I also take forms of Coenzyme Q₁₀ intended to get into the mitochondria. Vitamin D₃ also rates pretty highly, having many health benefits besides prevention of rickets. I understand some high-powered Vitamin D clinical trials are currently in progress.

[1] See Best, B. (n.d.). Ben Best in a Nutshell.

[2] See Gael (n.d.) Ben Best in Another Nutshell.

[3] See Vyff/Trice, S. (n.d.) Ben Best as I Have Known Him.

[4] See Gael (n.d.) Ben Best in Another Nutshell.

[5] See Vyff/Trice, S. (n.d.) Ben Best as I Have Known Him.

[6] See Best, B. (n.d.). Diogenes of Sinope.

[7] See Best, B. (n.d.). Ben Best in a Nutshell.

[8] See Life Extension Foundation (2014). Life Extension Foundation.

[9] See Best, B. (n.d.). Cryonics – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

[10] Dr. Aubrey de Grey: SENS Research Foundation, Chief Science Officer and Co-founder; Rejuvenation Research, Editor-in-Chief.

[11] See de Grey, A. & Jacobsen, S.D. (2014, June 8). Dr. Aubrey de Grey: SENS Research Foundation, Chief Science Officer and Co-founder; Rejuvenation Research, Editor-in-Chief.

[12] Ibid.

[13] See Best, B. (n.d.). Welcome to the World of Ben Best.

[14] See Best, B. (n.d.). My Health Regimen – Exercise, Diet, Supplements.

[15] Duly note, all footnotes with direction to supplement webpage on the LEF website do not necessarily match the precise formulation provided by Mr. Best in the morning regimen listing.

[16] See Life Extension Foundation (2014). Life Extension Mix™ Capsules.

[17] See Buchanan, L. (2013, January). CoQ10: The Longevity Factor.

[18] See Life Extension Foundation (2014). Super Ubiquinol CoQ10 with Enhanced Mitochondrial Support™.

[19] See Best, B. (n.d.). CoEnzyme Q₁₀ (Ubiquinone, Ubiquinol and Semiquinone).

[20] See Life Extension Foundation (2014). N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine.

[21] See Best, B. (n.d.). N-AcetylCysteine (NAC).

[22] See Life Extension Foundation (2014). Natural Vitamin E.

[23] See Best, B. (n.d.). Vitamin E (Tocopherols and Tocotrienols).

[24] Ibid.

[25] See Stokel, K. (2011, January). Report: Critical Importance of Gamma E Tocopherol Continues to Be Overlooked.

[26] See Goepp, J. (2008, April). Report: Newly Discovered Health Benefits of Vitamin C.

[27] See Stokel, K. (2011, January). Carnosine, Exceeding Scientific Expectations.

[28] See Best, B. (n.d.). L-Carnosine and Related Histamine-Derived Molecules.

[29] See Blaylock, R.L. (2008, January). Report: DHA Supports Brain Development and Protects Neurological Function.

[30] See Best, B. (n.d.). DHA for Hearts and Minds.

[31] See Best, B. (n.d.). Fats You Need — Essential Fatty Acids.

[32] See Life Extension Foundation (2009, October). Abstracts: Iodine.

[33] See Life Extension Foundation (2014). Acetyl-L-Carnitine.

[34] See Best, B. (n.d.). Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALCAR).

[35] See Life Extension Foundation (2014). TMG.

[36] See Life Extension Foundation (2014). DHEA Complete.

[37] See Best, B. (n.d.) DHEA Hormone Replacement.

[38] See Life Extension Foundation (2014). DMAE: Dimethylaminoethanol.

[39] See Life Extension Foundation (2005, October 18). Life Extension Update.

[40] See Life Extension Foundation (2014). CAL / MAG.

[41] See Best, B. (n.d.). Nutraceuticals Topic Index.

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2023-01-29

Dr. Kirsten Johnson, M.D., MPH: Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine, McGill University; Director, Humanitarian Studies Initiative, McGill University; President, Humanitarian U (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/02/01

ABSTRACT

Part two of two, interview with Dr. Kirsten Johnson, MD, MPH. In it, she discusses: professional advice for young medical doctors such as the need for clear and precise reasons for entering into the medical profession, the difficulty of medicine in Canada, and humanitarian work and initiatives; example from ex-President of The University of British Columbia (UBC) Stephen Toope, broad-based admissions policies at UBC, and the importance of life experience for the medical profession; example of Dr. Sho Yano earning a PhD at 16 and MD at 21 from the University of Chicago to consider some of the previous points on life experience as important; brief commentary on some general characteristics of the Millennial generation in direct efforts; personal responsibility for societal matters, Segal Centre’s Segal Centre’s 2010 Januscz Korczak award for your work on protecting the rights of children in conflict; Richard Feynman on the Nobel Prize and responsibilities implied by awards and honors; Hippocratic Oath; more power and influence implying further responsibility; and biggest influences.

Keywords: Dr. Kirsten Johnson, Humanitarian, responsibility.

12. From a professional opinion, what advice do you have for young MDs?

In medicine, I think there are so many possibilities. I think that anybody can have any kind of career they want within medicine. I think that, by virtue of being an MD, that there is a tradition of leadership. I think they should look at ways to make an impact in their practice, in the world, even if it is to direct patient care, in policy making at a bigger level. I think MDs have a bigger responsibility to step in those kinds of roles now. I think they should take those kinds of thing seriously. So many field are combining with practice with family and other things too. There are doctors still out there doing the traditional role. I think also people are making medicine in so many more things from research to administration to positions of leadership. I think the young doctors shouldn’t be restricted to that. I think they should think about all of the impact they can have.

I think you have to be so clear on the reasons for entering medicine because medicine has become so many different things. You can practice medicine and do law or business, or other things, at the same time.

People need to be clear, precise on the reasons for entering medicine. It is such a cynical field too because it so difficult in Canada. Our system is such an overstretched one through simple 2 and 3 year waitlists for a knee or hip surgery.

Even to see a neurologist takes a year, from the point of a professional for a young MD entering the field, your heart needs to be in the right place and you need to know what you are doing. It is not as easy a job to do anymore. It might not sound hopeful, but it can be hopeful. In that, you can ‘have your cake and eat it too.’

Medicine is a great field because it allows you to do so many things, and you do not need to be confined by the traditional way of doing medicine. You are not some doctor doing some ward rounds for 12 hours a day anymore.

For example, I travel around the world and treat patients in high-intensive care patients in planes. I go and lecture for National Geographic as the humanitarian specialist in Africa. I do humanitarian work. I research and teach. There are many ways to take the career in medicine and make it, morph it, which can make it very, very exciting.

You could be clear about going into medicine, and using that for a stepping stone, or be clear about doing surgery. However, people should not go into medicine because of uncertainty, “I do not know. Mom told me to do it.” That is what worries me about accepting these young kids.

For instance, University of Calgary, when I got accepted – and I got accepted to other schools, but only 10% were accepted from in-province and the average age was 26. We had an athlete, a philosopher, an NHL hockey star, and many other exciting things. It brought a different bend into the way they dealt with patient care in a positive way. It was very exciting to me.

13. I can draw some analogies there. As from fall 2012 at The University of British Columbia with President Stephen Toope, they began broad-based admissions for undergraduates, called ‘holistic’ under a different guise in various universities, looking at other aspects of the individuals applying for admission to the particular university, but this extends beyond UBC’s and does have an impact. For example, UBC began to accept a decent amount of students otherwise previously rejected based on these standards for admissions. In other words, they do not merely pay lip service to the idea of ‘broad-based admissions’, but provide evidence of their desire to have a more experientially diverse student body in practice.

I think this accepting people based on having a grade point average of 4.0, having 100% of everything, and being super-student, and yet they have never gone out and done anything experiential. It is scary to me. They can be very good scientist-doctors, but I do not know if it brings too much to our field.

14. Based on that, I think of a case out of the University of Chicago. Sho Yano, he earned a PhD at the age of 16 and MD at 21. To me, that goes to your point by providing the contrast.

Yes. Maybe, but maybe not at the same time, I do not know about his case in particular. However, even going out and attempting to figure out your desires out in the field. For example, being in a specialty, I do emergency medicine. You can do it two ways. First, one in family medicine; second, one in emergency, a specialty.

Or you can do a five-year program, even in the five-year program, students who go into here have a year to enter into something of great interest to them, though, those students have never cultivated those interests because they have never had to do it.

They have been academics their whole lives. It totally confounds me. How can you not be interested in something in medicine? But you are in medicine. It is hard to get out of it. It is important to have other interests. (Laughs)

15. Maybe, as a safe, and mild, generalization, the millennial generation may have a tendency to look for others to do the side-work for them, even the development of individual genuine interests aside from core work such as school and work. However, it seems something more inculcated for such a long time, which, probably, provides the basis for limiting the scope of potential and considered interests. Even one relevant example, people active in the Occupy Movement, with the caveats of understanding it, the desire and want exists, but they look to others to make the change by sitting out rather than making concrete changes.

Exactly. Exactly!

16. Although, maybe, that lies in another general characteristic of the millennial generation in their distrust of government-run systems in terms of authority. On a similar line of thought about personal responsibility to societal matters, you were awarded the Segal Centre’s 2010 Januscz Korczak award for your work on protecting the rights of children in conflict and the Award of Excellence for your work in global health by the College of Family Physicians of Canada in 2010. What do these awards mean to you?

There is a practical and personal meaning. From a practical standpoint, it is important to get those kind of recognitions, and I also support other women and people in my field. For instance, I nominate people. If I am asked to write something, I will. For example, I have a colleague nominated for the Order of Canada.

I will spend the time to write something. I do that because it is important to have those kinds of recognitions to move one’s career forward. I am not talking about on the way, “I want more. I need to get to the next level.” I am talking about the type of recognition for important work that gets you the further funding for the same or other important research.

I really feel that the program we are doing – by training professionals in the humanitarian field impacts the services by providing – the best standard of care, and sets a standard all Canadians should be aiming for.

Actually, I was awarded the Top 40 Under 40 in Canada. It is not even an academic one. It is unlike the Segal one. It is kind of the trendy award, but I was the only person in that list for the year doing non-profit, humanitarian related stuff – out of all 40.

It brings important issues to the field that people do not even think about. So the people I met at the award ceremony discussed how much money they made! Everybody, we had to talk for a three minute on ourselves.

In my three-minute spot, I did not talk about me, actually. I talked about the people in my field. The women impacted by gender-based violence. It was about the way we trying to make an impact globally.

Other people would come up and talk about buying six Humvees, and so on. I thought, “Oh my god, really? You were giving me recognition for this. Who are these people besides this?” When they had pictures of their family, they were out in Disney and it was all consumerism.

So on one level, these awards transform the message, the important stuff we are trying to do by helping to get funding. They help raise awareness, but people do not even know about it.

On the personal level, some people in your career, it is nice to be recognized, but it does not means too much to me. To others, it may, but I do my work because it means a lot to me.

Therefore, I want to do it right. It is not necessarily about becoming recognized for it. However, it does feel nice. It is a bit weird. If it came with a million bucks, it would be more! (Laughs) Because then I could do more projects and programs for research that I want to do.

17. Richard Feynman had a great documentary. He talks about earning the Nobel Prize. He sternly says, “I do not know anything about the Nobel Prize… I will not have anything to do with the Nobel Prize. It is a pain in the. (laughs) I do not like honors… I have already got the prize. The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out, the kick in the discovery, the observation other people use it, those are the real things. The honors are unreal to me.” Following from this, what further social responsibilities do these entail?

For me, they sometimes put you in a bit of the spotlight. I think number one is to set an example. I think that it helps to inspire my students and other people who are thinking about going into medicine and doing some humanitarian-related work because I hope that the things I do, and invariably some of these awards providing some media attention.

People hear about them and realize what you are doing, and there is some level of social responsibility in setting an example and maintaining a standard of work – and quality of work.

As I said, the research I do is because I love advocacy. I know you are not supposed to be doing research for advocacy purposes. I am not doing research for that bias, but I think it is great when we have numbers that can speak for the problem, and then we can have funding and policy change for these things. I think that the recognition enforces that there needs to be a certain standard of excellence around my work.

Also, that it allows me to do the advocacy piece to take the work that I do and spin it in that way. This can allow me to speak for these populations that we are trying to assist. It elevates the issue to a public forum. I think that it is an ongoing thing. In all of my work, and in anything you do, there is social responsibility.

I think that is one good thing about having an MD after your name. People pay attention to what you have to say. I do not understand the reason why, but it is kind of stupid.

18. Maybe, people, in some tacit way, take the Hippocratic Oath serious without knowing the oath formally. They see it as a good and moral thing. Plus, those helping them with their major health problems in their lives have been medical doctors.

True, but you meet a lot of doctors today that are not morally motivated people. (Laughs) Much money-grubbing. I do not know if you have read this news.

For instance, the CEO of our hospital, Dr. Arthur Porter, Panama will extradite him back to Canada, except that he is saying he is some diplomat from Sierra Leone. However, he is a fraud. He has stolen money. He has been a part of all these other nefarious things.

Not necessarily every doctor is motivated by the Hippocratic Oath. It is terrible.

All of the Board of Directors in the hospital here were in on this ‘mafia’ dealing. It is a pretty thwarted affair that has been going on here. They have a social responsibility, but they are not at all outstanding citizens – let alone doctors.

19. They have more power and influence. By default, they have more responsibility.

Yes.

20. Whom do you consider your biggest influences? Could you recommend and seminal or important books/articles by them?

Early on, I think the Dalai Lama. I did a lot of work in that area. One of my personal heroes is Roméo Dallaire for sure.

He was a Canadian General, retired now. He is the one that led the UN forces in Rwanda during the genocide. What happened was that – I do not know if you know much about that war – the war essentially turned their back on the Hutu, the Tutsi population who was being killed by the hundreds of thousands.

Roméo Dallaire was able, when the UN pulled out, and when he was under strict instructions to pull his troops out and leave the country, in certain terms more people would die.

He had this moral conviction to stay and do the right thing. His whole career. All of it. All of this respect as a top Canadian General. He was clear that he would have to be court marshalled. He was clear that he would have to give all of this away.

To the Secretary General of the UN (Boutros Boutros-Ghali), he said, “No, I am staying.” All of the troops left. He was left with some Ghanaians and Pakistanis. He managed to secure the stadium in Kigali. He saved 1,000s of peoples’ lives who would otherwise have died.

Against all of the odds, he stayed there for the whole genocide. He witnessed terrible things, atrocities. He still speaks of them today. He is really the voice, the only guy, who stayed there – besides James Orbinski, a doctor from Canada. This man did a great good.

He came back and had terrible issues with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and mental health issues. He still does a lot of great work. Now, I work with him on the initiative. He is a real hero and spokesperson for this kind of thing.

His most recent book is called Fight Like Soldiers Die Like Children. It was a documentary in theatres too. My other big influences were my mentors at Harvard such as Jennifer Leaning.

One of my research mentors, Peter Walker. He basically wrote the handbook of the standards and guidelines for the field.

I feel lucky. A lot of the people I looked up to I get to work with now. It is pretty neat. The humanitarian world is small enough that if you are running in it and doing stuff. You will meet people doing lots of stuff in it.

These are the people that are really making the difference in the world, but not having the recognition for it. Yet, they are the ones finding themselves in the middle of a war. They are killed, or raped, and so on. I consider them the real heroes and really influential on me.

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2023-01-29

Dr. Kirsten Johnson, M.D., MPH: Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine, McGill University; Director, Humanitarian Studies Initiative, McGill University; President, Humanitarian U (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/01/22

ABSTRACT

Part one of two, interview with Dr. Kirsten Johnson, M.D., MPH. In it, she discusses: current positions at McGill University, McGill Affiliated University Hospital (MUHC), Humanitarian Studies Initiative, and President of Humanitarian U; growing up in Alberta and British Columbia in addition to Victoria; original dream of being Indiana Jones; major areas of research, Harvard University, Darfur, Chad, and gender-based violence; most recent quantitative research and $27 million dollar Congo research; money to bolster research, descriptive research, admirable trait in practical and applied research, and research project for unlimited funding and unrestricted freedom; the overarching phrase of “Empowerment of Women”; organizing principle for desire to do good in the world; controversial topics and examination of the controversial topics in areas of expertise; the argument against some humanitarian initiatives in opposition to her; and prior interview with Dr. Hawa Abdi.

Keywords: Dr. Kirsten Johnson, Humanitarian Studies Initiative, Humanitarian U, McGill University, United Nations.

1. What positions do you hold at present?

I am an assistant professor in the faculty of medicine at McGill University. Also, I am an attending staff in the emergency department in the McGill Affiliated University Hospital (MUHC), a teaching hospital.

I am program director at McGill University called the Humanitarian Studies Initiative (HSI). Last, I have a company that does a lot of the same kind of things. It is called the Humanitarian U. I am President of that company.

2. Where did you grow up? How did you find this influencing your career direction?

I grew up half in Alberta and half in British Columbia (BC), in Victoria, and I do not think growing up in BC necessarily influenced my career, but the travel I did at a young age more than anything, especially at such a young age. I left high school early and travelled for about 3 years.

To me, the most influential decision was working with a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) called Helping Hands based out of Colorado (at the time) and Kathmandu, Nepal. I was working to bring medical teams in from North America to set up mobile clinics throughout the country of Nepal that we would staff on a regular basis. As a combination of giving back and having the skill that became portable, which allowed me to do international work, I would say that gave me the desire to go into medicine.

3. What was your original dream?

My original dream? (Laughs) Truly, it was to be Indiana Jones.

4. What have been your major areas of research?

I fell into research. I did not see myself doing it. My research has a lot of applied and practical applications. I like field work. Since I am not in a position – I have a son – to do long missions in this field, I needed to find a way to do field work to make a difference in another capacity.

My research focused on human rights issues around violations happening in the genocides of Darfur. I worked for positions in a human rights group. In fact, one of the first groups to do an investigation along the border of Chad. They found 30,000 people starving in the desert. That was just the very beginning of the genocide, when they were forced out of their villages.

It was the consequence of a ‘scorch-and-burn’ policy of the government, which it was implementing. The study was done in three parts, but I ended up presenting the data at the International Criminal Court. I spoke at various organizations and the UN, which had a great impact on me.

My research came from a human rights angle. For instance, looking at the populations effected by war, and then it took a slant to child soldiers. Now, most of my research, my area, goes into gender-based violence. Gender-based violence can be changed to conflict and emergencies. My newest research study is based in the far north in Canada.

5. What is your most recent research?

It is interesting because I did a lot of quantitative research based on populations – population-based studies. I used a lot of methods, which were quite unique to sampling population where you have a lot of demographic or population data.

It is a kind of unique way to look at the population as a whole and acquire data that is representative of the population as a whole. However, the problem with quantitative research like that is the way it describes the population, it does nothing for the affected people.

In other words, it takes information from people, but does not do anything in practical terms for them. You can help inform or direct policy, for sure. My study in the Congo acquired $27 million dollars in funding through International Medical Corps, who was the partner for the study.

My new study is qualitative, not quantitative, which is new for me, but I feel this is the way it has to go – especially when talking about violence, sexual violence, against women. People who are victimized. It is difficult for them. It is difficult in terms of perpetrators too.

I know many studies where the rates of sexual GBV in Canada’s North are as high as 80%.

We have a great team. We have a guy from Johns Hopkins, who is really well-known, for his work in Africa – Paul Bolton. He published in the New England Journal of Medicine on a randomized controlled trial in Uganda using this same method, which we will propose to use in the North too.

It involves a counselling method, a peer-counselling method, but we do it in remote locations.

6. When someone does have a lot of money to bolster their work, it can go into the research project, which – as you said – it can present the data and describe the situation, but it cannot necessarily implement solutions based on the information. It is admirable for you to conduct and head this practical and applied work. Also, if you had unlimited funding and unrestricted freedom, what research would you conduct?

There is a lot of work needing doing, especially in terms of gender-based violence and violence in general.

7. Even looking at the health of nations through the standards set by United Nations organs to do with literacy, infant mortality rates, maternal mortality rates, access to education, quality of education, and so on, they present the item of most importance under our noses the whole time, namely: Empowerment of Women. If individuals, groups, and most of societies saw this information, had good intentions and wanted to improve their lot, they could do that following the models of various nations throughout the world.

Exactly.

8. What is your organizing principle for doing good work in the world?

I am really organizing around this idea of professionalism in the humanitarian sector, and a standard of excellence. I guess it is equality and humanism.

Everybody deserves the right to a good standard of care, service delivery, and health. I am talking about humanitarian response. We should all be striving to provide no less.

What I am doing as well is launching the first global humanitarian health association so that any practitioner in the world that’s involved in humanitarian response specific to health will have to have a certification from an accredited provider, and this association will be that body that credits and regulates practice – globally.

We should not be seeing what we have been seeing in Haiti, Rwanda, and Congo, and some of these other disasters that had significant humanitarian problems in terms of response and service delivery, which were people doing ethically and morally challenging practices..

I do not know about an organizing principle. I think part of what I hope to leave as a legacy is this professionalism and a standard and excellence, and real community.

We also need to recognize that we need to be collaborative and work together and that this is much bigger than one person.

I know many things drive me. It is excitement, commitment, and the love of working with other people. It’s not just one principle.

All of these things I do speak for themselves. I never thought of allying myself to a certain principle. I think it is inspiring for a person like me living with people and seeing the luck in being born in North America, especially with all of the travel throughout the world.

I bought a motorcycle at 19 in New Delhi. Living with these people, seeing their lives, and realizing they cry and laugh like us, and that there is a basic humanity and dignity that we all share.

However, not all people have access to that realization through circumstance. I think what motivated me to get into medicine was the desire to give back. You cannot enjoy the benefits of travelling and exploring the world without sharing and being a part of things, helping people and so on.

It is funny. You work in medicine, but I never imagined how much work becoming a doctor could be. After 14 years of post-secondary education, it can be difficult to not become a cynic sometimes and to lose it. You can become sidetracked in academia and everyone arguing over authorship on a paper. When, why are we doing this? What matters here? Is it humanitarianism or being first author? It is important to go out in the field and get that feeling of humanity back, and to check in with the reasons for doing your work.

It is the reason for me doing this study up north, one of the reasons. I consider it more important than quantitative research.

9. What do you consider the controversial topics in your field? How do you examine the controversial topics?

In the humanitarian field, the controversial topics are around professionalization, certainly, because people find that it’ll restrict making their practice. And what constitutes a professional in a humanitarian context? How do you measure that? Who provides what certification? I mean the whole discourse around certification and professionalization in humanitarian aid. The way that we have to address that is consensus building. You cannot push that across to people. There has to be a lot of discussion and debate, continuing collaboration, and work in this way.

The controversial topics in my field of humanitarian action, which I am kind of at the lead of, is the push to professionalize and standardize the work because there has been so much bad humanitarianism as of recent. I mean, Haiti was a disaster of epic proportions in terms of humanitarian support.

We saw the case happen in Goma after the Rwanda genocide, and so on. Humanitarianism, the field is growing – about 250,000 people calling themselves humanitarians – many calling themselves professionals, but, what does that mean? The training going into it, do we have the same attitudes and competency?

It is almost becoming a sexy, trendy thing. When the earthquake in Haiti happened, you have nearly every faculty of medicine in North America sending planeloads of doctors, like resident doctors who were not trained, now all of a sudden they are doing field amputations – which they were not trained for – in environments that are not safe for the patient using no morphine or sedatives.

No coordination of the ground, people blocking the runway, and so on. For example, the Canadian Government’s DART team could not land to get the supplies, and they needed to get in to provide the supplies for the hospital! And I think there is a push now for people in the humanitarian community is looking for a cut off.

People need to be licensed, credentialed, and certified. The culture of humanitarianism and humanitarian work is about neutrality and ‘cowboy’, “We want to do what we want to do.” That there is nothing we have to agree to within their organizational culture. They strive along the culture of independence. They do not want to be like another organization that would have them not adhere to other rules. My partner in the military might be belligerent, for instance.

So the question becomes, “How do we do this? How do we elevate the standard of care for these people?” Of course, it is all well-meaning. I do not mean to say that people going into this field mean to cause harm. However, a lot of things that were no thought of happen, and they do not need to happen because we have a lot of evidenced-based research in all of this. We have a special set of competencies before people are allowed to work in this area. In this, it is a kind of humanitarian reform, which is the main area they are talking about here that will go forward in the next 5-10 years.

10. What do some in opposition to you argue? Although, from my angle, I consider the strong possibility of only a minority in opposition to humanitarian policies and practices.

I argue for a professionalization, and this is coming from an academic background and a profession. So I am coming from something that is properly defined, and I understand that construct, and I think that needs to be implemented in the humanitarian world. Someone arguing against me might be a manager or country representative of Medicin Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). And even though there are, and those examples are, medical organizations, they may not necessarily want to be held to our given structure.

They may not want to conform to the rigid structure. They may ask, “Who will oversee it? Who will work for it?” In other words, they may not agree with the people organizing and running the program. Therefore, there are two ways of looking at it. And I am definitely on one side of it. There are many debates in my community of humanitarian action because it is so multi-disciplinary.

Now, this is very research focused. We do interviews and scoping reports, and that kind of thing. And I think acquire funding from Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for funding based on this work and to conduct more of this work. However, I do not know if this sits in your paradigm.

11. It does, especially in terms of the framework here. For instance, some of the interviews conducted. I conduct an interview with Dr. Hawa Abdi, MD.

Yes, I know her. She runs a medical clinic out of Somalia.

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Dr. Cristina Atance: Associate Professor, Psychology; Director, Graduate Training in Experimental Psychology, University of Ottawa (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/01/15

ABSTRACT

Part two of two, interview with Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa and director of graduate training in experimental psychology, Dr. Cristina Atance. In it, she discusses: Episodic Future Thinking (2001), ‘semantic memory’ and ‘episodic memory’, Tulving (2001), and five subsidisciplines; The emergence of episodic future thinking in humans (2005), future episodic thinking, and emergence of episodic future thinking in children between the ages of 3 to 4; numerous five-figure grants since 2011 provided under the titles of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Early Career Research Award, and responsibilities; three issues – Women in Academia and thoughts on being a female academic; emotional struggles and advice for young female academics; and take-home message of the research.

Keywords: Dr. Cristina Atance, episodic future thinking, psychology, semantic memory, University of Ottawa.

10. In Episodic Future Thinking (2001), you build on the idea of episodic memory with the introduction of a new construct called “episodic future thinking.” The paper distinguishes between ‘semantic memory’ and ‘episodic memory’. As you examine in further depth than here, Tulving (2001) described episodic memory as the ability to “travel backwards in time” to experience one or a set of memories once more; he described semantic memory as the “knowledge of the world.” Of note for the operational definition of episodic future thinking, imagination and projection into the future do have constraints. In the paper, you outline five subdisciplines of psychology of import for the construct in addition to the emergence of this capability in children. What five subdisciplines? How does the construct connect to each? What developments have been made in the last 13+ years?

The 5 sub-disciplines we covered (though very cursorily) were “cognition,” “social and personality psychology,” “clinical psychology,” “neuropsychology,” and “development.” Our aim was mostly to point out how the ability to mentally pre-experience our own personal futures might have implications for such abilities as prospective memory (e.g., remembering to mail a letter), for example. We also highlighted some research in neuropsychology that we found quite intriguing – namely, people who, due to brain injury, seemed to lose the ability to think about their own personal futures (i.e., episodic future thinking), while retaining fairly intact semantic future thinking – so thinking about the future in a more knowledge-based and non self-related way (e.g., predicting what medical breakthroughs might happen in the next 10 years). There have been quite a few new developments in the area of episodic future thinking in the past decade – one of the most significant being that – perhaps not surprisingly – the capacity to think about our future relies on many of the same neural and cognitive processes as remembering our past/memory. Most notably, people have argued that our memories provide us with a database from which we draw to construct our futures. What needs to be worked out is the extent to which different forms of memory (e.g., episodic, semantic, etc.) play a role in this process.

11. In The emergence of episodic future thinking in humans (2005), four years after Episodic Future Thinking, your paper coauthored with Professor Daniela O’Neill providing additions to the research on future episodic thinking. At the time, most research for the construct at the time dealt within the context of memory; not much to do with future thinking. You broke ground there. Discussion in the article states the fact of children at two years old will talk of past events. You provide estimations for the emergence of episodic future thinking in children between the ages of 3 to 4. Some argued up to the time of publication about the high end of the estimated range of 4 years for the eventual emergence. How did you test for incorporation of notions regarding self and future in children? What did you find in the research?

In this article, we really focused more on this capacity from a developmental perspective and tried to highlight that episodic future thinking can be thought of as different than related concepts such as “planning” or “imagination.” For example, we often just envision ourselves in the future (e.g., thinking about lying on the beach during our next vacation) without necessarily planning for that event/scenario that we’re envisioning. Though, of course, fundamental to most of the planning that we do is the ability to actually envision ourselves in the future or, episodic future thinking. As for imagination, it seems quite intuitive that we need some imaginative capacity to mentally project into the future but the concept of “imagination” itself is a much broader one that episodic future thinking. That is, we can imagine just about anything (e.g., traveling to the moon) but this is different from episodic future thinking which O’Neill and I argued is “constrained” by our current self/situation (in my case, I will likely never make it to the moon but I can certainly imagine it!). We tried to incorporate “self” and “future” by asking children to think about going on a trip and choosing items to bring with them. We purposely gave them items (like Band-Aids) that would be useful if they got hurt, say. Even the 3-year-olds in our study were starting to explain their choices my making reference to the future, and this ability continues to improve during the preschool years.

12. In My future self: Young children’s ability to anticipate and explain future states (2005), you coauthored with Professor Andrew Meltzoff. In two experiments with 108 three, four, and five years olds, for the first experiment, you attempted to have these children think about the future through stories and pictorial scenes. Asking the children to think of themselves in these scenarios, you observed developmental differences for correct item choices and spoken explanations. For the second experiment, 3 and 4 year old children had worse performance based on the introduction of items with semantic association to the scenarios without addressing the future state – not so for the 5 year olds. How does this relate to the current research of future thinking in children? What about the other areas of research for you, namely: cognitive development and theory of mind?

What we tried to argue in this paper – that also reflects some of my current thinking – is that even 3-year-olds were pretty good at selecting an item that they may need in the future (e.g., sunglasses if they’re walking on a sandy beach). However, when one of the options we presented alongside the correct item was “semantically” or “thematically” related to the future scenario – so a seashell presented alongside the sunglasses – younger children (but not 5-year-olds) were prone to select this item even if wouldn’t really be useful in the future. This may be because young children’s primary tendency is to select “what goes with what” rather than think ahead about what might actually be needed in the future.

13. You have earned numerous five-figure grants since 2011 provided under the titles of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Early Career Research Award. If any, what responsibilities do academics have towards society? In light of the grant, award, and other funding, what further responsibilities and duties weigh into your conscience?

I, for one, would like to do a better job disseminating my findings to the segments of society who can most make use of them – in my case, parents and early childhood educators. Yet, this is challenging because I think most academics are pretty strapped for time due to the many demands of our jobs (i.e., teaching, research, administration, etc.). Nonetheless, one of my main goals for the next little while is to try and put in place some kind of knowledge translation/dissemination plan. I recently found out that a colleague of mine requires that, for each article from her lab that is published in an academic journal, an effort needs to be made to disseminate its findings to a local media source (e.g., parenting magazine, local organization, etc.).

14. I had the privilege to conduct for one year – in three issues – Women in Academia. One series based on female academics, their research and philosophies, and experiences. In a later retrospective conversation with one of the interviewees last summer, she would have liked to expound through one or two questions on the perspective of a female academic from the side of emotional struggles. This seems relevant to me. If I may ask, and if within your recollection of academic experience in both training and work, did you feel a different progression and experience compared to men in your cohort training in psychology from undergraduate through post-doctoral work? Do you notice any differences in fresh generations of female academics-in-training?

I think about these kinds of issues a lot and yet I don’t think that my progression or experience has been greatly affected by being a woman. This may be partly because I went to graduate school, did my post-doc, secured a tenure-track position, and was awarded tenure before having my two children. In my case, at least – because I don’t want to over-generalize or mis-represent others’ experiences – I gained a lot of momentum during my post-doc and first 5 years of my professorship. I was able to put in time at night and on the weekends that I cannot do as much anymore because I have two young children at home and I will not trade my time with them for work time. Yet, I’m probably more productive now than I was 5 years ago because I’ve laid down the necessary foundation to allow the research to get done (e.g., my lab is functional and efficient, I have a good team of undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students, etc.). I have also learned to delegate more and to only embark on projects that I’m really passionate about. As for whether I notice any difference in female-academics in training, this is a difficult question…I certainly think that some of the female graduate students with whom I interact are concerned about whether they can be academics and still have families and lives outside of work. But, to be honest, I think this is something that male academics and those in training are also thinking seriously about because many of them do want to be involved, hands-on fathers. Both within and outside of academia, I think many of us are really struggling with figuring out how to fit everything in and how to achieve some sort of “balance” (if this even exists!). And, to complicate matters, there are so many mixed messages that I think females, especially, are receiving. You’ve got Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook COO) who’s telling women to “lean in” and then others who are telling women to “recline”! Both points of view have merit in my opinion and it’s up to any one individual to figure out for herself or himself when it’s time to lean in and when it’s time to recline. There’s no right or wrong answer, yet getting to a point where you feel satisfied with your approach is difficult and in constant need of evaluation.

15. If so, how did you manage the emotional struggles? Any advice for younger female academics from fresh generations – taking into account differences of general trends in culture and generational traits?

I would say that if you love being a graduate student and you’re passionate and interested in your research and can see yourself heading up a lab/research group, teaching, doing administrative work, etc. then don’t shy away from this career. I won’t lie and say it’s easy but I think most of us love our jobs and are energized by what we do. I certainly don’t want to say (like others have in the past) that “you can have it all!” (i.e., work, family, etc.) because, in my view, yes, you can have it all, but having it all is pretty darn exhausting at times! To the extent that it’s possible, I would really advise thinking long and hard about what you want from life and then try to tailor your academic position accordingly.

16. What do you consider the ‘take-home’ message of your complete research program to date? Where do you intend to take this into the future?

Wow, tough to be brief here! At this point, I think the biggest take-home message is simply that our capacity to think about our personal futures (i.e., episodic future thinking) figures into many domains of our lives and may, ultimately, either be connected to, or lie at the root of, numerous adaptive behaviours such as those involving saving, pro-sociality, morality, etc. Because of this, developing means to measure future thinking in development and beyond is a worthy venture, as is eventually determining whether/how future thinking is connected to many of the behaviours (some that I have listed) that epitomize what it means to be human. As such, one of my next steps is to try to look more closely at some of these potential links. In addition, most of the work on future thinking has really involved children’s/adult’s ability to contemplate their own personal futures. However, we also think about other people’s futures (especially those individuals with whom we are close) and I’m curious about how the processes involved in doing so are similar/different from thinking about our own futures, and how these develop in young children.

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Dr. Cristina Atance: Associate Professor, Psychology; Director, Graduate Training in Experimental Psychology, University of Ottawa (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/01/08

ABSTRACT

Part one of two, interview with Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa and director of graduate training in experimental psychology, Dr. Cristina Atance. In it, she discusses: positions, Psynapse, and the lunch-time seminar series; increasing collaborating among universities through overcoming some barriers in competitiveness; management of the Childhood Cognition and Learning Laboratory; duties and responsibilities implicated with funding, mentor, influence on personal mentoring, and insights into and styles of research based on mentoring; core research interests of 1) “cognitive development,” 2) “theory of mind,” and 3) ‘”future thinking and planning in children”; definition of “theory of mind”; definition of “future thinking and planning in children”; “Maybe my Daddy give me a big piano:” The development of children’s use of modals to express uncertainty; and three most cited papers since 2,000: 1) Episodic future thinking, 2) The emergence of episodic future thinking in humans, and 3) My future self: Young children’s ability to anticipate and explain future states.

Keywords: cognitive development, Dr. Cristina Atance, episodic future thinking, episodic memory, experimental psychology, factive, mentor, modal, nonfactive, psychology, semantic memory, theory of mind, University of Ottawa.

1. You hold a number of positions. These include Associate Professor of psychology and director of graduate training in experimental psychology at the University of Ottawa. Within the graduate program of experimental psychology, you have two novel items of interest under your auspices, especially for building an intellectual community within an academic setting: 1) the newsletter Psynapse and 2) the lunch-time seminar series. (Although, the online listing of presenters ended in 2011 for the lunch-time seminars.) What does/did each cover? How have you developed these separate items for the benefit of the graduate students? What comes across as the majority feedback from graduate students?

Although the newsletter is no longer in circulation (it was an initiative undertaken by our former director, Dr. Cate Bielajew), the lunchtime seminar series is going strong! This, too, was an initiative taken by Dr. Bielajew that I have decided to continue because the student feedback has been so positive. Essentially, we provide students with the opportunity to listen to Experimental psychology PhDs (as opposed to Clinical PhDs) who have decided to work outside of academia. I think that this is really important given that, more and more, our graduates will need to/want to use their research skills and expertise in a variety of settings. Although these include academia, we have had speakers who work for the government, the RCMP, federal funding agencies (e.g., NSERC), private companies, hospitals, and school boards. They all have unique and inspiring stories about how they have used their PhDs in Experimental psychology in these various settings. Our current graduate students find their stories very helpful and come away with concrete ideas/tips about how to tailor their graduate training as a function of where they’d like to end up in their careers.

2. How might other psychology programs incorporate and improve upon these ideas to build such an intellectual community? From a provincial and national initiative perspective, rather than from within one university, how might multiple intra-/inter-provincial institutions partially dissolve barriers of competition – over quality students and funding, understandably – and facilitate more collaboration for the beneficial experience of graduate (and undergraduate) students across universities within Canada?

This may not directly answer your question but I think that many Universities both within and outside of Canada are “re-thinking” the PhD, so to speak. That is, we know that many of our students will not end up in strictly academic positions and, as such, I think that part of our job is to at least make them aware of their other options and, to the extent that we can (because we, ourselves, were trained as academics), provide them with some of the skills that will help them do so.

3. With Principal Investigator (PI) status of the Childhood Cognition and Learning Laboratory, you have time to manage overarching goals and research of the experimental psychology laboratory. How do you find the time spent in managing an experimental psychology laboratory?

By this, I’m assuming you mean how do I allot time to directing my research lab? It’s definitely a challenge to manage the various aspects of my academic position which include teaching, research, and administration. I love my research and the time that I get to spend with post-doctoral, doctoral, and undergraduate students. At present, I have a wonderful lab that I’m quite connected to (it’s down the hall from my office) and so I’m around it (and more importantly the students!) quite a bit. It’s however essential that I have a good team of people (including a part-time lab co-ordinator) with whom I can share the workload. Recruiting participants (in my case young children and their parents) is an especially challenging and time-consuming aspect of the job and this is something I need help with, along with the testing of participants, so that I can free up most of my time to think about new research directions, experimental designs, and writing grants, articles, and chapters.

4. In addition to this, and with an intimate linkage to duties and responsibilities implied by the laboratory and research grants, you mentor young researchers into the discipline of experimental psychology. First, who most mentored you? Second, how did this influence your own mentoring? Third, what insights into and styles of research does the task of mentoring provide for you?

I would consider both my PhD and post-doctoral advisors as my most significant mentors. These were Dr. Daniela O’Neill (PhD Advisor) at the University of Waterloo, and Dr. Andy Meltzoff (post-doc Advisor) at the University of Washington. Both were very meticulous and careful researchers who encouraged me to think about a lot of different angles of my research and experimental design. They are both also incredibly original and creative thinkers which I’m hoping has rubbed off on me! Because I was Dr. O’Neill’s first PhD student we spent a lot of time bouncing ideas off each other and deeply discussing the research (then, as now, it was focused on the development of future thinking ability in young children). I was fortunate to have this much time with her because in bigger labs one doesn’t always get the chance to have a lot of one-on-one time with their supervisor. Yet, I think this is critical. I don’t think I’d ever want a lab with so many students that I rarely get one-on-one time with each of them. In terms of my style of mentoring, I would say that in addition to trying to work quite closely with students, I also try (though probably need to improve in this respect!) to allow them to really develop their own ideas without interfering – at least initially – too much. Obviously, once it’s time to discuss these ideas and think critically about whether they can form the basis of sound experimental designs, then certain issues will need to be considered. At the same time, I think it’s also important for advisors/mentors to help our students understand that we don’t always have all the answers. That is, sometimes I get the impression that students think that we do and that we’re somehow holding out on them! But, science doesn’t work like that – that is, I don’t always know whether a design is going to work or what exactly we’re going to find but this keeps the process interesting! Sometimes the unexpected findings are the most interesting ones.

5. Moving into the area of core research interests, you have three: 1) “cognitive development,” 2) “theory of mind,” and 3) ‘”future thinking and planning in children.” For those without the background of graduate level research in experimental psychology, how would you define “cognitive development”?

When asked by acquaintances/friends what I study, I often say “children’s thinking and reasoning” (i.e., their cognitive development) and how it changes and develops during the preschool years.

6. With present research, how would you define “theory of mind”?

It really depends on how precise you want to be but, again, I sometimes define it as “perspective-taking.” That is, how we (and, in my area of study, children) think about/understand other people’s perspectives, as well as understand that their own past and future perspectives can differ from their current ones. I use the term “perspective” quite broadly to encompass physiological, emotional, and mental states. For example, when/how do children come to understand that although they may love a certain toy, another child may not; or, that they may know something (e.g., where a toy is hidden) that someone else does not. Appreciating these differences in perspectives is critical for interpreting and making sense of other people’s behaviour. In many cases, this will also help us to act empathically (e.g., if we know that our friend is afraid of dogs – even though we are not – we wouldn’t invite her to go to the dog park with us).

7. How would you define “future thinking and planning in children”?

By “future thinking,” I mean children’s capacity to think about future events – for example, if I ask you what you’re going to do tomorrow, next week, or even next year, you can respond to these questions by “mentally projecting” yourself, so to speak, into these scenarios (e.g., tomorrow I’m going to go to work and maybe stop by the coffee shop on my way in, etc.) and providing fairly detailed accounts of what you imagine you may be doing at these various time points. This process itself need not rely on planning but likely lies at the basis of people’s ability to plan. One of the fundamental questions I study is whether, like adults, children have this same capacity for “mental time travel.”

8. Your first publication in 2000 entitled “Maybe my Daddy give me a big piano:” The development of children’s use of modals to express uncertainty studied “modal adjuncts to mark uncertainty.” Modal terms consisting of “maybe, possibly, probably and might.” Other indications are factive contrasted with nonfactive words such as ‘understand’ (factive) contrasted with ‘consider’ (nonfactive). You use the examples of “think” (factive) contrasted with “know” (nonfactive). You note adjuncts as among the earliest emergent properties from children’s language. More to the point, you describe the lack of knowledge about modal use in children related to expressions of uncertainty. Since the research almost a decade and half ago, what other things have research into children’s modal language development discovered about them?

This is actually not an area that I’ve followed or continued to do research in. Although the paper was framed in terms of children’s understanding of modals, I was particularly interested in whether they used these terms of uncertainty when talking about the future. My/our logic at the time is that if children were saying such things as I might get hungry or probably it’s going to rain then ,arguably, their thinking about the future must entail more than simply recounting routine past events. Otherwise, why would these future events be prefaced by markers of uncertainty or modals?

9. With regards to the three most cited pieces of your research program since 2000, Google Scholar rank orders from most cited to least cited for the top three: 1) Episodic future thinking, 2) The emergence of episodic future thinking in humans, and 3) My future self: Young children’s ability to anticipate and explain future states. Obviously, one common conceptualization of episodic future thinking. Your major contribution to the field of psychology. You gave the generalized definition earlier in question ‘6.’. I would like to cover each of these articles together and then alone. What theme of evidence and theory best characterizes this particular strain of your own research?

One of the most important themes of these 3 articles is the focus on the specific ability to imagine/envision ourselves in the future (as opposed to thinking about the future more broadly), and its development in young children. This type of thought is such a fundamental and pervasive mental activity for humans. That is, we’re constantly thinking about the future – what we’ll have for dinner, where we’ll go on vacation, what we’ll do on the weekend, etc. – yet until recently we knew very little about this capacity both in adults and in children.

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2023-01-29

Dr. Evangelos Katsioulis, MD, MA, MSc, PhD: Giga Society, Member; Consultant Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist, and CEO & Founder, Psycall.com; World Intelligence Network, Founder & CEO; QIQ, GRIQ, CIVIQ, HELLIQ, OLYMPIQ, IQID, GREEK IQ Societies, and Anadeixi, Founder; Scientific Associate, School of Medicine, Medical Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/01/01

ABSTRACT

Interview with Dr. Evangelos Katsioulis, MD, MA, MSc, PhD. In the following, he discusses: childhood through adolescence into young adulthood with extraordinary giftedness, some activities and memories from youth, and some distinctions in physics and medicine; highest national and international intelligence scores, first place in the Physics National Final Exams (Greece, 1993), Cerebrals NVCP-R International Contest (2003), and the Cerebrals international contest (2009), and examples of philanthropy through creation of high-IQ societies of varied rarity for entrance (first through fifth standard deviations); proposal for alteration to the educational system; identity crisis as the main global problem with discussion; building and running a society in the design of Plato; moral, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual development; the merger of machines and biology; the ultimate relationship between mind and reality; Genius of the Year Award – Europe in 2013 with reflection on desire for improving the life quality of others; and clarification on the term “miracle” and thoughts about the maximization of every moment in life.

Keywords: biology, Dr. Evangelos Katsioulis, Europe, giftedness, high IQ, genius, machines, medicine, national, philanthropy, Physics, Plato, standard deviation.

1. How did you find developing from childhood through adolescence into young adulthood with extraordinary giftedness? Did you know from an early age? What events provided others, and you, awareness of your high-level of ability?

Thank you for your question. Well, I didn’t have any forehead mark indicating that I have any special abilities, so my childhood was mainly full of activities that I enjoyed, such as reading literature, solving math, logical problems and puzzles, getting involved in discussions with adults and having rather many questions. I can recall an instance that I was a little boy and I made a reasonable for me at that point assumption that given that the white sheep produce white milk, the black ones should produce cocoa milk. I should emphasize that I enjoyed more spending my time on my own instead of socializing, which lasted till my adolescence. Teachers’ feedback was positive and promising at all stages of my education. At this point, I should mention that I am very grateful to my parents, both teachers of the Greek language, who provided me a variety of mental stimuli and a proper hosting setting for my interests. During my adolescence, I had a distinction in the national Math exams in 1990 and in the national Physics Final exams in 1993 among some thousands of participants. I was successful to enter the School of Medicine on my first participation in the entrance exams in 1993 and I was one of only six successful candidates who sat for the exams for the first time.

2. You scored some of the highest intelligence test scores on record, nationally and internationally. In many cases, you scored the highest. For some of your scores on these tests, I recommend readers to your website: katsioulis.com.

You competed in the Physics National Final Exams(Greece, 1993), Cerebrals NVCP-R international contest (2003), and the Cerebrals international contest (2009). You earned the best performance in all three. In light of this, when did you find your first sense of community among fellow ultra-high ability individuals?

Thank you for the impressive introduction to your readers. My ranking on the Physics National Final Exams is mainly the result of hard work and personal interest in Physics. Having scored quite well in some IQ tests and contests, I joined many High IQ Societies since 2001. I noticed that there were some difficulties in their proper functioning minimizing interactivity and subsidizing creativity. Therefore, I took the initiative in 2001 to form a pioneer organization focused on promoting communication and enhancing productivity for the individuals with high cognitive abilities. This organization is the World Intelligence Network, (http://IQsociety.org), standing as an international collective entity dedicated to foster and support High IQ Societies. Currently, 48 High IQ Societies are affiliated with WIN. Furthermore, I formed 5 core High IQ Societies covering cognitive performances from the 1^st to the 5^th standard deviations above the mean (IQ 115 to IQ 175, sd 15), (QIQ, http://Q.IQsociety.org), (GRIQ, http://GR.IQsociety.org), (CIVIQ, http://CIV.IQsociety.org), (HELLIQ, http://HELL.IQsociety.org), (OLYMPIQ, http://OLYMP.IQsociety.org), one High IQ Society only for children and adolescents (IQID, http://Child.IQsociety.org) and one only for the Greek people (http://IQsociety.gr). Last but not least, I started a Greek NGO about abilities, giftedness and high intelligence named Anadeixi (http://aaaa.gr).

3. If you could, how would you change the educational systems of the world? In particular, how would you develop an educational system to provide for the needs of the gifted population?

The development of a more personal, more accurate and proper educational system is one of the target goals of Anadeixi. I strongly believe that not even 2 different persons can have the exact same profiles, characteristics, needs, personalities, interests, abilities, backgrounds and goals. Imagine the diversity and variety of the students’ profiles if you expand this hypothesis including all the students of any educational system. Any person is different from any other and should be treated as such. It is rather an unfair, conforming generalization all of the students to participate in the exact same educational program. There should be an introductory level of the basic sciences offered to anyone and on top of this an additional specialized education program based on the personal needs and potencies of any of the participants. Anyone should know how to read and write, to make simple math calculations and to have some basic awareness of history, geography and the rest main fields of knowledge. However, some of the students have specific preferences and interests and the educational system should take these into consideration and respond accordingly. Regarding the structure of such an educational system, there could be a 2-dimensional. The horizontal axis may include all the special fields of science, knowledge and interests and the vertical axis may demonstrate the various levels of performance and awareness. Thus, any participant can be allocated to the proper horizontal and vertical places based only on his interests, preferences, goals and current expertise and awareness. In such an educational system structure, there is no place for any age or other restrictions or limitations.

4. What global problems do you consider most important at the moment? How would you solve them?

Identity crisis is the main global problem. People lost their identity, their orientation, their life quality standards. They don’t care about who they are, they develop personalities based on the mainstream trends, they play roles and they waste their lives in their attempts to adjust to what some few others expect from them and their lives. People have neither time nor any intention to realize what life is about. They are born and live to become consistent and excellent workers, minor pieces of a giant puzzle for some few strong people’s entertainment purposes and benefits. Therefore, they don’t care about the quality of their lives, about other lives, about relationships and the society in general, about our children’s future. It is indeed a pity, however it is a fact. Education could be helpful towards self-realization, awareness, knowledge, mental maturity, overcoming any external restrictions and limitations. As I usually say to my psychotherapy clients, the solution to any problem is to make a stop and one step back.

5. Generally, many interacting systems operate in societies: political, economic, religious, corporate, educational, and so on. If you could build and run a society, how would you do it?

I would say no more than what a great ancestor said 25 centuries ago. Plato suggested an ideal society based on the special abilities of the citizens. The most capable ones should be leading the society functions, the strongest ones should help with their physical powers, a meritocracy should be in place. We should all contribute to the society well-functioning, if we intend to live in the society and benefit out of it. The definition of one’s prosperity should be defined only in the context of the society prosperity. If we act against our nest, how should this nest be beneficial, protective and supportive for us. We often see people who have no other than marketing skills or powerful backgrounds to guide societies, decide about millions of people, control people’s future, when many capable and talented others live in the shadow. The most important element in any society is the citizen and people should realize their power. There is no society without citizens, there are no rules without people to follow them. People can claim their right to live their ideal society.

6. If you do consider a general moral, intellectual, spiritual, and emotional progression or development, how do you view development from the basic to most advanced levels at the individual and collective level?

[This is covered above]

7. Do you think biology and machines will merge? If so, how might this happen? Furthermore, how far would integration occur?

We do control machines (for now), however we cannot control or overcome biological rules. Machines could substitute some missing, mistaken or dysfunctional biological structures, however we are in no position to support artificial life at least for now. Having in mind the science progress and knowledge advancement within the last century, we may soon manage to understand much more about life and even copy biology principles creating a kind of life. There are no limits in this integration. From your question, I could assume that we both like science fiction movies.

8. What is the ultimate relationship between mind and reality?

Mind is an advanced personal processor, responsible for the perception, reaction and adjustment in reality. We need mind to live our reality. I suppose we all know what is the condition of a body with a non-functioning mind. Reality is an objective and independent set of conditions, events, happenings, incidents, people, principles, facts. Our mind personalizes this objective information to a subjective representation in us. Mind function is influenced by factors, such as perceptual ability, reasoning, previous knowledge and experiences, psychological status and mental state. For instance, we have all been present in an event and our understanding of what happened may significantly defer from what anyone else present states. So, we need mind to live our reality and we need reality to use our mind.

9. You earned the Genius of the Year Award – Europe in 2013 from PSIQ. In your one-page statement on winning the award, you say, “I believe in the power of human mind and my works contribute to the facilitation of mind expressions, promotion of creativity and enhancement of productivity for a better life quality for everyone. Maximizing outcomes based on the appreciation and utilization of people’s potentials for the benefits of any individual and humanity in general.” What motivates this passion for improving the lot of others?

Life is a continuous claim of happiness and satisfaction. There are plenty of distractions and attractions in life which can mislead and redirect people causing disorientation, targeting fake goals and resulting to low life quality. I am passionate with people and communication and that is the main reason I chose to be a Psychotherapist, Psychiatrist and a Founder of some communities and networks. I believe in self-awareness, self-appreciation, self-confidence and self-determination. Offering people an opportunity to look into themselves and grab the chance to evaluate their lives, attitudes and interests, is a challenge for me. I have undertaken this procedure myself and I offer the exact same to anyone interested. I support people and I believe in their abilities, talents and specialties. Psychologically speaking, I may provide what I would appreciate to have been provided.

10. As a final note to your award statement, you state, “Humans are biological beings, life is a mystery, creation is still unknown. We live a miracle and we can only maximize this miracle’s impact in every single moment of our existence.” What do you mean by “miracle”? Can you elaborate on the maximization of every moment of our existence?

Allow me to clearly mention that I do not wish to support any specific religion with my statement. I have the feeling that the advanced and complicated structure and function of life, considering even only a single cell, is itself a miracle. I am using the word ‘miracle’ since mathematicians have proved that it is rather impossible all cell components to accidentally find themselves in the proper position and start functioning as a cell within the total duration of universe existence. So the time elapsed since the creation of universe supports the non-accidental, thus miraculous nature of life. The specific rational for this miracle, a specific power, God, destiny, even the nature itself, has been a fascinating topic for many other specialists throughout all human history.

The maximization of our life moments is a quality term, used to define appreciation of our time, life satisfaction and happiness. Since we know nothing about the reasons of our existence, we may solely take advantage of the fact that we are alive and experience the most out of it. In this context, we need to define what makes us excited and content and we should target and claim satisfaction and happiness.

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Copyright

2023-01-29

Rick G. Rosner: Giga Society, Member; Mega Society, Member & ex-Editor (1991-97); and Writer (Part Eleven)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/12/22

ABSTRACT

Part eleven of eleven comprehensive interview with Rick G. Rosner. Giga Society member, ex-editor for Mega Society (1991-97), and writer. He discusses the following subject-matter: Genius of the Year Award – North America in 2013 from PSIQ and clarification of statements; definition of the term “gods” in operational terms from the award statement; discussion on our future rather than gods; thoughts on aesthetics within an informational cosmology lens; some brief discussion on informational eschatology; human history’s numerous examples of individuals and schools of thought aimed at absolute definitions of consciousness, universe, and their mutual union; thoughts on Big Bang Cosmology and the possibility of its replacement; three greatest mathematicians/physicists/cosmologists; three greatest mathematics/physics/cosmology concepts; The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and Wave-Particle Duality; Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen(EPR) Nonlocality; possibility of universe operating in something more essential than information; everything in essence equate to a Turing Machine in informational cosmology; operation of different time depending on armature/universe in reference; mysteries; ex nihilo cosmogony; theology becoming informational cosmology and vice versa; informational ethics in relation to numerous ethics; The Problem of Evil; souls; Fr. Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man (1955), Omega Point, and The Future of Man(1964); work needing doing for Informational Cosmology; reflection on theorizing and outlier background; common sense and intelligence; regrets; ethics of forming, joining, and sustaining elite groups based on high and ultra-high IQs; harsh internet crowd, frequent comments, and responses; principles of existence as the language of existence with explicit listing of some of them; and thoughts on prevention of intellectual theft.

Keywords: aesthetics, armature, armature/universe, Big Bang Cosmology, common sense, consciousness, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) Nonlocality, ex nihilo cosmogony, Fr. Teilhard de Chardin, Giga Society, gods, history, informational cosmogony, informational cosmology, informational eschatology, IQ, isomorphism, Mega Society, Omega Point, principles of existence, Rick G. Rosner, The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, The Problem of Evil, theology, Turing Machine, universe, Wave-Particle Duality, writer.

99. You earned the Genius of the Year Award – North America in 2013 from PSIQ. In your one-page statement on winning the award, you say, “My one wish is that trying to extend human understanding is doing God’s work.” In some sense, there seems no higher calling than something akin to an internal – to the cosmos – teleological duty to assist the self-actualization of the universe as sub-systems, various individual POVs, within the universe in service of God. Does this fairly characterize the statement? If not, what did you attempt to address with such a statement?

I was addressing a strain of religiosity which is hostile to science (or which misrepresents science to advance an agenda). I would like fewer people to be anti-science and would like people to be less subject to anti-scientific manipulation on religious grounds.

Isaac Newton thought that by making mathematical and scientific discoveries, he was doing God’s work. I like the idea that figuring out how the world works and how to make it better is helping God, not defying God.

Humans are part of a world we can choose to believe was created by God. Doing science isn’t alien to the world or opposed to God.

Teleology isn’t a word that I embrace, because it can be used to sneak creationism into evolution. Evolution, of course, isn’t a purposeful progression towards complexity. Rather, it’s the proliferation of varied organisms via the occupation of exploitable niches, some of which are occupied by organisms having complex abilities. (But simple organisms continue to occupy their niches. And new, simple organisms continue to arise.)

The universe is a very complicated entity, and as such, demonstrates that highly complex entities are permitted by the principles of existence (whatever those turn out to be). Can we help our species, our planet, or even the universe itself self-actualize, and if so, is this some kind of built-in bias towards complexity? Maybe, but I don’t see it as the hand of the Creator nudging us towards glory. Rather, I see it as the possibility of mathematical teleology, with complex entities perhaps statistically tending to have histories of increasing complexity. There is room for God or gods in this, but gods who are subject to the same principles of existence that we are. Which isn’t the worst thing – we are all striving, humans and gods alike.

100. You stated “gods.” How do you operationally define the attributes, in concrete terms, of these proposed gods? Moreover, how might we rank these civilizations in terms of advancement some relative scale of civilization development?

Start with the Arthur C. Clarke quote that’s now so overused it’s a cliché – “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” There are around a quarter or a third of a trillion stars in the galaxy. A bunch of them have planets – there are tens of billions of planets in the Milky Way – maybe 100 billion, maybe 200 billion or more. Even if only one in 10,000 contains life, that’s still 10 million planets with life. (And there are a hundred billion galaxies in the universe.) Some must have intelligent life, and on some of these planets, tech-wielding life most likely has a huge head start on us (because the odds of us being the first to tech in the galaxy are one in however many tech civilizations there will eventually be). Even if it’s only a thousand-year head start, that’s huge with regard to tech. And it’s possible that tech-wielding life on some planets might have a billion-year head start. So it’s reasonable to assume that there are some civilizations which are so advanced, their powers are almost magical in comparison to ours. But to call them gods is something of a cheat – super-advanced civilizations that have arisen in the past 14 billion years might best be called godlike.

Super-advanced civilizations would be able to do awesome stuff – for instance, possibly defy time to some extent by simulating a plethora of possible futures (on a rolling basis) and choosing the best future from among them. At the very least, advanced civilizations will have vast computational capacities. And the business of the universe is computation.

Next step in the hierarchy of godlike beings – let’s say I’m correct that the universe is vastly older than 14 billion years. It’s not unreasonable to think that some civilizations have learned how to survive galactic cycles, perhaps by hiding out in the enormous black hole-like objects at the centers of galaxies or by hopping from exhausted galaxies to newer galaxies (if it’s even possible to travel fast enough to escape a collapsing, exhausted region of the universe – hey, maybe they could beam themselves via neutrinos). Civilizations (or entities) which can survive for many multiples of 14 billion years would have fantastic capabilities – they might actively participate in the running of the universe – beaming neutrinos at the burned-out galaxies they want to reactivate, for example. Is it so unreasonable to think that something as large and old and intricate as the universe might have intelligent entities helping to manage it? Such entities might almost deserve the title of gods.

And the next step in the hierarchy – what if the universe itself is an entity, with perceptions, thoughts, and objectives, playing out across octillions or decillions of years? That is –

What if a sufficiently complicated self-contained and self-consistent system of information such as the universe itself can’t not be conscious?

That entity deserves to be called a god, but a god that did not make us, that may not know we exist, and that doesn’t intercede in our affairs. We are made of its information – its thought-stuff – but it didn’t intentionally create us. Its information space provides the arena in which we came into existence through natural processes.

And beyond the universe we live in is the universe in which the entity whose information space we live in itself lives. Maybe it’s not turtles all the way down; maybe it is information spaces all the way up.

These different levels of goddish beings share with us the basic constraints of existence. They’ve almost certainly developed work-arounds for many of these limitations, but they share the same general characteristics, even if such characteristics have been obscured and weirdified by their godlike mastery of physical processes. It’s kind of nice that in wrestling with existence, we and these gods are all in it together.

The various gods certainly have consciousnesses which are more powerful, more detailed, and encompassing more senses and types of analysis than ours. But who knows if the differences in consciousness are more than differences in magnitude, perceiving space and time in ways that are fundamentally different?

101. What about our future rather than these “gods”?

People aren’t freaked out enough about the future. Have I already said that? Humanity will be forced to change – to embrace new, weird forms of thought. Here’s why – advanced artificial intelligence is coming. It will be hard and perhaps impossible to design AI so that it doesn’t want stuff for itself. It won’t just be our faithful servant. So we’re gonna have to keep up with it – we’ll need to be joined to AI, so that we remain, for as long as possible, among the smartest beings on the planet. When occupying niches, species tend not to limit themselves. External factors limit how far species expand. Similarly, if it’s us versus AI in a struggle to occupy the same niches, the smarter entities will overpower the weaker ones. We can’t program AI to limit itself – it’s too likely that any barriers will spring leaks.

We’ll need to develop and evolve a worldwide (and eventually a solar system-wide) ecosystem which incorporates AI. That is, we’ll need to develop durable forms of advanced intelligence which don’t just ravage all available matter for computing purposes. It doesn’t seem unreasonable that AI and humans-plus-AI will eventually find niches that don’t threaten the existence of all other life on earth. But that probably won’t happen unless we keep up with AI by augmenting ourselves with it.

The world will be flooded with AI cops – software, hardware, etc. that will spy on everything to make sure that hyper-destructive AI and nanotech don’t get loose and destroy everything. There will have to be cyber cops on top of cyber cops – like an immune system – trying to keep outbreaks of bad AI local. Privacy will be left in tatters. (This could be an unrealistic science fiction TV show set 20 years in the future. A squad of sexy cops fight bad AI and nanotech. Perhaps make it a comedy, so the glaring errors can be seen as funny instead of stupid.)

AI will get smarter and smarter, faster and faster. Won’t it smart itself right out of the universe and into some other plane of existence? Nah. I think it runs into some hard limits – the speed of light, the computational limits of matter, the decreasing marginal utility of additional knowledge. There might be work-arounds for some hard limits – cramming enough matter into a small enough space should create more space, for instance – but such limits should put a damper on the double-exponential growth predicted by some Singularitarians.

We’ve been talking about ethics. Throughout history, humanity has had generally agreed-upon ethics for the protection of life and property and sometimes freedom, based on what humans want – comfort and safety. Such protections don’t extend far beyond humans, and we’ve found little evidence of the world itself having any ethical expectations. Our ethical framework is about to be completely revamped. Consciousness will be quantified. Consciousness will be created in non-living beings. Unaugmented human intelligence will no longer dominate the planet. Ethical arguments will have to be more powerful, to persuade our far brighter descendants.

Ethical protections have extended from the self-appointed most special beings on earth, humans, to, often grudgingly, other humans and sometimes to animals, the environment, and objects of historic value. Within 40 years and probably much sooner than that, unaugmented humans won’t be the smartest, most talented known beings. Unaugmented consciousness will be shown to be unimpressive in many ways. Winds of change will buffet the ethical umbrella, and we don’t know who or what will be under it in 2060.

Narrative is important. We like stories. And stories are an essential part of the structure of history. Just about every development in evolution and history involves someone or something embracing change – often being the first to make a change. We offer people, animals, and things ethical protection when we recognize and understand their stories. We have to sell the future on the importance of unaugmented humans’ stories, even when the augmented are in charge.

102. What would a timeline of the future look like?

There are already some good timelines of the future. Ray Kurzweil’s timelines might be the most well-known. He’s been making them since 1990, so you can judge how he’s done in his first 25 years of predicting. And this is a through, non-lunatic timeline –

http://www.futuretimeline.net/index.htm. (You have to watch out for timelines with crazy agendas.)

Let me try to do one –

2070: World’s annual birthrate drops under 1%.

Don’t know if I can do this. What I know is a bunch of stuff is gonna get weird and perhaps go away. Pro and Olympic sports will get weird in the next century as human bodies become increasingly augmented. There might be augmented and unaugmented leagues. Current pro sports may come to seem too arbitrary or antiquated for popular attention.

2080: People commonly have relationships with artificial people, who by the early 22^nd century, have acquired limited rights.

Money is gonna get weird. Some human necessities will continue to get cheaper. Employment will decrease. The life cycle of commercial enterprises will accelerate, making investment weird.

By the mid-22^nd century, everything associated with human life as we’ve known it for thousands of years gets weird as we have increasing choice of what should contain our minds and of the form of consciousness itself. You could call the 2100s the Century of Choice. Dibs on that.

It’s also the century of fragmentation, as new choices of how to live lead to different societies and sects and enclaves. After this, it’s hard to say what happens, because you can’t predict what the prevalent forms of consciousness will be.

The mental isolation that humans have always felt – that we are separate, autonomous individuals – will be eroded. We already have close working relationships with our devices, and we’ll increasingly be nodes in a network of streaming information as everything in our world gets packed with computing (and eventually thinking) circuitry.

Just remembered – made this list in 2013 as part of a pitch to Grantland – it’s everything I thought would be going away.

Children (Currently, about 85% of humans have children. By 2090, less than 30% of humans will have reproduced traditionally by the age of 60.)
Risk and wrecks (People who might live for many centuries won’t tolerate current levels of risk.)
Meat from animals with brains
Humans’ exalted view of ourselves (We’re gonna learn exactly how we work, and we’ll find it not so awesome.)
The soul (We’ll have a mathematical model of how we feel that we have feelings. This will be a good thing, but it won’t feel so good. Understanding consciousness could add an underlying sadness to the world until people get used to it.)
Basic human concerns and drives (We’re gonna be able to rejigger the agenda that evolution has wired into our heads.)
TV and movie storylines as we know them (All our entertainment is built around basic human drives. Once we start messing with these drives, we have to mess w/ our stories. Romance, action, comedy, drama, etc. all get reworked.)
Natural-born bodies
Sex as the greatest thing
Not knowing how our brains work
Not knowing why the universe is
Thinking we know what’s going on a moment-to-moment basis (Our awareness is really patchy and cobbled together, but evolution doesn’t give a crap. Evolution wants us to have enough awareness to survive and reproduce. Anything beyond that is a bonus.)
Thinking our brains are perfect and fantastic
Privacy
Marriage ’til death do us part
Disease
Island consciousness (that is, not being able to link your brain to someone else’s)
Abject poverty and ignorance (except among angry, fucked-up, repressed populations)
Unhealthy food (Food that tastes great won’t actually be bad for you.)

And a few things that won’t happen:

No time travel, except through simulation (which will grow more and more powerful, but still won’t let you change the past).

Probably no warp drive.

Probably no war between galactic empires. Empires don’t get you much – there’s no rare stuff that can only be had on a certain planet. I guess civilizations might fight for control of large bodies such as a neutron star that has neutrino jets or a black hole at a galactic center (which might be good for vast amounts of computing). They won’t be fighting over worm poop that helps you steer spaceships. According to many futurists, advanced civilizations just want to stay home and compute – kinda like us with our smart phones.

We’ll eventually encounter other civilizations. I’m guessing finding alien life will be like dating and marriage – initial excitement followed by vaguely interested familiarity.

And finally, a rule of thumb. In the 21^st century, the percent weirdness of daily life roughly equals the last two digits of the year. The year 2015 is 15% weird. (We spend all day staring at screens. We have access to all information, and we constantly share information via social media. We can watch anything we want at any time. We’re in a constant state of war against nebulous enemies. Cameras and surveillance are everywhere. All this adds up to at least 15% weirdness.) The year 2030 will be roughly 30% weird. 2050, 50% weird. (The rule, following a straight line instead of an exponential curve, probably underestimates weirdness for the last part of the century.) Dibs on the rule – call it the Rosner Rule.

103. Any thoughts on aesthetics within your framework for understanding the world?

Conscious beings are driven by pleasure (and pain). Pleasure is associated with things that are important to survival and reproduction. Perhaps more than any other species, humans get pleasure from learning, because our niche is discovering exploitable regularities in the world. We get aesthetic pleasure from representations of things associated with pleasure, especially when those representations offer a satisfying hint of discovery or problem-solving.

Kitsch and porn pander to pure pleasure without the learning, while art offers at least the suggestion of learning how to decode the world. At its best, the beautiful also offers insight.

Endorphins shape learning. Jokes are funny because they simulate an abridged learning process. We enjoy music because it sets up expectations of patterns and then fulfills those patterns. (And the rhythm sets up a framework that can keep us in the moment.) Familiarity in our surroundings and predictability in our sensory input helps structure our awareness – we’re all a little like the guy in Memento.

104. Any comments on informational eschatology?

The universe will likely largely stay the way it is for trillions upon quadrillions upon quintillions of years. However, our galaxy will burn out and fall away from the active center after I dunno, another ten billion years or so. (Astronomers say the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy will collide and merge in another five or so billion years, but that’s not the issue. It’s when the merged galaxy’s stars burn out that it falls out of the active center.) Perhaps advanced civilizations have ways of surviving the burning-out of a galaxy to persist for more than just tens of billions of years. For us, with our puny conception of things, tens or hundreds of billions of years might as well be forever. When and if the universe does end, probably does so through heat. Heat is noise and loss of information. The temperature of the cosmic background radiation increases and sizzles everything away. The currently active center runs out of juice and falls back into the hot background like Schwarzenegger being lowered into the molten steel in Terminator 2.

Of course, for us, the idea of a civilization or entity lasting for billions of years is inconceivable. How could an entity develop and accumulate knowledge for the equivalent of a million lifespans of our current civilization? Well, maybe it doesn’t. Maybe it hits a ceiling of knowledge. Maybe it’s like a security cam setup that keeps only a rolling record of the past 24 hours. At this point, with knowledge of only one civilization that’s only 10,000 years old, we have no way of knowing.

105. Deep and shallow recorded human history present numerous examples of prior attempts at absolute definitions of consciousness, universe, and their mutual union. Of course, dust needed brushing along with spooling of the cobwebs, and at least one coat of varnish, of ideas, evidence, and argument to a sufficient level for clarity on these issues.

Rather than pontificate on broad historical patterns, for brief and mundane historical examples, earliest known individuals with works focused on the gods such as Hesiod with Theogony, which went through the traditional Greek mythological timeline including the triumphs of Cronos over Ouranos and Zeus over Cronos.

Other sets of individuals comprising schools focused on the schools of philosophy with less focus on gods and more focus on forces of nature. The Milesians took different fundamental compositions of the world while removing the place of the gods with Thales (Water), Anaximander (Apeiron or the indefinite, infinite, unlimited), and Anaximenes (Mist, air, or vapour). Each with views different from before, but monistic (non-plural) and material as opposed to plurality of gods and their caprices. In particular, the worldview of Thales because of the transition between the world of the mythological, allegorical, and metaphorical of Hesiod into the world of reason.

Some of these cosmological speculative philosophies gave rise to political and moral philosophy. These speculations continued to lack comprehensive integration, even with the question-based philosophies of Socrates and the Sophists. Plato and Aristotle provided the most thorough accounts of a comprehensive philosophy covering numerous subjects over many, many writings. This continued onward to the present day with individuals attempting unification such as David Deutsch, David Chalmers, Edward Witten, Stephen Hawking, and so on. Many bright lights in history. How do you assess or grade the attempts at absolute definitions of phenomena such as consciousness?

For most of human history, people made all sorts of wrong guesses about the nature of consciousness. It feels so ineffable and deeply, transcendently real – it has to be a bridge to some kind of ethereal beyondness, right? After millennia of this, consciousness has a bad reputation for being associated with la-de-dah mysticism. Mention consciousness, and people get nervous that you’re gonna argue that rocks and trees and entire planetary surfaces are conscious.

But, as I’ve said, consciousness is a technical, not a mystical phenomenon. Human consciousness is all jazzed up – made super-exciting to keep us interested in ourselves – but at base, it’s about shared information forming a mind – a mental arena – because we have a better chance of accurately modeling reality when all our specialized subsystems have a global understanding.

Today, people have a better intuitive understanding of consciousness than ever before. We’re used to working with our devices, which are near-extensions of consciousness – feeding us information at our bidding. We’re fluid in juggling apps – right now, I have 25 windows open on my computer – and can see not a stream of consciousness, but pop-up consciousness – information and specialist systems popping into awareness as needed. We can see that our devices, while not conscious, could become more integrated into our consciousness – heads-up displays as in Terminator or fighter jets, for instance – and that smart devices will become increasingly emulative of our thinking. Regardless of whether our devices will eventually become conscious in the manner of hundreds of mostly bad science fiction movies, we see that our devices are capable of complex information processing, which takes away some of the exaltedness of the information processing going on in our heads.

106. What makes the Big Bang so convincing? Is it at risk of being replaced?

The Big Bang is convincing for lots of reasons. It’s by far the most widely accepted theory of cosmogony among scientists. However, it’s only held this position for the past 50 years. Before the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation in 1964-65, it was neck-and-neck between Big Bang and Steady State Theory, which postulated that matter popped into existence in empty space. And before Big Bang and Steady State Theory originated as a consequence of general relativity and Hubble’s Law in the 1920s, we didn’t know enough about the large-scale dynamics of the universe for any effective theorizing that I’m aware of.

The discovery of Cosmic Microwave Background radiation was dramatically convincing. In 1964, some guys at Bell Labs built a radio telescope which picked up low-temperature noise they couldn’t explain. They thought it might be bird poop on the antenna. Turned out to be light from the early universe as predicted by the Big Bang. Game, set, match for Big Bang Theory.

The Big Bang explains a lot – the apparent velocities of billions of galaxies, the formation of heavy elements, the size and apparent age of the universe, the proportions of elements found in the universe, the relative youthfulness of more distant galaxies.

It’s conceptually easy – one big explosion, everything flies apart. Has a catchy name. Is the title of the biggest sitcom on TV.

But it doesn’t explain enough. It minimizes cosmic questions, with the main question being, why is nothingness so volatile that it explodes into an entire enormous universe? With enough tweaks, Big Bang theory can explain the mechanics of how the universe exploded out of nothingness, which is kind of satisfying from the point of view of physics, but not of philosophy.

Some problems of Big Bang theory include:

It leaves too many physical constants unexplained – the proton-electron mass ratio and dozens more. The Big Bang in general is not overly explanatory – it only tells you why some stuff is the way it is – how elements form in stars, for instance. (But you can have element formation in stars without the Big Bang.)

Big Bang Theory incorporates assumptions of uniform conditions and constants across the entire universe. This is usually seen as a theoretical strength, but, like the unexplained physical constants, Big Bang theory doesn’t completely justify why the universe should be uniform. The philosophical reason, called the cosmological principle, is that we on earth are located nowhere special in the universe, and furthermore, the entire universe is nowhere special. This is a dangerous assumption. You can’t just demand that the universe be roughly the same everywhere. What if that’s not how the universe works? The Big Bang has that assumption built in. And while the Big Bang assumes uniformity in space, it does no such thing in time. There is no uniformity across time in Big Bang theory – every observer is located at a unique moment in the universe’s unfolding.

Some of universe’s spatial uniformity is explained by cosmic inflation in the very early universe. According to cosmic inflation, the universe expanded so fast (blowing up by a factor of at least 10^26 in less than 1/10^32^nd of a second – that is, doubling in size every 1/10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000^th of a second or so) that a tiny volume without much room for variation became the entire visible universe, and the rapid expansion also spread out any irregularities. The reason for such rapid inflation isn’t known, so cosmic inflation is a little ad hoc.

Beyond cosmic inflation, the Big Bang requires more and more precise, fussy tweaks to agree with increasing amounts of observational data. One would hope that there would be a theory, either an add-on to Big Bang theory or an alternative, which would explain more of the conditions of the universe without having to be tweaked to fit the conditions of the universe.

Our galaxy contains globular clusters – tight groups of a million or so stars – which may be older than the Big Bang. Calculations are pretty equivocal on this – the clusters might not be that old. Meh to the clusters.

Yeah, the Big Bang is in danger of being supplanted. It’s pretty much our first try at a theory of the universe based on not hopelessly incomplete observational evidence. Even though the Big Bang is young, it’s already accumulated a bunch of patches.

A digression –

Was up late last night, thinking about how active galaxies get to the active center. They can’t just light up and slide into the center – what would cause the slide? And they can’t just slide out of the center when burned out. I’m thinking maybe it looks like soap bubbles – lit-up galaxies expand enough of the surrounding space that bubbles would be too big not to merge. There wouldn’t be walls between bubbles – that’s incorrectly extending the analogy – but there would be dark galaxies along the saddles between bubbles. Without being able to contribute to the photon flux that keeps the active center inflated, maybe dark galaxies would slide along the saddle between lit-up regions, back down to the dark outskirts. Could be messy enough to work. Over billions of years, there would be an ordering of regions by brightness – the greatest producers of photon flux would float to the top of the lumpy bubble, and less-bright regions would be pulled down to the outskirts by gravity.

I suppose this would mean you could temporarily be of two minds – thinking of two things somewhat independently – having a pair of incompletely merged active centers in your mind-space – until your thoughts merge. While driving, you’re trying to remember your second-grade teacher when another driver forces you slightly out of your lane. Your thoughts about your split-second evasive driving maneuver don’t necessarily disrupt your thoughts about second grade. Each pattern of thought informs itself more than it informs the other, unless you then ponder your bifurcated thinking during the incident.

107. Who do you consider the three greatest mathematicians/physicists/cosmologists?

Darwin is one of my favorite cosmologists, even though he’s not a cosmologist. He took the idea of deep time, which was being debated by geologists of his era, and applied it to biology, which indirectly set the stage for the discovery, 60 years later, that we live in a universe that’s many billions of years old. Some physicists of Darwin’s time argued against deep time, saying stars couldn’t last that long. The longevity of stars wasn’t explained until the discovery of nuclear fusion.

Newton was the first to describe gravity as the force holding all large objects together, which is a necessary first step in a conceptual framework that encompasses the entire universe. And Einstein made that framework much more explicit.

Also important are the developers of theories of information, including Alan Turning and Claude Shannon.

108. What do you consider the three greatest mathematics/physics/cosmology concepts?

I like Mach’s Principle, which states that inertia arises from an object’s interaction with the stellar I like Mach’s Principle, which states that inertia arises from an object’s interaction with the stellar background (all the matter in the universe). Mach’s Principle has never been turned into a precise mathematical theory, but it’s still compelling. If true, Mach’s Principle can’t mean that an object is directly interacting with all matter as that matter is now, because of the speed of light. The object has to be interacting with its local inertial field which is created by all matter, but with matter’s contribution to the field delayed by distance, the same way we can see all the visible stars in the universe but only as they were in the past.

Quantum mechanics is powerful, especially when viewed as the universe observing and defining itself.

And relativity, both special and general and including Big Bang cosmology, is essential, particularly when considered as aspects of how information is structured and how it behaves.

109. How does informational cosmology incorporate high level concepts like The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle? How about Wave-Particle Duality?

Uncertainty and wave-particle duality are aspects of a finite universe having a finite capacity to define itself. Particles will be fuzzy. Say you’re playing roulette, one chip at a time. The best you can do, on average, based on whether your chip pays off (and nothing else), is pin down the number that came up to somewhere among half the numbers on the wheel. The universe is like that – it doesn’t have an infinite number of chips to lay down to see exactly what comes up. Or have an infinity of photons for particles to exchange with each other. (Though one difference between the universe and blind betting and roulette is that an incompletely observed quantum roulette ball lands in all possible slots. The information isn’t there-but-hidden – it’s just not there. Black pays off – well, the ball’s probability wave occupies all the black slots (unless observed to occupy a specific slot). The universe moves on.)

The universe writes its own history moment by moment. But history is always incomplete. Under the uncertainty principle, you can pin down some aspects of things with as much precision as you want, but this will always be at the expense of other aspects. We’re used to feeling that the universe has great solidity and precision because at our macroscopic scales, it does. Our bodies contain nearly 10^28 atoms. We’re big, compared to atoms. We don’t generally perceive atomic-scale lack of precision. We’re the beneficiaries of living in a universe with something like 10^80 particles, which define each other pretty precisely but not infinitely so through their interactions.

Inexactly defined particles behave with a certain degree of mystery – of unknown information. This unknownness takes definite forms – probability waves, etc. Defining how unknownness and imprecision manifest themselves is the job of quantum mechanics. Patrick Coles, Jedrzej Kaniewski, and Stephanie Wehner at the National University of Singapore just proved that wave-particle duality is a manifestation of the uncertainty principle. Dr. Wehner said, “The connection between uncertainty and wave-particle duality comes out very naturally when you consider them as questions about what information you can gain about a system. Our result highlights the power of thinking about physics from the perspective of information.” (Once co-wrote an adult movie about time travel which included a scientist named Dr. Wiener. This is not the same Dr. Wiener.)

110. How about Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) Nonlocality?

Existence depends on self-consistency. You can set up situations in the universe in which the discovery of the value of a variable at Point A implies the value of a linked variable at an arbitrarily distant Point B. Every particle interaction is a handshake between two points in time (as seen from points of view that aren’t moving at the speed of light – from the photon’s POV, no time passes). These handshakes are part of how the universe defines itself and maintains its self-consistency. The EPR setup links two such handshakes. The unfolding of time is the setting up and completing of vast numbers of these handshakes.

111. How about the possibility of universe operating in something more essential than information?

I don’t know what would be more essential (in a practical sense) than information. Information is the pure essence of choice with everything extraneous stripped away. In a binary system of information, it’s just 0s and 1s or whatever you want to call it – apples and oranges, Bens and Jerrys – but it’s all just the choice between two values – what you call these two values isn’t included. It’s no-frills.

However, this doesn’t get at the essence of distinct choices, why something can only be true or not true (Gödel aside), how non-contradiction arises and why it’s the key to existence. We have to work on the logical foundation of existence, including the existence of information, but in terms of how the universe does moment-to-moment business, information is a highly efficient framing device.

While we’re at it, we have to get at the foundation of numbers – how they exist (in an abstract sense that’s reflected by numbers in the material world) without contradiction and with infinite precision. The same logical structures of non-contradiction – the infinite choices of and handshakes between values that allow numbers to work – also allow material existence. (My article about meta-primes in Noesis begins to discuss the infinite series of choices among numerical values that make numbers work.

112. How does everything in essence equate to aTuring Machinein informational cosmology?

A Turing machine constructs a picture of reality one finite step at a time. Any finite process or system can be mathematically translated into a series of bit-wise steps – a series of 0s and 1s. Multiple Turing machines can be married into a single machine – the Church-Turing thesis states that any computable function on the natural numbers is computable on a Turing machine. I’m assuming that the universe (or any information-space) is finite and that possible transitions between states of the universe are computable (given the input of new information to reflect the outcome of events that had yet to be resolved). With these assumptions, subsequent events can be computed by a Turing machine.

113. Where one contained armature/universe equals A₂and another container armature/universe equals A₃, does A₂operate on a different kind of time than A₃?

The armature world and the mind-space world are temporally linked – the mind-space is reacting in real time, but there’s no coordination of physical processes – between the speed of light in the armature world and in the mind-space, for instance.

114. What can we never know? In other words, what count as, by their nature, mysteries?

The universe observes and defines itself. It takes information to get information. There’s not an infinite amount of specification to be spread around. There will always be gaps in knowing. Even in a deterministic universe, which ours isn’t, you’d need something vastly hugely huge to model the universe.

So our knowledge of specifics will always be at risk of being threadbare. But we can hope to learn more about the general principles of existence. Richard Feynman laid out the possible paths of future scientific knowledge, something like – we figure out the universe, learning just about everything there is to know. Or we fail to figure out the universe – it’s just too tough. Or we keep learning more and more but never learn just about everything because what there is to know just keeps going and going.

I think we’ll mostly figure out the universe – we’ll develop a pretty good picture of the Whys. Our knowledge, however, will always be surrounded by a deep metaphysical chasm of not yet understanding the Whys behind the Whys. There’s no absolute knowledge – there’s just hope.

It’s not an unreasonable assumption that there’s an unlimited amount of stuff to know. There are reasons behind reasons behind reasons, and we may never get to the rock-bottom essential nature of things, because there may not be a rock-bottom essential nature. Everything might be bootstrapped and self-referential and the way it is because it can’t not be the way it is without being contradictory. You can never precisely draw a fractal or a Mandelbrot set – there’s always an infinity of little curlicues you’re leaving out. And as you go bigger and bigger and more complex, there are emergent properties and essential stories too big to be contained in smaller information sets.

Having a beginner’s understanding of the Whys of the universe is just a first step to learning how to operate within the universe. There will always be infinitely far to go to figuring everything out.

115. How does informational cosmology explain ex nihilo cosmogony for the modern form of nothing defined by science and the modern philosophical/theological kind of “nonbeing” nothing?

In informational cosmology, there’s a reason in the armature world for a mind-space to come into existence. Reasons can be anything that creates a wide-angle information processing system – can be natural, as when our brains form as a fetus grows, could be semi-mechanical, as with us building future sophisticated robots, could be a spontaneous negentropic process (which the billion-year evolution of life on earth can be seen as).

Also, the principles of self-defined information-spaces should generate a roughly defined set of all possible such spaces. If these principles more-or-less completely specify what can exist, consistent with non-contradiction, then anything that can exist, can’t not exist – that is, must exist (though we can only experience one moment at a time, and each moment has to be consistent with its history – we can’t jump world-lines).

So, between every information-space having a reason to exist in an armature world that’s created it and the principles of existence pretty much mandating that information-spaces exist, you have pretty solid justifications for there not being just nothingness.

116. With universe as mind and theology as study of the nature of God – in large part, theology becomes informational cosmology, and vice versa. How does this reframe the enormous discipline of theology?

If widely embraced, informational cosmology would eventually prompt a whole new mess of unfounded and semi-unfounded belief and misunderstanding. It has a whole set of new and semi-new hooks on which to hang irrational beliefs.

Even if it becomes an accepted theory, not everyone’s going to believe it. I assume our semi-artificial selves of a century hence will be pretty scientific in their beliefs, but there will be many groups that continue to hold traditional beliefs. Figure 14 to 25 billion entities with at least human-level cognition 100 years from now (could be many, many more if independent, individual AIs are all over the place). The majority will hold scientific worldviews, but billions of others will be various degrees of Christian or Muslim or Buddhist.

Informational cosmology contains more Whys than Big Bang theory. Big Bang theory asks you to believe that nothingness is unstable and wants to explode without much philosophical justification. I’d think that people would embrace a theory that, if largely verified, offers more Whys within a scientific framework.

Informational cosmology also offers huge questions to try to answer – is the universe truly conscious? If so, what’s it up to, and what world contains it? How old is the universe? Can civilizations survive the recycling of galaxies? Is there a ladder of worlds? What are some of the other conscious beings scattered throughout the universe up to? Do they participate in the mechanics of the universe? Are three-dimensional space and one-dimensional time structures that all civilizations are stuck with? And a zillion more questions. Some people will try to answer them theologically.

117. If you had the opportunity to look at deep human time in an instant, you would see antiquity’s graveyard with a small section, where we can find remnants of the great theologians, and these grand figures of theology lie in the grave with some onlookers – no doubt to join – around the graveyard; look close, some found in this grave, some at the eulogies, and others to partake of this cemetery: Abraham Joshua Heschel, Albert Schweizer, Baháu’lláh, Charles Wesley, Clement of Alexandria, Clive Staples Lewis, Eliabeth Stuart, Gordon Clark, John Calvin, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, Joseph Smith, Jr., Karl Barth, Ketut Wiana, Leila Ahmed, Marilyn McCord Adams, Martin Luther, Pelagius, Polycarp, Prophet Muhammad, Saint Anselm, Saint Augustine of Hippo, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Saint Irenaeus, Saint Jerome, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Soren Kirkegaard, Teilhard de Chardin, and so on.

With such a deep background into the realm of ethics in the world of theology, informational ethics provides the basis for theoretical analysis of issues in ethics such as asserted proclamations on ethics in prior times. Application of C^Eto each set or subset of proposed ethics; C^Eprovides the basis for logical analysis of ethics.

How might other pervasive ethics have rational calculation in such a moral calculus from informational cosmology? How might the longstanding tradition of theology work in such a framework? How do some vogue – within the timeline of recorded human civilization’s history – assertions of ethics operate in informational ethics such as Christianity, Confucianism, humanism, Islam, Judaism, secularism, and so on?

Most ethical implications of informational cosmology probably come from the idea that everything exists within a framework of (technical-not-mystical) consciousness. Consciousness is a big deal – it’s the context for everything. At the same time, it is weak – it’s technical, not transcendent, and it doesn’t transcend death unless abetted by technology. Consciousness is threadbare, it lies to us, and it’s not everlasting. At the same time, it’s all we have.

We have to assume that respect for conscious beings is important. At the same time, we have evidence that it’s not. We know pigs are fairly intelligent and have feelings. At this point, only schmucks would argue that pigs aren’t conscious. (Unless they’re arguing that no living beings are truly conscious, in which case they’re using a completely different (and schmucky) definition of consciousness.) We slaughter pigs by the billions, but there’s no proof that this mass killing of conscious beings leaves a metaphysical stain on the universe.

We can go back to existentialism, that the world is meaningless, so we have to build our own moral systems. But we’re potentially in a better position than the existentialists confronting a random, spontaneously arising Creator-less universe that contains no inherent moral values. If informational cosmology is correct about conscious information-spaces being the framework for existence that, at least, is a unifying theme for existence. We still have to build our own moral systems, but there’s a little more to grab onto than the completely random, coldly purposeless, Big Bang universe.

Consciousness is a mathematically describable, verifiable thing, not just a suspicion of or an ineffable feeling that there might be a thing. And consciousness might be a thing on all scales, up to the most humongous. We don’t know much yet, but there’s a chance that our self-built moral systems might eventually get some support, not from some Creator handing down pronouncements, but from the structure of things. If consciousness is embedded in existence, and existence is the default state of things, then there might be reasonable ways to philosophize the problem of how to exist, without just blindly, bravely doing it for the sake of keeping on.

We still have to face that existence is governed by the math-like principles of non-contradiction, rather than being granted by a deity. We may always face the problem that there’s not some Ultimate Mover who wants us to exist, but rather that it’s up to us to design ourselves to want to exist (after having inherited the drive to exist from purposeless evolutionary processes). But we can be hopeful about consciousness being inherent to existence. The principles of existence won’t be able to squeeze the ghosts out of the machine.

118. How might this calculate the most difficult issue in the history of theology,The Problem of Evil?

The deal is, the processes that created us don’t have purpose, and they don’t judge. We’ve been created by a history of things happening via natural processes. I think we arose instead of being created by a purposeful being with plans for us. And since there’s no planner to keep things in line, to make things nice, lots of things can happen, and some of the things that can happen are horrible. It’s up to us to create moral systems which help us decide good and bad and up to us to do what we can to minimize the bad. There’s no One in charge; we have to be in charge of ourselves. But we get some help, in that existence seems to be unpreventable. We’re in a fight against personal and civilizational and even universal oblivion (our universe, not all possible universes), but existence itself is undodgeable. Existence isn’t a fluke, and nothingness is not the default state. There is a fabric of existence (well, not exactly, because where would it exist? It exists the way numbers exist.), a set (a quite likely messy, not-well-defined set) of possible moments of existence, because there can’t not be.

Evil, as opposed to bad things happening by accident, involves choice. Something capable of choice chooses to do something bad or to allow something bad to happen. There’s no deity in charge who’s allowing bad things to happen. But what about the conscious entities who are so much bigger than us that they might as well be gods? In the case of the universe itself, it probably has an idea that the information which comprises its information-space can take forms which are so complicated that they can include worlds with conscious beings and civilizations. However, it’s unlikely that the universe would care about beings which are low-level relative to itself and which do not exist in a form of which it is explicitly conscious, unless such forms threaten to impede the universe’s information-processing. As for advanced civilizations within the universe, they seem unlikely to go out of their way to prevent bad things from happening on our planet.

So, to boil everything down –

No one is in charge, neither a Creator nor an agent or ethical system put in place by a Creator.

The universe isn’t concerned about relatively low-level worlds which form in its information-space. The universe wants its information-space to process information. It’s okay with, and is largely unaware of, whatever happens to specific negentropic forms taken by the information in its information-space – that is, us.

Other civilizations in the universe haven’t invited us to join some galactic empire of goodness in which we get help in not having bad things happen.

For the time being, we’re on our own in building ethical systems and in trying to minimize evil.

119. Do souls exists? How do you define them?

Souls exist if you call our conscious selves our souls. If by “soul” you mean a magic ingredient, not information-based, that transforms an unconscious automaton into a feeling, experiencing being, then no, I don’t think souls exist. Our consciousness, our feeling that we exist in the world, is a property of how we process information. It’s not the result of a transcendent soul that rides unfeeling matter like a little sparkly cowboy or a golden thinking cap on a flesh-and-bone Roomba.

Our soul is what we’re feeling and experiencing and the incompletely expressed background to what we’re thinking at any given moment. At any given moment, there’s a lot we don’t consciously know but are comfortable that we could know if we needed to. Our moment-to-moment awareness is somewhat rooted in all our stored knowledge (including feelings associated with that knowledge) that’s only unpacked a little at a time. Our being accustomed to knowledge-in-waiting, our at-homeness in the world, our not freaking out that we don’t know everything at every moment, is part of what feels like a soul – a generalized feeling of self.

We don’t see a painting all at once – we fill it in mentally as our eyes wander over the painting. Similarly, we don’t know ourselves all at once. We constantly fill in ourselves about ourselves as our awareness wanders through our stored knowledge. Being comfortable with our normal brain function is part of feeling we have a soul.

We could even speculate that a feeling of comfort with and complacency about our brain function – this feeling of self and soul – might be encouraged by evolution, because it wouldn’t do for every organism to be freaking out over every mental glitch. Consciousness is glitchy, and we might have a certain optimum level of glitch-blindness that’s consistent with calm, normal functioning. In people suffering from Alzheimer’s, failure to recognize mental deficits seems to be fairly common. This could be a manifestation of a normally helpful defense mechanism (or it could be another symptom – a failure in self-perception caused by the Alzheimer’s itself).

The speed and precision of perception and thought are also a big part of feeling as if we have a soul. There’s a not-uncommon feeling among people who’ve been on heart-lung machines for many hours during an operation, called “pumphead” or post-perfusion syndrome. Apparently, while you’re on the machine, your circulatory system can get gunked-up, and during the month or so after the operation, your brain becomes clogged and strokey. It becomes harder to think and concentrate and control your mood. Some people with pumphead describe it as losing their soul.

And most of us have had the “wrapped in cotton” feeling of reduced reality when exhausted or a little bit buzzed. It’s apparent that degrading brain function reduces the feeling of the authenticity of reality and of self.

120. Father Teilhard de Chardin remains a controversial figure to some. In particular, his ideas in The Phenomenon of Man(1955) evoked praise, infamy, and even calumny. He had some ideas of note. Ideas in relation to theology and the world. With rich theological undertones, he spoke of an Omega Point in the book The Future of Man(1964). Does this idea hold merit in informational cosmology?

I believe that, as in Omega Point theory, the universe evolves more complicated and effective ways to process and store information, which can include biological and technical evolution. However, I don’t believe in the Omega Point’s teleology, that some god-like entity is the engine of progress, drawing us towards its enlightenment. And evolution doesn’t just progress towards increased complexity; evolution spreads out across all levels of complexity. Bacteria didn’t disappear when humans emerged.

Also, if the universe recycles itself across octillions of years, then life within it emerges zillions of times as a natural consequence of negentropy. (Every solar system is an open, negentropic system, though life won’t evolve in every such system.) So you don’t have a universe relentlessly climbing towards higher levels of complexity; you have a universe in which complexity arises over and over, trillions and quintillions of times. Even if intelligent life arises only once per galaxy, that’s still 10^11 instances of intelligent life, not even considering the recycling of galaxies. The universe should gradually grow more complex as it accumulates more information, but it could operate just fine with an unchanging amount of information, just as we could.

121. What do you see as still needing to be done with Informational Cosmology?

Informational Cosmology:

Needs mathematical structure – words translated into equations.

Needs testable aspects and testing – it’s not a theory unless it can be tested. Many of its elements are hard to test observationally – dark matter being collapsed normal matter, there being a bunch of burned-out galaxies in the neighborhood of T = 0, the universe being many, many times older than 14 billion years. But these same difficulties pertain to other theories of dark matter and the large-scale structure of the universe. These theories are often tested via mathematical modeling, which could be applied to Informational Cosmology. Fortunately (perhaps), Informational Cosmology is also a model of our minds, which, while not sharing our physical space, aren’t 14 billion light years away and are amenable to observation.

Needs attention. I’m trying to sell a memoir, Dumbass Genius, about the dumb things I’ve done, with some of the dumb things being done in pursuit of a theory of the universe. The proposal for Dumbass Genius is currently being looked at by publishers. The memoir will be 95% narrative and 5% physics. The narrative is a Trojan horse to get the physics in front of people. I’ve hired some PR people, and I’m trying to expand my social media presence, and I will continue to do and say semi-stupid stuff with the hope that this might cause people to accidentally pay attention to my non-stupid stuff.

Needs professionals to look at it. Professional scientists hate this kind of stuff. I’m working on an article titled “On Being a Crackpot.” I can tell you that professors don’t greet wild, all-encompassing amateur theories with unbridled joy. The standard reaction is, “I’m not even gonna look at your theory. I’ve dealt with lunatics like you before. Your theory is almost certainly crap, and reading the theory and explaining why it’s wrong would be a waste of time because nothing I could say would change your crazed mind. Why did the receptionist even let you into my office?” My best bet is to have my brain transplanted into the body of an attractive young woman and marry Brian Green or Neil deGrasse Tyson or Michio Kaku. We’ll get married and have lots of sex and then he’ll have to at least pretend to pay attention to my theory. Anyone know an attractive young woman who wants to swap bodies with a 54-year-old man with hair plugs?

Needs further integration – to have its elements combined into a smoothly functioning model of the life cycles of thoughts, galaxies, and the entire mind and universe (preferably with cool diagrams).

Needs to be shown to address shortcomings of currently accepted theories and explain things currently accepted theories don’t. A theory which explains why the universe does what it does is preferable to a theory which says, “There was a big explosion, then some cosmic inflation, and now there’s some accelerated expansion.” Current thinking tends in the direction of, “Asking ‘Why?’ is naïve – a pinpoint that explodes with vast broken-symmetry energy just is,” but a nice metaphysical/mathematical explanation that might also explain why some physical constants are what they are could eventually be well-received.

Needs time and for Big Bang theory to continue to accumulate contravening evidence. Thomas Kuhn, in his classic book about how science works, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, explains that science progresses through a kind of punctuated equilibrium – theories prevail until they accumulate a bunch of anomalies, and then there’s a scientific revolution. Big Bang theory has been the boss-man theory of the universe for only 50 years. And before that, we didn’t really have a widely accepted theory of universal structure, because all the pieces weren’t in place. The Hubble redshift and expanding universe equations of general relativity weren’t discovered until the 1920s. We didn’t even know that the universe extended beyond the Milky Way until Hubble provided incontrovertible evidence in the 20s. So we’ve had this one theory for not too long – basically our first and only theory based on decent information about the universe. (There was Steady State theory, but it was never boss before getting swatted down by observational evidence.) Big Bang’s getting a little creaky – needs a lot of add-ons and geegaws to account for the results of observation.

The Big Bang will eventually be replaced, but it won’t go away, the same way Newton’s gravitation didn’t go away – it became part of the larger conceptual framework of general relativity. The universe will always appear to be Big Bangy due to the nature of information. Informational cosmology still has the universe blowing up, but just a little at a time. (And by little, I mean maybe at an average rate of around ten galaxies a year.)

122. Would you ever have theorized without your outlier background?

The background definitely helps. Can imagine many different destinies – resentful math teacher, divorced unsuccessful novelist…. But think those versions would do some theorizing, too. Maybe not as much as this version. And they certainly wouldn’t have had this forum.

123. Do you see a difference between common sense and intelligence?

It’s an old question which has an element of what might now be called nerd-shaming. It implies that regular people with common sense can get along in the world, while you, Nerd, with your so-called intelligence, have a hard time with things such as sports or getting a girlfriend or not dressing weird.

As a nerdy kid, I ran into this attitude fairly often, with people saying, “Well, you may be a brainiac, but I’ve got common sense.” This reflects a lost world of nerds being somewhat isolated from regular people. Today, tech forces us all to be nerds to some extent, all searching for the new best practices for living.

124. What do you most regret?

I regret squandering time on some stupid stuff – all the Gilligan’s Island and I Love Lucy reruns I watched as a kid, the crazy amount of time spent suing a quiz show. (My lawsuit was justified, but it ate up a lot of time.) I regret not being more skeptical of medical procedures which turned out to be unhelpful at best – varicose vein stripping, CT scan…. I regret not being born a couple decades further into the future. I regret not becoming wildly handsome in my 20s.

125. You live among an interesting cohort, no doubt. A group of individuals among the elite of intellectual abilities. What of the ethics of forming elite organizations – “elite” by admission standards? What about joining them? What about the possibility of some exploiting concomitant assumed authority of an individual or group? Perhaps some of those in the ultra-high IQ community make a conscientious choice – moral choice even – to not join such societies. Insofar as the ethics of forming, joining, and sustaining elite groups, what of the possibility of ultra-high general ability individuals choosing to not enter?

There are probably more hyper-intelligent people not in high-IQ societies than in them. Smart, highly successful people tend to be more involved with the things that made them successful than in exploring their mental skills.

But there’s not a super-high correlation between intelligence and success, especially at the highest levels. Many high-IQ people have pretty normal lives and jobs. Some of them find high-IQ societies, where they can get a little recognition and interact with people who have meshing interests. People turn to high-IQ societies on social media for the same reasons people do anything on social media – recognition and sharing. Social media makes it easier to join high-IQ societies – every two or three months, I’ll be emailed that I’ve been added to some high-IQ group. Because they’re easy to join, quite a few people belong to high-IQ groups on social media, which means that such groups consist largely of nice people who are delighted to have online friends.

126. You suffer from the attention and invective of internet trolls. Trolls come in many variety within the flora and fauna of internet life. I hear they feed on a combination of foaming at the mouth and others’ time – at least in their natural habitat. Unfortunately, they’re like starfish. If one chops the poor little echinoderm to pieces – or like the story of the wizard from Fantasia with the shredded broom, they have a “population explosion” and emerge with greater force and invective than ever before. Do you have any responses for the harsh internet crowd? In other words, what comes across with the highest frequency? How do you respond to them?

Arrogant – Well, I’m really good at IQ tests. Does that make me a snotty jerk? I hope not. Do I know what’s best for people or have a plan for remaking society? No. Do I want to be the boss of everybody? No. Do I think I’m really smart? Kinda, but my Twitter handle is @DumbassGenius, not @geniusgenius, which shows at least a little modesty.

Weirdo – Yes, I’m kind of weird – not weird just to be weird, but weird because I’m used to figuring out on my own how to do stuff, and often this figuring works out oddly. And even though I do weird things like go to the gym five times a day, I also do normal, responsible things like stay married for 23 years and be a dad and hold down jobs more successfully than most people in my profession.

Loser – If you’ve read that I’m a high-IQ bouncer and stripper and nude model, that’s kind of loserish. Very loserish. But I’ve also been a TV writer and sometimes-producer since the late 80s. I’ve written for more than 2,500 hours of broadcast television, including the Emmys, ESPYs, American Music Awards, Grammys, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, earning seven Writers Guild Award nominations (one win) and an Emmy nomination. I’ve gotten a lot of material on TV. As I’ve said before, I’m married and a dad, which is important. I’ve got a memoir that’s being shopped around, and I have a theory of the universe. So, not entirely a loser.

Obvious hair plugs – Yes, you can tell that I have hair plugs. They’re not the worst plugs in the world, but they could be better. I started getting them in 1989, before the technique had been refined, so they’re a little clumpy. But they’re better than no hair, and if you didn’t know what you were looking for, you might not notice them.

Why should you listen to me? – I’ve been trying to figure out how the universe works since I was ten, and I’ve had a decent foundation for a theory for more than 30 years. I might be onto something. Current big bang cosmology is getting a little threadbare. A very, very, very old universe explains a lot of stuff.

You were very concerned about losing your virginity -Sex is kind of a given. Unmarried couples live together without social censure, everyone’s saturated in porn and sexualized images, everyone suspects the worst about everyone else in terms of sexual behavior. But as a population, we’re just about fatter than ever, there are a zillion other things to besides sex, and people in general don’t seem overly concerned with having sex, at least not as much as in the 70s.

127. Provisions for principles of existence would equate to the language of existence, and therefore one can derive the more appropriate, direct, and proper phrase “principles of existence” rather than “laws.” We have more derivations from defined principles of existence:

Principle One: universe operates within limits of complexity. Any further complexity will likely deteriorate into optimal simplicity. Universe among logical possibilities of the set of universes bound by optimal simplicity.

Principle Two: relevance/irrelevance, information of relevance will occupy or begin to occupy the active center; conversely, information of irrelevance will not occupy or begin to not occupy the active center.

Principle Three: The Persistence Project divides into The Statistical Argument for Universe and The Statistical Argument for Consciousness. Universe cannot not exist; consciousness cannot not exist. Therefore, the non-absolute high probability for existence, and persistence, of universe and consciousness.

Principle Four: informational cosmology implies informational ethics in a progressive argument. Where I_c equals informational cosmology, S_u equals Statistical Argument for Universe, S_c equals Statistical Argument for Consciousness, P equals The Persistence Project, C^E equals “existence-valuing principles,” and I_e equals informational ethics, we can construct one conditional argument to derive informational ethics from informational cosmology: 1) I_c⇒ (S_u ∧S_c), 2) (S_u ∧S_c) ⇒P, 3) P ⇒C^E, 4) C^E ⇒ I_e, 5) I_c, 6) ∴, I_e. Therefore, one acquires values consistent with the facts of existence: “existence-valuing principles” or C^E. David Hume’s is/oughtfails. A distinction exists between them, but facts imply values.

Principle Five: universe/mind symmetry, universe as mind based on net self-consistency and information processing. Units of sufficient individuation in universe with self-consistency and information processing as minds too.

Principle Six: universe (M_n) implies armature (A_n); if armature, universe. Universe equates to information processing; armature equates to material framework/processor: (A_n⇒ M_n).

Principle Seven: armature and universe construct mind-space: (A_n+ M_n = S_n).

Principle Eight: net self-consistency and information processing equates to consciousness. This reflects Principle Five. Sigma, ∑, self-consistency, S, times, *, sigma information processing, ∑I_p, would equal mind-space, S_n, where mind-space equals information-space, I_s: (∑S * ∑I_p = S_n= I_s).

Principle Nine: universe as conscious: (A_n⇒ M_n); ∴, (A_n+ M_n); (A_n+ M_n) ⇒ S_n; ∴, (A_n+ M_n = S_n). In addition to this, we have the inclusion ofPrinciple Eightto derive the same conclusion about mind-spaces, S_n: (∑S * ∑I_p = S_n). Armature implies universe; therefore, armature and universe; armature and universe imply mind-space; therefore, mind-space; armature and universe construct mind-space, and net self-consistency and information processing equate to mind-space. Consciousness equates to net self-consistency and information processing; universe equates to these too. Therefore, universe equates to consciousness endowed system.

Principle Ten: consciousness at every magnitude exists in finitude and with non-mystical/technical construction. Informational cosmology lacks infinities and describes finites. Information constructs consciousness based on information processor and net self-consistency with finite capabilities. Subsystems internal to universe partake of this consciousness too, but not to the same degree. Units of sufficient individuation in universe with net self-consistency and information processing have consciousness proportional to sum of self-consistency times sum of information processing. Therefore, universe and multiple subsystems in universe have consciousness or equate to minds.

Beyond the foundational elements of informational cosmology laid out in this interview, and the first- and second-order derivations with informational ethics and other areas of discourse, what further realms of investigation have a possible future of analysis within an informational cosmological and informational ethical perspective?

One big field that will open up in during the rest of the century is what our drives should be, as we develop the ability to modify our drives and desires.

By the end of the century, there will be much inquiry about how to merge minds and how connected minds should be. There will be a whole new field addressing issues of mental connectivity. In some communities, people will want to stay completely unmerged. In others, people will try to achieve complete merging.

A critical field will be modeling AI and predicting its behavior. You need a mathematics of consciousness to understand AI. Out-of-control AI could be the greatest threat in history. A related field will be the design of artificial awareness.

There will be the field of informational structure – trying to figure out what the universe and other such systems are doing with information by looking at the distribution and behavior of matter. Can we get any idea of what’s in the mind of the universe?

Technical resurrection will be an area of inquiry and development – preserving consciousness after the body is gone, attempting to reconstruct and simulate the minds of people from history. We’ll have better and better iterations of Austen, Lincoln, and Shakespeare – all the usual holodeck suspects.

Beyond the physics of information-spaces, there will be the mathematics of information-spaces, which will go farther into the abstract and general properties of self-defined spaces, along with set theory as it applies to the set of all such possible spaces, the connections and transformations among members of the set, the level of infinity that describes the set, whether it’s a well-defined set, and so on.

Then there’s the cultural analysis of how we’ll be affected by thoroughly understanding consciousness. Most people probably believe that consciousness is produced by the brain, but the culture shock may not fully set in until consciousness is fully dismantled and replicated. How people feel and behave when they’re no longer more divine than their devices will have to be studied.

128. In the current climate of excess sensitivity tied to a reactionary institutional culture and subsequent radical conformity – in irony, I do not wish to offend anyone; however, institutional analysis does have value for us: internally, to Academia, various filters through achievement measurements (BA/BAA/BBA/BSc, MA/MBA/MPA/MSc, JD, MD, PhD, Post-Doctorate, and so on) and organizational-structural apparatuses operate for academic peers to consider standards high and one another proficient in relevant material under research; externally, to independent researchers and scholars, these can prevent innovation, hinder creativity, foster intellectual docility and acquiescence, and exclude bright and qualified outsiders (even geniuses) – to claim otherwise would consider academics of an angelic form. Both perspectives valid and compatible. It sounds good in an introductory course for particular ideals to have statement; however, we must face facts in the following reflection. We must speak without prevarication. You do not have academic awards, grants, honors, titles, or persuasive associations such as authoritative academics/institutional connections. If correct, and if someone in mainstream Academia stole these ideas, arguments, calculations, and original conceptualizations, you have little recourse for intellectual copyright and plagiarism.

Your defence would hold little weight, especially with the possibility of defamation, character assassination, and other tenth-rate tricks to discredit an individual rather than consider the claim of plagiarism on truth or falsity of the claim. No internal colleague, principal investigator status (or laboratory), faculty, external department, research institute, ethics board, administrative authority, or university at large to likely remedy such a possibility. The Academy tends to work in a closed way for accreditation and peer recommendations. You live and work outside the university system. Any thoughts on such an outcome? You developed this theory for over three decades. Any words for someone with intention of surreptitious pilfering of even your crumbs? Those with a wolf heart, modicum of talent, but starved for anything with a resemblance to this conceptual bread of life based on avarice and a gnawing hunger for academic, and eventual popular, glory.

I have one good defence – some of this stuff turning out to be true. If it’s true in a big way – if it’s picked up and verified by the world, someone will put me in the story.

My wife and I go to couples counselling every three or four weeks, and we discussed this in our last session – what happens if my book doesn’t get published, if I don’t get recognition, if 30 years from now I’m a frustrated old man whose ideas have become accepted but whose authorship isn’t generally recognized. My wife and our therapist and I agreed that would suck.

And yeah, my credentials are: not-great stripper, epic catcher of fake IDs, legendary goer-back to high school, nude art model, compulsive overachiever on IQ tests, and writer of jokes for late-night TV. But there’s a story there. William Blake said, “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” My excess hasn’t been that excessive, but it hasn’t been what everyone else has done. Charles Darwin took a five-year trip on the Beagle. He saw eroded landscapes and thousands of species. He thought about it for 20, 30 years. His exceptional life experience plus extended thought lead to the greatest unifying theory in history – the earth’s geology plus the vastness of organic variety equals deep time. I like to think that exceptional personal experience plus extended thought can, even in the era of Big Science, lead to a great unifying theory.

I currently have sort of a PR person and next month will hire another PR person. My story will get out there. Eventually, established scientists will consider it. Will someone be able to steal it? At this point, my best chance for this not to happen if for me to keep talking and writing about it in my goofy way.

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2023-01-29

Rick G. Rosner: Giga Society, Member; Mega Society, Member & ex-Editor (1991-97); and Writer (Part Ten)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/12/15

ABSTRACT

Part ten of eleven, comprehensive interview with Rick G. Rosner. Giga Society member, ex-editor for Mega Society (1990-96), and writer. He discusses the following subject-matter: difficult circumstances for women, international obligations to women based on Millennium Development Goals (MDG) with a focus on MDG 3, 4, and 5, thoughts of focus on the transhumanist future, recommended reading of Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow, David Marusek, or Neal Stephenson; Dr. Rosalyn Yow quote, some observations about conditions for women; the history of men with two examples of Plato and John Stuart Mill, and reflection on history not treating most people well; female exemplars in history with multiple examples, daughter’s study of history, and personal Women’s Studies history; ethics in the global scale with multiple UN examples, collating them into a single question of “How best to solve problems in civil society?”, and thinking about the future with becoming more informed as the remedy.

Keywords: Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow, David Marusek, Dr. Rosalyn Yow, ethics, Giga Society, informational ethics, John Stuart Mill, Mega Society, Millennium Development Goals, Neal Stephenson, Plato, Rick G. Rosner, UN, writer.

94. Many, arguably most, women have greater difficulties than their male counterparts in equivalent circumstances. Their welfare means our welfare – men and women (no need to enter the thorny, confused wasteland of arguments for social construction of gender rather than sex; one need not make a discipline out of truisms.).

Net global wellbeing for women improves slowly, but appears to increase in pace over the years – millennia, centuries, and decades. Far better in some countries; decent in some countries; and far worse, even regressing, in others. Subjugation with denial of voting, driving, choice in marriage, choice in children, honour killings, and severe practices of infibulation, clitoridectomy, or excision among the varied, creative means of female genital mutilation based in socio-cultural or religious practices; objectification with popular media violence and sexuality, internet memes and content, fashion culture to some extent, even matters of personal preference such as forced dress or coerced attire, or stereotyping of attitudinal and behavioral stances. “All I ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet from off our necks and permit us to stand upright on the ground which God intended us to occupy.” Sarah Moore Grimke said.

Everyone owes women. International obligations and goals dictate straightforward statements such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the United Nations (UN) in addition to simple provision of first life. MDG 3, 4, and 5 relate in direct accordance with this proclamation – in an international context mind you. MDG 3 states everyone’s obligations, based on agreed upon goals, for promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. MDG 4 states everyone’s obligations for reduction of infant mortality rate. MDG 5 states everyone’s obligations towards improvement of maternal health. All MDGs proclaim completion by 2015. We do not appear to have sufficed in obligations up to the projected deadline of 2015 with respect to all of the MDGs in sum.

In addition to these provisions, we have the conditions set forth in the The International Bill of Rights for Women by The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) of the United Nations Development Fund’s (UNDF) consideration and mandate of the “right of women to be free from discrimination and sets the core principles to protect this right.” Where do you project the future of women in the next 5, 10, 25, 100 years, and further? In general and particular terms such as the trends and the concomitant subtrends, what about the MDGs and numerous other proclaimed goals to assist women – especially in developing areas of the world?

Predicting gender relations beyond a century from now is somewhat easier than predicting the short-term. In the transhuman future, bodily form, including sex, will be changeable. People will take different forms. And when anyone can change sexes with relative ease, there will be less gender bias.

Let’s talk about the transhuman future (100 to 300 years from now) in general, at least as it’s presented in science fiction that doesn’t suck. Three main things are going on:

There’s pervasive networked computing. Everything has a computer in it, the computers all talk to each other, computing costs nothing, data flying everywhere. Structures are constantly being modified by swarms of AI builders. A lot of stuff happens very fast.

Your mind-space isn’t permanently anchored to your body. Consciousness will be mathematically characterized, so it’ll be transferrable, mergeable, generally mess-withable.

People choose their level of involvement in this swirling AI chaos. Most people won’t live at the frenzied pinnacle of tech – it’s too much. There are communities at all different levels of tech.

Also, horrible stuff old and new happens from time to time – bio-terror, nanotech trouble, economic imperialism, religious strife, etc.

For more about this kind of thing, read Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow, David Marusek, or Neal Stephenson.

So, two hundred years from now, gender won’t be much of a limiting factor, except in weird throwback communities. In the meantime, idiots will continue to be idiots, but to a lesser extent the further we go into the future. No one who’s not a retard is standing up for the idea of men being the natural dominators of everything. If it seems like we’re not making progress towards gender equality, it may be because there’s a huge political/economic/media faction that draws money and power from the more unsavoury old-fashioned values, with its stance that anyone who’s concerned about racism or sexism is naïve and pursuing a hidden agenda to undermine American greatness.

Dumb beliefs that aren’t propped up by doctrine eventually fade away, and believing that men or any elite group is inherently superior is dumb, particularly now and into the future as any purportedly superior inherent abilities become less significant in relation to our augmented selves. Across the world, the best lazy, non-specifically targeted way to reduce gender bias is to open up the flow of information, serious and trivial (however you do that).

In the very short run, maybe the U.S. elects a female President. Doubt this will do that much to advance the cause of women, because Hillary Clinton has already been in the public eye for so long – she’s more a specific person than a representative of an entire gender. Is thinking that dumb? I dunno. I do know that her gender and who she is specifically will be cynically used against her. I hope that if elected, she’s less conciliatory and more willing to call out BS than our current President.

In the U.S., there’s currently some attention being paid to rape. Will the media attention to rape make rapey guys less rapey? I dunno. Will increased attention to rape in India reduce instances there? I dunno. A couple general trends may slowly reduce the overall occurrence of sexual coercion and violence. One trend is the increased flow of information and the reduction of privacy – cameras everywhere, everybody willing to talk about everything on social media, victims being more willing to report incidents, better understanding of what does and does not constitute consent. The other trend is the decreasing importance of sex. My baseline is the 70s, when I was hoping to lose my virginity. Sex was a huge deal because everything else sucked – food, TV, no video games, no internet – and people looked good – skinny from jogging and cocaine and food not yet being engineered to be super-irresistible. Today, everybody’s fat, and there’s a lot of other fun stuff to do besides sex.

I think that some forms of sexual misbehaviour – serial adultery, some workplace harassment – will be seen as increasingly old-school as more and more people will take care of their desire for sexual variety via the vast ocean of internet porn. Of course, sexual misbehaviour isn’t only about sex – it’s also about exercising creepy power or a perverse need to be caught and punished – so, unfortunately, that won’t entirely go away. During the past century, sexual behaviour has changed drastically – the types of sex that people regularly engage in, sex outside of marriage, tolerance for different sexual orientations, freely available pornography and sexual information, the decline in prostitution – you could say, cheesily, that sex is out of the closet. And sex that’s not secretive or taboo loses some of its power.

But I could be wrong. According to a 2007 study conducted at two U.S. public universities, one fifth of female college students studied suffered some degree of sexual assault.

95. Many, not all, women tend to have a hard time in science too. Improvements in welfare, access, and attainment continue. Rosalyn Yalow, Nobel Prize in Medicine for 1977, stated:

“We bequeath to you, the next generation, our knowledge but also our problems. While we still live, let us join hands, hearts and minds to work together for their solution so that your world will be better than ours and the world of your children even better.

We cannot expect in the immediate future that all women who seek it will achieve full equality of opportunity. But if women are to start moving towards that goal, we must believe in ourselves or no one else will believe in us; we must match our aspirations with the competence, courage and determination to succeed; and we must feel a personal responsibility to ease the path for those who come afterwards. The world cannot afford the loss of the talents of half its people if we are to solve the many problems which beset us.

If we are to have faith that mankind will survive and thrive on the face of the earth, we must believe that each succeeding generation will be wiser than its progenitors. We transmit to you, the next generation, the total sum of our knowledge. Yours is the responsibility to use it, add to it, and transmit it to your children.

The failure of women to have reached positions of leadership has been due in large part to social and professional discrimination.

The excitement of learning separates youth from old age. As long as you’re learning you’re not old.”

Yalow’s “immediate future” exists here and now.

I observe some tendencies of form: some truth in women choosing non-STEM fields often to explain some of the number differential; decent truth in institutional barriers; a good deal to do with ineffectual programs of action; a great deal to do with lack of female mentors – male mentors appear less effective than women; a catch-22 of desire for more women at the top, need of more female mentors from the top for women at the bottom, but lack of female mentors at the top in proportion to the women at the bottom; some more to do with inflexible tenure-track, differential pay, no childcare on-site, tacit bias for men; and, something never said – too taboo, some small minority of men not liking women; or a variable by implication of the former or on its own, working with them.

Narrowed from the prior question about the situation for women, with some of this in mind, what about the need for opening the arena for women in science more with continued technological and scientific comprehension in the 21st century to succeed in keeping apace with the rapidity of technological change, and scientific discovery and innovation?

I don’t know what will draw more women into STEM fields. However, I think that more needs to be done to draw people of both genders into STEM. (A good step might be calling it “math-science” instead of STEM.) I grew up during the post-Sputnik push to educate Americans in science, followed by the laissez-faire 70s. Now we’re in the era of dumb politics, with large factions backing away from and urging skepticism about science. It shouldn’t take a cold war or a big regular war for the U.S. to be pro-science. If current trends persist, the US will be overtaken by China in terms of percentage of GDP spent on R&D within a decade. Does it matter to the future whether the United States becomes a backwater country? I think so. American politics is having a bad 21^st century so far, but the best values America stands for will be important in tempering the more ominous aspects of the tech wave.

96. In the history of men, we have some exemplars, Plato’s philosophy culminated in the considerations of an ideal society appropriately given the appellation “Kallipolis,” or “Beautiful City.” Few did as much theorization for female opportunity and equality, likely hypothesizing only in light of limitations of power and influence, in the ancient world apart from Plato including the incorporation of equality for women in the philosophical foundations, theoretical institutional operations, and consideration of aptitude and character found in The Republic, there likely exists few, or none, other in ancient times paralleling such depth of female inclusion in society and procurement of education. Bear in mind, he did not intend the discourse of work related to Kallipolis for the purpose of equality for women, but for creation of an ideal society and people with spores devoted to women in the society. Just society equated to just individual; ideal society equated to ideal individual; society – in conceptual equivalence to Platonic Form or Idea of “ideal society” – paralleled the individual. Well-ordered society reflected well-ordered individual – man or woman. Germinations from the dialogue on an ideal society in the seminal work The Republic became the seeds for partial, by the accepted canon of ethics today, female equality, most saliently found in the work The Republic.

We find little in the totality of literature contained within the canon of Western, and Eastern, traditions beyond Plato and the ancient Greeks until the explicit work by the bright light John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) – a utilitarian philosopher rooted in the ideas and work of Berkeley, Hume, and Locke – in the hefty essay On The Subjection of Women (1869) – a probable fresh stirp outcropping from the writing of his wife Harriet Taylor Mill’s essay, The Enfranchisement of Women (1851), because the Mills – including some by their daughter Helen – co-authored On the Subjection of Women, where the opening paragraph considers the issue of male & female relations and social institutions from the discerning, acute, and perceptive gaze of the Mills in preparation of probably one of the most complete disquisitions on women and their status in society in their day – one can find these throughout the prolonged essay:

“The object of this Essay is to explain as clearly as I am able, the grounds of an opinion which I have held from the very earliest period when I had formed any opinions at all on social or political matters, and which, instead of being weakened or modified, has been constantly growing stronger by the progress of reflection and the experience of life: That the principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes—the legal subordination of one sex to the other—is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; and that it ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other.” [Mill, J.M. 1869]

Why little in the way of acknowledgement in history for women other than in some great few jewels? How can men best assist women – and by implication everyone in sum – flourish?

History hasn’t been very nice to anybody. About 107 billion humans have ever lived, and the vast majority of these had miserable lives, regardless of sex. Global life expectancy didn’t reach 50 until the 1960s and didn’t reach 60 until about 1980. We live like kings and queens compared to people of a century ago, and we live wretched lives compared to people a century from now. Standards of liberty go roughly hand-in-hand with standards of living. As humanity has gained control over the world, larger segments of the population have gained some relief from misery. I expect the future to be richer, to have more life-improving tech, and to be more inclusive.

Regressive forces in politics want to maintain gender and racial hierarchies to some extent. These efforts often masquerade as equal treatment for all, when in fact, treatment isn’t equal. So people get pissed, and they protest, and they point out inequalities and hypocrisy. Bringing unfairness to the public’s attention seems to be the way to get things done. One sign of progress is that arguments for inherent inequality between genders or among races are increasingly unacceptable. And such arguments should be. I have a saying (which has failed to impress anyone) that the world’s smartest rabbit is still a rabbit. By figuring out how to overcome human limitations, we can figure out how to overcome individual limitations.

97. In the timeline of women, on setting examples, instances arise of historical female virtuosity in spite of different circumstances for women en masse, in the commemorated annals of geniuses such as Hypatia of Alexandria, Elizabeth Anscombe, Hannah Arendt, Margaret Atwood, Simone de Beauvoir, Hildegard von Bingen, Marie Curie, Lady Anne Conway, Sarah Margaret Fuller, Susan Haack, Ayn Rand, Dame Mary Warnock, Mary Wollstonecraft, Betty Friedan, Marilyn vos Savant (greatest living philosopher of the everyday – opining), Joanne Rowling (“J.K. Rowling”/”Robert Galbraith”), and innumerable others, one need not agree with their multitudinous productions, but ought to welcome the attainments as genuine supplements to the cerebral arsenal of the erudite world.

Most of these relate in the academic, philosophical, intellectual partition of discourse on the sexes, more exist in relation to the many types of sheer brave accomplishments and firsts for women: Élisabeth Thible (First woman to ride in hot air balloon), Sophie Blanchard (First woman to pilot hot air balloon), Raymonde de Laroche (First woman to receive pilot’s license), Lilian Bland (First woman to design, build, and fly an aircraft), Amelia Earhart (Not long after Charles Lindbergh – one could state Albert Read before either Lindbergh or Earhart, first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean), Sabiha Gökçen (First woman to fly fighter plane into combat), Jacqueline Cochran (First woman to break sound barrier), Jerrie Mock (First woman to fly solo around the world), Svetlana Savitskaya (First woman to walk in space), Eileen Collins (First female space shuttle pilot), and so on. Not enough time to enter into full listing and description – a compendium must suffice for now.

Even a single example, in depth, from this list of female bright lights in the human narrative, Marie Curie discoverer of the 88th element known as Radium, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911), having an element named after her: curium, and someone of potential for higher emotional impact based on the recent nature – relative to the timeline from Hypatia to the present – of the achievements by Curie. Indeed, she lived concurrent with the most often quoted, and misquoted, of geniuses, Albert Einstein. No introduction or explanation needed for his accomplishments of unification and foundational contributions to physics, cosmology, and insights into reality in general. However, we do not hear much of Marie Curie off the top of our minds; even so, she may arise after some time to wonder and ponder on the cases of female genius.

When examining with thorough care the deep historical roots of the situation for women up to the modern era in the world of pedagogy, or even with a mild skim through a history text, within arguably the most important societal and cultural institution, outside of raw technological change, for the influence of individuals and collectives in society, Academia holds the most sway in refurbishing the old housing of society with new frameworks for understanding the world and the relation of human beings within, and to, that new apprehension of the world.

Some modern days of recognition such as International Women’s Day, Women’s Equality Day, and Women’s History Month do some good in continual recognition from positive reflection on them. As per the previous question, most history education tends to teach male exemplars in each field while lacking the representation of women in such fields of endeavour. History would appear to work on the shoulders of men, European men. No exemplars in proportion to men can set tacit tones through education for the youth and in turn the upcoming generation. What could shift the focus, perspective, and conversation related to female exemplars in history?

Compared to men, a much smaller fraction of women have been highly visible to history. Of course, the fraction of men who are visible to history is already tiny. The vast majority of the more than 100 billion humans who have ever lived have disappeared without a trace of individual presence and are remembered only as tiny constituents of plagues or wars or statistical trends. Now, of course, everyone produces an extensive individual digital record, and the recording of our lives will only grow more thorough. (But individuals may become invisible within a deluge of information rather than a trickle.)

History is usually learned from an event- and trend-based perspective – battles, leaders, dates, economic and demographic forces. But there’s another way – the slice-of-life approach – trying to reconstruct how people lived their daily lives and thought their daily thoughts. This puts the women back into history and provides a counter-narrative to the big events POV. Most of our lives are conducted around daily tasks, not historic events. When we see history on TV or in a movie, it’s usually people’s stories, not dry recitations of facts.

In Women’s Studies classes and by watching my daughter study history, I’ve learned that traditionally womanly arts are often assumed to be second-tier – mundane, decorative, part of the background – what Betty Draper does, to her frustration, as compared to what Don Draper does. And even as Mad Men points out this dynamic, it still screws over Betty, making her seem unpleasant compared to Don, whom we root for even as he wrecks his life.

We’re lucky to live in an era of increasingly immersive media that offers more opportunity to build complete worlds, including the worlds of the past. But even with this ability, virtual worlds can be shitty for women – for example, the Grand Theft Auto series is brutal to women. The video game industry remains biased towards traditionally male action stories because they’re fun, they sell, and they’re easier to make compelling. Eventually, video games and immersive entertainment will learn how to embrace more of human experience. The subtlety’s not there yet.

(My thinking about women’s issues isn’t ultra-sophisticated. But I took women’s studies in college and belonged to a pro-feminist group called 100 Men Against Violence Against Women. On the other hand, I wrote for The Man Show. (It wasn’t anti-women – it made fun of men’s attitudes about women – but was widely misunderstood because it tried to have it both ways – making fun of men and celebrating what men like. And the fifth season, after Adam and Jimmy and the other writers and I left, was pretty mean and misogynist.))

98. Ethics exists beyond issues of the sexes. Issues of global concern. Ongoing problems needing comprehensive solutions such as differing ethnic, ideological, linguistic, national, and religious groups converging on common goals for viable and long-term human relations in a globalized world scarce in resources without any land-based frontiers for further expansion and exploitation, UN international diplomatic resolutions for common initiatives such as humanitarian initiatives through General Assembly Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), United Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Develop Programme (UNDP), World Food Programme (WFP), Food And Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Human Populations Settlement Programme (UN-HABITAT), Interagency Standing Committee (IASC), and issues of UN humanitarian thematic import such as demining, early warning and disaster detection, the merger of theories of the grandest magnitude (e.g., general and special relativity) and the most minute (e.g., quantum mechanics), medical issues such as Malaria, Cancer, and new outbreaks of Ebola, nuclear waste and fossil fuel emissions, severe practices of infibulation, clitoridectomy, or excision among the varied, creative means of female – and male – genital mutilation based in socio-cultural and religious practices, stabilization of human population growth prior to exceeding the planet’s present and future supportive capacity for humans, reduction of religious and national extremism, continuous efforts of conservation of cultural and biological diversity, energy production, distribution, and sustainability, economic sustainability, provision of basic necessities of clean water, food, and shelter, IAEA and other organizations’ work for reduction and eventual elimination of nuclear armaments, culture wars over certainty in ethics on no evidence (faith-based ethics) and lack of certainty in morality because of too much data while lacking a coherent framework for action (aforementioned bland multiculturalism transformed into prescription of cultural/ethical relativism), acidification of the oceans, problems of corruption, continued annexation of land, issues of international justice handled by such organs as the International Court of Justice, introduction of rapid acceleration of technological capabilities while adapting to the upheavals following in its wake, issues of drug and human trafficking, other serious problems of children and armed conflict including child soldiers, terrorist activity, education of new generations linked to new technological and informational access, smooth integration of national economies into a global economy for increased trade and prosperity, and the list appears endless – and growing.

If collated, they form one question: “How best to solve problems in civil society?”

Main issue, all subordinate queries and comprehensive, coherent solutions require sacrifice. You might ask, “Cui bono?” (“Who benefits?”) Answer: all in sum. Problem: few feel the need to sacrifice past the superficial. Some Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram protestations to represent themselves as just people while not behaving in the real world as just people. Hashtags and celebrity speeches help in outreach and advertisement, but we need long-term, pragmatic solutions to coincide with them more. Nothing hyperbolic to disturb healthy human societies, but reasonable and relatively rapid transitions into sustainable solutions. You have stated positive trajectories by thinking about the future. You talked of some, but not all. What about these collection of problems and the growing list?

I believe the best instrument of change is information. Informed people more readily disbelieve stupid shit. Widespread ignorance and distrust of well-substantiated facts are usually signs of somebody getting away with something.

We know society is trending in an egalitarian direction. Trends towards equality are in a race with technology remaking society. For me, the question becomes, “How many lives and generations will be spent in misery before social and tech trends make things better and/or weird?”

The happy possible eventual situation is that tech creates a utopia in which all people get what they want. The unhappy possible eventuality is that tech debunks the importance or centrality of humanity, and humans are afterthoughts – the stepchildren of the future – being taken care of but not really having their concerns addressed because their level of existence isn’t taken seriously by posthumans. (And of course there’s the possibility that AI gets out of hand, eats everything and craps out robots. Let’s try to avoid that.)

Tech will solve some huge problems. One of the biggest is the steadily growing population. People who have a shot at technical, earthly immortality (50 to 80 years from now) will reproduce less. When transferrable consciousness becomes commonplace (120 to 150 years from now), posthuman people may not reproduce at all (though traditional human enclaves will still spit out a steady stream of kids). The uncoupling of individual consciousness from the body it was born into solves a bunch of, perhaps most, current problems and anticipated problems – crowding, food, pollution, global warming – by allowing people to live in ways that leave less of a footprint. (Not that their choices will be made for purely ecological concerns. People will always follow their own interests, and posthuman people will choose a variety of non-fleshy containers (200 years from now) because virtual or semi-robotic containers will be cheaper, more convenient, more versatile and exciting.)

But our current problems will be largely replaced by fantastically weird problems. Virtual people will be subject to virtual attacks and virtual disease. Agglomerations of consciousness may become bad actors. People may sic nanotech swarms on each other. You can find all this stuff in good near-future science fiction. William Gibson’s new novel, The Peripheral, which takes place about 20 years and 90 years from now, can serve as a good, fun intro to the future. In it, some impossible stuff happens, but it’s the possible stuff that’s interesting and scary. There are websites devoted to the future in a very non-la-de-dah way. Look at http://io9.com/ and http://boingboing.net/ – they’re entertaining and informative.

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2023-01-28

Rick G. Rosner: Giga Society, Member; Mega Society, Member & ex-Editor (1991-97); and Writer (Part Nine)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/12/08

ABSTRACT

Part nine of eleven, comprehensive interview with Rick G. Rosner. Giga Society member, ex-editor for Mega Society (1991-97), and writer. He discusses the following subject-matter: individual-based/subjective, universe-based/objective, and collective-based ethics, Social Contract Theory of Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651), John Locke (Second Treatise of Government, 1689), Jean Jacques-Rousseau, (The Social Contract, 1762), Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, 1851), John Rawls (Theory of Justice, 1971), David Gauthiers (Morals By Agreement, 1986), and Philip Pettit (Republicanism, 1997), with discussion on social ethics in essence “boiling down” to the Golden Rule; ethics in journalism with respect to acquisition, collation, and reportage, definition of a “real” journalist, Dr. Steven J. Pinker on the improved conditions for humans, and informational ethics in relation to sociocultural trends; motivation of intellectuals for the good, troubles in academia with description of differing cultural/ethical systems transformed into prescription of cultural/ethical relativism – no scale to ethics or cultures, and things for intellectuals to do in the immediate for the good; Academia’s two dominant ideological strains of “bland multiculturalism” and “ethical relativism,” and reference back to thinking about the future; mobilization of intellectuals for the good in the long-term; possible prevention of this good; and thoughts on ethics of focus on one person with reflection on the personal desire for fame.

Keywords: collective, ethics, fame, Giga Society, good, informational cosmology, informational ethics, intellectuals, journalism, Mega Society, mind-space, objective, Rick G. Rosner, subjective, writer.

89. Ethics at the individual-based/subjective (C_n^E) scale relates to the universe-based/objective scale (C^E). Everything might appear abstract. Not so, informational ethics would clarify social ethics too.

Social ethics equates to collective-based ethics. A superset of C_n^E. A group of individuals with different, similar, or the same ethics within each possible superset. All of this would provide new clarification of the terminology in ethics.

Universe-based ethics means objective; collective-based ethics means universal; individual-based means subjective. More vogue ethics relate to social context and universal ethics such as Social Contract Theory of Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651), John Locke (Second Treatise of Government, 1689), Jean Jacques-Rousseau, (The Social Contract, 1762), Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, 1851), John Rawls (Theory of Justice, 1971), David Gauthiers (Morals By Agreement, 1986), and Philip Pettit (Republicanism, 1997).

Collectives and individuals can exist out of sync with the greatest possible criterion for ethics (C^E) in informational ethics. They might have greater or lesser correspondence in actions and choices with C^E, and, therefore, more moral or immoral behavior. Degree of moral and immoral dependent upon correspondence with C^E.

Informational ethics clarifies the variant and invariant aspects of ethics. A comprehensive and coherent consideration of ethics. Social ethics pertains to the many-valued middle between individual-based/subjective and universe-based/objective ethics.

A more prosaic consideration of this issue with one question: what equates to the right action in the immediate social context?

I suppose that informational ethics in a social context boils down to something like the golden rule – treat others how you’d want to be treated. Often, a tacit or explicitly stated argument for the inconsiderate treatment of others is that the others don’t have fully developed consciousness – they’re dumb or animal-like. However, if consciousness is a technical-not-mystical thing that’s commonly found in systems with wide-angle information-sharing, then you can assume that you can find consciousness in many of the places you’d suspect you could find it – in other people, for instance, and in animals with decent-sized brains.

In an even smaller nutshell – don’t break stuff. That is, don’t unnecessarily destroy things that may be valued by other conscious beings.

But there’s a huge caveat to all of this. Under informational cosmology, consciousness is a not-too-hard-to-achieve technical phenomenon which arises frequently in the universe. In terms of time and space as we experience it, it’s a rare thing – it shows up on this planet, and say, in the closest other instance, it emerged 32 light years (and 700 million years ago) on some other planet – but in terms of sheer numbers, it probably shows up a bunch. Figure our universe creates 10^20 habitable planets per every 20 billion years, and conscious life arises on one half of one percent of such planets. This would mean that conscious life arises somewhere in the universe an average of nearly once a second.

Conscious life could be, in terms of the sheer number of times it arises, fantastically common. Does that make it less magical? Not necessarily, in that consciousness may be linked to the existence of everything. Not that rocks and trees and Gaia are individually conscious, but that matter is information that’s part of the mind/information-space of the (conscious) universe itself. At the same time, our individual consciousnesses are rough-grained and piddly compared to a universe-sized consciousness. And when an individual consciousness ends, the good and bad things experienced within that consciousness may be completely erased. When a factory-farmed pig leads a thoroughly miserable life and then is killed, there’s no vessel in which the pig’s misery lives on. So does the pig’s misery ultimately matter? Do the good and bad we experience ultimately matter? We just don’t know yet.

We can imagine a set of all possible moments in a mind/information space (with informational cosmology suggesting that such moments are the only context in which things can exist). There are strong probabilistic linkages among such moments, experienced as individual consciousnesses’ world-lines. Among animals and primitive naturally arising civilizations, death means the end of a world-line. But in more advanced civilizations, there can be technical resurrection and virtual creation – moments of consciousness and world-lines can be artificially created. So death may not exactly be Game Over. (Though it still may be Game Over. What are the odds that some civilization will resurrect virtual pigs in cyberspace?) Given the possibility of artificial resurrection, we can’t rule out the possibility that what’s experienced in a world-line has some significance beyond that world-line. There’s the obvious significance of the good you do in the world lasting beyond your death. And there’s the yet-to-be-explored probabilistic math of how mind-space moments relate to each other beyond the natural moment-to-moment linking along world-lines. Looking into this will be complicated and never-ending. In the meantime, try not to be a dick.

90. Ethics appears more in the fore of the public conversation – for the better. I do not know the precise state of journalism, but I do have many suspicions. Suspicions with respect to acquisition, collation, and reportage from popular news venues. Most venues seem trivial, content with shameless hyperbole and political bias, celebrity gossip, inaccuracies or, worse yet, ignorant and callous; ignorance and a hard edge become the harvesting ground for cynical charlatans, liars, mountebanks, swindlers, and sophists. A phenomena hastened by continuous motion into a service economy. How else for their jobs to persist? They malignantly grow on ignorance, unconcern for others, and non-production – a modicum of wellbeing from solace at times, but not much else.

Possible amusement in consideration of the reality, but more distress because of the deleterious effect on popular discourse. I quote Malcolm X, “The media is the most powerful entity on earth… they control the minds of the masses.” We should respect media more. Media should conduct themselves with more wisdom. Not an easy task. It becomes a ubiquitous pattern of inaccurate representation. Not aimed at reportage with high correspondence to objective truth (which exists – sorry to burst bubbles), but in apparent intent to create an image of how things can seem true.

A real journalist seems demonized, wrongly – but expectedly, into obscurity. What do I mean by “real”? “Real” lives next door to “true.” A journalist collects, collates, and summarily reports. Within this framework, a “real journalist” collects, collates, and summarily reports the truth. One might add – for explicit clarity, “…without obfuscation, lies, leniencies, allegiances, and onward in the list of foul behaviour in the name of public (or more appropriately self-) service.” I write in such frank tones because of the immense responsibilities and duties concomitant with roles in the media – at all levels, especially for journalists.

According to Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, Dr. Steven J. Pinker, we live in the most peaceful times of humankind, which he described at length in The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined (2011). Other troubles exist and persist (more later).

Without common diversionary tactics or redirecting attention from particular groups, even excuses for infliction of suffering upon other human beings, terrorist activity from fundamentalist national and religious groups, killing without trial in violation of international human rights, and law, by some countries, organizations, and individuals, and variegated forms of subjection, general thralldom, or objectification of women depending on the history, nation, culture, context, people, and motivations, ethics emerges in each of these particulars and their innumerable interactions – acknowledging far more numerous other instances without explicit statement, how does an information-based perspective in ethics relate to sociocultural trends?

In addition to the long-term trend of science moving humanity away from the center of the universe, there’s a long-term social trend of admitting that an increasingly large sphere of people deserve civil rights, with an implied acknowledgment that different groups – women, minorities, LGBT people – think and feel on a par with members of the most empowered class. Informational cosmology will reinforce that process. It will lead to the mathematization of consciousness, and by 2050 or so, we’ll be able to estimate the size of thinking systems. (We’ll have a number or pair of numbers which will reflect the size of an information-space.)

Having a numerical idea of the size of thinking systems and mathematical models of such systems will inform ethical questions. Is it wrong to make a chicken, with its mind-space of size X, suffer? What about a cow? A whale? A robot companion? Is it cruel to deprive someone of his AI brain booster, reducing the size of his mind-space by two-thirds? Should a copy of a deceased person’s mind-space, downloaded with 92% accuracy while he was still alive, have legal rights? Should it continue to receive a pension? Should it be able to vote? Should it be able to own things? Should video games be allowed to incorporate AIs which think and feel? How much privacy should be given to individuals’ mind-spaces? Who should be allowed to have cyber-immortality? Should reengineering of criminals’ mental landscapes to remove criminal tendencies replace punishment?

All these and many more questions about AIs and boosted brains are familiar to anyone who’s interested in science fiction. Informational cosmology will help clarify what thinking and consciousness are and will encourage and facilitate the creation of artificial and add-on thinking systems.

Our world will have more and more embedded computing devices – people (who watch TED talks) are calling it “the internet of things,” “ubiquitous computing,” “the world waking up.” Many of these devices will be of sufficient complexity that they can be said to think, which will raise a zillion new questions of ethics and etiquette. And we won’t have time to adequately answer these questions before new stuff comes along. We’ll be playing catch-up, at least until someone develops MannersMaster, an AI specialist system brain add-on. “MannersMaster has manners, so you don’t have to! Order now, and we’ll include MannersMaster Junior, absolutely free!”

I imagine a science-fiction story in which every animal above a certain level of complexity has had its intelligence boosted. Their lives become a mix of their old ways of being and new behaviors prompted by their expanded cognition. When one animal kills another, the killer is obligated to absorb and incorporate the life experience – the mental record – of the animal it’s killing. (This is also how vampires should work. Nanobots, injected via the vampire’s bite, map the victim’s brain. The victim lives on, along with a chorus of other victims, in the vampire’s brain.) I don’t imagine this will really happen – it’s just fun to think about. However, eventually we’ll have dogs and cats that live for 40 years and have the intelligence of kindergarteners (and little articulated paws for posting their selfies on Instagram for Pets).

91. You spoke in another venue for motivating intellectuals into a force for good. Difficulties exist in mobilization of intellectuals for the good. Formal, mainstream intellectuals, i.e. majority of Academia, seem to have two dominant ideological strains: bland multiculturalism and moral relativism. A broad conceptualization would depict these two in generalized, merged terms: difference in cultural/ethical systems transformed into prescription of cultural/ethical relativism – no scale to ethics or cultures. Ethics becomes a human construction; in contradistinction to this ubiquitous academic position, informational ethics necessitates otherwise – described earlier.

Together, these have crippled effective ethical calculations and implementations in and from the Academy in many instances. Organizations external to Academia could form, organize, strategize, and implement various plans of action to counteract these rather negative developments. Trouble with this, the majority of funding, support, and advertisement goes towards mainstream academics.

If we wish to create a force of good from intellectuals, in and out of the ivory tower, we might need to erase or modify these ideological programs based on their failure to intake large quantities of ethically relevant information and compute this into effective action to solve problems inside and outside the university system. I do not state this with demeaning any particular person or group.

Either through tacit approval or passive negligence, all – interviewer included – have failed to combat the morally crippling effects of these two ideological strains in conjunction. Intellectuals have more foundational work to complete in this light. What can intellectuals begin to do in the immediate as a force for good?

I’ll say again that people need to think about the changes the future will bring. The future will be increasingly focused on thinking, computing, and sharing information. It could be helpful to start thinking about the risks and benefits of this kind of future before it arrives.

Here’s how we might think about and prepare for the future:

If you’re in the arts, make stories set in the near-future. Picturing the near-future is hard, because it doesn’t exist yet, and it has a lot of moving parts. But people will love you for taking on the future. Look at Star Trek – it’s been around for 48 years, has spawned a bunch of series and movies, and is universally known and widely beloved, and it does a half-assed job at best of presenting the future.

Acquire scientific and technical literacy. The future’s not gonna get less filled with high-tech geegaws. Everybody should understand this stuff, so we can distinguish reasonable approximations of the truth from nonsense and don’t get fooled by bad actors – sleazy corporations, sneaky government programs – hiding behind lies. C’mon – if you can understand the math of fantasy football, you can track trends in tech.

Sharpen and systematize our predictions of the future. We do a lot of predicting of election and sports results. We don’t do much predicting of the future in general. We use Moore’s Laws to determine how small and cheap and powerful our devices will become. Futurists like Ray Kurzweil have their timelines full of predictions. But we don’t have a good overall consensus landscape of how the future might unfold. A consensus landscape would of course be wrong about a bunch of things, maybe most things, but at least it would give us practice at thinking about and getting ahead of possible issues. We’re doing a crap job of addressing global warming. Idiots and shysters are still arguing that doing anything about it is playing into some liberal, big-government scam, and those arguments seem as if they’ll continue for years to come, even as increasingly obvious effects become apparent. What will happen if that kind of paralysis-by-bullshit is allowed to play out with a faster-moving problem?

Call out cynical stupidity and anti-scientific bias in the media. News channels are full of false balance or false equivalence, with a sensible argument on one side and idiots spouting bullshit on the other, presented as equal in merit. We should be less afraid to call stupidity stupid.

If we don’t do the work of visualizing the future, it will be built for us in ways that will be less to our liking.

92. What about the long-term? How can those with particular gifts and talents contribute to society?

John Maynard Keynes said, “In the long run we are all dead.” The era of people with exceptional natural talents may be, in the not so long run, over. In some important ways, we’re living at the beginning of the end of the world. It’s premature to call this the end of human civilization and the beginning of post-human civilization, but it’s not that premature. The science fiction future is coming. It won’t be much about Mars colonies and gyrocopters. The future will be the rise of computation, with everyone being nodes in a network of stuff that thinks.

Natural talents won’t translate directly into the world of pervasive computing. The new talented might be people who figure out the most effective ways to team up or merge with technology. The most effective talents change from era to era. My friend Lance Richlin, who’s skilled in Old Masters-style painting and who painted the portrait of me which begins each part of this interview, scrambles to make a living. Four hundred years ago, his painting skill would have made him wildly successful and highly renowned. Andy Warhol was a talented illustrator, but he found great success in putting aside illustration to concentrate on the role of celebrity in pop culture. Jeff Koons is an artist-technologist, developing novel high-tech methods to create works of kitsch which acquire grace and grandeur through their sheer size and precision.

In the long run, contributions to society will come from people who find and create creative niches in the computational world. Old niches will remain for traditional artists, writers, performers, but many more new niches will open up as the world becomes more saturated with cheap computing. There will be room and need for both creators and artistic interpreters of computation-intensive technology. So, once again, my advice is to stay current on technology. And don’t be afraid to do stupid stuff. – powerful technology brings with it powerful frivolity, which often turns out to have seriously transformative effects – Twitter and other social media as tools against political repression, for instance.

93. Insofar as ethics concerns individuals’ focus on one person, this collective drain of attentional, emotional, and sometimes intellectual resources might work for good or bad, which relates to an astonishing and relatively pervasive celebrity culture devoid of a single scintilla of responsibility – even with a lack of basic knowledge about risks associated with the potential for creation of an idol without grounds. You comment on this celebrity culture within some of the discussion for prior parts of the interview.

Most people do not deserve such status because most do not earn it. Further, most fail to heed risks and steward responsibilities implicated within increased attention, admiration, and general expenditure of collective time and resources on them. Entrusted power means privilege; privilege implies responsibility; responsibility proportional to privilege, and therefore responsibility proportional to entrusted power.

In point of fact, you desire fame – have for decades. You spend lots of time in this pursuit. As noted, responsibilities and risks come with it. Based on the served quotation of Eugene Wigner from me and your return with the quote of Albert Einstein, I return the ball to you with a minor note from Ideas and Opinions (1954) by Einstein in print:

“The cult of individuals is always, in my view, unjustified. To be sure, nature distributes her gifts unevenly among her children. But there are plenty of well-endowed, thank God, and I am firmly convinced that most of them live quiet, unobstrusive lives. It strikes me as unfair, and even in bad taste, to select a few of them for boundless admiration, attributing superhuman powers of mind and character to them. This has been my fate, and the contrast between the popular estimate of my powers and achievements and the reality is simply grotesque.” (Einstein, 1954)

I observe near-universal tendencies in others and yourself. What do people want in life? Lots of things. You want to be understood, liked, and respected – in no particular order. Why the desire for fame – even glory? Does this not appear proud or hubristic?

I agree with Einstein that the structure of fame rests on a rotten foundation, since every characteristic on which fame can be based is the result of luck, even traits that don’t seem like special gifts, such as persistence or conscientiousness. But fame being based on luck doesn’t imply a moral prohibition against trying to become famous. Many famous people who complain about fame probably secretly or not-so-secretly enjoy its benefits.

Starting when I was young, I wanted fame for at least three reasons – respect, understanding, and a girlfriend. I was nerdy at a time when nerdy wasn’t at all cute. I sometimes felt picked-on. Whenever allowed, I stayed inside at recess and read. From constant reading and looking at Mad magazine and National Lampoon and accidentally being exposed to a book of Victorian pornographic writing(and having cute third- and fourth-grade teachers), I became aware of women’s sexual desirability by age nine, which is way too young to do anything about it, especially when you’re a geek.

So I wanted to be famous. I didn’t want to be picked-on, and I wanted a girlfriend. I figured that my shot at recognition would be through figuring out the universe.

I’ve always been a little weird. Not so much eccentric-for-attention (though I do like attention) but rather, having my own ways of doing things which make sense to me but seem nuts to everyone else – taking 70 pills a day, going to the gym 5 times a day, having a OCDish preference for turning clockwise. Always figured if I were famous my quirks would be understood and perhaps accepted. Instead of “What’s up with that weirdo?” it’d be “Hey, there’s that guy who does that stuff.”

I’ve been pretty successful without being famous. Been married for nearly 24 years. Am a parent of a lovely daughter. Have been a TV writer for more than 25 years, contributing to 2,500 hours of network television and being nominated for six Writers Guild Awards and an Emmy. Am generally thought of by people who know me as not especially a prick or a douche.

I’m past the point of wanting celebrity in order to get a girlfriend. But I still want to be famous. Have had brushes with fame – was in an Errol Morris documentary, have been in three TV pilots which, like most pilots, didn’t go anywhere, occasionally get to be in a news article. None of these has caused me to reach a self-sustaining level of fame, where you get to stay famous by virtue of being famous.

But now, I kind of really want/need to be famous. I lost my longest-lasting, best TV-writing job a few months ago and am screwed when it comes to (easily) getting more TV work (even though I’m a proven writer). Met with an agent at a big agency. He said that he can’t represent me unless I have a spec sitcom pilot. But if I take a couple months and write a spec pilot, all that would do, if the agent indeed would rep me, would be to get my stuff into a stack of 200 or so submissions, out of which 1 or 2 percent of the submitters might be hired. I want to stand out from the hundreds of other submitters, and to do that, it would be helpful to have fame. (If I did write a spec pilot, it’d be about a weird genius dad with a normal family who thinks he’s half-an-idiot. Write what you know.)

Genius is very popular on TV right now – two flavors of Sherlock Holmes, The Big Bang Theory, the team of super-geniuses on Scorpion, the genius forensic techs and profilers on every murder show. CBS alone must have more than a dozen actors playing geniuses. So I want to yell, “Yo! Over here, CBS – a real person who’s gotten dozens of highest-ever scores on IQ tests, who has a theory of the universe that might not suck, who knows all the issues and behaviors associated with being a weird-ass brainiac, and who’s written more TV than all but 60 or 80 people in the city of Los Angeles.”

It’s not unreasonable for me to want recognition. You may have noticed that reality TV has made dozens and dozens and dozens of horrible people famous. At least my story is interesting. I’m not some Botox addict getting in a slap-fight at a wine-tasting. (But give me a chance – I’ll do that.) Marilyn Savant has had a nice 30-year career based on having the world’s highest IQ. My scores are higher than hers.

And let’s say my theory of the universe is at least partially correct. It could lead to big steps forward in our understanding of the world and our place in it. It could help us figure out how to make our brains work better. If some fame draws some attention to the theory, then good.

If you’ve slogged through all of the interview up to this point, you should be able to tell I’m not a BSer. I’ve spent decades trying to figure out how the universe works (when I haven’t been writing Kardashian jokes), and I’ve come up with some stuff that I think merits some attention. Yeah, there’s some “Hey – looka me!” in my fame-seeking. But, after working on a theory for 33 ½ years and having had a bunch of ridiculous misadventures, it doesn’t make me a douche to want people to check out my stuff.

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2023-01-28

Rick G. Rosner: Giga Society, Member; Mega Society, Member & ex-Editor (1991-97); and Writer (Part Eight)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/12/01

ABSTRACT

Part eight of eleven, comprehensive interview with Rick G. Rosner. Giga Society member, ex-editor for Mega Society (1991-97), and writer. He discusses the following subject-matter: fundaments of universe in bits or links, Pierre-Simon Marquis de Laplace and Napoleon Bonaparte’s famous conversation, axiology, aesthetics, ethics, metaethics, comparative/descriptive ethics, applied ethics, normative ethics, moral psychology, moral truth, moral antirealism with Gorgias, Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietszche, and The Will to Power, moral realism, and their concomitant sets and subsets, ethic’s cataloguing with “Deontological,” “Teleological,” and “Virtue,” and an information-based perspective of these; a framework with concepts for theoretical considerations about the existence of free will at the global and local scales in addition to the reflection in informational cosmology; revision of the prior formalisms to discuss informational cosmology and informational ethics; definition of the key terms “informed will” and “targeted thinking” with Canadian Oxford Dictionary (2^nd Edition) descriptions of “informed,” “will,” “targeted,” and “thinking”; and informed will and targeted thinking in relation to everyday and outlier morality with examples from recent reading.

Keywords: axiology, aesthetics, Deontological, ethics, comparative/descriptive ethics, applied ethics, Friedrich Nietszche, Giga Society, Gorgias, informational cosmology, informed will, Mega Society, metaethics, moral antirealism, moral realism, moral psychology, moral truth, Napoleon Bonaparte, normative ethics, Pierre-Simon Marquis de Laplace, Rick G. Rosner, Søren Kierkegaard, targeted thinking, Teleological, universe, Virtue, writer.

84. Fundaments of universe deals with bits or links – information. Units of sufficient individuation of universe with self-consistency and information processing – and by implication complexity – might not implicate ethics. No explicit connection there; a possible tacit linkage.

Akin to Pierre-Simon Marquis de Laplace’s – likely apocryphal – determinist universe statement to Napoleon Bonaparte, in Bonaparte’s question about God in the equations of LaPlace, LaPlace said, “Je n’avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là,” or in the English translation of the statement, he said, “I had no need for that hypothesis.”

An information-based view of processing reflects a meaningless, clockwork mechanism conceptually synonymous with the Laplacian determinate – or even indeterminate, meaningless quantum – world with everything lacking inherent, even derived, moral truths.

Axiologists might enlighten the shroud of these problems. Indeed, information-based ethics might implicate ethics with some background and thought.

Axiologists study value. Value divided into aesthetics and ethics. Aesthetics studies beauty. Ethics studies moral conduct. In general agreement among ethical axiologists, ethics splits five ways: metaethics, comparative/descriptive ethics, applied ethics, normative ethics, and moral psychology.

Metaethics studies nature of moral theories and judgments. Descriptive ethics studies beliefs about morality. Applied ethics studies professional and public affairs related to morality. Normative ethics studies ethics in practice. Moral psychology studies the nature and development of moral agency.

Ethics begins with one basic metaethical query, “Do moral truths exist?” Without such a question and answer, why bother arguing for moral truths and, therefore, ethics? A field needs content; that question with an answer gives it.

Ethics derives further from answers to the fundamental metaethical question. One answer negates moral truths; another affirms them. If one answers, “No,” moral truths do not exist; if one answers, “Yes,” moral truths exist. Former called antirealist (“No”); latter called realist (“Yes”). Each provides complete conceptual and functional negation or affirmation – “No” and “Yes,” respectively. “Conceptual” means “in theory.” “Functional” means “in practice.”

One could answer with “probability,” “undecidability,” or “meaningless.” If “probability,” this implies conceptual and functional affirmative, but not to the degree of “Yes”; if “undecidable,” this implies functional negation; if “meaningless,” this implies conceptual and functional negation, but not to the explicit degree of “No.”

Of course, a thought, behavior, and consequences of thoughts and behavior might have objective moral content in spite of an individual respondent’s answer.

“Probability” argues for moral truths in thoughts about and behavior with respect to them. “Undecidability” answer argues for present unknowability of moral truths in thought and, therefore, lack of explicit ethical dimension to behavior. “Meaningless” answer argues unknown moral truths with permanent conceptual unknown and functional negation status. This leaves definite negation and definite affirmation.

Definite negation of moral truth includes one ethics set: nihilism. Greek sophist Gorgias (485 BCE-380 BCE) equates to the most stated ancient exemplar of moral antirealism. Some argue for Socrates (469 BCE-399 BCE) as a nihilist based on the Method of Elenchus or the method of questioning. A modern instance in the person of Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855).

With another common instance adumbrated in the writing of Friedrich Nietszche (1844-1900), he writes in The Will to Power (1901), “I describe what is coming, what can no longer come differently: the advent of nihilism.” In short, exemplars (Gorgias and Kirkegaard) and ideological forecasters (Nietzsche) lived in history. Not something of easy dismissal.

Nihilism argues nothing contains intrinsic moral value. Troubles relate to antirealism. It denies truth. Truth intersects with logic. Logic cannot apply here. No truth to prove or disprove with respect to internal validity of arguments. No objective or subjective truth. Same for ethics. Moral antirealists have the same problem. No objective or subjective moral truth.

If universe lacks truth – and by implication moral truth, then thoughts, behaviors, and their consequences lack inherent immoral status. If logic implies truth, and if moral realism implies moral truths, then logic applies to moral truths, and therefore logic can examine truth or falsity of moral arguments.

Let’s work through the difficult circumstance in pragmatic terms: if one 1) kidnaps and tortures a young girl/boy, 2) steals a cookie, or 3) saves a life from collision with a New York taxi driver, the moral antirealist would consider these equivalent in their empty state with respect to moral content.

They have distinguishing factual content, but equivalent moral content. Different variables, associations, and likely outcomes. Even so, no distinction among them in the calculation because no distinguishing moral value among “1),” “2),” or “3.” Therefore, one cannot calculate among these except to equate them in null moral terms and calculate their null value.

No need for ethics in the first place with such a position. Why bother arguing over ethics? Moral antirealism provides zero content for the discipline. In a way, the empty set of ethics. A near-complete analogue.

A definite affirmation of moral truth includes many ethics supersets: Act Utilitarian, African, Anarchist, Aristotelian, Atheist, Biological, Buddhist, Business, Casuist, Christian, Communication, Confucian, Consequentialist, Daoist, Deontological, Environmental, Epicurean, Evolutionary, Feminist, Gender, Global, Hedonist, Hindu, Humanist, Islamic, Jewish, Machine, Military, Objectivist, Personal, Political, Postmodern, Professional, Publication, Relational, Research, Role, Role Utilitarian, Sexual, Shinto, Social, Stoic, Teleological, and Virtue. (Insert the term “ethics” at the end of each: “Act Utilitarian Ethics,” “African Ethics,” and so on.) Each affirms some model of moral realism. Limits in depth, scope, and duration of use, but gives specifications of moral domains and, thus, an ethics position – a moral realist stance.

In and out these ethics supersets, we find sets of and subsets of ethics in principles, codes, and laws: American Constitution, animal care, autonomy, beneficence, carefulness, Charter of Medina (Constitution of Medina), Code of Hammurabi, Code of Li k’vei, competence, Computer and Information, confidentiality, Declaration of Helsinki (1964), Declaration Toward Global Ethic, discipline-based conduct, English Bill of Rights, Exodus’ Ten Commandments, Great Laws of Manu, Hippocratic Oath, honesty, human rights protection, International Charter on Medical Professionalism (First published in 2002), justice, Justinian Code, least harm, legality, Magna Carta, Mosaic Law, Napoleonic Code, non-discrimination, Nuremberg Code (1947), objectivity, openness, respect for colleagues, respect for integrity, respect for intellectual property, responsible mentoring, responsible publication, Ṣahīh al-Bukhārī (Sunni Islam), Sharia and Fiqh, social responsibility, T’ang Code (including Tánglǜ shūyì – commentary for it), The Golden Rule, and so on, in an enormous array spanning millennia of creation, dissolution, modification, and general development.

The moral realist set argues thoughts and behaviors contain intrinsic or extrinsic moral value. These sets relate to positive considerations of ethical ontology, i.e. ethics talks about reality or moral reality – moral truths exist. Correct/right/moral statements correspond to moral reality; incorrect/wrong/immoral statements do not correspond to moral reality.

Convenient for logicians and ethicists. Logic’s intersection with truth permits logical analysis of moral statements, premises, conclusions, arguments, or sets thereof.

Moral realist systems operate in three traditional terms: “Deontological,” “Teleological,” and “Virtue.” “Deontological” or duty-based aims for rights and duties of agents. “Teleological” or goods-based aims for the good life. “Virtue” or civic-based aims for development of virtuous people.

How does an informational vantage invite new interpretations of classical, and modern consensus, perspectives on metaethics, descriptive ethics, applied ethics, normative ethics, and moral psychology? What new emergent properties, fields, or arguments organize themselves from this information-based view?

Many philosophical or cosmological systems imply a set of worlds which can exist (or do exist, in some elsewhere). Many-worlds theory, at least as popularly understood, says that every possible world exists. This could be seen as an argument against ethics, since, if every possible thing happens, if every possible choice, good or bad, is made, what’s the difference?

So, I would first stipulate that our world – the series of moments we exist in – is more real than other possible worlds. I don’t know whether other possible worlds necessarily exist somewhere, but our world is the one we experience directly – the world in which our choices have consequences.

Now for some semi-informed assumptions.

There could be a ladder of armature-spaces containing mind-spaces extending towards infinity. (“Towards infinity” requires several assumptions – that armature-spaces tend to be bigger than the mind-spaces they contain, that every mind-space necessitates an armature-space, and that there’s no limit to the size of armature- and mind-spaces.)

There’s no Prime Mover who’s biased towards existence. Existence conforms to principles of consistency. Existence is permitted and compelled by a kind of bootstrapped math. There’s not some omnipotent entity who wants things to exist. (But good luck eliminating this possibility, as every level of metaphysical explanation requires another, deeper level to explain why the explanation is justified.) Not being part of any conscious entity that can want, the principles of existence are neutral. But the principles are highly permissive of existence (again, without intent).

Entities that exist can be biased towards wanting to continue to exist. Evolved entities are often driven to continue to exist, and values associated with continuing existence are built into their civilizations. Advanced entities may design sophisticated, special-purpose entities which do not include a drive for indefinite existence, but such entities would likely be part of larger social/technological structures which have at some level a drive for continued existence.

Some entities which have developed the understanding and technology to take control of their own drives may choose not to include the desire for indefinite existence. But the (presumed) existence of entities at all levels of complexity approaching infinity should indicate that a desire for continued existence isn’t inconsistent with arbitrarily large entities.

Every entity has a history which includes reasons why it was brought into existence. Such reasons can range from what we would consider natural, initially random action which has brought about persistent processes and entities – evolution, for instance – to intentional creation of entities by civilizations with high technology. Whether natural or technological or somewhere in between, the creation of entities should have a reasonable probability of being associated with a drive for the continued existence of something – individuals, a species, a civilization, or the universe itself. We can imagine nihilist civilizations dedicated to promoting chaos and non-existence (and science fiction has), but such civilizations seem likely to be much less prevalent than existence-favoring civilizations.

For more than half a century, people have been growing increasingly uneasy about the potential for artificial intelligence to enslave or wipe out humanity. The mathematization of consciousness (as part of informational cosmology) – the procedure for mathematically modeling mind-spaces – is an essential part of developing advanced AI. We have to know that the motivations we design and those which may arise spontaneously are consistent with benevolent AI behavior which preserves our world and allows humans at all levels of development to choose their destinies. We can’t be sure what AIs are thinking unless we can model it.

While the principles of existence, lacking consciousness and will, don’t have an agenda, existence in general is biased towards continued existence, and the ethics of existence should be preservational. Let entities which want to continue to exist, continue to exist, unless there is a compelling reason otherwise.

Of course, we have barely an inkling of the nature of existence, and all of this is subject to complete revision as we learn more. For the past couple hundred years, science has increasingly implied that existence is meaningless, that the universe just is. This may not always be the case. Existence may provide its own durable justifications.

85. If free will exists, its options exist as a total set or space of logical possibilities of choices, C. Free will means any selection in the total set or space of logical possibilities of choices (C). Why “logical possibilities”? Informational cosmology operates on self-consistency; “logical possibility” means maximal possible definition of “self-consistency.”

If universe operates in self-consistency or logical possibility, choices of universe operate within logical possibilities; universe operates in self-consistency or logical possibility; therefore, choices of universe operate within logical possibilities. In short, universe exists within constraints, and, by implication, constrains internal choices of net system and subsystems.

C exists in the space provided by universe from the start, T = 0, through every positive addition in time. Each whole cross-section of universe in time would have a unique configuration of C. In short, informational cosmology’s “final answer” amounts to choice from the time universe says, “Go.” No way out of choice with the “blue touch paper” lit and kept alight through the arrow of time.

Consciousness endowed subsystems of universe would partake of this space, C, with a subset or subspace of logical possibilities of choice, C_n. Each unit of sufficient individuation in universe with self-consistency and information processing would have a set or space of logical possibilities of choices (C_n). Each whole cross-section of a single unit of sufficient individuation in time would have a unique configuration of C_n.

Undoubtedly, we take into account finite self-consistency and information processing of each unit of sufficient individuation, i.e. mental and physical limitations of each consciousness endowed subsystem in universe. Less physical and mental possibilities reduces the magnitude of C_n out of C; more physical or mental possibilities increases the magnitude of C_n out of C.

Ethics dictates correct choices through affirmation of optimal choices and negation of suboptimal choices in C and C_n. Demarcation between optimal and suboptimal based on ethical code or algorithm, E, inserted into C and C_n. Interpolation of E transforms C and C_n into a moral set or space. C becomes C^E; C_n becomes C_n^E. Thus unifying universe-based/objective and individual-based/subjective general ethics. “Generals ethics” without specification of particular ethics (more later).

If informational cosmology lacks infinities, it describes finites; informational cosmology lacks infinities and, hence, describes finites; if informational cosmology describes universe and finites, universe lacks infinities and operates in finites; informational cosmology describes universe and finites; therefore, universe lacks infinities and operates in finites.

Furthermore, if universe operates in finites, C contains finite elements; if C contains finite elements, C^E contains finite elements. Universe operates in finites. Hence, C and C^Econtain finite elements.

Even further, if C contains finite elements, C_ncontains finite elements; if C_ncontains finite elements, C_n^E contains finite elements. C contains finite elements. Thus, C_nand C_n^Econtain finite elements.

Free will and ethics implies moral choice. Together – free will and ethics – imply correct/right/moral and incorrect/wrong/immoral choices in C^E, at the global scale, and in C_n^E, at the local scale. Therefore, this means individual free will and ethics over time (over one or more selections) creates moral accountability.

What kinds of free will might exist in universe – at global and local scales? How do you define them? How do they relate to the C? How about C^E and C_n^E? In short, how do you pin the start of informational ethics?

Protagoras said, “Man is the measure of all things,” meaning that there is no absolute truth. When it comes to existence, I disagree with this. I believe that we have an infinitesimal probability of not existing in the forms in which we seem to exist. More simply, the odds that this is the Matrix are just about zero, and even if this were the Matrix, its existence would imply the existence of a substantial material world (that contains the Matrix, or contains the fake world that contains the fake Matrix – at some point, you run into the Real).

But it’s harder to disregard a suspicion that ethics is a human construct with human-created rules and values. So let’s pin down ethics. We evolved as persistent organisms – organisms which want to continue to exist and which serve the continuing existence of life by surviving and reproducing. If we’re playing the game of persistence – and we’ve been built to (not on purpose by a goal-oriented entity, but as a consequence of purposeless-but-persistent processes) – an entire moral/ethical structure can be built from the game. To win the game is to maximize existence according to a set of existence-valuing principles. People can argue about the specific principles, but the general idea is not to wreck the world and not to wreck people and perhaps to make progress. It’s the opposite of nihilism.

Since we humans are discussing and determining what the existence-valuing principles should be, you could argue that morals and ethics are a human-built system which doesn’t reflect absolute truth. However, life that arises anywhere within the universe faces the same game, the same issues of how to protect life and civilization and its world. The universe itself is likely part of some system which has rules to preserve existence.

Given the one principle that persistent beings want themselves and/or the world in which they exist to continue to exist, moral and ethical systems will have great general similarities (involving safeguarding existence). So what we’re left with of Protagoras is specific precepts of morals and ethics being specific to humans. General ethical and moral principles and existence itself aren’t just human constructs.

86. You mean objective and universal ethics derived from informational cosmology: informational ethics. Prior considerations remain valid: C means the same; C^E means “existence-valuing principles”; C_nmeans “informed will”; and C_n^Emeans “targeted thinking.”

New C^E provides absolute referent of correct or incorrect ethics. An absolute referent for morality. Or the greatest possible criterion for all logical possibilities of ethics. Logic implies truth, truth implies logical possibilities, logical possibilities operates in both informational cosmology and informational ethics, and therefore ethics examinable by logic for truth or falsity, or degree thereof.

Where “good” means “maximizes persistent existence” and “evil” means “does not maximize persistent existence,” one can scale ethics. C^Ebestows referent and grounds for logical analysis of every ethical system, code, creed, law, and principle in proportion to their respective correspondence with C^E. More C_nallows greater C_n^E. More C_nand C_n^E provide possibility for more accurate correspondence with C^E, and therefore, by implication, greater responsibility due to greater moral accountability. A Moral Hierarchy implied with C^E at the top.

Does this hold merit to you? How might we refine or extend this argument? If you do consider a general moral, intellectual, spiritual, or emotional progression or development, how do you view development from the basic to most advanced at the individual and collective levels?

Should note that I live in LA, where we’re more concerned about spotting celebrities at Rite-Aid than personal growth. On a daily basis, most of my efforts to be a better person occur behind the wheel. (In LA, your morality is revealed by your driving. Many Audi drivers will have to do a lot of explaining to St. Peter.) And I often judge other people’s moral development by their posted comments on internet stories.

I like to imagine that our increasing interconnectedness leads to increasing moral development – an ethical Flynn Effect – though internet trolling indicates otherwise.

I picture people in general as having moral characteristics – levels of niceness, truthfulness, reliability, etc. – distributed in a bell curve, with most people being close to average and some outliers in positive and negative directions. When I was checking IDs in bars, I estimated that about one person in 90 would lie to me. This seemed indicative of most human behavior – generally good, with opportunistic failures (which you shouldn’t consistently expect but should be prepared to protect yourself against – it’s like defensive driving – always be alert for terrible behavior without expecting it in every instance). When dealing with jerks in bars, the bell curve model helped me keep my temper. I’d think, “Here’s somebody who’s way beyond the mean for jerkiness. Statistically, that’s what you’d expect occasionally. Should I fly off the handle at him, or wait for someone who’s even more of an outlier?” (I’d usually keep my temper.)

Having a bell curve model of behavior means that I don’t spend much time thinking about hierarchies of individual goodness. People will be people – I just try to steer clear of the horrible ones. I spend more time thinking about societal goodness because, writing for a late-night show, I got in the habit of paying attention to politics, and America currently has a bunch of terrible people in and around politics. You have a bunch of people upset about tyranny and the end of America, and these people, when they willfully and very effectively bend the truth, seem like the biggest threat to America.

But crappy politicians probably aren’t the biggest threat to America as it is. The biggest threat and biggest opportunity is change. In 10 years, America will change as much as it did in the previous 20; in 20 years, America will change as much as it did in the previous 60; in 30 years, America (and the world) will change more than it did in the previous century. Near-future science fiction presents a range of possibilities for America. The laziest SF presents stories of apocalyptic strife, some with America split into several nations. More well-thought-out work presents a daunting assortment of negative and positive changes. But no near-future fiction presents an America that’s unchanged.

Which leads to what I think is the most pressing ethical concern of our time – managing change. The wages of ignorance have always been death, but even more so now and into the future. Politicians often talk about the world we’re leaving for our grandchildren. But they never mention that our grandchildren will be very different from us, and if we want to build a bridge to them, we can’t be dipshits about technology. More technically-educated people and nations will be in the driver’s seat. (Actually, no one will be in the driver’s seat, since cars will be driving themselves.)

Technical literacy should be viewed as an ethical responsibility. Ignorance about science and technology screws you, your family, and your friends. In America, there’s a strong correlation between states where people are more likely to have anti-scientific views and states with higher mortality rates.

87. You leave some definitions loose: “informed will” and “targeted thinking.” Canadian Oxford Dictionary (2^nd Edition) defines the terms in a reliable fashion. “Informed” means “give or supply information or knowledge”; “will” means “the faculty by which a person decides or is regarded as deciding on and initiating action”; “targeted” means “identify or single out (a person or thing) as an object of attention or attack”; and “thinking” means “using thought or rational judgment; cogitation.” What does “will” mean in an information-based ethics? How might this relate to personal valence (“emotional value”) of an individual consciousness?

Everything a decision-making entity does is based on information – the information which informs its decision (the data) in combination with the information which describes its decision-making apparatus (the hardware, software, and settings). You can’t defy the informational basis of decisions – you can only strive to understand the basis (though your decision to strive is itself based on information). Will can be understood as a decision (I will work on this paper until I pass out) or as a tendency in decisions (I will always go to the utmost extreme when working on something I deem to be of value). As such, will comes from a combination of hardware, settings, and data. A thinking entity can know itself but cannot escape that its decisions are rooted in information which is encoded in the material from which it is made.

88. How do informed will and targeted thinking influence every day and outlier morality?

I expect informed will to generally be more good and ethical than reflexive responses. Informed will is decision-making based on thorough thinking. Often my immediate decision isn’t as brave or kind as a reconsidered decision. I’ll walk right past asking for money then be forced by my conscience to double back. Of course, doing bad can also be the result of thorough thinking. But if you consider most people, I’d guess that the average move between knee-jerk reaction and thorough thinking is towards the positive. It helps if there are societal, peer and family structures in place which support positive values. Just finished Zone of Interest, by Martin Amis, which tells about the daily lives of the people who ran Auschwitz. Everyone was highly invested in the evil they were doing and could find unlimited support for their evil from their government.

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2023-01-28

Rick G. Rosner: Giga Society, Member; Mega Society, Member & ex-Editor (1991-97); and Writer (Part Seven)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/11/22

ABSTRACT

Part seven of eleven, comprehensive interview with Rick G. Rosner. Giga Society member, ex-editor for Mega Society (1990-96), and writer. He discusses the following subject-matter: The United States of America leading the world in science, technology, and innovation, strange situation for the 21^st century, possible continued decline of America, example from Britain in the 1930s, news sources and liberal leaning, and possible contexts for the continued flourishing of the United States; descriptive capacity of the principles of existence, functional truth of principles of existence, and speculation on their inhering in reality; philosophers’ idea of logical possibility mirroring self-consistency, extrapolations of nested universes, the possible limit to minds/mind-spaces and their respective armatures, universe’s ability to handle contradiction, correlation establishment between two particles through close proximity and emission of energy, widespread contradiction would appear as loss of information, “spooky action at a distance” of Einstein, consideration of an infinity of mind-spaces, assumption of no maximum-possible size for an information space, constrained perspective akin to Plato’s Cave, possibility of universe finding way to communicate with “its minions,” thoughts on writing a “big ol’ space opera-ish SF novel,” 10^80 particles in active center of universe (with possible multiplication by 10^3 for all collapsed matter at T = 0), a hypothetical 10^10 step down each rung of the mind-space ladder making our universe 8 rungs from the bottom of an infinite ladder, possibility of blackish holes being the visible outputs of larger processors, and considerations of the universe containing itself acting as its own armature; Frank Drake, Drake Equation, extensions of the Drake Equation, contents of The Milky Way galaxy, Matrioshka brain out of a Dyson Sphere thought, Fermi Paradox; thoughts on Goldilocks Zone for universes existing with caveat of Occam’s Razor; infinities in informational cosmology, metric of minds, and metric of universe, lack of infinities in information cosmology, and list of possible metrics; modern cosmology, common sense, and informational cosmology on ‘empty space’; formulations of modern cosmology and informational cosmology in relation to bidirectional time and the arrow of time, and a scenario for a time-asymmetric process; other scenarios of a time-asymmetric process; summarization of discussion on informational cosmology with respect to equivalence of minds and universe, and complementary fields of informational cosmogony and eschatology; informational cosmology in relation to particles, dark matter and dark energy, gravitation and collapsed matter, and additional elements; blackish holes equal universe’s memory with thoughts on possible functions of other astronomical objects such as solar systems, gas giants, galaxies (e.g., Barred spiral galaxies, Elliptical galaxies, Irregular galaxies, Lenticular galaxies, Ring galaxies, Spiral galaxies, and so on), galaxy filiments, galaxy clusters, galaxy groups, galactic superclusters, quasars, blazars, seyfert galaxies, stars (e.g., A-type, B-types, F-type, G-type, K-type, L-type, M-type, O-type, T-type, peculiar, barium, neutron, hypergiants, and so on), stellar groupings, variable stars (e.g., cataclysmic, eclipsing binaries, eruptive, pulsating, rotating, and so on), circumstellar matter, accretion discs, star systems, meteoroids, interstellar medium, comets, satellites, stellar streams, asteroids, planets, intergalactic space, dwarf planets, cosmic microwave background radiation, proplyds, open/globular clusters, nebulae, and voids; discussion on derivative fields of information-based cosmology including chemistry, biology, psychology, economics, and other fields amenable to the information-based program of research, and influence on education and entertainment; and everything related to informational cosmology in context.

Keywords: arrow of time, bidirectional time, blackish hole, dark energy, dark matter, Einstein, empty space, Giga Society, gravitation, infinity, informational cosmogony, informational cosmology, informational eschatology, innovation, isomorphism, logical possibility, Mega Society, mind-space, Occam’s Razor, Plato’s Cave, Rick G. Rosner, science, technology, The United States of America, universe, writer.

70. The United States of America continues to lead the world in technology, science, and innovation. America persists in its descent relative to other nations on the world stage with respect to these three domains too. In part due to the disjunction between the level of scientific literacy of the general populace and scientists, not limited to any particular area, this trend persists across scientific disciplines with representative statistics and data collected, collated, and presented by organizations such as the Pew Research Center and Smithsonian magazine. Moreover, this pattern appears to have continued at about the same rate for many, many years.

We have a strange situation. In the 21^st century, nations with the desire to thrive need their populace capable of critical thought without restriction to particular domains. Some countries will not warm to this prospect. Information does have easy access. Some countries’ leaders work towards active suppression of this activity – to deprive the populace of basic information. Others will have increased probability of flourishing with allowance of free-flow of information and education. No doubt expedited by internet and computers.

Some interesting emergent ideals in society with increased information. Information for self-education turned into superficial knowledge – not by necessity deep knowledge-based networks of comprehension. Although, the possibility for such self-education might develop more general algorithms for critical thought – more important than base knowledge. With many countries inundated with information such as the United States, I suspect some resentment from the scientific community on this matter of the general populations’ scientific ignorance with public outreach partaking of the more positive side of concern in this statistical phenomena.

Not an easy task for a whole populace to develop sufficient skills, faculties, and knowledge, it might lead to a modified form of anarchy with implied continuous dismantling of unjustified authority. Some might welcome the prospect; some others might not welcome it. Insofar as the trajectories of collected information might predict the future with increasing accuracy based on the nearness to the present, these do not, and especially in further, and further, extrapolations, mean fate or destiny of a nation. If aware and proactive, positive itineraries for society can continue with many negatives avoided or circumnavigated.

Flash back to the 1930s, one could argue for Britain’s decline due to the great minds entering into disciplines of finance rather than sciences. Rather than generating new wealth through innovations in technology and science, smart people funneled into finance. They dealt with existing money rather than generating wealth through innovations in technology and science. America’s decline appears to reflect this in some ways.

If innovation grinds to a sufficiently slow pace, America seems geared to become a technical nation with technology – plenty of technical support work – while lacking innovation into new frontiers through scientific machinery, methodology, discovery, and subsequent application for new machinery and methodological refinement – at least in prime leadership status with regards to these aspects of nation building and wellbeing. How best to stop this possible historical pattern of societal innovatory decay connected to dissolution of the US?

Fixing society isn’t really my field. Plus, you should know I watch a lot of MSNBC (balanced a little by CNBC) and read HuffPo, Salon, and Slate and only occasionally Drudge. I lean liberal. At the same time, I’m not stupid. (Though maybe not as smart as I’d like to think.)

A great strength and a great vulnerability of the United States is our population of nearly a third of a billion. Only China and India have larger populations (much larger). Our population, our standard of living and our level of education give us the resources to innovate. But on the other hand, a large population means we have tens of millions of yahoos. And for the past 30 or 40 years, cynical conservative think tanks have studied and learned how to mobilize low-information voters. There’s always been a strain of angry dumbness in American politics, but the size of our population, the persuasive power of the internet and TV, and the amount of money devoted to persuasion have made dumbness in politics a more potent force than ever before.

Plus, the pace of change is genuinely weird and scary. If you’re conservative or if you’re old or even if you’re not, you find the world an increasingly strange place. The world hasn’t gotten so crazy so fast since the run-up to World War II. But WWII ended – the current acceleration of change won’t.

Here are some things that could happen which would help the US continue to lead in innovation:

Science-denying conservatives lose political power. This could happen as a result of demographics and/or growing disgust. Roger Ailes, who runs Fox News, is 74 and fat. What, if anything, happens when he’s no longer able to run it?

Competition with China and India heats up. During the Cold War, competition with Russia drove science education and quite a bit of publicly funded scientific innovation. Or we could productively partner with China or India.

The means of innovation continues to decouple from governmental support. The more people can innovate on their own, the more it doesn’t matter if government continues to suck.

There’s a biotech revolution. As biotech becomes more effective, providing people with extra decades of (healthy) life will become the biggest industry on earth. And the US has the largest group of consumers able to afford it.

Damage to the planet becomes an urgent concern.

So what can people do to help the US remain competitive?

Stay current – understand and embrace technology and change. The world’s gonna change with or without you. Be part of it, even if it’s scary. Because even scarier is living in some change-denying backwater and dragging down the rest of the country with you. Make reading about new technology part of your daily routine.

Sell the positive. Conservatives sell fear to people who are intimidated by change. Win people’s hearts and minds with cool, fun tech.

Be healthy and don’t die. Change-avoiders and the ignorant have unhealthy lifestyles, don’t educate themselves about healthy change, and die off sooner. Don’t be them.

71. We discussed the descriptive capacity of the principles of existence (“laws”). All describe an aspect or function of universe. Functional truth provides confidence for operational utility. What about deeper? Principles of existence describe universe. They must inhere in it too. Why “must” they inhere in universe? Plain and simple: principles of existence describe universe’s operation. They map reality. They must map onto it because of operating in it. Correspondence warrants containment. Otherwise, an inaccurate map. How do principles of existence inhere in reality?

I suppose, without knowing the math of the quantum mechanics behind it, worlds that can’t exist – that are self-contradictory – decohere – expand into nothing. I’m guessing that in a quantum computer, only the consistent solutions are coherent – they exist. Universe probably works the same way. Things that can exist, do, thorough consistency (and only get blurry to the point of non-existence at the edges). Which I guess is the same way of saying that universes are pockets of deep consistency.

But it’s not as if rules were set up at the beginning and the universe was built like a Lego set. It’s more like what turns out to be consistent gets to exist and enjoy an increased likelihood of continued existence. And it turns out these consistent worlds embody consistent systems, which don’t exactly pre-exist the universe but which are highly consistent across universes. The universe defines, reveals and refines the principles of existence as it goes along. These principles are mostly the same across universes. But they’re not used to build universes. It’s just that universes that don’t have them can’t exist. It’s bootstrappy and at the same time reflective of some unavoidable principles.

72. Philosophers have an idea of utility here: logical possibility. “Logical possibility” parallels “self-consistency.” Logical possibility comes from philosophy; self-consistency from pure mathematics and derivative fields – as preliminarily discussed in Part Three and Part Five.

Conceptual or generalized self-consistency entitled logical possibility. Opposed by self-inconsistency and logical impossibility. Banal examples of logical impossibility include a “married bachelor” or “square circle.” Either a bachelor or married, but not both; either a square or a circle, but not both. You see the point – generalized consistency.

Universe contains self-consistency, and therefore pertains to logical possibilities. It exists. Translation: universe does not net self-contradict. Net self-consistency equates to logical possibility meaning allowance for universe to exist. A circuitous path to hyphenated terms “self-consistent” or “self-consistency” once more.

It sharpens the construct of “universe’s armature.” Universe’s framework must have logical possibility. Same for universe, minds’ material frameworks (brains), and minds in universe. All require self-consistency in an information-based perspective.

Self-consistent structures derive from logical possibility because of logical possibility applied internal to them. “Logical possibility applied internal to them” means “intrinsic components and interrelationships remain logical.” Part Five’s definition of “system without self-contradiction” – broadened in Part Seven to “system without net self-contradiction” – harnessed technical and concrete definitions.

Far from blunting the definitional lapidary tools of this gem. We further refined as proper artisans. “Logical possibility” equates to maximal generalized definition of “self-consistency.” It applies the most general system of reason: logic. Logic consolidates dominance of one discipline: philosophy. To the consternation of some, it reigns here. All else derives from it.

Additional issues pertain to brains and minds with self-consistency and self-consistent relationships – likewise for armature and its universe. Furthermore, the self-consistent nature of the four major conceptualizations in informational cosmology at present – armature, universe, minds, and brains – converge to less and imply more.

Convergence of four major conceptualizations. Brains necessitate minds; armature necessitates universe. No brain, no mind; no armature, no universe, minds emerge from brains and universe emerges from armature. Each reflects the other. Brain means armature; mind means universe.

Insofar as definitions and isomorphism permit, the four primary objects of informational cosmology converge brain into armature and mind into universe with differences in capacity. Four objects reduced to two. Correspondence to such an extent to permit the convergence of two pairs of ideas with implication of an emergent or necessary construct. One structure-pair, brain and armature into armature alone; another function-pair, mind and universe into universe alone; necessary construct of mind-space from armature/universe.

Ergo, informational cosmology contains two major conceptualizations: armatures and universes. Four reduced to two major conceptualizations with emergent respective mind-spaces from armatures and universes. All net self-consistent – without net self-contradiction – and information processing.

Implication of nested relationships with the possibility of an infinite vertical regress of mind-spaces. A simple nested system of self-consistency with armature and universe connected by information processing. An informational cosmological nested system with primacy of structure from armature, primacy of function from universe, and primacy of construction from mind-space. Armature produces universe; universe derives from armature; and mind-space constructed from respective armature and universe. All connects to argument for universe as consciousness endowed system or mind because of net self-consistency and information processing.

In conditionals: if isomorphic geometry between brains/minds and armature/universe, and if brains imply minds, and if armature implies universe, then these equate in definition and differ in magnitude. Implication of universe as mind bound by armature further extrapolating into another armature and universe, or brain and mind. These mean nested systems and interrelationships among these systems.

Insofar as our universe operates (and other universes of logical possibility operate) within principles of existence equating to mathematical descriptors (symbol systems) and respective evidential bulwarks (symbol systems mapped to scientific evidence), armature for universe external to universe equates to nested universes within respective armatures, within further universes within respective armatures und so weiter. Armature and universe contain self-consistency and information processing.

If I may, this recapitulates earlier arguments with important extrapolations and subsequent adjunctions. Minds within universe and universe have identities with one another based on isomorphic geometry. By implication, universe contains operation and traits analogous to individual localized minds within itself, and therefore – and further – universe equates to a mind in philosophic and scientific terms (as an aside).

Evidence from cognitive neuroscience would bequeath reasonable grounds for extrapolation about universe. This defines the new disciplines. Informational cosmogony, informational cosmology, and informational eschatology describe the beginning, development, and conclusion of universe and other universes of logical possibility. Study of every logically possible armature/universe relationship, interrelationship of all armatures/universes, and their respective mind-spaces for each.

Furthermore, universe represents operation of an armature; all minds (consciousness endowed subsystems within universe) have containment within universe. If localized minds and universe have isomorphic operations (through time) and traits (self-consistency and information processing), and if localized minds (consciousness endowed subsystems within universe) have armatures (brains), then universe must have an armature (unknown equivalent of “brain”).

Moreover, this validates contemplation on armature for universe too. You know the likely apocryphal yarn of the woman stating, “Turtles all the way down.” Nested universes and respective armatures mean the prior argument extended into an indefinite number of iterations without grounds for reasonable cessation.

In more formal terms, if brain/derivative armature equals A₁, its mind equals M₁, armature for universe equals A₂, universe equals M₂, and if these have isomorphic operation – through time – and traits – self-consistency and information processing, and if A₁ and M₁ have containment in A₂ and M₂, then A₂ and M₂should have containment in an unknown A₃and M₃, and these in A₄ and M₄, and so on. Each A_n and M_n constructing their respective mind spaces, S_n. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) would smile.

What does this mean for an indefinite iteration of minds/mind-spaces? What else do you argue for informational cosmogony, cosmology, and eschatology? How far does the regress of minds continue? In other words, how far does the proverbial ‘rabbit hole’ persist with respect to minds/mind-spaces and their armatures?

First, about contradiction – the universe can handle quite a bit of it. Processes in the active center – fusion, the creation of life – involve the creation of information and order, the emission of energy and the settling down of protons, neutrons and electrons into lower-energy states. The active center is reshuffling and compactifying itself by finding relationships among particles.

When two particles establish a relationship/correlation by coming into proximity and emitting energy, the emitted energy serves as a contradiction check with the rest of the universe. Say an electron is captured by a proton, or an electron already in orbit around a proton falls to a lower orbit. A photon is emitted. As the photon traverses space, it’s announcing, “There’s been a status change,” and asking, “Does this necessitate a change in the status of other particles?” If the photon is absorbed by another particle, that says the initial change in status required a change elsewhere. If the photon isn’t absorbed locally, it travels farther and farther, losing energy to the curvature of space, which means it’s losing the ability to create change elsewhere. As it travels across billions of light years to the edge of the active center, it’s lost almost all ability to cause a status change in another particle or set of particles. It’s as if it’s performed a universe-wide contradiction check. Its energy has been lost to space, slightly increasing the precision with which space is defined. 1. Status change between particles with the emission of a photon, asking, “Everybody cool with this, or is it gonna cause a blip?” 2. Photon crosses space – blip of absorption if this necessitates a status change elsewhere – a mini-contradiction – no absorption if no problem. 3. After traveling for billions of years, photon has lost almost all energy to space, and a little bit of additional order has been created.

Widespread contradiction would look like the loss of information. Blasting a part of the universe with a bunch of energy would destroy its order and information. Information lost in a leaky blackish hole would be lost to heat energy – matter would collapse, heat up as in a Big Bang run backwards, and relationships among particles would be cooked away. An entire universe that’s losing information is doing so by heating up. It shrinks, the Cosmic Background Radiation increases in temperature, making it more disruptive. Information and order are lost.

We could also look at “spooky action at a distance,” as Einstein called quantum correlations which apparently travel faster than light. A photon emission and capture is a handshake between the present and the future, (Except for the photon itself – photons, traveling at the speed of light, never see any time pass. They exist in an eternal present of zero duration.) (The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen experiment – a thought experiment prompted by Einstein’s loathing of “spooky action” is a linked pair of handshakes between present and future.) The history of the active center of the universe is, in part, the systematic arrangement of these handshakes to minimize their duration (a minimization in time and space). Cause-and-effect, non-contradiction, space itself and time itself might be consequences of or at least accompaniments to this systematic arrangement. Every handshake is a contradiction and a link in a mesh of cause-and-effect, a mesh that tries to maximize the handshakes’ localization and predictability.

Now for the infinite stack of mind-spaces. If every mind-space requires an outside armature that is itself located in another mind-space, then this implies an infinite chain of mind-spaces and armatures. (The chain can terminate at the small end – you can have a mind-space that’s so small that it doesn’t include the armatures for any smaller mind-spaces.) Infinities are troubling, but at least the infinities associated with mind-spaces are aleph-null, the lowest degree of infinity – the infinity of the counting numbers. This assumes that each mind-space can be described finitely – that it doesn’t have unavoidably infinite gradations of anything.

I’m assuming that there’s no maximum-possible size for an information space and that everything that exists does so as part of (or all of) an information space. These are big assumptions, but fine for a short discussion. If there’s no limit on size, then there’s no immediately apparent insurmountable problem with an infinite chain of mind-spaces within mind-spaces.

It’s not like we’ll ever see all the way up the stack of mind-spaces. (Our constrained perspective make’s Plato’s Cave look like a view of a 100-inch high-def flat-screen slice of raw, unmediated reality itself.) But it’s not unreasonable to imagine that the universe might figure out a way to communicate with its minions in its mind-space and tell them what’s what. It’d be nice to know what the universe is the mind of, and it might be helpful for the universe. Most likely to know are the ancient civs possibly hanging out at the centers of galaxies. They might officially be working for the universe, helping it do its mental business (with greater precision).

If I were going to write a big ol’ space opera-ish SF novel, it would concern humanity’s attempt to travel to the center of the Milky Way, to find out what’s going on, but stealthily, so we don’t get swatted down by the big, old civs.

The universe has about 10^80 particles (in the active center – maybe multiply that by 10^3 to include all the collapsed matter around T = 0). The million-stellar-mass black(ish) hole at the center of the Milky Way might have about 10^64 particles, which might be the armature for a mind-space of 10^60 particles, a step-down by a factor of 10^20 between the mind-space of the universe and the biggest mind-space in the universe, unless the central black hole has more information on the inside than is apparent from the outside. So just for fun, figure there’s an average step-down of only 10^10. Even with that fairly small step-down, our universe is only about eight rungs from the bottom of an infinite ladder. Unless…

…blackish holes could be just the visible outputs of possibly much bigger processors. Could be – quite likely is – that information-spaces can contain information outputs from information-spaces much bigger than themselves. I guess that doesn’t really affect the laddered hierarchy – the armature of the complicated processor is probably part of the same external universe as the armature of the mind-space it’s feeding information into. Anyhow, our universe, big as it is, is very close to the bottom of the ladder of universes within universes. Things get really big if there’s no governor on the size of things that can exist.

Not that such hugeness is visible to us – we’re thoroughly a part of our fairly small universe, and furthermore, we’re a product of a single long moment of the universe. We’ll need luck and great leaps forward in complexity and understanding to survive as a civilization beyond this moment.

Can a universe contain itself – be its own armature and thus avoid the infinite ladder of universes? I don’t see how. (But of course I know almost nothing.) The mind-space would be minding just itself, self-referentially shielded from any reason for existence. Even if you could have an information-space that’s equivalent to its armature, wouldn’t that armature need to be a material presence in an external space?

73. Frank Drake proposed an equation mapping onto the probability of extraterrestrial/alien life with active radio communication technology. A widely-accepted probabilistic metric of advanced civilizations. Moreover, one can remove the additional specifications of the theory for estimations of lesser, and lesser, degrees of advanced life. He proposed a single equation to distill the probabilities:

(N=R*⋅f_p⋅n_e⋅f_l⋅f_i ⋅f_c⋅L)

Each in brief:

“N” means “The Milky Way galaxy civilizations with detectable electromagnetic emissions.”
“R*” means “rate of star formation acceptable for intelligent life’s development.”
“f_p” means “fraction of stars with planetary systems.”
“n_e” means “planets per solar system with acceptable habitat for life.”
“f_l” means “fraction of acceptable planets with certain emergence of life.”
“f_i” means “fraction of acceptable planets with certain emergence of intelligent life.”
“f_c” means “fraction of civilizations with technology capable producing detectable signs in space.”
“L” means “span of f_cin intelligent life and their civilizations.”

Most expert critiques consider the last four variables hard to measure. It may seem complicated, but each new variable builds, i.e. specifies, on prior variables. You simply follow the steps. If one removes “f_i“, the equation produces probabilities for emergence of life rather than intelligent life. Duly note, if you remove one variable, you effectively remove subsequent numbers of higher specification. Latter variables build on former variables in specification.

In universe with ultra-deep cosmic time and multiple unfoldings through tremendous numbers of “little bangs” rather than one “big bang” based in neutron cycling, how does the Drake Equation operate?

In my humble consideration of Drake’s venerable work, not an expert, but he did not seem to extrapolate far enough – do not know of others. I consider two additional variables of substance. He limited “N” to The Milky Way galaxy. Another variable needs inclusion based on best estimates of galaxies with habitable life. Galaxies might have a “Goldilocks Zone” akin to range of planetary orbits suitable for the development of known kinds of life. Rate of life-permitting galaxies labelled “G*” in a Drake-Jacobsen Equation for our universe. New formulation becomes the following:

(N=G*⋅R*⋅f_p⋅n_e⋅f_l⋅f_i ⋅f_c⋅L)

One might include an additional variable on life-permitting universes too. “U*” for the rate of life-permitting universes in the total set of logical possibilities of universes. With the first addition of “G*” in the modified equation, we produce a modified “N” meaning “galaxies containing civilizations with detectable electromagnetic emissions.” In the second addition, we produce a further modified “N” meaning “set of logically possible universes containing civilizations with detectable electromagnetic emissions.” The second extrapolation of the formulation becomes:

(N=U*⋅G*⋅R*⋅f_p⋅n_e⋅f_l⋅f_i ⋅f_c⋅L)

Moreover, the non-arbitrary definition of “detectable electromagnetic emissions” – as an adaptation of Drake’s definitions – does narrow the range; however, we do not know the precise forms of life, if indeed beyond the DNA-based, and the expression of intelligibility including those outside of the use of technologies with detectable electromagnetic emissions. One need merely redefine the former variables appropriately – in a self-consistent way – to extrapolate on a more specified or less specified definition of extraterrestrial intelligent life with detectable activity. If Drake can string assumptions together and name a formula after himself, then I can string assumptions together off Drake’s and adapt various forms of a Drake-Jacobsen Equation.

How might the Drake Equation work in an informational cosmology view?

The Milky Way contains at least 100 billion planets. There’s nothing so untypical about our solar system that we can’t imagine similar conditions existing on many millions of other planets in our galaxy, not to mention the more than 100 billion other galaxies in the universe. Informational cosmology suggests that it’s pretty hard to avoid the creation of life and, eventually, thinking organisms.

Thought isn’t this magical thing the creation of which requires the touch of a wand from on-high. Thought is flexible information processing which can bestow evolutionary advantages. In the random spread of organisms to occupy evolutionary niches, the niche of thought has likely been occupied on a multitude of different planets.

And once occupied, the niche probably doesn’t get unoccupied. Yes, we’re fucking up our planet. But we’re not fucking it up so terribly that we won’t be able to fix it. We’re about to enter the era of smart everything. I remember when, in 1974, my family’s first computer chip entered our house in a primitive four-function calculator. Now, our home contains at least a dozen computers or computer-like devices with trillions of times the computing power of that first chip. And that’s nothing – we’re far from the limit of Moore’s law. In the past 50 years, the cost-per-calculation has dropped by something like a billion-fold, and it will keep dropping. We’re about to be surrounded by computation, and we’ll increasingly merge with our computing devices.

This has probably happened on some crazy number of planets. Recent science fiction has it playing out like this – an advanced civilization devotes increasing amounts of resources to computing, eventually dismantling entire planets to build a shell around its sun – a Dyson sphere – or multiple shells – a Matrioshka brain – to capture more energy for computing.

Computing might be the answer to the Fermi Paradox. (With regard to space aliens, Fermi asked, “Where is everybody?”) If it’s more profitable in terms of knowledge to stay home for the most part and devote resources to computation and simulation, civilizations will stay home. It’s not computationally efficient to have a far-flung galactic empire because the speed of light puts a speed limit on communication. Better to build your empire around a single star, where the exchange of messages will take hours at most rather than years. And once you outgrow your Matrioshka brain, maybe you set up shop around or in a blackish hole, which gives you a bunch of matter in a much smaller space for faster communication and computation.

There’s no non-weird answer to the question of aliens. No aliens anywhere? Weird. Aliens? Weird! Aliens colonizing space? Weird. Aliens not colonizing space? Weird. But everything is weird. We’re on a ball of rock orbited by a smaller ball of rock which both orbit a huge ball of hydrogen atoms undergoing fusion? Weird. Weirdness is a less-than-reliable guide to the validity of a theory.

In a Big Bang universe, it’s unlikely that there aren’t a bunch of civilizations a million years old and more. Unless something consistently wipes out civilizations, which would be weird. Or civilizations link up or are colonized into super-civilizations extending across swaths of the galaxy. So the question becomes, what does a civilization do for a million years or ten million or a billion? I’d guess that there’s some principle that the number of interesting things to do increases along with the computational power of your brain (or your brain plus your super-computing add-ons). Otherwise, you and your civilization would go nuts from boredom.

In an informational cosmology universe, civilizations could survive for longer than the apparent age of the universe. You could have civilizations tens or hundreds of billions of years old or more. I’m guessing that if this is the case, then such civilizations are very involved in the business of the universe. They have a good idea of the universe’s objectives, and they help with its operations. A big, old, highly organized universe might include highly developed technicians. Kinda doesn’t make sense that it wouldn’t.

I imagine that, among other things, long-lasting civilizations might be able to manipulate quasars to hose down dormant galaxies with neutrinos, awakening those galaxies. (Can also imagine this might be wrong and dumb.) Can’t imagine how a civilization or entity could persist for 100 billion years without going stir-crazy, but it has 100 billion years to figure out fun things to do. (A hundred billion years is the ultimate endless Sunday afternoon.)

74. What about the Goldilocks Zone for universes existing?

I don’t think there’s any optimum size for a universe, except that really tiny, fuzzy ones are on the borderline of existence. And to have creatures inside it that can speculate about the universe, you need a universe of a certain hugeness, though such creatures aren’t essential – they don’t grant the universe existence by observing it. The universe observes itself. (That is, the matter in the universe defines itself through its interactions.)

If every universe is an information-space supported by an armature in a universe external to that information-space, that implies an endless chain of universes, each with an external armature supporting it. This is disquieting – we live in a huge universe, which is supported by an even larger external universe, etc. Seems like Occam’s Razor might scoff – “Your concept implies an infinity of universes, each one more gigantic than the one before? That’s simple – not.”

75. What role do infinities play in informational cosmology? How about metric of minds? How about metric of universe?

I don’t think there are infinities in informational cosmology. I think everything’s the result of a finite number (though often fantastically huge) of interactions in finite though tremendous time and space. Fuzziness and the finite nature of information save us from infinities. For instance, you can’t get two particles close enough together to have infinite gravitational force between them – their fuzziness means they can never have zero distance between them – it’s impossible to specify distance with infinite precision.

To indicate the size of an information-space, there could be various metrics – total number of particles, apparent age, apparent size, scale – the DeBroglie wavelength of a proton compared to the average distance between protons, maybe even the proton-electron mass ratio or the number of levels in the hierarchy of clustering (solar system, galaxy, galactic cluster, supercluster).

76. Modern cosmology found ‘empty space’ weighs something. Common sense might think empty space weighs nothing. In informational cosmology, does apparent empty space weigh something or nothing? Does empty space contain something or nothing in informational cosmology? Does ‘empty space’ suffice for a proper title?

Common sense believes that nothingness is the natural, default state, and that anything else requires an explanation. In actuality, everything including nothingness requires an explanation, and nothingness is a very unlikely state.

I don’t know if space weighs anything. In informational cosmology, space has to be specified – given shape and scale and size by the relationships among the matter it contains. Don’t know if this implies that it has weight. Apparently empty space does have a lot of stuff in it – zillions of photons and neutrinos crossing every cubic centimeter of space all the time. And space is bubbling with virtual particles which are probably part of the universe’s bookkeeping, in that virtual particles reflect relationships among actual particles. So empty space isn’t empty.

Two of my ideas in particular need to be mathematicized and put into an overall system of how the universe defines itself – that protons’ and neutrons’ relatively heavy masses have to do with the amount of collapsed matter in the universe, and that space in the active center is further defined by interactions among charged particles.

The exchange of distance-traversing particles – photons and neutrinos – defines and organizes space via Hubble sorting – giving clusters of matter their own unique apparent velocity vectors.

When I was working at Anthony’s Gardens, at the time America’s biggest outdoor bar, in the 80s, one of the other bouncers, Larry Reimers, a tough, competent Vietnam vet, would break up fights using spatial sorting. Instead of grabbing people who were brawling, he’d walk into the middle of the tussle and shove everyone in different directions. The brawlers would stumble several steps backwards. Continuing to shove drunk idiots as they tried to get at each other allowed Larry to handle fights that otherwise would’ve required more bouncers. (Not being as competent or as brave as Larry, I’d come up behind a single brawler and try to put him in a sleeper hold, which I didn’t know how to administer – nobody ever went to sleep. I’d grab the guy around the neck. Customers would scream that I was choking him, so I’d let go, and then he’d turn around and hit me, so I’d put him in an incorrect sleeper hold again.)

The universe sorts itself out by exchanging particles. Over billions of years, particles’ kinetic energy is translated into Hubble sorting – large-scale structuring (and, I suppose, indexing – with the structure allowing for retrieval of information when needed). A photon traversing the universe loses its energy to the curvature of space (the universe being one huge gravitational well). But the loss of this energy helps define space, so the lost energy is turned into order. (Hence, no entropy on a universe-wide scale.)

The collapsed matter hanging out in collapsed space close to T = 0 is Hubble sorted – relativistically segregated. It doesn’t all coalesce into one big blob. Every collapsed galaxy or cluster has its own unique Hubble vector, with all the vectors separated by what must be, in that neighborhood, a pretty severe (equivalent of a) cosmological constant.

77. You provided extensive discussion of informational cosmology. I formulated modern cosmological and informational cosmological conceptualizations rooted in information theory from Shannon and Weaver (1949) in one question for each:

In modern cosmology, we ask, “What if the contents of the universe equals input, process equals laws plus time, and output equals transformations of the contents (e.g., particles, fields, forces, and so on) of the universe?”
In informational cosmology, we ask, “What if bit units of universe equal input, process equals principles of existence plus time, and output equals transformations of bit units of universe?”

How does the former relate to bidirectional time? How about the latter?

The arrow of time should point into the future whether we picture the universe as a thinking entity or only as a set of physical processes. The arrow of time should make sense when thought of from both points of view. For the physics to have a time arrow, you might need to have time-asymmetric processes. On a large scale, we have these. Physical processes are only reversible across small distances. Traversing millions of light years, neutrinos and photons lose energy to the curvature of space, energy they wouldn’t get back if you bounced them off of a mirror and sent them back to where they came.

This is true for a uniform Big Bang universe (everything’s the same everywhere) and even more so for an information-based universe, which isn’t spatially uniform, with most of its collapsed matter hanging out in its smallish outskirts, making the collapsed outskirts much less transparent to neutrinos than the active center. Neutrinos are created through fusion in the active center and travel largely unimpeded to the outskirts. It’s a large-scale, one-way process. It doesn’t work in reverse.

Are large-scale one-way processes sufficient to propel the arrow of time? Does the arrow of time need to be propelled, or is the entire idea of the potential reversibility of time a misconception based on thinking of physics as a set of small-scale reversible processes? I don’t know.

Though small-scale individual physical events can be run in reverse without violating the rules of physics, events don’t happen in isolation. Events are part of moments. In our minds, moments are what we’re currently aware of. This might also apply to the universe itself, but even if not, a moment can be seen as what’s currently happening in the universe (from a particular vantage point or in the universe as a whole). Each moment contains information about the present, which includes information about the past (which contextualizes the present) and predictive constraints on the future. Each moment predicts its immediate future. An arrow is built in.

78. What about other scenarios with the possibility of a time-asymmetric process?

With regard to time, I think the biggest question is, if the universe is vastly, wildly ancient, with its Big Bang age only an apparent age, why does the universe look so precisely as if it had a Big Bang? The answer must have to do with the nature of information. (Or with me being wrong. But I’m not.) The active center of the universe is where new information is being formed. Protons entering the active center are new – either they’ve been created from neutrons in collapsed matter, or they’ve come from a soup of unstructured primordial matter around T = 0. (I picture space around T = 0 consisting of collapsed galaxies, separated by their Hubble/general relativistic vectors along with a large local gravitational constant, all suspended in a dense primordial soup.)

All the protons are new, though most of them are contextualized by the once-collapsed and now uncollapsing galaxies they’re part of. They all enter the active center from close to T = 0. The protons’ (and electrons’) interactions with each other puff up the space they share in what looks like a Big Bang. Galaxies don’t have to all enter the active center at the same time. Since all galaxies enter from close to T = 0, more recently lit-up galaxies look like they’re located in part of the universe that’s distant from us, so we’re seeing them earlier in their existence.

The proton interactions have to start from around T = 0. They have to create the space they’re in – the active center, which, as galaxies light up, expands like a Big Bang universe. The protons and their galaxies create information through a shared history that plays out in what looks like a Big Bang – they enter at the beginning of apparent time, and space expands around them.

Some conceptual trouble comes when galaxies burn out. They recede from the active center, which means they’re moving backwards in apparent time. I guess this is okay. Observers within a burned-out galaxy would see something like a Big Crunch, I suppose.

The apparent age of the universe could stay roughly the same for a very long time, as newly lit-up galaxies enter from near T = 0 and burned-out galaxies recede back towards T = 0. Or the apparent age can change as more or less business is done in the active center. You could have relatively few galaxies in the active center, with the universe kind of being asleep, or you could have a relative multitude.

79. Let’s summarize some of the back-and-forth from our discussion of informational cosmology. We’ve covered the equivalence of minds and universe; isomorphic operation and traits of minds and universe. Informational cosmology implies informational cosmogony and informational eschatology too. Brain/mind converging into armature/universe. Armature/universe constructing mind-spaces. Possibility of armatures/universes and respective mind-spaces extrapolated in positive magnitude without reasonable grounds for cessation.

You have some primary derivative constructs such as a series of little bangs in a neutron cycle rather than a single big bang for the universe, ultra-deep cosmic time, Hubble Redshift based on information, a flat universe (compared to open or closed). What are the primary elements of the physics you’ve presented here?

Information in the mind and information in the universe have strong structural and dynamic equivalences. The physics of the universe is analogous to information-processing in thought.

The optimal map of information within a mind-space or information-space has the same properties of the universe – same 4D space-time and same physics.

Consciousness is a technical property of wide-angle information-sharing.

The universe is probably conscious.

The universe extends across ultra-deep time, with the current 14-billion-year or so current unfolding of the universe being a single (computational) moment in a long series of such moments. (The universe can think about more than one thing at a time, and series of thoughts can continuously fade into each other, but shifts in what the universe has under consideration generally take billions of years.) The unfolding of the universe for what appears to be its apparent age is more or less the equivalent of a single thought. The universe thinks many, many thoughts across an ultra-deep span of time.

There’s an ongoing series of Little Bangs. The universe didn’t explode once, 14 billion years ago. It’s been on a rolling boil for a fantastic span of time.

Galaxies recycle, lighting up and helping for the universe’s active center, burning out and being pushed to the outskirts (around T = 0), and lighting up again when needed.

The apparent age of the universe is an indicator of the amount of information in the (active center of) the universe.

An information-based universe is essentially flat – it won’t expand to infinity or collapse to nothing. The size of the universe is proportional to the amount of information it contains.

An information-based universe appears to have Big Bang mechanics, with all galaxies’ (Hubble) expansion vectors apparently originating from a single point, and with a history of proton-mediated interactions stretching back to what is apparently the early universe. There was no Big Bang.

The Hubble redshift is due to the nature of information. Parts of the active center of the universe which have less to do with each other (less information in common) are more redshifted relative to each other.

80. In relation to particles, modern ideas such as dark matter and dark energy, gravitation and collapsed matter, Cosmic Background Radiation, and proton-electron mass ratio, what other elements come from informational cosmology?

The five persistent particles do most of the universe’s information-processing and memory-keeping. Other particles are largely helpers and bookkeepers.

Dark matter responsible for the flat galactic rotation curve isn’t exotic matter – it’s regular collapsed matter – neutron stars, blackish holes – which has survived previous galactic cycles. (There might be issues here with metallicity – heavy elements contained in stars – and absence of microlensing.)

Gravitation is most commonly seen as following the inverse-square law, but gravitation is informational, with the shape and scale of space determined by the distribution of and relationships among particles, which means that on the very largest scales, gravitation probably isn’t inverse-square. (It behaves as if there’s a cosmological constant.) This may also account for what looks like dark energy. (General relativity addresses the shape of space. It doesn’t have as much to say about the scale of space. (I think.))

Probably don’t need gravitons. The net result of other types of interactions (electrogmagnetic, the weak nuclear force – neutrino stuff) probably accounts for gravity without requiring special particles.

The Cosmic Background Radiation is noise/uncertainty. The more organized the active center is, the more CBR is attenuated.

The proton-electron mass ratio is proportional to the ratio of collapsed matter to non-collapsed matter. (Which means it might be proportional to the ratio of neutrons to protons (or, in the case of blackish holes, at least what look like neutrons when observed from outside the blackish holes).) Collapsed matter helps specify matter.

Collapsed matter contains memory of past interactions or other specification mechanisms such as processing of external information (within the collapsed matter).

81. Blackish holes equal universe’s memory. What about other astronomical objects? For instances, solar systems, gas giants, galaxies (e.g., barred spiral galaxies, elliptical galaxies, irregular galaxies, lenticular galaxies, ring galaxies, spiral galaxies, and so on), galaxy filiments, galaxy clusters, galaxy groups, galactic superclusters, quasars, blazars, seyfert galaxies, stars (e.g., A-type, B-types, F-type, G-type, K-type, L-type, M-type, O-type, T-type, peculiar stars, barium, neutron, hypergiants, and so on), stellar groupings, variable stars (e.g., pulsating variable, eruptive variables, cataclysmic variables, rotating variables, eclipsing binaries, and so on), circumstellar matter, accretion discs, star systems, meteoroids, interstellar medium, comets, satellites, stellar streams, asteroids, planets, intergalactic space, dwarf planets, cosmic microwave background radiation, proplyds, open/globular clusters, nebulae, and voids, what about possible novel astronomical objects?

Don’t think you get quasars without collapsed matter at the center.

Think there are a variety of collapsed matter structures – memory (mostly sits there), sensory information feeds (comes in semi-processed, is a spraying hose of information), reduced information feeds from semi-conscious to unconscious processors (in ourselves, walking, breathing). Also have leaky blackish holes – information goes in, gets lost forever – universe’s armature doen’t hold onto it. Would guess that any celestial objects behaving spectacularly are doing something interesting with information.

Also have to talk about the Cosmic Microwave Background, which is basically noise. By organizing itself, universe has managed to reduce its impact. It’s like three degrees? So it doesn’t have much power to cause heat-based disorder. If it were 100 degrees, it would make it harder for the universe to order itself – stuff would be getting randomly knocked around by stray photons.

Think that any aggregating celestial body is an incipient idea. Bodies coalesce, and as they boil down over billions of years, they become more sharply defined mental objects – representations of fork, cube, tire, movie cliche, messy 2010s hair, shininess, the letter B – lots of fairly specific mini-umbrella concepts. The concepts can feel kind of arbitrary – clustering is choosing. To form one classificatory concept is to preclude others (which doesn’t drive them out of existence, but which makes them less handily referenced, I suppose).

Black holes aren’t black – they’re blackish. Their crushing gravitational force isn’t as crushing as traditionally thought, because interactions among particles within the blackish hole reduce the scale of space.

Blackish holes store and process information. Most of this information is retrievable

The universe has three spatial dimensions because information is generally limited to holding open – specifying – three dimensions. (Specifying dimensions takes information. Information-in-common/not-in-common with the point of observation specifies the polar axis. Points with the same amount of information-in-common with the point of observation form a sphere (centered on the point of observation).)

The general mechanism for specifying matter and space is Hubble sorting of matter. That is, the more matter that has its own unique apparent velocity or acceleration vector away from other matter (and the greater the vector’s magnitude), the more precisely matter is located within space.

Photon flux keeps space open in the active center of the universe. (Alternately, virtual photons keep space open.) In essence, an array of Hubble-shifted protons keeps space in the active center open, making space extra voluminous via the specifying activity of interactions among charged particles. As protons and electrons cook down into neutrons, space starts to close up.

Neutrino interactions are time-asymmetric. (This is within the large-scale arena of the universe, but where else are they gonna interact?) Neutrinos are emitted in the active center through fusion, pass through the active center which is largely transparent to neutrinos, and are absorbed by the collapsed matter at the outskirts (where the neutrinos have been slowed down, increasing their capture cross-section, and where there’s a bunch of neutrons close together). Photon interactions are also large-scale time-asymmetric – they lose energy traversing great distances. You can’t run that in reverse and have photons pick up energy. Is this enough to specify the arrow of time? Seems like it. Does the arrow of time need to be specified? Probably – some large-scale framework needs to keep all the essentially reversible small-scale interactions in line.

Space seems organized to minimize the total distance traversed by particle interactions. And time seems organized to maximize the number of interactions per unit of time. (This is tricky, because the scales of space and time are self-determined, but still doable. In temporal terms, this means a distribution of events that’s as evenly spaced as possible. In spatial terms, it means efficient clustering.) The universe might also be arranged to maximally specify (predict, determine) the immediate future and/or to maximize the information obtained from the immediate future.

Universe as a whole doesn’t have to increase in entropy. Energy lost to the curvature of space is translated into increased order (via Hubble sorting).

Protons are units of potential correlation. They act as variables or dimensions, correlating via proximity. When two protons are so near to each other that they’re essentially perfectly correlated as a single variable, they fuse, locking down one of the protons as a neutron, with a single proton interacting via charge.

82. What about derivative fields in an information-based cosmology? How do they change? How does this effect fields such as formal sciences (logic, statistics, computer science, systems science, and mathematics), social sciences (anthropology, archaeology, criminology, sociology, psychology, and so on), natural sciences (biology, chemistry, earth sciences, and so on), humanities (linguistics, literature, arts, philosophy, religion, and so on), professions (law, education, divinity, and so on), and others amenable to the information-based program of research?

We can hope this fits into the tech boom which will empower people, make them less stupid, leave politicians in the dust. Of course that’s optimistic. But we’re at a 100-year low point in American politics. It has to get better, especially as people get less dumb. If it doesn’t get better, then America eventually ceases to be a first-world country and turns into a cowboy theocracy. Dozens of SF books present different versions of this, including Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale, Cory Doctorow’s and Charles Stross’s The Rapture of the Nerds.

Understanding that consciousness can be mathematicized is the last major conceptual hurdle to having programs that research all aspects of human physiology. Consciousness has been ignored for being too nebulous, too disconnected from the body. But to truly pursue immortality or even healthy extended living, we have to understand consciousness. Once we understand that consciousness is something we can aspire to work with, that opens up new research angles in what, up to now, has been brain research. Doing brain research without a mathematical model of consciousness is like trying to build computers and software without the benefit of display screens.

Impact on psychology: If you read a lot of brain research, you can get a pretty good idea of how thoughts are assembled. But a model of consciousness that specifically addresses how thoughts might play out in a mind-space gives you a bigger set of tools for observing thought. Minsky’s society of mind, built up from simple, mindless mental agents, is a good place to start. But you generally can’t observe your mind working at the agent level – they’re too small. You can, however, observe different perceptions and half-formed thoughts competing in your mental arena. I can observing my mind battling about whether I should get out of bed or get out of the tub. (Often, it takes me observing, “This lazy battle has been going on too long – I’m just gonna get out of the tub now” to get me out of the tub.) You can watch yourself telling yourself, “I knew that chair was there – why did I walk into it?” Truth is, part of your brain sensed the chair was there immediately before or just as you walked into it, but not soon enough to avoid the chair. You got your chair warning too late, but part of your brain misunderstands it as a timely warning and says, “I knew that was gonna happen.” Yeah, you knew it was gonna happen because it did happen, and chatter among parts of your awareness doesn’t come time-stamped. Anyhow, having a physics-based model of mind-space is very handy for understanding the mechanics of thought and memory and subconscious processing.

Impact on economics: In the next century, the world economy will get kicked in eight different directions. Among the things weirding-out the economy will be – accelerating pace of technological change, reduced cost of essential goods, in-home manufacturing, increasing population, destruction of the environment and massive clean-up and preservation projects, changing sources of energy, a biotech revolution, possible epidemics abetted by failure of antibiotics. The longevity business – selling extra years of healthy, somewhat youthful life – will become the biggest industry on earth. But uncoupling consciousness from the human body (beginning 40 to 60 years from now and becoming commonplace by the middle of the 22^nd century) will be more economically disruptive than all these other things. Almost all of our economy is involved with the physical needs of the body. Increasing numbers of people will choose to make some of these needs go away. We’ll have the human economy fading into the transhuman economy.

Impact on education and entertainment: Eventually we’ll have knowledge and expertise on-demand. To the extent that classroom learning continues to exist, it will be for socialization more than for academics. Information and entertainment will be piped into our heads with increasing directness.

You can read about this stuff in good near-future SF novels. Informational cosmology provides a mathematical framework which facilitates making consciousness transferrable, augmentable, fabricatable. It’s part of the science fiction world we pretty much know is coming, with a few unexpected technical/spiritual overtones.

83. What does it all mean?

We’re out of the habit of pondering metaphysical questions. The universe that science shows us seems to run without purpose. But…

The principles of existence allow for large structures – the size of our universe, at least – to exist. It’s not necessarily a deep, permanent existence – probably has a finite-though-enormous lifespan and can disappear without a trace. But…

Worlds that can exist, do exist, belonging to the set of allowed-to-exist worlds – a bunch of present moments. (We only know our present moment, and we don’t even know it in some super-deep sense. We only know things in a virtual, “as if we actually know it but we don’t, really” knowingness. However, each present moment contains statistically indisputable evidence of the past.) Nothing that we know of exists except in the form of a present moment. These moments can be seen to form chains in that each present moment contains information about past present moments and information that predicts future present moments. Does being part of these allowed worlds – belonging to this set of all that is – give us any sort of satisfying permanence? (I mean, we’re woven right into some immutable fabric of what is or can be.) Seems unlikely. This abstract permanence doesn’t satisfy any of our real needs – it’s just tokens in an abstract set. It doesn’t extend our existence beyond its natural, situational limits. But…

Persistent structures tend to persist. They may not last forever, but they might be able to last for any length of time short of infinity. Structures might be able to grow to any finite size. We’ve evolved to want to continue to exist. (Beings that don’t want to exist probably don’t persist so well.) Call that desire to exist the Persistence Project. Belonging to the Persistence Project means adhering to a set of non-nihilistic morals (which function to make continued existence more likely by avoiding destruction and chaos). We have evidence that the Persistence Project works – the universe itself is huge and old and likely to continue for a long time.

It’s almost a cliché that each scientific revolution takes humans farther away from the center of creation. Copernicus moves the sun to the center and kicks us to the side. Darwin descends us from fish and dwarfs human history with hundreds of millions of years of deep time. Hubble and Einstein locate us in Nowheresville in a vast universe. And if the universe is some fantastic multiple of tens of billions of years old on a rolling boil, then we’ve lost even the story of being witnesses to the grand unfolding of the big bang universe. There were a zillion unfoldings before us, and a zillion after. We’re a sub-blip in ultra-deep time. But…

If consciousness is a technical, not a mystical thing, if it’s associated with thorough sharing of information among specialized subsystems – modules – within a self-contained system of information, then it may be found in many places in the universe and may be an attribute of the universe itself. To me, this feels like a small victory versus the vastness of the universe (which keeps getting bumped up in size and duration). Consciousness may be the framework through which the universe perceives itself and exists is an information space.

(Humans have very jazzy, souped-up consciousness – emotionally charged, rich in special effects and value judgments and motivation to take action. Is a quieter consciousness, more of an observer than an actor, not wired for strong emotion, still conscious? That is, is the drama of amped-up consciousness responsible for the awesome, profound, feeling of undeniable existence and solidity of reality that we experience as consciousness? Is consciousness without emotion still consciousness? I think it is (though without oomph) and also think it’s hard to drain all emotion and value judgment from consciousness. A pure observer with no preferences is unlikely, and such an observer would still be conscious of what it’s perceiving.)

That we can reasonably assume that we share the property of consciousness with many entities throughout the universe can be seen as heartening. It’s the way entities do mental business. We each have our story of contending with the principles of existence. And, because persistent systems can be huge and old, we can assume that huge, old persistent systems have found adequate reasons to continue to exist. So, everything considered (including that we currently know approximately zero percent of what we will know), I have guarded optimism about the nature of existence.

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2023-01-28

Rick G. Rosner: Giga Society, Member; Mega Society, Member & ex-Editor (1991-97); and Writer (Part Six)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/11/15

ABSTRACT

Part six of eleven, comprehensive interview with Rick G. Rosner. Giga Society member, ex-editor for Mega Society (1990-96), and writer. He discusses the following subject-matter: organizations devoted to the moderately gifted ability sectors of the general population, few with provisions for the high, profound, exceptional, or ‘unmeasurable ability’ sectors, the possibility of proactive work by individuals and organizations, comparison with his own childhood to his daughter’s childhood, and extensive discussion on giftedness, giftedness in Los Angeles, and social guidance for the highly gifted; methods for the adult and senior gifted set to inculcate prosocial values in the young, commentary of Capitalism and failure of communism, and technological booms on the horizon with examples of 3D printing and biotechnology; increased awareness and commentary on bullying; message for kids undergoing bullying and general reflections on personal experiences and considerations of adaptive active approaches to the problem of bullying; active approaches with respect to parents, teachers, administrators, authority figures, and the wider community for support and encouragement; possible passive approaches and consolation; assisting others in their struggle with bullying; extreme cases of abuse for girls and boys, young men and women, and words for those feeling driven to extremes; commentary on the possibility of mean people becoming kind people, First Amendment, and Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE); possibilities of remaking the educational systems of the world; thoughts on global problems in the United States of America and some possible ways to solve them; interacting political, economic, religious, corporate, educational, and other systems in societies with reflections on the future; associations of the highest levels of ability with world-changing things; and responsibilities of the gifted population towards society and culture.

Keywords: administrators, bullies, bullying, corporate, economic, educational, First Amendment, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, gifted, Giga Society, Los Angeles, Mega Society, parents, political, religious, Rick G. Rosner, teachers, unfolding, United States of America, universe, writer.

56. Many organizations provide for the needs of the moderately gifted ability sectors of the general population, most often adults and sometimes children. However, few provide for the needs of children (and adults) in the high, profound, exceptional, or ‘unmeasurable ability’ sectors of the general population. Not to argue for the necessary disadvantage of the gifted population based on abilities and talents. A definite benefit over others in life. Even so, some organizations and societies provide forums, retreats, journals, intelligence tests, literature, or outlets for the highest ability sub-populations. No need to bore with a list best left to an internet search engine query. What can individuals, organizations, and societies do to provide for the gifted population? What argument most convinces you of the need to provide for this sector of society? In short, how can parents, mentors, educators, and policymakers assist the gifted population towards the appropriate resources?

Based on my childhood compared to my daughter’s childhood, I think that things are much better for the highly gifted than when I was a kid. Plenty of parents are on the lookout for giftedness in their children, and organizations will help them nurture it. This doesn’t mean that every super-high-IQ kid will be found or well-served. Affluent, well-informed, non-chaotic parents are more likely to notice and encourage giftedness, which still leaves a lot of smart kids who may need to be spotted by other people in their lives.

A nice thing about our current internet-centric culture is that a smart kid can find smart, entertaining things to do without too much effort. All of human knowledge is available via any keyboard (though so is all of human foolishness – the smarter we get, the more sophisticated our time-wasting diversions become).

In the 60s and 70s, it felt like there was frickin’ nothing. I should’ve taken more of the initiative in finding learning opportunities instead of watching endless crappy sitcom reruns, but I shared a certain laziness and complacency with the era. At the time, most people assumed just about everyone would turn out okay, educationally, with regular schooling. Back then, everyone I knew went to public school, and there didn’t seem to be pervasive concern over public education. Could be America, exhausted by Vietnam and Watergate and crappy cars and ugly color schemes (orange, brown and turquoise) and the first OPEC crisis, didn’t want to look for trouble where there didn’t seem to be any.

Today, with schools seeming much more broke and broken, skepticism about whether a kid is being adequately served comes more easily. It helps any kid to have an involved parent. On behalf of my daughter, my wife spent hundreds of hours researching and pursuing the enriched educational opportunities available through the Los Angeles public schools. LA public schools have great gifted programs, but because the school system is financially strapped, they can serve only a very limited number of students. Basically, you accumulate gifted program lottery tickets and hope your name is drawn for a program. We were lucky. Or your kid can get in by scoring 145 or higher on a group-administered IQ test, which is an iffy proposition for a first- or second-grader, no matter how gifted.

To serve very-high-IQ kids, first someone has to notice that a kid is smart. This generally happens when a kid shows extreme precocity or is disruptive in the classroom out of boredom, which makes me wonder if quiet, well-behaved prodigies are sometimes overlooked. (Luckily for me, I was a bored and obnoxious kid. If there had been specialized educational resources to give me, I would’ve gotten them.) At the very least, teachers and administrators should get a heads-up at some point in their training to be on the lookout for a once-in-a-decade kid. For parents who are wondering if their kid is super-smart, Googling “Is my child gifted?” returns a blizzard of information. A good book for figuring out what’s up with your possibly gifted kid is 5 Levels of Gifted, by Deborah Ruf . But ideally, every kid should be noticed, should have people and systems that understand his or her abilities and interests. Via digital devices, kids do more of their own educating than ever before. An up-to-date educational system, which should include lots of tech-heavy teaching resources, would build upon kids’ digital lives and individualize instruction. It’s counterproductive that the hours spent in school are the least tech-rich part of students’ day.

I know of a couple organizations which provide considerable support for gifted kids. The Institute for Educational Advancement has a variety of programs, including the Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship, which covers the costs of four years of school at any high school in the nation. They’ve just doubled the number of scholarships available, to 30 new recipients each year. You take the SAT and apply during middle school, so it takes some foresight, but it’s well worth it. The Davidson Institute for Talent Development has a bunch of programs and a directory of gifted resources throughout the country. Parents who think their kid is gifted should network online like crazy. So should teachers who suspect they have a gifted student who’s being overlooked.

In a way, we’re all highly gifted children who need guidance. Tech is giving us capabilities unheard of up to now – the instantaneous retrieval of detailed though not necessarily accurate information on any subject, constant communication with a wide circle of family, friends, and acquaintances, access to vast selections of entertainment. I mentioned the Flynn effect, but there’s also what could be called the Watson effect. Like Watson the Jeopardy! computer, we have access to all the knowledge in the world but need to develop the research skills and discernment to use it well. Compared to a smart person without access to the internet, a person with a smart phone could potentially have an effective IQ of 400. (Imagine Lewis Terman in 1921, testing the IQ of a time-traveling kid from 2032 who has a smart phone built into his head (with an internet connection that works across time). That kid would crush the test.) Of course, people with smart phones don’t have effective IQs of 400, because they’re tweeting clapping-hands emojis while almost getting clipped by an Audi in a crosswalk. Our entire civilization needs to adjust and embrace its genius, which we will, frustratingly slowly (along with a flood of high-tech foolishness – the greater the tech, the greater the sophisticated, time-wasting frivolity).

Besides intellectual and educational guidance, an ultra-smart kid might need social guidance. Growing up, I desperately could’ve used an older sibling to clue me in, socially. This is another thing the internet has made better, but there’s still no substitute for an older sister saying, “You’re wearing that? Ewww.” (Until high school, my mom helped me shop for clothes. In the Brady Bunch polyester 70s, this delivered mixed results. I eventually learned to avoid the wrong pants, at least, by wearing Levi’s to school every day, though I did commit a terrible mistake by making my jean cutoffs too long. Back then, they were supposed to cut off within about an inch and a half of your balls. Even the gym teacher made fun of me.)

57. From the vantage of the adult and senior gifted set, how might we inculcate prosocial values most net beneficial to both the gifted individual and society?

I believe that advantaged people should look for ways to increase equality of opportunity for everyone. We would never strive to completely flatten the playing field at the expense of every other cultural and economic consideration, but there’s a level of opportunity that helps entire nations flourish. Many economists say the current level of economic inequality in America is bad for the country, but we seem years away from any effective remedies. Our infrastructure and schools are dilapidated, and anti-science yahoos – social Darwinists who don’t believe in evolution – hold many of the reins of power.

We’re all a little (or a lot) boggled by tech, and this is only going to increase. We can hope that smart people will come up with smart ways to use tech or at least figure out ways to reduce stupid and dangerous uses.

Capitalism is a pretty good framework for maximizing the benefit of smart people to society. When smart people invent good things, they’re more often thinking, “Will people want this?” than “Will this help society?” The near future will be shaped by capitalism. Science fiction of the 1950s and 60s didn’t include much economics. Enormous spacecraft traveled the galaxy without discussion of who was financing the spacecraft. In modern SF, market forces pop up frequently. (Of course, right now in this country, a lot of powerful douchebags are putting a terrible face on capitalism – dicks who argue that taxes and regulations amount to tyranny and who often espouse anti-scientific views which can reduce the U.S.’s chances to continue to be a tech leader. I hope that a wave of tech growth sweeps away much of the current political stupidity. Politics that’s specifically designed for and targeted at dumb people is creepy and cynical.)

Regardless of politics, capitalism and investing will have increasing difficulty keeping up with the accelerating pace of change. It’ll be tough to invest in market sectors in which companies have life cycles of less than a year. Tech might eventually make some types of consumer goods so inexpensive, they’re virtually free. Tech will also reduce the amount of work available for people to do. So the consumer economy will get weird, and money may not have the same motivating force it does today. We won’t be living in Idiocracy, but neither will we be ruled by the Gordon Gekkos and Donald Trumps of the world.

Right now, Americans are in no mood to share. For 30 or 40 years, conservative think tanks have been studying how to hammer home the message of rugged individualism and entrepreneurial spirit. Some politicians have been successfully following the strategy of making people think that government doesn’t work by making sure that government doesn’t work.

The 20th century demonstrated the failure of communism. (Might it work if it weren’t in the hands of murderous dictators? Who cares – we’re not gonna do it.) So far, this century in America has demonstrated the danger of capitalism when moneyed interests get too much leverage over democracy. (Used to wonder if people voted against their own interests because they thought they were just a reality show away from being millionaires.) But democracy is resilient – we made it through other periods of political rancour and should make it through the current dysfunction, perhaps with the help of a rising tech economy. (Don’t even know why I’m going on about this; I have no particular political insight.)

I hope prosperity from tech makes people richer, smarter, more generous in spirit, and less able to be manipulated by the politics of dumbness. Under Clinton, we had a tech boom – we all thought we’d become millionaires via a website or an IPO – and things were good, but not because of politicians. Then the boom turned out to be a bubble. But we have tech booms on the near horizon – more digital stuff, biotech, 3D printing – and we can hope that the vitality they’ll pump into our economy will overwhelm stupid politics. Tech will give Americans increased wealth and autonomy if we can keep America educated and prosperous long enough for that to happen.

58. Most children have negative experiences. Not to argue for life in shelter from the world – grit counts. Even taking this into account, some experiences should seem across the board uncivil and fought against according to the context. Indeed, some experiences might devastate a child, even though some become more resilient. Bullying does have increased awareness. Individuals, families, authority figures, communities, and organizations work to solve the social issue more than earlier times. Do you have any general reflections on personal experiences with bullies?

Looking back on the bullying I received, I have two thoughts. One, it wasn’t that bad. I wasn’t that much of a wuss, my school wasn’t that bad, and I used my smartness to avoid some potential teasing and bullying by letting cool kids copy off of me. And two, I should’ve punched more people. The summer before ninth grade, I suffered some bullying at Jewish summer camp. Eventually, I realized that these bullies weren’t the cool kids at their school – they were just anonymous assholes. I was really offended – I wanted to be bullied by the best bullies, not a bunch of losers. So I decided to start punching anyone who dissed me – crunch! right in the cheek. I punched about half a dozen jerkwad kids. It was very satisfying.

59. What message do you have for kids suffering from bullying? What would you recommend for them on an interpersonal level to do for themselves? In short, what count among adaptive active approaches to the problem?

My advice to kids who are being bullied is several-fold.

Punch bullies, especially if you’re young enough – say, under 14 – to not suffer serious consequences for assault. Practice some punching at home, learn the most painful places to hit people, and then fly at ‘em. Go crazy – make them fear you. And don’t fear their punches unless they’re full-grown thugs. Kids who are afraid of fighting don’t realize that it doesn’t hurt that much to get punched by a 12-year-old. And even if it hurts, don’t stop to consider the pain – just keep punching and kicking. And fight dirty – bend a kid’s pinky back until it almost breaks. But only for the kids who really deserve it – the ones who shove your hard in the back or elbow you in the face – not the cute girl who gives you an “Ewww” look or the boy who calls you a spaz.

Look for books, movies and TV shows about abuse and bullying (not necessarily books that are complete downers, like Lord of the Flies). (Googling “bullying movies” returns a bunch of lists. A quick look at the movies on these lists reveals that most of them suck. The documentary Bully is supposed to be pretty good – haven’t seen it.) In many of these, the abuser continues to get away with it as long as the victim is completely intimidated. You can read and watch these things to see how the victim eventually quits being a victim or you can figure out what you’d do if you were in the victim’s place. Movies won’t offer a quick fix – they just get you thinking. The kid in Let the Right One In is bullied, and he makes friends with a vampire. That’s not really gonna work for you. (Great movie, though.)

Acquire some social skills – learn to co-exist with stupid dickheads. I had to learn social skills, Temple Grandin had to learn social skills, even people who aren’t bullied have to learn how to interact with other people. Depending on your situation, you can try some stuff such as not flinching, staring the bully down, taunting the bully – “Hey, Snagglepuss – still wetting the bed?” (Careful with this – you’re gonna get punched. But if you’re gonna get punched anyway, might be worth a shot – but only in front of an audience – you want people talking about how you made the bully look bad.) At the very least, make the small, easy moves to reduce your chances of being the target of bullies. Are you the only one walking around your middle school with a 50-pound book-stuffed backpack? Are you still wearing your glasses from second grade that are now too small for your face? Take a look at yourself and fix the easy stuff. I wish I’d had an older sibling to tell me how to be less of a geek. (I had some horribly geeky years in junior high – didn’t call it middle school back then – and this was before being geeky was somewhat accepted.)

Become badass. If you’re recalibrating yourself to make your social interactions less painful, there’s no reason you have to stop at just fading into the background. You can eventually become someone who’s intimidating and/or respected. Again, use your smarts and research skills to figure out the angles. As a smart kid, I tended to turn things into big projects. If that’s your proclivity, consider making a project out of turning yourself into a non-bullied person with some possible swagger.

Be aware of your surroundings and situations. Lots of bullying and rape involve hooking up and/or alcohol. Be prudent – be familiar with your hookups. Is he a rapey douche? Does he have a terrible girlfriend or ex-girlfriend who, along with her scummy friends, will go after you? Watch out for the kings and queens of the school – kids who, because of being rich or star athletes or super-popular, get a free pass to screw over other people. This kind of thinking is currently controversial, with people saying, “We shouldn’t be teaching people how not to be bullied or raped – we should be teaching people to not be bullies or rapists.” This is valid. At the same time, it’s dumb to put yourself at risk to make the point that in a perfect world, you should be free to casually do whatever you want. It’s not a perfect world.

Own yourself. Figure out what you like about yourself and embrace it. Doesn’t have to be much – could be that someday you’ll grow up and will be able to escape all the dickheads in your life. (There may always be dickheads, but at least you’ll be able to ditch these dickheads. Maybe what you like about yourself is also getting you bullied. You don’t have to change this stuff. You can decide how in-your-face you want to be, or you don’t even have to do that. You can simply be aware that you’re gonna be who you’re gonna be, and the bullies are headed for SadLifesville. You might be aware of It Gets Better, which tells LGBT teens that their lives won’t always suck because of the jerkfaces around them. This is true for LGBT people, but it’s also true for lots of other people. There are entire industries where the majority of people in these industries got a bunch of shit when they were kids – TV, movies, Broadway, fashion, design, video games. These are also industries where people get to have really cool lives.

Call bullies out. Don’t keep bullying secret. You shouldn’t be embarrassed – the bullies should. Some ongoing abuse depends on the victim keeping his or her mouth shut. Announce to your class what the bully did to you or sent to you. In front of other people, ask the bully why. “Is it because I’m effeminate / nerdy / fat / skinny?” (This is a tricky move. It can backfire.)

60. What about active approaches with respect to parents, teachers, administrators, authority figures, and the wider community for support and encouragement?

Document the abuse and what was done about it. If you get bruised or bloodied, take pictures. Keep a journal of what’s happened to you, along with a record of adults you talked to and what they did about it. If this becomes a “them versus you” thing, you want to be able to prove your case that they’re the abusers. Keep a record of online bullying – make a doc with all the terrible stuff in it, take screenshots. If other people, especially teachers or administrators, see you getting messed with, discreetly ask, “You saw that, right?” Clearly tell them what happened and keep a record.

Tattle, if it will get the bullies in trouble and not increase the bullying. If you’re in a position to screw over bullies by telling on them, do it! They probably won’t learn a lesson, but any punishment they get may make them feel bad for awhile.

Contact local news media. They love a good bullying story.

Sue people. Asshole kids often have asshole parents – make them feel some consequences. And go after lazy, incompetent, know-nothing administrators. There are great teachers and administrators, and there are lazy dumbshits. (One reason is, teaching doesn’t pay very well, so some teachers are very skilled and dedicated, with their love of helping kids overcoming the crap pay, while others are too incompetent and sluggardly to do anything else.) Also, this whole bullying thing is new territory for administrators who haven’t been paying attention. Often their natural reaction to a problem is to downplay or ignore it. As a group, teachers have about the lowest standardized test scores among all the professions. If you reach out to school administrators about bullying, odds are good that you’ll be dealing with at least one idiot. This shouldn’t stop you. Idiots can be brought around, and you’re helping the idiot do a better job on behalf of the next bullied kid.

Do research. With the internet, bullying is different now – some of the worst bullying is online. I want to tell you to use your smarts to destroy people online – to tell mean girls their futures with horrific specificity, the way the Albert Brooks character cursed bullies with a prediction of their futures in Broadcast News. But that’s probably not a good move. It leaves a record, and you could be outmaneuvered and made to look like you’re the bully or at least an evenly matched opponent. Instead, use the internet to research what other people have found to be effective against bullies. And go online to reach out to other bullying victims and anti-bullying organizations.

Play the victim. Can you make a reasonable case that what’s been happening to you has affected you emotionally? Play that card if you think it’ll help – people are ready to listen. Visit your school counselor. Ask to see a therapist. Maybe get a diagnosis – PTSD, being on the autism spectrum. (I don’t know the politics of this. Seems like a diagnosis of mild autism might help make the bullies look extra bad for picking on someone who’s officially handicapped, but I don’t know.

Team up. If you’re not the only one who’s getting messed with, get the testimony of other victims. You might have to build a case to present to ass-covering, confused, overworked, often not-smart administrators. Officials have an amazing ability to not see what’s right in their face if it’s inconvenient. The more people you can put in their face, the more likely they are to take you seriously. Other people may be reluctant to come forward. Doesn’t mean you can’t mention them to the administrator, along with the phrase, “class-action lawsuit.”

With bullying, there’s a lot of stuff you can try, but most of it isn’t easy. There are conditions in place which help bullies get away with it. But you’re smart – you can examine the situation to see what can be changed and what resources can be applied to make it less easy for the bully.

61. What about adaptive passive approaches and consolation over time?

Be happy that you’re not the bullies. They’re probably going to be miserable, dickish people for the rest of their lives. Sometimes the best revenge is not being the people you hate.

Sometimes little dipshits grow up to be fine people. Trying to figure out who truly sucks and will suck forever is tricky, but that’s part of what school is for. American schools were designed to be abridged versions of adult life. You don’t go to school just to learn academic subjects – you go to learn how to deal with people.

Give it time and put it in perspective. Sometimes what nerds perceive as bullying is perceived by bullies as harmless goofing around, and sometimes the truth is somewhere in the middle. Analyze your bullies – are they truly malevolent, or do they just have a stupid idea of fun? Are they focusing on you in an evil way, or are they just generally causing trouble? Is there a way for you to join in the stupidity instead of making enemies out of them? I’m not saying to go along with evil, but if it’s just messing around, you might be able to work with it. On the other hand, truly evil little assholes are good at disguising their evil as harmless fooling around.

62. How about helping others undergoing it?

Stand up for other people. Bullies know that giving people shit is fun. If you see someone being a bully, you can give them shit – it’s like a free pass to mess with someone. (This is an advanced move. There could be some unpleasant consequences.)

63. What about the extreme cases of abuse for girls and boys, young men and women, what do you recommend for them? Any words for people who feel driven to extremes?

Don’t go overboard (and don’t decide to hate everyone). No one ever thinks a kid who strikes back with extreme violence is a hero. They’re always thought of as psycho losers, probably even to themselves. People who go on a spree of destruction find no good fame – they’re monsters and creeps for as long as they’re remembered (which isn’t that long, because yuck). There’s no joy in over-the-top vengeance – you’ve let the bullies win by driving you to brutality. You can play the game better than that.

Start over somewhere else, if that’s an option. Are you completely screwed in your current situation? Will you never be able to overcome a loser-ish reputation or the enmity of jerks at your current school? Then switch schools before it’s too late. (Or you can do home schooling for awhile. It may not stop all bullying, but it’ll at least reduce the face-to-face bullying, unless the bullying is happening at home.) I was too chicken to move when I should’ve, right at the beginning of high school. (Because of my parents’ divorce, I had families in two different towns – it wouldn’t have been that tough for me to relocate.) Kept thinking I could improve my standing among the kids I’d grown up with. It wasn’t horrible for me, but I wanted a girlfriend, and there was little chance, given how nerdy I’d been and how Ryan Gosling I still wasn’t. It gets better, but it sucks wasting years in a situation that’s not gonna get much better.

64. What about in defense of, and reflections on, those capable of changing their socially maladaptive, and abusive, behaviors? In other words, your thoughts on the chances for change. The opportunity in life of the mean becoming kind people. Sometimes definitions of ‘bully’ and ‘bullying’ can seem too elastic in which any behavior of dislike by a purported recipient becomes grounds for claims of bullying.

In particular, many university environments stating the first amendment within your own country seem to fail to live to some of these standards. The First Amendment to the American Constitution seems most relevant, which states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” [Emphasis added] Some organizations, e.g. Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) under the Presidency of Greg Lukianoff, assist those in need of advisement. This assists prosecutors and defendants, i.e. those without experience in the litigation process of arraignments, trial proceedings, and verdicts.

An issue clichéd into the initialism ‘PC’ (Politically Correct) becomes the basis for some of these organizations and universities in coarse analysis. Even extreme restrictions, increasingly common, the creation of ‘free speech zones’ on campus for students to speak without restraint or the phenomenon of ‘speech codes’ – sometimes limits in zone area and stipulations on speech to such an extent as to merit laughter, let alone the sheer existence of them.

Forms of ‘benign bullying’ – for want of a better phrase – or norm-keeping can work to build community, sustain professional standards, prevent unwanted advances of sexual harassers and aggressors (men and women), and provide consistent norms along the spectrum of appropriate-inappropriate social behavior. In short, assertive standard setting based on context without violating US citizens’ privileges. Of course, in an academic environment, ideological and intellectual norms need questioning for a vibrant, i.e. meaningful, university education. Likewise and further, this moves into the broader societal milieu.

I was bullied sometimes as a kid. In college, an aggressive girlfriend came close to being a bully, and for years, I was the adult recipient from a bully of abuse in the workplace. (It was disheartening to be bullied even though I used to be able to (sloppily) bench press 300 pounds, but of course bullying doesn’t have to be based on physical dominance. Sometimes it comes from a simple willingness to be a dick, especially if dickish behaviour gets you what you want.)

Some bullying I was able to stop, and some I had to live with (at least that’s what I told myself). No matter how long ago the bullying happened, it still makes me mad. (I want to time-travel back to 1973 and body-slam the gym teacher who lined up everybody in class and went down the line slapping us, just for fun. But anger can be positively motivating – I’ve been lifting weights for nearly 40 years.) On the other hand, I’ve been in situations in which everyone gave everyone else (well-intentioned) shit, and it was great – fun and actually helpful, spotlighting areas in which I could do better.

As with a lot of characteristics, people come in a range of niceness, with most people being averagely nice, and a few people being saints or complete monsters. Similarly, the amount of change people can undergo covers a range from no change to radical change. Part of growing up is realizing there’s a chance that any given person could be (or could turn into) a despicable shit or worse, and defending against that possibility.

After high school, most people eventually put themselves in situations that confirm their worldviews and that don’t often challenge them. This lets people think of themselves in positive terms – as smart and good and competent, even brave. People who are in favour of pretty rotten things like tearing down the social safety net in support of Ayn Randian social Darwinism build information bubbles which allow them to think of themselves as rugged iconoclasts making hard but necessary choices. (BTW – don’t confuse social Darwinism – every man for himself, devil take the hindmost – with Charles Darwin. Social Darwinism is a facile and self-serving bastardization of his thinking.)

I returned to high school as a student a few times after graduation, and among the reasons were that I think people in high school are generally nice. Yeah, we think of high school as a place of vicious social struggle, but that’s more often middle school. In high school, students mostly don’t have to support themselves, so there’s often less economic desperation than in adult life. (Don’t get me wrong – there are plenty of students who are fully aware of their family’s desperate circumstances.) And students haven’t yet settled into their adult lives and personas and like to think of themselves as good people. Later, adulthood starts kicking their asses. Is it possible for people to become nicer as adults? Sure. But the general trend is to become more politically conservative with age. (When you’re young, it’s not your money, so yeah – spread it around. When you’re older, you turn to Fox News.)

You can look for positive change among people who were part of an aggressive pack – mean girls, jocks – but are now free of the pack. Sometimes the pack contains members who aren’t naturally vicious but are just going along. Of course, this doesn’t apply to every single pack member – some might be dicks for life.

65. If you could, how would you change the educational systems of the world? In particular, how would you change the educational system to provide for the needs of the gifted population?

Education needs to become more individualized by using more tech. Hours spent in school shouldn’t be the least information-rich hours of the day. Great teachers are still needed, but not all teachers are great, and a lot of school systems are underfunded. (In California, where I live, Proposition 13 limiting property taxes has left public schools strapped for money since 1978. Affluent parents send their kids to private schools or use elaborate strategies to get their kids into limited spots in good public school programs.) Internet-based aids to instruction could be an inexpensive way to help make up for less-than-great teaching.

In middle school, my daughter took an online math course, which kind of sucked. But online courses don’t have to suck. Online courses need to look more like what people do online for entertainment. That doesn’t mean adding some half-assed animated, talking algebra symbols. I hope that market forces eventually bring good people and good tech to education.

To help gifted kids, we need educational tools that help everyone. Now more than ever, a wide range of people have the potential to be gifted. A kid doesn’t need a 160 IQ. She needs some combination of curiosity, motivation, and ability to find information and other resources. Among the next generations of gifted, successful people will be those who are able to amplify their natural abilities with smart use of tech. Our brains and bodies will become more intimately linked with more and more powerful technology. (People wear fitness bracelets now. In the future, people will wear bracelets which tell them what nutrients to ingest and which will eventually administer drugs as needed. I imagine that a wearable drug-administration system which strictly regulates blood sugar and other factors might slow aging by 30 percent. Google Glass may never take off, but people will eventually have some form of wearable brain butlers to constantly augment their reality with helpful information (and distracting fun stuff).)

Perhaps schools will eventually have navigators who would be like a combination of counselor and teacher, to help guide students through our new world of tech and information. Students are already skilled at social media, typically better than adults. (My wife tells me it doesn’t go by “social media” anymore – now it’s just “social.”) Among other things, navigators could help students adapt their social media skills for learning, researching, and professional networking. (I can see the school navigator being hopelessly behind the times – a walking dial-up modem. But it wouldn’t have to be that way.)

How about this? – a tax deduction for online mentoring. Experts in all fields (and some non-fields) make themselves available for online consultation with qualified students and get to deduct $25 an hour from their tax bill for each hour of mentoring up to a total of 8 or 10 hours a year.

One way to help millions of talented kids would be to build an online college admissions concierge. So many things go into college admissions – grades, test scores and test prep, high school course selection, activities, essays, selecting colleges to apply to, financial aid and scholarships, college tours…. Information about all this stuff often has to be gathered from a bunch of different sources, and often this information is incomplete or comes too late. It helps to have involved, knowledgeable parents and attend a private school with a quality college admissions department. Most kids don’t have this.

It wouldn’t be fantastically tough to build an online portal (obsolete term) to everything about prepping for college. Kids set up an account towards the end of middle school, entering grades and interests and test scores, and get personalized advice that carries them through high school. Every kid would get basic automated services. More deluxe services could be provided for a fee. Right now, kids obsessed with getting into college (and their parents) share information on CollegeConfidential.com, but it’s hit-and-miss and not easy to navigate. There should be something more organized. Rich families often pay an admissions specialist the equivalent of a year or more of college tuition to help their kid through the process. (There’s a guy who charges $600,000 and more to get your kid into a top Ivy League school. If your kid doesn’t get in, you get $200,000 back.)

All talented kids, not just rich ones, deserve some guidance towards college – it’s consistent with the idea of America being a meritocracy.

66. What global problems do you consider most important at the moment? What about problems in the United States of America? How would you solve them?

A major problem will be how well we can build a workable society around the huge and accelerating changes in tech. There are some signs we haven’t been doing so well – our use of devices in dangerous and inappropriate places makes us look like idiots. Via the internet, millions of willfully ignorant people reinforce each other’s stupid beliefs and are manipulated by clever, horrible people. But there are other signs that we’re adapting to tech and living more intelligently in a smarter, better-informed world. (Just guessing – not sure I see those signs.)

Politically, the U.S. is in bad shape. But our system of government is resilient. A period of tech-driven growth would go a long way towards showing Americans that things don’t have to suck and that you don’t have to base your politics on accusing the other side of making things suck. It would help if the government would support research and innovation instead of denying evolution and global warming.

At the University of Colorado, I heard Professor Al Bartlett’s lecture on the danger of exponential population growth more than once. I agree that many of the world’s problems are associated with or made worse by our increasing population. But I don’t think this will crash civilization.

It’s easy to imagine an impending apocalypse, in part because they’re easy to imagine. So many lazy TV shows and movies are set in a future post-apocalyptic world. Post-apocalyptic landscapes are cheap and don’t require much imagination. It’s much harder to try to picture a non-apocalyptic future in all its aspects. Only a few authors are any good at it – Neal Stephenson, Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow.

The world isn’t getting worse. It’s easy to imagine current problems exploding into disaster, and there will be localized disasters and worldwide challenges that verge on catastrophe. But standards of living are rising, and our understanding of the world and our tools for dealing with it are getting better. Social media makes it harder for criminal regimes to hide their crimes and easier to organize in opposition. Wider access to information and communication is a powerful force against ignorance and for helping people decide that they have a stake in the modern world.

The rate of population growth needs to decrease, which it’s been doing, going from more than two percent per year in the 1960s to just over one percent today to a projected half-percent a year by 2050.

I’m hopeful that, by the end of the century, the world will transform into if not a technological wonderland, then at least a more livable place for most people, rather than the squalid dystopias of Blade Runner also hopeful that economics and tech will be the agents of positive change, rather than having to rely on people not to behave selfishly and stupidly.

With that in mind, it would be great for the U.S. to be a more tech-friendly place. I’m hopeful that Americans are largely tech-friendly, and anti-science dolts are getting disproportionate media coverage.

Over the next century, I suppose our most urgent task is not to let people stay stupid. (This includes learning to manage the rising flood of information and nonsense bombarding us.) There are more than 40 million adult Americans who are in the bottom 20% in intelligence, and some very creepy people have spent a lot of time and money learning how to manipulate them.

Right now in America, gerrymandering is a huge problem, making for some of the worst politics and politicians since the Civil War. (And it doesn’t help that two Supreme Court justices are crazy dickheads with an apparent vendetta against regular Americans.) We can hope that demographics and sheer revulsion at the current political situation will gradually fix this. And government will gradually become less important as tech increases individual autonomy. But we have 320 million people in this country, and we need some government. We deserve roads that don’t destroy our cars and schools to which we’re willing to send our kids. Not suggesting any radical new form of government – just saying it would be nice to have the government work the way it did before it was broken.

67. Generally, many interacting systems operate in societies: political, economic, religious, corporate, educational, and so on. If you could build and run a society, how would you do it?

I’m not cut out to tell people how to run the world. (About 2,500,000 internet trolls are eager to provide advice.) But I will suggest that we look for ways to minimize the turmoil of rapid technological change. That includes making it unattractive to join tech-phobic reactionary forces that would rather tear down the world than embrace change. The benefits of technology need to be convincingly presented to people in all societies, along with the message that they can share in its benefits rather than be screwed over and exploited by it.

My general, not-well-thought-out feeling is that if we can keep the world from getting too pissed-off, economically and politically, for the next 50 to 80 years, advancing technology and increasing standards of living will make life better for just about everyone. (Food, clothing and other necessities and non-necessities should continue to get cheaper – 1901: food and clothing use up 60% of US consumers’ income; 2002: 17%.) Poor countries have to feel they’re participating in tech-driven economic boom. Which means, among other things, we have to avoid undue influence by short-sighted, psychopathic pricks who think that any money not going to them is theft from them – the everyone for himself, except for tax breaks and subsidies for me, Ayn Randians.

People aren’t good at thinking about the future, which made sense back when the world didn’t change very much. Your parents were farmers, you’re a farmer, your kids and their kids will be farmers. Not anymore. (1790: farmers are 90% of US labor force, 1860: 58%, 1900: 38%, 1940: 18%, 2000: 1.9%) Now vast changes take place within single lifetimes and even within half-decades; in 2009, only teen girls were texting obsessively. Movies and TV shows consistently get the future wrong. The movie Her (the one where Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with Scarlett Johansson the cell phone) seems to present a pretty reasonable future, mostly because it kept its scale and the time-jump small.

We should be doing a lot more thinking about the next 50 to 100 years. Many of us will still be alive a century from now, due to new tech (and if we’re not, it might also be due to new tech). Our entertainment should strive to present less lazy, more thought-out versions of the near future, not just robot cops.

68. Individuals might associate the highest levels of ability with certain specialized activities. For examples, construction of a grand theory of everything (e.g., Albert Einstein, General & Special Relativity, Sir Isaac Newton, The Universal Law of Gravitation), a great discovery in genetic science (e.g., Francis Crick and James Watson, Double-Helix Structure of DNA), the solution of a major mathematical problem (e.g., Andrew Wiles, Fermat’s Last Theorem Solution, or Grigori Perelman, Poincaré Conjecture), musical compositions (Johann Sebastian Bach, Goldberg Variations, Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony 6, 7, and 9, Hammerklavier Sonata, Missa Solemnis, Richard Strauss, Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks and Burleske), creation of a new field of research (John Von Neumann & Oskar Morgenstern, Game Theory), a revolution in medical science (Edward Jenner, Vaccinations), foundational scientific theories in biology (Charles Darwin, Origin of Species), comprehensive works of philosophy (Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, and coauthored with Alfred North Whitehead, Principia Mathematica), foundational research in linguistics (Noam Chomsky, Syntactic-Structures), revolutionary production on philosophy of language (Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus), mastery of performance arts (Richard Pryor, Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979), Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip, and Richard Pryor: Here and Now, Leonard Alfred Schneider AKA Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, FM & AM, Jammin’ in New York, and Life is Worth Losing), work in cryptography and computer science (Alan Turing), work in espionage (Mata Hari AKA Eye of the Day), virtuosity with classical European musical instruments (e.g., Yehudin Menuhi with Violin, Glenn Gould, Martha Argerich, and Evgeny Kissin with Piano, Russell Oberlin with voice, Mstlislav Rostropovich with Cello), great lyrical productions (Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Shawn Corey Carter AKA Jay-Z, Reasonable Doubt, The Blueprint, or The Black Album, Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones AKA Nas, Illmatic, and Eric Barrier & William Michael Griffith Jr. AKA Eric B. & Rakim Allah, Paid in Full), theological productions (Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, and Saint Augustine of Hippo,The City of God), or foundational theological arguments (Saint Anselm of Canterbury/Aosta, Ontological Argument), the creation of a massive social movement (Mahatma Ghandi, Revolution Devoted to Non-Violence), an obsession in a single intellectual sport (Bobby Fischer, Chess), a major work of literature (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust), major works in ethical, political and social philosophy (Plato, The Republic, and John Stuart Mill, On the Subjection of Women and Utilitarianism), a great work of art (Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, Pablo Picasso, Guernica, Michelangelo, Pieta and Sistine Chapel, Vincent Van Gogh, Cafe Terrace at Night, Jan Vermeer, The Girl with a Pearl Earring, Caravaggio, Inspiration of St Matthew, and Claude Monet, Water Lilies), earning tremendous amounts of wealth (Bill Gates, Microsoft, or Warren Buffet), adumbrated work in media theory (Herbert Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, The Medium is the Message: An Inventory of Effects, and The Global Village: Transformations in World Life and Media in the 21st Century),revolutionary psychiatric work (Timothy Leary, LSD in Psychiatry experiments and Concord Prison Experiment), engineered inventions (Bucky Fuller, Geodesic Dome, Dymaxion Map and Car, and Synergetics), calculation and extrapolation of technological trends (Raymond Kurzweil, The Law of Accelerating Returns), dual Nobel Prizes (Marie Skłodowska-Curie, John Bardeen, Linus Pauling, or Frederick Sanger), or some other revolutionizing idea/production/practice. Provided these and many other unstated examples, do you consider the association accurate? What about the tendency of underachievement or underutilization of abilities in the gifted community? What can people do to alleviate this?

Smart people want to do world-changing things. Many get side-tracked. It’s like sports – not everyone who wants to play in the NBA gets to.

Starting early in life, people do a lot of self-selection based on perceived skills. With nerdy people, sometimes there’s a nice agreement between geniusy interests and skills, almost as if in compensation for social awkwardness. (Not telling you anything new; everybody’s familiar with the awkward, brainy nerd type.)

The sidetracking of smart people into intellectual enclaves might serve to make society more stable. What if every supergenius suddenly decided to go into real estate? It’s likely normal real estate practices would be highly disrupted, and non-supergenius Realtors might have a hard time keeping up.

A combination of factors nudges nerdy people towards mentally demanding activities – having appropriate the skill set, the pleasure of being good at something, other people’s expectations (“You’re so tall – do you play basketball?), the desire for recognition, curiosity, a tendency towards mental flexibility and introspection prompted by not being perfectly at home in the world. Who’s gonna be more creative – the perfectly adjusted straight jock, or the gay guy who had to strategically think his way through every day of the mine field of middle school? (This isn’t entirely fair – there are plenty of wildly creative straight jocks – Matthew Barney and Jeff Koons come to mind – but still….)

Social skills are kind of the icing on the cake of mental development. If everything goes well, you end up with a kid who can fairly easily learn the demanding task of social interaction. But if any of a hundred things goes wrong with brain development, various mental subsystems aren’t adequately integrated, and you don’t get easy social understanding. Come to think of it, this suggests that consciousness – thorough mental integration – is especially important in interpersonal interaction. This doesn’t mean that people on the autism spectrum aren’t conscious. But it may suggest that the components of their consciousness are weighted differently from Frat Boy Joe’s.

Having smooth social skills might be at the expense of profound gifts. There are many well-known examples of people with social challenges who have astonishing eidetic memories or math skills or sculptural ability.

Everyone’s familiar with stereotypical Asperger’s behavior. I think the entertainment industry in which I work is packed with people who have reverse Asperger’s. They have highly developed social skills, which can exact a price. When you can always make friends or hook up or get what you want with charisma, you might not value relationships and may leave a trail of burned bridges. Because social success comes so easily to people with reverse Asperger’s, they may have never learned to do hard things – telling people “No,” for instance. (People in entertainment are notorious for not saying no straight out – it’s painful to disappoint someone. Instead, it’s a “Yes, maybe,” followed by a declining rate of returned phone calls.)

Now, about underachievement or under-utilization of abilities in the gifted community – humans’ evolutionary niche is to spot exploitable regularities in the world. (It’s every animal’s niche, but we really specialize in it.) Some humans are better at spotting patterns than others. Some are more obsessed with and sidetracked by pattern-spotting, sometimes at the expense of real-world skills such as career and relationship success.

Plus, the unsuccessful smart person is a media trope. “Hey – look at the genius who lives in weird squalor.” Schadenfreude. Success isn’t perfectly correlated with intelligence. There are plenty of not-traditionally-successful people at all levels of intelligence. It’s just more exciting to see the smart ones.

What can we do to help make gifted people more successful? Show them the landscape, and let them make informed choices about whom they might like to try to be. We’ve talked about informed will being more important than free will – gifted people should know their options. Growing up, I desperately needed an older sibling (which I didn’t have) to tell me what’s what in junior high and high school. My stepdad tried, but I didn’t respect him until much later, and he didn’t help me understand the social benefits of doing normal guy things.

Back when I was pitching TV shows in the 90s, one of my ideas was a makeover show for nerds. In each episode, an expert panel would help a nerd to examine his life and decide what he wants to keep and what he wants to get rid of in the interest of social success. Keep the room full of pristine Star Wars action figures, but maybe drop 50 pounds and get some new clothes. But it’s not 1998 anymore, and it’s much more acceptable to be a nerd. Nerds and nerdettes are hooking up all over the place without being made over. It’s a little frustrating – I could’ve used some nerd acceptance back in 1974.

69. In turn, what responsibilities do the gifted population have towards society and culture? Why do you think this?

I don’t think gifted people spend much time thinking about what they can give to society (and may not even think of themselves as gifted or at least pretend they don’t). Many highly gifted people are compelled to single-mindedly pursue their visions and objectives at the expense of almost everything else. I don’t know about telling art to behave for society’s sake – don’t think it works like that.

However, I do think that gifted people don’t get a pass to act like dicks just because of their giftedness. Many gifted people have terrible behavior, but so do many non-gifted people. Often, the fame associated with their gifts gives them increased opportunity to engage in bad behavior. And sometimes their gifts have made them a little nuts.

But it’s really stupid to act out sexually in an era with virtually unlimited internet pornography. Having affairs, especially with terrible people – and affair-having is correlated with being terrible – generally doesn’t turn out well. Sending pictures of your penis to women never works out, unless your objective is to be ridiculed and punished and have your life reduced to a shambles. Messing around extracurricularly with people in the flesh just seems so old-school, so 68-year-old Senator dumping his second wife.

What I’m saying is, if you’re in a marriage or long-term relationship that doesn’t have major problems, make do with the images you can find online. Don’t scuttle everything for a half-dozen intimate encounters with some asshole. And don’t tell yourself that being true to your gift doesn’t leave you with sufficient control over the rest of your behavior to avoid trouble. But this is coming from a guy who’s always had such lousy game with women that such opportunities never come up.

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2023-01-28

Rick G. Rosner: Giga Society, Member; Mega Society, Member & ex-Editor (1991-97); and Writer (Part Five)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/11/08

ABSTRACT

Part five of eleven, comprehensive interview with Rick G. Rosner. Giga Society member, ex-editor for Mega Society (1990-96), and writer. He discusses the following subject-matter: mathematics and physics, logic and metaphysics, mutual interrelationships, digital physics and “informational cosmology,” consciousness grounded in informational cosmological definitions of “self-consistency” and “information processing,” identification of minds within universe with consciousness, interrelation between minds and universe, subcategorizations of self-consistency and information processing based on interpretations and definitions, Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor, logic,Law ofIdentity, Lawof Non-Contradiction,Law of the Excluded Middle, Plato,Theaetetus,The Republic, Aristotle,Metaphysics, “laws of thought,” Wilhelm Gottfried von Leibniz,Leibniz’ Law,Law of Reflexivity, Law of Symmetry, Law of Transitivity, set theory, Kurt FriedrichGödel, Saint Anselm of Canterbury, On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems (1931),incompleteness theorems, Boolean Algebra (foundational for digital electronics), George Boole, “Boolean Heresies,” An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854), physics, Novikov Self-Consistency Principle, time-travel, computer science, database management systems, Jim Gray (1981), ACID or ‘Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability’, “self-consistent” or “self-consistency” as “system without self-contradiction,” information theory, Claude Elwood Shannon, A Mathematical Theory of Communication (1948), Warren Weaver, The Mathematical Theory of Communication, examples of information processing, application of information theory to information cosmology, reflection of the deep equivalences, clarification of armature of universe and universe, and the rich refinement of digital physics into informational cosmology; definition of universe as the entirety of matter and space; definition of the interrelation of mind and universe based on a personal query from 1981, each mind having structure and rules akin to universe, different manifestations of the same structure at vastly different scales for universe, and the non-mystical/technical nature of the definition; informational cosmogony, cosmology, and eschatology apply to origins up to the present until the resolution of universe, construction of a metric for individual local and global consciousness, mathematical operation of universe with a quote from Eugene Wigner, armature of universe, speculation on descriptors of armature for universe, a response to Wigner quote with Einstein, and speculation on external universes and respective armatures from our universe; thoughts on the disparaging nature of the commentary on consciousness; survival advantages of consciousness, commentary on evolution and consciousness, and the possible role for consciousness in evolution; statistical likelihood of localized consciousness within universe and globalized consciousness of universe, and the ‘Statistical Argument for Existence’, and further commentary on it; thoughts on reactions to grand claims made about the structure of thought and universe, and brief comments; Aristotelian foundational empiricism, natural philosophy, methodological naturalism, rationalism, empiricism, inductivism, Ockham’s Razor, consilience, falsificationism, verificationism, hypothetico-deductivism, Bayesianism, and epistemological anarchism; reflections on religious/irreligious conceptions of an afterlife such as reincarnation (with/without karma), heaven and hell, oblivion, nirvana, union with the divine, and the whole suite of possibilities for an afterlife, and in particular their truth value; and general thoughts on religion.

Keywords: armature, computer science, consciousness, evolution, faith, falsificationism, Giga Society, heaven, hell, information processing, informational cosmogony, informational cosmology, informational eschatology, irreligious, karma, law of non-contradiction, logic, mathematical, Mega Society, metaphysics, nirvana, Novikov Self-Consistency Principle, physics, predictions, probabilities, religion, Rick G. Rosner, science, self-consistency, universe.

45. We discussed mathematics and physics, logic and metaphysics, consciousness and its subcategories, and these conceptualizations’ mutual interrelationships. In particular, refinement of digital physics into “informational cosmology.”

Furthermore, in informational cosmological nomenclature, your definition of consciousness divides into and emerges from two broad ideas: self-consistency and information processing. In brief review, we have identification of minds within universe with consciousness, universe with consciousness, and the interrelation of mind and universe based on isomorphic function and characteristics. What beyond this introductory realization of the equivalence? I observe multiple arenas of common discourse – let me explain.

From an informational cosmological foundation, the hyphenated term “self-consistency” and phrase “information processing” divide into further subcategorizations. These subcategories have constraints from definitions. “Self-consistency” and “information processing” contain various definitions because of differing interpretations, but technical and concrete definitions hold most import here.

As a general primer to “self-consistency” – which might have less decipherability than “information processing,” we can begin with this informational cosmology expression “self-consistency.” German mathematician and founder of set theory (fundamental theory for mathematics),Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor, defined self-consistency as the inability to derive both the statement and negation of the statement at the same time. Cantor argued, if deriving the statement and its negation, the derivation would self-contradict. (One can transform this into more formal set theoretic language about elements contained in sets – or the language of mathematics, self-consistency holds great weight for mathematicians, and logic, see Law of Non-Contradiction below.)

Self-consistency does have other theoretical universes of discourse in addition to multiple practical and applied venues of human venture: logic, set theory, mathematics, physics, computer science, and many others.

In logic, the Law of Identity (A equals A), Law of Non-Contradiction (A cannot equal not-A), and Law of the Excluded Middle (For all A: either A or not-A)all introduced – informally & implicitly by Plato inTheaetetus &The Republicand formally & explicitly by Aristotle inMetaphysics– in ancient Greece. Sometimes called “laws of thought.” These delineate facets of self-consistency expressed in the formalisms and vernacular of logic. For one similar vein, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz derived Leibniz’ Law,‘x = y’:if, and only if, x contains every property of y, and vice versa. Moreover, he derived sublaws from Leibniz’ Lawsuch as the Law of Reflexivity, Law of Symmetry, and Law of Transitivity.For one example,Law of Reflexivity,‘x = x’:everything is equal to itself. This mirrors the Law of Identity of Athenian philosophers – Plato and Aristotle. Patterns – Platonic Forms and Ideas even – of concepts arise in repeated episodes of the historical timeline – groping towards some unitary definition.

In set theory, Austrian-born American logician, mathematician, and philosopher, Kurt Friedrich Gödel, had additional fame for formalization of St. Anselm’s Ontological Proof for the existence of God. In addition to this, Gödel publishedÜber formal unentscheidbare Sätze der Principia Mathematica und verwandter Systeme or On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems (1931). Tersely, an axiomatic system capable of describing natural numbers (e.g., 1, 2, 3…) held within it: 1) cannot be both consistent and complete, and 2) if consistent, the consistency of the axioms cannot be proven within the system. He, and modern specialists, call these two incompleteness theorems.

In mathematics, English logician, mathematician, philosopher, and founder ofBoolean Algebra(foundational for digital electronics), George Boole, continued the ancient Grecians work in a facsimile of the earlier laws of thought with some extensions in mathematical language. I call them “Boolean Heresies” for fun. Boole laid these out inAn Investigation of the Laws of Thought(1854). The primary extension from Aristotle became the extension of the three classical laws of thought into mathematical symbolisms, formalisms, and terminology. For one example, the ‘=’ or ‘equals sign’ signals synonymous meaning with theLaw of Identityor theLaw of Reflexivitybetween things. Things labelled ‘A’ in theLaw of Identityand ‘x’ in theLaw of Reflexivitydiscussed earlier.

In physics, applied to time travel – the Novikov Self-Consistency Principle, ‘laws’ of physics must remain self-consistent at a global level in the real universe to prohibit any paradoxes with respect to time travel. In this application, time-travel scenarios must disallow violation of universe’s global laws.

In computer science, at least in database management systems, the acronym ACID equates to principles for operation of database transactions. “ACID,” from Jim Gray (1981), means ‘Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability’ with the importance of ‘consistency’ meaning “the transaction must obey legal laws.”

In broad definitions provided by Gray (1981) about the “general model of transactions,” he states, “Transactions preserve the system consistency constraints — they obey the laws by transforming consistent states into new consistent states.” As noted, Boolean Algebraic (Boole) systems operable in computer science too.

One can see the pattern in numerous fields. Therefore, “self-consistent” or “self-consistency” within informational cosmology means “system without self-contradiction.”

“Information processing” will have an easier time of comprehension because of living in the computer age, digital age, or information age. American mathematician and cryptographer Claude Elwood Shannon’s article,A Mathematical Theory of Communication (1948), represented information theory connected to communication. A short paper, experts consider this article foundational to the field of information theory, which allowed many of them to decree Shannon the father of the information age.

American scientist and mathematician, Warren Weaver, republishedA Mathematical Theory of Communication (1948) and expanded on Shannon’s work in a coauthored – with Weaver – book entitled The Mathematical Theory of Communication (1949). Specialists remember Weaver for pioneering work in machine translation. Shannon and Weaver laid the framework for information and communication theory up to the present day.

In it, if we take a human interpretive view of the work, he showed the degree of “noise” – entropy/disorder introduced into the message – entering between the “information source” (brain₁/mind₁) & “transmitter” (voice/speech) and the “receiver” (ears) & “destination” (brain₂/mind₂). Noise enters between the transmitter and receiver to decrease the quality of the message from the information source to the destination.

For an everyday example, if you whisper from a mile away, your friend will have trouble understanding you – too much “noise” preventing clear receiving and interpretation of the message; if you whisper next to your friend’s ear, the message will more likely have appropriate receiving, decoding, and arrival at the destination for your friend’s comprehension.

Not clear enough – think of a computer, how does it process information? It processes information according to input, process, and output. You type a symbol on the keyboard – input, the machine runs internal mechanics – process, and produces the appropriate (if functional) symbol on the monitor – output. Hence, the foundation of information theory in informational cosmology.

Input becomes any decipherable piece of data to the system. Process becomes the algorithm for managing the information. Output becomes the final product of input and process. Likewise, this applies to everything in informational cosmology at local and global scales.

In current vernacular, we ask, “What if the contents of the universe equals input, process equals laws plus time, and output equals transformations of the contents (e.g., particles, fields, forces, and so on) of the universe?”

In informational cosmological parlance, we ask, “What if bit units of universe equal input, process equals principles of existence plus time, and output equals transformations of bit units of universe?”

These reflect deep equivalences. As noted by 21 year old Rick, all theories of grandeur and great import start with big equivalences. You shifted the perspective. Subsequent information processing equates to observed universe. Simply put, we need an armature by necessity, but do not observe the armature based on externality to universe.

Armature of universe equates to material framework or processor; universe equates to information processing or processing. We observe the information processing. We call this universe. We do not observe the material framework, but by necessity require processor based on isomorphic geometry between universe and individual localized minds.

Individual localized minds operate from brains, and therefore universe must have an equivalent of a “brain” – aforementioned armature. This deals with information and universe at the largest scales. In this, we have the rich derivation, i.e. refinement, of digital physics into informational cosmology.

Since universe does have some characterization in relation to subsystems within itself based on isomorphic properties, what would count among other subcategorizations? In other words, what other manifestations exemplify the definition of self-consistency or information processing? How do you define these ideas in more colloquial terms?

Consciousness is the vivid, emotionally charged, moment-to-moment sharing of processed sensory input, memories, and simulated/imagined self-generated content among brain systems which receive a wide-angle flow of information. By wide-angle, I mean not a linear relaying of signals from A to B to C but instead, sharing of information with many other brain systems, so that each system knows what’s going on in the rest of the brain (within the limitations of its specialty). Systems can pop into and drop out of consciousness, depending on the brain’s moment-to-moment processing needs.

Each pertinent subsystem adds its angle on what’s currently under consideration in the mind, possibly triggering further associations. Memories are pretty much locked until they’re unlocked by being pulled into the conscious arena. Most people have memories which they’ve remembered so many times that the original memory has been all messed around by being rewritten over and over in the conscious arena. (Do we need to fully light up a memory to remember/mess with it?)

The entire mind needs to speak the same language of representation, so there’s probably a lot of recursion, where subsystems of the brain have to be able to identify stuff that’s not their specialties. Some systems can be less clued-in than others. Our sense of smell seems to be kind of distant from other systems. You smell something, it’s familiar, it’s on the tip of your brain, but you can’t quite pull up the specifics of when you’ve smelled that smell before. (If you were a dog, you could pull up everything about that smell. When humans and dogs teamed up, humans took over strategic thinking, and dogs took charge of smelling.) Language probably makes pulling up associations easier and more efficient. Hanging a word on something is a kind of shorthand (that maybe takes up less space than a full description and makes it more retrievable).

Anyhow, the same way every part of your brain knows what’s going on in every other part via the conscious mind, every part of the universe is clued in to every other part (via long-distance particles – mainly photons in the active center and neutrinos traveling to the deeper structure on the outskirts). The conservation laws – momentum, energy – and the relative constancy across space and time of physical constants help the universe maintain informational consistency.

I also think that much of our understanding is virtual, where, in any given moment, our awareness doesn’t contain much, but by shifting attention around, we build a virtually complete picture of the world. It’s similar to how our eyesight functions – we have precise vision for only about 15 degrees out of a total visual field of 200 degrees. We can’t precisely see an entire painting or TV image all at once. Our eyes wander around the image, and we build a more-or-less complete picture in our mind. Our awareness probably works the same way. Our brains can only process so much in any given moment. Whatever’s under consideration gets analyzed in some ways and then in others, but not in all possible ways at once. We never see or comprehend anything completely in an instant but through sequential processing build up (over a short period of time) what acts like fairly complete understanding.

It’s like trying to look at Macy’s 50-by-100-foot American flag in a storage closet. You can only spread out 20 square feet of it at a time, but eventually, by looking at different parts of it, you can develop a picture of the whole flag.

So a thought isn’t just some parts of the brain lighting up all at once – it’s a whole chain of parts of the brain lighting up until you eventually (but in a short period of time – fractions of a second) have the semblance of a complete thought. The universe probably works the same way – galaxies keep lighting up while other galaxies are fading away. A thought isn’t just the 10^11 galaxies lit at any one time – it’s a whole chain of lit galaxies, like an animated, moving display of Christmas lights. Thoughts – things under consideration – fade into each other. We have a more thorough understanding of things than what we understand at any instant. And the universe is more precisely defined than just by the relationships among matter in the active center.

In both the mind and the universe, you need consistency. Galaxies don’t wink in and out of existence just because you’ve shifted your point of view. A galaxy exists no matter where it’s viewed from (though if you go far enough away from it, it’ll look Hubble/relativistically/informationally redshifted). Same thing in your mind. If an event definitely made itself known to some part of your conscious mind – red traffic light – that light isn’t red according to some parts of your mind and green according to others. You can have ambiguous events where you’re not sure what happened, but if you have deep disagreements about established facts between different parts of the brain, that’s trouble.

46. All representation of the information sharing of the material framework of universe equates to universe in informational cosmogony, cosmology, and eschatology. More elements have inclusion here. How do you define universe?

The universe is the entirety of matter and space – everything that has interacted with or could interact with us. It’s an information space – an arena for the sharing, processing and storing of information (for the universe, not directly for us), with the scale and curvature of space determined by the rules of information and its distribution and correlations. (That is, the distribution of matter.) The location (and velocity) of matter has almost everything to say about its correlations as information.

47. Insofar as mind and universe have propinquity – kinship in nature; a structural relation between individual localized consciousness within universe and globalized consciousness of universe. How do you define their interrelation?

Back in 1981, I asked myself, “What if the geometry of information within consciousness is the same as the geometry of the universe? (And how can it not be?)” The optimal structure/map of the information within each individual mind has the same general structure and rules as the universe and its physics. It has 4D space-time, atoms, the whole deal (with allowances for the universe having about 10^80 particles and our brains having 10^11 neurons, which, though I don’t know how many particles in a mind-space this might translate into, can’t be many more than 10^16). The mind and the universe are different manifestations (at vastly different scales) of the same information structure. We see the universe from the inside – as part of it – so we don’t see it as information (except that quantum mechanics is the rules of behavior for matter about which there is incomplete information – we can see that matter is information by catching it behaving as incomplete information, as in the double-slit experiment). And we each embody our own mind, so we see only its information and not the mechanics of it.

People suspect that you might be a wacko when you try to assign consciousness to anything but people and higher animals, as if you’re talking about a fancy, mysterious transcendent realm of rocks and trees and butterflies sending thinky vibes to each other. But no – consciousness is a technical thing, not a mystical thing, associated with broadband sharing of real-time information among brain subsystems plus emotionally linked value determinations. (Emotions and values amplify the personal importance of what’s happening in your life. We have evolved to care about our lives. Apathy and absence of judgment aren’t the best survival characteristics – if you can’t be compelled to care about yourself and choose favourable courses of action, you’re in trouble.) When a bunch of specialized systems in your brain are exchanging information including emotions in real time – when every part of your brain knows what’s going on, more or less, in every other part of your brain, and you have feelings about it, that’s consciousness – a technical property associated with global, pervasive information-sharing. (The subsystems need to understand the information they’re getting hit with. Most parts of your brain understand fire or the color fuchsia or birds (in ways pertinent to each brain system’s function, with some parts understanding some things better than others, consistent with their specialties).) It’s not mystical – not connected to some divine or exalted domain.

48. Informational cosmology describes the self-consistency and information processing of universe. We might construct a metric for individual local and global consciousness. Universe operates under mathematical principles of existence (laws). Eugene Wigner’s stock quote about the “unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics” seems apropos to me – not in presumption about either side of the ledger. Universe’s armature might operate within other principles of existence.

By an informational cosmological definition, anything internal to universe operates according to mathematical principles of existence (mathematical laws). Anything external to universe operates in mathematics containing universe’s mathematics, or in some novel considerations about the nature of mathematics. Universe’s armature exists external to universe. Therefore, universe’s armature must operate in mathematics containing universe’s mathematics, or in some novel considerations about the nature of mathematics. Any speculation about this? What does this imply?

You talk about constructing “a metric for individual local and global consciousness.” I think that, in terms of increasing brain complexity, consciousness becomes well-rounded – feeling like a fully-rendered experience of the world – pretty fast. It’s not clear how deeply insects feel, but fish and reptiles feel and think, though they can be pretty boring as companions. I had a genius goldfish that figured out how to call me to feed it by noisily blowing bubbles at the top of the tank. Even with their tiny little heads, birds feel and think (and can be kind of dickish – read about Alex the parrot). And of course mammals think and feel. Darwin, who was above all an excellent observer, knew that animals feel, writing the book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.

I think of subjective degrees of consciousness like the number of sides in a polygon. With increasing numbers, they become close to perfectly round pretty fast. A tire shaped like a regular triangle or square would give you a very bumpy ride, but this quickly gives way to the near-circles of 12-, 15- and 24-sided regular polygons. Tires in the shape of 24-sided polygons would give you a pretty smooth ride. Fifty- or 100-sided polygons are barely distinguishable from circles.

Consider a dog’s consciousness as a 15-sided polygon – reasonably close to circular. Doesn’t have all our bells & whistles – language, ability to rotate objects in our mind. (On the other hand, we don’t have the world of smells dogs have.) And consider our consciousness as a 100-sided polygon. Lots of ways to analyze and mentally manipulate things – when we look at something, we feel as if we’re really seeing it. Our lives feel deeply substantial and authentic to us, but they probably don’t feel a whole lot less real and immediate to dogs. If we suddenly had the awareness of a frog or alligator or lizard, we might think, “Wow – this is kind of a half-assed representation of the world.” (Or maybe not – alligators must have some precise sensory systems.) Seeing the world with a bug’s awareness might be like being in a 1980s video game – rough, not detailed, not very fleshed-out, not a lot of analytic tools.

As long as we’re messing around in this direction, let’s guess at the size of a thought, in terms of the total number of events in mind-space that might make up that thought. (A mind-space event might be the equivalent of the exchange of a photon or the fusion of a pair of protons with the emission of a neutrino plus a photon.) We have about 86 billion neurons and up to a quadrillion synapses. Assume, just to make sure we’re not underestimating, that 10,000 mind-space events contribute to the firing of a neuron. Figure a neuron might fire up to eight times during a thought. So a thought might consist of nearly 10^16 mind-space events, but it’s probably a lot less, because not every neuron’s firing like crazy, and there probably aren’t 10,000 discernable mind-space events that led up to a neuron firing. (But a neuron firing may not be a single event – it may light up a lot of stuff. Or it may not be an event at all. The formation and breaking of dendritic connections might be events. The network of connections – the associative landscape – might be a framework that tacitly informs the processing of information. The layout of the landscape might provide a virtual context for the information being actively processed, the way collapsed matter might provide context for active matter. Could be like compressed digital information – to send a compressed video, you only specify the pixels that change – you get a series of complete pictures without sending complete pictures. Similarly, the active center of the universe may be only part of the picture the universe is painting for itself. For the (long) moment, it’s the only part that’s in play, but it’s not the whole picture.)

So let’s take a look at the universe, which I theorize is a mind-space thinking a 20- or 30-billion-year thought or part of a thought (in a long-ass string of thoughts). The active center has about 10^80 particles, mostly in stars. Each particle has maybe 10^11 interactions a second times about 3 x 10^7 seconds a year for maybe 3 x 10^10 years. So a thought by the universe might consist of around 10^109 events. That is, of course, enormous – you couldn’t count that high in a year. Or in the apparent lifetime of the universe. Or in a billion apparent lifetimes of the universe for each particle in the universe. So don’t even try.

Why such a big number? Well, if every size of universe less than infinity is allowed, then there’s no limit on size – bigness comes cheap. Normally, I don’t like the anthropic principle, which says the universe is the way it is because we’re in it, but we do need a universe that’s big enough, detailed enough, old enough for us to come to exist in it.

And you asked about Wigner’s “unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics” quote, which asks why math is so good at describing the universe. I’d counter that with the well-known Einstein quote, “God is subtle, but he’s not malicious.” I think another way of saying that is “The universe is only as complicated as it needs to be.” I’d argue that numbers are about the simplest non-contradictory system (that’s unlimited in size). (Godel proved that numbers might contain hidden contradictions, but we haven’t found any yet, and even if we did, they wouldn’t be serious enough to stop us from using numbers.)

The universe is only as complicated as it needs to be to exist. (There’s probably an argument to be made that more-complicated-than-necessary forms of existence, unless artificially supported, are unstable (or improbable) and break down into simplest-possible forms.) A simplest-possible universe will include simplest-possible components and structures, which can be characterized by numbers, which are themselves part of a simplest-possible system.

You asked about a universe external to ours that contains the universe’s armature. I think that universe can be characterized by the same mathematics that characterizes our universe. The principles of existence keep a fairly tight leash on the forms that universes can take, which includes number of dimensions, types of physical forces, and being characterizable by math. Of course we have no evidence of a universe external to ours.

49. You made disparaging and denigrating statements about consciousness. Your thumbnail sketch and corporeal definition of self-consistency and information processing does not by necessity implicate such negative commentary. Why the occasional harsh tone on consciousness? Any positive statement about consciousness while on the topic?

Consciousness is more helpful when you have time to think. Obviously, you come closer to having free will when you have time to consider a situation and can weigh everything you know, including, perhaps, knowledge of your own biases. You can run a thought a few times and see what associations your brain pulls up. Consciousness is helpful in new or complicated situations – it can help recognize patterns and put together essential details, finding exploitable regularities in your environment.

Consciousness lets you talk to yourself. Assigning words to things is powerful when trying to retrieve information from your own memory or from outside sources. (Key words are useful even in your head.) Consciousness lets you run simulations – what would happen if I did this? In the future, advanced versions of us might constantly be running very detailed projections of a range of near-futures – what might happen in the next few seconds or minutes – so we can choose the best course of action. We’d be living in our own near-futures and choosing among them. This might be the closest we come to side-stepping the one-dimensional flow of time.

Consciousness is necessary for interacting with other people. It takes many integrated brain systems to engage in effective human interaction. When the requisite systems don’t function together smoothly, you can end up with autism spectrum challenges.

Sometimes, consciousness seems like more trouble than it’s worth – as when you’re aware of how miserable you are. (Of course evolution only cares about our happiness to the extent that it helps us produce and raise offspring that are themselves good at reproducing. Too much misery would make us ineffective, but so would being happy all the time.) But it’s like me nagging my wife to always keep two hands on the steering wheel in case of sudden and unpredictable danger. Maybe we don’t need consciousness during every waking moment, but it needs to be running for those unpredictable moments when we really need it – when it’s better that we’re not just a bunch of reflexes.

One more thing – say your life really does pass in front of your eyes during moments of extreme danger. Maybe this is a survival mechanism, or is at least an indicator of a survival mechanism. Maybe stress triggers thinking, so stressed organisms think more, and think more fluidly, than non-stressed organisms. We seem to know that extreme stress – danger – triggers a temporary increase in the brain’s ability to take in sensory information – time slows down, and we’re hyperaware of our surroundings. Perhaps really big danger triggers a really big thought reaction – your brain tries to make you think everything all at once.

50. Consciousness can offer survival advantages. Can it play a role in evolution? How might this play out?

This is a recent excerpt from a book by evolutionary biologist Professor Andreas Wagner on Salon.com:

“Selection did not—cannot—create all this variation. A few decades after Darwin, Hugo de Vries expressed it best when he said that “natural selection may explain the survival of the fittest, but it cannot explain the arrival of the fittest.” And if we do not know what explains its arrival, then we do not understand the very origins of life’s diversity.”

That is, we know how changes in and variations among animals may allow some animals to produce more descendants, but we don’t know enough about how such changes originate and become enduring details in evolutionary history. Not enough consideration has been given to consciousness as an evolution booster. (Obviously, at some point in the development of a civilized species, random evolution is mostly replaced by intentional change. Humans are at this point.) I think that consciousness facilitates evolution in a variety of ways. One possible way – the stress of being ill-adapted triggers increased mental flexibility. Say a nerdy organism has a gimpy leg or something. Maybe there’s a mechanism where that organism has a little meltdown, with normally crystallized patterns of behavior becoming subject to conscious consideration, possibly resulting in innovation. (Hey, it happened to me, maybe it can happen to an iguana.) Only to the extent, of course, that the organism has a mental arena – gimpy amoebas won’t be doing any thinking. (Though similar-to-conscious mechanisms might still occur in non-conscious beings. A changing environment may prompt inadvertent innovation among amoebas, even though it’s happening through chemistry, not consciousness.) Once a successful innovation arises, there’s a new niche offering an advantage to organisms that are relatively better at the innovation (assuming that the innovation can be disseminated and perpetuated).

Another way consciousness can increase the likelihood or frequency of evolutionary change might be through a generalization of the “Nerds are compelled to think” principle discussed above. What if every member of a species has some conscious awareness? Every behavior or combination of behaviors in an organism’s conscious arena (entirely or in part), is subject to conscious variation. That is, the organism understands the behavior to some little extent and can put its spin on it. The behavior isn’t entirely unconscious and hard-wired. Conscious variation makes possible a bunch of small potential advantages – on a short-term basis for individual animals, on a medium-term basis from physiological variation that already exists within a species, and on a long-term basis from mutation. Behavioral change can lead to genetic change, not in a Lamarckian sense, but by giving an advantage to those organisms which can best perform the changed behavior. Animals can’t choose their mutations and variations, but, if capable of any thought, are better able to take advantage of them.

Animal thought can make evolutionary transitions more likely and mutations more likely to be exploited (among both thinking animals and the organisms they interact with – cows and corn aren’t great thinkers, but they’ve gained a reproductive advantage via human thought). Genetic changes can be abrupt – there’s punctuated equilibrium, where the fossil record shows relatively fast transitions between long periods of unchanging form; thought can ease such transitions. I dunno – maybe biologists adequately factor animals’ ability to think into evolution, but I kind of doubt it. I guess a test of this would to see if the pace of evolution has accelerated along with complexity of thought (other things being equal). We had 2.5 billion years of bacteria, a few hundred million years of cell colonies, then – boom – a panoply of life in relatively quick succession – worms, fish, amphibians, bugs, reptiles, birds, lemurs. Flexible behavior facilitates evolution.

The stories of individual organisms must sometimes be crucial to evolutionary history. Gimpy Carla the Crustacean has a weird claw; she figures out she can use it to really get at snails – good eatin’! Her friends learn the same trick – maybe not as expertly as Carla, but enough for snail scooping to become part of Carla’s species’ behavioural repertoire. Skilled snail-scooping turns into an evolutionary advantage, with members of the species that have genes which help make them better scoopers having more reproductive success. Or maybe Gimpy Carla doesn’t find a use for her weird claw; maybe she figures out something else altogether. Or perhaps there’s nothing particularly wrong with Carla’s claws, and she figures out a new behaviour anyway. Maybe she sees an octopus flipping over rocks to get what’s underneath, and Carla’s like, “Hey – I can flip rocks, too.”

51. Furthermore, you have spoken on the probability for the existence of both globalized consciousness of universe and individual localized consciousness within universe. We can name these ‘Statistical Arguments for Consciousness’: consciousness of universe (and consciousness of minds within it) cannot not exist.

Indeed, the simple existence of universe could be called ‘Statistical Argument for Universe’: universe cannot not exist. Some state this as a blunt, dull, and passive query, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” What best represents these idea? How can you state this in formal terms?

You can view Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” as a statistical argument. Given the apparently highly organized and consistent information within a human’s consciousness, the odds that the existence it reflects isn’t real and is instead caused by happenstance is nearly zero.

To put it in a mathematical framework, there must be some measure of the complexity/amount of information within an individual awareness and within the universe. And there’s some calculation you could do which represents the odds that such complexity could arise as a momentary random blip that doesn’t reflect actual existence. The odds are infinitesimal.

(When saying that the universe “can’t not exist,” I mean something else – that there’s a statistical bias towards existence. Non-existence entails as special a set of circumstances as existence – it’s not the default state of things. And given that there’s a very small set of non-existent states and a very large set of possible states of existence, there’s a probabilistic argument to be made in favor of existence. There might be only one state of perfect non-existence. If there were different null states, then there’d be something to differentiate them. And that something is something that exists, so at least one of those things isn’t the null state. (Can’t imagine nullity coming in a bunch of flavors.) The more particles you have, the greater the number of possible interrelationships they can have, with that number growing at least exponentially. (Look at video games now compared to video games in the 80s. Complexity allows variety.) Also, if the principles of existence permit existence, there has to be existence – not all possible states all the time, but permitted states (one at a time) operating under (possibly self-arising) rules.

52. You’re making enormous claims about the structure and function of both mind and universe. Even in general terms connected to their relationship, these arguments might create grounds for individual or collective bafflement, confusion, glazed reading, instinctive ire, reactive dismissal, mockery, scolding, scoffing, offense, prods and epithets about intelligence, furrowed brows, pleas for clarification, misunderstandings tied to wrongful extensions and conclusions of the theory, straw-manned misinterpretations, questioning of sanity, non-sequitur statements, appeals to emotion or authority for disproof, personal attacks at various facets of your personal life – including shallow attacks at family, and awe at ground breaking ideas – let alone thoughts about the interviewer.

Most reactions and feedback welcome. Preference for constructive feedback. However, these have zero connection to the truth or falsity of the theory. We need rigorous scientific methodological constraints. Obviously, and an extraordinarily important note, this journal is not peer-reviewed. Any reflections?

I’ve been interviewed before, though never at this length, and am familiar with the kind of comments this could generate. Pretty comfortable being an eccentric clown – it’s often helped me avoid being fired. “He’s crazy, but he’s harmless – just leave him be.” Have done a lot of ridiculous stuff, in part because I’ve thought as long as I’m doing physics in my head, whatever else I do doesn’t matter so much. By talking about this theory in depth, I’m hoping for pretty much the first time to eventually be taken seriously.

Even if I didn’t have a history of being a goofball, this would be tough. A bunch of people have radical theories of the universe. Many are at least a little crazy; most are wrong. There’s a fun test by John Baez called “The Crackpot Index,” which gives a craziness score for your theory and yourself. I score about 20 out of a possible 641, putting me on the low end of crazy. But I write jokes for TV, have been a stripper, don’t have a PhD or have ever worked in academia, my theory isn’t peer-reviewed, it has very few equations. Making it legit will be a long haul.

I’ve postulated a lot of stuff here; some of it will turn out to be true or closer to true than currently accepted theories. It feels consistent with what we know and has a kind of poetic rightness. But that’s just how I feel. Could get some credit, or could be like Fritz Hasenohrl, who, a year before Einstein, came up w/ E = 3/4 MC^2. So close.

Gonna use social and other media to try to get my stuff out there, hoping that the current culture of foolishness finds me foolish enough to embrace and that the attention prompts legit people to ponder my BS.

53. Modern science developed many explicit and tacit boundaries along the trajectory of development. From an ahistorical and more conceptual consideration while acknowledging the rough-and-tumble development of modern science, some bounds include Aristotelian foundational empiricism, natural philosophy, methodological naturalism, rationalism, empiricism, inductivism, Ockham’s Razor, consilience, falsificationism, verificationism, hypothetico-deductivism, Bayesianism, and epistemological anarchism.

Undoubtedly, quarrels exist around the appropriate weight and inclusion of these – and unstated others. I state the description of them in the upcoming format for sake of concision. Far too much to cover here. Many, many books written at length on the subjects alone and together. I will cover each in their presented order.

Originating from a single mine of human endeavour, science forged from the base metals of Aristotelian thought. Aristotle, the smithy, even invented the – still used – biological taxonomical distinctions ofanimaliaandplantaein the 4^thcentury BCE. Aristotle shifted the dominant philosophy from the Platonic to the empirical – suiting for a strong student of Plato inThe Academy.

English alchemist, biblical scholar,mathematician, occultist, and philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton, from The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687) becomes the transition between the era of natural philosophy and natural science. In fact, some would consider the simple definition of studying natural causes by natural means sufficient to explain a foundational principle of science: methodological naturalism.

Rationalism and empiricism tend to oppose one another. Pure rationalism defines knowledge from the human mind alone (a priori); pure empiricism defines knowledge from experience alone (a posteriori). Pythagoras, Parmenides, and Zeno of Elea represent early rationalism culminating in Plato with the candle kept alight byRené Descartes, Benedict (Baruch in Hebrew) de Spinoza, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, Francis Herbert Bradley, Bernard Bosanquet,Josiah Royce, Noam Chomsky, and other ancient and modern exemplars.

Sophists represent early empiricism coming afire with Aristotle with the torch taken by the Stoics and Epicureans, followed by Saint Augustine of Hippo, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, William of Ockham, Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, David Hume, Voltaire, John Stuart Mill, William Kingdon Clifford, Karl Pearson, Bertrand Russell, Sir Alfred Jules Ayer, and other ancient and modern exemplars. For some preliminary reading,René Descartes defends rationalism in Discourse on the Method (1637); John Locke defends empiricism in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689).

1^stViscount St. Alban, English jurist, philosopher, and statesmen, Francis Bacon, founded the Baconian Method inNovum Organum Scientiarum or New Instrument of Science (1620), synonymous with inductivism. Where Aristotle represents the major transition from dominant rationalism to some form of empiricism, Bacon represents the metamorphosing of empiricism into more modern empiricism.

Science does not give proofs. Mathematics produces proofs. As founded by Francis Bacon under the appellation empiricism and enunciated by Scottish economist, empiricist, historian, and philosopher, David Hume, science amasses evidence for probabilities of theories. Weight towards theories and arguments based on quantity and quality of evidence. Sometimes echoed in the oft-said – to the point of boredom – phrase of Carl Sagan, adapted from Marcello Truzzi, for extreme cases, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

English Franciscan friar, and scholastic philosopher and theologian, William of Ockham, proposedOckham’s Razor, or the principle of parsimony, meaning do not multiply assumptions/premises (“entities”) past the point of necessity. In other words, among competing hypotheses choose the one with the least assumptions.

English polymath, historian of science, Anglican priest, and theologian, William Whewell, brought “consilience” into consideration with The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded Upon Their History(1840). Of great importance, Whewell – in addition to other work by John Herschel – formalized the modern methodology of science with History of the Inductive Sciences (1837) and The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded Upon Their History (1840). Whewell’s efforts with the term consilience faded in philosophy of science until revival in the late 1990s. His lasting mark continues with the modern methodology and refinement of the title “natural philosophy” to “science” and “natural philosopher” to “scientist.”

With great acumen for synthesis (and conceptual resurrection), American biologist, naturalist, and sociobiologist, Edward Osborne Wilson reawakened the philosophy of science term “consilience” withConsilience: The Unity of Knowledge(1998). However, Wilson attempted to bridge the division between the humanities and sciences adumbrated by Barron Charles Percy Snow fromThe Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution(1959). We can leave considerations of humanist convictions possibly driving the thrust of Wilson’s efforts while sustaining the content of the text, argument, and term from philosophy of science. “Consilience” means convergence of evidence from multiple disciplines; a confluence of evidence from multiple fields, subfields, researchers, and laboratories.

Insofar as methodological science concerns itself with absolutes, Austrian-born British Philosopher, Sir Karl Raimund Popper thought science falsifies. Some call this criterion falsificationism. Popper meant this to solve problems of induction and demarcation. Of course, this proposed solution/answer to two problems/questions (induction and demarcation) non-arbitrarily excludes certain disciplines from scientific analysis.

Problem of Inductionasks, “Does inductive reasoning lead to knowledge?” “Inductive reasoning” means evidence for support of premises without aim of absolute proof (particular to general); as opposed to deductive reasoning meaning premises logically imply conclusion of the argument (general to particular).

Problem of Demarcationasks, “What distinguishes science from non-science?” According to Popper, with respect to one instance with theProblem of Demarcation, non-science fails at adherence tofalsificationism. For example, astrology, Freudian psychoanalysis, and metaphysics seen through the lens of falsificationism – and skepticism – become non-science, and therefore equate to pseudoscience within this single constraint.

Although, not set firm, Popperian discussions continue, e.g. some might argue for verifiability over falsifiability. “Verifiability over falsifiability” meaning the theory must have verification rather than the possibility of falsification.

Dutch physicist, mathematician, and astronomer, Christiaan Huygens, built the original scaffolding for the hypothetico-deductive methodology. A procedure for building a scientific theory accounting for results of observation, experimentation, and inference with the possibility of further effects being verified/not verified. For a concrete example, hypothetico-deductivism might use Bayesian analysis based onBayes’ Theorem/Bayes’ Law/Bayes’ Rule.

Reverend Thomas Bayes died and one friend, Richard Price, edited and publishedAn Essay towards solving a Problem in the Doctrine of Chances (1763), which contained the theorem. In brief, Bayes’ Theoremdeals with the mathematics of conditional probabilities. Some applications and utility in calculations for real-world scenarios in drug testing. Bayesianism took the throne of inductivism (which Popper rejected) or became the adapted equivalent of inductivism in the modern day, especially with the utility in the ascendance of modern medical testing.

Austrian philosopher of science, Paul Feyerabend, proposed epistemological anarchism. Epistemology means the study of the nature and scope of knowledge. In this sense, within the confines of scientific discourse, epistemological anarchism means science’s attempts for fixed boundaries appears too optimistic and eventually detrimental to science itself, and therefore the search for universal boundaries of operation becomes an impossible ideal.

History presents one tangled, messy narrative filled with disagreement, dialogue, and debate, even petty feuds. At bottom, we need predictions and tests. What does your theory predict? How could we test the predictions of informational cosmogony, informational cosmology, and informational eschatology?

Some possibly testable questions:

Can my theorizing reasonably be made to agree with well-established observational evidence? For instance, I say there’s a bunch of blackish collapsed (but non-exotic) matter, located mostly in what appears to be the early universe and probably around the outskirts of galaxies (as well as at the center of galaxies, but that’s been established). Can this work in terms of galactic dynamics? The greatest observed Hubble galactic redshift is about 12; I say there’s a bunch of blackish stuff with redshifts of 1,000 or more. Very convenient – all the stuff that makes the universe work is nearly invisible.

For my theory to work, black holes have to be more accessible and reversible than they’re currently thought of as being. This can work if the matter in collapsing bodies creates additional space for itself by shrinking. (A house or a collapsing star is a lot more spacious if you’re only two feet tall.) This makes sense informationally. Not only is the matter in a collapsing body defined by its interaction (gun-fighting) with the rest of the universe, it’s additionally defined by all the additional gun-fighting going on within the body. With so much matter clustered so close together, the particles can zip bullets back and forth among themselves at a much faster rate than in non-collapsed matter, defining themselves in space much more precisely. You still have tremendous forces, but they’re not enough to inexorably crush matter beyond the resistance of any other force. (You can still lose information in a blackish hole to noise/heat, if the ability of the universe to store information isn’t perfect.)

Blackish holes which have less crushing power than they’re traditionally understood to have should be able to coexist with non-collapsed matter without relentlessly consuming it. If galaxies cycle over and over, there’s gonna be some collapsed matter left around. Maybe new stars sometimes coalesce around collapsed bodies. Maybe some collapsed bodies can open back up from the heat generated near the center of new stars. In general, gentler new-school blackish holes create less havoc than unstoppable old-school black holes. We should be able to mathematically model galaxies that contain a bunch of collapsed non-exotic matter (including modeling various ways old galaxies get lit back up). There’s a study released just a few hours ago which suggests that up to half the stars in the universe might be found outside of galaxies. This seems possibly consistent with a very old universe with parts of space that repeatedly puff up and shrink down, do-si-doing into and back out of the active center. Stuff’s gonna get tossed around.

Can information-based cosmology fit in with well-established laws of physics? When I edited Noesis, I received articles from people claiming to have disproved Einstein. Disproving Einstein is a major indication your thinking is likely flawed. Einstein’s theories show that space and time and matter are up for grabs, lacking Newtonian solidity, which brings out the theorizing in some people. Einstein didn’t disprove Newton. He put Newton in a larger context. I don’t want to disprove well-established physics – I want to put some of it in a new information-based context.

Can this be mathematicized? Seems like it – it has some math in it already. It sounds a little like what legit guys like John Wheeler and Ed Fredkin sound like when they talk about a universe that’s built from first principles. Scientists who come up with biggish theories often talk about looking for elegance or simplicity or divine symmetry – indications that the deep rules governing the universe are particularly nice – non-arbitrary, explaining a lot with a little, having a pleasant orderliness without being a complete buzzkill. Do my principles and the big equivalence between mind-space and physical space have the right poetry, the right irony, the right we-should’ve-known? Do they give us and the universe a destiny that makes sense?

Is what I’m claiming consistent with what we know of the mind and brain, of the phenomenology of thought?

Do the general principles mesh with the specifics – have I come to the right conclusions in going from an information-based universe to the five persistent particles being the major players in it?

Do the two structures – mind and universe – inform each other in what seems like a reasonable way? Do memories in our heads really pop into our awareness like galaxies lighting up? Can blackish holes be seen as storing information for later retrieval? Can efficient, three-dimensional information spaces be constructed? Does it make sense that a nexus of information would coalesce like a galaxy? Are words and concepts and people and things represented in our mental maps by things that look like stars and galaxies? (Hey, how else would they look? – not like frickin’ file cabinets.) Can we eventually find connections between brain activity and structure and mind-space activity and structure? Are stars and galaxies the best way to cluster related information? How does gravitation decide what information clusters into stars and galaxies, forming concepts and representations? Why does a concept end up in one galaxy rather than another? (Though everything’s related to everything else, choices still have to be made about which things are clustered with each other – you can’t have just one big cluster.) What do orbits and angular momentum mean in terms of information?

By the way – I love Bayesian analysis. When working as an ID-checker in bars, I created a Bayesian system which assigned points for everything not quite right about a potential customer’s ID and presentation. At its most refined, the system and I could catch 99% of fake IDs with only one or two false catches a year. (This was back when going to bars, not going online, was probably the number-one way to try to hook up. Having a fake ID was a big deal back then.)

54. With regards to traditional religious/irreligious conceptions of an afterlife such as reincarnation (with/without karma), heaven and hell, oblivion, nirvana, union with the divine, and the whole suite of possibilities, do you consider any of them to have any truth value? If so, which one(s)?

I think in the not-too-distant future, we’ll have technical resurrection – technologically created conscious entities which can be seen as approximating the continuation of specific humans’ awarenesses. Eventually, we’ll understand and synthesize consciousness. (Some disappointment may accompany the understanding of consciousness – once dissected, it may not hold all the wonder it currently does.)

As to whether the universe has non-human means for continuing or resuming human consciousness – could be. If there are high degrees of infinity of worlds that can and do exist at some point, then finite beings such as ourselves (or close approximations of ourselves) could pop up. But this pop-up existence seems unlikely out-of-context.

By out-of-context, I mean that we are born into a world which seems to operate via natural processes. For us to pop up, out-of-context, in a constructed world, there would need to be a constructor. I don’t see a lot of evidence for some outside constructor preparing a world for us beyond our natural existence. I think we humans will have to help ourselves (and any possible Creator) by building our own afterlives.

55. Based on the last response, any thoughts on religion?

Religion remains a matter of faith. Science continues to turn up more evidence for scientific explanations of the world. There’s room for God in this, but a God who’s deeply in the background, intertwined with the beautiful symmetries of the universe, not an actively intervening God. The world’s religions have a pretty consistent view of what they’d like God to do – provide fairness, abundance, an afterlife. In the absence of definitive evidence that God provides these things, it’s not unreasonable, nor should it be against God’s wishes, to help Him out. Isaac Newton and many other scientists have thought and continue to think that figuring out the universe is doing God’s work.

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2023-01-28

Rick G. Rosner: Giga Society, Member; Mega Society, Member & ex-Editor (1991-97); and Writer (Part Four)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/11/01

ABSTRACT

Part four of eleven, comprehensive interview with Rick G. Rosner. Giga Society member, ex-editor for Mega Society (1990-96), and writer. He discusses the following subject-matter: information processing as the basic operation of universe, ‘transactional information processing’, isomorphic operation and traits of humans and universe, operation through time, self-consistency and information processing as the traits, creation of a new field of endeavor called ‘informational cosmology’, and implications of informational cosmology; scientific study of the linkage with established scientific techniques, applying physics to thought and understanding of the mind to universe, mathematicising consciousness as a step to digitizing consciousness, implications of storable and transferable consciousness, the destiny of civilizations to make this linkage, and human civilization being one of them; calculated information-in-common/information-not-in-common based on various velocities (.15v and .3v), gravitational lensing across ultra-deep cosmic time, self-consistent and information processing areas of universe equating to subsystems and therefore consciousness, black holes not existing, “blackish holes” existing, considerations on consciousness of largely independently processing blackish holes, and complexity of the universe possibly taking the form of advanced civilizations; current theory of universe composed of ~4.6% baryonic matter, ~24% non-baryonic/exotic ‘dark’ matter, and ~71.4% non-baryonic/exotic ‘dark’ energy, argumentum ad verucundiam, theories with correct or incorrect nature based on the reasoning and agreement with the evidence; allowance for recycling of galaxies, young galaxies populating the expansive center of the universe (older galaxies on the outskirts), old galaxies as neutron heavy (“cooked”), and recalling of old galaxies to the center of the universe; élan vital, possible analogous ideas such as dark matter and dark energy, dark energy as a tweak on the inverse-square law of gravitation, steady scale of universe over billions and billions of years, “self-observing, self-defining universe” having flatness and in-built constant size, self-definition of universe maintaining a constancy of size, one cross-section of time or one moment and associated probabilities of history and possible futures; considerations on gravity; thoughts on the necessity or non-necessity for gravitons to have gravity; preliminary review of informational cosmology and interrelated concepts, commentary, calculations, and arguments for the field; discussion on informational cosmology and entropy; discussion on informational cosmology and subatomic particles; further extrapolations about black holes; linking the variegated concepts and arguments of the theory; the essential meaning of these linkages; discussion on informational cosmology and space & time; discussion on informational cosmology and the principles of existence (‘laws’); concrete calculation about the age of the universe relative to the accepted canon age of the universe at ~13.77 billion years old, calculations based on estimations of human thought, unfolding of galaxies, structure for the universe, multibillion-year unfoldings of universe, and the derivations up to concluding of the universe not being only ~14 billion years old; and the extension of informational cosmology to two new complementary fields called ‘informational cosmogony’ and ‘informational ‘eschatology’, information internal to universe arising external to it, and thoughts on such an armature external to universe.

Keywords: billion, consciousness, correlation, cosmic time, cosmogony, cosmology, dark energy, dark matter, élan vital, electrons, eschatology, galaxy, Giga Society, gravitational lensing, information, information processing, informational cosmogony, informational cosmology, informational eschatology, isomorphism, isomorphic, Liebnizian monads, Mega Society, protons, Rick G. Rosner, self-consistency, self-self-observing, tautological, transactional information processing, unfolding, universe, writer.

28. You describe information processing for universe’s substrate of operation. This implies transactions. For precision, this means ‘transactional information processing’. I would like to plumb the well of reasoning. For example, ubiquitous information processing within and by universe. Consciousness emerges from self-consistency and information processing. Humans have self-consistency and information processing, and thus have consciousness. Therefore, we can extrapolate to universe based on isomorphism in operation and traits. Operation through time. Traits of self-consistency and information processing. An isomorphic geometry of universe and minds in universe. By extension, universe possesses localized and globalized consciousness. In addition to this, if we could provide an absolute measure of the degree of 1) self-consistency and 2) information processing capabilities of individual localized consciousness, then we could provide an absolute measure of global 1) self-consistency and 2) information processing capabilities of universe. Precision of this metric limited by information quality, computational capacity, and efficacy of calculation methodology. Therefore, we might both 1) consider universe reposed with consciousness at the fundaments and 2) provide a metric of universe’s degree of consciousness. You call this “informational cosmology.” In a way, mind/brain sciences become physics/cosmology, and vice versa. A metric for the mind/brain could extrapolate – within reasonable consideration – into a metric of universe. Only differences in magnitude. Where else does “informational cosmology” lead us?

Informational cosmology smashes together two big areas of study – the mind/brain and the universe – in a way they’ve never productively been smashed together before – they’re the chocolate & peanut butter, the Han Solo & Chewbacca, the mac & cheese, the Lennon & McCartney, the Key & Peele, the Beavis & Butt-head, the Spock & Kirk, the Mulder & Scully, the Felix & Oscar, the Holmes & Watson, the Thelma & Louise, the Jonah Hill & Channing Tatum of tough things to think about. Three hundred years ago, Bishop George Berkeley said something like, “The universe is an idea in the mind of God,” but this didn’t lead to anything. There wasn’t yet enough scientific knowledge to work from.

But that was then. Now, linking information maps and thinking and the universe allows you to apply established scientific techniques across the linkage. We can apply physics to thought and information in the mind. We can apply understanding about the purpose and mechanisms of thought to the universe. We will soon be able to give mushy, loosely defined terms such as consciousness a solid mathematical basis.

And mathematicizing consciousness (developing a mathematical model of information processed in awareness) is the first step to digitizing consciousness (translating moments of consciousness into numbers) – to making it recordable, preservable, and transferable. That is a huge step – maybe the hugest step – towards saving our species and the planet. Storable, transferable consciousness eventually – within 100 or 150 years – frees us from the confines of our biological form. This is a big deal, if earth isn’t going to become a giant dump suffering from the effects of a 23-billion-person population. Science fiction writer Charles Stross imagines a future where, among many other things, most people/semi-people/robots are only three feet tall. Half-height people use less than half the resources – maybe less than a quarter of the resources – of full-size people. You can cram a lot more of them on the planet, if that’s what you want to do.

But that won’t be all that we might want to do. Like-minded people might meld or marry minds and literally live as one. Many people will want to live almost exclusively in cyberspace, renting bodies when they need to go out into the real world. Population growth will slow. Maybe your rich grandma in a failing body offers you $50 million to let her consciousness ride piggyback on yours. (Steve Martin made a movie about something like this 30 years ago – All of Me.) These are pretty unsurprising ideas in science fiction – people who think about this kind of stuff are expecting things to get weird. Even if my attempt to join thought and the universe doesn’t gain traction – even if it takes someone else theorizing similarly, years from now, it’s still coming – it’s pretty much our destiny. It’s the destiny of civilizations to make this connection and figure out the universe. (Just about every civilization figures out that its planet orbits its sun, that it’s part of a galaxy, that there are other galaxies, that life evolved, etc. Figuring out that massively shared information-processing is essentially thought is another one of those things.)

There will still be plenty of normal human life. We’ll still have the same drives (for sex, food, status, slightly taboo information), until we start messing with them. And then we’ll have slightly more efficient and exalted drives, but nothing too terrible – ethical values will survive. People who want to live old-school will still be able to do it. But the drift will be towards control of our destinies via understanding ourselves and the universe – we’ll improve consciousness, making it (and us) more informed and more complete, with fewer hidden biases. It’ll be weird but also mostly great, and it’s where we’ve been heading without knowing it since apes started using twigs to fish ants out of anthills.

29. You calculated the information-in-common/information-not-in-common based on various velocities (.15v and .3v). We can symbolize them: I_c/I_~c. Gravitational lensing across ultra-deep cosmic time could form pockets beyond expected, i.e. calculated, arithmetic mean of derived spheres from I_c/I_~c at .15v, .3v, .45v, and so on. Insofar as calculated I_c/I_~c spheres with extensive radii in excess of .3v, multiple dispersions of information might converge on pockets of uneven areas of universe (and sufficiently large to make the empirical point) for statistically significant outliers of calculated information with expansive distances from one another. In an information theoretic framework, areas of self-consistency in an information processing universe might count among other subsystems. Units of sufficient individuation with self-consistency and information processing. Indeed, you have mentioned black holes, but “blackish holes.” You have said this for over 30 years. Moreover, you consider blackish holes universe’s memory. If we fuse these arguments, we have outlier subsystems with capabilities for self-consistency and information processing called ‘black holes’ at present. Self-consistent and information processing subsystem equates to consciousness. Therefore, we have the possibility for sound consideration of consciousness emergent from blackish holes in universe.

If blackish holes are (largely) independently processing information, then there’s the strong possibility that conscious entities are doing at least some of the processing. Perhaps a place for civilizations or advanced beings to survive galactic cycling would be in the massive million-solar-mass blackish holes at the centers of galaxies. The universe is huge, ancient, and unavoidably complex (in part because every star with orbiting planets is an open system that can shed excess energy, which works against entropy and disorder). Some of that complexity probably takes the form of long-lived structures and entities and civilizations (or whatever civilizations tend to turn into).

30. In the current theory of universe composed of ~4.6% baryonic matter, ~24% non-baryonic/exotic ‘dark’ matter, and ~71.4% non-baryonic/exotic ‘dark’ energy, your theory would shirk the current weight of astrophysical consensus. Although, we cannot disprove or by necessity deny the validity of the theory based on argumentum ad verucundiam, even authoritative authority. In addition to this, we cannot agree or disagree with the theory based on various high intelligence test scores, or credentials or lack thereof. Either correct or incorrect based on the reasoning and agreement with evidence. With these in mind, what do you make of dark matter and dark energy? Do they exist? How would your theory supersede present explanations?

I think the universe isn’t inherently unstable in size, with overall stability being a characteristic of an information-based universe. That is, though parts of it can expand and contract, the universe isn’t going to keep flying apart to some cold, thin oblivion or collapse into an infernal dot. (At least without some outside agency acting upon it. The loss or degradation of the physical structure which supports the universe would result in the loss of the information within the universe. As the universe loses information, it would become less well-defined, which might look like a collapse and heating up of the universe – a big bang in reverse.) The scale and size of the universe should be roughly proportional to the amount of information it contains (with local scale and size depending on the information/matter distribution as viewed from each particular neighborhood).

Are dark matter and dark energy needed to help with the gravitational bookkeeping of an inherently flat universe? I don’t know. I’m more inclined to believe in dark matter than dark energy, with the dark matter made of non-exotic stuff – mostly old, burned-out, collapsed stars, many of which, I guess, would be orbiting on the fringes of galaxies, largely invisible except for their effect on the galactic rotation curve.

(Burned-out stars closer to the centers of galaxies could orbit the galactic center, largely undetected, or might collide with other stars (possible falling towards the massive black hole-like object at the galactic center), or during early-galaxy star formation might accrete enough hydrogen to light up again for awhile. I don’t know how old stars mixed into a young galaxy would mess with the dynamics of galactic formation. Wikipedia says there might be 10^8 neutron stars in the Milky Way, compared to 10^11 regular stars. Red dwarfs, which have extremely long lifespans and are hard to detect, might make up three quarters of the stars in the Milky Way.)

What I’m saying is, if you allow for galaxies to recycle – to go through star formation, light up and burn out, over and over again – there’s room and reason for there to be lots of non-exotic, hard-to-see dark and dark-ish matter in and around galaxies.

31. How would a burned-out galaxy be recycled?

Young, active galaxies occupy the expansive center of the universe. Old, burned-out galaxies find themselves in more collapsed neighborhoods on the outskirts of the universe, due to subsequent expansions (in which they don’t participate). Old galaxies are neutron-heavy – they’re cooked – they’re done.

But conditions on the outskirts cause some old galaxies to become proton-rich again. Maybe an old galaxy gets flooded with neutrinos, which will be found in more profusion on the collapsed outskirts of the universe and which convert neutrons into protons. Maybe the hotter, denser outskirts have more free-floating hydrogen to accrete. Maybe the increased curvature of space in the collapsed outskirts reduces the depth of the gravitational wells which keep neutron stars under pressure, allowing the surface layers of these stars to decay back into protons. Maybe collapsed structures can reignite themselves, based on their own information and processes or when detecting information that they specialize in (that may not be visible to the rest of the universe – collapsed galaxy as smoke detector).

The outskirts of the universe are hotter, denser, more spatially curved, more bombarded with neutrinos streaming from the active center. Here, it’s harder for neutrons to remain neutrons. Here, I’m guessing that the crusty, neutron-heavy surfaces of the stars in an old galaxy can be eroded into protons, like a Lifesaver in your mouth. A galaxy that gets hit with enough proton-producing forces is rejuvenated and can become part of an active, expansive galactic center. Perhaps most of the collapsed matter on the outskirts exists in a hair-trigger state, ready to light up again on a moment’s notice (with that moment being billions of years long).

An information-processing universe can reactivate old, settled galaxies, recalling them to the center, where they participate in new processing. The processing in the center helps but doesn’t exclusively determine which galaxies will be next to be recalled. (The galaxies in the active center co-evolve over a rolling cycle. They form a bubble that might merge with other bubbles. The active center is probably more balloon than neck. That is, most galaxies would experience themselves to be roughly at the center of the universe, the way every galaxy is central in a Big Bang universe.)

32. Science history presents examples of widely accepted substances. For a trite example, élan vital to explain the knotty operations of life. Time proved their possible veracity more or less false. Do you think dark matter and dark energy have analogous existence to older ideas like élan vital?

Some of the finer points of dark energy will go away – for instance, I doubt the universe is undergoing accelerating expansion.

Dark energy can be seen as a tweak to the inverse-square law of gravitation (or at least there are theories which account for large-scale phenomena by tweaking the inverse-square law). I believe that over a sufficiently long time scale, the universe as a whole experiences very little net expansion – that the size of the universe is proportional to the amount of information it contains, and on the timescale of a few 14-billion-year cosmic blinks, the universe doesn’t gain or lose that much information. I suppose the active center of the universe can vary in size quite a bit, but I doubt this is accomplished via dark energy.

Given that the overall scale of the universe should remain steady, the inverse-square law has to be violated – there’s no stable solution to general relativity without throwing in a cosmological constant. According to GR, the universe can’t just hang in mid-air (or mid-space-time continuum).

But in a self-observing, self-defining universe, flatness and constancy of size are built in. I believe that the universe observes and defines itself quantum mechanically. It’s as if the universe is an enormous gunfight – every particle in the universe helps figure out where every other particle is by all the particles shooting particles at each other.

Imagine a uniform universe consisting of regularly spaced particles (all shooting at each other). Over time, the wave functions of the particles spread out, as the universe itself spreads out (because the specifications of space itself are uncertain). There’s not enough information from the gunfighting particles to keep them absolutely pinned down in space – they’re fuzzy, and they get fuzzier. BUT the rate at which the particles get fuzzier is proportional to the rate at which the universe spreads out, so the scale of the universe – the ratio of the particles’ fuzziness to the size of the universe stays constant. There’s your stable universe, hanging in mid-air.

The universe defines itself, and, by defining itself with a constant amount of information (proportional to the number of particles in the shoot-out and the complexity of their relationships), the size of the universe remains constant (or grows or shrinks gradually as it gains or loses information).

(What collapses the wave function (if that’s the way you want to talk about it)? Probability. Wave functions are either collapsed by observation or not. (I guess – it’d be nice if I’d studied advanced QM, but oh well.) Observation is done by the matter within the universe. (Sometimes people make the observations, but we’re not particularly special in that capacity – we’re part of the universe.) At each moment (as experienced locally, so you don’t have simultaneity problems) particles are all in their various states, with their probabilities of interacting with each other or decaying or whatever else particles do. Subsequent moments reflect the playing out of these probabilities.

To be clear-ish: you have a moment, with its probabilities. This moment implies a set of possible subsequent moments, consistent with the information contained in the moment. Each subsequent moment (that is, an actual moment, not just a possible many-worlds moment) reflects the probabilities in the history that led up to it. But each moment is random and arbitrary to the extent that the universe has finite determinative information – a limited capacity to define the future. Every moment predicts the future, but not all the way. Each new moment has information that is filled in, not from out of nowhere, but from outside of the universe’s determinative information. Like this – an hour before the end of a football game, your personal information space determines that the game will almost certainly have a final score. But your information space – your mind – can’t determine that score. It can assign probabilities, but the moment that contains the final score includes information that was previously unavailable to your information space and had to be filled in from outside.)

33. What about gravity?

In our evenly spaced universe, there’s no experience of gravity – everything’s hanging in mid-air. But move a couple of objects closer together. You’ve raised the mass density in their region above the universal average. (Been thinking about gravity a lot and have managed to confuse myself a little bit, but…) By being closer together, they’re not seeing as much of the energy flux that holds space open (or something). The space between them will expand considerably less than between the evenly spaced objects, and hey! – you’ve got gravity (when the overall expansion due to uncertainty (and photon flux?) is cancelled out). (Given that the average mass density of the universe is about one proton per cubic meter, two protons separated by a meter (in our hanging-in-mid-air universe) should experience no net gravitational attraction. Good luck testing that – the force or lack of force is more than 10^40 times smaller than the smallest force ever measured.)

34. Do we need gravitons to have gravity?

There are arguments from quantum field theory in favor of gravitons, but if gravitation is an effect of the scale of the universe being information-based, gravitation might be entirely mediated by other forces and particles. Gravitation might be bookkeeping – other forces conduct their business, with the scale and shape of space (which includes gravitation) being a collective net result of this business. What I’m asking is – does the shaping of space require special space-shaping particles, or does the shape of space result from all other physics business? I guess this is the same thing as asking, “Does all the other business transmit all the information without the help of gravitation?”

This leads back to your question about dark energy. Dark energy seems like a spring-loading of empty space to make the universe conform to observation. I doubt that dark energy is a thing beyond that everything comes from the scaling of space based on information. In most of our observations, we see this as an inverse-square effect of gravity. But this doesn’t make inverse-square the law – it’s just the most observable effect. Overall, the universe probably stays roughly the same size over shortish periods of time (billions of years), which it couldn’t under universal inverse-square gravity. Effectively, there’s a cosmological constant. And there are probably a bunch of other tweaks to inverse-square gravity. But inverse-square and its tweaks all come from the same thing – the shape and scale of space being defined by the information it embodies. So, instead of a computationally very simple inverse-square law as a foundation, you have this principle that information shapes space which is probably computationally a pain in some of its aspects. In everyday situations, you can simplify it to inverse-square. In other situations, maybe it’s helpful to do the math as if there is dark energy or a cosmological constant. Does that mean that dark energy actually exists? Could be that it doesn’t – could be just a mathematical convenience.

35. Let’s go through a few questions that have been prompted by your answers to previous questions. What would you call a field which links the structure of thought with the structure of the universe?

The idea that the universe is describable by information (is a humongous information processor) is called digital physics. I like “informational cosmology” better. (But suggesting a discipline be renamed is kind of a douche move.)

36. What about entropy?

In the words of a tweet from Christopher D. Long, “People shouldn’t expect phenomena at scales and energies far outside normal experiences to be analogous to those experiences.” We don’t have an understanding of how entropy might work for the universe as a whole. I think that the universe has ways to dump or hide or attenuate energy-depleted, high-entropy volumes. As a formerly active part of the universe burns out, it collapses and gets pushed to the side as other parts of the universe light up and expand. The effect is no overall increase in entropy. (The pushing to the side is a relativistic rotation out of the active center. I like thinking of relativistic shifts as rotational. Objects with a high velocity relative to you aren’t fully participating in your space-time frame, according to the equations of special relativity, which are trigonometric.)

Relativity, both special and general, has to do with information. Matter that (as information) has reduced relevance (that is, I guess, reduced information in common) with the matter observing it is relativistically rotated – shortened, time-dilated, red-shifted. The Hubble redshift acts like a correlation quilt across the universe. Neighborhoods that are highly correlated with each other are close to each other, with low relative redshifts.

Which kind of leads to inertia. Mach’s Principle says that inertia is due to the stellar background. (That is, movement relative to all the galaxies in the universe – at the time Mach was writing, the existence of galaxies beyond ours wasn’t well-established. And way before Mach, someone else who kind of thought this was Bishop Berkeley, the “Universe is an idea in the mind of God” fella. That guy was good.) What if inertia is due to gravitational attraction being relativistically attenuated, so that an object in motion is less attracted to the matter in its immediate neighborhood and more attracted to the neighborhood whose apparent velocity matches its own? (A friend of mine asked Feynman about something like this, and Feynman said it didn’t work – the calculation ended up with a sign-reversal – a plus where a minus should be, or something.)

37. What about subatomic particles?

Of the dozens of subatomic particles, only five – the electron, proton, neutron, neutrino, and photon – can last for a long time and travel across large distances. I consider these the workhorses of the universe and all the other particles their helpers. Protons and neutrons encode information and shape space, with protons opening up space and neutrons collapsing it.

Not all information in the universe can be in play at the same time. The universe doesn’t have enough processing capacity, and most parts of the universe are highly uncorrelated with each other – they’re in neighborhoods that are vastly separated (in distance and Hubble redshift). But even when not in play, information in collapsed neighborhoods may help define the universe, perhaps with their gravitational vectors acting as 4D tent pegs, helping hold the whole universe open.

If you examine the contents of your awareness from moment to moment, you don’t know that much stuff at any given instant (the moment you wake up, for instance), but you don’t panic, because you feel that you can recall just about anything you need to know almost immediately (and because it wouldn’t make sense to be in a constant panic – you’re used to always almost knowing things). There’s all this knowledge on the tip of your brain – it’s imminent – ready to go and perhaps providing structure without being fully in your awareness.

The universe could be set up the same way, with shadow information – collapsed neighborhoods on the outskirts – providing structural support and helping define space and the matter it contains. Maybe in a very low-information universe – young, hot, fuzzy – the ratio of the proton mass to the electron mass is closer to one-to-one rather than our 1,836-to-one.

Could be that neutrons, acting as closed-off variables, serve to increase the precision with which matter is defined. Protons are free to act on other matter via electric charge – they’re active. Neutrons are decided – they’re locked into fixed correlations in a nucleus or in gravitationally collapsed matter. They can’t interact with the universe via charge. But by being fixed (generally for the many-billion-year time being) they can provide a stable background – a framework of frozen, decided (for the long now) issues – against which the active center of the universe can work out the issues in play. The frozen background is the framework of assumptions that more precisely define the terms in play. The terms in play are the protons in the active center, made heavy, small and precise (because the heavier the particle, the smaller the DeBroglie wavelength) by all the collapsed matter in the background. The proton-electron mass ratio is proportional to the amount of collapsed, neutron-rich matter on the outskirts of the universe compared to the amount of proton-rich matter in the active center. It’s an old universe, with a lot of collapsed matter.

The frozen framework can be brought back into play, but only a small fraction of it can be in play at any one time. It sits, waiting, an array of imminent knowledge – things resolved and removed from active consideration until needed. (Your mind pings against its frozen background, warming it up just enough to give you the feeling of being at home in yourself.)

38. What about black holes?

Black holes. I don’t believe in black holes as objects that must necessarily crush themselves into singularities. Instead, matter moving towards black hole status is a ball of information/matter which, as the matter collapses, increasingly correlating with the matter within its own sphere, shares less and less information with the outside universe. But the information it contains doesn’t have to be crushed out of existence. Circumstances can vary, and a blackish hole’s information should usually be retrievable.

The information within collapsed matter has to generally be repeatedly retrievable as parts of the universe cycle from active to burned-out/collapsed and back to active. The crushing forces of gravitational collapse might be countered by a shrinkage of the scale of space within a sphere of collapsing matter, with the matter growing heavier and smaller until stasis is achieved, with shrinkage of space equaling energy gravitational gained, so that matter and the scale of space largely define themselves through interactions among the collapsed matter. The interior of blackish holes could be organized, which we couldn’t see much of from the outside, or information could be lost, as the matter falls back into primordial chaos. (Wouldn’t want too much of that. The universe would be losing its memory/framework.)

39. How does this come together?

Non-velocital redshift is an indicator of information not-in-common (I_~c) with the observer.

(On my birthday in May, 1981, when I first got the idea of mental information maps (in the Libby Hall dorm cafeteria at the University of Colorado (may have been eating cubes of red Jell-O – I liked my Jell-O), I imagined that the ease with which something can be recalled depended on the geometry of the information to be remembered. Are there a bunch of angles from which it can be accessed, or is there just one angle – only one set of associations which can be combined to get to it (which means you can’t get to it at all if you can’t come up with those associations)? Then I realized that an optimal mental information map might look like the universe itself.

And then I imagined a mental map of what you know about how you and other beings go to the bathroom. (It’s just where my brain takes me – sorry!) You know a lot about how you go to the bathroom – that’s at the center of your map. Close to the center, you may know (too much, even) about how family and friends go to the bathroom. Further out, you have generalized knowledge and assumptions about how Americans and Canadians go to the bathroom. Way further out (and redshifted), is how they go to the bathroom on other continents, such as China and Japan. You’ve heard about holes and places to put your feet – you don’t really want to know any more than that. And then way, way out in zero-knowledge land is how they go to the bathroom on other planets. I suppose a more mature person would’ve simply pictured the classic March 29, 1976 New Yorker cover, which is kind of a Manhattanite’s mental map of the world.)

Go ahead and figure information in-common (I_c) equals the square root of (1 – v^2), where v is the apparent recessional velocity over the speed of light. (It’s a term from special relativity.) Everything in the universe is a mixture of information I_c and I_~cwith us. The farther a galaxy is from us, the greater its apparent recession, the less information it has I_c and more I_~cwith us. I think the proton-electron mass ratio is proportional to the I_~c-I_c mass ratio. In a young, small, nearly information-less universe, the proton-electron would be a lot smaller – possibly not one-to-one – a proton is much more complicated than an electron – it’s a knot in space, while an electron is a twist in space. But the ratio would be much closer to one-to-one.

Information I_~c is stored information – it’s memory, not retrieved in the present moment. The universe has limited information-processing capacity – it can’t know everything it knows all at once. (You don’t know everything you know all at once.) Every galaxy, active or collapsed, in the universe has a combination of information I_c and I_~c with us.

The cosmic microwave background radiation – the oldest, farthest-traveling radiation in the universe – has a z, a redshift, of nearly 1,100. A galaxy’s redshift z is proportional to its I_~c-I_c ratio. This is ballpark for a I_~c-I_c-dependent proton-electron mass ratio of about 1,836. The picture is like this: near T = 0, you have a bunch of collapsed galaxies that aren’t sharing much information with the active center of the universe. These blackish galaxies have I_~c-I_c ratios of 1,000 and higher, and there are enough of them to raise the I_~c-I_cratio for the entire universe, as seen by us in the active center, to 1,000 or more, bumping up the proton-electron mass ratio.

To go into a little more detail – imagine a grid of galaxies with an apparent velocity of half the speed of light between adjacent galaxies.

(I first imagined this while posing for an art class in 1988 – gave me something to do while sitting naked, trying not to move. Instead of galaxies, I imagined spaceships piloted by the Brady Bunch. Greg pilots a ship going .5C away from earth. Marsha’s ship goes away from Greg at .5C. Bobby’s ship travels away from Marsha at .5C, and so on. I told my boss, Mike Armstrong, at Remote Control, the quiz show I wrote for, about it (because I’m weird). He said, “That’s a whole new type of question!” and Brady Physics was born. We asked contestants to tell us the result of dangerous hypothetical experiments performed on the Bradys.)

When you add the velocities of a series of objects moving at half the speed of light relative to each other, you never reach the speed of light relative to the stationary observer (to any observer). The observer on earth sees ships moving at higher and higher fractions of the speed of light – ½, 4/5, 13/14, 40/41, 121/122, 364/365, 1093/1094…. To get a I_~c-I_c ratio of more than 1,000, you need an apparent velocity within one two-millionth of the speed of light, which takes a string of 14 spaceships. (You run through all the Brady kids and parents, Alice, Tiger, Sam the Butcher….)

So you have a grid of galaxies, with the most distant nearly redshifted into invisibility, but still providing scale and structure, in part by making protons fairly massive. Remember how the universe is in a big gunfight with itself? Well, all the particles accumulated mass from all the bullets shot at each other over an incredible amount of time.

Now, all those collapsed galaxies with the huge redshifts should be black holes, according to current understanding. But I don’t think so. I think they’re blackish, not black, in that they still exchange some information with the rest of the universe. They also have inner structure, hidden from us. A blackish galaxy has cooked down, blasting away extraneous matter/information, until it’s a largely self-informing, nearly closed-off system. If it’s on the outskirts, it’s not currently relevant and is nearly frozen in time – it’s memory or an app that’s not currently needed. If it’s closer to the center, it might be a specialized system that’s currently relevant but can largely do business independently – behind a blackish curtain. Seems as if most galaxies have million-star-sized black(ish) holes at their center. These might be specialized systems or recalled memories, with galaxies’ 10^22 shining stars being the visible broadcasters – the active center’s universe-spanning mega-processor.

But there’s another step. In the active center, space is expanded – particles are very small in relation to the scale of space. Something must be precisely defining matter within space, and that something is photons. As long as protons are cooking down into neutrons and releasing fusion energy, space is expanded. When protons run out, the flux of photons that fills space peters out (over billions of years – it takes photons awhile to cross the universe), and space deflates gravitationally (up to a point – objects might still have some leftover orbital energy, there’s still redshift segregation, and scale invariance kicks in before particles can crush themselves out of existence).

Photons are fighting gravity – they specify space, making it fluffy. Without this specification, space contracts. Fluffy, expanded space facilitates large-scale information-sharing among active galaxies. Collapsed space tends to be opaque, making it tough to share information. (It’s not like the universe was intentionally designed to have a transparent active center. Lucky accident? Seems doubtful.)

What would happen if all the galaxies burned out, and there were no active center? You’d have no widespread information-sharing/processing – no large-scale cogitating – and the universe would effectively be asleep. (Or at least something like this happens during certain stages of our sleep. And to a lesser extent when certain drugs are taken. LSD, for instance, seems to interfere with the normal functioning of systems that help interpret the world. For example, our software that processes faces is hampered, and you see half-processed lizard faces or semi-wire-frame polygon faces. Very annoying, not fun.

(Kids, don’t do drugs, particularly LSD. It lasts for like 15 hours, and only the first hour or two is at all fun or interesting. You’ve broken your brain for an entire day, and you can’t even sleep it off, especially if the LSD has been cut with something. If you absolutely want to slightly break your brain to see how it works, a light dose of shrooms is much better. Lasts like a third as long, isn’t as debilitating, doesn’t make you worry as much that your brain is gonna stay like this. Make sure you have babysitters to keep you calm and to make sure you don’t do anything stupid. But just don’t do drugs in the first place. Better to observe your thoughts using your intact, non-broken brain.)

Anyhow, the universe is asleep (that is, it could be at some point). Little or no active center, not overly conscious. So what happens? It can wake up, just like we do. Something wakes it – could be external, could be internal – the effect is the same – galaxies are turned on, space expands around them, they form an active center.

Which brings up another thing – it takes hundreds of millions of years for clouds of hydrogen to coalesce into stars and light up. With not necessarily any stars lighting up the just turned-on galaxies, where’s the energy flux that expands space? The thing is, you can get energy from both neutrons decaying into protons and protons fusing into neutrons. Hose down some burned-out galaxies with neutrinos, turning neutrons into protons, you’re gonna release a bunch of energy. Half a billion years later, when some of those protons, now in stars, start fusing back into neutrons, they’re gonna spit out more energy. Shweet!

40. What does this mean in a nutshell?

Collapsed galaxies on the outskirts of the universe (and, to a smaller extent, collapsed matter in the centers and on the outskirts of active galaxies) give scale and structure to the universe by adding mass to protons and neutrons.

Collapsed galaxies are the universe’s memory and currently unneeded apps, able to recalled when relevant.

Energy from protons fusing into neutrons expands space in the universe’s active center (making space transparent and widespread information-sharing possible).

41. What about space and time?

Space and time are self-assembling according to some minimizing and maximizing principles. Space seems to be arranged to minimize the aggregate distance traveled by photons. Things that are going to interact a lot should be close to each other – space shouldn’t be any bigger than it has to be. Minimizing distance maximizes the rate of interactions; time is as full of events as it can be. (Of course, events don’t happen in time, as if time is this independently existing thing to be filled – the sequence of events is time. But still…) this probably means that information is maximized over time and that information is the engine of time.

(Here’s where I further confuse myself.) The present moment is when information is gained through events which resolve probabilistic situations. (Time is a news-gatherer.) Time maximizes causality and the predictive power of correlations among matter.

42. Why these principles of existence (‘laws’)?

There’s a tautological aspect to the principles of existence. (Why principles and not laws? Because laws seem like rules delivered from on-high, while principles can be emergent – nebulous until made tight and precise by the statistical behaviour of large amounts of organized matter.) Things that exist have to exist – they can’t both exist and not exist (except when their existence or not is incompletely specified quantum mechanically). Right there, you have a principle, but not a very useful one until you draw some conclusions from it. A conclusion might be that existence includes duration – that for every existent moment, there’s at least one related existent moment which can be seen as a subsequent moment.

Somehow out of this, you get the fairly tautological principle that persistent structures or processes are persistent – that they create a bias towards their own continued existence.

You get things which work like Liebnizian monads – little correlation engines whose main job is to be correlated with other engines at various times. These correlations pull the universe tight, giving it structure in space and time. I believe that protons (and the electrons which go with them) are the correlation engines. They’re each like a little spatial axis – a dimension – and the variable that lies somewhere along that dimension, all in one. But the dimension doesn’t extend to infinity – it fades – it only extends as far as it needs to for the correlations it’s involved with, like a street. Streets only exist for their own limited length.

Protons are knots in our locally three-dimensional space. The knot in space is rectified by the point-wise inversion in space (kind of a cross-cap) which is the electron. Without an electron for every proton (but without electrons being assigned to specific protons), space doesn’t work topologically.

Neutrons are locked-down dimensions. Proximity is like correlation – two protons coming close enough that they turn into a proton-neutron pair means that they’re so correlated that two dimensions (or variables) can function as a single dimension (or variable). The universe prioritizes compactness – it stores dimensions/variables it doesn’t need within neutrons.

Over billions of years, a star boils down a big ball of hydrogen – a stew of protons and electrons – into a bunch of neutron-heavy elements. It’s a correlation machine – it links protons together, locking them down into closed-off neutrons. And the fusion energy it emits helps define and expand space in the active center as light streams across the universe.

43. Let’s make a concrete calculation along the dimension of time, your novel framework for the structure of universe may gain clarity from such calculations. Using the accepted canon age of cosmos at ~13.77 billion years old as the referent, by your own theorizing and within your framework, how might we calculate universe’s age? What age would the calculation produce?

If you didn’t know how brains worked, and you saw a half-second PET scan of a thought unfolding across a brain, how would you estimate the age of the brain? It would be really tough. You might be able to assume that this processing of a thought isn’t a one-time thing – assume that this is a function of the brain and, as such, happens again and again. But it would take a lot more knowledge to have any idea how many times it happens. (How many times does it happen? Estimate three thoughts a second. (How long does it take for your attention to shift and a thought to form? At least a tenth of a second and not more than two-thirds of a second. Observe your thoughts – see what you think.) Three thoughts a second is about 10,000 thoughts an hour times 16 waking hours a day times 80 years comes out to a human brain having about 5 billion thoughts in a lifetime.)

What if the universe is an apparatus that does what it does again and again – unfolding over and over, sending stars and galaxies through their life cycles, with those galaxies burning out and being squeezed to the outskirts by new unfoldings, where they wait to be part of a subsequent expansion?

If the universe is an information-processing entity (It is!), from within the universe, we’re seeing only the information, we’re not seeing the structure that supports the information-processing. Analogously, the mind is the moment-to-moment unfolding of information within consciousness, while the brain is the physical structure which supports this interplay of information. When we look at the universe, we see the interplay of information; we don’t see the physical structure which supports it. This makes it even harder to guess the age or lifespan of the universe.

We don’t know the purpose of the universe. (We’re so far from knowing that even asking seems a little preposterous.) We can’t decode the information in the universe. (We’re made out of it, but we can’t read it. As we make our way onward, maybe we’ll pick up some clues, perhaps from civilizations that have been around longer.) As we learn more, perhaps we get to participate in the business of the universe. The universe processes and stores information at all levels of complexity. Civilizations would be part of this). We don’t know anything about the physical structure that might support it. So it’s hard to guess how old it is.

(Imagine that in the future, we find out with reasonable certainty that the universe has a purpose – to process information to help the universe’s supporting structure or entity achieve its objectives in its external world (the world perceived and modeled by the universe). One way of dealing with this discovery would be to get with the project – to figure that we’re all in this together – that if the universe prospers, we prosper. I’d guess that many entities within the universe are part of the program. Maybe the really advanced ones run galaxy-sized neutrino hoses that can reactivate dormant parts of the universe. (I know that seems goofy, but we don’t know anything yet.) Maybe there are nihilistic or hedonistic civilizations that figure, “Everything’s so big and old and, in a way, virtual, it doesn’t really matter what we do.”)

There might be some clues to the universe being older than its apparent age. If the universe undergoes repeated multi-billion-year unfoldings, there should be lots of stuff that’s older than the apparent 14-billion-year age of the universe. That stuff won’t necessarily be in our immediate neighborhood – we’re new – we came into being as part of the current unfolding.

Via repeated cycles (not cycles of the entire universe expanding and contracting – not an oscillating universe – more like a rolling boil) of galaxies lighting up and burning out, the dark matter we’re looking for (to explain gravitational anomalies such as the outer rims of galaxies rotating faster than accounted for by the distribution of visible stars) might be a bunch of neutron stars and near-black holes. If anything could survive repeated cycles without being completely ablated away, it would be near-black holes. (Don’t really believe in fully black holes.) A universe which has gone through a zillion cycles might have generated a bunch of burned-out junk (or, in an informational sense, massive settled or solved (for the moment) equations or clumps of correlations or memories or independent processors whose operations the wider universe doesn’t much participate in/isn’t very conscious of) hanging around on the outskirts of galaxies.

A brand-new universe – one that’s unfolded after a single big bang – doesn’t have much opportunity to form a bunch of collapsed matter. But a universe at a rolling boil – that is, a “continuing series of little bangs” universe – would generate lots of junk. It’s that house with all the trashed cars and plumbing fixtures scattered across the front yard.

Just for fun, we could multiply the 14-billion-year apparent age of the universe by the 5 billion lifetime cycles of the human brain. There’s no reason to assume that the universe goes through 500,000 or 5 googol rolling cycles. But anyhow, 5 billion times the apparent age of the universe gives you 70,000,000,000,000,000,000 years. That’s based on not much. What if the expected duration of a self-contained system of information (in terms of rolling cycles) is proportional to the complexity of the system? What if the complexity, like the average distance from the origin of a random walk, is proportional to duration squared? The universe could be really old.

No way the universe unfolds just once. No way it’s only 14 billion years old.

44. If I may extend the implications of informational cosmology, the discipline implies two complementary fields: informational cosmogony and informational eschatology. In your worldview of the universe’s life cycle, how would the universe – if indeed the world corresponds to such a model – begin (Cosmogony), develop (Cosmology), and end (Eschatology)?

In my view, the information space that is the universe arose through processes external to the universe. There’s a material framework – an armature – which provides the structure that allows the information-processing to take place. If the universe is the mind, then this armature is the brain. Our brains/minds exist within the context of the outside world. We can speculate or even assume that the universe similarly exists because of and within an outside context. Of course, we know nothing about any armature for the universe, but if it exists, its fate determines the fate of the universe.

We’re used to our brains being able to store a steady stream of information over many years. An information-space model of this would look like a universe becoming more complicated, perhaps expanding like a Big Bang universe (but over a long series of rolling cycles, not just a single original push plus various inflational add-ons) with more and more matter gradually falling into visibility from the farthest reaches – the outskirts close to T = 0, the apparent beginning of time. But as we age, we can lose information. Instead of our information space becoming bigger and more complex, with the primordial background radiation spreading out and getting cooler and cooler, the information space would heat up, becoming smaller, hotter, and less complex. Information melts away, lost in background noise. As information drops to zero, we have an information space that’s hot and fuzzy, with a short horizon.

An information space is dependent on the integrity of its armature. There are statistical arguments to be made on the future size of the information space, based on its current size, but that math doesn’t exist yet. And that math is just a statistical bet about conditions in a world external to the universe that we, as yet, know nothing about. (How might we learn about this external world? Perhaps by making contact with older civilizations which have had more time to suss out what the universe is up to. Scary. I suspect that old entities who know what’s up might be found at the galactic center. Eventually, our strategy might be to tiptoe towards the galactic center to take a look, but very stealthily, so as not to get our asses kicked. But really – how would we outsmart entities that might be billions of years old? Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum with a computer virus won’t do it.)

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2023-01-28

Rick G. Rosner: Giga Society, Member; Mega Society, Member & ex-Editor (1991-97); and Writer (Part Three)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/10/22

ABSTRACT

Part three of eleven, comprehensive interview with Rick G. Rosner. Giga Society member, ex-editor for Mega Society (1990-96), and writer. He discusses the following subject-matter: arguing for reinstatement of metaphysics into physics, their present estranged relationship, necessary relationship between logic and metaphysics, formal argument for the derivations from logic to physics and connection to metaphysics, unsuccessful attempts at metaphysical thinking, ancient Greece’s lack of experimental science, the opposite trend today with much experimental science, the depth of understanding the business transactions of the universe on a macro scale, possible purposes for these transactions for the universe, brief overview of the universe’s development, related objectives of organisms, purpose of laughter illuminated by George Saunders, and effective economy of thought for a possible grounding for the universe; methodology of science, derived facts from the methodology, and constructed systems of knowledge, a determined universe, free will as an internal sense of willing something, compatibilist and non-compatibilist free will, quantum mechanics, moral axiologists, free will and ethics implying moral accountability, considerations of this with an increased understanding of the world through science, framing the appropriate question for an accurate answer to the free will question, some peoples’ arguments for the ability of free will based on quantum indeterminacy, impetus behind free will appearing to be not wanting restrictions “by genes, by creeds or institutions, by mental limitations,” a better question for understanding the free will issue, evolved creatures not necessarily constructing the most accurate views of reality, evolutionary examples of hijacked thought, Plato’s Cave, the ‘freakout’ over determinism based on Newtonian mechanics, technical rather than transcendent aspect of thinking, and lack of determinacy of the universe based on quantum mechanics; free will intrinsic to an individual consciousness, free will for the penultimate armature of the universe, derived-from-armature free will for an individual consciousness (or set of them), the more important angle of informed will, and targeted thinking; and set of mainstream physicists considering the universe to exist in 11-dimensional hyperspace in string theory, constraints of the universe’s structure based on the specification of dimensions, implied limitations of a three dimensional universe, analogy of Donald Rumsfeld and Errol Morris’ The Unknown Known, origin of the phrase with John Wesley Powell, John Keats and Robert Browning mentioning the phrase too, the universe as an optimized information map, commonalities of the universe exist close to one another while those far apart have less in common, 30% of the speed of light (.3c) of objects moving away from us equating to ~4 billion light years away, forming a sphere of that radius about twice the radius of everything moving away at 15% the speed of light (.15c) away from us with four times the area, further considerations and calculations with the reciprocal Lorentz factor from special relativity, redshift and information in common, Big Bang universe, size proportional to age of universe (look farther away, the universe appears smaller because younger, or larger because older), Hubble redshift, a non-Big Bang universe having lack of uniformity with an active and burned-out center with collapsed outskirts clustered to T = 0 (Time equates to zero or absolute beginning of the cosmos), inverse-square law, and an economy of dimensions likely defeating an 11-dimensional universe posited out of string theoretic constructions.

Keywords: Apple, armature, Big Bang universe, Dave Damashek, determinism, Donald Rumsfeld, Donald Trump, Dyson spheres, Errol Morris, economy of dimensions, ethics, evolution, experimental science, fields, fixed orbits, free will, galaxies, George Saunders, Giga Society, gravitational wells, Greece, Hubble redshift, hypersphere, indeterminate, infinity, informed will, inverse-square law, John Keats, John Wesley Powell, laughter, life, logic, long-distance particles, Lorentz factor, mathematics, Mega Society, metaphysics, Michael Scott, Microwave background radiation, moral axiologists, morality, neutrinos, particle physics, photons, physics, Plato’s Cave, principles of existence, quantum mechanics, Rick G. Rosner, Robert Browning, science, ‘The Unknown Known’, thought, toxoplasmosis, unconscious biases, universe, unpredictable, writer.

24. You think metaphysics needs to be reinstated into physics. Yet, they have an estrangement. You mean physics and metaphysics together. Indeed, I would reason much further than this. Metaphysics needs logic; logic needs metaphysics. Furthermore, mathematics derives from logic, physics derives from mathematics, and hence – for a more comprehensive framework – physics needs metaphysics and vice versa. At root, we have a deep relation between physics and metaphysics. This estrangement seemed temporary before someone directed appropriate attention to the need for conscious reunification of the two.

Compared to science, metaphysics has been very unsuccessful, to the extent that few people, scientists included, do much metaphysical thinking. Science has helped us build the modern world. Metaphysics can’t even definitively answer its own questions. Pondering “What is being?” doesn’t bring us Apple products. Our era is kind of the reverse of ancient Greece, which was all “Why is everything the way it is?” and not much for doing experimental science. The Greeks should’ve performed some experiments. It’s hard to do effective metaphysics if you don’t have sufficient information about how the universe works. It’s like solving a crime without evidence.

But perhaps by now, we have almost enough information, via physics, to come up with a system which has some “whys” as well as “hows.” We’ve learned a lot of “hows” about the universe: how it transacts much of its business – on a macro scale, via fields and long-distance particles such as photons and neutrinos. We should be able to use our knowledge of these transactions to propose theories of how the universe might benefit from these transactions, asking “Why? – What does the universe gain?”

Via these processes, the universe becomes simpler in some ways – over billions of years, stars boil down – and more complex in others – across billions of years, life arises. The universe becomes more stable in some ways – matter accretes into galaxies and stars which are cradled in fixed orbits and gravitational wells and the universe clusters on a range of scales, adding to stability and informational compactness. As my friend Dave Dameshek likes to ask, “To what end? To what end?!”

Take a look at a business model for a system with “whys” – with goals we kind of understand – thought.

Thought has several related objectives – manage an organism’s normal activities, look for exploitable regularities, and avoid error, all within the context of constructing a model of reality. The brain has a finite capacity, so it wants to compress information to reduce the chance for error and make room for more information. The brain likes finding analogies and shortcuts – they help compactify information.

Thought involves risk. If the brain can figure out how to make knowing fewer things as helpful as knowing more things, it can know those few things with greater certainty and less distraction and chance of confusion. Think of it in terms of sending a message – if you have a 15-word message but can compress it to 5 words, better to send the shorter message 3 times to increase the likelihood the message gets through.

I view laughter as delight at finding a shortcut and as a signal to other people that a shortcut has been found. George Saunders has the same theory. “Humor is what happens when we’re told the truth quicker and more directly than we’re used to.” ― George Saunders, The Braindead Megaphone

So we have a rough idea of the brain’s informational priorities and procedures. Similarly, we can speculate about what the universe is up to with regard to information.

The universe does what it does, which I believe is information processing – thinking, even – within some context. It’s grappling with – thinking about – some world beyond itself – a world that includes the physical structure that makes the universe’s information-processing possible. We can assume that the universe has objectives in that world. We can assume that the universe has an economy of thought – that its thinking is effective because some rules of information are in place. We can try to figure out those rules, dagnabbit.

25. You think that people may be better able to answer philosophical questions today than in the past because of more accurate depictions of reality through the methodology of science, derived facts from the methodology, and constructed systems of knowledge: quantum mechanics, particle physics, chemical sciences, biological sciences, psychological sciences, and economic sciences onward with inclusion of every relevant discipline and subdiscipline. Of note, traditional ‘great’ questions can have placement in complementary scientific frameworks. For instance, in a determined universe, freedom of the will, ‘free will’, does not exist because determinacy reigns supreme. Either branch of determinism, compatibilist or non-compatibilist, bears little or no proper fruits. Why? Quantum mechanics shows either deterministic branch of the tree to be barren. Therefore, zero factual streams to hydrate and nourish the roots. Unless individuals defy the larger systemic laws (they would not) behind the hypothetical determinate universe. Furthermore, in an indeterminate universe, free will does not exist due to 1) no genuine point of contact for free will and 2) any utility of free will dissipates into meaningless randomness and noise. Peoples’ ability to freely will represents the fulcrum for each stream of reasoning, which makes intuitive and immediate experiential sense. Our universal, internal sense of willing something, of choosing one thought or act over another. Moreover, free will implicates ethics, morals, and legal systems, which binds upon bearers with the ability to freely choose right over wrong. Moral axiologists connect “right over wrong” to value systems. Value systems found in theological and non-theological contexts. Therefore, an important question for most people to consider with due ratiocination. In short, free will and ethics implies moral accountability. With increased understanding of the world through science, what do you think of this issue? What evidence and argument most convinces you of this answer/these answers?

We can use physics to start to address whether we’ve even been asking the right metaphysical questions, such as, “Is there free will?” Free from what, exactly? From being trapped in determinism? Thanks to quantum mechanics, we know that the world isn’t pre-determined. (However, it’s easy to imagine that, even with quantum indeterminacy, our thoughts in any given situation could pretty much be pre-determined (unless we explicitly build in randomness just to be contrary). I don’t think that quantum indeterminacy has much to do with whether we think one thought or another. Other people disagree.)

“Free will” can mean “thought that is independent from material constraints.” Under this definition, if thought takes place in the material world, then it’s materially constrained. Material constraint doesn’t bother me. I believe a more important question is, “Can we make decisions free of unconscious biases?” Are our conscious minds running the show, or are we puppets of our selfish genes? And can we overcome this puppetry?

In the past, some people thought there was ordinary matter, the tangible stuff that comprises the world and there was mind-stuff – special, as-yet-undetected twinkly stuff that does your thinking. (But even with two forms of stuff, there’s still the question, is this mind-stuff free of material constraints? Are we free to think what we want to think without the material world constraining our mind-stuff?)

I think today, the situation is clearer. Our thinking consists of the information in our awareness and how we manipulate it with our hardware – our brains. We are our information. There’s no mind-stuff that freely thinks independent of information.

When you ask the question, “Why am I me?” the answer turns out to be, “Because all of your information pertains to you.” All your information came into your head, was processed by you, and pertains to you (if only because you perceived and processed it.) You can imagine jumping into someone else’s head, Quantum Leap style, but in that case, you’re taking your information and your mental history and the ways you process information into somebody else’s situation. You’re not taking some abstract mind-stuff that’s free from information with you – you are your information and your mental tendencies.

So there’s not free will (as I understand the question – there are other interpretations of free will) because there’s no mind-stuff judging from afar, independent of information. To be clear, information is not matter, but neither is it independent, free-floating, twinkly mind-stuff. Information in this context is representations of things presented in such a way that we can think about them – they’re part of thought – they’re mentally manipulable in our mind-space. This space isn’t made of or facilitated by a special form of matter. Information is tightly coupled to and facilitated by our brains, which are concrete and material.

I’m vastly oversimplifying, but the impetus behind the interest throughout history in free will seems to be concern about whether thought is to some extent a sham – whether we have exalted powers to stand apart and above from the grubby, clockwork stuff of the world, and beyond that, whether can we avoid having our thoughts controlled – by genes, by creeds or institutions, by mental limitations.

We would want free will because that would mean we’re not the beyotches of the pedestrian, earth-bound material world.

But the better question is, “Can we be in charge of our thinking?” That is, can we think without bias? Consciousness is always playing tricks on us, because consciousness is a product of evolution, not a pure product of a desire to give us the most complete and accurate view of the world. (But we don’t need to be products of evolution for our brains and biology and consciousness to have hidden agendas. The biases are there, regardless of what put them there. Just ask any grad student in psychology about what must be thousands of experiments which show that consciousness gives us a highly filtered and biased and monkeyed-with view of the world. Each of us is our own Fox News.)

There are a bunch of parasites that transact business by messing with the brains of their victims – parasites that make mice attracted to cats (toxoplasmosis) or bugs attracted to light – so they get eaten and pass on the parasite to the next host in their life cycle. The hosts’ brains have been hijacked. To some extent, everyone’s brain is hijacked by what our genes want us to do. Reproducing often runs counter to the well-being and continued existence of individual organisms, but the process that made us is based on reproduction, and it tends not to be denied. We are greatly manipulated by our sexual thoughts and drives. It’s so crazy how fascinated we are with boobs and butts and symmetrical, easy-to-read faces, but all those things carry information about reproductive fitness that we’re hardwired to scrutinize.

We can make and are making progress in understanding our thought processes. Figuring out the limitations and biases of our thoughts and perceptions and how to overcome them are how we slowly extricate ourselves from Plato’s Cave. We can never get all the way out of the cave – never see and understand existence exactly as it is – but we can make unlimited progress, stacking up level upon level of scientific, philosophical, aesthetic and moral understanding. (If thinking entities are common throughout the universe, then not only scientific understanding is necessary. Thinking entities have narratives and morality.)

People freaked out over the idea of determinism which got a big push from Newtonian mechanics. They didn’t like the idea of being locked into a perfectly predictable machine universe which seems to make consciousness unnecessary. How can we really be thinking and why do we need to think if our brains are just molecules bouncing off of each other in a completely predictable way? But thinking shouldn’t have to be and isn’t transcendent – it’s a technical process involving considerable amounts of information simultaneously shared among a bunch of specialized subsystems. Doesn’t matter if it’s just electricity and bouncing molecules – the mental chatter is an unavoidable aspect of the processing. While not transcending mechanics, thinking, as an inescapable aspect of high-level information processing, may be the frame for all of physics (since the universe engages in high-level information processing), which makes thinking kind of transcendent, after all.

The universe turns out not to be deterministic – quantum events are, within their probability functions, perfectly unpredictable. (Future quantum events (which includes everything, really) precisely follow probability functions. We don’t know the outcome of a quantum event. But we do know the probability curve that decides the outcome. That is, once we’ve narrowed down the possible outcomes as much as possible, what’s left – the unpredictable, indeterminate part – is completely, inherently unpredictable except in terms of precisely defined probabilities.)

But this isn’t good news for free will, because quantum unpredictability doesn’t liberate thought from being a mechanistic process.

Consciousness is a technical thing, not a mystical in the realm of angels thing – it’s a property of high-level information-sharing via bouncing molecules, etc. – not necessarily in a completely predictable way, but also not in a way that thought can bend or defy physics through thought itself.

Consciousness creates an information space (or mind-space) that owes itself to the physics of the brain but isn’t comprised of the atoms of the brain. (It’s as if your brain is running a video game environment which contains representations that come from (processed) sensory information and from imagination (generally not the Willy Wonka kind). It hasn’t built a physical world – a scale model of the outside world like a model train set – but rather a system that allows the mind to envision and manipulate mental representations. As we think, we don’t see neurons firing – we see what is represented by patterns of neurons firing.)

But hey – if you have your mind-space – an abstract arena for the information in your awareness – why so serious about the physical foundation of the space? Your brain is made of stuff – get over it. Legitimate concerns related to free will include not being in charge of what gets to enter your mind-space, how information has been sharpened, simplified, amplified or otherwise tweaked on the way in, and unconscious glitches in your information-processing.

There’s the ass-covering, bogus storytelling nature of consciousness. Your unconscious or some specialized subsystem pulls the trigger on a decision, followed by your consciousness telling itself a story after the fact about why it made the decision. Happens all the time. Your consciousness is always telling you, “It’s cool – got it – I’m the boss.” Sure you are, consciousness – you’re the boss like Donald Trump or Michael Scott is the boss – you can be a blowhard with an exaggerated sense of your own skills.

If you observe carefully, you can spot some of the mechanics of consciousness and watch your thoughts being assembled. One small example – when there’s a name on the tip of your brain, sometimes you get clues – it’s five letters, it starts with a B or an M. You can glimpse some of the mental landscape where the little ball of inquiry is rolling around, trying to drop into the pit that’s the answer. But now you’ve thought about it too much – you’ve scrambled the landscape – you have to forget your inquiry and let it settle. Come back to it a little later, and often, the answer is right there for you.

In addition to constraints on thought, there are constraints on existence itself. Our thoughts are fairly tightly bound to reality, and reality seems bound to some pretty inflexible principles of existence. Creatures that are the result of evolution in a natural (un-engineered) cosmos probably all live in three spatial dimensions with linear time and rules of physics which are fairly consistent among all the different possible universes. (I don’t believe that the universe can take on any crazy dang form, with physical constants and number of dimensions at the mercy of 12-sided dice, and not just because the special effects department only has the budget to cover a couple of extras in blue body paint. There are reasons for gravity and 4D space-time, etc.) Whether advanced civilizations can circumvent these somewhat uniform conditions and construct truly weird universes remains to be seen.

Evolved creatures are persistent creatures – they’ve evolved to persist by propagating offspring across time. If the general scheme of the universe is decipherable – if we can decode its physics and metaphysics – then advanced civilizations (at least those which retain the will to persist that they evolved with) will figure out the universe and be forced to address it on its terms (which we have to anyway, even without understanding it). Every civilization cooks from the same Mystery Basket – the universe.

So civilizations are locked into a template – they react to the conditions of existence, constrained by their persistent characteristics and by physics, resulting in a limited range of possible paths for civilizations. You hear people say, “There are only seven basic plots for movies.” Well maybe there are a limited number of basic plots for civilizations. Some might be empire-builders. Though maybe not – in the words of Enrico Fermi, “Where are they?” It might be more efficient to stay close to home and exploit local resources for computing power – turning nearby planets into Dyson spheres and the like. Some might fall into decadence. Some might devote themselves to figuring out what the universe means and wants. Some might become artists, engaging in grand feats of beautiful, frivolous engineering. Maybe your standard advanced civilization is a mix of all the major reactions to existence, kind of like a TV lineup – comedy, drama, glitzy excess, hedonism….

The rules of existence will turn out to be fairly mathematical – not ordained from above, with God saying, “This is the precise and perfect Number One. It’s the basis of counting,” but hemmed in by slippery, iron-clad but fuzzy and evanescent tautological necessities such as non-contradiction – something can’t both exist and not exist (except when it can because of quantum uncertainty) – with existence entailing space and time and matter and their delineation via interactions – a big, messy ball of bootstrapped logic. (Numbers seem inherently exact, but that’s how we define and use them. We’re really borrowing an infinity of information (about the relationships among numbers) to do so. Numbers are as bootstrapped as everything else, but they’re amenable to procedures which hide that.)

Given that we’re constrained by math-like rules, it’s not unreasonable to think that we’re math-like entities, with our existences boxed and bound and constrained by having to belong to the set of all possible things.

Imagine, for example, the mind-space of a sponge, which has no neurons but which can respond to stimuli. (A sponge can sneeze when it gets filled up with schmutz.) It has a tiny-to-the-point-of-nonexistent, fuzzy mind-space – a pretty close to minimum-possible mind-space – which could probably be replicated with a simple mathematical model. Then there are roundworms with 302 neurons. It would take a much more complicated model, but you could still build one, once the math of mental spaces is understood, which would encompass all possible roundworm mental states. Which means that the mind of a roundworm is a mathematical entity.

Now imagine the brain of a chicken. The (always reliable) internet suggests it might have 100 million neurons. Hard to imagine precisely and accurately modeling a chicken’s mental space. But on the other hand, it’s a chicken. We’ll eventually be able to do this. We could build Chicken (and Pig and Cow) Heaven. Sorry we keep killing and eating you, chickens, but we’ve replicated all possible chicken mind-spaces in this computer. You’re in there somewhere, having what passes for a great time for a chicken.

There’s no way we won’t, in the next 50 years, try to build the mind-spaces of Abe Lincoln and Jane Austen and Shakespeare. “Have you read Joy and Jealousy by Jane Austen 3.3? Way too much sex.” Yes, Star Trek Holodeck, I can see you. You can put your hand down. Characters in video games will have their own mind-spaces. People who freeze their heads might find themselves brought back to fight World War Two over and over in Shell Shock 4 for the Goopple PlayVerse.

But we’re saved from our constraints by infinity. Assuming (which we may never be able to prove) that possible universes can be of any finite size, and that the number of universes of any given size is proportional to the size raised to some exponential power, there’s an infinity of possible worlds and destinies.

26. Free will might operate beyond present explanatory powers. It may exist intrinsic to an individual consciousness, or set of POVs, in the universe overriding/incorporating quantum indeterminacy or exist based on an intrinsic characteristic in a larger system. For instance, an armature of the cosmos beyond present explanatory powers. What of this armature for the universe? What if free will for the universe inheres in this armature? Intrinsic freedom of the cosmos. In other words, what if conscious creatures relate to such an armature and have derived (intrinsic to them or derived from armature) freedom of the will?

[Asked in a Seinfeld voice] What’s the big deal about free will? I’m not overly concerned about free will; I care about informed will. Consciousness can function to somewhat optimize mental resources, with the objective being, the better the model you have of the world, the better your understanding of that model and the more angles and tactics you can deploy based on that understanding, the better your chances are of achieving your goals.

This is not free thinking. This is targeted thinking, based on where and what we are in the world. We’re not free – we’re part of the world, and we have to think about it. We can think freely about philosophical issues – about whatever we have the mental chops to think about – but even this kind of thinking is some kind of strategic reaction to the world. I would rather think well than think free. Freedom comes from knowing what’s up and being able to react effectively to it. But you’re still anchored to what’s up.

And about the universe’s armature – I think the universe is thinking about the world that the armature is part of – the outside world that contains the mind or mind-like thing that is our universe. The universe’s information processing or thoughts pertain to – are anchored to – its outside world. Everything that thinks is thinking about a world – it’s thinking in an anchored context.

27. Out of another set of mainstream physicists, even while some claim lacking direct observational evidence, arises the possibility of additional dimensions as postulated in, for example, string theory with everything in existence operating inside of 11 dimensional hyperspace. How do these conceptual and mathematical frameworks hold in your view?

It takes information to build and specify dimensions. Where does the information contained in 11-dimensional hyperspace come from? Does the universe contain enough information to have all these extra dimensions? Maybe so, if the dimensions are small enough to not contain much information at all. But on a macro scale, the universe barely has enough information (from observing itself) to hold open three spatial dimensions.

I don’t love string theory. Maybe if I knew enough math and physics to work with it, I’d like it better. But in my current ignorant state, it seems unnecessarily complicated. I hope there’s a simpler explanation for the way the universe works, with string theory being one of a variety of helpful ways to conceptualize physics. I’m hoping we develop a toolkit consisting of a number of different but consistent angles on physics and the universe, each being handy for certain operations, and acting as cross-checks and sources of insight for each other. It would kind of suck for string theory to turn out to be the simplest way to understand the world.

Why does the universe have three dimensions? I think we live in a Rumsfeld universe. Donald Rumsfeld famously said, “…there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” (Errol Morris, who made a great-as-usual documentary interview with Rumsfeld called The Unknown Known, traced the idea of unknown knowns and known unknowns back to the explorer John Wesley Powell. He also notes that John Keats and Robert Browning also mention the “known unknown.”)

Suppose that the universe is an optimized information map (of itself, the same way we could imagine an information map of the mind, which when optimized would be a map of itself), with the distance between objects roughly based on how much information they have in common. Parts of the universe with almost everything in common will be very close to each other. (By “in common,” I mean shared information – they’ve been exposed to largely the same history – belonging to the same group of active galaxies – as the universe unfolds.) Parts of the universe with very little in common will be distant from each other (and red-shifted and time-dilated). (Dormant galaxies which are distant from and mostly uncorrelated with each other can be hauled into stronger correlation with each other by bringing them into the active center (kind of like popping open windows on a giant glass touch-screen on a cheesy CSI-type show).)

In an information-map universe, it takes information to hold space open. The number of dimensions depends on the amount of information available to specify the relationships among objects in these dimensions.

Every part of the universe at the same distance from us has about the same amount of information in common with our neighborhood. Say, for example, that we’re looking at parts of the universe that appear to be moving away from us at 30% the speed of light; they’re about 4 billion light years away. Everything that’s four billion light years away from us forms a sphere of that radius, about twice the radius of everything that appears to be moving away at 15% the speed of light, with four times the area.

Just for fun, say that the amount of information in common with us is approximately (at low v) the reciprocal Lorentz factor from special relativity: the square root of (1 – v^2), where v is the redshift velocity (how fast that part of the universe seems to be moving away from us). For v = .15, information would be about 98.9% in common, or 1.1% not in common. For v = .3, information would be about 95.6% in common, or 4.4% not in common. For low redshift velocities, information not in common is proportional to the ratio of velocities squared.

This sets up a locally three-dimensional universe. At each redshift radius v, information not in common with our neighborhood takes up a region proportional to v squared, or the surface of a sphere of radius v. (Each redshift velocity corresponds to a (Hubble relation) distance from our galaxy.)

I’ve left out multiplying the information not in common by the information in common. The less information in common, the less you can distinguish the spatial relationships among distant objects, and space at that distance as we see it shrinks proportionately.

So here’s a Rumsfeld way of thinking about the dimensionality of space. Distances from us are the known known – we know how much information we have in common with other neighborhoods and objects in space. Spatial relationships among other objects shade from the known unknown to, at higher redshifts, the unknown unknown. We know a lot about neighborhoods with almost all information in common with us, but, having almost all information in common, they don’t spread out across a lot of space. The less information neighborhoods have in common with us, the more information space they could occupy, but the less we know about them, the less we know about their spatial interrelationships and the less we can see those relationships, and space at large cosmological distances is effectively shrunken (and smeared out as we look at it).

In a Big Bang universe, we can see across nearly 14 billion light years. (Microwave background radiation has spent nearly the apparent lifetime of the universe reaching us.) But we’re not looking at a sphere 14 billion light years in radius, because the background radiation comes from a very small, young, recently exploded universe. (There’s a maximum radius we can see as we look across greater distances and farther into the past. Beyond that radius, we’re seeing increasingly smeared-out images of our universe when it was younger and smaller. Of course, every image we see is of a younger universe, but it’s usually only younger by a few billionths of a second – the time light takes to cross a room.)

If we could see to infinity, we wouldn’t see Big Bang space as completely filling three-dimensional space. Looking farther and farther, we’d see the universe getting smaller and smaller (because younger and younger), until it’s a point at T = 0. But that’s just because we’re looking back in time. Though we can’t see it because of the finite speed of light, a Big Bang universe can be a fully three-dimensional surface of a hypersphere.

But I don’t think we live in a Big Bang universe. Due to the nature of an information-space universe, it looks quite a bit like a Big Bang universe, and that it started with a Big Bang is a natural first conclusion to reach, based on general relativity and the Hubble redshift. Note that the idea of the Big Bang – space exploding from an initial point – while seeming indisputably established, is less than 100 years old, and has been the predominant theory of universal structure for less than 50 years.

A Big Bang universe is nearly the same everywhere – the result of a uniform outward expansion. But a universe that doesn’t blow up all at once isn’t the same everywhere. It has an active center and burned-out and collapsed outskirts clustered close to what looks like T = 0. This universe may not be perfectly three-dimensional – space is highly curved and riddled with collapsed stuff near the apparent origin, which may mean that space is effectively less than three-dimensional at great distances.

If space doesn’t extend outward from any given point – if, on the outskirts, it tucks into itself – maybe it’s lacking dimensionality. (Or maybe the scale of space is (relativistically) collapsed, allowing for space to be squeezed into less space. On the outskirts, you might be able to have an unlimited number of neighborhoods separated by high apparent relative velocities, because you can add relativistic velocities forever without reaching the speed of light – stuff just gets more contracted.) If the outskirts are less than three-dimensional, this might explain large-scale gravity not falling off according to the inverse-square law.

(If there’s an actual collapsed outskirts not just a visual ghost of the early universe, can you build a rocket and travel close to T = 0? Probably not. For one thing, it’s a many-billion-year trip, even at the speed of light. For another thing, space filled with collapsed stuff may have a smaller scale and contain even more distance than we can see from here. And there would be heavy radiation including lots of neutrinos.)

To get back to your original question about string theory and 11 dimensions – I think there’s an economy of dimensions. Self-defining systems of information don’t have enough information to hold open a space greater than three dimensions (not counting gravitational wells) (and maybe not even three dimensions over great distances).

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2023-01-28

Rick G. Rosner: Giga Society, Member; Mega Society, Member & ex-Editor (1991-97); and Writer (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/10/15

ABSTRACT

Part two of eleven, comprehensive interview with Rick G. Rosner. Giga Society member, ex-editor for Mega Society (1990-96), and writer. He discusses the following subject-matter: health advice, longevity, mortality, Pythagoreans, Transhumanists, future scenarios of downloadable consciousness, aims for immortality, rewriting genetic code, partial/full mergers with biology, technological and medical futurists, United Nations on lifespans, Dr. Aubrey de Grey divided subproblems for solving aging, figuring out the mind as the ultimate longevity solution, consciousness and evolution, discounting of some animal consciousness by people, and the possibility of the same consideration for human consciousness; personal vitamin and nutraceutical consumption, considerations of efforts for longevity, aspirin and statins, and Life Extension magazine; possible negative interactions of nutritional supplements, circumin, vitamin d, Metformin, Type 2 Diabetes, resveratrol, methylene blue, Fen-Phen, and flossing and inflammation; possible negative interactions with ingested nutritional supplements taken alone or together with another nutritional supplement, and the reasons for considering his current set of nutritional supplements safe; obscure and mainstream thinkers on the progression of technology, some thoughts to do with the Law of Accelerating Returns, Dr. Ray Kurzweil, extrapolations of current technological trends from the past and the trends’ influence on us in the future, and relevant extrapolations beyond this century; entrance into the world of trivia, ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, first and second times on the show, and Noesis issue 150’s articlesThree Letters of Protest Regarding “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and Request for Assistance from Mega Society Members; rectifying the situation; mastering multiple intellectual fields, 12 years of university credit in one year at Excelsior College, and reason for pursuing this method of education accreditation; moving beyond academics into acting and physique building (bodybuilding), films with J.D. Mata, and reason for entering into this kind of work; and nude modeling, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and time spent at the gym.

Keywords: animal, aspirin, consciousness, curcumin, consciousness, Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Dr. Peter Diamandis, Dr. Ray Kurzweil, Dr. Terry Grossman, Excelsior College, evolution, Fen-Phen, future, Giga Society, God, gods, immortality, inflammation, J.D. Mata, Law of Acclerating Returns, Life Extension Foundation, longevity, Mega Society, Metformin, methylene blue, Michael Bay, mind, mortality, nutraceutical, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Pythagoreans, Resveratrol, Rick G. Rosner, Saul Kent, statins, supplements, Transhumanists, Type 2 Diabetes, United Nations, vitamin d.

15. Furthermore, many people in history followed health advice. Some provided it. Today this persists. Primarily for well-being with a secondary benefit of longevity. Although, most people in recorded history accepted mortality of the body as fact, but in most cases attended to ritual, scripture, incantation, sacrifice, prayer, meditative practices, and propitiation to a god, the gods, or God to attain immortality as a spirit, a disembodied awareness, an existence in another realm, or through continuous re-incarnation as a mortal creature in this world. These tendencies of thought wax and wane. For instance, Pythagoreans searched for immortality. Even today, an emergent sub-group of a modern school of thought, Transhumanism, aims for immortality through hypothetical future scenarios of downloading their minds onto computers, re-writing of genetic code for extended life, and partial/full mergers of biology with machines for bodies and minds immune to the present higher levels of degradation based on the degrading effects of time on our bodies. Some people come to mind such as Dr. Ray Kurzweil, Dr. Terry Grossman, M.D, Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Dr. Peter Diamandis, M.D., Saul Kent of the Life Extension Foundation, and others. What do you think of the many ideas and arguments behind these various groups for longevity – even outright ‘immortality’? What makes their arguments and our situation different, and better, enough to have such possibilities arise in practicality?

It sucks to be among the last generations of humans who don’t have a choice about dying. Medicine will advance tremendously in the next century, and so will life spans. Even the U.N., which isn’t a hotbed of science fiction-ish speculation, says that living to 100 will become common.

Transhumanists like to argue that to be effectively immortal, you don’t have to live until immortality is possible. You only have to live until medical science can extend your life at a rate of one year per year.

Researchers such as Dr. Aubrey de Grey say that aging will be conquered by breaking it down into a set of sub-problems and solving each of them. While not part of de Grey’s sub-problems, figuring out the mind and consciousness can be seen as the ultimate longevity solution. If you can make the contents and actions of the brain transferable, then keeping your body going may become just one of a variety of longevity strategies.

But figuring out consciousness may be a good news-bad news thing. Consciousness constantly acts as an advertisement for itself, telling you that your life and thoughts and experiences are interesting. Evolutionarily, it has to do that. If you quit paying attention to your life, you make more errors, which might kill you. We come from millions of generations of ancestors who paid attention.

For instance, deciding when to cross at a traffic light. (Traffic lights seem to pop up in discussions of consciousness.) For you not to be killed crossing at a light, your lifetime error rate of observing and stopping for red lights has to be reasonably close to zero. If you weren’t sufficiently interested in not being killed, your error rate would rise dangerously. Of course we see this with digital devices being so interesting that people become insufficiently interested in clear, real-life risks (texting while walking or driving a car or even a train being the sadly typical example).

Once we figure out consciousness, it may turn out to not be so awesome. Consciousness may be seen to incorporate a bunch of sensationalistic tricks to keep your attention, like a Michael Bay movie, and there may be a letdown – we’re the saps who bought tickets to the movie.

We have little problem discounting consciousness in other creatures – the billions of chickens Americans eat each year, for instance, cows, pigs, octopi. The chickens live their short lives, they’re killed, no big deal. A minority of people say it’s the ultimate deal – that every creature’s experience is important. But what happens if our understanding of consciousness leads us to believe that human consciousness just isn’t that big a deal – not much more important than other animals’? That could be a bummer. (But this bummer might partially be addressed via biotech brain helper add-ons that make our moment-to-moment awareness more super-duper.)

We’re gonna live longer, we’re gonna get weirder, gradually turning into the augmented but still very human beings that will come after humans.

16. Granted, death stands atop the mount of costly adventures. You take high-level double digit numbers of vitamins and nutraceuticals every day. Even so, these measures for slowing, potentially halting or reversing, aging seem excessive and even dangerous. For instance, do they all have FDA approval? Where do you base your efforts for longevity? What research and evidence?

Mostly, I take vitamins and nutraceuticals, which may not do much – one way or the other. And most of the other stuff is apparently very safe and widely tested – aspirin and a half-dose of statins, for instance.

I research supplements and nutritional strategies on the internet, trying to separate the BS from the crumbs of actual information. Life Extensionmagazine is pretty good, even though it’s trying to sell fancy vitamins. At least the claims in the magazine are backed up by some studies.

The purpose of the pills, of course, is to put off dying as long as possible. Will exercise, a semi-careful diet and mostly mainstream supplements increase my mortality? I hope not, and most statistics are on my side.

17. For instance, which ones of these nutritional supplements have sufficient clinical testing in favour of their individual use? What about potential negative interactions of an individual supplement or drug? What of negative interactions between two or more of them?

I mostly take nutritional supplements. Their effects are probably not as helpful or as potentially harmful as pharmaceuticals, though they haven’t usually been through the same clinical trials as prescription drugs. (Some vitamins, however, have had more than a century of testing, and clinical testing is not a 100% guarantee.)

I take a big but not crazy dose of vitamin D and a lot of curcumin, both of which are currently very well-regarded. They’re being studied extensively, and the studies are returning encouraging results. As with anything, future research may debunk them, but I don’t think they’re hurting me. People in India have been using curcumin for centuries, and this seems to be correlated with lower rates for some inflammation-based disease.

Some of what I take may be considered a little wacky. For instance, I take Metformin, a drug for Type 2 diabetes, even though I don’t have diabetes. Among other effects, Metformin helps your body use insulin more efficiently. Along with resveratrol, it’s one of only two drugs I know of which trigger some of the positive effects of calorie restriction (without the misery of calorie restriction). And Metformin is a more effective calorie restriction mimetic than resveratrol, because orally administered resveratrol gets knocked out by your liver.

Metformin is the most widely prescribed anti-diabetes drug in the world, with 48 million annual prescriptions in the U.S. alone. It’s been used in the UK since 1958 and the U.S. since 1995. Negative side effects are rare. There is some evidence that Metformin may reduce the incidence of cancer. I like the stuff.

I sometimes take methylene blue, which may act as a detergent to loosen amyloid plaque in the brain. (Amyloid is sticky gunk thrown up by damaged brain cells.) MB is currently in Phase III trial for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. (It turns urine a bright emerald green!) If I were in the NFL and taking a bunch of shots to the head, I’d use methylene blue like Splenda.

Most of what I take doesn’t negatively interact. A couple of minor vitamin depletions are covered by a good multi-vitamin. (For instance, Metformin may reduce absorption of B12.)

You don’t often hear about people dying early from vitamins. Occasionally, there’s a study which might say something like, “People who take vitamin E might have slightly elevated mortality.” Then you look at the study, and it’s hard to apply to your specific situation, but you cut back on vitamin E. In the 70s, people went on the liquid protein diet. But it depleted potassium and caused heart attacks. A couple of people died – it was big news. In the 90s, Fen-Phen, a combination of diet drugs, killed people. Again, big news. If vitamins were knocking people off like crazy, we’d hear about it. So I take my chances.

Hey – here are two very safe things you should do to add years to your life – take half an aspirin or a baby aspirin each day, and floss your teeth. Unflossed teeth spread inflammation throughout your body.

18. In some sectors of the population, some obscure, and other more – as of recent – mainstream thinkers have extrapolations based on many highly complex technological innovations in society regarding the progression of technology. Some will use general hunches, e.g. things seem more complicated and, therefore, will become more complex. Others will use mathematical modelling through extensions of such things as Moore’s Law, e.g. the Law of Accelerating Returns a la Ray Kurzweil. How do you see these technological trends and changes influencing us in the far and recent past? What extrapolations do you consider most likely for this century and past it?

Many of the developments predicted by science fiction eventually happen, though often not as soon as science fiction predicts (the iPad, the atomic bomb, the internet and computer viruses, to name a few).

I think that will be the case with many aspects of the Singularity. (The Singularity is when, according to believers in the Singularity, artificial intelligence will be able to answer any question and solve any problem, and all our wishes will come true, sometime around the year 2040.) Humanity or some version of humans plus technology will get smarter and smarter, but it won’t all happen at once or as soon as 2040.

But things will get weird. Good manners and considerate behavior will have an increasingly difficult time keeping up with changes in tech. It would be nice if people would stop being annoying or dangerous with their devices, but I can’t see how manners will ever catch up with the accelerating development of technology. Tech will keep making people smarter but appearing to be stupider.

I don’t think the future will be humans fighting robots. I think we’ll become our own half-robots. We’ll keep augmenting ourselves, adding devices around and to ourselves until our artificial systems do more information-processing than our natural systems. (We’ll build expert devices of increasing sophistication, but for the near future, the most expert systems will be human brains plus tech. We already are expert systems – right now it’s most effective to add onto us.)

Some people argue that the brain has hidden, possibly quantum, information-processing capacity and that we won’t be able to emulate the brain. Obviously, the more complicated our brains turn out to be, the harder it will be to emulate them and interface with them. But we’ll still keep going in that direction. We’re already pretty good at piping information into our heads nonstop via our current devices.

One big though gradual change is we’ll be able to change our drives, motivations, judgments and values. Much of what drives us is pretty thoroughly wired into our brains via evolution – sexual attraction, tastes in food, aesthetic preferences, to name some big ones.

Sex makes just about everyone crazy at one time or another, demonstrating that, to some extent, we’re pawns of the need to reproduce. It’s just weird that one of the primary engines of human progress is a compulsion for males to insert fleshy tubes into females’ fleshy pockets. The entire history of the 21^st century hinges on a few instances of oral sex, like this – Al Gore gets mad at Clinton for sullying the Presidency with Oval Office BJs. Gore underutilizes the still very popular Clinton in his Presidential campaign and narrowly loses some important states. And there you have it – President George W. Bush and the 21^st century.

The fascination with and rituals around eating get pretty weird, too. And look at magazine covers – all the time faces – just pretty faces.

As we better understand our brains, we’ll be able to change our drives and desires. Suppose your spouse has put on 160 pounds. Is it better to be resentful of your spouse or to rejigger your sexual tastes to fit your super-sized spouse?

I think by the end of the century, consciousness will begin to be transferable and average life spans will increase by at least 40 years. We can hope this will lead to a reduction in the rate of population growth. People who can look forward to very long lives should on average have fewer kids and have them later, if at all.

There will be glitches, of course. Nanotech will have to be watched. The benefits of increasing technology will have to be made available worldwide in such a way that it’s more attractive to join the modern world than to try to take down the modern world.

I doubt that we can count on non-selfish behaviour to turn around the degradation of our planet. A conscientious Prius-driving, recycling American still generates a lot of waste. (On a related note, smug Prius drivers are almost as bad as Audi drivers. “Ooh, I’m making less pollution, so I can drive however I want.”) And the world population will keep growing until living indefinitely (and, later, consciousness becoming digitizable and transferable) reduces the production of offspring.

Eventually, high-tech measures will have to be deployed to fix the worst messes we’ve made – wide-spread extinction, global warming and the acidification of the oceans, and the like. (This will be followed by more tech to correct the negative effects of previous high-tech fixes). Large swaths of the globe will be Disneyfied – artificially restored and made pretty and sweet – like what New York did with Times Square, but on a global scale.

19. At some point, you entered the world of trivia. In particular, professional competition of trivia via the game show ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’. You did not have a good experience with them on your first, or second, time qualifying to compete on the show, which you recount, somewhat, in Noesis issue 150’s articles Three Letters of Protest Regarding “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and Request for Assistance from Mega Society Members. What happened, Rick?

Every quiz show has occasional glitches in which factual errors survive the fact-checking process. (It should work like this: a writer writes a question and cites a source. The question goes to a fact-checker who finds additional legit sources to confirm what should be the facts behind the question Fact-checkers, writers, and producers eliminate ambiguity and make sure the answer is “pinned.” I did an interview about the process.

On most quiz shows, most glitches don’t affect the outcome of the game. On Jeopardy! for instance, a glitchy question might come up, and no one answers it. The game goes on. Or someone gives an unexpected acceptable response. Judges check the answer during a commercial and perhaps award more points.

On Millionaire, however, since a player had to answer every question (at the time I was on the show) or withdraw from the game, a factually flawed question often knocked the player who received it out of the Hot Seat. It was Millionaire’s policy to rectify factually flawed questions, but they were getting sick of it – they’d had to do it many times. During our briefing, a contestant asked the executive producer what to do if we thought we got a bad question. A contestant had, very shortly before, gotten a bad question. The EP said, “Don’t worry about bad questions. Just play the game. If a question is wrong, we’ll look into it and make it right.”

In my case, they thought they could weasel out of it by claiming a non-straightforward and non-traditional interpretation of the question. The flawed multiple-choice question was:

“What capital city is located at the highest altitude above sea level?”

with the possible answer choices of Mexico City, Quito, Bogota, and Kathmandu. Because of faulty writing and fact-checking, Millionaire failed to include the actual correct answer of La Paz, Bolivia. (For people who’d like to quibble, Bolivia has two national capitals, and La Paz is one of them. It’s about four kilometers – two-and-a-half miles – above sea level.)

Millionaire tried to avoid responsibility for their error by arguing that they meant “Which of these four cities we gave you is the highest?” This interpretation goes against common sense and standard practice. I looked at 110,000 questions from productions of Millionaire in the U.S. and throughout the world, and their standard practice, as well as any other reasonable quiz show’s standard practice, is, if you mean “Which of these?” you write “Which of these?”

Since 1987, I’ve worked on a bunch of quiz shows, writing more than 10,000 questions. I co-created a quiz show which ran for a season on VH1, was co-head writer of the show, edited all its questions, and acted as a judge. Quiz show questions are my business. (Additionally, I’ve tutored the SAT and related multiple-choice tests since I was a teenager and have looked at more than 40,000 SAT-type questions. Multiple-choice questions are also my business.) I’m probably the person most likely and qualified to take a dim view of Millionaire’s ad hoc, disingenuous, self-serving, lazy and dishonest interpretation.

I concur with standard practice and common sense. No writer or producer would reasonably expect a contestant to know the relative altitudes of four arbitrarily chosen capital cities. It would be more reasonable to imagine that a contestant might have heard of the world’s highest capital city, but that city was absent from the answer choices.

The writer of the question (who’d never before written for a quiz show and who didn’t last very long) built the question from a list of altitudes of 30 random world cities in the World Almanac, apparently failing to realize that the omission of 96% of the world’s cities from the list might be a problem.

During legal proceedings, I saw Millionaire’s fact-checking notes on the question, which indicate that they wanted the highest capital, didn’t realize they didn’t have it, and fact-checked only the altitudes of the cities they did have. Someone noted that he or she thought that Ecuador might have two capitals (that would be Bolivia), but this wasn’t further pursued. Not knowing about La Paz, they had no knowledge of any quibbles about La Paz being a de facto capital – their research wasn’t anywhere near that thorough. (Currently, a Google search for the phrase “La Paz is the world’s “highest capital city” returns 97,800 results, while “Quito is the world’s highest capital city” returns just 7 results, a ratio of 13,970 to one. Of course, back in 2000 when Millionaire was fact-checking the question, Google wasn’t the go-to research tool.)

(And another thing – world cities have no official point from which altitude is measured. Quito’s city limits extend down into river gorges and up the side of a volcano. Altitudes found within its city limits vary by a couple miles. Miles! From Today in Ecuador: “The Metropolitan District of Quito (DMQ) covers an area of 422,802 hectares (almost 1,050,000 acres), with altitudinal ranges from 500 to 4.800 meters above sea level.”

Quito has a single altitude like Olympic athletes have a single height. The facts behind the altitude question are messy and ambiguous at best. Had Millionaire done a better job researching the question, they would’ve been forced to throw it out before it ever got to a contestant.)

If Millionaire’s writers and researchers, with all their resources and unlimited time to check their work, can’t come up with the correct answer, then they shouldn’t expect some schmuck alone in the Hot Seat to be able to come up with the answer. That schmuck should be invited back (and many contestants were invited back, until I came along).

Eventually, I sued them, but no one has ever won a lawsuit against a quiz show. After I sued, Millionaire changed the official rules so that they’re no longer obligated to come up with the correct answer. Contestants must choose the best answer from those offered, even if the correct answer isn’t among them. Nice!

Discussing soccer, the executive producer of Millionaire said that people need to accept bad calls from judges and referees, in soccer and on game shows. This is a lousy parallel to draw. A call in a World Cup match would need to be reviewed immediately (with just a few angles captured on video). Changing a call after a game could affect the rest of the tournament, not just the teams but also billions of fans, so it’s impossible to undo a call hours or days later. But a bad call on Millionaire affects just one person in the Hot Seat and his family. And researching a faulty question isn’t like reviewing a soccer call – you’re not looking at video in the middle of a soccer game – you can take time to do adequate research. It doesn’t change anything for anyone else to rectify a bad quiz show call for one person. You don’t even have to televise it.

20. What would rectify the situation to you?

This happened more than 14 years ago. The past 14 years haven’t been the greatest for the world. Next to it all, the Millionaire thing is nothing. I can continue to be annoyed by it, but I would be a big baby to still be crusading for rectification.

21. You have mastered multiple intellectual fields, especially with respect to having earned 12 years of university credit in one year at Excelsior College. In fact, you did this through a little-known system of taking tests, which continues your long-experience with the obsession of IQ tests into the domain of tests of general and specific knowledge. How did you discover this method of earning credit? Why did you pursue this means of earning tertiary educational credit rather than traditional classroom-based forms of education?

In high school, I wanted to go to Harvard. (I almost certainly would’ve gotten in. My SATs were in the top 1% of Harvard applicants, grades were excellent (until my senior year meltdown), was student body co-president, came from a geographically underrepresented part of the country, and back then, Harvard admitted about 18% of applicants, compared to about 6% today.) Then I freaked out, scuttled my application, and ended up attending my hometown school, the University of Colorado, which I didn’t take very seriously. Did well in classes I liked, blew off classes I didn’t, so lots of As and Fs. Didn’t graduate.

Years later, I’m underemployed in LA. My wife is working at a fancy company in Santa Monica. She comes home and talks about the flashy clothes and jewelry worn by the other women who work there. Can’t afford to buy her jewelry from a store but I do some research and find out that jewelry is marked-up like crazy – sometimes 500 or 1,000 percent. Start making jewelry for my wife – the individual components are affordable. But I need access to equipment. Turns out CSUN, a local university, offers a jewelry-making class. I go back to college to make jewelry.

At CSUN, I think, “I’m in my 30s and more mature and would probably be a better student this time around.” So I decide to sign up for real classes – astronomy, advanced stats, econ, group theory – and get my degree. Turns out I still hate sitting in a classroom, plus CSUN has a bunch of general education requirements I don’t want to deal with.

About this time, someone in the Mega Society tells me about schools that let you test out of subjects, which leads me to Regents College of the University of the State of New York (now called Excelsior University), an accredited school that awards credit in a subject if you get a high enough score on the GRE test for that subject. (The GRE is the SAT for grad school.) The GRE comes from ETS, the same company that does the SAT, and I’ve always done well on their tests.

So I go on a rampage. There’s an ETS testing center in Pasadena that offers GRE subject tests once a month. For a year, I take a test a month, studying for each test while working as a doorman at a bar called Mom’s Saloon in Brentwood. (The loud music doesn’t bother me – I used to study for Jeopardy! while bouncing.) I get good scores, earning a year’s worth of college credit in each of 12 subjects and fulfilling the requirements to graduate with eight majors.

22. Not limited to the academic domain, you have entered, somewhat haphazardly, into other domains of inquiry and human endeavor such as acting and physique building. In particular, you have some short films featuring you, directed by J.D. Mata. What compelled entering into yet another domain of work?

I’ve always been a pretty decent actor but just didn’t have the fortitude to go through all the rejection that usually accompanies trying to be a professional actor. (One key to acting is not going overboard with emotional intensity. Most moments aren’t moments of extreme emotion.) Plus, I’m not overly photogenic. I act on the infrequent occasions when someone offers me the chance. (I’ve always hoped to sneak into acting by becoming famous enough to be cast in cameos as a curiosity or inside joke.)

23. Furthermore, based on your work in nude modeling, and so on, you have years of experience with bodybuilding and sculpting. However, this seems to have come attached to a downside of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). How many times do you go to the gym every week and month? How much circa 10 years ago?

Currently go to five gyms a day. They’re in a circuit, with a mile or two between each gym. Luckily for me, L.A. has a lot of gyms, and I have cheap membership deals. Takes about two hours to do the circuit, which includes 80 to 100 sets. At my most OCDish, I was averaging nearly eight workouts a day, with a long streak of working out at least 50 times a week. At earlier, less-obsessed times, I averaged about ten workouts a week.

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2023-01-28

Rick G. Rosner: Giga Society, Member; Mega Society, Member & ex-Editor (1991-97); and Writer (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/10/08

ABSTRACT

Part one of eleven, comprehensive interview with Rick G. Rosner. Giga Society member, ex-editor for Mega Society (1990-96), and writer. He discusses the following subject-matter: geography, culture, and linguistic background, and attenuated Jewish cultural influence during upbringing; Noesis issue 57 article entitled When Good IQs Happen to Bad People, and early signs of being a child prodigy; experiences in grade school, junior high, high school, and college; long history of forging identities beginning in entering high school another time, and many more, motivations for the behavior, outcomes for him, and tease for upcoming book entitled Dumbass Genius; ideas on cosmology and physics beginning at age 10, coming to a realization at age 21, Noesis 58 comments on the equivalence, and subsequent development of the equivalence to the present day; discussion on a mathematical model to represent the equivalence and a layman analogy for this equivalence; coined phrase of “lazy voodoo physics,” definition of it, and relation of this to considerations about 20^th and 21^st century cosmology and physics; entrance into the ultra-high IQ community, the Mega Society, forging another identity, pseudonym of Richard Sterman, Noesis, and eventual amends for forgery; three trends in Noesis of high-level material across arts and sciences, mix of scatological material (circa 1990-96), and his time as an editor from 1990-1996, earning position of editor, and thoughts on fulfilling the purpose of the journal’s constitution; My Problem With Black People (1992), argument at the time for equivalent intelligence of the races, differing views of other Mega Society members, and current stance on the issue; current membership in societies and personal use through membership; Intelligence Quotient (IQ) pervading American culture, Raven’s Progressive Matrices (RPM) and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), some independent researchers’ work and test constructors’ productions for those achieving maximum or near-maximum scores on mainstream tests, and this setting the groundwork for his obsession of IQ tests; Titan Test perfect score, and range, mean, and median for best high-range IQ test scores; criticism of some intelligence tests and solution through non-verbal/‘culture-fair’ tests, and recommendations for identifying giftedness; and interest in health from a young age and the reason for it.

Keywords: arts, child prodigy, college, cosmology, equivalence, Genius, giftedness, Giga Society, Intelligence, IQ, Jewish, mathematical, Mega Society, Mega Test, Noesis, physics, Rick G. Rosner, Richard Sterman, Raven’s Progressive Matrices, sciences, Titan Test, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside? How do you find this influencing your development?

I grew up in Boulder, Colorado, with my mom, stepdad and brother, and spent a month each summer with my dad and stepmom and their kids in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My ancestors came from Eastern Europe and the Baltics by way of Cincinnati and Shreveport. I’m Jewish, but out west, Jewish cultural influence is somewhat attenuated.

2. In Noesis issue 57’s article When Good IQs Happen to Bad People, you describe some of your experience as a kid. Could you elaborate on some of the history before entering grade school?

I showed some signs of being a child prodigy – by the age of about 18 months, I’d learned the alphabet, and by age 3 ¾, I’d taught myself to read at a near-adult level, which was unusual for the era. I was good with puzzles and math – but this wasn’t encouraged. My parents thought I’d do better growing up as a normal kid, which did not go smoothly.

Some non-prodigy stuff – the theme music to Perry Mason scared me – I’d have to go hide behind the couch. My first crush was on Patty Duke on The Patty Duke Show, who I somehow conflated with my dad’s sister, Aunt Janice, whom I saw during summer visitation with my dad in Los Angeles. My first memory is of the Raggedy Ann & Andy curtains and bedspread in my room. We had a very nice cocker spaniel named Tinkerbell, who died when I was four. (This is before cockers became overbred and high-strung.)

I was terrified of swimming, which was part of my generally being a wuss – had to be peeled off the side of the pool by the swim teacher.

3. What about your time in grade school, junior high, high school, and college? In particular, what do you consider pivotal moments in each of these cross-sections of latter portions of your early life?

I grew up nerdy and interested in science, deciding at a young age to make it my job to figure out the universe. At age six, I was left with a scary babysitter, which led me to start spinning clockwise, chanting to God, and to be sent to my first shrink.

I was uncoordinated. Each year, I’d enter the 50-yard-dash on track & field day, and each year, would come in last. (Maybe the other not-so-fast kids knew not to enter the race and avoid the embarrassment.) Even as a kid, I had gross caveman feet with weirdly long second toes. I used to take off my shoe to make girls scream and run away – I liked the attention.

In the 1970s, there was no such thing as nerd chic. If you were nerdy, you were probably lonely. But, like many misguided nerds, I thought my intelligence and niceness would inspire a girl to look past my nerdiness. I spent the second semester of ninth grade building a Three-Dimensional Gaussian Distribution Generator to demonstrate to my honors math class. The machine dropped a thousand BBs through a pyramidal tower of overlapping half-inch grids into a 24-by-12 array of columns. It was a supercharged Plinko machine with an added spatial dimension, forming a half-bell of BBs, thanks to the laws of probability. During its construction, I thought, “A girl will see this elegant experimental apparatus, think I’m brilliant, and become my girlfriend.” I completed the BB Machine in time to demonstrate it to the class on the last day of school. No one cared. Of course they didn’t – it was the last day of junior high, and a dweeb was pouring BBs into a plastic pyramid.

Realizing that my nerdiness was standing in the way of ever having a girlfriend, I began changing myself – lifting weights and wearing contact lenses.

Towards the end of high school, I saw my IQ test scores, which maxed out at about 150. I decided that a 150 IQ wasn’t high enough for me to become the world-changing physicist I wanted to be, so I decided to become kind of a meathead – a stripper and a bar bouncer. At about the same time I was beginning my meathead career, I started to take high-end IQ tests, scoring in the 170s, 180s, and eventually 190s. I also found out that among the reasons I’d never scored much above 150 on school-administered IQ tests is that the tests themselves don’t go much above 150. (This makes sense – if you’re a teacher or administrator trying to figure out whether a kid needs educational enrichment, it doesn’t matter much whether a kid’s IQ is 150 or 165. With either IQ, that kid will go stir-crazy in a regular classroom.)

I’d never quit thinking about physics, but my new, high scores gave me more confidence that I might eventually be able to theorize productively. Of course, a few points should probably be subtracted from my IQ for basing my life on IQ scores.

4. You have a long history with forging identities beginning with entering high school another time, and many more. What motivated this behavior? How long did you pursue this ‘calling’ of entering high school? In particular, how did each experience turn out? How many times did you do this?

Though I had started trying to de-nerdify myself as early as ninth grade, it wasn’t effective. In my small town, my classmates were well aware of my nerdiness – there was no erasing that. After years of trying to be cool and failing, I was very frustrated and had something like a freak-out. I decided that I would not leave high school a virgin. So after graduating high school with the class of 1978, using forged transcripts, I went back to high school for a second senior year (class of ’79) with my other family in Albuquerque. I only lasted ten weeks and didn’t come close to even making out with a girl.

A note on inappropriateness: I think standards have changed since I did this. The creepiness factor has increased. But since I was just 18 – still roughly high school age – and barely talked to any girls much less date them when I returned to high school, it was pretty harmless.

1980: Went on a double-date to a high school prom because my girlfriend (who, like me, was in college) had a best friend who was still in high school and thought we should all go to her prom.

Also 1980: I went to L.A. to try to sell my back-to-high-school story to a Hollywood producer. Thought it would help sell the story if I were back in high school at the time. Tried to talk my way into a couple of L.A. schools without any transcripts, just a class of ’81 letterman’s jacket.

I eventually spent several more semesters in high school, but rather than tell about them here, I’ll just tease my forthcoming book, Dumbass Genius, which will detail my more than ten years as a sometime high school student.

5. In terms of your ideas related to cosmology and physics, at 10, you began thinking about the universe. The reason for existence. At 21, you came to a realization. You note, “All the big theories are built around big equivalences.” Namely, your realization of an equivalence between the operation of information in an individual consciousness and the operation of space & matter in the universe. Both have self-consistency. In addition to this, and later in response to a similar topic in Noesis 58, you state, “I believe in matter and space as information held in some vast awareness…” What do you mean by these? In particular, the idea of a great equivalence. How have you developed the idea from the original equivalence to the present day?

I’ve continued to think about this stuff and think I have a pretty good theoretical framework, though it needs more math.

I believe that it’s almost impossible to have a large, self-consistent system of information without that system having some degree of consciousness – probably a high degree. Consciousness can be characterized as every part of a system knowing what’s going on, more or less, with every other part of the system, within a framework that assigns (emotional) values to events perceived by the system. (Of course there are processes which are peripheral to consciousness – most of the time, we’re not aware of the finer points of breathing or walking or why we like looking at cat videos and butts.)

Plenty of people think that the universe is a massive processor of information. Quantum mechanics mathematicizes the limitations of the universe’s information-processing ability. Being finite, the universe cannot observe itself with infinite precision.

6. Provided the nature of these particular equivalences, especially related to the universe, do you have a mathematical model to represent this equivalence? Furthermore, do you have a layman analogy for this equivalence?

I think the most efficient model of the information contained in a complex, self-contained and self-consistent system of information looks like the universe – locally three-dimensional (spatially) with linear time and particles and forces that transact business more or less the way they do in the universe itself.

I don’t believe in the big bang – instead, I believe that what looks like a big bang is kind of a trick of perspective, based on the universe being made of information. Parts of the universe which have less information in common with us are more distant and red-shifted. The apparent age of the universe is a measure of the amount of information it contains (or has in play). Somewhat similarly, train tracks don’t really touch at the horizon.

Kind of picture the universe as being at a slow boil. Some parts are energy-rich and expanding, while other parts are burned out and pushed to the outskirts by the expanding regions, waiting for their chance to expand again.

7. You have coined the phrase “lazy voodoo physics”. How do you define “lazy voodoo physics”? Why resort to this form of considering major interests such as the structure and fate our universe, or existence of other universes, and other concepts arising from 20th and 21st century cosmology and physics?

Lazy voodoo physics is my term for crappy metaphysical theorizing (which I’ve done some of, particularly as a little kid). I prefer to think that my current metaphysical theorizing is less crappy.

It is possible to think about the universe without a full mathematical arsenal. George Gamow, who came up with the big bang, was notoriously unschooled in math. Immanuel Kant was among the first people to endorse the idea of galaxies, and Edgar Allen Poe offered a reasonable solution to Olbers’ Paradox. Einstein himself had to be pointed towards the mathematical framework for general relativity by his friends. Trying to imagine the processes of the universe with the math to come later is not voodoo physics. Metaphysics doesn’t have to be voodoo physics, either.

8. When did you enter into the world of the ultra-high IQ community? In particular, the Mega Society. In it, once more, you forged an identity. What motivated this resurgence of forging an identity? For instance, the use of the pseudonym Richard Sterman within the publications of the Mega Society journal, Noesis. To make amends, and needing stating, you did apologize to members and readers of the journal for the false identity portrayal.

When I first qualified for the Mega Society in late 1985, I was depressed from a bad breakup and would try to make myself less depressed by doing stupid stuff. After receiving a score on the Mega Test that qualified me for the Mega Society, I wrote to Marilyn Savant (who must’ve been in charge of membership at the time) and asked, “Hey, can I join your club…and want to go on a date? I’m a stripper.” Marilyn wrote back and said my score didn’t qualify me for Mega. She had no response to the personal invitation. (Later, my score did turn out qualify me for Mega. My score’s IQ equivalent jumped around as more scores came in and the test was repeatedly recalibrated.)

On the Mega Test, I had tied for the second-highest score in the country. The CBS Morning News called to invite me to be on the show. I asked the producer if I should wear my tux or my loincloth. She immediately cancelled me for being a crazy person. In my defense, I worked in bars until two in the morning and didn’t wake up in time to see what morning news shows were like. I thought, stupidly, that the CBS Morning News would want somebody really fun. (Fun = loincloth.)

The other people with high scores were two Los Angeles math professors, Solomon Golomb and Herbert Taylor, and the Governor of New Hampshire. People seemed really annoyed that I, a roller skating waiter, stripper, bar bouncer, and amateur undercover high school student, was in their company.

In 1990, when the Titan Test came out, I remembered how appalled at me people were after the Mega. So I decided to take the test using my girlfriend’s last name instead of my own, figuring that if I did well on the Titan, I could get a fresh start at talking to reporters without being tainted by being the person who shocked people the first time around. If this sounds dumb, it’s because it was. My Twitter handle is @dumbassgenius because I tend to do a mix of smart and dumb stuff (not usually on purpose). I wasn’t trying to fool anyone for test purposes, I was just trying to sidestep my stupid past.

I did really well on the Titan, finally joining the Mega Society and becoming editor of the Mega Society journal. After a few months, I told everyone, “Hey, I’m the same guy who did well on the Mega Test.” I don’t think anyone was outraged. (I also took the Mega Test for a second time as Richard Sterman. But I soon came clean.)

9. In reading through the available literature of Noesis, i.e. available online, three trends persist to me. One, the range of high-level and engaging material across the arts and science, e.g. the lucid description of relativity by Chris Cole at the end of issue 69 entitled Relativity – A Primer. Two, the mix of the occasional scatological material in the writing, mostly c. 1990-1996. Three, the length of your time as the main editor from 1990-1996. How did you come into the world of the Mega Society? How did you earn the position of editor for six years? Do you think the journal fulfilled part of the purpose stated in the constitution to “facilitate interaction among its members and to assist them in gaining access to resources to accomplish their individual purposes”?

When the editorship was offered to me, I was underemployed. I’d written for some TV quiz shows and thought that work would continue but didn’t know how to get that work. The publisher of Noesis said I could have the subscription money if I’d edit it. It wasn’t much, but everything helps when you’re a bouncer and nude model who’s trying to cover a mortgage and pay for hair transplants. I edited Noesis for six years because no one else was clamoring to do it. Towards the end, I started getting TV work again, and became even less reliable about getting issues out on time. Other members volunteered to take over.

As editor, I didn’t do too much editing. Most material submitted to me went straight into Noesis. I may have left out some crackpot submissions claiming to have disproved Einstein and perhaps some angry letters from people who thought they deserved to be admitted to Mega though they didn’t meet the entrance requirements.

Some of the writing you term scatological may have been my writing about myself. While most of the material submitted to Noesis is at a high intellectual level or at least reflects striving in that direction, I was trying to be entertaining and tell the embarrassing and I hope funny truth about myself. I eventually became a professional comedy writer, and, without looking back on my writing for Noesis, I’m sure much of it was goofier and more obnoxious (and perhaps more entertaining) than the average article.

I’m fairly pessimistic about the effectiveness of most high-IQ journals, though I’ve seen some good ones. My editorship was at the very beginning of the internet era, so most communication was by snail mail. Now, of course, high-IQ organizations are online, which speeds up discourse. The Mega Society online journal has some good material and discussions.

10. Amidst the busywork of editorials and organization of the material, upon reading Noesis, one article struck me regarding the title and content entitled My Problem With Black People. At the time, August 1992, other members of the Mega Society argued for the possibility of intellectual inferiority of blacks. You argued otherwise. In that, by your estimate, all races have about equal intelligence. Although in defense of all parties involved in the discussion of issue 72, the articles were written in 1992. Much work written in public discourse has progressed on the issue of intelligence and race: ‘does race count as an appropriate scientific category?’, ‘do IQ tests measure intelligence?’ and so forth. Where do you stand on this issue now?

I don’t have a problem with black people – in my juvenile manner, just wanted an attention-grabbing title. I believe that most work which tries to or claims to establish a relationship between intelligence and race has elements of creepy bullshit. Little good and lots and lots of bad has been done by people who claim that certain races or nationalities are mentally inferior to others.

Intelligence has a fluid relationship with environment, and all sorts of things can happen during an individual’s lifetime which may or may not bring his or her intelligence to fruition. Sometimes, being imperfectly adapted to an environment may elicit the expression of intelligence – think of perfectly adapted jocks who never had to learn to think versus awkward nerds who, because of physical imperfection, have to follow the riskier strategy of original thought. So, people who want to eliminate or reduce the reproductive opportunities of groups that may be considered inferior (according to crappy, wobbly, arbitrary, prejudiced and culturally loaded standards) may actually be trying to eliminate one of the triggers for intelligence – being at odds with one’s circumstances. More great art has been made by people who are ill-at-ease with their world than by people who are perfectly at home in it.

Furthermore, this is a particularly dumb time for arguments about racial differences in intelligence, as more and more of our effective intelligence comes from our interaction with technology. Tech is turning us all into geniuses, though it doesn’t seem like it when you see so many people behaving stupidly with their devices. Since World War Two, the average IQ of all of humanity has gone up by 15 points – the Flynn Effect. One of the main suspects in this upslope is the pervasiveness of complicated modern culture. Culture and tech will keep getting more complicated, and humans in conjunction with our devices will keep getting smarter. Tech that’s built into our bodies isn’t too far in the future. More than one percent of the population already has built-in computers – pacemakers, cochlear implants, etc. So who cares about some hard-to-measure few-IQ-point alleged difference among groups when we’re all going to end up being increasingly augmented geniuses?

People who insist on racial inferiority are creeps. We can discuss cultural differences – for instance, there seem to be cultural differences in causes of passenger jet pilot error – but the idea that some races need to be babysat by other races is gross. We’re all going to need to figure out how to work with each (augmented) other as tech reshapes the world.

11. How many societies do you have membership inside of now? What use do you get from these societies?

Don’t know how many societies I belong to. People ask me to click on things on Facebook, and sometimes clicking means that I’ve joined something. Could be 8 societies, could be 15. I’m not very good at Facebook and don’t live on it, as does your Aunt Angie, with her constant posting of cat and casserole pictures. Currently living on Twitter.

12. Intelligence Quotient (IQ) pervades American culture more than most, based on my reading of the culture, with a litany of reactions ranging from reverence to laughter to skepticism – and serious scholarship. Many neuropsychological tests developed by those with appropriate qualifications have developed some of the most well-used and researched tests such as the Raven’s Progressive Matrices (RPM) and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). However, mainstream standardized intelligence tests tend to have maximum scores at 4-sigma above the norm (160/164/196; SD-15/16/24, respectively). In the development of this work, some independent researchers and test constructors began to make tests for those earning maximum, or near-maximum, scores on mainstream tests. In the process, tests and societies developed for the high-ability population. This environment set the stage for the flourishing of your obsession: IQ tests. For example, on a high-ability test called the Titan Test – one of the most difficult, you set a record score. In fact, you earned a perfect score. You have taken many more. What are some of the other tests? In particular, where does your range, mean, and median lie for the set of high-range IQ tests taken?

It’s hard to pin down what my actual score might be. It’s silly to even think that people have one set IQ and that it’s precisely measurable. My lowest scores probably reflect less than my maximum effort, and my highest scores probably grant me some extra points due to crazily high levels of diligence plus vast experience with these tests. It doesn’t really matter unless we want to turn IQ testing into a reality show sport. And we should – why do we have a bunch of competition shows about people cooking from Mystery Baskets and none with IQ showdowns?

13. In the testing of intelligence, much criticism exists towards the potential for bias inherent in the tests themselves. For example, the use of an examinee’s non-native language in intelligence tests. If an individual speaks a different native language than the test provides, they may score low in the verbal section, which may decrease the composite score. To solve this problem, non-verbal/’culture fair’ tests exist. However, many of these culture fair tests have lower ceilings. What do you see in the future for high-range non-verbal tests? How will this change general intelligence testing and the identification of gifted individuals?

Intelligence testing has always been kind of a mess, often arbitrary and unfair. I think the best, easiest thing to do is test kids repeatedly, using a variety of tests. There are plenty of good, long-established tests. Trouble is, school districts are broke and don’t have the resources for repeated testing.

We can hope that tech will make schools more responsive to individual needs. Schools can be a little behind the curve. A century ago, school was the most interesting part of a kid’s day – it’s where the information was. Now, with the rest of our lives being so information- and entertainment-rich, school can be relatively uninteresting, which isn’t helped by politicians and people who don’t like paying property tax starving schools of resources.

School needs somewhat of a makeover – increasing automation and personalization, which the ongoing tech wave should help make possible. Don’t know if a push for better giftedness-finder diagnostics needs a special push. Would guess that this won’t be overlooked as part of high-tech changes to education.

Currently a crazy thing is the pressure on a few tens of thousands of high-end students, with endless AP courses and brutal study loads, for a seven percent chance of getting into an Ivy. When I was in school, the average AP kid took 1.3 AP courses; now it’s more than 7. I assume our weird college admissions system will get somewhat straightened out by technological advances in education, or will become weird in exciting new ways.

14. You have great interest in health. In fact, you had interest in health since a young age. Why the deep interest in the health from a young age?

At first, I wanted to build muscles to impress girls. (This sort of worked, but it took many years of de-nerdification.) People were fit in the 70s – clothes were tight and high-waisted. The Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary, Pumping Iron, which came out in 1976, introduced many people to serious muscle-building. Weight training incidentally introduced me to some healthy eating habits, plus I’ve always been a little fat-phobic and perhaps over-disciplined.

Only much later did I read Kurzweil’s book, Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever, and go from a few vitamins a day to a zillion. I don’t buy Kurzweil’s entire argument – that the Singularity will happen around 2040, and anyone who can live until then can live forever – but I do think there will be many biotech breakthroughs in the coming decades which may offer extra years of life. I want to stick around – the future is where you can find a lot of cool stuff.

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2023-01-28

Reverend Ivan Stang: Co-Founder & Author, Church of the SubGenius

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/10/01

ABSTRACT

Interview with co-founder of and author for the Church of the SubGenius, Reverend Ivan Stang, discussing the following subject-matter: geographic, cultural, and linguistic heritage for family background, and their concomitant influence on his development; youth and coming to this point including grades, young sexual frustration, and general anger toward the world at a young age; design, development, and foundation of the Church of the SubGenius, and key components to the foundation of a religion; pivotal transition to the design, development, and foundation of the Church of the SubGenius; three key things to know about J.R. ‘Bob’ Dobbs; definitions of ‘Bob’, ‘The Conspiracy’, and ‘Slack’; the way in which The Church of the SubGenius differs from mainstream religions; the way in which the Church of the SubGenius differs from fringe religions; controversial nature related to the Church of the SubGenius; infinite funding for an organization; unpopular reactions to the church; Church of the SubGenius and other groups going in the near, and far, future, and work on a screenplay or radio play; recommendation of The Onion; and fear, worry, or concern for the Church of the SubGenius in the future.

Keywords: Association for Consciousness Exploration, Chas Smith, Christian, Church of the SubGenius, Dallas, Dr. Hal Robins, Dr. Philo Drummond, Federico Fellini, Fleischer, Fort Worth, Frank Zappa, G. Gordon Gordon, Harvard, H.P. Lovecraft, Hunter Thompson, Jay Kinney, Jimi Hendrix, John Birch Society, MAD Magazine, McGraw-Hill, Monty Python, Orson Welles, Paul Mavrides, R. Crumb, Ray Harryhausen, Reverend Ivan Stang, Rip Off Press, Robert Anton Wilson, Robert Shea, Robert Williams, Seculars, Simon & Schuster, South Carolina, Steve Wilcox, The Firesign Theatre, The Merry Pranksters, The Onion, The Three Stooges, Tim McGinnis, Tom Wolfe, Warner Brothers, WASP, Zap Comics.

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside? How do you find this influencing your development?

Long story short: we were seculars surrounded by the religious. I am technically a standard WASP, but “mixed race” — half Yankee, half Southerner. My father is from a small town in South Carolina but is a Harvard-educated lawyer and retired Navy captain. My mom was raised in Connecticut by a Bronx Irish mother and an award winning writer/architect father (with the worst stutter I have ever heard, to this day). While my father is an expert on the Bible and even teaches somewhat subversive Bible studies at the local Methodist church, he is nonetheless what ignorant people would call an atheist. I was raised on science and science fiction. “Pappy” tried to get me interested in hunting and horseback riding, but that didn’t take. I’m more a wildlife photographer and amateur zoologist than a hunter. I hike in the woods and hunt in video games.

I grew up in Fort Worth and Dallas — most of my family now lives on a big ranch outside the Metroplex — so culturally I was surrounded by Southern Baptist kids. I had to pretend to be a Christian; I suppose one might say I got just a wee bit tired of that.

I knew I was an outsider during my first weeks of Kindergarten. At age 5 I was interested in sex (although I didn’t know what it was) and I was NOT interested in baseball. I knew every dinosaur’s name — which was easy in 1958 — but I couldn’t tell a hot rod from a Volkswagen.

I was a nerd before it was cool, in other words.

2. How was your youth? How did you come to this point?

I did fine in school until we moved to Dallas and my parents put me in a private school for males only, St. Mark’s School of Texas. We were not rich and once again I didn’t fit in. I went from straight As and foiled interest in girls to struggling for Cs and NO GIRLS AROUND AT ALL. I had to hang with the theater club because that was the only part of school that involved girls, imported from other schools. My love life was adversely affected at this critical age, which helped make me angry at the entire world, and it also led to my foolishly getting married at age 20 to the first young lady who would give me much more than the time of day. Luckily she was a very nice person and the perfect mother.

Did I mention anger? I was a very angry and lonesome young man. At that time my parents were fighting continuously and drugs/alcohol were a problem across the board; of course, for this was the early 1970s, post-hippie, pre-punk, but all drugs.

I had lots of interesting friends at that private school, though, and was voted Weirdest in the Class of 1971. I campaigned hard for that post; I earned it. I had been doing weird art projects, mostly monster/sf oriented but later more consciously surreal, since the age of 10, when I bought my first 8mm movie camera with money earned by cleaning dog kennels.

By age 15 I had won grand prize in the Kodak Teenage Movie Awards for a stop-motion short I’d done in “claymation.” This led to international film festival awards and a big head. By college I thought I was the next Orson Welles, and produced an ambitious 45-minute 16mm underground film called LET’S VISIT THE WORLD OF THE FUTURE. This was heavily influenced by a lucky early exposure to “underground comix” — the work of R. Crumb, Robert Williams, etc. in things like Zap Comics — and by The Firesign Theater, a pre-Monty Python American comedy group that remains way ahead of its time. The weird art that I was discovering helped keep me from suicide — because I felt that maybe this was something I could do right. Weird movies, weird art. But mostly movies, then.

Instead of finishing college I got married and took a documentary film job on the Rosebud Lakota Indian Reservation in South Dakota. For two years I had an often adventurous and educational time in this bizarre “prairie ghetto.” It was there that I learned that when everybody else is seeing a UFO, I CAN’T!

When we returned to Dallas, my sister in law introduced me to an interesting fellow, Steve Wilcox, aka Dr. Philo Drummond. He was the first person I had ever met who was into comic books and Captain Beefheart and everything else weird and kooky. This describes half the people I know now, but then, it was a first! We compared our collections of fringe publications, UFO paperbacks, kook pamphlets, etc., and at one point thought, “Hey, we could make a fake brochure just like this little John Birch Society pamphlet, and leave it in Laundromats to freak people out!” That notion became SubGenius Pamphlet #1, which we printed on Jan. 2, 1980.

3. Before moving into the core discussion on the design, development, and foundation of the Church of the SubGenius, you have discussed the core elements of any religion, what three things does any religion need to have to flourish?

A religion really needs only one thing: to make believers feel like they’re better than everyone else. A perceived oppressor and a perceived savior are helpful, but the main thing is telling people what they most want to hear.

I have observed seemingly educated people falling for the most blatantly ludicrous notions simply because it was what they most wanted to believe. As my Pappy said recently, “I believe what I need to believe.” To me that sadly sums up the human condition. I have seen some extreme and depressing examples of this, resulting in my having to personally deprogram the gullible from my own fake cult! In some notable cases, I failed.

4. What do you consider a pivotal moment in the transition to the design, development, and foundation of the Church of the SubGenius?

The primary thing was my friendship with Philo Drummond. All of the basics of the Church came from our verbal “jam sessions” in 1978 and 1979. There was a third main contributor very early on, “Dr. X,” the late Monte Dhooge, but he died young. Another pivotal event was probably when the late Tim McGinnis, a young book editor in New York, found SubG Pamphlet #1 in the back seat of my sister in law’s car on a picnic in 1982, flipped out, and offered us a book deal — which in turn allowed us to score a literary agent, the late Jane Browne of Chicago.

Prior to Tim’s offer, we had sent Pamphlet #1 as a possible book project outline to every publisher I could find in Writer’s Digest. We got 150 rejection slips, including ones from McGraw-Hill, Rip Off Press, and Simon & Schuster, all of whom later made decent money off our books and comics.

In the trashcans of Rip Off Press and Last Gasp Comics, two artists, Paul Mavrides and Jay Kinney respectively, found that Pamphlet, and they were the ones who helped us put it in the hands of other artists and also reviewers — that was our big leg up in the early 1980s.

Yet another pivotal moment was in 1990, when I was invited to speak at a pagan festival called Starwood, run by some folks in Cleveland, the Association for Consciousness Exploration or A.C.E. That in turn introduced me to a lot of people in Ohio who ended up being huge contributors, not least of all “Princess Wei R. Doe,” my wife. Cleveland, perhaps ironically considering its rep as a rust-belt dump, turned out to be much friendlier ground for me than Dallas had been. I changed into a happy man after that move. I got Slack.

5. As you have stated many times in public forums, and maybe private ones too, for those unaware of J.R. ‘Bob’ Dobbs, i.e. ‘the unsaved’, what three things do they need to know?

If they don’t instantly see what’s funny about it, they should probably avoid it. 2. If they can’t read between the lines, they should probably stop reading. 3. If they often confuse MAD Magazine, or Saturday Night Live, with the news, they should RUN FOR DEAR LIFE.

Beyond that, the key points are “Bob,” Slack, and The Conspiracy.

6. Regarding ‘Bob’, ‘The Conspiracy’, and ‘Slack’, how do you define each term? Why did these become a foundation within the creation of the Church of the SubGenius?

Slack = the goal, what we all want (although it’s different or each person). The Conspiracy (of the Normals) = what hinders Slack. “Bob” = the magic formula which facilitates Slack. But a major aspect of “Bob” Dobbs is the graphic portrait of “Bob.” That single image, inexplicable as it is, somehow ties all of it together. The moment that Philo showed me his book of clip art and we both simultaneously saw that damn halftone face was when we both knew we had something. We still do not know what.

7. How does the Church of the SubGenius differ from most mainstream religions, e.g. Christianity (Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and Anglicanism), Islam (Shia, Sunni, Sufi, and Kharijite), Hinduism, Chinese Traditional Religions, Buddhism, various Ethnic Religions, African Traditional religions, Sikhism, and so on?

I suppose the biggest difference is that we admit we are bullshitting you. In that respect it is a remarkably honest religion. Also, we don’t define Slack; it’s different for each person, so there are no absolute values — except maybe for the tricky part about not robbing others of their Slack. Most religions become ever more specific about “right” and “wrong” and are essentially formulas. We do not provide any stable formula; in fact we illustrate that trying to fit human behavior into codified formulas is folly.

Also, we pay taxes.

One of my favorite lines is, “We’re like any other religion. It’s not that we love “Bob” all that much, it’s that we love the idea of everybody else going to Hell.”

I hope it goes without saying that most SubGeniuses don’t even believe in “Bob,” much less Hell.

8. Furthermore, how does it differ from other fringe religions, e.g. Christianity (Restorianism, Chinese Originated Churches, Church of the East, and Unitarian Universalism), Juche, Spiritism, Judaism, Bahá’í, Jainism, Shinto, Cao Dai, Zoroastrianism, Tenrikyo, Neo-Paganism, Rastafarianism, Scientology, Pastafarianism, Mormonism, Arceusology, Discordianism, Paganism, Crowleyites, and so on?

We’re much, much funnier than any of them, even Scientology.

9. What do you consider the most controversial part of your church compared to the mainline religions? In addition, what do you consider the most controversial compared to the other fringe religions? How do you examine the issue?

Some people become sincerely upset that we portray the God of the Bible as a monster from outer space. No punishments are threatened for sins like gluttony, adultery, addiction, etc. I guess the main point of contention is that we are making cruel fun of literally everybody’s most cherished beliefs, often simply because they are cherished. We are the Balloon Poppers, the Antidote to All Placebos.

10. If you had infinite funding, what organization would you found? What question would you research for an answer?

The world doesn’t need another organization, but if I had infinite funding I have a very expensive movie screenplay I’d love to see produced (with my son, an actual Hollywood director, directing), and a video game idea that would cost more to produce than Grand Theft Auto 5. If it was TRULY INFINITE funding, I suppose establishing a Fun Police would be good. We’d force everyone to have his or her idea of fun. That would not be cheap, due to all the special cases. Also we would start the Mind Your Own Business Police.

11. Did you ever have unpopular reactions to your church? Can you provide an example?

We get more butthurt grief and criticism from stodgy New Agers of various stripes than from, say, Christians. It’s not on the average person’s radar, but attracts attention from people who are already fanatics about something. It’s Kook Flypaper. We get hate mail from pseudo-intellectuals for not being serious enough, and for being grossly ambiguous (one of our specialties that I’m most proud of). I used to get death threats from white supremacist groups because of my unkind reviews of their literature, to the extent that I’ve had to call the FBI a couple of times. On the other hand, we got investigated as a hate group by the Secret Service and the FBI, but they must have found us relatively boring.

The worst thing that ever happened to us on a personal level was a child custody case in which a simpleton New York state family court judge denied custody to a very worthy mother because of her involvement with the Church of the SubGenius. (Google “Bevilacqua SubGenius Child Custody Case.”) She regained custody when the father proved himself to be a complete and utter scoundrel, but for 3 years a sane, hard-working, educated mother was denied access to her child mainly because she had taken part in our “cult,” and Judge Punch didn’t have what most people would call common sense.

12. Who most influenced you? Can you recommend any seminal books/articles by them?

I read a lot and seek out unusual movies, so my list would be practically endless. As far as really deep influences, I’d have to say, in this order: my parents (both had sick senses of humor), the Warner Brothers cartoons, The Three Stooges, Popeye cartoons (the Fleischer ones), monster movies in general but especially those by Ray Harryhausen, underground comics in general, The Firesign Theater, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, H.P. Lovecraft, the writer Colin Wilson, Robert Anton Wilson/ Robert Shea for their novel ILLUMINATUS, Federico Fellini, Hunter Thompson and Tom Wolfe, The Merry Pranksters, and many friends including Philo Drummond, G. Gordon Gordon, Puzzling Evidence, Paul Mavrides, a bunch of guys in Little Rock once called Doktorz 4 “Bob,” the late Chas Smith, Lonesome Cowboy Dave, Dr. Hal Robins, “Nenslo,” Rev. Susie the Floozie, Dr. K’taden Legume — that list could go on and on too.

13. Where do you see the Church of the SubGenius and other groups going in the near, and far, future? Do you have a precise itinerary?

The world ends at 7 a.m. on July 5, 1998, and that’s honestly all we know regarding the future. I’m slowly fiddling with a screenplay and/or radio play.

14. Besides your own organization, what others can you recommend?

The Onion.

15. What major fear, worry, or concern do you have about the Church of the SubGenius in the future?

My biggest worry is that after Philo and I are dead, some asshole will be able to convince gullible chumps that it was all REAL — that is, supernatural. I have gone to great lengths to insure that hard physical proof exists in many places of exactly how this whole nutty mess developed. It was the work of many wiseacres, just having fun.

Bibliography

[General Public] (2012, April 10). Ivan Stang at Baltimore SubGenius Devival 2007. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrCN51x0pwg&feature=player_embedded.
[Ivan Stang] (2011, April 26). Let’s Visit the World of the Future. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHx2nLFMAzE&list=UU5cnVpuDQcMCSNHx8_FtQMQ&index=16.
[Ivan Stang] (2006, November 3). SubGenius Commercial. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt9MP70ODNw&list=UU5cnVpuDQcMCSNHx8_FtQMQ&index=77.
[Ivan Stang] (2011, April 26). The Making of MTV-SubGenius. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cBHaSmH58s&list=UU5cnVpuDQcMCSNHx8_FtQMQ.
[niza310] (2007, December 9). Robert Anton Wilson Discusses Discordianism, “Bob” & Freemasons With Rev. Ivan Stang. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qn1kilKVIw.
[PuzzlingEvidenceTV] (2011, May 17). SubGenius at Burning Man 2000. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQfkmBBSdUA.
[PuzzlingEvidenceTV] (2012, May 30). SubGenius Panel: Future of “Bob” Nov 1981. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNm-YPRjZuo.
[PuzzlingEvidenceTV] (2010, September 10). The Rant of Ivan Stang Nov 9 1985. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e59J6LzTmOM.
[Scott Beale] (2007, December 9). Ivan Stang Explains The Church of the SubGenius. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1Byf9KbWbo.
[The New World Manifesto Project] (2012, August 26). Episode 6: Reverend Ivan Stang & the Church of the Sub Genius. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq665DIDljA/.
Stang, I. (n.d.). The Office Pulpit of Rev. Ivan Stang. Retrieved from http://revstang.blogspot.ca/.
Twitter (n.d.). Ivan Stang: @IvanStang. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/IvanStang.

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2023-01-28

Dr. Wendy A. Suzuki: Professor, Neural Science and Psychology; Center for Neural Science, New York University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/09/22

ABSTRACT

An in-depth interview with Dr. Wendy A. Suzuki, New York University, of the Center for Neural Science, Professor in the department of neural science and psychology. She discusses the following: educational background and major positions; seminal youth experience influencing career trajectory, freshman experience at University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Maryanne Diamond, GoogleUniversity; ‘clicking’ with a teacher; original dream in her life; major areas of past and present research; hypothetical research; various paces of exercise for memory enhancement; controversial research topics; relation to some other health research such as research on life-extension with Rhodiola Rosea, and caloric restriction; philosophical foundations; robust short-term changes in neural architecture for long-term benefits, Susanne M. Jaeggi et al from 2008, 2009, and 2012 based on a ‘dual n’ back’ task, and the Raven’s Progressive Matrices (RPM, Non-verbal intelligence test); advice for young psychologists; and the responsibility of scientists to society.

Keywords: Controversial, David Amaral, Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, Dr. Mahtab Jafari,Dr. Maryanne Diamond, Dr. Wendy Suzuki, Eric Kandel, exercise, GoogleUniversity, Hippocampus, Larry Squire, Long-Term Memory, Los Angeles, National Institutes of Health, Neural Science, neurogenesis, neuroplasticity, Neuroscience, New York, New York University, psychology, Raven’s Progressive Matrices, Rhodiola Rosea, Scientists, Society, Stuart Zola, Susanne M. Jaeggi,University of California.

1. What is your current position? What major positions have you held in your academic career?

I am a professor of neuroscience and psychology at New York University (NYU). This is my first and only academic position that I got, which was after my Post-Doc.

2. Can you name a seminal experience in your youth that most influenced your career direction?

The most seminal experience was a class, which I took as a freshman at University of California, Berkeley. It was a freshman seminar. A small number of freshman with an expert in her field. She was a neuroanatomist. Dr. Maryanne Diamond, her speciality was on neuroplasticity and the experience of an enriched environment on brain plasticity. That made me want to become a neuroscientist, and I became a neuroscientist. At present, she is emeritus there. Her presentations on GoogleUniversity are number 1 or 2. She teaches biology. She has an amazing gift to make, even boring subjects such as gross human anatomy, which is a lot of memorization of different structures and she made it fascinating.

3. That’s a common experience. Once a student ‘clicks’ with a professor, especially in terms of teaching style, they tend to keep going to them.

Yes, exactly!

4. Where did you acquire your education?

I got a BA at University California, Los Angeles, Ph.D. at University California, San Diego, a Post-Doc at National Institutes of Health, and my current faculty position at NYU.

5. What was your original dream?

I wanted to do something in science. I did not know exactly what, but I wanted to get tenure as a neuroscientist to design my own experiments and run my own research lab. That was my original dream.

6. What have been your major areas of research?

My major areas of research are parts of the brain that are important for long-term memory formation such as the hippocampus and related structures. I began this research at the start of my career in graduate school. However, I have branched off recently to study humans because all of the work in long-term memory systems have been with animal model systems. More recently, I have begun a new area of my research lab dealing with the effects of aerobic exercise in and examining, in particular, humans.

7. Does this mean short, fast or long, slow exercise?

We look at both. We look at the effects of acute exercise by going to the gym for an hour. What can that do to your cognition? How long does that last? Mainly, I am interested in the long-term effects of the changes in fitness to your long-term cognitive abilities. How does long-term exercise change your cognitive abilities? I want to see the way this can be incorporated into a university of school program.

I have two newest areas of research: one of exercise (last four or five years) and how time is represented in your memory.

This happens before the consolidation process. I focus on the following: during encoding of an episode, how is time represented in these areas that are important for memory? Consolidation is after you encode it, including all of the temporal stuff, how do you retain it?

8. If you had unlimited funding and unrestricted freedom, what research would you conduct?

I am fascinated by exercise. I would find a way to combine my experimental work in long-term memory systems with my human work in the effects of exercise on long-term memory. I would want to leverage my understanding of long-term memory systems to make it better. Exercise enhances neurogenesis in the hippocampus, a structure critical to long-term memory formation. I want to understand: how does that happen? How much exercise you need to happen best? What kind of tasks are more effective at it? And what does that mean in your everyday life? If I had unlimited funding, I would throw all of my funding at that. Plus, I would get it implemented into schools or in patient populations where it could be helpful, which is what I am doing now. But I do not have the funding! That is the goal.

9. Much research exists on caloric restriction providing benefits to many signs of aging related to preliminary non-human animal models of life-extension research. In particular, Dr. Mahtab Jafari, she worked with Rhodiola Rosea in terms of extending the general lifespan of Drosophila. However, this comes from many fronts, which includes mental health by slowing cognitive aging in other ways such as exercise.

Absolutely, that is one of the goals. What kind of exercise is the most effective? In that, is it running, kickboxing, weight training, and so on? What in that form of exercise? And how much of it? In turn, what is improved? Is it a frontal lobe attention-focusing task? There is probably a large proportion of studies on humans showing the improvement in the ability to focus your attention. There have been some good research on positive long-term improvement of memory. I want to improve memory. I want to improve my own memory. What are the optimal practical implications of exercise on memory? It is related to attention because you cannot attain better memory without attention. So if you can attain better attention along with memory, I want that too.

10. What is your philosophical foundation? How did it change over time to the present?

I think, if you can call it a philosophy, I am a firm believer in the idea that brain is very flexible and plastic. Lots of things can influence it. Both for the good and for the bad. My whole scientific career has been based on trying to understand that principle. I do not know if this is necessarily a principle or a philosophy. I think there is a lot of potential for change and to grow. The brain has an enormous amount of potential to change and to grow. I want to explore those possibilities and the way to harness it for the betterment of mankind.

11. Lots of recent research, which you probably know better than me, about robust short-term changes in neural architecture for long-term benefits.

Yes, it is pretty amazing.

12. Three papers, which turned some findings on their head, came from Susanne M. Jaeggi et al from 2008, 2009, and subsequently in 2012 based on a ‘dual n’ back’ task. People were given the Raven’s Progressive Matrices (RPM, Non-verbal intelligence test), trained them for up to 19 days on the ‘dual n’ back’ task at increasing difficulty, and then gave them the RPM. They found an increase in fluid intelligence in a short amount of time, which lasted for at least a couple months after the training.

That’s fascinating. I am interested in plasticity.

13. What do you consider the controversial topics in your field? How do you examine the controversial topics?

(Laughs) What are the non-controversial topics? There are many, many controversial topics in memory including the things talked about: consolidation. There are many difference theories about consolidation. What is it? How does it work? There is a huge controversy in the boundary between memory and perception, and how you define it. What is the appropriate way to define a perceptual function versus a memory function? You would think this would be very straightforward, but when you get into difficult perceptual tasks. There are so many elements that you have to compare. You need a good working memory. We are arguing over: is it pure perception? Is it memory? Or is it both? There is big debate over that. Those are the ones that I deal with the most. How do you deal with them? You need to do a lot of reading and try to keep an open mind, and try not to get into one camp. I never had the urge to write an opinion piece before about five years ago, when I got tired of this perception versus memory debate. I went to a journal editor and said, “Why don’t I write a memory piece?” She said, “Why don’t we do a point-counterpoint?” I said, “No, I do not want to do that, just let me write the piece.” (Laughs) No, I didn’t actually say that. I said, “I’d love to do point-counterpoint.” (Laughs) I ended up doing it with someone I got along with, and it was a really informative and educational process to try and address a controversy fairly from one side knowing someone else is doing another side. Then, we did a wrap-it-up piece together. Obviously, we had to get along and have enough respect for each other’s views to be able to get through that project. Now, we are working together on some projects, not this, but other ones. The funny thing is, the editor was interested in doing a point-counterpoint because she had tried to do a great point-counterpoint, but people found it too emotionally charged. I think that is probably the cause of the duration of these controversies: stubbornness on these scientists. If they were more interested in engaging through point-counterpoint in the general public, within the form of scientific journals, rather than doing my first reaction such as ‘let me just write my piece’.

14. What do some in opposition to you argue? How do you respond?

It depends on the format. In written word or a talk-situation – kind of a debate, I think one of the things that differentiates the different views is how much credit, or weight, you give different pieces of evidence. All controversies have a whole bunch of studies that are more or less related to it. Lots of people have different opinions on how they buy into certain findings over other findings. I think my response is to try and explain both my theoretical and the strongest evidence – that I think – is there to back it up. Whether experimental design or the results were significant. For example, something well-designed enough to not make another possible interpretation for this experiment the best one. I guess, the underlying hypothesis in my mind and the rank-order of the data, and, of course, I need to explain why data they might bring up is not that relevant.

15. What advice do you have for young psychologists?

I would say, “Make sure you are truly fascinated with psychology and that can be a driving force for many years of hard work, which you will have to do.” To any young scientist, “be curious, be bold in jumping in conversations and debates.” They are good experiences. Do not be sitting there with the ‘big whigs’ figuring things out. Become good at expressing your own views in some form, e.g. through talks or the written word. I think the thing I see in my most successful colleagues is this innate fascination. You need to make sure this a driver for you because it is hard to work for the funding. The competition in science is strong. It could become overwhelming. It does become overwhelming for many students unless they are so fascinated with the topic. Only they can decide that.

16. Whom do you consider your biggest influences? Could you recommend any seminal or important books/articles by them?

My major influences are my three dissertation advisors. One of them was Larry Squire. He and Eric Kandel have a really good book for neuroscientists and non-neuroscientists called Memory: From Minds to Molecules. It was a Scientific American publication. It lays out the whole range of the field of memory very nicely. Stuart Zola, who was also one of my thesis advisors, a fantastic psychologist, scientist, and neuroscientist. As well as David Amaral, a neuro-anatomist, who taught me great anatomical techniques and let me feel like an artist in a way. I felt like an art critic while looking into a microscope and working with these various brain areas in monkeys during my thesis studying. I will always be grateful for that. People that influence you formative times of your career. Those influences are long-lasting. I would say those three teachers. They were my greatest influences.

17. In an interview with Dr. Elizabeth Loftus from In-Sight Issue 2.A, I quote an acceptance speech for an award from the AAAS for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility. In it, she said, “We live in perilous times for science…and in order for scientists to preserve their freedoms they have a responsibility…to bring our science to the public arena and to speak out as forcefully as we can against even the most cherished beliefs that reflect unsubstantiated myths.” How important do you see criticizing ‘unsubstantiated myths’ in ‘perilous times’ for science?

“Criticizing ‘unsubstantiated myths’”, I would say, I agree with the statement to the point about scientists needing to speak out into the public. Whether they battle myths or simply educate, in fact, I consider that more important to get to the general public out there. So they know what a scientist does, even if it is the most esoteric things about something in fly brains because they get funding – if they are lucky enough to get funding. To hone that message in a very, very clear way to let the public understand the importance of our work. I think battling unsubstantiated myths is a subset of that, but I consider the most important part of that is the reason I am so fascinated with memory. What happens if you lose your memory? How might my research help you? How might devastating might that be to you? Some people, and scientists included, do not always understand the importance of the work that we do. More important is the public’s ability to know this and ultimately support the scientific effort with knowledge, full knowledge.

Bibliography

[nyusuns] (2014, March 8). SUNS Interview with Dr. Wendy Suzuki. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzoXQsv7vF4.
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TEDx [Tedx talks] (2011, December 1). TEDxOrlando – Wendy Suzuki – Exercise and the Brain. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdDnPYr6R0o&list=RDLdDnPYr6R0o#t=2.
TEDx [Tedx talks] (2014, March 2014). Wendy Suzuki at TEdxNYU 2013. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy22cOejMow.
Buckmaster CA, Eichenbaum H, Amaral DG, Suzuki WA, Rapp PR (2004) “Entorhinal cortex lesions disrupt the relational organization of memory in monkeys,” J Neurosci 24, 9811– 9825
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Hargreaves EL, Mattfeld AT, Stark CE, Suzuki WA (2012) “Conserved fMRI and LFP signals during new associative learning in the human and macaque monkey medial temporal lobe,” Neuron 74: 743–752
Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl, M., Jonides, J., & Perrig, W. J. (2008). Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(19), 6829-6833.
Jaeggi, S. M., Berman, M. G., & Jonides, J. (2009). Training attentional processes. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(5), 191-192.
Lavenex P, Suzuki WA, Amaral DG (2004) “Intrinsic perirhinal and parahippocampal cortices of the macaque monkey: Intrinsic projections and interconnections,” J Comp Neurol 472, 371–394
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Law JR, Flanery MA, Wirth S, Yanike M, Smith AC, Frank LM, Suzuki WA, Brown EN, Stark CEL (2005) “fMRI activity during the gradual acquisition and expression of paired associate memory,” J Neurosci 25, 5720–5729
Lee YSC, Ashman T, Shang A, Suzuki WA (2014) “Brief report: Effects of exercise and self-affirmation intervention after traumatic brain injury,” Neurorehab, In press
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2023-01-28

Dr. Jonathan Wai: Research Scientist, Talent Identification Program, Duke University & Case Western Reserve University (Part Three)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/09/15

ABSTRACT

Part three of a three-part in-depth, broad interview with Research Scientist, Dr. Jonathan Wai, of the Talent Identification Program, Duke University, and Case Western Reserve University. He discusses the following subject-matter: talent, productivity, Who’s Smarter? Republicans and Democrats in Congress(2013); success and underchallenged high-talent workers at the highest levels of ability; Is America “On The Wrong Side of History”?(2012), America as an unsustainable superpower, and educational declines in America as measured by PISA; interview with Enrico Moretti, globally competitive world while continuing to attract talent at home; concept of ‘intelligence’, measure of IQ tests, Richard Feynman, Discussions on Genius and Intelligence: Mega Foundation Interview with Arthur Jensen(2002), and Steve Hsu’s comments on Richard Feynman; societal worry about decline in STEM and educational competitiveness in a globalized world, international setting of so-called ‘soft power’, i.e. cultural influence, and ‘hard power’ advocates; additional pieces for reading; future projects; influences and inspiration; and final thoughts with a quote from Wagner.

Keywords: Dirac, Dr. Arthur Jensen, Enrico Moretti, Einstein, Gifted, Hard Power, James Watson, Mark Zuckerberg, Mega Foundation Press, PISA, Richard Feynman, Society, Soft Power, STEM, Steve Case, Steve Hsu, Talented, Vivek Wahwa, Wagner.

21. If we take the highest level of talent in a discipline, something like the top 5% of the ability spectrum tend to have the highest productivity and impact in their discipline. We could provide a concrete estimate for the amount of talent falling through the cracks of society. Did anyone provide a calculable estimate? For example, we could estimate the productivity and talent through measuring the current level of productivity and impact in a field through papers published and total citations – even per paper – for the top 5% of the ability spectrum through your estimates based on competitive undergraduate and graduate programs (Who’s Smarter? Republicans and Democrats in Congress, 2013), using the statistical estimates of the occurrence for the top 5% out of the general population, subtract the two of them, and have a relative estimate of lost/under-utilized talent out of the general population. None of this seems out of the realm of possibility to me regarding the potential of creating a standardized measure for reference when measuring the improvement of utilization of the gifted and talented at the top 5% (or any other percent for that matter). What do you think? What other means could provide an accurate picture of the societal plight of underutilized talent?

This is an interesting idea. Probably some of the strongest international evidence that the U.S. is not developing its talented students is from international comparison tests such as the PISA.

22. What do you make of the great divide between the maximum level of ability required for the most cognitively complex fields such as pure mathematics, medicine, and science, and the under-challenged gifted population with ability in excess of the mean level of ability requisite for those disciplines? In other words, for example, their field requires 1.5 or 2 SD, but they feel unchallenged because of having ability at 3 SD.

When someone has an ability level well beyond their peers they are likely to be quite successful. Yet they also may not be as challenged as they could have been had they chosen a discipline with people as smart as, or much smarter than them.

23. You note the immigration of more talent in Is America “On The Wrong Side of History”? (2012), where China sees the US as an unsustainable superpower. However, this seems unreasonable. International settings and competition, and global integration of political, economic, technological, cultural, and informational systems in the 21^stcentury will disallow the viability of long-term immigration of the most talented, gifted, and appropriately skilled and motivated. It seems to me nations will continue to compete for the talent worldwide at an increasing rate. Of course, the US will stay attractive to the talented. Even so, this will not last, especially in light of the educational declines occurring for some time now in the US as measured by such rankings as the PISA. What do you think? Why? How might the US and Canada remedy such decline?

The solution is logical, but is not so simple to implement due to political barriers: encourage talented people to live and work in the U.S. or Canada or whatever your home country is. There is always going to be a limited supply of talented people and because they can come from anywhere the competition will be worldwide.

24. Furthermore, the interview with Enrico Moretti tells of the desire for allowing more foreign-born talent to enter into the US by such business luminaries as Vivek Wahwa, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Case, and others, which does assist the competitive streak of the nation. However, this seems more temporary, a short-term fix, with tremendous implications for the long-term if the investment in fields having higher economic return-of-investment (ROI), e.g. STEM disciplines, for the individuals and societies involved do not having adequate funding. At some point, you cannot immigrate talent in a globally competitive world if the world integrates to a sufficient level of transport, exchange of information, trade, and so forth. In an integrated global economy, it seems implausible for an indefinite period of time, and therefore I ask, what would you do for the long-term at the individual level? How can the US appear more attractive to talented Americans to stay in their country of birth?

The solution, as I have outlined in my writings, is to both develop homegrown talent as well as encourage foreign talent to come and stay. Probably the driving principle that has attracted talent from the around the world is the freedom to innovate.

25. Do you ever question the operational definition of the concept ‘intelligence’ and subsequent measurement through IQ tests? For instance, Richard Feynman claimed to have an IQ of 125. However, some replies do arise from an interview with Dr. Arthur Jensen from the ebook published by Mega Foundation Press entitledDiscussions on Genius and Intelligence: Mega Foundation Interview with Arthur Jensen(2002). In particular, the late Dr. Jensen stated in the book-length interview:

I don’t take anecdotal reports of the IQs of famous persons at all seriously. They are often fictitious and are used to make a point – typically a put-down of IQ test and the whole idea that individual differences in intelligence can be ranked or measured. James Watson once claimed an IQ of 115; the daughter of another very famous Nobelist claimed that her father would absolutely “flunk” any IQ test. It’s all ridiculous. Furthermore, the outstanding feature of any famous and accomplished person, especially a reputed genius, such as Feynman, is never their level of g (or their IQ), but some special talent and some other traits (e.g., zeal, persistence). Outstanding achievement(s) depend on these other qualities besides high intelligence. (Langan et al, 2002)

As you have noted repeatedly in your writing with wit, “…The plural of anecdote is not data.” What do you think of this topic? How might others with differing ideas than you argue?

Leaving aside the label “intelligence,” I think when it comes to psychometric measurement just about every mental standardized test will measure the g factor or general mental ability to a large degree. On Feynman’s IQ, I will quote the physicist Steve Hsu, whose views I share on this topic (see my interview with him on Psychology Today):

Is it true Feynman’s IQ score was only 125?

“Feynman was universally regarded as one of the fastest thinking and most creative theorists in his generation. Yet it has been reported-including by Feynman himself-that he only obtained a score of 125 on a school IQ test. I suspect that this test emphasized verbal, as opposed to mathematical, ability. Feynman received the highest score in the country by a large margin on the notoriously difficult Putnam mathematics competition exam, although he joined the MIT team on short notice and did not prepare for the test. He also reportedly had the highest scores on record on the math/physics graduate admission exams at Princeton. It seems quite possible to me that Feynman’s cognitive abilities might have been a bit lopsided-his vocabulary and verbal ability were well above average, but perhaps not as great as his mathematical abilities. I recall looking at excerpts from a notebook Feynman kept while an undergraduate. While the notes covered very advanced topics for an undergraduate-including general relativity and the Dirac equation-it also contained a number of misspellings and grammatical errors. I doubt Feynman cared very much about such things.”

26. Oftentimes, the societal worry about the great decline in STEM and educational competitiveness in a globalized world seems too high. However, the pragmatic implementation of practice appears limited to me. Regardless, much of this misses some of the major areas of great influence from a nation, which tends to have the greatest level of dissemination within an international setting of so-called ‘soft power’, i.e. cultural influence. Of course, the worry about STEM arises out of global competitiveness. In other words, this seems to me to give primacy to GDP over citizenry having adequate education, but with additional benefits to citizen education. Soft power provides a foundation for similar influence in the world other than technology. Although, using the technological platforms invented or improved upon by the STEM graduates. In that, STEM graduates can assist the economic and political aims of ‘hard power’ advocates, but the platforms of technology emerging from the technological innovations of them allow the soft power influence to proliferate. Where do you see more importance – STEM or arts disciplines/hard or soft power? Or both?

It would be reasonable to think it would be both.

27. Of those pieces which I appreciate most for further reflection: Lee Smolin Encourages Graduate Student to Stay in Science, Will We Ever Find the Next Einstein?, How Do You Make An Intellectual Dream Team?,If You Are Creative,Are You Also Intelligent?,Is Spatial Intelligence Essential for Innovation and Can We Increase It Through Training?,Could We Create Another Einstein?,Is America “on the Wrong Side of History”?,How Do We Get Kids to Want to Be Einstein?,Intelligence: New Finds And Theoretical Insights(a very good interview with Dr. Diane F. Halpern),The Educational World Is Flat,Studying Too Much? This Government Will Stop You,Steve Jobs Leveraged His Intelligence To More Effectively Create, How Brainy Is Your Major,Are Elite Athletes Marrying Elite Athletes?(a great read for discussion on individual differences),How to Think Like a Scientist(good tips for general curiosity and critical thinking too),The Art of Communicating Science, Do Journalists And Academics Live In The “Real World”?,Teaching Without Words,Finding The Next Carl Sagan, Do Smart People Rule The World?, andHow Science Writing Can Save Lives. Do you have any recommended reading?

Thank you! I recommend that everyone should read what they are most interested in.

28. What projects do you have in the coming years?

I am currently involved in many different research and writing projects which surround the role of talent and its impact on society.

29. Who most influenced you? Who inspires you?

The list of people who have influenced me are written on the numerous books and articles I have read so far in my lifetime.

30. To close with a quote of Wagner from your article Could We Create Another Einstein?, “Parents, teachers, mentors, and employers—we all have urgent work to do.” Do you have any final thoughts?

I don’t. Thank you for these very thoughtful questions.

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Wai, J. (2011, June 6). Can The Magic Of Great Literature Take You Around The World?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201106/can-the-magic-great-literature-take-you-around-the-world.
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Wai, J. (2013, December 11). Collective Intelligence: Help the World Create an IQ Test.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201312/collective-intelligence-help-the-world-create-iq-test.
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Wai, J. (2013, March 17). Finding The Next Sheryl Sandberg.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201303/finding-the-next-sheryl-sandberg.
Wai, J. (2012, December 9). Five Lessons From Salman Khan For Education.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201212/five-lessons-salman-khan-the-future-education.
Wai, J. (2012, January 31). Game The College Rankings?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201201/gaming-the-college-rankings.
Wai, J. (2013, April 1). Games Psychologists Play.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201304/games-psychologists-play.
Wai, J. (2011, August 1). How Brainy Is Your Major?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201108/how-brainy-is-your-major.
Wai, J. (2013, March 29). How Do You Make An Intellectual Dream Team?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201103/how-do-you-make-intellectual-dream-team.
Wai, J. (2011, June 18). How Do You Measure An Intellectual Giant?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201106/how-do-you-measure-intellectual-giant.
Wai, J. (2012, February 12). How Do We Get Kids To Want To Be Einstein?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201202/how-do-we-get-kids-want-be-einstein.
Wai, J. (2012, December 31). How Khan Academy Will Help Find The Next Einstein.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201212/how-khan-academy-will-help-find-the-next-einstein.
Wai, J. (2014, March 17). How Much Do Parents Influence Their Children’s Success?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201403/how-much-do-parents-determine-their-children-s-success.
Wai, J. (2012, June 25). How Science Writing Can Save Lives.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201206/how-science-writing-can-save-lives.
Wai, J. (2011, September 11). How To Control Your Creativity.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201109/how-control-your-creativity.
Wai, J. (2012, January 22). How To Spot A Verbal Virtuoso.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201201/how-spot-verbal-virtuoso.
Wai, J. (2013, July 22). How To Think Like A Scientist.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201307/how-think-scientist.
Wai, J. (2011, April 12). If You Are Creative, Are You Also Intelligent?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201104/if-you-are-creative-are-you-also-intelligent.
Wai, J. (2012, February 13). In The Ages of Big Data: That’s Why Math Counts!.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201202/its-the-age-big-data-thats-why-math-counts.
Wai, J. (2012, January 11). Intelligence: New Finds And Theoretical Insights.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201201/intelligence-new-findings-and-theoretical-developments.
Wai, J. (2013).Investigating America’s elite: Cognitive ability, education, and sex differences. Intelligence, 41,203-211.
Wai, J. (2012, April 2). Is America “On The Wrong Side Of History”?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201204/is-america-the-wrong-side-history.
Wai, J. (2011, July 4). Is Community The Third Dimension Of Life?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201107/is-community-the-third-dimension-life.
Wai, J. (2011, May 10). Is Spatial Intelligence Essential for Innovation and Can We Increase It Through Training?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201105/is-spatial-intelligence-essential-innovation-and-can-we-increa.
Wai, J. (2011, August 28). Is This How To Fix Our Math Education?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201108/is-how-fix-our-math-education.
Wai, J. (2013, February 26). Jack Andraka Is Not An Ordinary Kid.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201302/jack-andraka-is-not-ordinary-kid.
Wai, J. (2012, April 16). Jonah Lehrer: The Literary Magician.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201204/jonah-lehrer-the-literary-magician.
Wai, J. (2013, September 11). Lee Smolin Encourages Graduate Student To Stay in Science.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201309/lee-smolin-encourages-graduate-student-stay-in-science.
Wai, J. (2014, April 28). More Gifted Students: Harder to Get Into the Ivies?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201404/more-gifted-students-harder-get-the-ivies.
Wai, J. (2012, December 16). Nikhil Goyal: Future US Secretary of Education?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201212/nikhil-goyal-future-us-secretary-education.
Wai, J. (2013, November 24). Nine Ways to Become Smarter Than You Think.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201311/nine-ways-become-smarter-you-think.
Wai, J. (2014, March 27). One Size Does Not Fit All: The Need For Variety In Learning.MindShift. Retrieved from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/03/one-size-does-not-fit-all-the-need-for-variety-in-learning/.
Wai, J. (2013, June 24). Project Scientist: Inspiring The Next Generation Of Females.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201306/project-scientist-inspiring-the-next-generation-females.
Wai, J. (2014, June 16). Reinventing The Boundaries of Science Journalism.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201406/reinventing-the-boundaries-science-journalism.
Wai, J. (2013, January 22). Rick Hess On Why Academics Should Engage The Public.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201301/rick-hess-why-academics-should-engage-the-public.
Wai, J. (2014, July 18). Shakespeare, Vermeer, and the “Secrets” of Genius.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201407/shakespeare-vermeer-and-the-secrets-genius.
Wai, J. (2011, November 26). Sorry, Talented: Striving Matters.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201111/sorry-talented-striving-matters.
Wai, J. (2014, June 17). Sorry Jay Matthews, Gifted Education Matters.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201406/sorry-jay-mathews-gifted-education-matters.
Wai, J. (2011, October 22). Steve Jobs Leveraged His Intelligence To More Effectively Create.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201110/steve-jobs-leveraged-his-intelligence-more-effectively-create.
Wai, J. (2011, December 11). Studying Too Much? This Government Will Stop You. Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201112/studying-too-much-government-will-stop-you.
Wai, J. (2012, September 7). Teach Students What They Don’t But Are Ready To Learn.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201209/teach-students-what-they-dont-know-are-ready-learn.
Wai, J. (2012, October 15). Teaching Without Words.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201210/teaching-without-words.
Wai, J. (2013, June 3). The Art Of Communicating Science.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201306/the-art-communicating-science.
Wai, J. (2011, December 20). The benefits of Being Gifted.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201112/the-benefits-being-gifted.
Wai, J. (2012, January 8). The Educational World Is Flat.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201201/the-educational-world-is-flat.
Wai, J. (2012, November 12). The Growing Complexity of Everyday Life.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201211/the-growing-complexity-everyday-life.
Wai, J. (2014, February 10). The Olympics: 5 Things You Can Learn About Talent & Practice.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201402/the-olympics-5-things-you-can-learn-about-talent-practice.
Wai, J. (2012, October 2). The Paris Hilton Effect.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201210/the-paris-hilton-effect.
Wai, J. (2011, October 3). The Real Slumdog Millionaire.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201110/the-real-slumdog-millionaire.
Wai, J. (2014, June 2). The Right Way To Treat Child Geniuses.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201406/the-right-way-treat-child-geniuses.
Wai, J. (2012, October 29). The Role Of Talent In Education and Business.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201210/the-role-talent-in-education-and-business.
Wai, J. (2012, May 13). This 8^thGrader Wants to Measure Your Cat’s IQ. Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201205/8th-grader-wants-measure-your-cats-iq.
Wai, J. (2012, July 29). The SAT Is Too Easy.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201207/the-sat-is-too-easy.
Wai, J. (2012, August 8). The Spatial Thinkers That Get Left Outside Higher Education’s Gates.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201208/the-spatial-thinkers-get-left-outside-higher-educations-gates.
Wai, J. (2012, November 19). Three Reasons Why Americans Ignore Gifted Children.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201209/three-reasons-why-americans-ignore-gifted-children.
Wai, J. (2012, August 26). Three Reasons Why Schools Neglect Spatial Intelligence.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201208/three-reasons-why-schools-neglect-spatial-intelligence.
Wai, J. (2014, September 2). Three Ways We Can All Become Better Teachers.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201409/three-ways-we-can-all-become-better-teachers.
Wai, J. (2014, March 20). Training Your Brain with a Simple New Game.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201403/train-your-brain-simple-new-game-three-words.
Wai, J. (2011, July 18). Wanna Be A Billionaire So Freakin’ Bad?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201107/wanna-be-billionaire-so-freakin-bad.
Wai, J. (2013, January 7). Want to Be More Productive? Make Decisions Use “The Meter”.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201301/want-be-more-productive-make-decisions-using-the-meter.
Wai, J. (2014, January 13). Want to Get Smarter? Read Something on This List. Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201401/want-get-smarter-read-something-list.
Wai, J. (2011, November 20). Was Steve Jobs On The Same Level As Einstein Or Ghandi?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201111/was-steve-jobs-the-same-level-einstein-or-gandhi.
Wai, J. (2011, November 7). Was Steve Jobs Smart? Heck Yes!. Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201111/was-steve-jobs-smart-heck-yes.
Wai, J. (2013, December 27). We Are Not Smart As We Think.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201312/we-are-not-smart-we-think.
Wai, J. (2013, November 13). We Have Entered the Gold Age of Visual Storytelling.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201311/we-have-entered-the-golden-age-visual-storytelling.
Wai, J. (2013, April 29). We Have the Grammar Police, Why Not The Math Police?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201304/we-have-the-grammar-police-why-not-the-math-police.
Wai, J. (2014, April 13). We need to Value Spatial Creativity.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201404/we-need-value-spatial-creativity.
Wai, J. (2011, March 18). What Can Happen When The Majority Becomes The Minority?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201103/what-can-happen-when-the-majority-becomes-the-minority.
Wai, J. (in press).What does it mean to be an expert? [For special issue, Acquiring expertise: Ability, practice, and other influences].
Wai, J. (2012, August 13). What If Steve Jobs Had Lived Over 100 Years?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201207/what-if-steve-jobs-had-lived-over-100-years.
Wai, J. (2014, September 9). What Your Social Media Use Says About You.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201409/what-your-social-media-use-says-about-you.
Wai, J. (2013, December 3). What’s the Smartest Country In the World?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201312/whats-the-smartest-country-in-the-world.
Wai, J. (2014, May 12). When Can You Trust the Experts?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201405/when-can-you-trust-the-experts.
Wai, J. (2014, February 3). Where Can Smart People Have the Greatest Impact?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201402/where-can-smart-people-have-the-greatest-impactt.
Wai, J. (2012, May 27). Who Is The Mental Equivalent of Usain Bolt?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201205/who-is-the-mental-equivalent-usain-bolt.
Wai, J. (2013, November 4). Who’s Smarter? Republicans and Democrats in Congress. Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201311/who-s-smarter-republicans-and-democrats-in-congress.
Wai, J. (2012, April 18). Why Are The Children of Immigrants Becoming Immigrants?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201204/why-are-the-children-immigrants-becoming-immigrants.
Wai, J. (2011, July 1). Why Are There Not More STEM Majors?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201307/why-are-there-not-more-stem-majors.
Wai, J. (2012, May 6). Why Are We so Obsessed With Improving IQ?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201205/why-are-we-so-obsessed-improving-iq.
Wai, J. (2012, July 3). Why Brains Are More Important Than Billions.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201207/why-brains-are-more-important-billions.
Wai, J. (2012, March 11). Why Don’t We Value Spatial Intelligence?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201203/why-dont-we-value-spatial-intelligence.
Wai, J. (2012, April 2). Why Is It Socially Acceptable To Be Bad At Math?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201203/why-is-it-socially-acceptable-be-bad-math.
Wai, J. (2013, October 8). Why Life Is Really the Ultimate IQ Test.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201310/why-life-is-really-the-ultimate-iq-test.
Wai, J. (2014, March 7). Why the SAT Needs to Be Harder.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201403/why-the-sat-needs-be-harder.
Wai, J. (2011, March 1). Will We Ever Find The Next Einstein?.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201103/will-we-ever-find-the-next-einstein.
Wai, J. (2012, September 2). Why What You Post On Facebook Is Not Who You Really Are.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201209/why-what-you-post-facebook-is-not-really-who-you-are.
Wai, J. (2012, February 27). Your Smartphone Might Be Making You Smarter.Psychology Today: Finding the Next Einstein. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201202/your-smartphone-might-be-making-you-smarter.
Wai, J., Cacchio, M., Putallaz, M., & Makel, M. C. (2010). Sex differences in the right tail of cognitive abilities: A 30-year examination. Intelligence, 38,412-423.
Wai, J., Lubinski, D., & Benbow, C. P. (2005). Creativity and occupational accomplishments among intellectually precocious youths: An age 13 to age 33 longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97,484-492.
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Wai, J., Lubinski, D., Benbow, C. P., & Steiger, J. H. (2010). Accomplishment in science technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and its relation to STEM educational dose: A 25-year longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102,860-871.
Wai, J. & Nisen, M. (2013, October 23). The 25 Countries With The Most Brainpower.Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/countries-with-the-most-brainpower-2013-10.
Wai, J. & Nisel, M. (2014, January 23). The Best Business Schools Based On GMAT Scores. Retrieved from http://qz.com/169771/the-best-business-schools-based-on-gmat-scores/.
Wai, J., & Putallaz, M. (in press). The Flynn effect puzzle: A 30-year examination from the right tail of the ability distribution provides some missing pieces. Intelligence.
Wai, J., Putallaz, M., & Makel, M. C. (2012). Studying intellectual outliers: Are there sex differences, and are the smart getting smarter?Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21,382-390

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2023-01-28

Dr. Jonathan Wai: Research Scientist, Talent Identification Program, Duke University & Case Western Reserve University (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/09/08

ABSTRACT

Part two of a three-part in-depth, broad interview with Research Scientist, Dr. Jonathan Wai, of the Talent Identification Program, Duke University, and Case Western Reserve University. He discusses the following subject-matter: Tom Vander Ark in The Educational World Is Flat (2012), an interview between Marilyn vos Savant and Harold Channer in 1986, and specialists and generalists; Salman Khan and the Khan Academy, Einstein’s Ideas and Opinions (1960), and universality of English; risks of rote learning with Khan Academy, asian educational systems, and Bill Gates; flourishing of the gifted population with focus on the young; myths of the gifted population; responsibilities of the gifted population to society and culture; near and far future of the gifted population; The SAT Is Too Easy (2012) and a higher SAT ceiling; Karl Bates, The Art Of Communicating Science (2013), and C.P. Snow; and Project Scientist: Inspiring The Next Generation Of Females (2013), women in STEM, business, and leadership, and the example of Japan.

Keywords: Bill Gates, C.P. Snow, Canada, Einstein, English, Flynn, Gifted Population, Google, Harold Channer, Japan, Karl Bates, Khan Academy, Marilyn vos Savant, Salman Khan, STEM, Talented Youth, Tom Vander Ark, U.S.

11. One of the items most striking to me came from an interview with Tom Vander Ark entitled The Educational World Is Flat (2012), “In America we appear to have a strong emphasis on being well rounded. Einstein was someone who focused on subjects that he was interested in and tended to ignore subjects that he didn’t care much about.” It reminded me of an interview by Harold Channer with Marilyn vos Savant (1986). In it, she says, “…What I call a misguided effort to be well-rounded. Why not let one person go and become another Einstein in his or her field? It doesn’t have to be something as impressive as physics. There are all kinds of things. But in this effort to make a well-rounded individual, we sort of turn them all off to everything, give them things too early.” It seems further reason to consider catering to the most talented. What do you think of specialists and generalists? How might the US alter the educational streams for the gifted to allow to more specialization in an area of sole interest?

Today there is so much knowledge that specialization is almost a necessity. I think, at least in the U.S., the value of being well rounded comes from parents who want their children to be happy in every sense. Parents want their kids to fit in and be accepted by society. Not being well rounded means you are more of an outlier, and especially if you are a social outlier, you have less chance of being accepted. But this is always an issue for people who go on to become great. Oftentimes the path to greatness is quite lonely because you are going where nobody else has gone before. I think a general education is necessary, for example being familiar with history as Flynn pointed out earlier. But if a student knows what they want to do at an early age and wishes to specialize, I think we should let them do that and not hold them back.

12. You have had interviews and articles on the use of modern technology such as computers and software to design, and upgrade, education. Even though, Salman Khan in one interview with you discusses the changes brought on through a decent online educational system called Khan Academy, which, of course, he founded and operates. However, I see the foundational change to much of the educational world for the 21^st century arising from one area, even though mathematics counts as a universal language. The international language seems quite strongly English. Relevant, to me at any rate, I remember reading the opening piece of Einstein’s Ideas and Opinions (1960), which I found once more for this, and he says, “As late as the seventeenth century the savants and artists of all Europe were so closely united by the bond of a common ideal that cooperation between them was scarcely affected by political events. This unity was further strengthened by the general use of the Latin language.” [Italics added] The increasing universality of the English language, in my opinion, will likely improve the educational level of the world. In this sense, organizations such as Khan Academy appear to be ‘piggybacking’ on the phenomenon of increased universality of a common working-language, namely: English – partially eliminating our literal, global ‘Tower of Babel’. What do you think?

This is an interesting idea, and perhaps a uniform language is helpful for learning everywhere. I think what online learning has done is provided educational access to anyone anywhere in the world who has a computer, an internet connection, and the freedom to find the information they want. Without question this should allow talented students from around the world have the opportunity to interact with one another and innovate together.

13. In the articles How Khan Academy Can Help Find The Next Einstein (2012) and Five Lessons From Salman Khan For Education (2012), you discuss concerns about how Khan Academy may be “enabling rote learning.” This is a common criticism of Asian educational systems. Yet in academic international comparisons, those Asian nations are outperforming America, particularly in math and science. Bill Gates has said, as you quote in If You Are Creative, Are You Also Intelligent? (2011), “You need to understand things in order to invent beyond them.” Do you have thoughts on this criticism? How about ways to increase understanding and inventiveness?

I think Gates said it well already. You have to have something in your brain before you can innovate. Oftentimes rote learning just means you repeat it enough times until you have a concept always ready at your mind’s fingertips. Today we have Google, which means every bit of information is available online. However, innovation often comes from the synthesis or reorganization of existing knowledge in a novel or creative pattern or extension, and so to have many things memorized can be quite important, depending upon the context.

14. You share a concern of mine. In particular, the sincere desire to assist the gifted population in flourishing, especially the young. Now, many organizations provide for the needs of the moderately gifted ability sectors of the general population, most often adults and sometimes children. However, few provide for the needs of children (and adults) in the high, profound, exceptional, or ‘unmeasurable’ ability sectors of the general population. Some organizations and societies provide forums, retreats, journals, intelligence tests, literature, or outlets for the highest ability sub-populations. What can individuals, organizations, and societies do to provide for the gifted population? What argument most convinces you of the need to provide for this sector of society?

There are two main reasons to invest in talented people. The first is that by investing in them we help them fulfill their potential and live rewarding and meaningful lives. The second is that by investing in them we are actually investing in our own future—that is, talented people invent a disproportionate share of things that benefit all of us. The first reason should be enough, but today in the U.S. it is not.

15. Of the gifted population, there exist many myths. What do you consider the greatest of these? What truths dispel them?

Actually, one of the largest myths I encounter is that talented people tend to have a lot of problems (e.g. social). However, longitudinal studies on talented students, such as the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth, have shown that talented kids end up as well adjusted and quite successful adults who have families and friends just like everyone else. Perhaps the stereotype of the nerd as being socially inept is comforting to many people, for whatever reason.

16. In turn, what responsibilities do the gifted population have towards society and culture? Why do you think this?

I believe that each person should have the freedom to choose what they want in life and be responsible for themselves and their actions. They should try to be at least a net zero and preferably a net positive on society. However, talented people in general have been given a head start in life, and therefore my hope is that they would fully recognize this, be responsible with their decisions that impact many others, and be wise stewards of their talents. For their personal well-being, I would hope they would not waste the head start they have been given in life.

17. Where do you see the future of the gifted population in relation to society? What about the near and far future of the gifted population in general?

Talented people have always been and will always be important in society. In the book Human Accomplishment (2003), we see the many amazing things that have been created largely by the gifted population. I hope that society would place value on talented people, not for being talented, but for using their talent and working hard to create something that is helpful or beneficial to all of us.

18. You note one large, and mostly unstated, problem directly with the article The SAT Is Too Easy (2012). For instance, you raise the issue of the current SAT’s lack of ability to distinguish among the top candidates in the US. Why not coordinate with high-ceiling test constructors to measure 4.5 and 5 SD above the norm with the SAT?

As I mentioned earlier, the better solution is either to use the SAT as it exists at an earlier age, or actually bring out the original SAT, which had a much higher ceiling. Basically the idea would be to use an existing test with established reliability and validity.

19. Of the articles and interviews published, I consider the interview with Karl Bates, entitled The Art Of Communicating Science (2013), the single most important article from your blog posts. You cut to the heart of the issue of culture and the split described by C.P. Snow with the sciences on the one side and the humanities on the other – and never the twain shall meet. We can talk about science. We can talk about intelligence and creativity. Regardless, without attention to understanding the separate streams of English language used in each major side, as set out by C.P. Snow, the other stuff seems secondary, even tertiary, to me. Most cutting about the interview, I find, is the concision and pragmatic nature of the responses by both of you at the end of the publication. Do you have any expansions on the topics discussed therein?

Thank you. I think scientists and journalists don’t communicate as often as they should, probably in part because these groups have very different incentive and reward structures. However, the problem to a large extent lies with academics who don’t understand that the rest of the world operates similarly to the journalistic world. It is the academic world which is very much in an ivory tower. A lot of different fields or disciplines, if they actually took the time to meaningfully interact, would come away with not only a greater appreciation for other disciplines, but also could improve upon their own craft.

20. In your article Project Scientist: Inspiring The Next Generation Of Females (2013), I felt thrilled reading it. More have begun to discuss these issues. If we exclude one half of the talent pool, North America loses out. Provided the possibility of easier international travel, talented women with interest in STEM, business, and leadership fields in general will, in my opinion, likely travel to other areas with the opportunities. For instance, this appears in Japan, where many of the talented, wealthy, and highly-educated Japanese women have begun to work against cultural and institutional structures to provide more fair opportunities for themselves. Especially the increased possibilities of self-empowerment of these women, they choose to do it. At least from my vantage, from the cost-benefit analysis of a talented and well-educated Japanese woman, travelling to a new place with better possibilities of equal opportunity compared to having to change a well-entrenched cultural and institutional foundation in Japanese society seems like a far better and more immediate solution. Looking at our own societies, how can we empower women here-and-now in the US and Canada?

I agree that we need to empower women all around the world. More importantly, I think we need to empower both women and men in various disciplines where they are typically underrepresented. I also think we need to focus on helping empower the individual regardless of their color or their gender. In the end, it is not about what people look like, but about who they are as an individual. We need to respect individual differences.

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2023-01-28

Dr. Jonathan Wai: Research Scientist, Talent Identification Program, Duke University & Case Western Reserve University (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/09/01

ABSTRACT

Part one of a three-part in-depth, broad interview with Research Scientist, Dr. Jonathan Wai, of the Talent Identification Program, Duke University, and Case Western Reserve University. He discusses the following subject-matter: family background regarding culture, geography, and language; development; universalizing intelligence testing with non-verbal tests; commentary on new global increases in flourishing with a focus on India and Mainland China, and an example of Mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan; Finding The Next Einstein; Who’s Smarter? Republicans and Democrats in Congress (2013), and the top 1% of the ability spectrum based on extremely high standardized test scores for admissions to highly selective undergraduate and graduate institutions; Why the SAT Needs to Be Harder (2014)’; Could We Create Another Einstein? (2012), and serving those with intellectual and creative talent; Even Nerds Need to be Appropriately Challenged (2014), and focus on average and below-average students with consequential neglect on the talented sector of the young; interview with Dr. James Flynn called Can The Magic of Great Literature Take You Around The World? (2011), and problem with a-historicity of incoming students.

Keywords: ‘g’, Arthur Jensen, Bellingham, Case Western Reserve University,communists, Dr. James Flynn, Dr. Jonathan Wai, Duke University,engineering, G. H. Hardy, Hong Kong, IQ Tests, Mathematician, Mega Test, physics, Robert Kanigel, Shanghai, Srinivasa Ramanujan,Talent Identification Program, Titan Test, Washington.

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside? How do you find this influencing your development?

My father was born in Hong Kong. My mother was born in Shanghai. They met as graduate students in the U.S. They were educated in engineering and physics, respectively, so they valued these disciplines, and education, quite highly. My mother would often tell me the story of her father, who was wealthy before the communists came, took away everything, and sent him to jail for being a capitalist. My grandfather, at age 50, would start over again in Hong Kong with next to nothing, and become a successful entrepreneur all over again. The idea that someone with brains and hard work can rise from anywhere is something I heard of often when growing up, because it was my grandfather’s story. It was also my parent’s story.

2. How did you find developing from childhood through adolescence into young adulthood?

I was born and raised in Bellingham, Washington and enjoyed both academics as well as sports. I played just about every sport growing up, focusing on soccer and tennis at a competitive level. Probably one academic activity I have always enjoyed is reading. I remember going every week to the public library to check out piles of books as a kid. Today, I am fortunate that as a researcher and writer reading is a part of my job. I get up every day and have the opportunity to read, think, and create. I have never stopped reading.

3. In terms of universalizing the testing of intelligence, what do you see in the future for high-range non-verbal tests? How will this change general intelligence testing and the identification of gifted individuals?

In college, I spent some time solving puzzles, which I have always enjoyed. Exploring puzzles online led me to what one might call “high-range tests” or basically extremely difficult puzzles that you could take as much time as you wanted to solve. I spent some time solving these puzzles, which were designed to be IQ tests with greater headroom, and met a lot of interesting people from around the world who also enjoyed creating and solving such puzzles. I don’t know if this will ever be standard practice for intelligence testing, because most people don’t have the free time to take an extremely difficult untimed puzzle solving challenge than can span weeks, months, or even longer. I don’t know what the future of intelligence testing will hold, but see Arthur Jensen’s Clocking The Mind for a vision of intelligence testing that is based on reaction time, nearly the opposite of an untimed puzzle test.

4. For those having the talent, but lacking the opportunity – especially in India and Mainland China, what of those hundreds of millions of people having increasing standards of living and the educational opportunities to take advantage of natural talent for further flourishing? On the one hand, the increased access for personal and global gain of utilizing the best human talent in international contexts. On the other hand, the allowance – based on technological innovations and increased standards of living – of presenting the real possibility for human flourishing at all levels, i.e. the potential for a global renaissance of the human spirit in, at a minimum, intellectual terms. How do you see identification in the long-term for the high-end (4/5/6 standard deviations, or SD, above the norm)? What of ‘g’ tests for those ranges above the relatively high ceiling of the Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM)?

One of the greatest stories of talent from a poor background was that of the Indian Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, which I first read about in the great science writer Robert Kanigel’s The Man Who Knew Infinity. However, in Ramanujan’s case, he was still “discovered” by G. H. Hardy, yet there are likely a number of people with similar potential who did not end up flourishing. One of the most systematic and cost effective ways to identify talent is to make sure that all students are first given an opportunity for a good education, but also that they are tested. Although testing is viewed as favoring wealthy students, in fact testing is entirely objective in the sense that the test does not know or care what you look like, how much money you or your parents have, and will measure with high reliability and validity your degree of competence and what you are ready for educationally.

5. While reading through all of your Finding The Next Einstein and academic work to date, I noticed the common themes of creativity, intelligence – naturally, and critiques of the gifted world – especially regarding assistance to the gifted. Why did you begin writing this series of articles? Where did your interest in the topic originate?

I am a nerd. I have a soft spot for nerds. I have also always recognized that there is wide variation in brainpower, creativity, and problem solving ability. I always enjoyed reading biographies of great people because I tried to learn how they solved problems and overcame difficulties, both personal and professional. How did these people become successful? Although there are many factors at work, including many years of hard work, the role of creative brainpower intrigued me. I also enjoy the craft of writing, and decided I would start trying to educate the public about my areas of expertise and maybe even help some talented kids.

6. Of particular note in your article Who’s Smarter? Republicans and Democrats in Congress (2013), though a small point from a relatively short piece, you provide a bar graph of those in various fields sufficing to qualify for the top 1% of the ability spectrum based on requiring extremely high standardized test scores for admissions to highly selective, and ‘elite’, undergraduate and graduate institutions. What did you find?

This bar graph was taken from my research article Investigating America’s Elite. Basically I found that among Fortune 500 CEOs, billionaires, federal judges, Senators, and House members, a larger portion of each of these groups were in the top 1% of cognitive ability. This shows that the U.S. elite are largely drawn from the cognitive elite. Also, a lot of really smart and motivated people end up attending the very top schools in the U.S.

7. You wrote an article on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) entitled Why the SAT Needs to Be Harder (2014). In short, it does not discriminate the highest levels of ability well-enough. There exist many tests with 4+ standard deviation (SD) ceilings within many societies, e.g. the Mega Society’s (one-in-a-million cutoff) Titan Test or Mega Test. What about coordinating with those involved in the construction of tests at the high-range to develop SAT-style questions to probe the ultra-high range of 4 and 5 sigma? Or to the prior point, what about constructing a non-verbal/’culture fair’ test with high ceiling at 4.5 or 5 SD?

This is an intriguing idea. Although I enjoy high range tests and puzzles, I’m not entirely sure what constructs they measure. One solution to the problem you describe is to use a test such as the SAT designed for the average 17-year-old on a talented student at a much younger age. This provides sufficient headroom for the talented student and also gives the benefit of reliability and validity in a timed setting.

8. You close the excellent article, Could We Create Another Einstein? (2012), with “Overall, Creating Innovators is an important book because it emphasizes developing the talent of students who are essential to the future of America and profiles some extremely bright minds and their parents, teachers, and mentors to provide some insights into ways to develop intellectual and creative talent.” How can we best serve those of exceptional intellectual and creative talent?

The key, really, is to make sure that all students are intellectually stimulated each day and are learning something new. Another way I think we can serve talented students is to help them become challenged early and in many areas so they might develop a sense of humility and understand what it means to fail. Many of these students end up in leadership positions in society where they make decisions that impact people of various levels of ability, including people who are very different from them. So they need to be wise and humble in addition to being smart.

9. I felt struck by a statement in Even Nerds Need to be Appropriately Challenged (2014), “A majority of Americans believe in equity rather than excellence.” It seems to argue for a pervasive cultural value of mediocrity based on disadvantaging the talented for the sake of equity with the average and below-average. What do you think? Would you change this cultural value? If so, how would you restructure the educational funding based on the changes to the cultural value?

For whatever reason, in the U.S. today the culture places a primary value on helping below average and average students. I think we should definitely help these students, but also not forget about challenging talented students.

10. You conducted an interview with Dr. James Flynn called Can The Magic of Great Literature Take You Around The World? (2011). In it, he states, “Anyone who is a-historical lacks autonomy. They live in the bubble of the present that is defined for them by their government and the media. They have no accumulated knowledge that allows them to criticize what they are told.” How would you remedy this problem with the incoming generations of students?

There is tendency in each new generation to want to create something new, to distinguish itself from past generations. And it is true that the young often will find new ways of innovating that will bring us ideas and things that we never dreamed of. However, an understanding and appreciation of the past is important especially for students who end up rising to positions of leadership in society, because there are many patterns in history that can teach new generations about what has already been done so that they don’t repeat those patterns, or at least understand the patterns they see around them in society, which seem to arise often. The solution is that students should have a deep appreciation for and education in history, but also not be constrained by that history in a way that prevents them from innovating in an entirely different manner.

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2023-01-28

Dr. & Fr. George V. Coyne, S.J.: McDevitt Chair of Religious Philosophy, Le Moyne College

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/08/22

ABSTRACT

In this thorough and broad interview with Dr. & Fr. George V. Coyne, S.J., he discusses the following: youth, upbringing, and pivotal moments in his life; attraction to the Roman Catholic Faith from a young age; broad educational background in theology and science; thoughts on the Jesuits and the merger of scientific and theology knowledge; comments on the 1997 essay by the late Dr. Stephen Jay Gould, Non-Overlapping Magisteria; the purpose of science and theology, and the responsibility of scientists and theologians to contributing to society and culture; desired hypothetical research; falsehoods and truths surrounding the Catholic faith; and the future of the Roman Catholic faith in the middle and latter portions of this century.

Keywords: Catholic, Catholicism, culture, Dr. & Fr. George V. Coyne, Dr. Stephen Jay Gould, Jesuits, non-overlapping magisteria, Science, scientist, society, theologian, Theology.

1. How was your youth? How did you come to this point? What do you consider the earliest pivotal moment in your life-trajectory?

I had a very happy youth as the third oldest of 8 siblings growing up in a traditional and devout Catholic family. I attended Catholic elementary schools and a Jesuit High School, Loyola High School (LHS) Blakefield (Baltimore, MD). A religious nun who taught me in the 7^th and 8^th years of elementary school insisted that I take the entrance exam to LHS and she prepared me to do that by instructing me every Saturday afternoon for two months. No Saturday afternoon baseball or basketball for me! She happened to have the entrance exams for the past twenty years and they were the basis for my instruction. Needless to say, since there are only so many new questions one can ask, my drill master taught me to answer questions even before I was asked. Through dint of memory – and not intelligence – I won a full scholarship and my attendance at LHS proved to be a defining experience for my whole life.

Iwas taught by many young Jesuits at LHS and grew to admire their lives, especially two aspects: their total dedication to working for others and their obvious happiness at living together in a religious community. The common expression for a Jesuit is “Men for Others.” At graduation from high school, I entered the Jesuit seminary. During my first year of studies in Latin and Greek literature, after two years of novitiate, I had the good fortune of being instructed by a Jesuit priest who, in addition to having a PhD in the classical languages, also had a MS in mathematics and an educated interest in astronomy. He noted my interest in astronomy and encouraged me to nurture that interest. His dedicated and passionate tutoring determined all of my future professional life.

2. Early in your life, what attracted you to the Roman Catholic Church and Faith?

I never had any serious doubts about my faith. I consider that faith has been a gift of God to me through my family and later on through my associates.

3. You joined the ‘Jesuits in 1951, earned a B.S. in Mathematics and your licentiate in philosophy from Fordham University in 1958, a Ph.D. in astronomy in 1962 from Georgetown University, and finally the licentiate in sacred theology from Woodstock College in 1965 upon ordination as a Roman Catholic Priest.’ How have you found this scientific and theological background of value?

Through all of that alternation among philosophy, theology and science I found it to be a joyful experience to seek to integrate my growing knowledge of all of them while not yielding to the temptation to confuse one for the other. Let me explain by this excerpt of what I have written elsewhere:

The general background to the topic I wish to address is to what extent religious thought can make a contribution to our scientific understanding of the origins and evolution of life in the universe derived from astrophysics and cosmology. And, on the other hand, to what extent can what we know from science about life influence our religious attitudes. This twofold question poses the serious risk of transgressing upon the epistemological independence of the various disciplines: theology, philosophy, astrophysics and cosmology, and creating, thereby, more confusion than understanding. As the discussion proceeds we must maintain a consistent posture of preserving the integrity of each of the disciplines.

Too often discussions of the relationship between science and religion are carried out in very general terms. Such discourse can be quite unfruitful for two reasons: (1) As compared to the natural sciences religion contains a larger measure of the subjective, of human experiences not totally verifiable by objective reasons. Such subjective experiences are not, of course, limited to religion. They are present in many areas of our lives. Nor need these experiences, religious or otherwise, necessarily conflict with reason. They simply are not limited to rational explanation. They go beyond what can be rationally justified. (2) While for the natural sciences we have a rather acceptable idea of what we mean by science, the very notion of religion is ill-defined. Does it mean worship? Does it mean being a “good person”? Does it mean accepting certain moral dictates that go beyond what is commonly accepted as good and bad? Does it mean accepting those dictates out of personal conviction or out of loyalty to a certain tradition? Does it mean believing in certain doctrines? Does it mean accepting a certain authoritative and hierarchical structure, i.e. being affiliated with a certain Church? To most of us religion would imply more of an affirmative than a negative answer to all of the above. And yet the situation is further complicated by the multiplicity of religions which differ among themselves, have even warred among themselves, over the responses given to such questions as the above. Even today, if we look at some of the main religious traditions: Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, etc., we see not only vast differences among them, but enormous divisions within any one of the traditions.

The only way, therefore, that dialogue as a rational experience can take place is that, on the part of religion, the dialogue be limited to the rational foundations for religious belief. Even then, the only way that any such dialogue could have universal significance is that we could assume that there existed common rational foundations across all religious traditions and that is simply not the case. It seems, therefore, that any fruitful dialogue requires that the rational basis for certain specific religious beliefs in certain specific religious traditions be confronted with what is known from the natural sciences. The natural sciences, in particular, have made great advances by adhering rigidly to canons of what is scientifically true. In fact, in recent years the norms for judging the scientific truth of a given theory of life’s origins and evolution have been extended, it appears to me, in the direction of inviting dialogue with philosophy and theology. (Destiny of Life and Religious Attitudes, G.V. Coyne, in Life as We Know It, ed. J. Seckbach (Dordrecht: Springer Science 2005) 521-535, page 521 Introduction.

4. You stand amid the rare and rarefied class of Roman Catholic figures entitled ‘Cleric-Scientists’. What role do your fellows throughout Roman Catholic history play in the development of the definitions and integration of science and faith? In particular, the merger of both Catholic theology and scientific knowledge?

I must limit myself to speaking of the Jesuits (Society of Jesus) so as to make a manageable response. Here are a few reflections from some of my unpublished writings:

The presence of Jesuits in different fields of the natural sciences is an interesting phenomenon that has attracted academic and general attention and can be found in the literature. Jesuits are popularly known as religious persons who are involved in scientific work and they appear as such in some science fiction novels. A few years after its founding in 1540 by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the Society of Jesus undertook its educational endeavor as the key instrument of its apostolic work. From the beginning, as a novelty for the time, a special attention was given in the first colleges to the teaching of mathematics and astronomy. This coincided with the origins of modern science and Jesuit professors were in contact with many of its key figures, such as Galileo, Kepler, Huygens and Newton. Jesuit missionaries introduced European mathematics and astronomy to China and India, made the first maps of the unknown regions of America, Asia and Africa, and brought to Europe the first news about the geography, animals and plants of those lands.

The presence of Jesuits in science has continued throughout their long history. In addition to a very pragmatic motivation, the basic foundation for such work is to be found in Ignatian spirituality. The core of this spirituality lies in the emphasis on finding God in all things, the union of prayer and work, the search for what leads to the greater glory of God, and the preference for work “on the frontiers”. This has often involved Jesuits in unconventional activities and situations, including scientific research. Jesuit scientists, who have reflected on their work, acknowledge this special affinity between the scientific vocation and their spirituality and are aware of the difficulty in combining this vocation with that of a Jesuit, of being at the same time priests and scientists. To conclude, the Jesuit scientific tradition, in spite of all the problems encountered during its long history, is still alive and serves as a special characteristic in the Catholic Church.

A view of the evolutionary universe and of our place in it, as the sciences see it, and of God’s role in the universe, derived from the reflections of a religious believer upon that same science, may help us in a further understanding of Jesuit mission. We, in a special way, share in the creativity which God desired the universe to have. We are co-creators in God’s continuous creation of the universe. The Jesuit identity expressed by St. Ignatius’ vision of Jesuits as contemplatives in action is reinforced by our reflections on the nature of the universe. Co-creators in the universe can only realize their mission if they are constantly united to God, the source of all creativity. Jesuit identity is much more than what Jesuits and their partners do. It is bound intimately to the very nature of the universe which drives us as co-creators to the serve others in union with the Creator.

Ignatian mission is a participation in the intrinsically missionary nature of the Church, the concrete presence of the Creator among his co-creators. God is continually encountering the world in new and creative ways because the world he created is responsive to his continual encounter. Ignatius sent his men into that world and sought to free them of any encumbrance to a free and total commitment to the world in whatever way their talents would best serve the Church. And their mission was to evolve just as the universe itself is in evolution. But for any individual Jesuit, Jesuit partner or Jesuit institution the evolution of mission must be in consort with the intrinsically missionary Church. The wisdom of God in emptying himself to create a world which shares in his creativity requires that, since God is the one God of all creation, such participation in his creativity must be universal. It cannot favor any particular social, cultural, religious movement. While to function any given mission must be limited, it cannot be exclusive.

5. In a 1997 essay Non-Overlapping Magisteria by the late Dr. Stephen Jay Gould, he re-defined the standard notion of tension between science and theology as not having any real area of conflict. Dr. Richard Dawkins critiqued Dr. Gould’s synthesizing view based on arguments against the ability of the separation of religious and scientific matters. How do you view these matters? What do you consider the appropriate stance towards scientific and theological knowledge?

There is always a serious risk of transgressing upon the epistemological independence of the various disciplines: theology, philosophy, astrophysics, biology and cosmology, and creating, thereby, more confusion than understanding. It is, therefore, necessary to maintain a consistent posture of preserving the integrity of each of the disciplines, especially that between the natural sciences and theology. As compared to the natural sciences religion contains a larger measure of the subjective, of human experiences not totally verifiable by objective reasons. Such subjective experiences are not, of course, limited to religion. They are present in many areas of our lives. Nor need these experiences, religious or otherwise, necessarily conflict with reason. They simply are not limited to rational explanation. They go beyond what can be rationally justified.

In the natural sciences there are a number of criteria whereby an explanation is judged to be best. (See the response to number 6 below.) I suggest that one of those criteria is unifying explanatory power; i.e. not only are the observations at hand explained scientifically but the attempt to understand is also in harmony with all else that we know, even with that which we know outside of the natural sciences.

This last criterion is significant, since it appears to extend the semantics of the natural sciences towards the realm of other disciplines, especially to theology and Christian faith. Put in very simple terms this criterion is nothing else than a call for the unification of our knowledge. One could hardly be opposed to that. The problem arises with the application of this criterion. When is the unification not truly unifying but rather an adulteration of knowledge obtained by one discipline with the presuppositions inherent in another discipline. History is full of examples of such adulterations. It is for this reason that scientists have always hesitated to make use of this criterion. And yet, if applied cautiously, it could be a very creative one for the advancement of our knowledge and, therefore, of our faith.

The supposition is that there is a universal basis for our understanding and, since that basis cannot be self-contradictory, the understanding we have from one discipline should complement that which we have from all other disciplines. One is most faithful to one’s own discipline, be it the natural sciences, the social sciences, philosophy, literature, theology, etc., if one accepts this universal basis. This means in practice that, while remaining faithful to the strict truth criteria of one’s own discipline, we are open to accept the truth value of the conclusions of other disciplines. And this acceptance must not only be passive, in the sense that we do not deny those conclusions, but also active, in the sense that we integrate those conclusions into the conclusions derived from one’s own proper discipline. This, of course, does not mean that there will be no conflict, even contradictions, between conclusions reached by various disciplines. But if one truly accepts the universal basis I have spoken of above, then those conflicts and contradictions must be seen as temporary and apparent. They themselves can serve as a spur to further knowledge, since the attempt to resolve the differences will undoubtedly bring us to a richer unified understanding.

6. What do you consider the purpose of theology? What do you consider the purpose of science? More importantly, what role do theologians and scientists play in shaping, defining, and contributing to society and culture through working in their fields?

Theology is the search for a rational understanding of religious faith. It is, therefore, a science, but not a natural science. The classical definition of theology is “fides quaerens intellectum” (faith in search of understanding). However, religion, the very object of theology’s search, is ill-defined. Does it mean worship? Does it mean being a “good person”? Does it mean accepting certain moral dictates that go beyond what is commonly accepted as good and bad? Does it mean accepting those dictates out of personal conviction or out of loyalty to a certain tradition? Does it mean believing in certain doctrines? Does it mean accepting a certain authoritative and hierarchical structure, i.e. being affiliated with a certain Church? To most of us religion would imply more of an affirmative than a negative answer to all of the above. And yet the situation is further complicated by the multiplicity of religions which differ among themselves, have even warred among themselves, over the responses given to such questions as the above. Even today, if we look at some of the main religious traditions: Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, etc., we see not only vast differences among them, but enormous divisions within any one of the traditions.

As to the natural sciences, skeptics, dubious of ever being able to find a widely accepted definition of science, say that science is what scientists do. The element of truth in this statement is that science is not a univocal concept. It varies from one discipline to another, even, for instance, among the so-called hard sciences. But there is also sufficient commonality among them that the name “science” can be legitimately given to each analogically. Scientists begin with controlled data, that is, data which any other trained professional could independently verify. The observed data is used to develop a model which best explains the data. The movement from observations to models is a continuously reciprocal process. The best model is used to determine what further observations must be made. The model is then revised with the new observations, etc. There is a constant going back and forth from observations to the model to the observations. It is important to note that in the very nature of this process of reciprocity there is an implicit acknowledgement that we do not possess the truth. The expectation is, however, is that we are continually approaching the truth.

How do we judge what is the best scientific model? There are a number of criteria whereby an explanation is judged to be best. A list of the principal criteria would include the following: (1) verifiability, i.e., there is, at least in principle, a way of judging whether the explanation fits the data; (2) predictability, i.e., from data on past or present events it is possible to predict future events and then observe to see that the future events actually occur; (3) simplicity or economy, i.e., the least assumptions are made to get the greatest explanatory power; (4) beauty, i.e., the explanation has an aesthetic quality about it; although, especially for the natural sciences, this may appear to be a very subjective criterion, almost all great scientific discoveries have benefited from its application; (5) unifying explanatory power; i.e. not only are the observations at hand explained but the attempt to understand is also in harmony with all else that we know, even with that which we know outside of the natural sciences. (See the response to number 5 above.)

7. If you could have one question answered through a massive research project, what would you want answered?

The nature of dark matter and of dark energy.

8. One common mischaracterization, as you have noted, about the Catholic Church comes from viewing it as a monolith, especially in theological, intellectual, and scriptural thought. Regarding falsehoods about the Catholic Church, what few stand atop the list of those falsehoods? What truths dispel them?

By many the Catholic Church is seen as primarily hierarchical, an organizational structure: Pope, Vatican Congregations, Diocesan bishops, national conferences of bishops. The Church is clearly that but not primarily that. The Church is God’s people on pilgrimage. The popular phrase is: “We are the Church.” The hierarchical structure is at the service of God’s people, as Pope Francis continues to emphasize and as, based on a solid Scriptural tradition, was so declared in very clear terms by Vatican Council II.

One is judged as a “good” Catholic by one’s adherence to doctrinal and moral statements of the hierarchy and putting them into practice. Again, that is quite important but not primary. Primary is accepting God’s love for us, received in a community, and spreading that love as far as we can, beginning here and now.

9. Regarding the foundational claims of the Catholic Church such as the existence of God, the attributes of God, the moral structure of the universe, the revelations contained within the Old and New testaments, and so on, what do you consider the strongest arguments for their soundness?

Their coherence with all of human experience. See responses to numbers 5 and 6.

10. Where do you see the world of faith and science during middle and latter portions of this century? What brings you most worry for them? What brings you most hope?

Most worrisome are the divisions among the world’s Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity, not just on their beliefs but on their way of dealing among themselves.

Another worry concerns the growth of fundamentalism as most experienced by me within Christianity. We cannot, it seems, accept the richness of the Holy Scriptures for what they are.

To put it most generally, there is nothing like love and knowledge combined to sooth the troubled waters.

Bibliography

[brain3zzz] (2013, June 9). Richard Dawkins Interview with Father George Coyne (Full). Retrieved March 30, 2014 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkS1B0huWX4
[setonhall] (2012, November 28). Father George Coyne. S.J., Ph.D. – Jaki Lecture 2012. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ZdgFQGLxI.
[UniversityofCaliforniaTelevision (UCTV)] (2008, February 15). UCSD Guestbook: George Coyne the Vatican Observatory. Retrieved March 30, 2014 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHqxlj_n-nk#aid=P4p09br714A
[UniversityofCaliforniaTelevision (UCTV)] (2008, November 3). Evolution of Life in the University. Retrieved March 30, 2014 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYOR0dPZc3I
[villanoveuniversity] (2011, June 6). Children of a Fertile Universe: Chance, Destiny, and a Creator God. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzRvEGxmHAQ.
[villanoveuniversity] (2009, March 10). Dance of the Fertile God: Did God do it?. Retrieved March 29, 2014 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi0QZTgWTj4
Coyne S.J., G. V. (2013). A Theology of Everything.European Review, 21(S1), S20-S26. doi:10.1017/S1062798713000094
Coyne, G. V. (2006). In the Beginning….Science & Spirit, 17(6), 24-27.
Coyne, G. V. (2012). Defending Copernicus and Galileo: Critical Reasoning in the Two Affairs.Catholic Historical Review, 98(2), 380-381.
Coyne, G. (2010). Evolution and Intelligent Design: What Is Science and What Is Not. Revista Portuguesa De Filosofia, 66(4), 717-720.
Coyne, G. V. (2010). Galileo’s telescopic observations: the marvel and meaning of discovery. Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 6, pp 3-6. doi:10.1017/S1743921310007192.
Coyne, G. V. (2013). SCIENCE MEETS BIBLICAL EXEGESIS IN THE GALILEO AFFAIR.Zygon: Journal Of Religion & Science, 48(1), 221-229.
Coyne, G. V. (2009). Talking about and teaching evolution. Developmental Biology, 331(2), 402. doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2009.05.063
Coyne, G. V. (1999). The church’s route to enlightenment. Nature, 402(6762), 579.Coyne, G. V. (2008, January). The Evolution Debate. Physics Teacher. pp. 6-7. doi:10.1119/1.9823990.
Farber, S. A., Darnell, D. K., & Coyne, G. V. (2009). Talking about science/evolution to a fellow bus rider. Developmental Biology, 331(2), 402. doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2009.05.064

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Paul Krassner: Founder, Editor, & Contributor, The Realist

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/08/15

ABSTRACT

A brief interview with Paul Krassner, the founder, editor, and contributor to The Realist. He discusses the following topics: youth and pivotal moments in life-trajectory; early life as a violin child prodigy, influence of Lenny Bruce, and entering the world of comedy; City College of New York to major in journalism; myths of the 60s counter-culture during and up to the present day; importance of Dr. Timothy Leary and Dr. Robert Anton Wilson to the counter-culture and mainstream culture; purpose of art and the role of artists in shaping, defining, and contributing to society and culture; extraterrestrial life; the ‘Yippies’; controversial topics; Occupy Movement; and advice for youth.

Keywords: ‘Yippies’, art, child prodigy, City College of New York, contributor, counter-culture, Dr. Robert Anton Wilson, Dr. Timothy Leary, editor, founder, journalism, Lenny Bruce, Occupy Movement, Paul Krasser, The Realist, violin.

1. How was your youth? How did you come to this point? What do you consider the earliest pivotal moment in your life-trajectory?

My parents nurtured me with a sense of responsibility, honesty, thoughtfulness, healthiness and humor. I realized early on not to take things personally–that there were people who wanted to control me in some way—from my violin teacher who, when I told him I wanted to learn a certain song, said, “That’s not right for you,” to my crazy aunt who tried to kill me when I was nine years old. All in all, I felt like a Martian learning to pass as an Earthling. I became awed by the infinite coincidences that ultimately led to my existence, and enjoying that mystery has continued to this very day.

2. Early in life, you had talent for music. In particular, a gift for violin meriting the title of ‘child prodigy’. You began at age 3 and performed in Carnegie Hall at age 6. The youngest ever to perform there at the time. However, you have recounted this as a period of being ‘asleep’. Further, you have talked about the experience of having an itch in your left leg while performing a Vivaldi Concerto, scratching your left leg with your right leg during the Carnegie Hall performance, and having an experience of ‘awakening’ to the Carnegie Hall audience laughing. Following this, Lenny Bruce entered the picture, who convinced you to drop the violin and begin comedy. What importance did he play in your development? How did he convince you? What ideas did Lenny have and embody that convinced you to enter comedy?

When it came to the violin, I had practiced myself right out of my childhood. But at Carnegie Hall I awoke to the sound of laughter. I wasn’t trying to make the audience laugh, I was merely trying to scratch an itch. Although I was considered to be a child prodigy, I only had a technique for playing the violin, but I had a passion for making people laugh. In high school I wrote, produced, directed and starred in the Senior Play. The local newspaper called me “a junior Orson Welles.” I had no idea who that was. When I started doing stand-up comedy as an adult, I used my violin as a prop. Lenny Bruce advised me that it was unnecessary. He didn’t have to convince me to begin comedy, I was already obsessed with it. While editing his autobiography, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People, I traveled around with him, and he inadvertently served as my mentor. Our viewpoints and satirical targets were totally in sync, ranging from obscenity laws to teachers’ low salary to nuclear testing.

3. You attended City College of New York to major in journalism. Why did you choose this field?

There were no courses in comedy—moreover, there were no comedy clubs with open-mike nights—but I also wanted to be a reporter.

4. In my contact with the current generation of students, my generation, many seem to have a different understanding of the ‘60s counter-cultural revolution’ than those currently living to tell their experience of the time. For instance, some slogans come to mind like ‘Turn on, tune in, and drop out’. Some research on, and casual use of, consciousness-altering substances come to mind such as psilocybin, LSD, marijuana, and lesser-known ones. However, this seems obfuscating at best and misleading at worst. What myths abounded during the 60s about the purpose of popular social movements across the spectrum of activity? What myths persist to this day?

Filtered through mainstream media, the ‘60s countercultural revolution has been reduced to a pair of images at both ends of the spectrum: a group of “flower children” at a party smoking joints; and cops indiscriminately, sadistically beating antiwar activists with billy clubs. Myths ranged from the notion that hippies didn’t take showers to the notion that they spat at soldiers returning from Vietnam. At the risk of revealing my self-serving streak, I hereby recommend my own memoir (available at paulkrassner.com), Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counterculture, about which Pulitzer Prize winner Art Spiegelman wrote that “His true wacky, wackily true autobiography is the definitive book on the sixties.” As for current myths, remnants of misinformation and disinformation about drugs, gays, racism, theology still remain, they are gradually evolving out of existence, but the most persistent myth is that men and women in the military who lost their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq have not died in vain. Support our troops. Huh?

5. Many major figures of the ‘counter-culture’ produced highly popular books. For instance, Dr. Timothy Leary and Dr. Robert Anton Wilson produced multiple influential books encapsulating many of their core ideas. For Dr. Leary, Info-Psychology, Neuropolitique, The Game of Life, and Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out; for Dr. Wilson, the Illuminatus! Trilogy, Prometheus Rising, Cosmic Trigger (I, II, and III), and Email to the Universe. You founded, edited, and contributed to the Realist. The first counter-culture magazine. In your view, what importance do their, and your, work mean to the mainstream culture? What about to the ‘counter-culture’?

Leary, Wilson and other contributors to The Realist were prescient about the future, and many of the seeds they planted are gradually blossoming in the present. In the sixties, there were civil rights sit-ins and marches, and now we have an African-American president. The women’s liberation movement was launched by the protest at the Miss America pageant in 1968, and it’s not unlikely that a female president will be elected in 2016. There were demonstrations for the decriminalization of marijuana then, and there are now medical marijuana dispensaries in twenty states, and the legalization of recreational marijuana in two states. I won’t be satisfied until there’s amnesty for all those nonviolent stoners who are serving time for drug offenses. They’re political prisoners.

LSD became unlawful in 1966, and in 2014 a study concluded that LSD can ease anxiety. In 1969, police raided a gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, and now more and more states are legalizing same-sex marriages. Then there were vegetarians and vegans, but no such cookbooks. Now there are bookstores and online shelves filled with cookbooks for vegetarians and vegans. Then, organic farming. Now, organic farmers’ markets. Then, challenging theological dogma. Now, widespread public skepticism. As a dolphin once told me, “If God is evolution, then how do you know He’s finished?” Obviously, it was a male chauvinist dolphin. Speaking of which, dolphin researcher Dr. John Lilly corrected me. “If God is evolution,” he said, “then how do you know you’re finished?”

6. If any, what do you consider the purpose of art? More importantly, what role do artists play in shaping, defining, and contributing to society and culture?

Here’s a couple of quotes about art and communication. Luis Bunuel: “I make films to give me something to do between birth and death.” And Pablo Picasso: “Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.” That’s why artists supersede politicians. Except George Bush.

7. If you could have one question answered through a massive research project, what would you want answered?

Is there life on other planets, and if so, do they have civilizations?

8. You contributed to the American lexicon of terms like the Hippies, the Punks, and so on, through the term The Yippies. This invention described a sub-population of the USA: a coalition between the ‘anti-war activists’ and the ‘hippie dropouts’. What purpose did this term serve?

I didn’t coin hippies or punks. Yippie was a traditional shout of spontaneous joy. We could be the Yippies! It had just the right attitude. Yippies felt like an appropriate name for the radicalization of hippies. What a perfect media myth that would be. And then, working backward, it hit me. Youth-–this was essentially a movement of young people involved in a generational struggle. International–-it was happening all over the world, from Mexico to France, from Germany to Japan. And Party–-in both senses of the word. We would be a party and we would have a party. We would be the Youth International Party and we would be called the Yippies. The name provided its own power of persuasion.

Yippie was simply a label to describe a phenomenon that already existed-–-an organic coalition of psychedelic dropouts and political activists. In the process of cross-pollination, we had come to share an awareness that there was a linear connection between putting kids in prison for smoking marijuana in this country and burning them to death with napalm on the other side of the globe. It was the ultimate extension of dehumanization. Meanwhile, reporters had a who for their lead paragraphs. A headline in the Chicago Daily News summed it up: “Yipes! The Yippies Are Coming!” The myth was already becoming a reality. Yippie chapters were forming on campuses, and pot-head antiwar activists across the country realized what to call themselves.

9. What do you consider the three most controversial topics at present? What arguments do you consider most convincing for your views?

Chris Christie’s role in sabotaging the world’s largest bridge. The dictator of Syria murdering 100,000 civilians, including 10,000 children. Uganda’s government legalizing the execution—literally–of homosexuals. But I’m unable to convince power-without-compassion.

10. In the current heated political climate, precarious economic conditions for many citizens, and social uncertainty regarding norms, individuals tend to feel uneasy. In fact, this tends to provide the appropriate ingredients for popular social movements. Our current incarnation of such a movement arises in the Occupy Movement. What do you think of this movement? What do you attribute to the rapid popularity of the Occupy phenomena to, especially in the US?

I had been wavering between hope and dismay when the Occupy Movement came along. The Yippies had to perform stunts to get media coverage. A group of us went to the New York Stock Exchange, upstairs to the balcony, and threw $200 worth of singles onto the floor below, watching the gang of manic brokers suddenly morph from yelling “Pork Bellies” into playing “Diving for Dollars.” Then we held a press conference outside, explaining the connection between the capitalist system and the war. So, a few decades later, when an Occupier held up a particular placard, “Wall Street Is War Street,” it gave me a sense of continuity and a feeling of optimism. Their spirit will continue with or without any aid from the media. Their weapons are imagination, dedication, truth and communal love.

11. Who most influenced you? Why them? Can you recommend any seminal books/articles by them?

Lyle Stuart was the courageous, uncompromising publisher of The Independent, an anti-censorship paper where I started out as an apprentice, wrote a column, “Freedom of Wit,” and eventually became the managing editor. I was influenced by radio personality Jean Shepherd, and he wrote a column, “Radio Free America,” for The Realist. J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye so resonated with my adolescence that I naïvely sent a letter to him, asking for permission to use his character in a novel I planned to write. Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun was my bible, not because of its antiwar theme, but for its insights to consciousness and the urge to communicate.

Aldous Huxley’s Antic Hay included my favorite literary phrase–-“excruciating orgasms of self-assertion”–-which served as a filter through which to perceive human behavior. Dr. Robert Spencer was a humane abortionist when it was illegal, and I ended up running an underground referral service, evolving from a satirist to an activist. I met Abbie Hoffman at protest demonstrations, and his article, “Revolution for the Hell of It,” landed on the front page of The Realist. Ken Kesey and I co-edited The Last Supplement to the Whole Earth Catalog and attended Grateful Dead concerts in Egypt. Mae Brussell was a brilliant researcher. I published in The Realist her documented analysis in which she delineated the conspiracy behind the Watergate break-in, while Richard Nixon and the mainstream media were still describing it as “a caper” and “a third-rate burglary.”

12. Where do you see the legacy of major figures like Lenny Bruce, Dr. Leary, Dr. Wilson, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and yourself? In particular, where do you see the future of your work?

I believe that each one of the dead folks you mention will go on being remembered as pioneer iconoclasts. As for me, I’m working on my long awaited (by me) first novel, about a contemporary Lenny-type performer. My archives (translation: all the crap in my garage) will end up in a university library. NPR and AP already have my obituaries prepared. Meanwhile, I’ve been honored with the writers organization PEN’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Here’s how I concluded my acceptance speech: “The only thing I remember from college was in an anthropology course, and it was a definition of happiness–“having as little separation as possible between your work and your play”–and I’ve been very fortunate, being able to do that, and to get an award for it is really the icing on the cake, because the process was the goal. And also I know that, in my lifetime I’ve met so many people who deserve a lifetime achievement award, except that they didn’t do it publicly. I do want to say how happy this award makes me, and the only thing that makes me happier is that it’s not posthumous. Thank you.”

13. What advice do you have for youth?

Try not to take yourself as seriously as your causes.

Bibliography

Art Spiegelman. (2014). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/
Bruce, L. (1965). How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. Chicago, IL: Playboy Publishing.
Huxley, A. (1923). Antic Hay. London, UK: Chattos & Windu.
Krassner, P. (1993). Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counterculture. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Krassner, P. (2014). PaulKrassner.com. Retrieved March, 2014 from www.paulkrassner.com.
Krassner, P. (2014, January 10). Predictions for 2014. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-krassner/predictions-for-2014_b_4576857.html.
Lenny Bruce. (2014). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1364050/Lenny-Bruce
LSD. (2014). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/
Leary, T. (1987). Info-Psychology. Tempe, AZ: Falcon Press.
Leary, T. (1979). The Game of Life. Los Angeles, CA: Peace Press.
Leary, T. (1999). Turn On, Tune in, Drop Out. Berkeley, CA: Ronin Publishing.
Salinger, J. D. (1951). Catcher in the Rye. NY, New York: Little, Brown, and Company.
Trumbo, D. (1938). Johnny Got His Gun. Philadelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincott.
Wilson, R. A. (1977). Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati. Las Vegas, NV: New Falcon Publications.
Wilson, R. A. (1992). Cosmic Trigger II: Down to Earth. Las Vegas, NV: New Falcon Publications.
Wilson, R. A. (1995). Cosmic Trigger III: My Life After Death. Las Vegas, NV: New Falcon Publications.
Wilson, R. A. (2005). Email to the Universe and other alterations of consciousness. Las Vegas, NV: New Falcon Publications.
Wilson, R. A. (1975). Illuminatus! Trilogy. New York, NY: Dell Publishing.
Wilson, R. A. (1983). Prometheus Rising. Las Vegas, NV: New Falcon Publications.

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2023-01-28

Dr. James Flynn: Emeritus Professor, Political Studies and Psychology, University of Otago, New Zealand (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/08/08

ABSTRACT

Second part of a two-part comprehensive interview with Emeritus Professor of Political Studies and Psychology at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand on the main subjects of his research: Jensen, Eysenck, and Rushton; black improvements in IQ corresponding to educational gains; moral commitment to the truth; environment, genetics, and the interplay in the development of IQ; activities associated with the highest level of general ability; TED talk entitled ‘Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents’; differential IQs of generations based on the Flynn Effect occurring over significant periods of time; future work; meaning of the paraphrase ‘system of jurisprudence uses the concept of praise and blame’; responsibility of academics to culture and society; moral and general influences; advice for young academics interested in moral and political philosophy; and worries and hopes for concepts in psychology having practical implications for the larger culture and societies in general.

Keywords: Academics, Dr. James Flynn, Emeritus Professor, environmental influence, Eysenck, genetics, Intelligence, IQ, Jensen, jurisprudence, moral imperatives, moral philosophy, New Zealand, political philosophy, Political Studies, Psychology, TED, University of Otago.

15. Recounting in the earliest part of this conversation about Jensen and Eysenck – and Rushton passing, what is the current state of this debate?

I think the current state of the debate is in my 2008 book, although stuff keeps coming out. But the current status of the debate must take this into account: I showed along with Bill Dickens that blacks had erased 5 points of the old 15-point IQ gap. Therefore, the improvement in the black environment is paying dividends. Even now, you could hardly claim blacks are living in an equivalent environment to whites. Maybe, the other 10 points will go. As scientists, we have to hedge our bets until the evidence is in, don’t we?

I think that eventually blacks may close that gap.

16. A third of a standard deviation is quite a bit…

Yes, it is quite significant. They were one standard deviation behind. Now, they are two-thirds behind. This is reflected in the Nation’s Report Card. They gained the same amount of ground in academic performance. I published an article in the journal Intelligence earlier this year. They gave a whole issue of Intelligence to the Flynn Effect. In the summary article there, I point out the correspondence between the black IQ gains and the black educational gains.

Now, the bad news is that until blacks perform better for IQ, which predicts their performance at university, they will have grave difficulty matching whites. You cannot say, “These IQ gaps do not count.” They count for a lot in terms of your life prospects. The good news is, there is no reason to think they are genetically crippled.

17. Even though as scientists we must stay open to the data, what do you consider a knockdown, or very strong, argument for your position?

I know of no “knockdown” argument. You do not have to be a scientist to be open to more data. (Laughs) But it helps to have a strong commitment – moral commitment, to the truth. It is easy for any of us, and this includes me as well as Jensen, to dig yourself into a hole where you have fought so long for a particular point of view on a controversial issue that your mind is closed without your being fully aware of it. So good science would say that would never happen, but it is good to also have a strong moral resolve and say, “I could be wrong.”

One of the things, which impressed me most, about Arthur Jensen is his quoting Ghandi’s, ‘I will never say anything in public, which does not match what I believe private.’ There are plenty of people on the left who have closed minds on the race and IQ issue. That is, their attachment to the notion of equality is so strong that they will not look at evidence.

It cuts both ways. You can either have progressive or regressive views, and essentially your reputation and your work become married to a position, so that you are not willing to look at further evidence. I would like to think that every social scientist has a professional concern about methodology but it also helps to have some moral stamina with regards to these things too.

18. For the long-running and ongoing discussion about environment, genetics, and their interplay in the development of IQ, within your and others’ research, how much does the environment play a role in development of IQ compared to genetics?

That is a question that can only be answered differentially according to the cognitive ability. The environment plays a much more powerful role in vocabulary than in, say, arithmetic. Even when your genetic promise is fulfilled in arithmetic, that will not happen without a good environment. The best performance comes when high ability and high-quality environment reinforce one another.

Now, you also have to look at environment when it does not correlate with genes. That is what we look at when we want to assess how much your environmental background has handicapped you. Do not think that simply because your environment may someday match your genes, it has not done much to handicap you.

If your environment does not fully match genetic promise, and that can still be true of vocabulary at the age of 18, you will be handicapped on the SAT. Maybe, at the age of 35, you have a match between your cognitive environment and vocabulary, but your life is pretty much on its own railway track by that time.

Further, there is every reason to believe that someone can upgrade their environment beyond their genetic promise even in later life. If you want to upgrade your cognitive competence at any age, exercise your mind by reading and thinking. This upgrading of your environment will pay dividends. It is very possible my old professor Leo Strauss did not think of anything else except political philosophy from the time he woke until the time he went to bed. I expect that he created an incredible mental environment, which is not advised if you wish to be sane, and that this probably upgraded his genetic talent even further. As practice upgrades a musician’s talent, you can shoot above your genetic promise through cognitive exercise.

19. That does tie into a point, which I have thought about for some time. It deals with the highest levels of ability tending towards certain activities…

That depends, doesn’t it? I think you should select the activities that are important for you? Let’s say you are a person at about the 84^th percentile for verbal intelligence. But let’s say you want to write a great novel and that you immerse yourself in great literature and develop your vocabulary, seeking out friends that challenge you verbally. You could say, “That will not improve your intelligence. It only improves your capacity to write a great novel.” So what, that is what you want, isn’t it? You do not want to necessarily upgrade your intelligence for block design, ravens progressive matrices, or object assembly. You want to enhance your intelligence with a specific purpose in mind.

Yet, people are strange. They say, “How can I upgrade my IQ?” I ask them, “Why do you not want something more important? What keeps you up at night? What problems do you want to solve? What do you really want to do? Why do you not upgrade that?” That is what is important for anyone who is not IQ-obsessed. All these people joining Mensa because they have high IQs. It might give you a sense of self-esteem, but I would trade 10 IQ points to be a better moral philosopher. And I actually know how to upgrade my environment as a moral philosopher. I know the things to read and think about to improve.

20. Back to the present, you did a TED Talk entitled ‘Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents’ a short time ago.

It has done pretty well, moving up to around 1,700,000 hits. It does about as well as academics do. It cannot compete with Stephen Hawking. It cannot compete with John Dawkins at Cambridge – who questions the existence of God, and everyone in the world listens to it. But for an academic talk, it did pretty well.

21. You stated, “If you scored people a century ago against modern norms they would have an average IQ of 70, if you score us against their norms we would have an IQ score of 130.” You ask, “Does this mean our ancestors were on the verge of mental retardation?” Conversely, you ask, “Or are we all on the verge of being gifted?” You offer a third alternative. For those that have not seen the video, what is that third alternative?

This is something everything goes crazy about. How could our ancestors be so stupid, or how could we be so intelligent? In the talk, I think I hit upon the solution. It is one thing to compare a 70 against current norms when that person has never been exposed to the modern world. It is another thing to score a 70 against current norms if you are living here and have been exposed to the modern world, and cannot make sense of it.

Yes, against current norms, people had a 70 back in 1900 because they did not live in a world that was visually rich, did not have the current level of formal education, lacked cognitive challenging work for 30% of people. So not being exposed to that modern world makes the IQ of 70 quite understandable. To compare it to someone who has an IQ of 70 today, who has been exposed to modernity, and does not have the innate talent to take it in, is such an obvious mistake. They were not feeble-minded. They were simply not modern.

Cognitive progress by generations over time has a tremendous influence. The environment – over a 100 years – has been enormously potent. When you say the environment is limited, you mean that its role today is limited in differentiating the two environments you and I have, when both of us are immersed in modernity. There is a different perspective there. Over time environment is virtually the only thing influential in terms of raising human competence. At a given time, if you and someone else came from much the same family, had much the same schooling, then genetic differences come into their own, but over time we have been upgraded by environment.

I made two mistakes in the TED talk. One was not meant to be there at all. I mentioned an Islamic father not who kills his daughter for being raped. In defense, he says, “It is not in the Quran.” I should have made him say, “It is not in our family code of honor” – because there is no passage in the Quran to that effect. But many people in Islamic countries have inherited a traditional morality that dictates family honor. The other mistake I made, and I cannot imagine how I made it, was attributing the final quote to Dickens rather than Kipling.

The pressure is unusual. I always speak extemporaneously, but here the time limits are strict. You have a text in advance. I find it easier to either read a speech or to speak extemporaneously – instead of pretending to read extemporaneously and stick to a text. (Laughs) Here you must speak extemporaneously, but not deviate from a fixed text.

That reference to the Quran, I was not implying that the passage was in the Quran. I was merely implying that for someone to give up their inherited code of honor, they would need something like the Quran to override it. Since you are speaking quickly, you do not read in the necessary qualifications. I had a number of Islamic scholars saying, “There is no such passage in the Quran.” I have had to e-mail them back saying, “I know that. I know that.” I tell them I meant the code of honor, not the Quran, but one would need something like the Quran to override the code of honor.

22. What about future work?

In the future, I have other books, which I would like to write. I want to write a book on the way we mis-educate students for critical intelligence in higher education. I published a book in 2012 entitled How to Improve Your Mind: 20 Keys to Unlock the Modern World. It gives the education for critical intelligence which universities do not provide, but I still want to look at the universities in detail and show the way in which they are going astray.

Also, I feel insulted that I do not know in detail how to keep merchant bankers from bringing the world down into chaos every 20 years. I want to look at the behavioral problem involving the incentive system that would keep these guys from doing it.

Finally, I have a “law” book, which I want to write looking into the way the system of jurisprudence uses the concepts of praise and blame. Most immediately, I want to write on the way to teach political philosophy.

23. What do you mean by ‘system of jurisprudence uses the concept of praise and blame’?

In my book Fate and Philosophy, it has a section on ‘Free Will’. Half the time the law acts as if it believes in free will, “You did this. You were wicked. We are going to punish you for punishments sake.” Other times, it says, “No one is responsible for a divorce breaking down. We will have no-fault divorce.” I am not necessarily saying there is an inconsistency in treating divorce that way. I may be better for the kids, but I would like to look at the use of praise and blame in the law – see if we can be consistent about it.

24. If any, what responsibility do academics and researchers have for contributing to society and culture?

They have to be people that care about society and culture. There is nothing about being an academic that gives you better empathy with humanity than a carpenter. But if they have that, they have an unusual responsibility to weigh in on areas where informed opinion can carry society with it. If most American academics had not lost faith in the Vietnam War, heaven knows the consequences would have been. If only people who are knowledgeable could come to a common opinion about climate change, we could do something about it.

Unfortunately at present, they are in sad disarray. Although, the more expert you are, the more likely you are to take it seriously. There are certain issues, foreign policy issues in particular – where the weight of opinion by the decision-makers is heavily influenced by the people who write the editorials in the New York Times.

25. Who most influenced you morally? Why them? Can you recommend any books or articles by them?

I have a list of them in Fate and Philosophy at the end of the book. I say, “You ought to try and be humane. Here are 20 people I admire.” They range from Hillel to Jesus Christ to Martin Luther King to Eugene Victor Debs.

26. What advice do you have for young academics interested in moral and political philosophy?

They will not be interested in it, unless it becomes a near obsession for them. Educate yourself widely because you cannot solve the basic problems of moral and political philosophy without a good grounding in the social sciences. Also, reading literature widely is helpful.

27. What worries and hopes do you have for the study of concepts in psychology, e.g. Intelligence, having practical implications for the larger culture and societies in general?

Hard to tell, I am not a professional psychologist. I do not have too much insight into what psychologists are doing. I see no reason why psychology should not clarify the potentialities of human autonomy, despite the influence of genes. I have hopes that will happen, but a hope based on faith more than any survey of the work psychologists are doing.

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2023-01-28

Dr. James Flynn: Emeritus Professor, Political Studies and Psychology, University of Otago, New Zealand (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/08/01

ABSTRACT

First part of a two-part comprehensive interview with Emeritus Professor of Political Studies and Psychology at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand on the main subjects of his research: intelligence and subsequent controversies; graduate students continuing the debate; Eysenck and Richard Lynn; incoming work for the year; environmental influence on intelligence; considerations on climate change; moral imperatives outsides of survival for solving climate change; family background and influence on development; influence of Catholicism; duties and responsibilities of being Emeritus Professor of Political Studies and Psychology at University of Otago, New Zealand; differences between intelligence and IQ; definitions of intelligence and IQ; the late Dr. Arthur Jensen and the 1969 journal article entitled How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement?; Dr. Charles Murray and The Bell Curve.

Keywords: Catholicism, climate change, Dr. Arthur Jensen, Dr. Charles Murray, Dr. James Flynn, Emeritus Professor, environmental influence, Eysenck, Intelligence, IQ, moral imperatives, New Zealand, Political Studies, Psychology, Richard Lynn, University of Otago.

1. Your most famous research area is intelligence. Of those studying intelligence, you are among those on the top of the list. Many researchers worked in this area and caused many, many controversies, but more importantly sparked debate.

Of the old timers, I guess there’s just Richard Lynn and me around. I mean among those people who really duelled over race and IQ.

Jensen died of a very bad case of Parkinson’s or something like that. Very sad really, I wrote an obituary for him that was published in Intelligence. Rushton died of something different, I’m not sure what his complaint was. Eysenck is dead.

2. You must have some ex-graduate students around that continue the debate.

Yes, there are people who will, though remember, it is a very politically sensitive topic. Jensen’s fingers were burned, though he always showed great courage. Rushton, I think, sort of enjoyed controversy, so I do not know how much his fingers were burned over the outrage his views caused. Eysenck was such a great man and had so many interests, that the race issue was not really too much associated with him. Richard Lynn, though he has made his views on race known, has been more interested in global matters.

3. Did he not attempt to make intelligence a unifying concept in psychology in a recent book?

He may have. Was this on using the ‘g’ factor? I have a piece on the ‘g’ factor coming out with a Dutch psychologist, who is a whiz at statistics, an article in Intelligence, which may be on the web now, that puts ‘g’ in perspective. It shows that the exaggerated claims made for it have to be trimmed back very radically.

For example, I have been reading the Wechsler manuals, and I have noticed something interesting. The g-men say IQ gains are significant only if they are on the ‘g’ factor because they identify that with general intelligence. I am not saying ‘g’ does not have any significance. I think it has significance in a number of areas, but you cannot really dismiss IQ differences because they are not ‘g’. They take the Wechsler subtests and rank them for the degree of ‘g’ loading, and then they rank them for something else. In this case, IQ gains over time. You find the largest IQ gains do not match the ‘g’ loadings. They say, “You see. IQ gains are not real intelligence gains. They are specific factors that make you good at various subtests.”

But the data show that when you do subtests ranking of normal subjects against people who have had brain trauma, fetal alcohol syndrome, and so on, and when you compare these people with normal subjects, you find that the differences that separate them are not on the ‘g’ factor. You would have to be pretty peculiar to say that a person with brain trauma or fetal alcohol syndrome does not have a lower intelligence from a normal person. As I have said, I have been a sceptic about ‘g’ for years, but only when I came across this data could put an end to all this business. IQ gains are very significant whether they correlate with ‘g’ or not. To say they are not significant, you would have to say, “Well, there is no significant intelligence difference between you and someone who has suffered brain trauma.”

4. What other work will you bring out in the coming year?

I am doing some work on the effects of family on IQ as people age. The twin studies, of course, show that eventually genes take over. But they do this through elaborate kinship studies. However, I have managed to find printed data in the manuals that allows me to actually chart how much family influences a person for ages going through school until adulthood. I can do this subtest by subtest.

For example, I found that family effects for vocabulary are much more persistent than, for instance, arithmetic. At the beginning, your family almost totally dominates, before you go to school they either teach you to count or they do not. Of course, you are surrounded by their vocabulary. With arithmetic, very quickly, the school swamps family. It matches kids for their genetic promise fairly quickly. Apparently, by being continually exposed to your parent’s vocabulary – after all, chatting with them, listening to them – vocabulary becomes a more persistent influence even up to the college boards at age 17.

This allows me for the first time to say, “Yes, genes do dominate in terms of IQ variance, but there are significant handicaps having to do with certain subtests like vocabulary that effect your ability to do well on the SAT verbal.” I have written this up, preliminary study, not a final study, in a book I published with Elsevier. It is called Intelligence and Human Progress: The Story of What Was Hidden in Our Genes. It really is fundamentally a book on how we have made cognitive progress, stressing the theme that there is a spinoff of this for moral progress. That one of the reasons for us having a more elevated sense of morality is because of our cognitive advance. Moral reasoning has improved.

There is also a chapter, which shows how family affects vocabulary and it points out the way this handicaps young people. The lingering effect of vocabulary at the time they are trying to match themselves for the university. So it is not true that the genetic dominance of IQ variance means that your family background is a null factor. It weakens, but it has sufficient kick that it can give you some disadvantages in later life.

5. This sets more nuance to the ways family history burdens or benefits you.

Yes, if you come from a family where the vocabulary is less than adequate, your vocabulary will be less than adequate. Now, going to school and encountering the wider world will slowly replace that family effect with your current environment, but the vocabulary handicap can still be quite significant by the age of 17, when you graduate from high school.

I am also doing some other work with climate change.

6. Why don’t we veer into that a bit?

I have finished a book on climate change, but I have not placed it for publication at this time. I am primarily a moral philosopher. Psychology is a sideline for me. I thought, “My heavens, I might at least confront probably the chief moral issue of our time.” So I have written a little book looking into the science of climate change. Our climate will change. What we are doing is no going to stop it. There was a book called Gaia written by James Lovelock. It describes the Earth being like a total system. He has now become very pessimistic. He figures we are going to go past the point of no return.

I wanted to see if there were alternatives that we could imagine. There is another way. If we were rational enough, we could probably limit climate change over the next generation until alternative, clean sources of energy come online. I wanted to investigate the science and at least propose something a little less gloomy than the climate scientists. They are all about ready to throw in the towel. James Hansen, in Britain, he’s one of the heroes in the environmentalist movement, is pessimistic. Of course, the environmentalists have all turned against him.

That’s what I am doing currently. I am trying to publish my book on climate change, exploring whether you can identify intelligence with ‘g’, looking into the influence of cognitive ability on morality, and I am interested in finding a new way of partitioning IQ variance. Those are the main things. I hope by another month or two to have that cleaned up. After that point, I hope to begin an important book, which is on teaching political philosophy. It would be how to teach it without boring students. As I said, my main work is moral and political philosophy, but morals in particular.

7. Besides survival, what moral imperative do we have to protect the environment?

I think that comes down to a fundamental question, “Is there any objectivity to our moral ideals?” The answer to that is, “No. Either you empathize with humanity or you do not. If you empathize with humanity, you feel an imperative.” Now, that does not mean you cannot use reason against your opponents. Most of them are, or would at least claim, that they share this bond with humanity and would try and make a case that what we are doing makes no difference.

That leads directly from ethics to science. If what we are doing makes no difference, then there is no moral choice, is there? However, if science shows there are important choices that could be made, then you have to take a stand. Either you possess humane ideals and think all human beings are worthy of moral concern. Or you think this will not happen for 20 years. I am 80 now, so I do not think I will live to see the consequences, and assume I have no grandchildren – so to hell with everyone. Moral imperatives arise out of moral commitments. If you have no commitment that gives you a bond with humanity, I cannot open your mouth and thrust one down your throat.

I wrote about this in a book called Fate and Philosophy that came out about three years ago. It is on three problems: ‘what is good?’, ‘what is possible?’, and ‘what exists?’ To me, that book is the most important book that I have ever written: Fate and Philosophy. It is my stand on fundamental philosophical problems, but it is written for the general public. I published a more specialized book, but more for a philosophical audience. It is entitled How to Defend Humane Ideals. It came out with Nebraska Press. It is a specialized look at this question of objectivity and ethics. However, Fate and Philosophy describes everything in more popular language.

I published a book in 2010 called the Torchlight List, and it is to encourage students to read widely, which most of them do not. Compared to my generation, even our best graduates do not read widely in literature and history. In the first chapter, I give some personal background.

8. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside? How do you find this influencing your development?

I was raised as an American-Irish Catholic. For my father like so many Irish Catholicism was a badge of patriotism. In terms of his beliefs, he only believed in the fundamentals, which means whatever he found convenient. (Laughs) He was a good man, but he did not care much about the infallibility of the pope. As I studied, I, lost my faith. I began to realize I only believed in God because everyone around me believed in God.

But my background was in Washington, D.C., I was born there. My father settled there as a newspaper man about the time of World War I. My mother came from upstate New York. She had been a school teacher. I was raised there with my brother and first cousins. At that time, the Irish extended family was still important, and my first cousins were really like brothers and sisters.

It influenced me in the sense that having been deeply committed to Catholicism’s version of humane ideals, once I lost my faith, I began to wonder what sort of rational justification I could give for my ideals. That became a large part of my scholarly life. Note my book: How to defend humane ideals: substitutes for objectivity?

As for Psychology, I got onto that through moral philosophy. I was writing what later became How to Defend Humane Ideals. I worked on it for many years. When I was writing a chapter on how to argue with racists, I stumbled on Arthur Jensen – who obviously was not a racist, but thought he had scientific evidence that blacks, on average, were genetically inferior. And then, of course, I thought, “Well, I have certainly got to look into that.” I wrote a book called Race, IQ, and Jensen, which came out in 1980, in which I put the contrary view.

In researching that book, I was looking at publishers’ manuals and stumbled upon IQ gains over time. That, of course, became an avocation for me (laughs), for the next 30 years. You had to do more than acknowledge that the gains were there. You had to alter the theory of intelligence to accommodate them. I did that in my book What is Intelligence?, which came out in 2007 with Cambridge. And I have published other books on this topic. It was all an accident. I had no idea I would be interested in the theory of intelligence. I came to it through moral philosophy.

9. Even with that background, and the deep influence of Catholicism, what do you consider a pivotal moment?

It was a pivotal moment for me leaving Catholicism. I won an essay contest at the age of 11. As an award, they gave me the World Book Encyclopedia. In reading it, I found there was a more scientific explanation of the world. The other thing was going to the University of Chicago, which gave me the ‘Great Books’ curriculum. It encouraged you to believe that if you are interested in fundamental problems, they were usually cross-disciplinary, and that if you were incisive enough, you could read across disciplines and get a good amateur competence. Of course, I needed that when I went into psychology because I had never taught a psychology course or read a psychology text. However, I was good at math. I saw no reason why I could not chart IQ gains over time, and make the changes in the theory of intelligence that were necessary.

I would say three things: strong moral commitments, the break with Catholicism, and the University of Chicago.

10. At present, you hold the position of Emeritus Professor at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. What responsibilities and duties does this imply to you?

Yes, although I will be 80 in April, I will teach two courses this coming semester. Of course, I will have the rest of the year to do my writing.

Emeritus professor here means that you are still active. So even though I am retired, I am employed by the University of Otago. You can employed at many levels. Two courses is about a 4/5^ths load. They like my research. So I am Emeritus Professor jointly with political studies and psychology. I was head of the Political Studies Department for 30 years. We emphasized moral and political philosophy among other things. I teach one course in political studies entitled The Good Society and the Market. I teach another in psychology entitled Justice, Race, and Class.

11. With regards to your main area of research in psychology, intelligence and IQ mean different things. Intelligence stands for a general attribute. IQ stands for scores given based on tests designed to penetrate this attribute through inference of performance.

Yes, it may be either a better or worse measurement, of course. I mean, there is no measure that cannot be abused, and Arthur Jensen was well aware of that.

12. With that, how would you define intelligence? How would you differentiate it from IQ?

You have that more formally in my book What is Intelligence? I do not think it needs too careful a definition. It is essentially a matter that one person is more intelligent than another in a certain cultural setting. In the sense that when they confront important problems in that culture, they either learn to solve quicker or better. Arthur Jensen wrote a good article on this using Robinson Crusoe, who was on his island. Unless he had another person, he could not estimate his own intelligence. He could make statements about memory. For example, he either forgot things or he did not; he could learn things like manual dexterity. But only when Friday arrived did he say, “My heavens, Friday is learning everything I learned faster than I did, and he is better at it.” (Laughs) That is a first step to saying who is more intelligent.

When cognitive problems are terribly important, if you can learn what you need to learn to solve those problems quicker, or in the same amount of time you solve them better, that, I think, is a good working definition of intelligence. Now, that still leaves it culturally relative. If you were in the Australian outback, the problem that would interest you is finding water when it is scarce. That would mean, your mapping ability is terribly important. Today, if you are not a London cab driver, you do not much care about mapping ability.

13. You have mentioned the late Dr. Arthur Jensen a few times. He published a well-cited and famous, or – by many individual’s account – infamous, paper published in 1969 by the late entitled How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement?, which sparked a controversy around the topic of race and IQ.

It created a storm of controversy. Rather than assembling evidence to attack the position, they attacked the man. That’s why I wrote my book Race, IQ, and Jensen, which you will find saying, “This is ridiculous. There is no reason to think Arthur Jensen is a racist. Let’s look at the evidence. We can either show he is wrong evidentially or he is not.” I feel the evidence shows that it is more probable that blacks have genes roughly equivalent to whites for what we call ‘intelligence’. If you want to see my most recent updating of that thesis, you would want to read, not only the old book Race, IQ, and Jensen, but also Where Have All the Liberals Gone?. It came out with Cambridge in 2008, and it has four chapters on black Americans.

14. In addition, and following that controversy, those arguing for heredity more than environment provided further momentum for the opposing side with works by Dr. Charles Murray…

Yes, I know Charles Murray. Murray has never stated any definite position on the genetic comparisons of the two racial groups. He has been much more cautious than Jensen. What he wrote, in the minds of many, influenced them to believe that he agreed with Jensen, but he has never stated that. He did bring forward many of Jensen’s arguments saying, “We have to acknowledge there is a powerful case here.”

The Bell Curve was not fundamentally about race, genes, and IQ. It was saying, “Let’s look at the present situation and see how IQ effects your life prospects.” There’s no doubt that even if black and whites have the same genes for IQ, blacks are doing worse academically. And he was exploring the consequences of an IQ test in predicting academic performance.

I had two debates with Murray. You can find them on the internet. One was in New York. Another was in Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. hosted by the American Enterprise Institute. The one in New York was Cognos I think, but you can find them on the internet – if you type in ‘Flynn, Murray, race, and IQ’. The second debate was better because we had rehearsed our arguments better.

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Dr. Michael Behe: Professor, Biochemistry, Lehigh University (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/07/22

ABSTRACT

Second part of an extensive and thorough two-part interview with Professor of Biochemistry at Lehigh University, Dr. Michael Behe, on the following topics: influence of world views on scientific output; philosophical and cosmological considerations for biological systems and origins; Sir Karl Popper, falsificationism,and predictions of intelligent design theory; considerations of changes in the scientific method and relation to intelligent design; 2005 paper entitled Scientific Orthodoxies, intellectual climate among mainstream Catholic discussions on scientific or theological matters; Kitzmiller v. Dover Board of Education in December of 2005 and view of litigation with respect to intelligent design v. evolution; The Wedge Document of the Discovery Institute; advice do you have for young scientists; upcoming projects; and intelligent design in the near and far future.

Key Words: biochemistry, Catholic, Darwinian, Ernst Mayer, Evolution, intelligent design, Irreducible Complexity, Kitzmiller v. Dover Board, Lehigh University, Professor Michael Behe, Sir Karl Popper, The Wedge Document.

12. In the debate between creationism v. evolution v. intelligent design, there do arise some peripheral – regarding biology, but ultimate, issues around the larger cosmological questions of origins. In that, in any case of biological systems having origin through design, natural forces, some combination of the two, or an alternative, does the universe itself exhibit transcendent/‘top-down’ design in the form of a first cause/creator/designer or natural/’bottom-up’ design in the form of a natural law/self-creating universe? Now, these have invocation at some point during the debates because cosmological design would supersede biological design. For instance, if the universe had a designer, in a general sense, all biology would have potential of being in the design plan of the universe from the instance of the cosmos’ creation. Even so, some have characterized this – at the limit – as a debate between two philosophical worldviews: theism and atheism. However, this seems misleading and pre-maturely simplifying the matter, and more a reflection of personal views of many major figures in the public debate. How much do worldviews influence the output of research? Do personal religious/irreligious views have any bearing on the facts and theories from science?

Although most of science can happily carry on without impinging on matters of ultimate concern, views about the ultimate nature of reality can certainly strongly influence theories that touch on them. For example, some physicists opposed the Big Bang theory when it was first proposed in the middle of the 20^th century because it seemed to have theistic implication – perhaps that was the creation event of the universe, pointing to a Creator outside of nature. Isaac Newton’s theory of gravity itself was opposed when it was first published because most scientists of the time thought a force such as gravity, which could act at a distance, was reminiscent of spooky teleological concepts of Aristotle. If a scientist takes it as a basic assumption that nothing exists except matter and energy, then he’ll never accept evidence for the existence of the design of the universe or parts of it, and will necessarily cram all facts into a materialistic framework, no matter how bad the fit. On the other hand, a person who believes that some aspects of the universe or life evince design has much more freedom. Just because some things are designed does not necessarily mean that all things are designed, so he can let the evidence speak for itself.

13. With regards to the larger philosophical and cosmological matters, to you, how would new philosophical arguments, experimental evidence, and theoretical frameworks influence the debate regarding biological systems and origins?

Well, to change my mind at this point would require Darwinists to produce actual evidence that their theory can do what they claim for it. They aren’t used to doing that, and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon.

14. In addition, with regards to historical considerations of the practice of science, it began with some rudimentary forms from Aristotle, even the attempts to naturalize reality with the atomists, or even the pre-Socratics – especially the Ionian school of philosophy: naturalism. In fact, more modern, historically speaking, scientists were originally called natural philosophers. For example, Isaac Newton went by that title only a couple hundred years ago. However, science seems to me to have treatment like a capitalized abstraction, ‘Science’, without a lot of context into the history of the endeavor, by which I mean the highly human process of trial-and-error of improving on the failures of prior generations – even in the production of processes such as science. Rather new to the process comes the logician, Sir Karl Popper, creating an entirely new criterion for scientific theories, namely: falsificationism. If something wants consideration as a part of modern science, it best have the ability to become falsified. Furthermore, and more to the point, science makes predictions. In the decades-long debate of creationism v. evolution v. intelligent design, some core arguments against intelligent design and creationism start with the process of modern science, regarding intelligent design the question comes to the fore, ‘Can intelligent design make predictions?’ What predictions have those researching intelligent design made?

Well, I, along with many philosophers, don’t think Popper’s work on falsificationism is the last word. Many theories are notoriously difficult to falsify, yet keep going like the Energizer Bunny. For example, in physics string theory has been studied for decades, but no experimental evidence of the existence of subatomic “strings” has been produced. Some scientists have proposed that our universe is actually the result of a computer simulation by aliens in another universe. That’s a bit hard to evidentially support, too. A third example of the failure of falsificationism is Darwin’s theory. Despite many wrong predictions and utterly mysterious, long standing problems such as the conundrum of sexual reproduction, as well as the failure to demonstrate the ability of random mutation and natural selection to produce molecular machinery, the theory keeps chugging along, oblivious to severe problems.

One attractive feature of intelligent design theory is that it can easily be falsified. All it would take is for Darwinists to demonstrate that their theory can do what they claim for it – construct molecular machinery – and ID would be blown out of the water. ID properly makes only one strong, necessary prediction: no undirected, unintelligent process will be found to make sophisticated machinery such as that found in the cell. So far, so good for ID. Darwinism makes the opposite, so far unsupported, prediction.

15. Furthermore, what predictions have yielded experimental results? In addition, what would falsify intelligent design?

See above

16. Regarding the outcomes of predictions and experimental results, from your vantage, how have the intelligent design explanations done better than evolutionary explanations? How have they done worse?

See above

17. The practice of ‘design detection’ or design inference, as termed by Dr. William Dembski (1998), infused into the biological sciences may imply a tacit proposal to altering the operation of fundamental scientific processes. If so, how would this change the practice of science? Do you think the practice of science needs revision? In your analysis of the issues over the last few decades, and only if you think so, how would you revise the practice of science? What might others argue in opposition to this argument?

I don’t think the actual practice of science needs any revision at all to accept a theory of intelligent design. Rather, it’s just people’s attitudes that have to change, because only an unprincipled taboo keeps design off the table. As I noted above, in the past science has been confronted with ideas that shook the foundation of what was thought to be the nature of reality. Newton’s theory, with its apparent action at a distance, and the Big Bang theory, with its very suggestive beginning to nature, both changed scientists’ understanding of the very nature of nature. Yet they were no problem for science. Design itself is permitted in science, as long as it’s kept within bounds. And I don’t mean just human design. Francis Crick famously proposed the idea of “directed panspermia”, which speculated that space aliens first seeded the earth with life. The SETI project of course has searched the skies for signals that might be interpreted – from their physical pattern – as having come from an intelligent, probably alien, source. Even design from beyond our universe can be entertained in the most respected scientific venues. For example, Nature, the most prestigious science journal in the world, published a short fiction story a while back whose premise was that our universe was created by a physicist from another universe (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v406/n6791/full/406023a0.html ). (Try publishing a story in Nature about how God created our universe….) And work by scientists purportedly supporting the notion that we and our “universe” are actually one big computer simulation run by beings living in an entirely different plane of existence from us was described recently in Discover magazine (http://discovermagazine.com/2013/dec/09-do-we-live-in-the-matrix ).

So science can accept fundamental changes to what it thinks to be the nature of reality (e.g., Newton, Big Bang). It acknowledges that the effects of intelligence can be detected by physical evidence (e.g., archeology, forensic science), even alien intelligence (e.g., SETI). It has no problem thinking beings outside of our universe may effect it (e.g., the fictional Nature story), or even that other beings entirely created our plane of existence (e.g., the computer simulation theory). Thus there is no principled reason that the scientific community could not accept and investigate a theory of intelligent design as I and others have proposed. Rather, in my experience it balks for nonscientific reasons: it associates the idea with disfavored religious groups and fears there would be unpalatable sociological results from allowing the idea of design full play.

18. In a 2005 paper entitledScientific Orthodoxies,you recount a story of your wife, Celeste. In the seventh grade, she attendedOur Lady of Saint Carmelin the Bronx. The experience presented something of interest. In it, you state, “Catholics have always been rather blasé about evolution.” What do you mean by this? How does this figure up to the present regarding the intellectual climate among mainstream Catholic discussions on scientific or theological matters?

As a rule Catholic scholars consider science to be a subordinate discipline to philosophy, let alone theology. Thus, in the past the thinking was that no discovery of science could challenge what we know from higher studies. Darwinian evolution may be true, but exactly how God created life was much less interesting or important than our knowledge that he had in fact created it, and intended us to know, love, and serve him. What’s more, we knew from philosophy that we have free will, the ability to choose between good and evil, the ability to discern natural law, and so act as God would want us to. That was the background to my future wife’s grade school instruction.

Darwinism, however, has come a long way since then, at least rhetorically if not scientifically. Now the most prominent Darwinists explicitly define their theory as one which required no direction or help from anyone, pointedly including God. Now it is routinely claimed, with all the scientific rigor of a children’s fairy tale, that this or that mental tendency – from the love of mothers for their children to the likelihood that men will grow beards to the tendency to rape– is as much the result of undirected change as the shape of a bird’s beak. The metastasis of Darwinian rhetoric, and its unthinking acceptance by large portions of the lay public, is a cause of grave concern in today’s Catholic Church.

19. In terms of the teaching of intelligent design in United States classrooms, there exists much controversy, which can probably have fair claim to having a peak of controversy within theKitzmiller v. Dover Board of Educationin December of 2005. How do you view the idea of litigation with respect to intelligent design v. evolution? How do you examine the outcome of theKitzmiller v. Dovertrial?

I am no lawyer, so I don’t have a strong opinion on how to interpret the various laws and constitutional texts that legal eagles cite on various matters. However, it’s unfortunately true that sometimes the law has precious little to do with reality. If a court decided that it was illegal to teach the Big Bang theory in American public schools because, as many physicists and others have thought, a beginning to the universe supports theism, I would have no professional opinion on the laws. But I would have a very strong opinion on the science. The same goes for the idea of intelligent design in biology. Courts, lawyers, and politicians – often in thrall to Darwinists — can say what they will, but that changes nothing of the evidence from biology – of molecular machines and the digital information of DNA, of the genetic code and gene regulatory networks – that points insistently to design. I can only say that indoctrinating students in Darwinism to the exclusion of other legitimate views is shameful.

As for the Kitzmiller trial itself, I view it as little more than a farce. In his written opinion the judge offered his own views on testimony about school board meetings, newspaper editorials, and other quotidian matters. But whenever the topic turned to intellectual questions – whether in science, philosophy, or theology, whether by the plaintiffs’ expert witnesses or the defense’s – he simply copied, word for word, from a document given to him by the plaintiff’s lawyers at the end of the trial. (http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/filesDB-download.php?command=download&id=1186 ) There is no reason at all to think that the fellow – a former head of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board – comprehended any of the scientific or philosophical issues discussed in depth in his court, let alone made an independent judgment about them. Those who think, as some do (http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/time-magazine-and-judge-john-jones/ ), that in the Dover trial a philosopher-king weighed competing ideas and independently saw the merits of one side have been seriously misled. For those who see his plagiarized opinion as somehow intellectually definitive, just think about a court ruling on any matter with which you disagreed, and ask yourself if you think the ruling settled the matter intellectually.

20. One document did produce further controversy such as theThe Wedge Documentof the Discovery Institute. For those unfamiliar, what is theThe Wedge Document? How do you examine the issues surrounding this document? How would others differ from you?

I first heard the term “wedge” in the context of the ID-evolution debate from Phillip Johnson, then a professor of law at the University of California Berkeley and a skeptic of Darwinism. Phil described the wedge as the strategy of splitting apart two very different definitions of science: 1) science as a no-holds-barred search for the best explanation for nature, versus 2) science as applied philosophical materialism. He saw that the public thought of science in terms of definition one, but that, especially when push came to shove in the area of evolution, much of the scientific community thought of it as definition two. He wanted to make it as clear as possible to as large a fraction of the public as possible that what they thought was an unbiased search in science for the best answer was actually strongly guided by preconceived philosophical prejudice.

I never heard of the “Wedge Document” until some news story about it appeared. It seems to have been a draft of some internal document at the Discovery Institute, probably for fund raising purposes. As far as I know it was never accepted by higher-ups there as an official policy or document. It essentially made the case that the social and political history of the United States was largely guided by Christians and others (such as, say, Thomas Jefferson) who were convinced that nature exhibited purpose, which as an historical observation is unquestionably correct. It also proposed typical think-tank actions, such as holding meetings and publishing books, to once again promote that view.

The document was stolen from the Discovery Institute, scanned, and posted on the internet. Some opponents of ID seized on phrases from the document that spoke of making science consonant with Christianity, and claimed, ludicrously, that here was a grand conspiracy to have religious fundamentalism take over science, probably by stationing preachers in every lab to monitor activities. Reading the document calmly makes it plain that what was meant was to disestablish materialism as an extraneous assumption of science — to have science be the no-holds-barred search for truth that Phil Johnson spoke of, rather than a propagandist for a materialistic philosophical view.

21. What advice do you have for young scientists?

Study hard! Also, unfortunately, watch your backs and toe the line. If you decide to challenge an accepted explanation – even one that is comparatively noncontroversial – keep your eyes wide open and count the potential cost before you do.

22. What projects do you have in progress over the next few years?

I’m interested in trying to establish as rigorously as possible where the likely dividing line exists in biology between what can be accomplished by unintelligent processes and what requires purposeful design. I’ve made a start of that with my 2007 book The Edge of Evolution and hope to build on it

23. Where do you see intelligent design in the near and far future?

I’m serenely confident that a theory of intelligent design in some form will be adopted in biology at some point, probably not too far in the future. It’s not because of anything I or anyone in the ID movement has done. Rather, it’s because that is where the data are headed. The astounding elegance and sophistication of the machinery of life are being made more and more plain, and the conclusion of design cannot be long avoided.

Bibliography

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2023-01-28

Dr. Michael Behe: Professor, Biochemistry, Lehigh University (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/07/15

ABSTRACT

First part of an extensive and thorough two-part interview with Professor of Biochemistry at Lehigh University, Dr. Michael Behe, on the following topics: youth and interest in science and the natural world; pivotal moments motivating his trajectory into the study of biology; root of differences with the biological community’s consensus; influence of William Paley and Natural Theology (1802); origins of ‘irreducible complexity‘; irreducible complexity from Behe (1996), The Challenge of Irreducible Complexity (2002),Irreducible Complexity: Obstacle to Darwinian Evolution(2004), and argument and evidence for the concept of irreducible complexity; Joplin’s and Shanks’s (1999) reply to irreducible complexity with redundant complexity and intelligent design theoretic responses; Professor Kenneth R. Miller’s argument against irreducible complexity from a 2002 article; mathematical probabilities for the limits to Darwinian evolution from Behe and Snoke (2004), Durrett’s and Schmidt’s (2008) response in an article entitled Waiting for Two Mutations: With Applications to Regulatory Sequence Evolution and the Limits of Darwinian Evolution, and the development of the debate; the article Intelligent Design as an Alternative Explanation for the Existence of Biomolecular Machines with three definitions of ‘evolution’ based on Ernst Mayer’s One Long Argument; and thoughts on the phrase ‘scientific materialism’.

Key Words: biochemistry, Biology, Darwinian, Ernst Mayer, Evolution, Irreducible Complexity, Lehigh University, materialism, natural world, probabilities, Professor Michael Behe, redundant complexity, Science, Theology, William Paley.

1. How was your youth? What motivated an interest in science and the natural world?

My childhood was very happy. I was born into a large Roman Catholic family, one of eight siblings. We were not well-to-do, but we had all we needed. All we kids went to Catholic grade school and high school, played sports, were involved in school clubs and such. I was taught Darwinian evolution in Catholic school. We were told that God could make life however He saw fit. So if He wanted to create the universe with laws sufficient to make life, who were we to say differently? That always sounded good to me, so I never gave much thought to the topic. It was only much later in life that I decided that Darwinism didn’t comport with the evidence. Ever since I was young I wanted to know how the world worked at its fundamental level, so that’s why I chose a career in science. I went on to study chemistry at Drexel University, got my Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, did a postdoc studying Z-DNA at the National Institutes of Health, got an assistant professorship at Queens College in New York, and then three years later moved to Lehigh with my wife and our baby daughter (the first of our eventual nine children).

2. Do you recall pivotal moments motivating your trajectory into the study of biology?

Drexel University, where I went for my undergraduate studies, offers what they call a “cooperative work-study” program. That means that students go to school for six months of the year, and then for the other six months they work in a job related to their field of study (which the university helps them secure). My first work-study job was at Holy Spirit Hospital near Harrisburg, where I worked running blood tests in the clinical lab. That’s where I discovered I didn’t want to be a doctor. My second work-study was at the Department of Agriculture Research Facility outside Philadelphia, where I assisted a Ph.D. in basic biochemical research (on milk proteins – this was after all a government agriculture facility). It was there I got hooked on biochemistry. I had taken a year of organic chemistry just prior to starting at the USDA, and was used to thinking of small organic chemicals of the size of benzene and derivatives, whose molecular weights are on the order of a few score to a few hundred. My boss mentioned casually that one protein we were studying had a molecular weight of a hundred thousand! I couldn’t imagine a molecule like that; it seemed fantastic to me. From then on I wanted to know how proteins worked in particular, and how life worked at the molecular level in general.

3. How did you find your early study and investigation into the discipline of biology? When did you begin to differ with consensus on core explanations for biological systems?

For my graduate work in biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania I joined the laboratory of Walter Englander, a protein chemist and later member of the National Academy of Sciences. Walter had helped to develop a technique called “hydrogen exchange”, which could probe the structure of macromolecules by examining how quickly they exchanged protons in solution with radioactive water. Everyone in the lab worked on the hydrogen exchange of normal adult hemoglobin — except me. My project involved sickle hemoglobin — the mutant version of hemoglobin that can lead to sickle cell disease. We came up with a really neat explanation for the extraordinary concentration dependence of the sickle hemoglobin gelation reaction, as well as its peculiar behavior in the presence of other hemoglobin variants.
For my postdoctoral work I joined the lab of National Academy-member Gary Felsenfeld at the National Institutes of Health, supported by a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellowship. I switched from studying a protein to studying a new kind of DNA, called “Z-DNA”. Z-DNA has the opposite twist to the normal Watson-Crick double helical structure. It turned out some DNA could flip from the normal structure to the Z conformation and back again, depending on its environment. We discovered some interesting effects on the Z form of a chemical modification of DNA called methylation. I took this work with me to my first faculty job in the Department of Chemistry at Queens College in New York City and when I moved to Lehigh University three years later. I worked on various aspects of DNA structure and DNA-protein interactions for the next couple of decades.
At no point was my lab research concerned with evolution. I had little interest in the topic until the late 1980’s when I read a book by the geneticist Michael Denton, called “Evolution: A Theory in Crisis”. Denton, who was an agnostic at the time, didn’t have any particular axe to grind; he was just sick and tired of hearing Darwinists claim so much for their theory when he saw many serious problems. I had no answers for Denton’s criticisms. I had never heard Darwinism criticized by a scientist at all until then, and here I was a tenured faculty member at a good university. I got very ticked off. I concluded that I had been led to accept Darwinism not because the evidence for it was compelling, but for sociological reasons — this is just the way we’re supposed to think these days. From that point on I became very interested in evolution.

4. Some of the oldest arguments from design in the ‘modern’ era come from the 19th century priest William Paley. In his book Natural Theology (1802), he provided an analogy of the watch and watchmaker to reason by analogy for the existence of a designer. For those not knowing the argument in full, how did William Paley argue for the existence of a designer? Did his work have any influence on your own?

Paley wrote that if you see a watch resting in a meadow you know it was purposely made, that it had a designer, because when you examine it you can see how its parts are put together for a purpose. He then argued that nature is like that, too (its parts are put together for a purpose), so we can recognize the benevolent God behind nature. Paley had no influence on me for the simple reason that I had never heard of the man or read about him until years after I became interested in intelligent design. After reading him I saw that his famous example of the watch is exactly correct — anyone in his right mind would recognize the design of a watch on a heath. Unfortunately, Paley wasn’t rigorous in the development of his argument, bringing in many dubious examples from nature. What’s more, he extended it beyond a simple recognition of design to an argument for a loving, paternal God. Then all a critic had to do was to point to the fangs of rattlesnakes, say that no loving designer would make that, and sweep out the argument for design with the argument for benevolence. Paley overreached, He mixed a scientific argument for design with a theological one for God and for benevolence, and in the end got neither.

5. Furthermore, for those unfamiliar with your ideas, and in particular, what provided the original basis for the idea of ‘irreducible complexity’?

Roughly, an irreducibly complex system is one that requires multiple parts to function, and the removal of a part causes the system to lose its function. A good example of this from our everyday world is a mechanical mousetrap, such as I discussed in Darwin’s Black Box. All of the mousetrap’s parts are involved in trapping mice, and if one of the parts is removed it can no longer do that. I was just sitting in my office in the early 90’s cogitating about the problems I saw for Darwin’s theory in the structure of biochemical systems. Biochemistry studies enormously complex systems. Okay, I thought to myself, why is that a problem? Well, I answered myself, in a lot of cases the systems require many parts, and without one or more of them it wouldn’t work. You can’t reduce it. It’s irreducible. When the word “irreducible” popped into my mind I knew I had captured the essence of the problem. In order to work at all, Darwin’s theory requires a pretty continuous, gradual evolutionary route. Irreducible complexity is a massive conceptual roadblock to that gradualism.

6. By some markers, you could fall under the category of the founder of modern intelligent design, especially with respect to the academic side through creation of one core idea from Behe (1996): irreducible complexity. You continued this same conversation from the 1996 book with The Challenge of Irreducible Complexity (2002) and Irreducible Complexity: Obstacle to Darwinian Evolution (2004). In it, you delve a bit further with the use of the same phrase ‘Black Box’, i.e. “a system whose inner workings are unknown.” How would you define it? Where does it gain experimental traction? What do you consider the strongest arguments for the idea? What about against it?

Although most people think of a “black box” as the recorder on a plane that stores data in the event of a crash, in science the phrase means a system that does interesting things, but whose inner working are mysterious. They are mysterious because we can’t see into the black box. In my book I used the phrase “Darwin’s black box” to refer to the cell, because in Darwin’s day the inner workings of the cell were unknown. Most scientists thought the cell was a simple entity — a glob of protoplasm — essentially a microscopic piece of jelly. Now we know the exact opposite is true. The cell is an exceedingly complex, nanoscale factory whose sophistication we cannot match even in our technological age. It is filled with machines — literally, molecular machines. And just like machines in our everyday world (even ones so simple as a mousetrap) cellular machines need multiple parts to work. Thus they strongly resist evolutionary explanation by the gradual manner Darwin proposed. What’s more, their purposeful arrangement points insistently to design.
Irreducible complexity is easy to experimentally demonstrate. Just knock out (destroy) a gene for a necessary part of the cellular system and see that the system no longer functions. That has been done for all the systems I described in Darwin’s Black Box and many more besides. These results are the strongest argument for – indeed a demonstration of — the concept. There is no experimental demonstration showing that random mutation and natural selection can build any such system. Rather, the most difficult opponent that the concept of irreducible complexity faces is the Just So Story. That is, Darwinists will invent superficial, plausible-sounding tales to account for the machines, much as Rudyard Kipling told children’s tales such as “how the tiger got its stripes”. Although not explaining the evolutionary development of machinery in anything like sufficient scientific detail, the plausible-sounding stories can impress laypeople and give those who don’t want to deal with design an excuse to declare victory and go back to sleep. The “victory” is hollow, of course – entirely rhetorical rather than scientific. But a surprising number of people are anxious to avoid the issue of design.

7. In particular, some research, for instance Joplin and Shanks (1999), replied to your early argument for irreducible complexity and proposed an alternate explanation called ‘Redundant Complexity’. In the section of their paper on genomics, a far more prominent field in this decade than at the time of publication, they focus on the experiments dealing with the ‘knockout’ of genes in Saccharomyces Cervisiae, a species of yeast,to create a less-complex yeast genome through removing, or ‘knocking out’, non-essential genes. How did the Joplin and Shank (1999) proposal of redundant complexity differ from irreducible complexity? What do you think of the alternate explanation of redundant complexity? Where do you see the status of intelligent design theoretic explanations of findings from the field of genomics?

Briefly, Shanks and Joplin’s proposal of “redundant complexity” was that there are so many kinds of active biochemical factors, such as proteins in the cell, that if one is removed then another kind can almost certainly take its place. Their simple mistake was in assuming that, because some biochemical systems are redundant, that all biochemical systems must be redundant. That of course is not true. Although some genes can be knocked out and a function taken over by another system (mostly in metabolic pathways), many others can’t. Tellingly, in their article Shanks and Joplin did not discuss any of the irreducible biochemical systems I wrote about in Darwin’s Black Box.
Genomics is advancing at a breakneck pace these days, and it’s premature to reach definite conclusions. Nonetheless, genomics has the potential to strongly support intelligent design. The reason is that investigators are finding layers of sophisticated controls — strongly reminiscent of the structures and controls found in complex computer software — in the genome that no one suspected existed way back in 1996 when I wrote my book.

8. Dr. Kenneth R. Miller (2002), professor of biochemistry at Brown University, published an article stating, “In the final analysis, the biochemical hypothesis of intelligent design fails not because the scientific community is closed to it but rather for the most basic of reasons–because it is overwhelmingly contradicted by the scientific evidence.” What do you consider the strengths and weaknesses of the counter-argument of Dr. Miller contained, in brief, within the 2002 article – and some of his arguments more generally? Where does this debate stand in the literature at the moment? What about the general public?

I don’t want to sound harsh, but I consider Ken Miller’s writings to be exercises in damage control rather than a serious attempt to engage the issues. It’s silly to say that the scientific community (as a whole – there are some exceptions) is not closed to intelligent design when a coordinated campaign was undertaken by scientific societies to declare design to be unscientific and therefore not needing scientific rebuttal. It’s hard to pretend that Darwinists are simply evaluating it solely on its scientific merits when some science magazines actually warned that Western civilization itself would be destroyed – thrown into a new “Dark Ages” — if ID were to prevail. It’s also silly to say that design is contradicted by the evidence when some Darwinists don’t recognize that experimental results are the opposite of what they had thought ( http://www.discovery.org/a/442 ), or when prominent researchers publish evolutionary “explanations” for molecular machines that are quickly rejected by other workers (http://www.evolutionnews.org/2007/04/darwinism_gone_wild_neither_se003517.html ), or when the best, longest, most closely-studied laboratory evolution experiment shows beneficial mutations involve mostly the degradation of pre-existing genes and see not a glimmer of evolutionary processes building any new molecular machinery of the type that fills the cell (http://www.evolutionnews.org/2007/04/darwinism_gone_wild_neither_se003517.html).

9. In some academic research over mathematical probabilities based on populations beginning with your work arguing for the mathematical limits to Darwinian evolution – in Behe and Snoke from 2004, subsequently, Durrett and Schmidt replied to this argument in a 2008 article, Waiting for Two Mutations: With Applications to Regulatory Sequence Evolution and the Limits of Darwinian Evolution. More articles were published concerning the argument-counterargument and further publications in that form. From the start, what did you consider the mathematical limits of Darwinian evolution? How did the debate develop? At present, what do you think of the mathematical probabilities for Darwinian evolution?

The basic problem is that Darwin’s theory of evolution is a gradual one – life is postulated to improve slowly, in tiny steps, over long periods of time. Yet a profound discovery of 20th century science is that the information for life is digital, written in the code of DNA. Among other things, that means that at bottom there is no “gradualism”. Rather, there are fundamental “quanta” of mutation, such as the replacement of one nucleotide in DNA by another. You can’t replace half of a nucleotide, or a quarter of a nucleotide, or a millionth of a nucleotide. You have to replace one (or more) nucleotides at a time.
How likely is it that a given nucleotide could be mutated if it would give an organism some beneficial effect? That depends on several physical, empirical factors: the number of nucleotides in the organism; the mutation rate; and the generation time. That’s relatively easy to calculate and has been confirmed experimentally for a number of kinds of organisms. It’s reasonably do-able in evolutionary time. Now here’s the controversial, difficult problem for Darwinism: what if some beneficial effect for an organism requires more than one mutation? What if, to secure the improvement, two separate nucleotides have to be changed? Or three? Or more? It turns out that as the number of separate mutations that are required for a beneficial effect increases, the improbability of its occurrence (or, looked at another way, the time expected to achieve it) increases exponentially and soon becomes prohibitive. This is also where irreducible complexity rears its ugly head. To get an irreducible biochemical feature it would seem that multiple mutations would have to occur before a selectable effect arrived, making it very, very improbable.
My paper with David Snoke simply quantified this problem for some simple cases. Simple and obvious as it was, the paper set off a firestorm at the poor journal that published it – the editor was quickly inundated with angry letters. They then published a response to our paper within months (an extraordinary step for a journal) as well as a response to it by us. People interested in the topic can look it up. Suffice it to say here that the response missed the point. And so did the article by Durrett and Schmidt. I have to admit that I find it frustrating that the topic is so emotional that even modest discussion of obvious problems for Darwinism invariably provokes angry, defensive reactions.
My current thinking is that the limits to Darwinian evolution are much more severe than I had envisioned in 1996, and even more severe than I discussed in my 2007 book, The Edge of Evolution. Random mutation and natural selection sometimes produce simple beneficial results for an organism, but usually by degrading some genetic feature the organism already had. Darwin’s mechanism cannot coordinate the many changes necessary to build even modestly complex systems.

10. In some of the discussion with intelligent design v. evolution v. creationism, much confusion arises over the term ‘evolution’, in the article Intelligent Design as an Alternative Explanation for the Existence of Biomolecular Machines, you define three conceptions of the term ‘evolution’, “Change over time, common descent, and Darwinian natural selection.” You take this from the book One Long Argument by Ernst Mayer (1991). For those not considering distinct, or even different, definitions of the term ‘evolution’, how would you define each of these sub-phrases for the super-term ‘evolution’? What one features more prominently in the public debate? What one features more prominently in the academic debate?

It’s important to realize that theories can be mixtures of logically separate ideas, some of which can be true and some false. If that’s the case, then each logically-separate idea has to be tested on its own. It turns out, as the great evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr noted, that Darwin’s theory is a mix of a handful of ideas. The three most important concepts in Darwin’s theory are those of change over time, common descent, and natural selection acting on random variation. Intelligent design is concerned exclusively with the third concept (especially random variation); it has no proper quarrel with the first two. Change over time – for example, that there were once dinosaurs and now there aren’t – is noncontroversial; everyone agrees with it. Common descent is more controversial, but is in itself not an explanation for how organisms might have arisen or changed over time. For my money, 99% of scientific and philosophical interest is packed into the third concept of Darwin’s theory, natural selection acting on random mutation. Darwin’s claim to fame was not to have proposed that modern animals descended from ancient ones. (Earlier scientists had proposed this before Darwin.) Rather, his impact was to have putatively identified an entirely unintelligent mechanism that could mimic the effects of purposeful design. That has always been, and remains, the most doubtful part of his theory. We currently have good evidence for change over time and common descent, but evidence for the constructive power of Darwin’s mechanism is meager to nonexistent at best, and strongly contradictory at worst.

11. You have brought to bear the idea of ‘scientific materialism’. How would you define this phrase? Do you consider scientific materialism pervasive? What do you consider the strongest set of evidence and argument for pervasive scientific materialism? What do others with differing views consider the case?

Well, I’m not sure I myself have ever used the phrase “scientific materialism,” although other ID proponents have used it. I would define it either as the idea that the only thing that exists is matter and energy, or as the idea that science can properly study only matter and energy. Those two senses frequently get conflated by people who hold that the only things we can know for sure, or publicly argue for, are things that science studies. And that often transmogrifies into the (often unstated) conclusion that nothing else exists. I myself think that the contention is false: science can study the results of the action of a mind, and does so frequently in disciplines such as cryptography, archeology, and forensic science. It’s important to notice that scientific materialism is not itself science; rather it is philosophy. Ironically and self-contradictorily, then, the claim by some people that science tells us all we can know is not itself a scientific claim.
This view – scientific materialism – is certainly widespread in academia, not only in the sciences but, strangely enough, also in the humanities. It is much less widespread in the population at large, although it has strongholds in law and journalism. In my estimation scientific materialism is most easily seen in those familiar stories speculating why this or that human mental trait evolved – lust, anger, fidelity, friendship, and so on ad nauseam. It seems academically disreputable to take humans as responsible moral agents. Rather, we are often portrayed as the hapless product of evolutionary winds blowing where they will. It seems to me that proponents of scientific materialism rarely argue for it explicitly. Rather, they simply assume it, and treat other views as gauche at best, seditious at worst. It should go without saying that the actual evidence for the power of natural processes to mold minds as the materialists claim is nonexistent, yet that seems to give few of them pause.

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2023-01-28

Dr. Kenneth Raymond Miller: Professor of Biology, Brown University (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/07/08

ABSTRACT

An interview with Professor of Biology at Brown University, Dr. Kenneth Raymond Miller, examining the following subject-matter: youth and motivation for an interest in science and the natural world; early study and investigation of biology, inspiration, and pivotal moments; religious convictions; inspiration of the teachings of the Gospels, compelling historical accounts of the life of Jesus, and the logic and reason of Augustine and Aquinas for the faith; proportion of scientists and ‘elite’ scientists adhering to an evolutionary account of life; court battles and scientific investigation of ID; Dr. Michael Behe’s Irreducible Complexity and Dr. William Dembski’s Specified Complexity; thoughts on teleology in nature; influence of personal religious views on matters of science; article Nagel’s Untimely Idea (2009) critiquing Thomas Nagel’s book entitled Mind and Cosmos (2012) and extensions of the critique to the problem of evil; new book project; unsolvable problems in practice and principle in the biological sciences; thoughts on a firm adherence to straightforward communication; book recommendation; and the John Templeton Foundation essay Does science make belief in God obsolete?(2008).

Keywords: Aquinas, Augustine, Biology, Brown University, Dr. Kenneth Raymond Miller, Dr. Michael Behe, Dr. William Dembski, Gospels, ID, Irreducible Complexity, John Templeton Foundation, natural world, problem of evil, Professor, religious convictions, Science, Specified Complexity, teleology, Thomas Nagel.

10. Of course, not every individual criticising foundational claims of neo-Darwinism have religious convictions. Someone such as Dr. Thomas Nagel comes to mind. In a book review entitled Nagel’s Untimely Idea (2009), you contributed in the critique of Thomas Nagel’s book entitled Mind and Cosmos (2012). In it, you state:

He puts forward no statistical argument, no critique of the fossil record, and no discussion of molecular evolution, genetic novelty, or biochemical complexity. His subtitle notwithstanding, Nagel leaves the vast inventory of evidence for evolution untouched.

Furthermore, you point to the heart of his apparent contention with neo-Darwinian evolution. In particular, the issue of consciousness, which isolates Nagel’s focus on neuroscience. How does this critique of neo-Darwinism hold to you five years onward? In any scientific discussion, does the identification of an area of mystery in science ‘knock down’ the dominant theory in the respective field? Or does it provide more space for scientists to research, discover, and propose new explanatory frameworks?

In the very same review, I urged my scientific colleagues to take Nagel’s arguments about consciousness seriously, and these are at the heart of his critique. I believe that he has put his finger on one of the greatest mysteries of modern science, which is how the subjective experience of consciousness can arise from the cellular biology of the human brain. This is a real problem, and contemporary neuroscience does not have a solution.

Does this “knock down” evolutionary theory? Of course not. What it does is to point research in the direction of an important unsolved problem. To me, this calls to mind the chemical nature of the gene, which was one of the major mysteries in biology in the middle of the last century. The solution, of course, was found in the structure of DNA, which explained, for the very first time, how a molecule might be capable of encoding, transferring, and replicating information. To my mind, the consciousness problem to which Nagel has called our attention is exactly the same sort of problem, and it will take a breakthrough of similar proportions to solve it.

11. How do you view the relation between an objective moral foundation – in light of personal Roman Catholic convictions – and an evolutionary explanation of moral judgment through emergence in primates such as ourselves? Does this suffice to you in merging personal religious convictions and modern scientific theories? How might this extend to the problem of evil?

To be perfectly frank, this is one of the topics I am hoping to address in a book I’m currently writing. Work in evolutionary psychology has supported the notion that our moral sense is very much the product of evolutionary forces, and I find such explanations persuasive. But that does not mean that our moral sense is therefore untrustworthy any more than the fact that evolution has shaped our ability to do mathematics renders that discipline suspect. By contrast, I regard our moral sense as a tool that has enable us to ask great questions about human behaviour and search for answers that coincide with those given us by religious teachings and traditions.

12. To date, what are the greatest unsolved problems in practice in biology? Do any problems seem unsolvable in principle to you?

I don’t think that I would classify any problem as unsolvable in principle. But that might just be my inherent optimism at work. However, in my own field, I regard the protein-folding problem (predicting the three-dimensional structure of a protein from its amino acid sequence) to be absolutely critical. A couple of Nobel prizes, I’m sure, are waiting for the folks who solve that one.

Other issues include the origin of life, which still eludes us despite much progress in recent years, and the intricacies of development and differentiation, the details of how each of us developed from a single cell.

13. From my vantage, and through reading your work, I see a firm adherence to a personal principle of straightforward discussion on ‘tough’ topics. For example, from the interview in the Brown Daily Herald (2007), “But what I will say is I think that all people who profess a religious faith have first of all the duty to be modest about their own understanding.” What benefit does ‘straight talk’ play in public discourse regarding theological and scientific matters? What drawbacks arise from it?

I don’t see any reason to be guarded or indirect on any topic, including the “tough” ones. When people perceive that you are not revealing your true thoughts on a particular topic, they rightly disregard much of what you may have to say as insincere or disingenuous. That’s why I’ve always tried to avoid that and to be up front about my own values and beliefs. I find that my colleagues value that sort of behaviour, and so do the lay audiences who attend my lectures and other presentations.

14. For research and some other reading: Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design, The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities, The Blind Watchmaker, The Origin of Species, Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution, and Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul. Do you have any other recommendations for further reading?

Yes. For religious people I would particularly recommend the books of John Haught (Georgetown University), particularly “God After Darwin.” John is a theologian who has thought long and hard about the religious implications of evolution. Christians, in particular, may be surprised at the extent to which evolution fits into a traditional view of the relationship between God and his creation, as John eloquently points out.

15. Finally, to quote your essay for the John Templeton Foundation, Does science make belief in God obsolete? (2008), “I suggest that if God is real, we should be able to find him somewhere else—in the bright light of human knowledge, spiritual and scientific.” Do you have any final word on proof for God, personal witness of God, faith, spirituality, and human reason?

I do not have proof of God, and I am sceptical of those who claim otherwise. But I find something remarkable in the very fact that we, as a species, have been able to learn so much about the universe and the nature of existence. As Einstein once said, “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.” To some, this comprehensibility seems to be either inexplicable or unimportant. But to a theist, it makes perfect sense. To them, the logic inherent in space, time, and matter simply reflects the work of an intelligent Creator. What this means for science, of course, is that scientific inquiry is possible precisely because the universe is structured along lines that make it possible. To me, that is a profoundly mystical and moving experience.

Bibliography
1) [ChristopherHitchSlap] (2011, October 24). Kenneth Miller – Evolution vs. Intelligent Design FULL. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5PJG_-XlwE.
2) [IntronFilm] (2009, November 7). Kenneth R Miller: The Bible wasn’t always interpreted literally. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tefklqzVtpA.
3) [IntronFilm] (2009, November 8). Kenneth R Miller: Tensions in scientists who believe in unprovability of God?. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8grzTZPPU8.
4) [TEDx Talks] (2011, July 26). TEDxBrownUniversity – Kenneth Miller – What Makes the Brown University Curriculum Unique?. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aNp6bJCAhU#t=140.
5) Chang, K. (2009, July 6). The Mistakes That Argue for Evolution. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/the-mistakes-that-argue-for-evolution/?_php=true&_type=blogs&scp=3&sq=evolution&st=cse&_r=0
6) Darwin, C. (1859). The origin of species. New York, NY: Bantam Books.
7) Dawkins, R. (1986). The blind watchmaker. New York, NY: Norton.
8) Dembski, W. (1998). The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
9) Firestone, C. (2007, September 19). Prof. Ken Miller: life as media’s darling. The Brown Daily Herald. Retrieved from http://www.browndailyherald.com/2007/09/19/prof-ken-miller-life-as-sciences-media-darling/.
10) Forrest, Barbara & Gross, Paul R. (2004). Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
11) Giberson, K. A. & Miller, K. R. (1998, February 9). A Somewhat Higher Opinion of God: An conversation with biologist Ken Miller. Books & Culture: A Christian Review. Retrieved from http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/CT-higher-opinion.pdf.
12) Gutting, G., Miller, K. R., & Barr, S. M. (2013). Nagel’s Untimely Idea. Commonweal, 140(9), 14-19.
13) Miller, K. R. (2008). Darwin’s Pope. Harvard Divinity Bulletin. Retrieved from http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news-events/harvard-divinity-bulletin/articles/darwins-pope.
14) Miller, K. R. (2008). Does science make belief in god obsolete?. John Templeton Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/debate.html.
15) Miller, K. R. (2008). Does science make belief in god obsolete?: Hitchens v. Miller. John Templeton Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.templeton.org/belief/debates.html.
16) Miller, K. R. (1999) Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between
God and Evolution. Cliff Street Books, HarperCollins, New York. 288 p. (ISBN 0-06-017593-1).
(Paperback edition appeared 10/1/00)
17) Miller, K.R. (n.d.). Goodbye, Columbus. Retrieved from http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/debate.html.
18) Miller, K. R. (2009, January 3). Ken Miller’s Final Guest Post: Looking Forward. Discover Magazine. Retrieved from http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/01/04/ken-millers-final-guest-post-looking-forward/#.U026JvldXuI.
19) Miller, K. R. (2009, January 3). Ken Miller’s Guest Post, Part Two. Discover Magazine. Retrieved from http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/01/03/ken-millers-guest-post-part-two/#.U026SfldXuI.
20) Miller, K. R. (2005, August 10). Kenneth R. Miller: The cardinal’s big mistake: Darwin didn’t contradict God. The Providence Journal. Retrieved from http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/catholic/papal-letter.html.
21) Miller, K. R. (2008) Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul. Viking /
Penguin Press, New York. 244 p. (ISBN 978-0-14-311566-3). (Paperback edition appeared
6/1/09) Note: In 2009, Only a Theory was named a Finalist for Best Science Book of 2008 in CV: Kenneth R. Miller (Updated through 2009) Page 3
the Los Angeles Times Book Festival, and was also named a finalist by the National Academy of
Sciences for Best Science Book of 2008.
22) Miller, K. R. (2005, July 12). Open Letter to Pope Benedict on Evolution. Retrieved from http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/catholic/papal-letter.html.
23) Miller, K. R. (2009, January 2). Smoke and Mirrors, Whales and Lampreys: A Guest Post by Ken Miller. Discover Magazine. Retrieved from http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/01/02/smoke-and-mirrors-whales-and-lampreys-a-guest-post-by-ken-miller/#.U021svldXuI.
24) Miller, K. R. (2002). The flaw in the mousetrap. Natural History, 111(3), 75.
25) Miller, K.R. (2009, June 10). Thoughts of an “Ardent Theist,” or Why Jerry Coyne is Wrong. Retrieved from http://www.millerandlevine.com/evolution/Coyne-Accommodation.htm.
26) The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (2010, January 12). Sixteen Notable Figures in Science and Skepticism. Retrieved from http://www.csicop.org/news/show/sixteen_notable_figures_in_science_and_skepticism_elected_csi_fellows/.

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2023-01-28

Dr. Kenneth Raymond Miller: Professor of Biology, Brown University (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/07/01

ABSTRACT

An interview with Professor of Biology at Brown University, Dr. Kenneth Raymond Miller, examining the following subject-matter: youth and motivation for an interest in science and the natural world; early study and investigation of biology, inspiration, and pivotal moments; religious convictions; inspiration of the teachings of the Gospels, compelling historical accounts of the life of Jesus, and the logic and reason of Augustine and Aquinas for the faith; proportion of scientists and ‘elite’ scientists adhering to an evolutionary account of life; court battles and scientific investigation of ID; Dr. Michael Behe’s Irreducible Complexity and Dr. William Dembski’s Specified Complexity; thoughts on teleology in nature; influence of personal religious views on matters of science; article Nagel’s Untimely Idea (2009) critiquing Thomas Nagel’s book entitled Mind and Cosmos (2012) and extensions of the critique to the problem of evil; new book project; unsolvable problems in practice and principle in the biological sciences; thoughts on a firm adherence to straightforward communication; book recommendation; and the John Templeton Foundation essay Does science make belief in God obsolete? (2008).

Keywords: Aquinas, Augustine, Biology, brown university, Dr. Kenneth Raymond Miller, Dr. Michael Behe, Dr. William Dembski, Gospels, ID, Irreducible Complexity, John Templeton Foundation, natural world, problem of evil, Professor, religious convictions, Science, Specified Complexity, teleology, Thomas Nagel.

1. How was your youth? What motivated an interest in science and the natural world?

I had a good time as a youth. I grew up in a suburban town in New Jersey, not too far from New York City. I attended the local public schools, played sports, and hung out with a great group of friends. Outside of school, I was an Eagle Scout, and worked for three summers teaching scoutcraft and swimming at a Scout camp in northern New Jersey.

I was always interested in how things worked, and for a while expected I’d become an engineer, designing and building things. Then, in 9^th grade, I took my first course in Biology, and was hooked. My eyes were opened to the intricacy and beauty of the living world, and from that moment on I knew I wanted to be a biological scientist.

2. How did you find your early study and investigation into the discipline of biology? Who inspired you? Do you recall pivotal moments motivating your trajectory into the study of biology?

It’s fair to say that Mr. Paul Zong, my 9^th grade biology teacher, was my first inspiration. His classroom was a jumble of plant and animal specimens, and he emphasized the direct study of living things. He inspired me to enter a science fair for the first time, and in turn I pestered my parents for months to buy me the present he made me dream of having – a microscope. I spent more hours than I can count looking through that instrument, but it made me determined to explore as much of the world of cells as I could.

3. What religious convictions do you hold? What argument or evidence convinces you? Or do you take personal revelation and faith for a foundation?

I am a Roman Catholic. I find the teachings of the Gospels inspiring, and embrace the sense of value and purpose that comes from the faith. Christianity depends, of course, upon specific historical accounts of the life of Jesus, and I find these compelling as well. I am also drawn to the insistence upon logic and reason that one finds in the writings of Aquinas and Augustine, as well as the continuing embrace of scientific inquiry by the Church itself and by its institutions such as Catholic colleges and universities.

4. To clarify the discussion prior to further plumbing of the issue’s depth, what proportion of scientists adhere to an evolutionary account of life? What about the ‘elite’ scientists in the National Academy of Sciences?

Probably 95% or more of all biological scientists accept the board outlines of the theory of evolution. In the National Academy, the percentage is probably even higher.

5. You have been at the forefront of the public fight over creationism, intelligent design, and evolution in high school classrooms, especially with respect to having published an extraordinarily popular and widely-used biology textbook. However, much news in the past reported on intelligent design and creationism having potential insertion into high school textbooks prior to long, hard scrutiny by experts in the scientific community, which seems odd. Especially in light of the fact that most science goes through the rigours of the scientific method and community. In your article Goodbye, Columbus, you state, “There was a simple way that ID could… find its way into the scientific curriculum… by fighting it out in the scientific marketplace.” What attempts have been made to “fight it out in the scientific marketplace” compared to court battles over intelligent design?

I have seen very few genuine efforts by the advocates of ID to carry out scientific investigations. Nearly all of their efforts have been in the spheres of politics and public relations. Typically, more than 3,000 papers are presented at the annual meeting of the scientific group to which I belong, The American Society for Cell Biology. If there were genuine scientific results on the complexity of the cell that supported ID, one would expect to find them at these meetings. But ID proponents seem to avoid such gatherings, perhaps because these are places in which their ideas would meet serious, expert scientific criticism. Instead, they prefer to make their arguments to political groups such as school boards and state legislatures. In such places, they can seek the political support needed to rewrite curriculum standards and revise textbooks. My sense is that if they had a genuine scientific argument, they’d be ignoring the political route, and trying to find the evidence that would convince the scientific community.

6. Most notable of the intelligent design arguments are Dr. Michael Behe’s Irreducible Complexity and Dr. William Dembski’s Specified Complexity. What does each argue? By your analysis, what evidence and argument most defeats them? How might they respond?

Behe has argued that complex multipart biochemical systems are “irreducibly complex,” which means that the removal of so much as a single part renders them non-functional. In his own words, “An irreducibly complex system cannot be produced directly by numerous, successive, slight modifications of a precursor system, because any precursor to an irreducibly complex system that is missing a part is by definition non-functional.” Therefore, since such systems cannot be produced by evolutionary mechanisms, they must be the products of special creation by “design,” according to Behe’s formulation.

The problem with that argument is that even the systems that Behe himself has chosen as examples contradict that claim. I’ve pointed out that there exist subsystems with his favourite system (the bacterial flagellum) that are missing multiple parts and yet are fully-functional. Even more dramatic is the example of the vertebrate blood-clotting system, which he claimed as an example of irreducible complexity because each and every part of the system had to be present for blood to clot. However, thanks to the work of Russell Doolittle at the University of California, San Diego, it is now clear that there are many vertebrates that are missing multiple parts of the system, and still are able to clot their blood. Even more devastating are Doolittle’s recent studies, which demonstrate how the multipart clotting system arose from simple components, something that Behe has always claimed would be impossible.

Dembski’s arguments regarding specified complexity are couched in the terminology of information theory, and this makes them sound authoritative to those searching for a scientific-sounding argument against evolution. In essence, Dembski notes that living systems contain a great deal of information coded in DNA and other molecules. That is true, of course. But he then makes the claim that information cannot be generated spontaneously, and must always come from an intelligent source. Therefore, there must be an intelligent designer who put that information into living systems. The problem with that argument is that we already know where biological information comes from, and that is the process of evolution itself.

The literature has many examples of how novel genes and new functions arise through evolutionary processes. Individual studies have traced the evolution of new enzymes and new receptor proteins, and even new biochemical pathways. Each of these involves the production of new information. That information is generated by well-understood processes such as gene duplication, mutation, and natural selection. Joseph Thornton at the University of Oregon, for example, has traced the development of hormone receptor proteins, a process that generates new information in the form of genes that specify the structures of these critical proteins. Richard Lenski at Michigan State University has traced bacterial evolution for decades, and has recently watched as these organisms developed a new way to metabolize citrate. Where did the information for citrate metabolism come from? Not from an outside “designer,” but from the evolutionary process itself. This is why Dembski’s ideas have found no support within the scientific community. It is because they are wrong.

7. Have intelligent design theories made any predictions? Have any intelligent design theories yielded experimental results? What falsifies intelligent design?

First, it’s worth noting that the arguments advanced by ID are entirely negative. Think about the claims made by Behe and Dembski. They point to a characteristic of living systems (biochemical complexity or specified information) and then argue that evolution could not have produced these characteristics. They are wrong in their arguments, of course, but the remarkable thing is that neither of these arguments actually produce anything in the way of positive evidence for ID. They simply argue that evolution couldn’t do it.

“Design,” therefore, is assumed to be the default explanation in the absence of an adequate evolutionary mechanism. But that is a very weak argument, even if their critiques of evolutionary mechanisms were correct. By assuming a priori that the only mechanism for living things is special creation by a “designer,” they are ruling out, for no reason, a host of other possibilities. These possibilities include, incidentally, as yet undiscovered genetic mechanisms. Since the last two decades have seen several such discoveries, including RNA interference, epigenetic modification, and RNA editing, it would be foolhardy to assume that we have run the table in that respect.

Not surprisingly, a negative critique of evolution, like ID, makes no predictions of its own except that living things will have some characteristics that we cannot yet explain. If that were not true, of course, there would be no need to do research, because we would understand everything. And the “design hypothesis” has proved to be almost completely unproductive in the scientific sense.

It is also worth noting that almost nothing can falsify every claim made for “design” in the strict sense. But that’s actually ID’s greatest weakness. You can invoke “design” to explain anything, from the structure of the ribosome to the winner of last year’s World Series, but that proves absolutely nothing. Whenever we lack a detailed explanation of a biological structure, pathway, or process, you can always throw up your hands and say “it must have been designed,” and that’s that. But that’s not an explanation. It’s really an appeal to ignorance. And my greatest problem with ID is that it proposes that we be satisfied with ignorance rather than continuing to search for answers.

8. Do you see any room for teleology in nature? For instance, if God created the laws of nature, then the non-teleological, i.e. deterministic, laws discovered of physics, chemistry, and biology would, in essence, result from teleology, i.e. an act of creation by God. In other words, the deterministic laws and constants discovered by science can have consideration as teleological by-products, but, of course, intentional by-products from many adhered-to definitions of God.

That depends, of course, on exactly what one means by “teleology.” The Nicene Creed states that God is the “maker of all things, visible and invisible,” which would certainly include the laws of nature to which you refer. Ironically, ID actually demeans the teleological role of God in creation by its claim that natural processes are not sufficient to account for the origin and evolution of life. To an ID adherent, teleology is not inherent in nature, and must be supplied by the supernatural intervention of an outside “designer.”

Evolution, by contrast, accepts that the origin and diversification of life were and are fully natural processes. To a person of faith, that means that the universe itself contained the seeds of life and consciousness that gave rise to the living world and to our own species. As a result, it becomes much easier to infer intention and rationality to the universe through the evolutionary process. In this very important respect, evolution makes a much more direct connection between God and the natural world that ID ever could.

9. In the arguments for creationism vs. evolution vs. intelligent design, there do arise some peripheral – regarding biology, but ultimate, issues around the larger cosmological questions of origins. In that, in any case of biological systems having origin through design, natural forces, some combination of the two, or an alternative, does the universe itself exhibit transcendent/‘top-down’ design in the form of a first cause/creator/designer or natural/’bottom-up’ design in the form of a natural law/self-creating universe? For example, if the universe had a designer, in a general sense, all biology would have potential of being in the design plan of the universe from the instance of the creation. Even so, some have characterized this – at the limit – as a debate between two philosophical worldviews: theism and atheism. However, this seems – unfortunately – misleading and pre-maturely simplifying the matter, and more a reflection of personal views of many major figures in the public debate. How much do worldviews influence the output of research? Do personal religious/irreligious views have any bearing on the facts and theories from science?

I think it’s obvious that personal views on just about anything can influence the attitudes and work of scientists, and that includes religious views. But the great strength of the scientific process is its self-correcting nature. The very fact that scientific work is open to review, criticism, and correction ensures that mistaken theories and hypotheses don’t last for very long. For example, claims that the earth was formed less than 10,000 years ago or that the Earth’s geological formations were produced in a single worldwide flood are empirically testable. Even though these claims were accepted as fact by generations of naturalists, they were quickly abandoned when scientific tools made it possible to test them and to demonstrate that they were incorrect.

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Dr. Francisco Ayala: Donald Bren Professor, Biological Sciences; Professor of Philosophy; and Professor of Logic and the Philosophy of Science, University of California, Irvine (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/06/22

ABSTRACT

In the following comprehensive interview with Dr. Francisco Ayala, Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences at University of California, Irvine, he discusses: geographic, cultural, and linguistic background; youth and early interest in the natural world; pivotal moments motivating an interest in biology; early study and investigation of biology and evolution; mentoring of Theodosius Dobzhansky; Dobzhansky’s influence on Dr. Ayala; Ph.D. thesis work with Drosophila flies; Dobzhansky’s essay entitled Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution (1973); Charles Darwin, William Paley, Natural Theology (1802), and the antecedents to the design arguments for biological organisms’ functionality and complexity; his 2007 book entitled Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion; Dr. William Dembski’s Specified Complexity and Dr. Michael Behe’s Irreducible Complexity; predictions of intelligent design theoretic explanations of biological organisms; thoughts on climate change with caveats of the field not being his area of expertise; responsibility of academics and researchers; conception of God in a world of material processes; responsibilities to earning numerous awards such as the National Medal of Science in 2002 and the Templeton Prize; personal influences; and projects in the coming years.

Keywords: Academics, Biological Sciences, Biology, Darwin, Dr. Franciscio J. Ayala, Evolution, God, Irreducible Complexity, Irvine, Specified Complexity, Templeton, Theodosius Dobzhansky, University of California.

11. Even in terms of the scientific process, does intelligent design make predictions? Do you see any predictions within the framework proposed by them?

One can have certain predictions. I can do experiments and test my hypothesis, which are sometimes corroborated by the results, and other times not. This is what science is about. In terms of predictions of certain experiments, I do not think that one could have predicted in the Cambrian when the first animals came into existence 500 million years ago that one could have predicted them becoming humans, rabbits, or anything else. In the long-term, you cannot always make predictions. With regards to evolution, it is sometimes predictive, but we study what already exists rather than predict what is going to be – we can make predictions in the short-term. We can make predictions that the temperature of the planet is increasing in the short-term. The way in which science is predictive is in very specific ways, and in the short-term, which is essential to corroborate our theories.

12. If I may enter into the topic, which you raised briefly, of climatic change, what do you consider the strongest evidence for people to understand the evidence behind it that the Earth is warming?

It is not my area of expertise, but it seems to me that one sees increasing temperature over the last 20 years because we have this periods of increasing and decreasing temperature. However, when you compare it with the last glaciation, the coldest period in the last geological time happened about 15,000 years ago or so. Since then, the temperature in the Earth has been increasing at a slow rate, but when one superimposes it. The actual temperature increase in the last 20 years or so, you see the great increase in temperature is much, much faster than it ever was, which convinces me of human activity contributing to it. However, I go from the evidence provided by people in the field. It is not my field of knowledge

13. If any, what responsibility do academics and researchers have for contributing to society and culture? Furthermore, and for those that practice in academe, where do you see the greatest benefits and damages to society and culture from well- or ill-conceived contributions?

We have the responsibility of carrying on our jobs properly and responsibly in one instance evolution and genetics. We have the responsibility to teach it well and thoroughly, and become knowledgeable. First of all, one is a scientist in addition to being a teacher. We do research. We need to educate the younger generations because to lead a productive life in the modern world people need to know science. Science is very important. It can depend on the careers and for the public in general to have a knowledge of science. We live in a world of natural phenomena: physics, chemistry, and biology. So we need to understand that world.

14. In terms of the world of science and faith, and you do consider yourself a man of faith, how do you conceive of God in this world of material processes?

Well, (laughs), very interesting, I was reading something explaining that in the modern world earlier today a notice came to me. The Templeton Prize, it has been given to a Czech Priest named Tomas Halik. He said, “You cannot believe in God in the same way that we believe in the existence of another human being because God is not another being, but the source of being itself. Belief in God is therefore more like seeing in the light. I cannot see in the light. I can only see things in light. Likewise I cannot see and visualize God. We say all I can do is see the world in God.” He says that not, of course, as 100% in Christianity or some other religion as a superhuman being, but as a reality that transcends the world. I think he puts it very well. You can probably, if you look at Templeton report, you can see his picture and words on these matters.

15. You earned the National Medal of Science in 2002 and the Templeton Prize in 2010. Each awarded for separate contributions to the academic world. What do awards such as these, and numerous others, mean to you? If any, what kind of further responsibilities does this recognition mean to you?

What it means to me in terms of my activities, as it were, is that these recognitions allow me to speak with authority, and therefore with credibility. Of course, these kinds of recognition are very pleasant at the personal level, very satisfying, and very rewarding. I have a list of prizes with my assistant, which is from several places around the world such as Europe and elsewhere. I have many, many prizes. I have pictures and some of these prizes in my office. I have a very large office – at least 600 square feet or something like that. I have beautiful windows with views outside. I have diplomas and objects on display. That is, of course, very satisfying and pleasing like anybody else. I am vain. So I enjoy these things. Of course, there is the other dimension. I earned the National Medal of Science. It provides me with authority to speak on things I like to speak on.

When I earned the Templeton Prize, I was given 1 million pounds. It was presented to me by Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace, which I donated right away to fellowships for students. Now, it is even more money now. I do not mind them giving it to me again – just being playful.

16. What advice do you have for young scientists?

When they are going to study for a Ph.D., I always tell the students here to look for mentors. At other universities, students apply for several universities and teams. You want a mentor who is going to give you personal attention. Of course, you have to take your work seriously and work hard. You will not have an 8-5 job. You will have to work 10 hours a day and many weekends too. It is very important within the areas of science that they are interested in to identify scientists who are mentors.

17. This echoes Dobzhansky.

It does. There are many good scientists. There are many who are not, you know.

18. Who most influenced you? Why them? Can you recommend any books or articles by them?

Scientifically in terms of genetics, I would say Dobzhansky. His books too. Of course, I can mention some other great evolutionists of the 20^th century such as Ernst Mayer, George Simpson, and so on. These are the people who influenced me the most.

At a different level, as I was young, I was very interested in art and literature. I can mention much fiction and non-fiction that have had an influence on my life. Artists too. Spanish painters too. I collect Spanish paintings. They influence me because of the view of the world. Very explicit in the case of writers, but not so much in the case of painters or sculptors. But their view of the world makes me understand the world better and to relate to the world better.

19. What projects do you have in progress over the next few years?

(Laughs) Right now! I have been typing a book over the last few days, which is on the philosophy of biology. The title will likely be something like ‘Evolution: Philosophical Reflections’. That is the book that I am finishing. I have already finished writing something about these things. I want to write more about evolution in general and the advances that are taking place as we use molecular biology to understand evolutionary processes. Two lines of work as in the past, doing the work in specific projects. Technically, it is very esoteric. I want to continue writing books for specialists. Others for use as textbooks such as these philosophy texts that I am working on, which I think will probably be used as a textbook in many cases.

By the way, I will mention something that you may be surprised to know. I write all of my textbooks and books by pencil on yellow paper. I type them and write the words here and there. Usually, my first draft is my final draft for the article or book. I have developed over many, many years a synchronization between the speed of my writing by hand, in pencil, and the way I can generate text in my mind – generate sentences. While I can use the computer sometimes for other purposes, indeed for communication for people, my creative works are still done by writing in paper and pencil.

Bibliography

1) [IDQuest] (2013, January 17). Is Intelligent Design Viable? A Debate: Francisco Ayala vs. William Lane Craig. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfylw5okAag.

2) [TEDxUCirvine] (2012, May 6). TEDxUCIrvine – Francisco Ayala – Cloning, Genetic Engineering, & The Future of Mankind. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_JIWtJWCtI.

3) Ayala, F. J. (2012). All for One and One for All?: An eminent scientist reconsiders natural selection. American Scholar, 81(2), 112-114.

4) Ayala, F. J. (2006). Darwin’s Greatest Discovery: The complex designs of living things need not imply a designer. American Scholar, 75(1), 131-134.

5) Ayala, F. J. (2000). Debating Darwin (Book Review). Quarterly Review Of Biology, 75(1), 37.

6) Ayala, F. J. (2007). Evolution. Nature Genetics, 39(10), 1179.

7) Ayala, F. J. (2006). THE POLITICS OF SCIENCE. Bioscience, 56(1), 78-80.

8) Ayala, F. J. (1976). THEODSIUS DOBZHANSKY: THE MAN AND THE SCIENTIST. Annual Review Of Genetics, 101-6.

9) AYALA, F. J. (2012). WALTER MONROE FITCH. Proceedings Of The American Philosophical Society, 156(4), 435-442.

10) AYALA, F. J. (2008). Where is Darwin 200 years later?. Journal Of Genetics, 87(4), 321-325.

11) Balakirev, E. S., Anisimova, M., & Ayala, F. J. (2011). Complex Interplay of Evolutionary Forces in the ladybird Homeobox Genes of Drosophila melanogaster. Plos ONE, 6(7), 1-12. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022613

12) Barahona, A., & Ayala, F. J. (2005). The emergence and development of genetics in Mexico. Nature Reviews Genetics, 6(11), 860-866. doi:10.1038/nrg1705

13) Behe, M.J. (1996b). Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. New York, NY: The Free Press.

14) Behe M. J. (2007). The Edge of Evolution: the search for the limits of Darwinism. New York, NY: Free Press.

15) Cela-Conde, C. J., Gutiérrez Lombardo, R., Avise, J. C., & Ayala, F. J. (2013). In the light of evolution VII: The human mental machinery. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America, 11010339-10342. doi:10.1073/pnas.1307207110

16) Darwin, C. (1859). The origin of species. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

17) Dawkins, R. (1986). The blind watchmaker. New York, NY: Norton.

18) Dembski, W. (1998). The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.

19) DOBZHANSKY, T. (2013). Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution. American Biology Teacher (University Of California Press), 75(2), 87-91. doi:10.2307/4444260

20) Forrest, Barbara & Gross, Paul R. (2004). Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

21) Francisco J. Ayala. (2014).In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1550439/Francisco-J-Ayala.

22) principles of physical science. (2014). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1357106/principles-of-physical-science.

23) Reason Television [ReasonTV] (2010, July 19). From Priest to Scientist: An Interview with Francisco J. Ayala. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZH3mvJPqS8.

24) Theodosius Dobzhansky. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/167314/Theodosius-Dobzhansky.

25) University of California, Irvine News [UCIrvine News] (2012, November 28).What Matters to Me and Why?. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdaEPFvcGH8.

26) University of California, Irvine (n.d.). Francisco J. Ayala. Retrieved from http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=2134.

27) Chardin, P.T. de (1959).The Phenomenon of Man.New York, NY: Harpers and Brothers.

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Dr. Francisco Ayala: Donald Bren Professor, Biological Sciences; Professor of Philosophy; and Professor of Logic and the Philosophy of Science, University of California, Irvine (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/06/15

ABSTRACT

In the following comprehensive interview with Dr. Francisco Ayala, Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences at University of California, Irvine, he discusses: geographic, cultural, and linguistic background; youth and early interest in the natural world; pivotal moments motivating an interest in biology; early study and investigation of biology and evolution; mentoring of Theodosius Dobzhansky; Dobzhansky’s influence on Dr. Ayala; Ph.D. thesis work withDrosophilaflies; Dobzhansky’s essay entitledNothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution(1973); Charles Darwin, William Paley,Natural Theology(1802), and the antecedents to the design arguments for biological organisms’ functionality and complexity; his 2007 book entitledDarwin’s Gift to Science and Religion; Dr. William Dembski’sSpecified Complexityand Dr. Michael Behe’sIrreducible Complexity; predictions of intelligent design theoretic explanations of biological organisms; thoughts on climate change with caveats of the field not being his area of expertise; responsibility of academics and researchers; conception of God in a world of material processes; responsibilities to earning numerous awards such as theNational Medal of Sciencein 2002 and theTempleton Prize; personal influences; and projects in the coming years.

Keywords: Academics, Basque, Biological Sciences, Biology, Columbia University, Darwin, Dr. Francisco J. Ayala, Evolution, God, Irreducible Complexity, Irvine, Madrid, Physics, Spain, Specified Complexity, Templeton, Theodosius Dobzhansky, University of California.

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside? How do you find this influencing your development?

I was born in Madrid, Spain. My family is of Basque origin. Basque Provinces are in northern Spain. Although, they do not speak the language. I was educated in Madrid, Spain. The dictatorship of General Franco was a political environment felt very restricted. Although, you would have noticed it in the later-day activities. I went to Catholic schools, private schools, in Spain. All the schools in Spain were Catholic and run by priests or nuns. Priests for men. Nuns for women.

2. How was your youth? What motivated an interest in science and the natural world?

When I was 20 years old, I had the first science class, which was called natural science. Much of it was the descriptive natural science, natural biology. However, they had a bit of physics and chemistry. The teacher of that class I found it tremendously inspiring. It inspired my interest in science. I began to read science, but I only started to study science professionally at the university-level several years later.

3. Do you recall pivotal moments motivating your trajectory into the study of biology?

Well, I remember my interest was in evolution. In particular, human evolution was an interest. It was in 1955, when I had just read a book, which had just been published by a French paleontologist and Jesuit Priest called Teilhard de Chardin. I found the book fascinating. The issues that he raised about the meaning and origin of life, human life. It was the first book that stimulated me to study evolution – particularly, human evolution. From there on, in the second part of the ’50s, I read a lot about genetics and evolution in Spanish translations.

4. How did you find your early study and investigation into the discipline of biology and human evolution?

Fascinating, I came to the United States of America to Columbia University in New York, where I studied introductory biology with a career in physics. In my first year, I had to take an introductory course in biology. They required that we had to do some lab exercises. Rather than doing them in the regular classroom, I went into the lab of a geneticist called Fernando Galán. I asked him if I could do experiments in his lab as part of the requirement for my one-year class in biology. He allowed me to do that. I learned to do some genetics with drosophila – so-called ‘fruit flies’. Several years later, when I became very interested in evolution, he, and the person who had been his mentor – another distinguished Spanish geneticist called de Antonio de Zulueta, he recommended to explore several alternatives and to go abroad. Biology and evolution in the advanced stages was not very good in Spain at the time. With Franco’s dictatorship, mand of the great Spanish scientists left Spain at the end of the civil war. I decided the best place to go was Columbia University. Where there was a very, very distinguished evolutionist, one of the four or five giants of evolutionary biology of the 20^th century called Theodosius Dobzhansky. He accepted me as his graduate student. So I came to New York. In three years, I earned my M.A. degree and then my Ph.D. I found the university fascinating in all relevant respects. First, all of the professors were distinguished scientists. Second, all of the students were close to one another and friendly. Third, I enjoyed New York and cultural aspects of New York. I was always interested in sculpture, art, classical music, and poetry. There was no better place to find those things at that time.

5. In terms of Theodosius Dobzhansky’s mentoring style, what did you notice? What style did he bring to other students and you?

He was very much a mentor rather than a professor. He had written to me. The moment I arrived in New York to call him to get in touch. So I arrived in New York around 10 or 11 o’clock. He says, “Yes, come to Columbia University today. At 4 o’clock, there is going to be a seminar by a professor from Cornell University. My former student called Bruce Wallace. Afterwards, I will take you and two, or three, graduate students to my house for dinner.” Well (laughs), this was an unbelievable shock. In Spain, there were not particularly eminent or distinguished scientists, but always very distant. Here I come to these great scientists, and he invites me to his home. So the effect, as you may imagine! We became friends. He was very interested in my career as a geneticist, evolutionary geneticist– and even as a person. We remained friends until he died in 1975.

6. How did this influence your form of mentoring?

It influenced me very much so. I was always on very close terms with my graduate students, post-doctoral students, and visiting scientists. To the extent that they approach me – or I approach them in the classroom. I am very friendly in the classroom. I follow a policy that, but I do not make it explicit in my labs and graduate classes, but my secretary knows it very well. I have office hours on Wednesdays from 1-3, but if any student would come here from one of my classes – even from a different university, comes to see me. I immediately receive the student. I do not do that with scientists or faculty members. I usually ask them to get an appointment first. So the students always have more access. As well, the personalization is primarily with graduate students and post-docs. I, as I said, become very much personally involved and really like to help with my involvement. Again, it is mentoring rather than teaching.

7. I consider this crucial to development. In the last couple years, I understand at a deeper level the importance of mentoring for development of a student. Under the mentoring by Dobzhansky, your doctoral work focused onDrosophilaFlies. What kind of work did you conduct for you Ph.D. thesis?

I was very lucky. You could say very wise – probably both. In the first year and classes at Columbia University, when I was still stumbling with my English and the like – I had to learn biology because my training was in physics, other than the one general course in biology. In the second semester, in addition to the classes, we had lab exercises. The way Dobzhansky planned it for 10 or 12 students. The way Dobzhansky planned the lab with 12 or 15 small projects, which allowed each one of us to choose whatever we wanted to work on. Then we would have the whole semester to do it. I had just read a paper written by Dobzhansky and other great evolutionists such as a student of his called Richard Lewontin. As well as another great scientist called girch, the three of them published a paper on evolution, where they started work of Drosophila from Australia, New Guinea, and other areas nearby. They found a problem with their behavior. It was very strange. At the genetic level, they had these strange mating behaviors in these Drosophila flies from these different localities. I decided to study them to see if I could find out the reason for this strange behavior. Much to my surprise, I discovered they had combined samples from two different species. In one of them, I discovered they had combined samples from two different species. In one of them, they had combined two species in one sample. There was only one species. After one course and a second course of studying the genitalia of the males, I was able to classify them in different species. That, of course, resolved the issue. Now, I continued that work and I started the second semester. We had ended in the January, but I continued on through the summer, maybe the early fall. But I do not remember the exact length. He said, “You could use this as a Ph.D. thesis – a dissertation.” Columbia had a minimum of three years. However, I had planned to go back to Spain. So with their minimum requirement of three years, I decided not to publish it. I began a new project with the sample of flies that I had from Australia, New Guinea, and so on. I began work on something called population dynamics to measure fitness. Not only differences between genotypes, but among these populations. That is what I published in my third year. But at the same time, I published the other paper in a dissertation for parts of it journals such as Genetics. By the time I finished the experiments in the third year, I saw that I had, in addition to the descriptions of the two species that I named, all the components of the work to be published in other journals such as Ecology or The American Naturalist. Dobzhansky did not want me to go to Spain because Spain was in a miserable condition for science. We were talking about 1964. So Dobzhansky offered me a post-doctoral fellowship at Rockefeller University. Then without me applying for anything, he appointed me as an associate professor there. This was two or three years later. I decided to stay in the US by Dobzhansky and other mentors that I could not pursue a good scientific career out in Spain. However, I could pursue it in the US. Therefore, first became a permanent resident and then a full citizen.

8. Of those biology textbooks that I have seen, they often quote Dobzhansky (1973) from the title of an essay:Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution.

A Philosopher called Michael Ruse says, “Nothing makes sense except in light of evolution.” Yes, however, Dobzhansky talked about ‘nothing in biologymakes sense except in the light of evolution.’ That was the title of an address and to the future of teachers. It was the title of an article in American Scholar mostly for teachers. I have, myself, quoted this in many places. Including in the text that we published together called Evolution. By the time this book appeared with four authors, I helped Dobzhansky and was very much in charge of the project. I decided to put this as the theme for the whole book.

9. Prior to Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, Priest William Paley in the 19^thcentury argued in his book,Natural Theology(1802), he provided an analogy of the watch and watchmaker to reason by analogy for the existence of a designer. In your book from 2007,Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion, you discuss some of the larger theological aspects related to the some modern biological debates, especially those relating to modern creationist and intelligent design theory. In it, you argue against creationism and intelligent design as scientific explanations. Dobzhansky makes note of this in his 1973 essay. He argues science and theology do not conflict. In that, science on the one half; theology on the other half. They deal with different subject-matter. Could you discuss some of the larger, brief historical aspects of the design arguments that have come around? In particular, how did they come to the fore?

Yes, the sign of design in nature. Obviously, I have the eyes to see, hands can manipulate, and leaves can photosynthesize, and on and on. Organisms give evidence of being designed. That tended to be explored in classical Greece among the great philosophers of the 5^th and 4^th century BCE. They were looking at the signs this way. These signs were attributed to the gods, but not in the modern sense of a modern God – not a universal god. This was very much taken up in the Greek tradition. That organisms were designed because there seemed no other way you explain such design. Thomas Aquinas, a great Christian theologian in the opinion of many people, he used this as one of five arguments that God exists. Since the organism is designed, animals and plants, only a universal creator could explain it. That tradition continues. There are very important works including books written about it. The most complete elaboration of the argument was written by William Paley, published in 1802. He was an author of several books of Christian theology. Also, he was known in the latter part of the 18^th and 19^th centuries. You may have read this in the book. He was known mostly as a public speaker for abolitionism. He was fighting against slavery. He had to give up his public speaking career. Instead, he decided to study biology. He produced his book Natural Theology, which is the most complete book on the argument for design. He provides the most complete argument about design in organisms in nature such as plants and animals. It is a beautiful book, 350 pages or so. There was no other argument until Darwin came with the Origins of Species (1859). Well, first of all with the two earlier long essays written by him. However, the 1859 book was the greatest contribution to science and one of the most important discoveries of science was being able to provide a scientific explanation of the design of organisms. Because everything else, we have the Copernican revolution with Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton, and others in chemistry, but the design of organisms seemed impossible to explain in terms of science. In terms of natural causes, the great contribution of Darwin was to provide the scientific explanations of design, which makes it one of the great scientific revolutions of all-time.

10. Some have concepts such asIrreducible Complexityof Dr. Michael Behe andSpecified Complexityof Dr. William Dembski to argue against Darwinian evolution. Do these hold any merit to you?

You see, they provide arguments. I mean, Michael Behe and other proponents of intelligent design are known not to be correct. Behe, he is the only serious biologist among those proponents of intelligent design. He is a professor of biochemistry at a university. He provides these molecular examples that he claims are so complex that they require all parts for them to function. It is the same argument as Paley in terms of design for the human eye and other organs. He claims, therefore, they could not have arisen by steps, but rather were designed. Evolution produces things step-by-step. He argues, if you cannot produce things step-by-step, then you need to have the cornea, lens, retina, optic nerve, and they could not have come one step at a time. Dr. Behe’s examples have been shown to be wrong. As to the terminology of Dembki used in mathematics, by and the way, Dr. Dembski quotes two mathematicians that have published themselves saying the way William Dembski quotes them is wrong. In fact, I use his argument to show that Dembski does not exist. His argument goes as follows: take a protein, one that has, say, 100 amino acids. There are twenty possible amino acids. The probability of having the right one in each position in 1 in 20. So 1 In 10 multiplied a 100 times. Something like that, a number smaller than the number of atoms in the universe, and therefore it cannot arise by chance. Of course, it does not arise by chance. It arises by natural selection, which I explain in many ways. I explained for other purposes a moment ago. It makes, the highly probably, the necessary outcome doing one step at a time. What I have done playfully, is taking William Dembski’s father, each ejaculation produced about 10¹² sperm, genetically all different. Only one of which that had the genetic combination to give rise to Dembski. Now, his mother produced in her life only 1,000 eggs, which had the sperm entering it that produced Dembski. So you have 10^-3*10^-12. The probability that Dembski exists, a priori– which is how he does the calculations, is 10^-15. But that is only the beginning. He could only have the genetic makeup his father had, but his father had 10^-15 chance of having his genetic combination, but so did his mother. Therefore, once you go to the grandparents, you can see the calculation. This is the calculation that he uses for Specified Complexity. It is the completely wrong way of arguing. Of course he exists, but doing his calculations it would be impossible that he exists.

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Dr. Aubrey de Grey: SENS Research Foundation, Chief Science Officer and Co-founder; Rejuvenation Research, Editor-in-Chief

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/06/08

ABSTRACT

Comprehensive interview with Dr. Aubrey de Grey, the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Rejuvenation Research, co-founder of the Methuselah Foundation, and co-founder of the SENS Foundation. The following interview covers the youth of Dr. de Grey; educational history; his work in the field of bio-gerontology and bio-medical gerontology; research conducted up until the present; definitions of ‘aging’ as seven separate processes: cell loss and cell atrophy, nuclear epi-mutations, mitochondrial mutations, death-resistant cells, extracellular crosslinks, extracellular aggregates, Intracellular aggregates; hypothetical research project; Methuselah Foundation (MF) & Strategies for Engineered Negligible SenescenceResearch Foundation (SENS) Foundation; and the trajectory of the ‘war against aging’.

Keywords: aging, bio-gerontology, bio-medical gerontology, cell atrophy, cell loss, Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Editor-in-Chief, Education, extracellular aggregates intracellular aggregates, extracellular crosslinks, Methuselah Foundation,mitochondrial mutations, nuclear epi-mutations, Rejuvenation Research, SENS Foundation, Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence.

1. How was your youth? How did you come to this point?

Pretty normal, but rather short on social life: I had no brothers or sisters (or indeed any family other than my mother), and I wasn’t particularly outgoing until I was about 15. I was always reasonably high-achieving academically and I immersed myself in that. When I discovered programming, and found I was fairly good at it, I decided to study computer science, and pretty quickly I decided to pursue a career in artificial intelligence research because I felt it was where I could make the most humanitarian difference to the world. At around 30, I started to realise that aging was a criminally neglected problem and that, maybe, I could make even more of a difference there. So I switched fields.

2. Where did you acquire your education? What education do you currently pursue?

I went to school at Harrow, a top UK boarding school, and then university at Cambridge. These days my education comes from my colleagues, via their papers and my interactions at conferences.

3. You work in the field of bio-gerontology. How do you define bio-gerontology? When did bio-gerontology interest you? Why did this field become a distinct area of research? Why does this garner such controversy?

In order to answer your question with clarity, I need to make a distinction first. There are two separate fields you’re talking about: bio-gerontology and bio-medical gerontology. Bio-gerontology is the study of the biology of aging as a basic science, with the goal of increasing our understanding of how it naturally occurs. Biomedical gerontology is the study of the biology of aging as a technology, with the goal of identifying ways to change how it naturally occurs (specifically, to slow or reverse it). Bio-gerontology has been a branch of biology for about 100 years, starting with ideas like the “rate of living theory”, and it’s not controversial at all. Biomedical gerontology has arguably existed for much longer, if you include the various elixirs that people have explored, but as a true field of technology I would argue that it has only existed for about 15-20 years, since people started trying to use what bio-gerontology had discovered as a guide to the development of therapies. I got interested in it about 20 years ago precisely because it was a field of technology that pretty much did not exist and I thought that maybe we understood aging well enough to start to develop such medicines. Bio-medical gerontology garners controversy because people are scared of how different the world would be if aging were truly eliminated, and also because (conversely!) people do not want to get their hopes up too soon so they put the issue out of their minds by kidding themselves that it would not be such a good thing after all.

4. What do you consider a pivotal moment in the transition to your current work?

The most pivotal moment was undoubtedly the night in 2000 when I realised that repairing the damage of aging would be much easier than stopping the damage from being created in the first place. That was a huge departure from traditional thinking. Of course there were many other pivotal moments leading up to that, but that’s the biggest one.

5. What kinds of research have you conducted up to the present?

SENS Research Foundation conducts and sponsors research in all areas relating to the repair of aging damage. In the SENS scheme, there are seven major types of damage – of course there are many examples within each type, but the classification into seven categories reflects our strategies for addressing them. We conduct research in all seven areas, prioritising aspects that are not being researched as thoroughly by others as we think is necessary. This ranges from stem cell work to create artificial organs or to regenerate existing tissue, to elimination of molecular “garbage” from the insides of cells and the spaces between them, to the restoration of function to mutant mitochondria, to the underlying basis of certain types of cancer – and that’s just a minority of the range of our interests.

6. If you currently conduct research, what form does it take?

Our research is really no different than any other biology research: we use the same techniques, the same equipment, our staff have the same skills. What’s different about our work is the goals: we pick our projects very carefully for maximum potential to hasten the development of a comprehensive panel of damage repair therapies that will postpone the ill-health of old age.

7. You define aging as a process. In particular, you define aging as seven processes: cell loss and cell atrophy, nuclear epi-mutations, mitochondrial mutations, death-resistant cells, extracellular crosslinks, extracellular aggregates, Intracellular aggregates. What academic and popular venues can professionals and lay-persons alike read on their own time about these processes in full detail? What processes have the most progress in slowing, halting, and reversing their respective portion of the aging process?

First, instead of “nuclear [epi] mutations” we normally say “Division-obsessed cells” these days. It’s the same concept but easier to explain.
The best place to discover about all this is, of course, our own output. Our website sens.org has summaries and somewhat more detailed descriptions of all these areas for the general audience. My book “Ending Aging” is also written to be comprehensible to non-biologists, but it’s extremely detailed and no biologist reading it would feel short-changed. Then of course there is my corpus of academic output that first described the SENS approach and its merits; the relevant papers are mostly from 2002 to 2005 and can easily be found in PubMed.

8. If you had infinite funding and full academic freedom, what would you research?

One of the benefits of being an independent non-profit is that we already have pretty full academic freedom. In particular, we are free to work on really difficult projects that do not deliver a steady stream of high-impact publications. Therefore, if we had much more funding, our overall strategy would not change much: mostly we would grow the projects we already pursue, parallelising them more so that they would go faster, rather than changing direction.

9. What do you consider the most controversial research topic at the moment? How do you examine the issue?

If anything I would say that the key research relevant to bio-medical gerontology is becoming less controversial. An obvious example is the development of iPS (induced pluripotent stem) cells, which has largely obviated the need to work with cells isolated by destroying embryos. Also, as we get better at genetically manipulating species relatively distant from us (like mice), we become progressively less reliant on experiments using non-human primates.

10. How would you describe your early philosophical framework? Did it change? If so, how did it change?

I don’t really view myself as having a philosophical framework. I guess that if I have one it is just that it’s my moral duty to do the best I can to improve people’s lives. But really I would more accurately say that that’s simply what makes me feel fulfilled, whether or not there is any objective ethical basis for it.

11. You co-founded the Methuselah Foundation (MF) & Strategies for Engineered Negligible SenescenceResearch Foundation (SENS) Foundation. You are Editor-in-Chief of the journal Rejuvenation Research. What purpose do these and other outlets serve for the bio-gerontology research community?

SRF is SENS Research Foundation; SENS is the methodology, SRF is the organisation pursuing the methodology. MF and SRF are not outlets for the research community – certainly SRF is not, because our focus is to do our own research. MF kind of acts as an outlet in that it highlights and popularises certain research areas by administering prize competitions. RR, on the other hand, is a regular peer-reviewed academic journal and thus is a standard type of outlet. It is distinctive mainly in that it is firmly focused on intervention, so it publishes work that might be seen as too “translational” for some other bio-gerontology journals but also too early-stage for clinical gerontology journals.

12. Who most influenced you? Can you recommend any seminal books/articles by them?

I have actually been influenced rather little by other opinion-formers. There are a few people I immensely admire, however, and in whose footsteps I try to follow. Let me just mention two, Mike West, founder of Geron and Advanced Cell Technology and now CEO of BioTime, has totally transformed the commercial landscape around some of the most critical biomedical technologies relevant to the defeat of aging, and I certainly recommend his book “The Immortal Cell.” Peter Diamandis founded the International Space University, then the Xprize Foundation, and then Singularity University, all real game-changes in the promotion and facilitation of visionary technologies designed to benefit humanity. His book “Abundance” tells the story really well. I’m privileged to know both Mike and Peter quite well and to benefit periodically from their insight.

13. Where do you see the bio-gerontology in the near and far future? Do you have a precise itinerary for major breakthroughs in the ‘war against aging’?

I will answer with regard to biomedical gerontology – see the distinction I made in my answer to question 3. The short answer is no – just as for any pioneering technology, the timeframe and even the order of events leading to final success is spectacularly speculative. However, I do think that the track we are on has at least a 50% chance of delivering really big increases in healthy (and, as a side-effect, total) lifespan in mice within the next decade and in humans two decades later.

14. What advice do you have for young researchers, especially those engaging in controversial research areas?

The good news is that research in aging has passed through two profound transitions that leave it as a much less controversial option than it used to be. Starting about 20 years ago, it transitioned from a backwater viewed by other biologists as a poor man’s field where hypotheses could not be tested, to a high-profile discipline whose leaders would get most of their papers published in Science or Nature. Then, over the past 5-10 years, it has become far more acceptable to work on aging with a biomedical mindset rather than a basic-science one, in other words with a goal of actually doing something about aging in the future rather than just understanding it better. So my advice would be not to be concerned about historic controversy, but to pick one’s research area on the basis of its relevance to the eventual goal. We at SRF are always happy to offer advice on this – we get queries all the time and we do our best to guide young researchers into the most high-priority areas.

15. Besides your own organizations and research interests, what fields of research, organizations, and non-profits can you recommend for interested readers?

I don’t know how to answer that question. Obviously my recommendation to those who share my basis for choosing a research area is to get involved with SENS. If someone is deciding what interests them on a different basis, they’ll come to a different conclusion, but I’m not about to try to tell them what conclusion.

Bibliography

1) de Grey ADNJ, Ames BN, Andersen JK, Bartke A, Campisi J, Heward CB, McCarter RJM, Stock G. Time to talk SENS: critiquing the immutability of human aging. Annals NY Acad Sci 2002; 959:452-462.

2) de Grey ADNJ, Baynes JW, Berd D, Heward CB, Pawelec G, Stock G. Is human aging still mysterious enough to be left only to scientists? BioEssays 2002; 24(7):667-676.

3) de Grey ADNJ. Challenging but essential targets for genuine anti-ageing drugs. Expert Opin Therap Targets 2003; 7(1):1-5.

4) de Grey ADNJ. The foreseeability of real anti-aging medicine: focusing the debate. Exp Gerontol 2003; 38(9):927-934.

5) de Grey ADNJ. Escape velocity: why the prospect of extreme human life extension matters now. PLoS Biol 2004; 2(6):723-726.

6) de Grey ADNJ, Campbell FC, Dokal I, Fairbairn LJ, Graham GJ, Jahoda CAB, Porter ACG. Total deletion of in vivo telomere elongation capacity: an ambitious but possibly ultimate cure for all age-related human cancers. Annals NY Acad Sci 2004; 1019:147-170.

7) de Grey ADNJ, Alvarez PJJ, Brady RO, Cuervo AM, Jerome WG, McCarty PL, Nixon RA, Rittmann BE, Sparrow JR. Medical bioremediation: prospects for the application of microbial catabolic diversity to aging and several major age-related diseases. Ageing Res Rev 2005; 4(3):315-338.

8) de Grey ADNJ. A strategy for postponing aging indefinitely. Stud Health Technol Inform 2005; 118:209-219.

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Dr. Janet Metcalfe: Professor, Psychology, Columbia University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/06/01

ABSTRACT

In the following interview with Dr. Janet Metcalfe of Columbia University, she discusses the following: growing up in Toronto; motivations of studying science and the mind; early studies and investigations into the human mind; experience as a woman working in the academy; an emotionally trying experience; summary of 2010-2014 metacognitive research; responsibility of academics to society and culture; and the take-home message of her metacognitive research.

Keywords: Columbia University, Dr. Janet Metcalfe, human mind, metacognition, mind, Psychology,responsibility,Science, University of Toronto.

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside? How do you find this influencing your development?

I grew up in Toronto. And I think being a Canadian and having a good educational system is a very good thing for everyone, which is not as accessible here in the US as it is there.

2. What motivated an interest in science and the mind?

I have always been interested. In high school, I was one of those nerdy kids in the library reading Aristotle and Plato. But I was very naïve. I did not realize that there were actually people studying those kinds of issues in the universities. It was not until much later that I realized I could actually do that with my life and not become a sales clerk, Lawyer, or some other field.

3. How did you find your early study and investigation into the human mind?

The first couple years, I was doing theatre design at the nationale in Montreal as a designer. Theatre design is pretty wonderful from the outside. From the inside, you have to be extraordinarily talented. It is also very political. You have to be so amazing. I am in awe of people who can do it. You also have to starve for a long time to do it. The odds are very, very against you. I ended up doing a B.A. in costume design in Ottawa. And doing the odd show in Ottawa, working in my spare time with a children’s program, and I loved being with children. It was so great. They were kids from Lower Town, Ottawa. There aren’t many slums in Ottawa, but I would not say this is a slum. However, I would not say these kids were privileged. I would take them around to all of the various cultural events to try and give them an opportunity. Then I realized that I really loved doing that. I decided to go back to school and do things in learning. I had to do my learning course at Ottawa. It was Behaviorism, but it was with rats and stuff. So that was out to sleep. I wanted to work with kids and know how they learn. Because we did not know; we still do not know. (Laughs) We know a bit more. We did not know how to teach them. I was pretty convinced that the kids in Lower Town, if they could just get their grades up in school, then they would be on track. That would be their ticket. I went back to the University of Toronto. I started school again.

I sat myself in, although I did not know it, but the University of Toronto and Stanford were the centers of memory research. I took a class and the professor–Bennet Murdock– asked, “I need a research assistant. Just come to my office if you want to be a research assistant.” I went with ten other people. He decided simply on grades. That was me. So I got the position because I had the highest grades. So I was his research assistant. It was amazing! Because he was studying memory and the minds, how we think, and mathematical models of memory, I was put in, as an undergraduate, put in with his postdocs and Ph.D. students. It was fantastic! He’s been my mentor ever since. He’s still in Toronto. He’s 92. I still see him from time to time. It was such luck. At the University of Toronto, there were so many great people at the time doing such wonderful, great research. So I lucked into it. It was fun.

I applied to two schools for graduate school: York and Toronto. I really wanted to go to Toronto. I didn’t know, but people later told me that I’d get into Harvard. But I was a Canadian! (Laughs) It didn’t occur to me to go anywhere else. It didn’t matter to me because I got into Toronto and it was a great place. It was very lucky for me

4. In terms of working in the academy as a woman, how did you find your early studies, research, and work? Have things changed?

Yes, it is interesting. I was in Canada during my early time and I think there was a lot less discrimination in Canada than in the US at the time. I later taught both at Dartmouth and currently teaching at Columbia. I could not have been a student at either of those places.

In Canada, there was a tradition and some wonderful women in the department already. Well, there was one time. I had a baby in graduate school while I was doing my Master’s thesis. My Master thesis was published. Usually they were not published, at least at University of Toronto. Mine was published. It was a very good thesis. They had a prize for the best thesis, but they gave it to a guy. They said that they gave it to the guy because his wife had a baby.

That was the only time I thought, “My thesis was better than his was. And it was because his wife had a baby! (Laughs) I was writing this while in the hospital.” There were times when it was very rarefied. I was in the Society for Mathematical Psychology, where there were very few women, okay. I did not feel discriminated against. There was simply a lack of women in it. I think it is pretty transparent. I think some of the women now helping women to have self-confidence, and not take personally rejection letters, are doing a great service. I do not think it has gone away. But Canada was no so dead. Because there were some women in the department already, they had some pretty strong women there. I remember one woman there in her 60s. She had been in the field for a long time.

5. What do you consider your greatest emotional struggle? How did you overcome it?

Well, it is pretty hard having a baby, getting a thesis done, and having my whole salary going into my baby. It was a conflict between career and family life. It is hard being an academic with a family life fighting for tenure. I think women more than men have more assumed responsibility for children than men. There is a biological clock. This usually becomes an issue when you are coming up for having a child and going to compete for jobs and tenure. That is when your children need you the most too. It is very, very hard. I think we should do a lot more. People helped me! When I was a post doc at UCLA, Elizabeth Bjork was on the board of directors of the Wesley Presbyterian Nursery School, which is a couple of blocks from the lab. It was a great nursery school. She negotiated on my behalf so I could get free childcare there. I got to see my kid all the time. I got to know the other kids. And I got free tuition. She totally ran interference for me. It happened again and again in my career. People helped me a lot. We need to help people a lot. We need to help women a lot. It makes their life possible.

6. Your current research focuses on peoples’ metacognitive abilities. In particular, the use of metacognition for self-control. How do you define metacognitive abilities? What have you found with your research on metacognitive abilities since around 2010 onward?

I have been focusing on agency. On people’s sense of doing what they’re doing. I have been really focusing on metacognition and agency. I think this is an absolutely fascinating problem. How do I know that I am me, right? So we created a little computer game lovingly called space pilot. There are Xs and Os all over the screen. You move the cursor to catch the Xs. We can intervene in things such as noise into the system and time delay into the system. We can ask people what the performances was like – what is called straight metacognition, “How in control did you feel?” We are finding that there are very dramatic differences and similarities in this judgment of control, knowing when you are in control. For example, people who have schizophrenia do not have control. They can judge the performance. So there’s straight metacognition is okay. There is judgment is okay. But they do not know if we have intervened. There are a whole lot of consequences, I think, in their real life, if they cannot judge real life – if they cannot judge what is coming from the external real world. It is very central for their ability to get around in the real world.

People with Asperger’s have some problems too. For example, they have problems with self-boundaries. We have found some interesting glitches. They will take credit for magic. Other undergraduates will not take credit for magic. If it is good and it is kids, it is because of them. There are these very interesting differences.

We have put participants in brain scanners. There are several components that we are able to isolate. It looks like there are a variety of cues that people use to make this very central judgment that your grandmother sings is just obvious, I know I have done it. It is direct knowledge.” Well, it is not direct knowledge. It is inferential knowledge, but inferential knowledge that we mostly get right and it is a good thing that we do. We are starting to know that right temporal-parietal junction in the brain has something to do with detecting when things are not going the way they should, when you feel that things are not in your control. We know the frontal-polar area, behind your forehead more or less, has to do with making the judgment itself. It is has to do with all kinds of self-relevant judgments. It seems to have to do with all kinds of attributions of the kind of person that you are, but you have to know at some level that this is you doing it.

Also, we know striatum, in the old brain, is the reward system of the brain is connected so that you feel reward for your feeling in control – for you being an agent. So we are starting to get an idea of the neural components and psychological cues that people use. So we are starting to understand it, which is kind of fascinating. That is the stuff since 2010.

7. If any, what responsibility do academics and researchers have for contributing to society and culture?

Oh, enormous responsibility! In terms of keeping everything really honest, the pure sciences, the quest for truth is what it is all about. It is not the quest for money. It is not the quest for fame. It is not the quest for personal anything. It is the quest for truth. That is an extremely valuable contribution. I love being at Columbia and many of the Canadian universities, the liberal arts, and the value of culture. It is treasured in the universities. It’s so important that we treasure that. I mean, I go to a lecture and an hour and a half on just on the meaning of a leaf in one painting made by Leonardo. The fact that we have gotten people that were supporting the intense investigation and thinking of details about how things work and the meaning of being a human being. That is what the university is about. Of course, we need money and food. But that core mission is so important for what it means to be a human being. We have huge responsibilities! (Laughs)

8. If you have a take-home message about your research, especially related to recent research on metacognitive abilities in relation to learning, what would you have for people to understand?

Oh my goodness, I don’t know. Metacognition is kind of the highest level of thinking that you have got. And the ability to think about your thinking gives you the possibility to control your thinking and to take responsibility – for you to be free. For you to be responsible for shaping your own mind, it gives you that little prod. In that, you can take control of your own mind and future. It is a little bit, but you have this possibility to change yourself. I think that is a fascinating possibility and people can, because we have got this possibility – and maybe a other primates have it or so it looks, but most animals do not have that capability. However, you have the possibility to change yourself in a good direction.

Bibliography

1) Finn, B. & Metcalfe, J. (2014). Overconfidence in Children’s Multi-Trial Judgments of Learning. Learning and Instruction, 32, 1-9.

2) Metcalfe, J., Eich, T. S., Miele, D. B. (2013). Metacognition of agency: proximal action and distal outcome.Experimental Brain Research, 229, 485-96.

3) McCurdy, L.Y., Maniscalco, B., Metcalfe, J., Liu, K. Y., de Lange, F., & Lau, H. (2013).Anatomical coupling between distinct metacognitive systems for memory and visual perception. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(5),1897-1906.

4) Metcalfe, J. & Finn, B. (2013). Metacognition and control of study choice in children.Metacognition and Learning, 8(1), 19-46.

5) Miele, D. B., Son, L. K., Metcalfe, J. (2013). Children’s naive theories of intelligence influence their metacognitive judgments. Child Development, 84(6), 1879-86.

6) Cosentino, S., Metcalfe, J., Holmes, B., Steffener, J. & Stern, Y. (2011). Finding the Self in Metacognitive Evaluations: Metamemory and agency in non-demented elders.Neuropsychology, 25,602-612.

7) Cosentino, S., Metcalfe, J., Carey, M., Karlawish, J. H. T., & De Leon, J. (2011). Memory awareness influences everyday decision making capacity about medication management in Alzheimer’s disease. International Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 2011, (online).

8) Kelly, K. J., & Metcalfe, J. (2011). Metacognition of emotional face recognition. Emotion, 11, 896-906.

9) Miele, D. M., Wager, T. D., Mitchell, J. P., & Metcalfe, J. (2011). Dissociating neural correlates of action monitoring and metacognition of agency. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23, 3620-3636.

10) Metcalfe, J., Eich, T. S., & Castel, A. (2010). Metacognition of agency across the lifespan. Cognition, 116, 267-282.

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Dr. Norman G. Finkelstein: Independent Academic, Political Analyst, and Author

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/05/22

ABSTRACT

In the following brief interview with Dr. Norman Finkelstein, he discusses the following: survival of his parents from the Nazi death camps; personal moral outrage against racism, war, and injustice; terse considerations of controversial topics such as economic inequality and climate change; The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (2003); the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a potential solution in “mass, nonviolent resistance”; moral and pragmatic responsibilities of academics, and everyone; and influence of his mother and Noam Chomsky on him.

Keywords: academic, climate change, Dr. Norman Finkelstein, economic inequality, Holocaust industry, injustice, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Nazi, Noam Chomsky, racism, war.

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside? How do you find this influencing your development?

My parents survived the Nazi death camps (my father was in Auschwitz, my mother in Maidanek). No one else on either side of the family survived. Everything I’ve done in my life has been, in some sense, a vindication of their martyrdom. What they endured has been the source of my moral outrage against war, racism and injustice, although Professor Chomsky provided me with the intellectual “method” to articulate it.

2. What do you consider the most controversial topics at the moment? How do you examine the issues? What do you consider the strongest arguments of those with differing views of the issues than you?

Many of the “most controversial topics at the moment” such as climate change/global warming, and unemployment/economic inequality, require not just background but also technical mastery (in the natural sciences and or economics/mathematics) that I do not possess. So, it’s difficult to enter these debates with the kind of preparation and confidence that I prefer before taking a stand.

3. In the second edition of your book The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (2003), you discuss what you term the ‘Holocaust Industry’. For those unfamiliar with your writing, how do you define it? What does this imply? Where does your current research stand on this issue a little over a decade after the second paperback issue?

The Holocaust industry referred to Jewish organizations that exploited the Nazi holocaust for political gain—mostly to immunize Israel from criticism—and financial gain—this shakedown racket mostly in Europe to extract what was called “compensation” for “needy Holocaust victims.” Nowadays, many people refer casually to the Holocaust industry—it’s taken for granted or as a given. For example, even the former speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Avraham Burg, in his book “The Holocaust is Over,” refers to the “Shoah industry.”

4. Where do you see the future of the Israel-Palestine conflict? In particular, what about the dangers for areas of further conflict? Where do you see the strongest possibilities for resolution?

I am not optimistic for a just resolution of the conflict unless Palestinians in the occupied territories engage in mass, nonviolent resistance. For now, they have (with good reason) lost interest in, or grown cynical of, politics. What the future brings in this regard, I cannot predict. But if they don’t resist, then Palestine will go the way of the Native Americans.

5. If any, what responsibility do academics and researchers have for contributing to society and culture? What do you consider the greatest potential benefits and damages to society, and culture, based on the contributions of academics and researchers?

Everyone has a responsibility to make the world a just and decent place. It’s not just a moral but also a pragmatic responsibility. If the overwhelming majority of climate scientists are right, the human race just won’t be around much longer, unless we get our act together. Academics and researchers by the nature of their profession have more time, resources and leisure than most of the world’s population (of peasants and industrial workers) to right the world’s wrongs, so their responsibility is obviously greater.

6. Who most influenced you? Why them? Can you recommend seminal books or articles by them?

My late Mother had, by a wide margin, the biggest impact in shaping my moral outlook. But, although she was very smart (actually too smart for her own good), she was never able to articulate her moral outrage (in part because she was so against “intellectualizing”/”debating” war, destruction and death). It was not until I started reading Chomsky that I found a “method” to be both indignant at injustice and also to preserve scholarly standards. It didn’t help me survive in academia, but I think it did help me become more convincing before a broad public.

Bibliography

1) [Nizar Abboud] (2010, March 30). Norman Finkelstein on Goldstone, Gaza, and Israel.wmv. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElX_4s6FZpg#t=456.

2) [TrinityNew Dublin] (2012, October 1). Norman Finkelstein. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rC0-zZbKqco#!.

3) Abraham, M. (2011). THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE AND THE SUBVERSION OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM: DEPAUL’S DENIAL OF TENURE TO NORMAN G. FINKELSTEIN. Arab Studies Quarterly, 33(3/4), 179-203.

4) Cole, T. (2002). Representing the Holocaust in America: Mixed Motives or Abuse?. Public Historian, 24(4), 127.

5) Finkelstein, N. (2014, March 26). Alternative Voices – Ep. 2: The Uncompromising Life and Times of Norman Finkelstein of Norman Finkelstein. Retrieved from http://normanfinkelstein.com/2014/norman-finkelstein-on-nuclear-weapons/.

6) Finkelstein, N. (2000, September 21). Book Notes. (Cover story). New York Amsterdam News. p. 1.

7) Finkelstein, N. (2013, July 30). Democracy Now: Norman Finkelstein on the “Peace Process”. Retrieved from http://normanfinkelstein.com/2013/democracy-now-norman-finkelstein-on-the-new-peace-process/.

8) Finkelstein, N. (2014). Norman Finkelstein on Nuclear Weapons. Retrieved from http://normanfinkelstein.com/2014/norman-finkelstein-on-nuclear-weapons/.

9) Finkelstein, N. (2014, March). The End of Palestine? It’s Time to Sound an Alarm. New Left Project. Retrieved from http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/the_end_of_palestine_its_time_to_sound_an_alarm.

10) Finkelstein, N. (2003). The Holocaust Industry: The Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. 2nd edn. London: Verso.

11) Finkelstein, N. & Stern-Weiner, J. (2014, January 22). Israeli-Palestinian talks: An Update. New Left Project. Retrieved from http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/israeli_palestinian_talks_an_update

12) Finkelstein, N. & Stern-Weiner, J. (2014, January 11). The End of Palestine? An Interview with Norman G. Finkelstein. New Left Project. http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/the_end_of_palestine_an_interview_with_norman_g._finkelstein.

13) Gillespie, M. (2008). Norman Finkelstein Speaks on Illegitimacy of Israel’s Occupation. Washington Report On Middle East Affairs, 27(5), 58-59.

14) Massad, J. (2002). DECONSTRUCTING HOLOCAUST CONSCIOUSNESS. Journal Of Palestine Studies, 32(1), 78.

15) Mutch, N. (2014, February 8). Nick Mutch Discusses Obama and Israel with Norman Finkelstein. Cherwell. Retrieved from http://www.cherwell.org/comment/world/2014/02/08/interview-norman-finkelstein.

16) RT News [RT] (2010, May 17). Norman Finkelstein: Israel being exposed and feels threatened. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sak6dRHi0YY.

17) RT News [RT] (2010, January 27). Crosstalk on Holocaust: Murder Revenues. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCKTKMFTprM.

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2023-01-28

Dr. Manahel Thabet: WIQF, President; Smart Tips Consultants, President; World Intelligence Network, Vice-President

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/05/01

ABSTRACT

The following broad interview with Dr. Manahel Thabet discusses the following: geographic, cultural, and linguistic background; developing as a gifted child and early identification by her parents; original dreams of entering space; earning her first Ph.D. in Financial engineering (age 25) and second in Quantum mathematics (age 31); work at WIQF, Smart Tips Consultants, and WIN; non-verbal intelligence tests; myths of the gifted population; emotional struggles as a woman in leadership; distinctions and awards; position as patron of the Women’s Leadership program MBA at Synergy University; thoughts on the past of and projections for quantum physics; concerns for the gifted community; responsibilities of the gifted population; thoughts of the near and far future for the gifted population; influences and inspirations; and things giving hope and the complicity of the structure of the universe.

Key Words: Dr. Manahel Thabet, financial engineering, gifted, leadership, MBA, non-verbal intelligence tests, quantum mathematics, responsibilities, Synergy University, WIN, WIQF, women.

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside? How do you find this influencing your development?

In fact, I lived in many different countries and diverse cultures. I believe this diversity of location, and moving from one place to another, had enriched my knowledge in many areas and shaped my personality in a deep way.

2. How did you find developing from childhood through adolescence into young adulthood with giftedness? Did you know from an early age? What events provided others, and you, awareness of your high-level of ability?

My family noticed something. I did not start speaking like normal kids. They were worried about that and took me to a speech therapist who advised them to run an IQ test for me. As early as 7 years old, my family knew, I was different. They embraced this fact. They did their best to cope and enable me to utilise my giftedness.

3. You had an original dream to enter space. What happened to that dream? How did you cope?

As a kid who had many dreams like any other kid in the world, I was so fascinated by space and the universe. My dream was to be an astronaut. Of course, I did not know it is very difficult to be one – lol. I grew up with the love of this field. Ever since I can remember, it has been my passion. I embraced this passion. Throughout the years, I improved the passion through studying, research, development, and hobbies. For one hobby, I enjoy stargazing the most. I am an amateur astronomer. Also, I am a member of Dubai Astronomy Group and in some days you will see me tracking stars from one place to another.

4. You earned a first Ph.D. in Financial Engineering, at the age of 25, and a second in Quantum Mathematics, at the age of 31. Why did you pursue these areas of education? How are your productions changing their respective fields?

This is an interesting question! The common thing between the two fields are numbers. Yes, I am fascinated by numbers. I feel that everything in our lives is calculated in a way or another. Formulas exist in every aspect of our lives, even in love and relations.

5. You have earned the title ‘Queen of Bourse’. What does this mean? How did this originate?

I was at the stock market once, and a reporter saw my performance, which was at that time very high. She asked me, “Where are you from?” I said, “From Yemen.” She didn’t know where Yemen is, then I told her I am from the land of ‘Queen of Sheeba’. At that point, she wrote from ‘Queen of Sheeba’ to ‘Queen of Bourse’. Since that time, people took it as a title.

6. You are President of WIQF, President of Smart Tips Consultants, and Vice-President of the World Intelligence Network. What is the function of these organizations? What other major organizations devoted to similar causes can you recommend for resources and support?

WIQF and WIN are think tanks for the high IQ world. Through the operations of these organization, we are trying to gather high IQ individuals in one platform to discuss ideas and exchange knowledge. As well, we do IQ testing through our connections with accredited sources, ability testing, and personality assessments.

For Smart Tips, it’s a consultancy firm. I founded the firm in 2005. We do financial engineering, consultancy, internal auditing, and feasibility studies.

7. In terms of universalizing the testing of intelligence, non-verbal tests appear to have much promise, especially for the high-range. What do you see in the future for high-range non-verbal tests? How will this change general intelligence testing and the identification of gifted individuals?

Nonverbal tests have been considered pure measures of general intelligence and are excellent indicators of abstract reasoning, particularly in the visual-spatial domain. These instruments have negligible ethnic biases, and I support their use in identifying gifted children from culturally diverse groups.

However, they do not measure as wide a range of abilities as IQ tests and would not be as predictive of success in a gifted program.

8. Of the gifted population, there exist many myths. What do you consider the greatest of these? What truths dispel them?

One of the things people should notice is the high level of extremely intelligent people in autistic children. If not discovered, it is a serious waste of human capacity to do wonders.

9. As a woman in leadership and achieving records for many endeavors, what struggles and emotional difficulties have you endured to attain such accomplishments?

Ahhh, living in the Middle East where a male-dominated society still rules is a big challenge. I cannot deny that it is changing, but a woman needs to make double the effort to get less than half of the recognition and support. My journey was a bit bumpy. It took a lot of emotional strength to keep going, but sometimes I would feel drained. However, I will not allow this to drag me down. I am blessed with a caring family and supportive friends.

10. You are the patron for the MBA – Women’s Leadership Program – at Synergy University. What does this program encompass? What does such a program mean to you?

This MBA programme is the first in the Middle East in Women’s Leadership. I was so proud to be selected as the patron of this programme. It means a lot to me to see prospective women leaders coming soon. I have always been a supporter of female education and empowerment of women.

11. You earned multiple awards and recognition including the Excellence of Global International Environmental and Humanitarian Award, L’Officiel Inspirational Woman of the Year Award, Genius of the Year Award for 2013 (Representative of Asia), and Excellence of Global International Environmental and Humanitarian Award. What do these and other awards mean to you? What responsibilities and duties do these imply to you?

Being recognised and being honored with these awards puts you in a position of big responsibility. Once you are put in this position, you are a role model for many. Therefore, ethically, you should be fit to inspire those who look up to you. Whenever I take an award, I do not call it an award. I call it a reward for many days and years of hard work, and then continue attention to what I do best.

12. How has the world of quantum physics changed over the past decade? What do you anticipate to be the next big steps?

Einstein’s sentiments still reverberate today, more than a century after humanity’s first insights into the quantum world; quantum mechanics makes perfect sense mathematically, but defies our intuition at every turn. So it might surprise you that, despite its strangeness, quantum mechanics has led to some revolutionary inventions over the past century and promises to lead to many more in the years to come. I believe that quantum aspect will be involved in every aspect in our lives. Starting from the theoretical basis which is the teaching of new quantum methods up to using it in quantitative methods in economy up to using it to find cures for diseases using quantitative measurements and cellular techniques.

13. You share a concern of mine. In particular, the sincere desire to assist the gifted population in flourishing, especially the young. Now, many organizations provide for the needs of the moderately gifted ability sectors of the general population, most often adults and sometimes children. However, few provide for the needs of children (and adults) in the high, profound, exceptional, or ‘unmeasurable’ ability sectors of the general population. Some organizations and societies provide forums, retreats, journals, intelligence tests, literature, or outlets for the highest ability sub-populations. What can individuals, organizations, and societies do to provide for the gifted population? What argument most convinces you of the need to provide for this sector of society?

Caring about gifted individuals is not something to easily say, it is an action to make. It cannot be highlighted by individuals only, government attention is needed too. Caring about gifted individuals includes education, systems, and qualified individuals to explore gifted abilities in kids, utilities and so on.

Yes, it is important for people like myself, and others to have their voice out, and call for more attention to this category of people. This cannot be taken care of if so many government entities bind together to form a whole adaptation system to those who need it the most (and I mean here the gifted and talented sector only)

14. In turn, what responsibilities do the gifted population have towards society and culture? Why do you think this?

See, gifted individuals are as normal as other people. They share the same duties and responsibilities towards society. Responsibilities towards society and culture are something ethical. It does not differentiate between gifted or non-gifted.

15. Where do you see the future of the gifted population in relation to society? What about the near and far future of the gifted population in general?

We are heading towards a knowledge-based era. We are transforming our dependency from usable technology to wearable technology, and soon consumable technology. Minds will be the true asset for any nation. The technological revolution we are heading to embrace just like the production revolution will need special leaders and those leaders will have to be somehow gifted or talented in the technological arena.

16. What projects do you have in the coming years?

Many!

17. Who most influenced you? Who inspires you?

Strangely enough, I can get inspired by anyone or anything. From a writer, inventor, poet, singer actor, animal, or even a view. Inspiration is not limited if you can embrace it. And I always believe that “if the universe exists the sky is not the limit”.

18. Finally, you have tweeted, “The Universe has many hilarious aspects. So I should not get credit for a sense of humor if all I do is point this out.” What gives you hope, humor, and a sense of wonder?

What gives me hope is when I see those who are deprived from everything smiling. And what keeps me wondering all the time is the structure of our amazing universe and the complicity behind its creation.

Bibliography

1) Stewart, H. (2013, March). Magic Numbers. Forbes: Middle East. Retrieved from
http://english.forbesmiddleeast.com/read.php?story=399.

2) Thabet, M. (2012, February 26). Structure Variation Hyper Arithmetical Sort Operators and Applications. SSRN. Retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2193860.

3) Thabet, M. (2012, March 17). Quantum Mathematics Findings. SSRN. Retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2234594.

4) Al-Sakkaf, N. (2013, February 28). Yemen in One Week. Yemen Times. Retrieved from http://www.yementimes.com/en/1655/viewpoint/2068/Yemen-in-one-week.htm.

5) Asger, M. (2012, May 17). Dubai woman’s space formula takes world by storm. Gulf News. Retrieved from http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/general/dubai-woman-s-space-formula-takes-world-by-storm-1.1024095.

6) Khamis, J. (2013, January 15). Dubai resident brings arab genius into the equation. Gulf news. Retrieved from http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/society/dubai-resident-brings-arab-genius-into-equation-1.1137564.

7) Shoush, M.E. (2012, July 11). Bringing talent to the fore: support and guidance for the gifted population. The National. Retrieved from http://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/family/bringing-talent-to-the-fore-support-and-guidance-for-gifted-children.

8) Synergy University (2014, February 20). MBA – Women’s Leadership Inaugration. Synergy University. Retrieved from http://t.co/6GeLfkOONp.

9) The World Genius Directory (2013). Dr Manahel Thabet, World Genius Directory: 2013 Genius of the Year – Asia. Retrieved from http://www.psiq.org/world_genius_directory_awards/goty2013manahelthabet.pdf.

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2023-01-28

Dr. Susan Blackmore: Visiting Professor, University of Plymouth

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/04/23

1. In brief, how was your youth? Did you have any personal heroes growing up?

I think two biology teachers I had, which I did not realize at the time, but looking back they were a gay couple. They were lovely. They inspired me to know biology and to understand what life is. We are talking about the 1960s, when I was at a ghastly boarding school, which I absolutely hated. They did inspire me. But Miss Bayliss said to me, “You know, Biology is nearly finished. We have really done nearly everything that we need to do in Biology. That is not the science of the future. The science of the future is going to be psychology.” That’s why I went into psychology and physiology rather than biology at university, but it is kind of funny when you look back at what happened to modern biology! (Laughs) I do not regret that at all. That’s why I love biology. I still do.

2. How would you describe your early philosophical framework? Did it change? If so, how did it change?

I think false memory is probably relevant here. It is terribly hard. (Laughs) I can remember things about my philosophical and scientific ideas as a child, but whether I am really accurately remembering them – I do not know. As far as I can tell, I was always interested in deep scientific questions. What is light? What is heat? Why does water run downhill? What does it mean for something to be heavy? I can remember seeing splashes of water and wondering about it. My father used to clean out our pond once a year. I used to collect all of the newts. It was really interesting because nearly every year there were always 42 or 43 newts. I wondered if they were the same ones or different ones. Basic kinds of questions that scientists ask. I wondered about bees and birds in the sky. Did some supernatural power keep them up? I always had a faint interest in supernatural forces that science did not particularly understand. That was when I was older, probably as a teenager. I had an interest in that stuff.

I guess another side of philosophical thinking is religion. I was brought up as a standard Church of England kid. I went to a Methodist boarding school. My parents were Christians. My dad was not much of one, but my mom was very serious. I used to have huge arguments with her about the existence of god. I had various phases in my childhood of being very skeptical of god, the afterlife, heaven, and so on. All of these kinds of things. I used to really annoy my mom with this stuff. Oddly enough, I was probably an atheist by the time I left school. However, I had religious phases again. And I think, the one I particularly remember, when I fell in love at the age of 25 and got married within a very few months. I was ‘head-over-heels’ in love. We both had a religious phase at that time. And we both got married in church. I suppose it was this transcendental feeling of love that lured me into being religious again. It did not last. Quickly, I became an atheist again. It was the last of my religious phases. I began to find other ways to have a spiritual life other than religion. I have been pursuing what I call a spiritual life ever since

3. You did early work in your academic career in psychology and physiology. You moved into parapsychology for some time. For your parapsychology Ph.D. thesis, entitled Extrasensory Perception as a Cognitive Process, what did you find?

Ha! I did not find what I expected to find. I was doing physiology and psychology as my degree at Oxford. And I loved it! I was interested in the science, what little was then known about how the brain, memory, perception, and so on, works. In my first term, I had this extraordinary ‘out of the body experience’ (OBE). Based on this experience, I just uncritically thought there was telepathy, clairvoyance, spirits, precognition, and anything seemed possible given the challenge of that experience to the science that I was learning. I decided at that moment – then and there. I am going to become a parapsychologist. I wanted to prove all these phenomena to my “closed-minded” lecturers at Oxford. (Laughs) Even then, during the experience, and in the weeks and months after it, I remembered the sense of reality, “Yes, but, it would still all be.” The sense of reality, the vividness of it, the sense of rightness, and the ineffable noetic quality, “I know this is more true, more real than anything I have ever experienced in my life.” That quality kept coming back and I did not know how to understand it. Reflecting on my foray into parapsychology was a 10, 15, (laughs) 20 year ‘wild goose chase’ off in the wrong direction. Subsequently, my Zen practice and meditation – and the explorations of the illusion of self and free will – are connecting with the depth of that experience in a way that parapsychology did not, and never could.

To answer your question, what did I find? I developed a grand theory of the paranormal – of memory and extrasensory perception, I set out to test this theory in terms of experiments on telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, psycho-kinesis, and I never found a single phenomenon! And then I tested tarot cards, and I kept on, and on, and on. I never found any evidence of any paranormal phenomena. To keep a long-story short (Laughs), in the end, I came to the conclusion, which I have now, I cannot prove they do not exist, but am sure as one can be –not 100%, that they do not exist. It was a long, long journey. And you might say a waste of time. I would not say that. It was very interesting. And if such phenomena existed, it would be really, really important.

4. You worked on the Advisory Board of the Journal of Memetics. What is the state of memetic research?

I am not sure if there is anything worthy of the name ‘memetic research’. It is quite interesting. I still strongly believe thinking about cultural evolution in terms of memes is the right way to go about it. All of this man-made environment – all of our culture – is a mass of information competing to use our brains to get itself copied. The power lies in these memes to evolve by variation and selection. Therefore, memes, we human meme machines, are constantly constructing new memes out of old ones. Varying them in different ways and then selecting amongst them. Some thrive and others die off. It seems to me to make sense of the extraordinary world around us. To make sense, to my mind, the horrible speeding up, the endless speeding up, of how much stuff we are bombarded with – how much difficulty we have in choosing among it. It is choose, choose, choose, our brains cannot take it! I feel memetics is the appropriate way to understand this phenomena. I am in such a tiny minority. There is something about the word meme, which people do not like – something about the idea of memes that people do not like. That includes ordinary people and scientists, who shy away from it endlessly. There is a lot of research in cultural evolution. Some of that research looks very close to memetics. Some of it is by people who absolutely reject memetics. The journal that you mentioned ceased publication. There has not been any replacement. It may be some time before the light dawns and people realize that this is really the way to go.

5. From the previous question, you define genes as the 1^st replicator; memes as the 2^nd replicator. You gave a TED talk on the ‘3^rd replicators’: temes. What are temes? How do they work? Do you envision the future with a Journal of Temetics?

I was contacted out of the blue by someone from NASA to contribute to a collection on cultural evolution in the cosmos. The only example of cultural evolution is on the Earth, but I thought, “What would it mean to have cultural evolution on other planets?” We know of lots, and lots, of other planets out there. Many of them in the ‘goldilocks’ region such that you could think of some kind of life evolving. What would it mean for other forms of life – completely different on distant planets? That set me thinking. The ideas that I came up with go something like this. First, a replicator appears. Something with the appropriate resources around it will get copied. That’s what we mean by a replicator. Some kind of information that is copied. This is copied with variance, and the environment will select some variants over others. So you have an evolutionary process going. That’s standard universal Darwinism. That’s just what happens, and must happen indeed – if the chemical situation is right. What happened on Earth? We may have an RNA precursor. We are not sure of the earliest stages. But we ended up with genes as the first stable, long-term replicator. All life on this planet depends on the evolution of genes. That’s the first replicator on Earth. The second replicator came about because one of these creatures, gene machines – creatures created by genes for the replication of genes, one of these creatures became capable of replicating information in a completely different way. Early humans were able to imitate sounds, gestures, making stone tools, lighting fires, wearing clothes, whatever those early memes may have been, when those creatures became capable of copying information with variation and selection, a new replicator was born!

To have a replicator, you have to have copying with variation and selection. With human imitation, you have that. That’s what we mean by the second replicator called, by Richard Dawkins, memes. I began to think, “Could there be further replicators after that?” I have been worrying for a long time about the status of information on the web, the emails we send, and all of the information we send. I wonder, “Is it really in our control? Did we really construct all these machines for our own benefit? Or are we deluded into thinking it is for our benefit? Could it really be for the memes’ benefits? Is it still memes if it is not us directly copying it? What if the machines started copying stuff without us knowing about it?” I thought, “Aha!” By the sorts of definitions that I am using, then if there is information that is copied with variation and selection by machines outside of our control, then there is a third replicator. I gave that the name techno-memes or ‘temes’. I think ‘thremes’ would be a better name. Unfortunately, it is difficult to change the name now. These are technological memes. Information, digital information, that is stored, copied, varied, and selected by machines. Now, are there such things already? For the moment, you could say that most of the information out there, certainly the stuff seen on our screens, is dependent on us. In the sense that we do the selecting, or do we?

When we put some terms into google, google has a lot of say in the things that come up. It has a lot of amazingly clever algorithms based on who we are, where we are, and so on. What about the varying? There are lots and lots of programs constructing variance out there on things by taking things out, reconstructing it, and sending it out. We are still doing much of the varying and so on. However, it is certainly not beyond the bounds of possibility that it is information out there that we are not seeing being stored, copied, varied, and selected entirely by machines. I would term that temes.

It is extremely worrying in that it will be using the space in these machines. These machines require an awful lot of planetary resources. They put out an awful lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for the sake of replicating. If it got really, really up and running as a new replicator, the first thing we would know about it might be something like dark energy – it would be dark information. The servers are using a lot of energy but we don’t know where it is going because the information is not interacting with us. So we can’t see it. Anyway, that was the type of wild speculation that I was led to.

In terms of the original question that I was asked in the first place about cultural evolution and the cosmos, I thought, “You are not going to get planetary communication between civilizations based on only having genes or a second replicator. You would need a third replicator, where information could be stored in machines that do not require air to breathe and food to eat in order to communicate from one planet to another.” So we would only be able to see other civilizations out there if they had got to the third replicator stage. If they had, in my opinion, it would be dangerous because every time another replicator comes along it is dangerous for the planet. In the sense that when genes arrived, the atmosphere changed. When memes arrived, humans changed, the brain got bigger. It is hard to sustain, but we pulled through. If there is a third replicator now, maybe, we should be optimistic and say, “We will pull through!” Or maybe, we should be pessimistic and that is the reason we do not hear from other civilizations. Anyway, that is what my TED talk was about. I throw out ideas for other people to think about, and see what happens.

6. In psychology and parapsychology, what do you consider the controversial topic(s)? How do you examine the controversial topic(s)?

As far as parapsychology is concerned, I do not think there are any controversial topics. I think it is doomed to failure. It is not to say, “People should not be doing it”. I am really glad people are doing it because endlessly people believe in telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and so on. All of these kinds of things. People are continually having experiences they don’t understand. So they leap to the wrong conclusions, just as I did all those years ago. We can now understand those experiences without inventing the paranormal. Of course it would be very important to science if there really were paranormal occurrences but I do not think there are. Parapsychologists will carry on searching but will have the same disheartening experience that I had, but let them try.

In psychology, what really interests me at the moment, we have all of these kinds of ideas about ourselves that are basically wrong. We feel as though we are a self, experiencing the world that has to make all of these decisions, but these things do not seem to be true based on the way the brain works. Therefore, the question is, “Why are we so deluded?”

7. You argue free will is an illusion. By your line of reasoning, what type of free will are illusions? If any, what kinds of free will seem implausible, but possible, to you?

I like to define free will in the ordinary, everyday, human sense that I can by my own conscious thoughts – my own conscious decisions – cause something to happen independently of the state of my genes, memes, environment, brain state, and so on and so forth, that is what people mean by free will. They mean, “I did it!” Not, “My brain or genes did it!” I am not going into all of the many sophisticated definitions. This kind of free will does not exist. In this ordinary sense of the term, we do not have free will.

8. If you had sufficient funding and complete academic freedom, what would you research?

I would have to think about the implications of it. If somebody ‘out-of-the-blue’ gave me the money, I would study the physiological effects of meditation. I think we have only just begun to study the capacities of the human brain for self-control, for changing itself, for learning to be in different states without taking drugs or being hit in the head with a hammer. The capacity to see through the illusions of self, free will, consciousness, and so on. That is being done, and has for a long time been done through meditation and mindfulness. We are only beginning to understand the things going on inside of those brains that undergo those very, very profound changes in terms of the self. Probably, if somebody did (laughs) force upon me lots of money, I would probably throw myself into that.

9. Who most influenced you? Can you recommend any seminal books/articles?

The three Ds: Darwin, Dawkins, and Dennett. Darwin is obvious.

Dawkins is obvious. The selfish gene is the book in which he invented the idea of memes, but I think a lot of his work shows the wonder of how the varieties and splendor of life arise out of purely mechanical information-based evolutionary processes is wonderful! Although, he does not leap into changing his life through meditation or anything. He does not take it into the direction that I have taken it. Nor has he gone on exploring memes that way that I like to do it.

Now, of course, there is Dan Dennett. And I would say, the book that has most influenced me is his 1991 book, Consciousness Explained, which still more than twenty years on makes points that most scientists in the field of consciousness studies simply do not understand. He explores all of the traps that we fall into such as imagining the little ‘self’ inside, who is experiencing this stream of consciousness. He replaces this with the Multiple Drafts theory, which is so difficult to understand. I explain it again, and again, and again, to my students. Only some of my students understand it. I check with Dan to see if I understand it the way he understands it. I think I do understand it. It is so counterintuitive. I agree with him. If we are to understand consciousness, we have to throw out our intuitions. Intuitions about self and consciousness because it is all illusory. It’s all not how it seems to be, we get it wrong all of the time. We fall into all of these traps. So that is the most wonderful book. Unfortunately, I part company with him in his book Freedom Evolves because I think the book should be called Choice Evolves. As we evolved as more complex creatures and created more complex environments, we have to make more choices, but those choices are made based on what goes on inside of our brains, the genes we have, and all of those reasons. Not because of something called free will. Not because our will is free. I think the grounds of our disagreement are that he takes a much more sophisticated view of free will. He says, “There is the magical idea of free will, which people believe in. Obviously, it cannot be true. So let’s have a different one.” But that is the one that matters. The one where I can magically choose for no other reason that I want to choose it. That’s where we part company. I think Dan Dennett’s views are still the best. And that the people involved in consciousness studies ought, at least, to consider their intuitions. I believe they are leading astray the science of consciousness studies.

However, Dan Dennett, like Richard Dawkins, has no interest in the spiritual life. He points out these illusions and traps that we fall into, but he does not then say, “Right! Let’s try live my life in a way that overcomes those.” For me, I stumbled across Zen a long, long time ago and have practiced meditation and mindfulness for years. I discovered through that a systematic way of training yourself to drop the illusions of self, consciousness, and free will. It is a long, long tough haul.

I would add one more: William James. My only other hero that does not begin with D. Principles of Psychology from 1890 by James. It’s something like 1,200 pages in two volumes. I read it all. I read lots of parts of it again, and again, and again. I have a first addition, which is annotated with lots of scribbles! It is the only book that I possess which I love. I physically love the book! His ideas are so subtle and interesting. Way ahead of his time! He was considering what kind of entity this illusory self might be, fascinating man. I would recommend the Principles of Psychology and the Varieties of Religious Experience. He did, unlike the three Ds, wonder about religious and mystical experiences as I do.

10. And gave them book-length treatment.

Yes, indeed!

11. You are the mother of two children, Emily and Jolyon. Both are professional academics. In this, your advice for young academics is concrete. What advice do you have for young academics?

It still amazes me that both of my kids are academics. It does not terribly surprise me that Emily would be because she was always terribly clever and had that kind of mind. She is doing very well. Jolyon was, as a child, much more interested in art and building things. He would be down the cellar making stuff. All the sudden, in his late teens, he started to get interested in science. I guess, he was in a scientific family. It was around him all of the time. It took off at that time. I am glad that I did not push them into any particular direction or career when they were young. I thought, “Okay, that is what they are interested in.” Perhaps, I was too interested in my own life ad work. (Laughs) Jolyon as we speak is off in Africa doing research on camouflage in birds and having a very good academic career. However, in another way, I think, “The academic life now is so pressured, competitive, stressful! I hesitate having anyone go into it. Except that, it is the best way to pursue one’s scientific curiosity.” That is, perhaps, the only way to seriously pursue one’s scientific curiosity. If you are curious like me and that is what you want to do, then my advice to young people, as it has always been, “Do what you are really interested in. Follow the questions that are burning in your mind. If you do not have those questions, then do not be an academic because it is awfully tough!” (Laughs) If you love something and really want to know the answers, you will work hard and enjoy it. But if you do something because it is the ‘trendy’ thing, your parents tell you to do it, or you will earn more money, no good at all. Do what you love and do it well.

Bibliography

1) Blackmore, S. (2009). Help find a name for the third replicator. New Scientist, 203(2719), 36-39.

2) Blackmore, S. (1998). Imitation and the definition of a meme. Journal Of Memetics – Evolutionary Models Of Information Transmission, 2(2), 1.

3) Blackmore, S. (2005). Implications for memetics. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 28(4), 490.

4) Blackmore, S. (2008). Memes shape brains shape memes. Behavioral And Brain Sciences, 31(5), doi:10.1017/S0140525X08005037

5) Blackmore, S. (2009). Replicators on other planets?. New Scientist, 203(2719), 36-39.

6) Blackmore, S. (2012). She Won’t Be Me. Journal Of Consciousness Studies, 19(1/2), 16-19.

7) Blackmore, S. (2008, February). Susan Blackmore: Memes and “Temes” [Video File]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_blackmore_on_memes_and_temes.

8) Blackmore, S. (1986). The Adventures of a Parapsychologist. Buffalo and New York: Prometheus.

9) Blackmore, S. (2002). The grand illusion. New Scientist, 174(2348), 26-29.

10) Blackmore, S. (1999). The Meme Machine. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

11) Blackmore, S. (2009). The third replicator is among us. New Scientist, 203(2719), 36-39.

12) Blackmore, S., & Bradie, M. (2000). Do Memes Make Sense?. Free Inquiry, 20(3), 42.

13) Blackmore, S., Fouad, N., Kagan, J., Kosslyn, S., Posner, M., Sternberg, R., Driscoll, M. Ge, X., & Parrish, P. (2013). Psychology. Educational Technology, 53(5), 53-63.

14) Dawkins, R. (1976). The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

15) Dennett, D. (1991). Consciousness Explained. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.

16) Dennett, D. (2003, February). Freedom Evolves. New York, NY: Viking Books.

17) James W. (1890). The Principles of Psychology, 2 vols. n.p.: Dover Publications.

18) James W. (1902). The Varieties of Religious Experience. Harlow, UK: Longmans, Green and Co.

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2023-01-28

Dr. Adele Diamond: Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience; Professor, Psychiatry, The University of British Columbia

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/04/15

1. What is your current position?

I am the Canada Research Chair, Tier 1, and Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychiatry at The University of British Columbia (UBC).

2. What major positions have you held in your academic career?

Now, besides being a professor and Canada Research Chair, I am the head of the division of developmental cognitive neuroscience of psychiatry at UBC. Before coming to UBC, I was at University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMass), where I was professor of psychiatry and director of the center for developmental cognitive neuroscience. And before that, I was a visiting associate professor in the department of brain and cognitive sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Before that, I was an assistant professor in the department of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). Last, and prior to that, I was an assistant professor in the department of psychology at Washington University (Wash. U) in St. Louis.

3. Can you name a seminal experience in your youth that most influenced your career direction?

I was not planning on having a career. My high school yearbook says, “Valedictorian; ambition: Housewife.” I was going to get married and have children. That changed sometime while in college. Although, I do not have a particular experience that changed it. So, no, there is no seminal experience, sorry!

4. Where did you acquire your education?

I went to the New York City Public Schools (John Bowne High School) and then I went to Swarthmore College, which is a fantastic undergraduate institution in the United States (US). Harvard University for my Ph.D. and Yale University for my post-doctoral work.

5. What was your original dream?

My original dream was to be home with my kids. And then, when I decided to go on, in college and beyond, I was not interested in science. I was interested in understanding people. I was interested in society and culture, but I was not interested in science. So I avoided anything that sounded like science. I had to take two science courses for distribution requirements. So I took engineering, but, other than that, I did not even take experimental psychology, though psychology was one of my majors, because experimental psychology sounded too much like science. When I went to graduate school, I said, “I want to do interdisciplinary studies in what I called “human development,” which I defined as including psychology, sociology, and anthropology. I thought of anthropology as doing investigations that deeply inform us about people, society and culture, however, I did not view it as science. I thought of’science’ as being something more objective and quantitative. Anthropology gets more at the flesh and essence of things – understanding individuals in social context as opposed to trying to fit lots of people into some general category. It is the difference between nomothetic and idiographic science. Nomothetic being the attempt to apply principles that apply across the board, but it will not apply perfectly in any individual case. Idiographic refers to studying one case, studying it deeply, but realizing that it will not be able to completely be able to generalize to any other case.

I got two national fellowships for graduate school. One from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Another from the Danforth Foundation. I was a freebie. I got nine years of funding – more than any I could ever use. So the graduate schools said, “Fine lady, you can study whatever you want!” I went to Harvard. Although, my home was psychology. I spent the first four years primarily in sociology and anthropology. Harvard had a cross-cultural training grant that funded PhD students for three years: one year to prepare to go into the field, one year to go anywhere you wanted to go (I was going to the South Pacific because it seemed the most idyllic, and one year to write it up. My idea was…I was reading a lot in sociology, psychology, philosophy… that asserted that people need to feel they are masters of their fate. If they did not feel they are, you see learned helplessness, depression, and suicide. Everything I was reading said there was an intrinsic human need to feel we are masters of our own fates. But everything I was reading was western. It seemed to me that was not necessarily intrinsically human. It might be that someone from another culture might not feel the same way. At any social gathering people find my idea intriguing. I felt I was not coming up with a good way to study this, however. If you think about it more deeply, it gets kind of squishy. What do you want to have control over? How do you exercise control? You can exercise control in subtle ways without it seeming to be control. The more I went into it, the less confident I was that I could come up with a good study design. Now, I had very famous people at Harvard advising me. I did not think they had a solid idea of how to study this either. This did not seem to bother them. They said, “You’ll go on and do great work.” I said to myself, “You guys are loonie. I am not going to paradise to be miserable for a year, worried about how I’ll get a thesis out of this.” I turned down Years 2 and 3 of the funding. I gave the money back. I figured I would re-apply for funding if I ever came up with a good way study it, but I was not going to do a lousy job. So I had to come up with another thesis topic.

My first year in graduate school, which, by that time, was three years earlier. My advisor, Jerry Kagan, had been jumping up and down about the cognitive advances seen in babies in the first years of life such as stranger anxiety and finding a hidden-object. Things like that. These changes appeared at roughly the same time in babies all over the world –babies living at home, babies in daycare, in kibbutzim, in Africa, Europe, Asia, North America, and so on. It didn’t matter. He said, “It cannot be all learning. It cannot be all experience because their experiences are too different. There must be a maturational component.” He was jumping up and down about it. He was so excited that you could not help but feel excited about it. However, at the time, I had another thesis topic. But when I gave up my original thesis topic, I came back to this question. Clearly, the maturational bit had to be in the brain. So I had to begin learning about the brain. That’s how I got into neuroscience. There was no one at Harvard in Psychology at the time studying the human brain, which is hard to believe now. I said to them, “There should be someone on my thesis committee that knows something about the brain, especially the parts of the brain I am talking about — prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus — just to see if what I am saying makes sense.” (My thesis was just behavioral studies with babies, but the hypothesis behind it was based on the brain.) Harvard replied, “We don’t have anyone who does this, so we don’t think it’s important.” But they allowed that I could add an additional member to my thesis committee from outside Harvard who had this expertise. I was very lucky that Nelson Butters at the Boston VA accepted my invitation to join the thesis committee as the fourth member.

Until I did my Postdoc in the Department of Neuroanatomy at Yale Medical School, I was pretty much self-taught because there was no one around to teach me. I mispronounced all sorts of words wrong – such as pyramidal neurons which I pronounced as pyr·a·mi·dal (ˈpir-ə-ˌmi-dal) but which should be pronounced py·ra·mi·dal (pə-ˈra-mə-dəl) – because I was only learning by reading.

It is ironic that I never expected to be a scientist; I never wanted to be a scientist; yet I have worked not only worked in cognitive neuroscience and developmental cognitive neuroscience but in many different disciplines like molecular genetics and visual neuroscience that even after I went into neuroscience I never imagined do any work in. It was never because I wanted to study another discipline or another technique in themselves. It was because I had a question that required that I go there. So I went into neuroscience because I wanted to answer the questioned posed by Jerry Kagan. All of the other times were that I wanted to answer the next question that came from what I was doing.

6. What have been your major areas of research?

All of my research has been tied to prefrontal cortex and the cognitive abilities dependent on prefrontal, whichare loosely called executive functions (EFs). That involves being able to exert self-control to not blurt out something you regret. You think before you act rather than reacting or acting impulsively. Another part is reasoning and problem-solving – being able to hold different pieces of information in mind and relate one fact or idea to another, to be able to play with ideas in your mind. That involves working memory. Another aspect of the inhibitory control component of EFs besides self-control is selective attention, to be able to inhibit extraneous things so that you pay attention to the most important things. The third core EF cognitive flexibility, involves being able to flexibly react to a situation rather than rigidly sticking to one plan, being able to creatively think outside the box, being able come up with something that perhaps nobody has thought of before. All of my work has been about that. It turns out that the abilities, which were beginning to develop in babies in the first year of life all over the world, were elementary EFs: working memory and inhibitory control. After I got data from monkeys that made an argument that the frontal lobe was involved in these changes, the next question was, “What about the frontal lobe was changing?” It is too vague to say the frontal lobe is maturing. It is like saying, “Children develop.” What about prefrontal cortex was changing? Probably a lot of things. But we knew in the monkey brain that the level of the neurotransmitter, dopamine, which is very important in prefrontal cortex was increasing in the whole brain, and particularly in prefrontal. I thought increasing levels of dopamine in prefrontal might be part of the biological change making possible those cognitive changes in the babies. So how are you going to study this?

It so happened that at a conference a colleague mentioned that she was looking into children with the disorder called Phenylketonuria (PKU). These kids cannot metabolize an amino acid called phenylalanine. If you do not treat this disorder, levels of phenylalanine become so high that they are toxic to the brain, and you have gross damage brain and severe mental retardation. The treatment is to try and remove phenylalanine as much as possible from the diet. However, phenylalanine never occurs in isolation. It is a component of protein. So the only way to take out phenylalanine is to take out protein. You do not want to deprive kids entirely of protein. Doctors needed to do a delicate balance between getting a child some protein and not having the child have too much phenylalanine. Phenylalanine competes with tyrosine to enter the brain. So if the compromise the doctor works out involves the level of phenylalanine in the blood being a little more elevated than it should be, the level of tyrosine reaching the brain will a little less than it should be. Now, what the person at the conference told me was kids with PKU on the dietary compromise prescribed by doctors had EF deficits, but doctors were ignoring those reported deficits because nobody could imagine a mechanism by which only certain functions of the brain would be affected. Besides, the kids looked great on IQ tests, and they had normal head circumference. So the doctors did not want to hear about problems. They said, “We solved this. They are no mentally retarded.” Well, when I was a postdoc, on the floor below me, there was a lab headed by Bob Roth who happened to be studying the competition between tyrosine and another amino acid. What they showed was that if tyrosine is lowered only a little bit (tyrosine is the precursor of dopamine, by the way) it does not affect most dopamine systems in the brain. They are robust in the face of having a little less raw material (a little less tyrosine from which to make dopamine). However, Bob Roth’s lab showed that prefrontal cortex is different; it is affected by even small reductions in tyrosine. So I said, “This fits what is happening with these kids with PKU.” If they are on diet, phenylalanine levels are only slightly increased, which would reduce the amount of tyrosine reaching the brain only slightly. So it should selectively affect prefrontal cortex and selectively affect EFs. We did an animal model to show this. We followed children with PKU longitudinally to show this. We showed the mechanism causing the EF deficits in PKU children and we showed the EF deficits more definitively than had been done before. In response, almost overnight, the guidelines for medical treatment of PKU changed because once they had a mechanism, once they understood the cause and what to do about it, it was easy to react.

In the course of doing the longitudinal study, I got some information I did not want to hear – which was that the special property of the dopamine system in prefrontal cortex that made the effects of PKU selective to prefrontal were also true of the retina. Every last one of the special properties. To be consistent, I had to predict that the retina would be affected in kids with PKU too. I contacted the world’s expert on the retina at Harvard. He got all excited because ”we know this” and he started telling me at the cellular level. But I wanted to know at the behavioral level so I could study it! He said, “Well, we do not know as much about that. However, we do know that if dopamine is dramatically reduced, as in Parkinson’s disease, there is a deficit in contrast sensitivity. So I teamed up with a pediatric optometrist, Chaya Herzberg. We studied contrast sensitivity in the kids. Sure enough, they were impaired. We had two totally different behavioral deficits predicted by the same underlying mechanism. I can keep going on, but I will not. There is a paper in a book called Malleable Minds, edited by Rena Subotnik and others, which talks about how I went from one thing not finding, or that I did not understand, to investigating what might be going on there. How can I try to understand the thing that is not fitting? Or, what are the implications of what we know now for something else? Or, now that we know enough to help kids, how can we go about helping kids, and showing that it helps?

7. If you had unlimited funding and unrestricted freedom, what research would you conduct?

That’s easy. I want to study the benefits of theatre, music, dance, storytelling, youth circus, and so on, for kids. EFs are like the ‘canary in the coal mine.’ They are the first to show the effects, and they show them most dramatically, if you are sad, stressed, lonely, not physically fit, or sleep-deprived. In other words, if you want kids to be able to function well cognitively, if you want them to succeed to school and careers, you need to care about their emotional, social, and physical health. If any of those needs are unmet, they will pull EFs down. It will pull school or job performance down. If you think about the activities that address all the parts of you, it is activities like those I just mentioned. They challenge EFs, which is critical. They require holding information in mind, paying close attention and concentrating, and so on. They give kids great joy and feelings of pride and self-confidence. The things that I have been talking about are ensemble activities like orchestra, social, communal dance, and so on, where everyone is part of a group or team and working together. Everybody is an important part of a whole (social connection and belonging). All of them involve developing physically. It is most obvious with something like dance or circus. However, even something like playing an instrument requires eye-hand coordination, manual dexterity, and so on.

That is what I would do. I had an ad in Variety that asked for funding to do this because the eyes of grant reviewers (who love my basic science work) galze over when I ask for funding to study the benefits of music, dance, storytelling, or youth circus. I am considering trying to raise funds to serious, state of the art studies of this through crowdscource funding.

The arts have been around since the beginning of civilization. And they have been in every civilization everywhere. If they were just a frill, would they have lasted so long and been found everywhere? If they were just a frill, you would not think they would have that staying power. You would not think they would have independently developed in so many different places. They must address fundamental needs of people.

8. You earned the Tier I Canada Research Chair Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience in 2004. What is involved in this position? What social responsibilities does subsequent funding and influence entail?

The Canada Research Chair means that I am freed from other responsibilities to do research. I do not have to teach. I teach every other year because I love to teach; I do not get paid anymore to teach. I do not have to run my conference, and I do not get any more pay for running the conference. The conference is for the general public. It is transformational for the people who go to it and it has a ripple effect, helping many more people than just those who attend. Every single person of the 700+ attending gave it a standing ovation at the end. For the last two conferences (2010 and 2013) 98% of attendees gave it an outstanding review. The effects reach medical practice, educational practice, and parenting. If you go to my website, you will see several different social service things that we are involved in. For the conference, I worked hard with people from countries that Canada is not so inclined to give visas to such as the Philippines, South Africa, or Palestine.

The only child and adolescence psychiatrist in Gaza emailed me that he was coming to the conference. He was all excited. Two weeks later, he emailed me, very disappointed, that his institution had spent all of its travel funds for the year. I emailed him back right away, “Do not worry, you can still come. We will not charge you registration for the conference and between the Arab-Muslim and Jewish communities in Vancouver, each will raise half of the funds for your travel expenses.” Of course, I had not asked anybody yet. So now, I had to ask people! (Laughs) People were great. They raised the money. Jews outside of British Columbia (BC), even as far as Israel, sent money.

About 6 weeks before the conference, I received another concerned email from the doctor in Gaza. Obviously, there is no Canadian embassy in Gaza or anywhere in Palestine. So his visa had been sent to the closest Canadian embassy – the one in Cairo – but there was unrest in Egypt and Canada had closed its embassy in Cairo. Also, he was supposed to fly out of Cairo but the border between Gaza and Egypt had been closed because of the unrest. The wonderful, wonderful man who was the Representative of Canada in Ramallah (Hussein Hirji) arranged for the doctor’s visa to be sent to Tel Aviv, but Israel, bless its heart, would not allow a Palestinian to go from Gaza to Tel Aviv to pick up the visa and back. So Hussein had it couriered from Tel Aviv to Sami Owaida (the doctor in Gaza). Then I had to quickly change Sami’s flight to go out of Amman, Jordan, instead of Cairo. But he needed a visa to enter Jordan. All of that happened and he was at the conference! (Laughs)

It was great. One of the big topics at the conference was trauma. In particular, the ways to recognize unusual signs and how to try and help people recover. It is hard to think of a place where there have been more traumatized people.

9. What do you consider the controversial topics in your field? How do you examine the controversial topics?

One controversial topic is, what EFs are – if they are distinct or all one? Whether EFs can be improved in children, and how, is controversial. In addition, there is a lot we do not know such as the optimal timing of programs to improve EFs, how long programs should be – in terms of months/years and in terms of how long a single session should be. Many of the programs that have worked have had multiple components. There is disagreement about whether we should try to discover which discrete part is most responsible for the benefit, or whether it is a gestalt and trying to study individual features in isolation would be the wrong way to go.

There are disagreements about how to interpret behavioral findings on EF tests. Exactly, why did somebody fail or succeed? There are disagreements about most everything. So in that sense, most everything is controversial.

10. What do some in opposition to you argue? How do you respond?

Sometimes, it is an empirical question. We respond by saying, “Let’s do a study together.” I did that with a colleague from England. We published in 2013. He was right. I was wrong. We say this in the paper.

Sometimes, it is very clear that they are wrong, and they are just being stubborn to say what they say, because the data so clearly show they are wrong. I try to say that, but it usually falls on deaf ears.

Sometimes, we, alone, will try to do a study to answer the question empirically. It may at times send me back to the drawing board to re-think things.

11. What advice do you have for young psychologists?

I think that they should follow their heart, what excites them, and not worry about whether they will get a job or even tenure. Sometimes, they think that they should study x because x is more marketable. I do not think that they should worry about marketability. I think they should follow what really is their passion. And the opportunities will come from that because they will do the best work in what they are most interested in doing. There is no best time to have kids. If somebody is waiting to have kids until there are no pressures or the right time;there is no right time and there always be pressures. You might as well do it.

There is no point in holding a grudge or being ungracious. There is no point in making enemies. Let things roll off your back, and to just be kind and considerate to everybody, even if someone has not been that way to you.

12. Whom do you consider your biggest influences? Could you recommend any seminal or important books/articles by them?

Jerry Bruner, Pat Goldman-Rakic, George Goethals, Robert Swearer, Elliott Stellar, Jim Stellar.

13. In an interview with Dr. Elizabeth Loftus from In-Sight Issue 2.A, I quote an acceptance speech for an award from the AAAS for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility. In it, she said, “We live in perilous times for science…and in order for scientists to preserve their freedoms they have a responsibility…to bring our science to the public arena and to speak out as forcefully as we can against even the most cherished beliefs that reflect unsubstantiated myths.” How important do you see criticizing ‘unsubstantiated myths’ in ‘perilous times’ for Science?

I wonder if that was done during President Bush, seriously, because he would say things that were not true. There were political ads by “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth”that were full of lies first against Senator Max Cleland from Virginia, a Vietnam veteran who was paraplegic, and they challenged his patriotism and military duty. After that, they did to the same thing against Senator Kerry when he was running for President.What they said were lies, just lies.

A lot of times, if you look at the discussion section of a scientific paper, what is said there is not substantiated in the results section. Oftentimes, what people will say in the press, or a discussion paper, is unsubstantiated, even though they make it sound like it is substantiated. That is very serious, a very serious problem.

I think it is very important to speak out against lies, to speak the truth, and the to stand up for justice and what is right. It is important to speak up when scientific findings are ignored or mis-used.

Prime Minister Harper is making it difficult for scientists in the federal government here to get the truth out. If he disagrees with the truth, they are not supposed to publish it. That is a huge problem.

14. I noticed in conducting a rather large literature review with a professor from the University of the Fraser Valley, in some of our research for environmental psychology, the discussion on the great level of lobbying involved in environmental issues.

Look at fracking, the evidence is that it is bad. We should not allow fracking. However, there is so much money coming from the industry that the material is not coming through. President Obama supports fracking now, and he is a good man. I think if he saw the evidence, he would change his mind. It is a huge problem. People claim x, y, and z is evidenced-based. That a, b, and c are not. Even though, the evidence shows the reverse.

Emile Durkheim said, ‘Words really are not nearly as powerful as we thought. They do not really have the power to persuade you if your mind is set against it. The only time words have power is if you were already sort of inclined to think that way.’ If you were not inclined in that way at all, words will not likely persuade you.

15. Regarding Durkheim’s statement, this might support more foundational education. For example, rather than a smart group of people selecting the appropriate thoughts and ideas for everyone in their education, you have students learn the tools for effective reasoning.

Right! You want people who can reason, problem-solve, can think, and can use executive functions.

Bibliography

1) [On Being] (2009, September 30). Soundseen: In the Room with Adele Diamond. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/7708845.

2) Dalai Lama Center [dalailamacenter] (2013, June 20). Heart-Mind 2013: Adele Diamond – Cultivating the Mind. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXn74sYHsQM.

3) Dalai Lama Center [dalailamacenter] (2012, January 25). Adele Diamond with the Dalai Lama. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD2cWBGMVAg.

4) Diamond, A. (2014). Want to optimize executive functions and academic outcomes? Simple, just nourish the human spirit. Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology, 37, 205-232

5) Diamond, A. (2012). Activities and programs that improve children’s executive functions.Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21, 335-341.

6) Diamond, A. (2001). A model system for studying the role of dopamine in prefrontal cortex during early development in humans. In C. Nelson & M. Luciana (Eds.), Handbook of developmental cognitive neuroscience (p. 433-472). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Reprinted in M.H. Johnson, Y. Munakata, & R. O. Gilmore (eds.). (2002). Reader in brain development and cognition. London, UK: Blackwell Press.

7) Diamond, A. (2011). Biological and social influences on cognitive control processes dependent on prefrontal cortex. Progress in Brain Research, 89, 317-337. (special issue entitled “Gene Expression to Neurobiology and Behavior: Human Brain Development and Developmental Disorders”)

8) Diamond, A. (2007). Consequences of variations in genes that affect dopamine in prefrontal cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 17, 161-170.

9) Diamond, A. (2012). How I came full circle from the social end of psychology, to neuroscience, and back again, in an effort to understand the development of cognitive control. In R. F. Subotnik, A. Robinson, C. M. Callahan, & P. Johnson (Eds.), Malleable Minds. (p.55-84). Storrs, CT: The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, U. of Conn.

10) Diamond, A. (in press). Want to optimize EFs and academic outcomes? Simple, just nourish the human spirit. Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology: Developing cognitive control processes: Mechanisms, implications, and interventions, 37.

11) Diamond, A., Ciaramitaro, V., Donner, E., Djali, S., & Robinson, M. (1994). An animal model of early-treated PKU. Journal of Neuroscience, 14, 3072-3082

12) Diamond, A. & Herzberg, C. (1996). Impaired sensitivity to visual contrast in children treated early and continuously for PKU.Brain, 119, 523-538.

13) Diamond, A., Prevor, M., Callender, G., & Druin, D.P. (1997). Prefrontal cortex cognitive deficits in children treated early and continuously for PKU. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development (Monograph #252), 62(4), 1-207.

14) Garrison Institute [GarrisonInstitute] (2011, January 10). Adele Diamond at the Garrison Institute. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB6sVyTXJRg.

15) Garrison Institute [GarrisonInstitute] (2011, December 5). Adele Diamond on Why Disciplining the Mind May Be Critical for Children’s Academic Success. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wdFKPTEL2M.

16) Garrison Institute [GarrisonInstitute] (2012, July 16). Child Development and the Brain: Insights to Help Every Child Thrive. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ_j1mjGLow.

17) Kiefer, F. [Fanny Kiefer] (2012, January 24). Adele Diamond on Studio 4 with Fanny Kiefer Part 1 of 2. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKbXXGT5N8M.

18) Kiefer, F. [Fanny Kiefer] (2012, January 24). Adele Diamond on Studio 4 with Fanny Kiefer Part 2 of 2. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBHZC5vkhQg.

19) Seattle Children’s Hospital [SeattleChildrens] (2012, October 18). Understanding EF. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWBn9LOHjzA.

20) Towson University [Towson University] (2012, January 24). MSDE – Dr Adele Diamond. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0W8Y9l1toE

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2023-01-28

Dr. Miriam Erez: Professor Emeritus, Vice Dean MBA Programs, Technion: Israel Institute of Technology

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/04/08

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside? How do you find this influencing your development?

I was born in Israel. My father came to Israel in a youth movement in 1925, as a pioneer who wanted to build an independent state for the Jewish people, and their dream was realized 1948 with the establishment of Israel as an independent state.

My mother’s older brother did the same, and his family followed him and came to Israel in 1931, when my mother was 11 years old.

2. What do you consider a pivotal moment in your upbringing? Did this influence your entering into the your field? If so, how?

A pivotal moment was when my parents moved to a suburb of Haifa, when I was 8 years old. In this community the emphasis was on contribution to the society at large and to the local community in particular, including the absorption of new immigrants who managed to survive the holocaust and to come to Israel. This has strongly influence my own personal development.

3. Your current responsibilities lie in research and teaching under The Mendes France Chair of Management & Economics. What does this role imply? What courses do you teach at present? In particular, what research have you conducted up to present through this position?

I do not anymore hold the Mendes France Chair… because I am a professor emeritus now. However, I am still the Vice Dean for the MBA programs, the advisor to the Technion President on the promotion of women students and faculty, I am the chair of the National Council for the promotion of women in science and technology, and the founder and chair of the Knowledge Center for Innovation, which I established after I received the Israel Prize in 2005, and I felt I want to contribution to the Israeli society by enhancing innovation in the Israeli industry.

4. An aging workforce stands as a major problem for the economy of advanced industrial nations, especially in the long-term. According to Tanova and Boltom in 2008, traditional factors contributing to ‘voluntary turnover’ are the ‘ease of movement’ and the ‘desirability of moving’ with regards to work. Furthermore, you found new results about the contributory factor of ‘job embeddedness’. In a paper entitled Why People Stay: using Job Embeddedness to Predict Voluntary Turnover (2001), you state, “The personal and organizational costs of leaving a job are often very high.” Can you define ‘job embeddedness’? Why does voluntary turnover occur in spite of the ‘very high’ costs? In particular, what does this mean for advanced industrial nations with an aging work force?

Embeddedness conveys the meaning of being part of workplace, part of the community and part of the physical surrounding. One of our poets – Saul Tcernichovsky, wrote that a “Man is nothing but his native landscape format”. What this means is that we are shaped by, and become part of the place in which we work, we live as part of the social community, and as part of the physical landscape. Our research findings showed that indeed, people who have a stronger sense of embeddedness are less likely to change their workplace and their social community. This paper highlights the existence of forces that attenuate the likelihood of turnover, and that it is not only the level of work satisfaction which explains the tendency to stay or quit jobs.

5. Of particular interest in the area of life, but within your area of expertise as well – work, you published a paper in 2013 called Emotion Display Norms in Virtual Teams. You incorporated a conceptual framework from A dynamic multi-level model of culture: From the microlevel of the individual to the macro level of a global culture (2004). This describes the connections of nested relationships between cultures and values from the individual to the global level. What were the findings of this 2013 paper? In addition, in an increasingly diverse, multi-cultural, and international world and subsequent work environment, how much does understanding multi-cultural and contextual differences in emotion matter for virtual collaboration?

We are only now starting to learn the effect of a virtual, multicultural environment on human communication, on the social identity – from a local identity to a global identity, and on team cooperation and team performance. The 2013 paper on emotion display norms showed that there is going to be a global culture, with global emotion display norms. Namely, when working in the global work context, people from different cultures perceive the emotional display norms in a similar way, namely, more positive and less negative than in their own culture. While there is going to be a consensus among members from different cultures about the emotion display norms in the global context, there is still a high variation in the perceived emotion display norms in different cultures. My prediction is that individuals and teams are going to function at two contextual environments, in their local cultural environments, in which they activate their local identity and display emotions in line with their cultural norms, and at the same time, they also function in a global context, in which they activate their global identity and display emotions similar to others who come from other cultures.

6. You co-authored an interesting paper in 2005 highly relevant to entrepreneurs in the world of international business called Culture and International Business: Recent Advanced and Future Directions. It looks into the changing nature of international business. In particular, you ask if global business will change, and if the various differences in values and culture might create a standard set of ‘business practices’. The paper was meant to draw out the basis for future directions of research. What future directions did you derive from the research?

Similar to my answer to point #6, we are going to live in two contexts – the immediate local cultural context, and the more distant, global work context. As a result, we are going to develop two identities – local and global identity, and two sets for emotional and behavioral norms – one for the local culture and one for the global culture. Hence, the world is going to be more complex and individuals will have to learn which emotion to display and which identity to activate, depending on the salience of the local versus global context. Furthermore, it will be interesting to study which identity dominates in case of identity conflicts.

7. In a hypothetical perfect world with plenty of funding and time, and if guaranteed an answer, what single topic would you research?

I would study how to enhance the level of creativity and innovation in a global work environment of a growing complexity, and through cooperation, in order to come up with solutions to human problems in all the spectrum of life, in all parts of the world, and to share the benefit of innovation in a more egalitarian way.

8. What do you consider the controversial topic in your field at this time? How do you examine the issue?

The controversial topic in my field pertains to the increasing level of diversity in the workplace, as a result of globalization, and to the impact of team and organizational diversity on innovation.

I initiate studies on the meaning of creativity in different cultures, and studies on the interaction effect of culture and the work context on creativity. For example, in our 2013 paper we studied the level of innovation of culturally diverse teams versus homogenous teams when working under very specific instructions versus general ones and we found, that the level of creativity is higher under general versus specific instructions for both culturally heterogeneous versus homogenous teams. This is not the case when performing and “execute” task that has one correct answer. In this case, homogeneous teams work better than heterogeneous teams when performing a task under general instructions, but there are no differences between the two types of teams when working under specific instructions.

9. You have spent time speaking on the plights of women in the academy. In particular, the low enrollment and graduation rates of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. What is the set of causes for this plight?

We are in a period of change from a traditional society with a clear sex role differentiation – women at home, men at work, to a modern egalitarian society with equal opportunities to make choices for both men and women. The change is already observed in medicine, where the percentage of men and women is equal today, but there were times when women were not allowed to be admitted to medical schools. But another related reason for it is that women have a higher social motivation than men, and better social skills than men, and as a result, they are more attracted to jobs that allow them to interact with others and to contribute to the society. Today we find that the gap between technology and socially oriented work is getting smaller. For example, there is a strong relationship between having IT knowledge and skills, and facilitating social interactions via social networks. Also there is a strong relationship between medical instruments and helping people to improve their quality of life. In addition, there is a shortage of engineers and scientists today, and the job opportunities and the high salaries relative to social science jobs, will eventually attract more women and companies will pay more attention to make the workplace more friendly to women.

10. If any, what responsibility do academics and researchers have for contributing to society and culture?

Academics and researchers have a huge responsibility for contributing to society and culture. They are responsible for the education of the new generations, they are responsible for developing new knowledge in all fields of science and technology, and consequently, they are responsible to the quality of life and well-being of humanity.
11. Who most influenced you? Why them? Can you recommend any books or articles by them?

It is hard for me to answer it. I was influenced by different people and different books in different periods of my life. I believe that I was also influenced by the interaction with my family members and with my students as I have developed as a person, as an educator and as a researcher.

12. Where do you see your field in the next 5, 10, and 25 years? With respect to more representation of women, where do you see the demographics of men and women? Especially, what about the high-end of the achievement?

I think that the direction of our field of social sciences in general and of organization behavior in particular is going towards a higher level of complexity, a stronger emphasis on methodology, and a new direction towards studying the physiological correlates of emotions, thoughts and behaviors.

Bibliography

1) Erez, M. [The Open University]. (2012, December 2). Prof. Miriam Erez: Statistical Overview of Women in Science in Israel and Abroad. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9kOOoM-n2g

2) Erez, M., and Gati, E., (2004). A dynamic multi-level model of culture: From the microlevel of the individual to the macro level of a global culture. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 53, 583-598.

3) Glikson, E., & Erez, M. (2013). Emotion display norms in virtual teams. Journal Of Personnel Psychology, 12(1), 22-32. doi:10.1027/1866-5888/a000078

4) Govindarajan, V. and Gupta, A.K. (2001) The Quest for Global Dominance: Transforming Global Presence into Global Competitive Advantage, Jossey-Bass: San Francisco.

5) Hofstede, G. (1980) Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values, Sage: Newbury Park, CA.

6) Leung, K., Bhagat, R., Buchan, N.R, Erez, M., and Gibson, C.B. (2005). Culture and International Business: Recent Advanced and Future Directions. Journal of International Business Studies 36, 357-378

7) Mitchell, T.R., Holtom, B.C., Lee, T.W., Sablynski, C.J. and Erez, M. (2001). “Why People Stay: Using Job Embeddedness to Predict Voluntary Turnover”. Academy of Management Journal, 44, 1102-1122

8) Tanova, C., & Holtom, B. C. (2008). Using job embeddedness factors to explain voluntary turnover in four European countries. International Journal Of Human Resource Management, 19(9), 1553-1568. doi:10.1080/09585190802294820

9) Yarron, H. M. et al [The Open University]. (2012, December 17). Panel Discussion: The Road to the Top: Paved with Dubious Intentions?. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6ccvZMtqF8

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2023-01-28

Dr. Wanda Cassidy: Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University; Director, Centre for Education, Law & Society

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/04/01

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside? How do you find this influencing your development?

My mother’s background is Swedish– from northern Sweden, near the Arctic Circle. My grandfather came to Canada and set up a homestead in Alberta. His wife and their oldest five children – my mother had not yet been born – were scheduled to follow two years later, on the Titanic…seriously! My grandfather didn’t know that the Titanic was overbooked and his family had to take a later boat; instead, he thought they were lost. Of course, communication was poor in those days.

My father’s background is Irish, English, and Scottish. His grandparents immigrated to Nova Scotia, with 3 of the children (my grandfather being one), later moving west to Saskatchewan, where my grandfather made a living as a professional boxer. (Laughs). Apparently, he never lost a fight and won most matches by knock-out. I guess, he had a bit of an Irish temper. (Laughs)

From both sets of grandparents (and from my parents), I learned the value of hard work, kindness towards others, and being adventurous. Even during the difficult days of the Depression, my maternal grandfather never turned away anyone asking for work on his farm, for food, or a place to stay. There was a generosity of spirit, which was communicated to his children and grandchildren.

2. How was your youth? How did you come to this point? What do you consider a pivotal moment?

Growing up, I always wanted to make a positive difference in the world and to help others. Back when I was in university, not a lot of doors were open for women, and I did not have a lot of professional roles models. For example, among my 73 first cousins, I am the only one who went on to do a doctorate. Because I loved teaching and enjoyed working with young people, I followed in my mother’s footsteps and became a teacher. When I was offered the job, I was asked, “Would you like to teach Law 12 as part of your teaching assignment?” As a history major, I thought, “I know nothing about law, but I want the job.” (Laughs) I said, “I will approach it as a person who knows little, but knows people who do know.” So developed my course around a community-based curriculum, inviting many guests into my classroom and learning with the students. II received funding from the Legal Services Society to share the model I had developed, since very few Law 12 teachers had a law degree, and later was hired by this agency as their Schools Program Director. My job was to provide curriculum resources and professional development for teachers and students in British Columbia, to improve their overall knowledge of law.

This position was pivotal in my own career. While planning a national conference I met a professor at Simon Fraser who encouraged me to develop a program with him in the Faculty of Education. We were able to secure funding from the Law Foundation of BC, the Real Estate Foundation, the Notary Foundation and other agencies and law firms, and began what came to be called the Centre for Education, Law & Society.

While developing the Centre (CELS), I obtained my Master’s degree in law-related education from SFU and later secured a scholarship to attend the University of Chicago, where I earned my Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction. I returned to SFU in a professorship position, where I happily remain.

In terms of what motivates me: I like to be creating new things, to push the boundaries of “what is” to “what could be.” I like to be challenged and seek to draw like-minded people together to advance these goals.

3. At present, you hold the position Director for the ‘Centre for Education, Law & Society’. What responsibilities and duties does this imply?

It is a part of my work as an Associate Professor of Education. The centre’s mandate is to improve the legal literacy of youth and young adults, in the school system, in community settings and at the post-secondary level. We do this through a program of research, teaching and community-based initiatives. We developed 3 undergraduate courses and recently completed our first offering of a Master’s program in justice, law, and ethics. Our research topics vary: for example, recently we completed a 4-year study on legal literacy of youth in grades 6 to 10, which focused on human rights, citizenship, identity issues and environmental sustainability. We’ve also investigated cyberbullying in schools and at the post-secondary levels. I also helped establish a school for students who face multiple challenges in their lives and who don’t succeed in the regular public school. I continue to be an educational consultant to this unique and highly successful school (see http://www.focusbc.org).

My job as Director is to manage our current projects, seek additional funding for new projects, provide support to graduate students, and work with other agencies to improve the legal literacy of youth. Legal literacy involves understanding the role law plays in our society and what it means to be an informed, engaged citizen. The law can be a tool to create a society that is respectful and caring towards others, sensitive to human and civil rights, and inclusive of diversity. Legal literacy also involves knowledge of those aspects of law that affect our daily lives in a practical way, such as purchasing goods from a store, holding a job, renting a home, or getting married. It also involves an understanding of broader influences which guide our society, such as the UN Declaration of Human Rights and other UN documents. Also, asking, “Are we implementing those basic human rights in our own society and elsewhere in the world?” And if we are, what role can Canada play in providing for the needs and rights that all human beings should have for themselves?

4. In some recent research, you note the unfortunate global occurrence of bullying. In particular, the existence of cyberbullying. For readers, can you define cyberbullying? What negative psychological, emotional, and physical consequences arise from cyberbullying for the victims and the perpetrators?

‘Cyberbullying’ is bullying through online sources such as smart phones, Facebook, e-mail, blogs or chat rooms, or any of the various technological tools at our disposal. It involves sending harmful, derogatory, harassing, negative, sometimes repulsive – even sexual, messages or images to somebody with the intent to harm or hurt them. The impact is often quite devastating. It can cause sleeplessness, anxiety, depression, fear, inability to concentrate, and sometimes leads to suicidal thoughts. Cyberbullying is different from face-to-face bullying in that it can be anonymous: “Where is this coming? A friend, an acquaintance, a stranger, someone I sit next to in class, why are they doing this to me?” People are so connected online. They open their social networking sites and see a derogatory message from someone. How do they deal with it? Oftentimes, they cannot get rid of the message, which results in them being bullied over and over again.

Research shows that cyberbullying can start as early as age 9 or 10, extending into adolescence and dying down somewhat by age 15 or 16. In our current study we are looking at the extent of cyberbullying at the post-secondary level, among undergraduates and towards faculty members. We were surprised to learn that approximately 1/5 of undergraduate students at the 4 universities we studied had experiencing cyberbullying from another student, and approximately the same number of faculty members had been cyberbullied either by students and/or by colleagues. These messages can be hurtful—indeed devastating– at any age.

5. Your conceptualization of ‘cyberkindness’ seems to me, in essence, digital civility, bringing civil discourse in the real world into the electronic media.

Yes, I call the internet and other outlets for communication a ‘flat medium’, in that, they cannot convey facial expressions, body language, or tone of voice, and therefore the intent of a message may be misinterpreted. Further the sender does not see the impact a message might have on the recipient, such as they might see in face-to-face bullying. We have yet to learn more effective ways to communicate through technology.

Also, we have cyberbullying because bullying is present in the wider society, and too many are rewarded for their bullying behaviour. Politicians bully each other and sometimes seem to relish in the experience. Countries bully each other, employers bully employees, corporations bully each other to get an edge in the market, and so on.

We need to look at what is being modelled by adults, since modelling is one of the most powerful teachers. Young people learn not only from what they are told, but what they experience and see being modeled around them.

6. What strategies can students employ individually and collectively to reduce the occurrence and harms of cyberbullying and bullying in general? In addition, within your recent work, you discuss the development of “cyber-kindness” and an “ethic of care”. For readers, what is the abridged definition of this terminology, and the practical application and outcome of them?

I began researching cyberbullying because I had done research on the ethic of care and the positive impact this philosophy had on students, teachers and the school culture. When I began to investigate cyberbullying, I did not want to deal with the negative alone. I wanted to look at the notion of “cyber-kindness” and the ways in which technology could be used to communicate positive, respectful and kind messages. This notion of care is situated within the broader philosophical worldview of Nel Nodding’s and Carol Gilligan’s work – caring being a relational ethic. Here caring is not a ‘fuzzy’ feeling, by rather showing empathy towards the other, understanding the needs of the other, and working in the other’s best interests.

Schools that embrace the ethic of care have less bullying and cyberbullying, because they focus on relationships, empathy and the understanding of others. For example, a couple of years ago, we worked with a school where five grade 7 girls were actively cyberbullying each other with really nasty comments on a social networking site. The principal, rather than suspending them, saw their leadership potential and re-directed the negative energy they had towards each other into working on productive projects at the school. She met with them once a week and, as the discussions unfolded, they apologized to each other about the hurtful messages they had been sending. They stopped these negative interchanges, but more importantly, ended up contributing to the school, and influencing the culture of the whole school. Their enthusiasm for doing positive things was infectious and spilled over to the other grades as well.

What this principal demonstrated is that it is important to address the root causes of cyberbullying, not just the symptoms (i.e. the behaviour).

7. In a hypothetical perfect world with plenty of funding and time, and if guaranteed an answer, what single topic would you research?

Ways to create a kinder world, how do we change the ‘human being’ to become more respectful and kinder to one another? I am somewhat of a utopian in this regard.

Perhaps we can start by getting to know our neighbour, and by this, I mean getting to know others outside of our circle or enclave. Entering into a dialogue, listening to others and learning from others. A kinder world would be a more peaceful world and a happier world.

8. If any, what responsibility do academics and researchers have for contributing to society and culture?

I believe we have a 100% responsibility to share our knowledge. Further, our research should connect with real issues facing the world. We not only have a responsibility to research important issues, but to also communicate our findings to the wider public. In my own work, I try to focus on areas that will benefit society. Also, I engage with the media and the public to bring an academic perspective to issues. For example, everyone has an opinion on cyberbullying, but we need to situate this discussion within the research. We should not develop policy based on opinion. It is important for academics, policy makers, government, the media and the public to work collaboratively to solve social problems.

9. Who most influenced you? Why them? Can you recommend any books or articles by them?

There are many, many people who influenced me, but I’ll just mention a few. My parents, of course. Also four particular women. A pastor’s wife when I was a teenager who made me feel that I was important and that my opinion was valued, even though I was young; she listened attentively, asked gentle but probing questions, and encouraged me to find my future.

Anna York, a friend I met when studying at the University of Chicago. Although she struggled with MS, she was always authentic, a real person with depth, honesty and integrity. Her book, Rising Up!, documents her physical and spiritual journey into health.

Another woman I have known for years, Doreen, who now lives in Texas. She has experienced many challenges and setbacks in life, but is always positive, hopeful, with a deep faith that plays out in the practice of her life. She has always been there for me, when I’ve faced my own struggles and challenges.

Finally, I must mention the impact my daughter has had on my life.

Having a child has taught me so much — to be wise in what I share with her, to model what I feel is important in life, to have that wonderful opportunity — indeed a gift — to influence someone so inquisitive and open to learn. Being given the gift of motherhood has caused me over and over again to re-evaluate my priorities and to consider what is important in life. Probably more than anyone else in my life, just as I’ve influenced her, she has influenced me and now that she is a young adult, she continues to surprise me with her insights, her creativity, her commitments, and her wisdom.

10. Please elaborate on a point made earlier about ‘building a culture of compassion’, and focusing on the important things in life and in one’s work.

We are all busy. There are too many things to distract us. We need to be constantly reflecting on ‘who we are’ and, maybe this sounds trite, on our purpose in life. In other words, asking ourselves, “What difference do we want to make in the world?” It could be just influencing one person. We do not need to look ‘big’ in that sense. If someone helps one child, it may be just as significant as what Mother Theresa or or Nelson Mandela accomplished. We all come to that point in our lives where we ask the question, “Why am I here? Why are we here? What am I doing?” Reflecting on these big questions of life, helps us focus and work towards goals that matters.

11. What worries and hopes do you have for the educational settings of the Lower Mainland, Canada, and international settings regarding bullying and cyberbullying?

I worry about people gravitating to quick-fixes.–buy this program, bring it into the schools, and it will solve the problem of bullying or cyberbullying. This approach is not effective. Rather, we need to do the hard work of building relationships and working on the root causes of negative behaviour. This also involves each one of us examining our own behaviour.

Another worry is that people will think, “Bullying has always been with us, just deal with it.” This is not helpful to the victim nor does it show empathy. I’d like to think we can reduce incidents of bullying/cyberbullying rather than merely “learning to live with it.”

Bibliography

1) Agatston, P., Kowalski, R., & Limber, S. (2012). Youth views on cyberbullying. In J. W. Patchin, S. Hinduja (Eds.) , Cyberbullying prevention and response: Expert perspectives (pp. 57-71). New York, NY US: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

2) Beck, K. & Cassidy, W. (2009). Embedding the ethic of care in school policies and practices. In K. te Riele (Ed.) Making schools different: Alternative approaches to educating young people (Chap. 6), pp. 50-64, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

3) Brown, K., Jackson, M., & Cassidy, W. (2006). Cyber-bullying: Developing policy to direct responses that are equitable and effective in addressing this special form of bullying. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, Issue 57. http://www.umanitoba.ca/publications/cjeap/articles/brown_jackson_cassidy.html

4) Cassidy, W. (2006). From zero tolerance to a culture of care, Journal of Safe Management of Disruptive and Assaultive Behavior: Special Edition on School Safety, Fall 2006, 22-26.

5) Cassidy, W., Faucher, C., & Jackson, M. (2013). Cyberbullying among youth: A comprehensive review of current international research and its implications and application to policy and practice, by invitation, in special international issue of School Psychology International, 34(6), 575-612.

6) Cassidy, W., Faucher, C., & Jackson, M. (2013). An essential library of international research in cyberbullying, by invitation, introduction to SAGE special collection of articles published by School Psychology International. [virtual special edition, published online with accompanying podcast by C. Faucher]

7) Cassidy, W., Brown, K., & Jackson, M. (2012). ‘Making kind cool’: Parents’ suggestions for preventing cyber-bullying and fostering cyber-kindness. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 46(4), 415-436.

8) Cassidy, W., Brown, K., & Jackson, M. (2012). ‘Under the radar’: Educators and cyberbullying in schools. School Psychology International, 33(5), 520-532. Doi: 10.1177/0143034312445245

9) Cassidy, W., Brown, K., & Jackson, M. (2011). Moving from cyber-bullying to cyber-kindness: What do students, educators and parents say? In Dunkels, E., Franberg, G.-M., & Hallgren, C. (Eds) Youth culture and net culture: Online social practices (pp. 256-277). Hershey, NY: Information Science Reference.

10) Cassidy, W. & Chinnery, A. (2009). Learning from indigenous education. In K. te Riele (Ed.) Making

schools different: Alternative approaches to educating young people (Chap. 15), pp. 135-143, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

11) Cassidy, W., Jackson, M., & Brown, K. (2009). Sticks and stones can break my bones, but how can pixels hurt me? Students’ experiences with cyber-bullying. School Psychology International, 30(4), 383-402.

12) Centre for Education, Law & Society (2014). Center for Education, Law & Society. Simon Fraser University. Retrieved February 18, 2014, from http://www.sfu.ca/education/cels.html

13) Faculty of Education (2014). Dr. Wanda Cassidy. Simon Fraser University. Retrieved February, 2014, from http://www.educ.sfu.ca/profiles/?page_id=111

14) Faucher, C., Jackson, M., & Cassidy, W. (in press). When on-line exchanges byte: An examination of the policy environment governing cyberbullying at the university level. Canadian Journal of Higher Education.

15) Gilligan, Carol (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

16) Jackson, M., Cassidy, W. & Brown, K. (2009). Out of the mouth of babes: Students’ voice their opinions on cyber-bullying. Long Island Education Review, 8(2), 24-30.

17) Jackson, M., Cassidy, W., & Brown, K. N. (2009). “you were born ugly and youl die ugly too”: Cyberbullying as relational aggression. In Education, 15(2).

18) Kowalski, R. M., Morgan, C. A., & Limber, S. P. (2012). Traditional Bullying as a Potential Warning Sign of Cyberbullying. School Psychology International, 33(5), 505-519.

19) Noddings, Nel. Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.

20) Noddings, Nel. The Challenge to Care in Schools. New York: Teachers College Press, 1992.

21) Noddings, Nel. “Excellence as a Guide to Educational Conversation.” Teachers College Record, 94(4) (1993): 730-743.

22) Noddings, Nel. Educating Moral People: A caring alternative to character education. New York: Teachers College Press, 2002.

23) Patchin, J. W., & Hinduja, S. (2012). Cyberbullying: An update and synthesis of the research. In J. W. Patchin, S. Hinduja (Eds.) , Cyberbullying prevention and response: Expert perspectives (pp. 13-35). New York, NY US: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

24) SFUNews (2014). Symposium: Cyberbullying at Canadian Universities. Simon Fraser University. Retrieved February, 2014, from http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2014/symposium-cyberbullying-at-canadian-universities.html

25) Smith, P. K., Mahdavi, J., Carvalho, M., Fisher, S., Russell, S., & Tippett, N. (2008). Cyberbullying: its nature and impact in secondary school pupils. Journal Of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 49(4), 376-385. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01846.x

26) Smith, P. K., & Slonje, R. (2010). Cyberbullying: The nature and extent of a new kind of bullying, in and out of school. In S. R. Jimerson, S. M. Swearer, D. L. Espelage (Eds.), Handbook of bullying in schools: An international perspective (pp. 249-262). New York, NY US: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

27) Topcu, C., & Erdur-Baker, O. (2012). Affective and Cognitive Empathy as Mediators of Gender Differences in Cyber and Traditional Bullying. School Psychology International, 33(5), 550-561.Vandebosch, H., & Van Cleemput, K. (2007). Cyber Bullying Among Youngsters. Conference Papers — International Communication Association, 1.

28) von Marées, N., Petermann, F., Kowalski, R., Morgan, C., & Limber, S. (2012). Traditional bullying as a potential warning sign of cyberbullying. School Psychology International, 33(5), 505-519.

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Dr. Diane Purvey: Dean of Arts, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/03/22

1. What positions have you held in Academe? What position do you currently hold?

My positions held have been: Assistant Professor in the School of Education in the Faculty of Human, Social and Educational Development at Thompson Rivers University, where I was promoted to the position of Associate Professor. I was also Chair of a large department. I applied for and was offered the position of Dean here at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Also, I have done a lot of different sessional and online teaching, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. In fact, I recently taught a couple of courses at Royal Roads, in both online and face-to-face formats. However, this is my first full-time administrative role.

2. How did you come to this point in your academics? Who/what influenced you the most?

Soon after I started a permanent job at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) I became Chair. I discovered I was good at it. It felt right. What is more, I liked it. However, administrative work is not highly valued in the Faculties. It is not something faculty desire to go into. For example, when I told people I had taken on the position here, many of my colleagues responded that I had gone onto the dark side. It is seen as a negative rather than something to aspire to. While at TRU, I slowly started doing more administrative work. I sat on more internal and external committees. In 2012 I was invited to apply for my current Dean of Arts position, but I was on sabbatical at the time and I had full intention to return to TRU. It was one of those situations where I thought it would be interesting to go through the interview process. I thought I will see what it is like. It was low risk for me because I had a job which I liked and looked forward to there. And, the more I looked into the position at KPU, they more I was intrigued. The interviews were great. I liked the people I met. I like the trajectory of Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) from a college to a university-college to a polytechnic university. It felt like a good fit for me.

3. How did you gain interest in Social and Educational Studies? Where did you acquire your education?

I think of myself as a historian. I did my B.A. and M.A. in History. When I decided to do my Ph.D., I wanted to work with a particular historian. Her name is Veronica Strong-Boag. At the time, she was at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in the history department. About the time I talked to her, and she agreed to be my supervisor, she had accepted a position at University of British Columbia (UBC). She would become the head of the Centre for Women’s Studies and Gender Relations. That position was affiliated with Social and Educational Studies at UBC. Now, Nicki, my supervisor, is a historian, but she became associated with Social and Educational Studies. Therefore, being her student, I became, de facto, associated with Social and Educational Studies. I do not have a teaching degree, nor a teaching background in terms of K-12, but I began to teach in the teacher training program and the courses I taught had to do with history of education, history of childhood, history of women, and the history of the family. These were the history courses within Social and Educational Studies. Social and educational Studies at UBC is composed of sociology, history, anthropology, and philosophy of education. None, or few, of the faculty within Social and Educational Studies have teaching degrees. The courses are called foundational because they look at the history or sociology of education. That is how I got into it. It is a bit odd because many people think I come from education, but I do not.

4. What kinds of research have you conducted up to the present?

Lots of research, it is kind of funny. As I became affiliated with Social and Educational Studies, and earned my Ph.D., I became aware that a lot of the jobs available were the jobs in education. I took the job at TRU in Educational Studies. However, my research continued to be in history. My Ph.D. was on women in the family in Canada in the post-World War II period (1945-1960), and the transition from war time to peace time and the way this played out in the context of the family during the Cold War. For instance, the context of the Cold War was creating a discourse of ‘a stable nation is a stable home’. My Masters was on orphanages, which was on the history of childhood. So my Ph.D. was a continuation of research on the history of the family, but in a different time period. I published and edited a collection of articles on the history of family and childhood issues. I worked on roadside shrines, which was a history of grieving and memorialization in British Columbia (BC). I published more recently a book co-authored with my husband called Vancouver Noir, which is Vancouver between the 1930 and 1960 period. Also, I recently began work on de-institutionalization. Beginning in the 1950s in Canada, people began to leave mental health facilities. I looked at their experiences. What was the experience of deinstitutionalization like for them? In addition, I studied de-institutionalization of the developmentally disabled. I focus much of my research in the domain of. About three years ago I thought, I really am in a Faculty of Education, I should do some educational research. Opportunities arose around the history of ‘principal preparation’ programs in the province, ‘diversity’, and diversity education and administration. When I was on sabbatical in 2011/2012, I did a lot of that research which is coming out in a number of publications this year. I have oscillated between history and education, which for me are two separate tracks of research with modest intersections. As of late, it is difficult to continue researching because of the demands of this position, but I consider it really important for me, as Dean of the Faculty of Arts, to continue with a research agenda. So, although difficult in terms of finding the time, it is important and a definite priority for me.

5. In your current role as Dean of Arts, where do you see ‘The University’ (as an abstract) going?

Good question, I could talk a lot about that, but I think we are re-defining ‘The University’. Is it a place for people to become credentialed for a skill or job? Is it job preparation? Or is it the place for people to become enlightened in terms of liberal education? I do not necessarily consider these antithetical, although they are often presented as such. I do not think they necessarily need teasing apart. For instance, in the university, we can prepare people for jobs and for living in a global society. Prepare them for living in a society with people who have a multitude of diversities. It does not necessarily mean not equipping them with the tools for a job. At KPU, we have the polytechnic title, but we have liberal education courses. The courses do not necessarily have pragmatic applications for an immediate job. For example, philosophy does not necessarily teach someone a skill for a job, but it does open our minds by making us consider things in a different way, especially those things that we have not considered before. We may not have questioned ourselves and our assumptions before, which is essential, to me, to be a citizen in today’s world and to be a good employee at virtually any job. In terms of the direction for the University, I think universities will be around for some time. I would like to see universities having more open access regarding the constraints people have with respect to the cost of university. Even though universities may not be very expensive, while attending university you may be unable to work, which is a negative expense. I want universities to be more open, more available, and much more flexible in terms of when we offer courses. Not simply a more fulsome summer semester, but I mean weekends, evenings, early mornings, that sort of stuff to make education way more accessible for people. Education or a university is becoming more than graduating from high school, doing your four years like I did, but becoming a place to come back to for continual learning. This is the place where I see universities going. In terms of our post-secondary institutions, I like the idea of various institutions connecting to one another. For instance, a student could live in Dawson Creek going to Northern Lights College (NLC) can take those courses and go to Athabasca University (AU) for open learning, come here, and then put things together from a variety of experiences. Also, I am a big believer in prior learning assessment. Putting things together from these various life experiences and different courses that they have taken. It is fundamental to the institution. You know, not all faculty at KPU conduct research. They may not conduct research in the traditional academic sense, but they are actively engaged in the research and the scholarship of teaching and learning, they re-work assignments, think about their classes, re-design their courses, and they think about this in consistent and constant ways without even realizing it or recognizing it as a form of research. I think research in all its forms is important for me to recognize and value.

6. In some cases, you have sciences such as biology bringing the knowledge and experiments down to the high school level, and having ambitious teachers and their students, at least in some cases, attempt, and in occasional cases succeeding, to publish their work.

I love that. I think more high school students should come into the university setting and receive dual-credits. I love the idea of having students engage in the university in this way. I think KPU should do more of this, and I have been an active supporter of the dual credit program, which at KPU is called Xcel.

7. Since you began studying social and educational studies, what do you consider the controversial topics? How do you examine the controversial topics?

I work with people have mental health issues. They have problems, obviously, and this impacts the research. For instance, I worked with a woman in creating a video. She disappeared for about six months. I worried about her. As it turns out, she went through a bad time. She did not want to be part of the world. Now, she is back – to my delight. However, these factors come into play when conducting the research. It can come into their own experiences with poverty, stigma, homelessness, and so on. All of those things are much different compared to going out to the library and having total control for four hours to conduct research on archival materials. This has made me appreciate working with people, and the challenges of that. The dynamic between you, as the researcher – let’s face it, a middle-class privileged white researcher – and the way it plays out in the research, how this plays out in our relationship, and the way I need to understand and research their lives. It has led to really, really understanding other people, and by that, also understanding myself. I am a historian through and through. I love history. I do not want to devalue history, but working with actual people is a different animal – let me tell you. It has hugely changed my attitude to research and to people.

8. In both cases, we have qualitative research.

I do mostly qualitative research; a little quantitative, but not a lot. Most of my historical research is 20^th century, recent history.

9. How would you describe your philosophical framework? How did it change?

When I was first in university, I was exposed to Marxism and Socialism, which was huge for me. Labour history had a huge influence on me. Then I was introduced to feminist history during my masters, and that had a big influence on me as a female in the academy because I came to realize I had only a few female role models. In terms of both faculty and historians, at that time in the 80s, it was much different. Even when I was a history student, to make it from there to a professorship was a huge challenge, I will give a little example. When I decided to do my Ph.D., I had finished my B.A., worked for a while, began my masters, had a child, finished my master’s dissertation, had two more children, and then decided to do a Ph.D. I applied to various universities and for a few that included an interview process. In one interview, the interviewers wondered about the gap between finishing my masters and starting my Ph.D. I worked at (what is now) KPU, Douglas College, University of the Fraser Valley, Simon Fraser University, and Vancouver Island University, all of the institutions of the lower mainland going back and forth between them attempting to gather together a life. An interviewer asked, “Why did you take a 5 to 6 year break?” I paused and said, “I had three children.” He replied, “I put it to you. If you were serious about your academic life, you would not have had children.” That was in the 90s. I thought, “That makes a statement.” Maybe, that is the reason for women not existing in significant numbers in the academy. If he treated me like that, I wonder of the treatment of his female colleagues.

10. If you had unlimited funding and unrestricted freedom, what would you enjoy researching?

That is a good question. It goes to my previous statements about working with people having mental diagnoses. That is, although I love history and think of myself as a historian, and believe a historical perspective benefits our understanding of everything in our society, I have to tell you, from working with people having mental diagnoses and seeing their experience, the way they walk through life and stick with it, especially coupled with my living in Gastown, Vancouver now. One and a half blocks from Hastings Street, the population, the homeless population, addicts, I know many of these people are deinstitutionalized. They have a ton of mental health problems. I cannot help but think, if we focus our research on people suffering from addictions and if they received appropriate help, we would be a much better society. If I could have unlimited funds, and research anything I wanted, I would research the way to support people with mental health diagnoses. How do we help them? How do we get them to a point where they can help themselves? How do we create real choices for them? How do we get them more housing? How do we get services for people? What is the intersection between crime and the legal system with the homeless and addicted population – even diagnosis? All of that stuff. I consider this a huge social justice issue in our society today. I think many people think of this as too much to take in. It’s overwhelming. Therefore, they blame the victim. I think this problem is screaming out for attention in the inner cities and committed citizens want to do something about it. I would really focus energy on this issue.

11. Sheryl Sandberg made a statement in her TED talk akin to that, but from the female side of the ledger, “If it’s me who cares about this, obviously, giving this talk, during this talk, I can’t even notice that the men’s hands are still raised, and the women’s hands aren’t still raised. How good are we as managers of our companies and our organizations at seeing that the men are reaching for opportunities more than women?”

Yes, I began to realize this at a certain point in my life. I went to seek out female faculty members as mentors. I searched my faculty, female members of the Ph.D. committee, and so on. Interestingly, the ones I found were tough. Sometimes tougher than males. I asked a woman on the Ph.D. committee, “Why is that the case?” She said, “It’s a tough world out there. You have to be tough. That is my attitude towards it. I had to deal with it. You will have to deal with it.” At the time, I thought this was unfair because my experience does not have to replicate her own experience. Her experience was twenty years previous. In terms of influences, I would say feminism. I went from the labour history to looking at feminist historians. I think of some of them like Natalie Zemon Davis, a French historian, as being particularly influential. She wrote a number of books, which I like because of their interface between academic history and history for a popular audience. She wrote a book called The Return of Martin Guerre, which was a book set in 16^th century France. It became a movie. She was the historical consultant on the movie. I found that amazing to bring history to the people through this medium. Actually, I heard her speak a short time ago at UBC. She is wonderful. She was the second woman president of the American historical Association and in 1971 she co-taught at the University of Toronto one of the first courses in North America on the history of women and gender, and hence has been an important figure in the development of that field. In terms of my philosophical orientation, I would say a social history perspective. In other words, a history of marginalized people whether that be due to labour or class, gender, ability, race or ethnicity, sexuality, or the intersection of these..

12. One mistake of people: the fundamental attribution error. We look at the contextual factors and the individual. We attribute the surrounding environment for our faults/accomplishments and the individual for other people’s faults/accomplishments. For instance, we, as individuals, say, “I am good because of talent.” For others, we say, “They are evil because of them.”

We need to develop empathy. My regular driving route to KPU has recently become re-routed. Now, I travel through the alleys for part of the drive. I regularly drive by 10 to 15 women. They are street workers in the downtown eastside. It is sad. Do not misread me, I am not saying that it is a bad thing to do because I am not commenting on these peoples’ choices or the circumstances that drove them to this place. However, these women are severely marginalized. Most of the women are addicts; many are aboriginal women; some of them are in their teens. It is tragic. We live amongst this and we are educated people with lots of resources who know about past crimes such as Robert Picton and who nevertheless turn a blind eye to the suffering of others.

13. Yet, it does not seem like an idealistic notion to me. Here’s my sense of you, on the one hand, you state the observation, and “This is a problem. We have to fix it.” On the other hand, it does not seem like much lay commentary on war, “War is horrible. We should end war.” Of course, people consider war bad. In that, you seem pragmatic in problem-solving here compared to the idealistic, optimistic paying of lip-service to negative societal issues. In other words, we need reasonable consideration of the amount of reduction in these problems.

Absolutely right, we do have some solutions. We do have harm reduction, safe-injection sites, INSITE, and so on. But things like ‘Just Say No’ do not work. Again, I know myself as a historian and historians don’t have the reputation in the academy of leading social causes, but this is something that we can do. We can do something about this.

14. In short, other than the theoretical, we need to do concrete, on-the-ground research. In the immediate, something practical.

Yes! In my work with colleagues on this mental health project, one of things we are developing are educational resources for people in professional programs. When individuals receive a mental health diagnosis they inevitably end up meeting with a lawyer, doctor, a nurse, a social worker, and so on. When those professionals are being educated, what do they need to know about the people with a mental health diagnosis? I ask the people in the group I am working with, what would you want these professional people to know about your life? We are developing these resources that will be used in education. We work with colleagues who have various mental health diagnoses, fascinating! We have a group of about 20 or so. 2 of them are doing their masters in history and ended with mental health concerns and on the street. Their lives completely changed. I was a student. I was doing my master’s degree in history. People have narrow assumptions of people who are homeless, living in poverty, and who have a mental health diagnosis.

15. What advice do you have for undergraduate and graduate students?

I think going into the world and experiencing in all of its terror and beauty is important. Take risks, even for university students, go into a course unrelated to your field, try a lab, go out there and work with community people. One of the things I consider important, not everyone has the opportunity, travel out in the world – even volunteering in the downtown eastside. Go to India, Germany if you want, and do a year abroad, even a semester – travel up north! These experiences are worth it. When you take risks, leave the comfortable behind, whether for a sustained period of time or one day or a week, the benefits are huge.

16. What is the most important point about education?

I considerate it important to understand history. If we understand, we know why things are the way they are today. So a classic, easy-to-understand example, is the place of aboriginals in society today. If we understand history, and acquire a history of aboriginal people before colonization, look at the colonization period, look at the epidemics of disease, and, more recently, residential schools and the sixties scoop, that would allow us to have a deeper understanding of some of the challenges facing our society today – especially in terms of aboriginal people. Another example of the importance of history is simply developing an understanding of our education system. You go to school from September to June, why these dates? Why is school something paid for by the state? Why is it that people without children pay for the education of all of our society’s children? Our ancestors wanted our society full of people educated a certain way. It was a form of indoctrination. It was also a way of creating a viable workforce. There was a belief that if you had to train children to be good productive workers so you began by training them to go to school at a specific time and days of the week. Think of a difference that made to children and to our notion of childhood. Previously, most children got up with the sunrise and slept at sunset. They lived with the rhythms of the seasons. Imagine how different it was to always have to be at school at 9:00 am no matter the time of year. People previously did not have a sense of time that was coupled to a clock. Suddenly, you have to be at school at 9 o’clock. At 10 o’clock, you have to open your algebra textbooks, and so on. The purpose of school, of mass school, was to pave the way for people in the workforce: industry. There was a reason for the development of public schooling. There was a historical reason for that. Without understanding that, I consider it difficult for people to understand the grounding for our educational system. People take it for granted. It is paid for by the state. It runs from September to June, and so on. To me, that lesson is a critical thinking lesson. If you begin to question things like that, you begin to learn that the taken-for-granted structures in our society are not simply there. They happened for a reason. It allows you to re-think anything in our life. Also, it allows us to think of the possibility of change. If our schools, as an example, were developed these structures in these ways, then they can change. It seems to me a hopeful notion for change.

Bibliography

1) American Indian. (2014). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/405873/American-Indian

2) colonialism, Western. (2014). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/126237/colonialism

3) education. (2014). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/179408/education

4) Faculty of Education: Department of Educational Studies (n.d.). Veronica Strong-Boag. Department of Educational Studies. Retrieved March 6, 2014, fromhttp://edst.educ.ubc.ca/facultystaff/veronica-strong-boag/.

5) higher education. (2014). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/265464/higher-education

6) historiography. (2014). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/267436/historiography

7) Natalie Zemon Davis. (2014). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1566421/Natalie-Zemon-Davis

8) Purvey, D. & Belshaw, J.D. (2009). Private Grief, public Mourning: The Rise of the Roadside Shrine in British Columbia. Vancouver, BC: Anvil Press.

9) Purvey, D. & Belshaw, J.D. (2011). Vancouver Noir: 1930-1960. Vancouver, BC: Anvil Press.

10) Purvey, D. & Walmsley, C. (2011). Child and Family Welfare in British Columbia: A History. Vancouver, BC: Detselig Press.

11) Purvey, D., Vermeulen, & Power, C. (2011). Restorative Justice: Does it have a place in elementary schools?. International Perspective on restorative Justice in Education.

12) Purvey, D. & Webber, C. (2011). ‘Something Greater was Happening’: A Novice Principal Reflects on Creating Change Through Building Community Relationships. New Primary Leaders: International Perspectives.

13) Saunders, J. (2012, June). Kwantlen welcomes Dr. Purvey as dean, faculty of arts. Kwantlen Polytechnic University Newsletter. Retrieved March 6, 2014, fromhttp://www.kpu.ca/news/kwantlen-welcomes-dr-diane-purvey-dean-faculty-arts

14) Sandberg, S. (2010, December 21). Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders.html

15) Sandberg, S. (2014, December). Sheryl Sandberg: So We Leaned In… Now What? [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_so_we_leaned_in_now_what

16) Sheryl Sandberg. (2014). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1698757/Sheryl-Sandberg

17) The Runner (2012, June). New Dean of Arts at Kwantlen. The Runner. Retrieved March 6, 2014, from http://runnermag.ca/2012/06/new-dean-of-arts-at-kwantlen/diane-purvey-web-01/.

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Madeleine Thien: Writer-in-Residence, Simon Fraser University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/02/22

1. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside? How do you find this influencing your development?

My parents speak different dialects of Chinese (Hakka and Cantonese) and so our common language was always English. Although, often, my parents would speak their own dialect to each other – so two languages simultaneously – and they would understand. My mother was born in Hong Kong and my father in Malaysia, but they rarely spoke about life before Canada. I think, for different reasons, and with different degrees of success, they both tried to forget. They couldn’t afford to return home, and so they had to accept that it was gone or else feel the constant pain of being cut off. For a long time I felt an incredible sadness when I thought about the sacrifices my parents made for us. Now that I’m older, I see their courage, selflessness and their extraordinary reinvention.

2. How was your youth? How did you come to this point? What do you consider a pivotal moment in your transition to writing?

It was chaotic. We moved a lot and my parents were under constant financial stress. My siblings left home at very young ages, and my father left when I was sixteen. That was probably one of the earlier pivotal moments, because for a while he simply disappeared. I was living with my mother, but we were really cut off from one another emotionally. I lived in my head. Writing became a way to express things that were unsayable, either because they were private and confused, or because they might injure another person, or because I didn’t know what the truth was. Writing was a space to lay things down.

3. Where did you acquire your education? What education do you currently pursue?

I studied contemporary dance at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and, later on, creative writing at The University of British Columbia (UBC). My devotion to books, reading and learning is intense but also exhausting. I’m deeply interested in 20^th century history, particularly transitional times; I’m utterly fascinated by the Silk Road, and also the post-independence years in Southeast Asia, and lately, Communist China. I’m also working on documentary projects, art installations, and I occasionally choreograph. I want to live about a thousand lives! I think that’s why the novel, and fiction, have been the mainstay in my life.

4. At present, you hold the ‘Writer-in-Residence’ position at Simon Fraser University. What does the position provide for you?

Yes, I’m incredibly lucky. The English Department is full of creative, questioning and generous scholars. And SFU has brought me back to Vancouver where I grew up, but where I haven’t lived for more than twelve years.

5. You have written four major works: Certainty, Dogs at the Perimeter, The Chinese Violin, Simple Recipes: Stories. Most recently, Dogs at the Perimeter, I read it. I urge readers to go and purchase the book. For those interested, what inspired this book? What is the overarching theme?

I had been spending months at a time in Cambodia, and the country preoccupied me more and more. For me, Cambodia is like nowhere else – inhabiting his seam between the ancient cultural reaches of India and China, all filtered through a formidable Khmer culture. The Cambodian genocide happened when I was a child and has been largely forgotten by the rest of the world; or, if remembered, is remembered almost abstractly. That our governments played an undeniably large role in the de-stabilization of Cambodia and its civil war, and that the ensuing genocide claimed the lives of 1.7 million people, and that hundreds of thousands of Cambodians had to seek refuge outside of their country – has become a footnote of history. I wanted to think about how people begin again, how they remember and how they forget, and how these acts change over the course of a life. The Cambodians I know live both inside and outside their memories, they carry ruptured selves and also, in their own philosophy, multiple souls.

6. If you currently work and play with a piece of writing, what do you call it? What is the general theme and idea behind it?

It has no title as of yet. I’ve finished a draft and am fine tuning now. The centre of the book is the story of three young musicians studying at the Shanghai Conservatory in the 1960s. They’re Chinese musicians studying Western classical music, trying to express themselves through Bach, Beethoven, Prokofiev, Debussy, and also trying to express the tenor of the times. Because of Mao’s extremism during the Cultural Revolution, this expression proves not only to be untenable, but it alters their lives forever. This novel is about how ideas and artistic practices move from East to West and West to East, what it means to speak in another language (be that music, ideology or literature), and it’s also about copying, repetition and the desire, however illusory, for transcendence, to be outside of one’s time.

7. If any, what do you consider the purpose of art? More importantly, what role do artists play in shaping, defining, and contributing to society and culture?

To be a witness to this time and place, and to each other. I don’t see it as a record of one’s self. I want my art to be a record of the people and the world around me. A complicated questioning of what is, and a way to learn how to see more than I do now.

8. If you had sufficient funding and time, what would you like to write?

I think it would be the same. I think of funding and time almost solely as a means to write, and so I try to create the conditions for this in my day to day life.

9. What do you consider the most controversial topic in writing at the moment? How do you examine the issue?

Race. It makes everyone afraid. A few decades ago we could talk about race, but now even saying the word is difficult, in both national and geopolitical contexts.

10. In terms of representation of ‘minority populations’ in literary circles, presentation of awards and honours, and media time provided, what do you consider the present conditions? What do you think and feel about these conditions?

I think literary culture in Canada and America has been adversely affected by the closing down of bookshops and the merging of publishers. It’s extremely competitive, and bookshops and publishers are simply looking to survive. It makes sense that, with such fine margins, they support (financially, emotionally, intellectually) work that has the potential to be mainstream. But how do we imagine mainstream? Sadly, I think that we mean white middle- or upper-class. So this audience (or the way a publisher envisions this audience and what they want) is reflected, in some way, in the novels that are published and supported. A Chinese novelist might sell a million copies in China, but a publisher here may still see that work as foreign, other and unlikely to appeal.

I think we should widen our understanding of the reader.

I’m a pretty stubborn person, and so these conditions make me want to push back the boundaries even more.

11. Furthermore, in concrete, or practical and applied, terms, what needs doing? How might these aims come to fruition? What about their short- and long-term implications for impacting the literary culture in the Lower Mainland, in Canada, and abroad?

Deeper engagement and from those of us who have another perspective. Acknowledgement that

New York literary culture is an echo chamber and increasingly narrow.

I’m teaching an Asian Literature course in the US right now, I teach in a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program in Hong Kong, where I work with writers from around the world, and I’m helping to develop the curriculum for a fine arts university in Zimbabwe. I love the responses I get when I ask this younger generation why literature matters, why they are studying it, and why bookshops are shelved with stories that are already familiar to us. Does it matter to us as individuals or as a society if our literature supports singular concepts of national identity, or when celebrated literature is narcissistic or apolitical, or when the majority of the world is invisible in 99% of the literature we read and discuss? We have a stake in trying to see what the system makes invisible, and then articulating these gaps in forthright and intelligent ways.

12. Who most influenced you? Why them? Can you recommend any books or articles by them?

James Baldwin. Cees Nooteboom, All Souls Day. Alice Munro. Michael Ondaatje, Running in the Family and so many other books. Dionne Brand. Ma Jian, Beijing Coma and Red Dust. Liao Yiwu. Sven Lindqvist. Tsitsi Dangarembga, The Book of Not and Nervous Conditions. Hannah Arendt. Antonio Damasio and Oliver Sacks. Shirley Hazzard, The Great Fire and The Transit of Venus. Colin Thubron, The Hills of Adonis and In the Shadow of the Silk Road. Dostoevsky and Chekhov. The literature, memoir and reportage around Cambodia, from Vaddey Ratner to Bree Lafreniere, Loung Ung, Elizabeth Becker, Francois Bizot, Jon Swain and Peter Maguire. Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War. Kazuo Ishiguro, The Unconsoled, The Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go and When We Were Orphans. All these writers break form and enlarge content, they are humane and, in my eyes, fearless.

13. Where do you see writing, the teaching of writing, and publishing in the near and far future? How does, and will, the internet change the landscape?

I’m curious about the publishing worlds of India and China. I wonder how they’ll influence and alter the English-language market, how soon will they become centres of influence alongside London and New York. I hope the internet will break down some of the stagnation in the way we talk about books, and which books we encounter.

14. What advice do you have for young writers?

Fiction is not outdated or tired. Fiction is what you make of it, what you bring to it, how far you’re willing to travel both into yourself and outside yourself. Don’t knock the imagination.

15. What worries and hopes do you have for the world of literature regarding the older and younger generations – writers and readers?

I’m not worried. I think that even when things seem stagnant or narrow, fissures always appear. I love multimedia and the experimentation with the new forms available to us via our laptops and phones and interconnectedness. But I also value closing all that down, turning inward, reading a book, and giving time, attention and focus to the interpretation and engagement with story.

16. Besides your own organizational affiliations and literary interests, what associations, writers, and even non-/for-profits can you recommend for interested readers?

The Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-CAM) and the Bophana Centre. And, in Vancouver, the extraordinary Thursdays Writing Collective.

http://www.dccam.org/

http://www.bophana.org/site/index.php

http://thursdayswritingcoll.netfirms.com/wordpress/

Bibliography

1) Bophana Centre (2014). Bophana Centre. Retrieved from http://www.bophana.org/site/index.php.

2) Dangarembga, T. (1988). Nervous Conditions. Ney York, NY: Seal Press.

3) Dangarembga, T. (2006). The Book of Not: A Sequel to Nervous Conditions. Oxfordshire, UK: Ayebia Clarke Publishing Ltd.

4) Documentation Centre of Cambodia (2014). Documentation centre of Cambodia. Retrieved from http://www.dccam.org/.

5) Hazzard, S. (2003). The Great Fire. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

6) Hazzard, S. (1980). The Transit of Venus. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

7) Ishiguro, K. (2005) Never Let Me Go. New York, NY: Random House Inc.

8) Ishiguro, K. (1995) The Unconsoled. New York, NY: Random House Inc.

9) Ishiguro, K. (1989) The Remains of the Day. London, UK: Faber and Faber Limited.

10) Ishiguro, K. (2000) When We Were Orphans. London, UK: Faber and Faber.

11) Jian, M. (2008). Beijing Coma: A Novel. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

12) Jian, M. (2013, November 10). My Life: Ma Jian. Post Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1349783/my-life-ma-jian.

13) Jian, M. (2001). Red Dust. London, UK: Random House.

14) Ninh, B. (1991) The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam. New York, NY: Riverhead Books.

15) Nooteboom, C. (2001). All Souls Day. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt.

16) Thien, M. (2011). Dogs at the Perimeter. Toronto, Ontario: Mclelland and Stewart Ltd.

17) Thien, M. (2006). Certainty. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.

18) Thien, M. (2002). Chinese Violin. Vancouver/Toronto: Whitecap Books Ltd.

19) Thien, M. (2001). Simple Recipes. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.

20) Thubron, C. (2006). In the Shadow of the Silk Road. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.

21) Thubron, C. (2009). The Hills of Adonis: A Quest in Lebanon. Toronto, Ontario: Random House Canada.

22) Thursdays Writing Collective (2014). Thursdays Writing Collective . Retrieved from http://thursdayswritingcoll.netfirms.com/wordpress/.

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2023-01-28

Dr. Carol Tavris: Social Psychologist, Writer, Lecturer

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2014/01/01

1. What academic positions have you held?

Although I have taught at various institutions, including the New School for Social Research in New York and UCLA, I have never held a full-time academic position. I have always loved teaching, especially the intro course, but my career has primarily been as a writer—of textbooks, general interest books, book reviews and essays, articles for journals and magazines—all with the goal of promoting critical thinking and psychological science. In a world full of pop-psych pseudoscience, that is a full-time job!

2. How did you develop that career?

When I was in graduate school, a new magazine called Psychology Today was born. It was meant to be the Scientific American of psychology—a magazine that would bring good psychological science to general audiences. I wrote to them, looking for a summer job. They told me they would hire me, but only if I came for a year. Though scared to death to take a year off the Ph.D. program, I did, and that experience changed my life. There, working with brilliant editors, I learned to write, edit, and conduct interviews. When I went back to Michigan, I was an Associate Editor. When I got my Ph.D., I had a choice: proceed with an academic career or go back to the magazine as a Senior Editor. The latter option was risky: no tenure or even job security, after all. But my beloved mentors at UM said, “You know, there are many ways to be a good social psychologist, and one of them is having the ability to educate the public about what social psychology is.”

3. When did psychology interest you?

Not as an undergraduate! I took one intro course and got a C+. I majored in comparative literature and sociology, and went to the University of Michigan in sociology—to study “the sociology of literature,” whatever that was. But there I found the interdisciplinary program in social psychology, and loved it. I switched into that program immediately. We learned an array of methods, topics, and perspectives.

4. Where did you acquire your education?

I was an undergraduate at Brandeis University, and a graduate student at Michigan. But I “acquired my education” also first and foremost from my parents, who were committed to critical and creative thinking, and social activism; from working at general-interest magazines, which taught me the importance of using my education to help inform the public about science and critical thinking; and by coming of age during the civil-rights and women’s rights movements.

5. Since you began studying psychology, what do you consider the controversial topics?

There is always “controversy” in any field: sometimes over politically sensitive issues (e.g., sex and race differences), or over methods, or about findings. In my lifetime, the most divisive and emotional issues were the “recovered memory” and “multiple personality” hysteria of the 1990s, along with widespread claims in Canada and the U.S. of ritual sex abuse going on in daycare centers. So many lives and families were shattered by these faulty beliefs—notably, the idea that traumatic memories of sexual abuse are repressed until “recovered” in therapy with hypnosis, dream analysis, and other methods now known to create confabulations; that trauma causes the self to “dissociate” into many personalities; that “children never lie” about being molested. These epidemics made many psychological scientists more committed than ever to educating the public about the importance of good psychological research. That research has showed how best to interview children to avoid coercing or inducing them into telling fanciful tales, while being open to their telling about actual abuse; how “multiple personalities” can be manufactured in a collaboration between therapist and patient; and how trauma and memory really do function.

Of all my writings, I am especially partial to the popular book I wrote with Elliot Aronson, Mistakes were made (but not by ME): Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts. In this book, we use cognitive dissonance to show why it is so hard for people to deal with controversies, once they have taken a position: why it is so hard to say, “hmm, time to give up that outdated belief after all” or to admit that a particular choice we made might have been wrong.

6. You have devoted much of your life to criticizing work most often termed ‘pseudoscience’. How do you define pseudoscience? What do you consider its most common markers?

At least in its ideal form, science is falsifiable. A scientific premise can be disconfirmed; it is testable. Do you believe that dowsing and ESP exist? Do you believe that the Bible says the world will end next Friday? These are beliefs that can be tested empirically. If the test repeatedly fails, the hypothesis is wrong—you need to modify it or drop it. But pseudoscientists keep the belief despite the disconfirming evidence: “It was the wrong day for dowsing because of clouds.” The world did not end Friday? Nothing wrong with my prediction, I just read that page of the Bible incorrectly—I meant Tuesday.

7. You earned numerous awards for your book The Mismeasure of Woman–such as the Distinguished Media Contribution from the Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology, the Heritage Publications award from Division 35 of the American Psychological Association, and the Distinguished Contribution to Women’s Health Award from the APA Conference on Women’s Health. You have received other awards, as from the Independent Investigations Group of the Center for Inquiry, for your contributions to skepticism. What do these awards mean to you?

Getting awards is extremely gratifying; it means your peers and colleagues respect and honor your work. But it’s also humbling. The next day, everyone forgets, so it’s back to work.

8. Who most influenced you? Can you recommend any seminal books/articles by them?

I hate lists! This question is impossible, because my influences were feminism, and the countless important books in psychology, politics, and culture about gender equality and how to achieve it; great studies in social psychology; great writers and poets, who have inspired me as a writer . . . how long have you got? Besides, what had an impact on me might have no interest to you. My advice to students, therefore, is always to follow your heart, mind, and nose—explore. Read in areas other than your specialty. Read for fun. Read and memorize poetry. Take courses not only because it is a required subject, but because you’ve heard the professor is brilliant and compelling—even if that course is far afield from your major.

9. Where do you see psychology going?

The biggest issue that psychology will face, in my view, is to remember that it is psychology. The biomedical revolution is transforming research and how we understand human behavior; neuroscience in psychology and other fields is rising in dominance. But we must not overlook the equally powerful influences of culture, learning, and the environment in determining how we behave, what we believe, and how we shape our worlds.

Bibliography

1) Center for Inquiry (2014). Center for Inquiry. Retrieved from http://www.centerforinquiry.net/.

2) James Randi Foundation [JamesRandiFoundation] (2012, August 8). Carol Tavris, Ph.D. – “A Skeptical look at Neuroscience – TAM 2012. James Randi Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwxdgZeIdqI.

3) Tavris, C. (2006). The high cost of courage. In M. Garry & H. Hayne (Eds.), Do justice and let the sky fall: Elizabeth F. Loftus and her contributions to science, law, and academic freedom. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

4) Tavris, Carol, & Aronson, Elliot (2007). Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts. New York: Harcourt. Paperback edition, 2008, Harvest books. Foreign editions: England, Poland, Germany, Japan, Hungary, Romania, France, Taiwan, China (Taiwan and mainland), South Korea, Turkey, Holland, Czech Republic.

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2023-01-28

Dr. Maryanne Garry: Psychology Professor, Victoria University of Wellington

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/12/15

1. What academic positions have you held? What academic positions do you currently hold?

I was a postdoc at the University of Washington, working with Elizabeth Loftus and Alan Marlatt, and then I came to Victoria University of Wellington in 1996. I’ve been there ever since. I’m a Professor of Psychology here.

2. In brief, how was your youth? How did you come to this point?

I’m really a first generation college kid. My parents grew up in the Great Depression and thought college was the way you get a high paying job that gives you lots of security. They were never thrilled with my interests in academia.

3. When did Psychology interest you?

Well, from the time I was about 8, I wanted to be a forensic scientist. It wasn’t until I was about to graduate from a forensic science program as an undergrad did I learn that I would not be able to pass the eye text to be an FBI agent. Back then, the FBI was suspicious of contact lenses. So I used my forensic and chemistry degrees to teach high school, and then I became interested in cognition, and I realized that I could still tackle forensic problems via cognitive psychology.

4. Where did you acquire your education?

I did my PhD at the University of Connecticut and my Forensic Science and Chemistry degrees at the University of New Haven.

5. What kinds of research have you conducted up to the present?

I’ve done research on eyewitness memory, implanted false memories, expectancy effects, truth effects, and some educational research.

6. If you currently conduct research, what form does it take?

I’m doing a lot of work with my grad students.

7. If you had infinite funding and full academic freedom, what would you research?

Probably the same thing I do now. I really like human memory.

8. Since you began studying Psychology, what do you consider the controversial topics? How do you examine the controversial topics?

Without a doubt, in my field it’s been the drama about repressed and recovered memories. But across psychology, I think the controversial topic is what’s happening now with respect to null hypothesis testing; replications; low ns producing quirky results, etc.

9. How would you describe your early philosophical framework? Did it change? If so, how did it change?

The classes I had with Mike Turvey as a grad student had an enormous impact on the way I think, or at least try to think. I know a lot of people think the Gibsons and their wider ecological approach is some kind of wacky cultish thing, but I don’t. In this big picture sense, I think my frameworks haven’t changed that much. On other levels, yeah, they’ve changed. It’s a mix of hilarious and painful for me to pick up my dissertation and read any random page. For one thing, I didn’t know anything. That’s the great myth of getting a PhD: that you’ll leave with your degree knowing what you’ll need to know for the future. For another thing, I am much more dedicated to well written manuscripts. The day is too short to slog through papers that make your eyeballs bleed.

10. What advice do you have for young Psychology students?

Without a doubt, here are the three pieces of advice that probably account for 90% of the variance in success:

Learn to write. Nothing else matters if you write like crap. Think of the last few truly engaging scientific articles you read. Were they in a journal? Probably not. They were probably in Scientific American, or New Scientist. Learn to write like that. If you have been told that “good data speak for themselves,” guess what? They don’t. Likewise the idea that you need to write in polysyllabic passive prose. Ugh.
Write an hour or two every day. Without fail. Mark it in your calendar, and treat it the way you would any other important appointment. You wouldn’t not show up to teach class. Show up to write. The most productive writers write every day, whether they think they have anything to say or not. It turns out they always have something to say. Don’t think you’re a writer? That’s the first hurdle you need to get over: you are. So yep, turn off Facebook, staple your ass to a chair, and write.
Master the technical side of research. That means taking stats classes, and learning to program. Don’t leave grad school until you know something about multivariate techniques, and can program an experiment.

11. Who most influenced you? Can you recommend any seminal books/articles?

I had a few influential professors in grad school. From my advisor, Scott Brown, I learned how to be a good advisor. From Mike Turvey, I learned the importance of good teaching and the well-crafted lecture. From Beth Loftus, I learned that how you say something is as important as what you say.

12. Where do you see Psychology going?

Away, finally, from slavish reliance on null hypothesis testing and goofily erratic effects. At least I hope so.

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2023-01-28

Dr. Mahtab Jafari: Associate Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences & Director of Undergraduate Pharmaceutical Sciences Program, University of California, Irvine

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/11/15

1. What positions have you held? What position do you currently hold?

I am an Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Director of the Pharmaceutical Sciences Undergraduate program at University of California, Irvine. (UCI)

2. In brief, how was your youth? How did you come to this point? What was your original dream?

I was lucky to be raised in a family with loving parents. They were both educated and cared about the education of their children. They were open-minded. They encouraged my two brothers and I to choose careers that we liked, especially my mother. She was supportive of me. She was also a university professor. Growing up, I lived in 3 different countries. I think being exposed to different cultures and languages had a big impact on who I am today.

I became interested in science in the fifth grade. I describe this in a TEDx talk. That is the story of how I came to this point. I feel lucky because I do exactly what I dreamed about doing in fifth grade. My dream was to do scientific work and teach. I love to learn. When working in science, you have no choice, but to learn. I am living my dream right now. (Laughs)

3. When did Pharmaceutical Sciences interest you?

When I got sick as a kid, my parents used to take me to Dr. Maani. My first strep throat was painful. I had a high fever, body ache and could not swallow anything, even my own saliva. Dr. Manni got a swab culture from my throat, checked it under the microscope, and started me on antibiotics. When we went back to see him for a follow-up, he spent a lot of time explaining to me the importance of hand washing and having a strong immune system. I loved to go back for these follow ups because the prize for getting better was always a lollipop. I also remember that every fall, my entire family would go to Dr. Maani for our flu shots. In my neighborhood, Dr. Maani was considered a hero. Everyone respected him and everyone loved him. Many kids (including me) wanted to become Dr. Maani when we grew up.

By now, you are probably thinking Dr. Maani was an amazing primary care physician, that he was the neighborhood doctor who cared about his patients. Well, you are right about thinking that he was our neighborhood doctor, but he was not a physician. Dr. Maani was an amazing neighborhood pharmacist. He had a Pharm. D., a wealth of knowledge, and a passion to teach and help people.

4. Where did you acquire your education?

I earned my Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of California, San Francisco.

And then I did a Clinical Pharmacy Residency at University of California, San Francisco.

5. What kinds of research have you conducted up to the present?

I used to be a clinical scientist. If you look at my publications and research up to 2005, I was a clinician. I mostly did research on pharmaceuticals. My main work was around cardiovascular pharmacotherapy. I left academia in 2002 and worked as a senior scientist for Abbott Laboratories for a few years. I worked on metabolic complications of Central Nervous System (CNS) drugs.

Then in 2005, I came back to UCI and joined Pharmaceutical Sciences. The focus of my research shifted from diseases of aging such as cardiovascular diseases and neurological disorders to aging. I became interested in slowing the aging process. At present, I am working with botanical extracts because I believe if we use them at the right dose and quality they are safer than medications. So we work with botanical extracts and try to extend lifespan, but I have to tell you I didn’t choose to work with botanical extracts from the start. Sometimes, I like to think my fruit flies chose this for me. We were screening for anti-aging drugs, compounds, supplements, natural extracts, and botanical extracts. Plants and botanical extracts, did the best during this screening process. With fruit flies there is no placebo effect, I cannot tell you, “They felt real good having Tumeric.” (Laughs)

6. If you currently conduct research, what form does it take?

Mainly, I work with Drosophila, fruit flies. That is our main model system. Additionally, we conduct cell culture research. We work with human-cultured cells. Again, we use these as a model system to identify agents, which are all botanical extracts at the moment, that extend lifespan and to understand their mechanism of action.

7. How much did you increase the lifespan of the Drosophila fruit flies?

By 25%! Our most recent publication, received much media attention with an Orange County Register article on June 26^th. We have been on many media venues such as MSN, Yahoo! Voices, and others like this.

8. Since you began studying Pharmaceutical Sciences, what do you consider the controversial topics? How do you examine the controversial topics?

This could be an essay. (Laughs) I could write a ten-page essay or talk for hours. In Pharmaceutical Sciences and research, we have a few challenges. For instance, there is the area of ethical conduct of research. When we talk of randomized double-blind controlled studies, especially in psychiatry literature where you use patient interviews and scales, you are probably more familiar with it, Scott, the results can be subjective. In other words, I could conduct research to bring forth the results desired by me. Research is controversial. The safety of some of the medications, which are already approved by the FDA is controversial.

In my field, with my interest in dietary supplements and botanical extracts, my controversy is looking for the quality and safety of these supplements. For instance, the reporter from the Orange County Register asked me, “In 2008, you published a study with Rhodiola Rosea showing a 10% increase in lifespan. Now, you have 25% increase, what happened?” I told him, “Fruit flies don’t lie. We gave them a better quality product and better things happened.” That is exactly what happened. When we characterize the plant that we gave them back in 2008, the plants had the active components, which you like to see in Rhodiola Rosea. It was Rosavin and Salidroside, but percentage wise the extract in the 2013 paper was superior. With this superior extract, my fruit flies did better. Therefore, a superior extract produces better results. For me, the controversy with the work right now is on dietary supplements and botanical extracts. My questions are, “How good is the quality of the product? How safe is the product?” A big controversy arising from this, which I think is applicable to both pharmaceuticals and botanical extracts is false advertisement. With my position as a Professor, my primary job is to be an educator, ahead of a research. I tell my students that I consider myself an educator and a teacher above all else. If I cannot translate my science into an understandable fashion for people, what is the use of that science?

I am not familiar with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Canada. I can tell you about the FDA in the United States. If you had asked me to comment about FDA four years ago, I would have told you, “The FDA is very ineffective and slow.” Now, I work closely with them and I know first hand what an important function FDA plays in our public health. I developed an internship for our UCI Pharmaceutical Sciences students at the FDA. One of the goals is to expose them to the FDA, but an opportunity for them to become ambassadors to educate the public about FDA and to improve public health. For instance teaching the public how to report drug adverse effects to FDA could be a major contribution. Sometimes, you may experience an adverse drug reaction. Even if you do not know what the cause is, you still have to report it to the FDA because one never knows. We see how much FDA tries. We see how much they do. Reality: they are understaffed and under-budgeted. What do you do in that situation? How could you deal with that? Their work is very important, but they need more resources.

9. How would you describe your early philosophical framework? Did it change? If so, how did it change?

I do not know what to tell you about my Philosophical Framework. I like to think that it is a philosophy that encompasses the teachings of philosophers whose goal was to improve humanity. However, I can tell you about service. I was raised in a household devoted to service. My parents and grandparents were involved with the community at many levels. I guess this framed my life philosophy.

For me, Humanism is one aspect of it, especially based on my upbringing . I have a special outlook on life. As a scientist, sometimes you are questioned about religions and the existence of God. However, our science is not advanced enough to understand the big picture. One day it will do that, I am hopeful for science.

A pillar of my philosophical framework is a strong sense of ethics, and practical ethics. I am not a philosopher or an ethicist. However, in my mind, if an ethical principle is unpracticed, what good is it?

10. If you had infinite funding and full academic freedom, what would you research?

If I had infinite funding, I would conduct the same research that I am doing now and for teaching, I would start an education reform to focus on conceptual understanding and not memorizing. I am optimistic that if I had more funding, I could contribute a lot more to biomedical research. I would expand my basic work to clinical work. As I said, I was a clinician. I understand basic science, translational science, and clinical science. If I had unlimited funding, I would begin interesting human trials, and start testing my extracts in humans. By the way, if I had infinite funding, I did not have to spend so much time writing grants. I would focus more on research and teaching.

Scott, I see another controversy. A big problem in this country with the study of botanical extracts is taking the western magnifier to dissect botanical extracts to find out what specific molecule is functioning. What do we find with this kind of work? We may identify a few active molecules but we still see that the whole extract works best. People have used these extracts for thousands of years. They have seen results. Then we say, “Rhodiola Rosea is a great plant and it has many benefits, but I want to know exactly what molecules are beneficial.” If I had infinite funding, I would not worry about the grant reviewers. I would work with the whole extract, not the molecule. That is a big controversy in botanical extract research. That is probably the reason for controversy behind my research because we produce good results with the whole extract. I understand the commercial value. Many of my colleagues tell me, “If you isolate the molecule, you can patent it. You can make money.” I tell them, “Why would I want to do that?” Nature knows best. (Laughs) But of course we will devote some of our efforts to identifying active molecules in the extracts we work with.

11. From the philosophical point of view, there has been much comparison between Western and Eastern philosophies. Western philosophies tend to have a particular view. It asks, especially Aristotle, “How can I separate the world into fundamental units?” It seems non-accidental to me to have the Atomists like Democritus and Leucippus come from this philosophical tradition in the West. Whereas in the East, obviously not as an absolute, but there seems to me a greater tendency towards analysis of whole systems…

…Think of Avicenna, what did he say? He was perhaps the founder of modern medicine. He is an Eastern Iranian philosopher. He said that you needed to focus on the whole person and not just on his symptoms. Until we do that in medicine, we will stay where we are right now; a reactive approach to health and an illness model. We treat the symptom and not the root of the problem. We prescribe antibiotic for the infection or a pain medication for the pain because we are interested in treating the symptom fast. But I hope that we move away from this model to a wellness model when we treat the whole person and not just his symptoms and when we take a proactive and preventive approach. This was the reason that I offered the Life 101 class. My students with anxiety take Xanax. When they are sad and depressed, they take Prozac. When they need to stay awake to study, they take Ritalin. My 20-year old students take all these medications and they sadly received prescriptions for them. I offered Life 101 based on these facts. I wanted to give my students tools to manage their stress and aim for wellness.. If you deal with the root of the problem, I guarantee that you will not need to take these medications.

12. …On the Harvard campus, I read about Positive Psychology courses. Two people doing much research are Drs. Tal Ben Shahar and Daniel Gilbert. Positive Psychology is one of the most popular courses on campus…

I want to take that course! Their popularity tells you the importance people see in this material.

13. What other areas have robust research attesting to evidence for life-extending properties of an ingested compound (or compound with a specific active ingredient in it)?

There are a number of researchers working with botanical extracts or compounds to extend lifespan. They have been successful. I take pride in our work because our results are replicable and they seem to work even in healthy fruit flies. A science that cannot be replicated in other countries or other labs is not real science. For instance, the compound resveratrol extends lifespan, mostly in diabetic and high caloric intake situations. We showed our fruit flies do not need to be unhealthy to experience life extension with Rhodioal rosea, which is a significant finding. Resveratrol only extended lifespan in mice with diabetes and obesity. That is not the case with Rhodiola rosea. We gave Rhodiola rosea to both calorically restricted and non-calorically restricted fruit flies and still observed an extension in lifespan. As far as my research, I can tell you my research is robust because Rhodiola has worked in different strains of flies and different model systems and it has had a positive impact on health and tolerance to stress, but we still have a long way to go.. Our findings need to be repeated in mammalian model systems and eventually humans.

16. You have a personal story of continuing forward in spite of hardship, planting seeds in the process, and sowing the later benefits of that perseverance. What advice do you have for students going through hardships – big and small?

My younger brother, Kay who is a Law student, taught me something valuable. A few months ago, I was under a lot of pressure for a grant deadline and felt stressed. Kay told me, “Stress is only a reaction. You choose to be stressed.” I tell my students, “Rather than focusing on details, you should focus on the big picture.” When my son, Matin, was 13 years old, he gave a TEDxYouth talk. In it, he said, “There’s nothing wrong with being knocked down – just get back up.” We all have hardships. The key is how fast you recover and refocus on the big picture, not the details.

17. …There is a Parade Magazine columnist, Marilyn vos Savant, who said, “Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent…”

…That’s right. I still go through hardships – big and small. I have my dream job, but I worry about my students and of course research funding! It sounds cliché, “Never give up.” I want to add one sentence to it. It’s part of life to feel down and upset, but try to minimize it. I tell my students, “You failed your MCAT. Okay, cry for a day, but not for a month.” (Laughs) Take responsibility for the mistakes you make and your actions, accept it, and then move on. We have become a blaming society. We look outside of ourselves to find someone or something to blame. I do it myself sometimes. I do not understand it. In this Life 101 class, we talk about emotional intelligence by taking responsibility for our actions. I wish I had a better answer, but I do not have one. (Laughs)

Happiness is a funny thing. Go and help someone, see how you feel. You will notice something. You will want to help more and you feel so happy.

18. You have received multiple awards for mentorship and teaching excellence. What do these mean to you? What responsibility do these awards entail?

I feel honored and humbled. My responsibility is to keep listening to my students to improve the way I teach and mentor. Earning a reward does not mean you have reached excellence. I feel blessed, Scott. I have such an open line of communication with my students. They feel comfortable with giving me feedback as I teach. For instance, two weeks into my course one of my students said, “Dr. Jafari, why did you look grumpy in class?” I replied, “I didn’t look grumpy!” He said, “Yes, you did especially in the beginning of your lecture. You did not smile once for the first fifteen minutes. When you smile, you make us feel comfortable.” He was paying close attention and he was right.

19. Who most influenced you? Can you recommend any books/articles by them?

I cannot think of specific authors. I read a lot, but I cannot think of just one article or a book of great influence on me. I consider my mother the most influential person in my life. I am not saying this because she is my mother. I am saying this because she is brutally honest with me. She never sugar coated anything and to date she points to my weaknesses or my flaws. Of course, sometimes I don’t like it, but I know I cannot change her. So, I hear her comment, I get upset and then I realized she was right and then move on. Talking about a true humanitarian, my mom is one of those people.

One book comes to mind, which I had one of my graduate students read. It is called The Purple Cow written by Seth Godin. It is a marketing book. His message is this, ‘if you want to be successful, you need a high quality product and a very outside the box product.’ You can apply this to science and teaching too.

20. Where do you see Pharmaceutical Sciences going? Regarding lifespan extension through botanicals, what future do you envision for this research?

I can tell you what I hope for Pharmaceutical Sciences to go as a field. I hope that Pharmaceutical Sciences move towards discovering new therapies to treat diseases in a collaborative fashion. I wish that one day pharmaceutical scientists in pharmaceutical companies and in academic settings collaborate and not compete because I think with collaborations we will achieve more faster. As far as my research with botanical extracts goes, my goal is to slow the aging process with these extracts. Of course I will continue devoting some of my work in identifying the active molecules in these extracts. But I still think when it comes to aging and targeting various genes and pathways, plants work better as a whole and not when they are dissected. I would not think this way 5 or 6 years ago. In 2005, when I started developing an anti-aging lab using fruit flies, I tested many pharmaceuticals and some botanicals. My findings surprised me because botanical extracts did much better than the molecules or pharmaceuticals. Of course, how we approach and work with a plant extract in my lab is exactly how we would work with a drug. We control for their quality and we have consistent standardization methods – meaning you standardize every time you use them. Working with botanical extracts is challenging because the active compounds change depending on external factors such as altitude, temperature, harvesting time, and that is why standardization is important.

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2023-01-28

Dr. Barbara Forrest: Philosophy Professor, Southeastern Louisiana University & Member, NCSE Board of Directors

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/11/01

1. What academic positions have you held? What academic positions do you currently hold?

My current position is Professor of Philosophy in the Department of History and Political Science at Southeastern Louisiana University, where I have worked since I began teaching in 1981. I started as a part-time philosophy instructor and remained in that position for seven years until I completed my Ph.D. in philosophy at Tulane University in 1988. That year, the university created a tenure-track position for me as an assistant professor in philosophy, making me the first full-time, credentialed philosopher Southeastern ever hired. I earned tenure and promotion to associate professor in 1994, and ten years later I was promoted to full professor.

2. How was your youth? How did you come to this point?

I was born and grew up in Hammond, Louisiana, a small city of 10,000 people that was the epitome of what people typically understand as the “deep South.” I was a bookworm and spent most of my spare time reading. Growing up in the 1950s and 60s, my childhood and adolescence were shaped mostly by the civil rights struggle, which was taking place in my own immediate area and throughout the South. I watched my town change from one in which the public schools were segregated to one in which both white and African-American children attended school together. I was among the first group of students to attend high school under the federal desegregation order, which, believe it or not, is still in effect in my old school district. So my early life was shaped by issues of social justice, particularly concerning race.

3. What was your original dream? If it changed, how did it change? Furthermore, what changed it?

My earliest career plan, my “dream,” was to become a physician. This dream was rooted in my concern for social justice and the deep religious faith that I had during childhood and adolescence. My role model was Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the famous Alsatian physician and theologian who left his life in Europe to run a hospital at Lambaréné in French Equatorial Africa. One of the highlights of my childhood was receiving a reply from his secretary to a letter I had sent to him in Lambaréné — several years after I wrote the letter! During recess in the sixth grade, I used to sit on the sidelines and read books about medicine rather than play with the other kids. I was a “nerd” before that word even existed! But at some point my goals changed. I had little aptitude for mathematics, which I knew that I would need in the study of the sciences necessary to medicine. I was also by nature more suited to teaching, and tackling the problem of ignorance was a very pressing concern to me since I was literally surrounded by it in the form of racism. I was extremely idealistic! So I went for the Ph.D. rather than the M.D. One of my sons is a physician, but he’s much better at math than I was!

4. When did Philosophy interest you?

I began taking philosophy courses when I was about halfway through college. My original goal was to become a high school English teacher since I loved books and had wonderful English teachers in the public schools I attended. I married at eighteen, so I was married when I started college. (And I am still married to the same guy after 43 years!) My husband urged me to take at least one philosophy course before I graduated, as he had done: “Everyone ought to take a philosophy course.” So my husband actually gets the credit for steering me toward my profession.

I was an English major and had always loved reading fiction. I loved “highbrow” fiction such as the novels of Thomas Hardy and philosophical poetry such as Alexander Pope’s “Essay on Man,” so I was clearly leaning in the direction of philosophy although I didn’t know it. I didn’t know anything about philosophy and had never considered taking any courses. So at my husband’s suggestion, I took a class and was hooked immediately. I loved ideas, and I thought that this was what would save mankind: using great ideas to overcome ignorance. As I said earlier, I was really idealistic.

I became certified to teach high school English, but my student teaching was enough to convince me that I didn’t want to spend my life disciplining other people’s children! I went straight to graduate school in philosophy and never looked back.

5. Where did you acquire your education?

I attended public schools in Hammond, where I grew up. Family circumstances required that I attend college and graduate school in my immediate area, so I was fortunate to live near public universities. The taxpayers of Louisiana provided me with scholarships, which enabled me to earn my B.A. in English at Southeastern, where I now work, and my M.A. in philosophy at Louisiana State University. I earned my Ph.D. in philosophy at Tulane University in New Orleans. Tulane was, and still is, the only Louisiana university to offer a Ph.D. in philosophy. Fortunately, I live only about an hour away, so I could drive to my classes and go home at night. My husband worked full-time for the state of Louisiana, but we also operated a commercial poultry farm that he inherited from his parents. We used the farm income to pay for our doctoral degrees. I am probably the only person in the history of Tulane University who financed a Ph.D. in philosophy by raising chickens.

6. What kinds of research have you conducted up to the present?

Most of my scholarly research has revolved around the issue of creationism, although I didn’t start out with that intention. Events in Louisiana — including a creationist threat to my own children’s science education — steered me in that direction. Fortunately, I was well prepared to write about creationism since my doctoral dissertation was about Sidney Hook’s philosophy of education. Hook was John Dewey’s most prominent disciple and worked closely with him, so I studied Dewey as well. They wrote extensively and insightfully about the importance of science and democracy to public education and about other, related public policy issues. These three concerns — science, democracy, and public education — were interwoven into much of their philosophical work.

I corresponded with Hook while writing my dissertation and eventually went to visit him; he helped me enormously. I learned from him that philosophers must understand the way the world outside the academy works if they want their professional work to be useful to people other than their fellow philosophers and if they want to be involved in policy issues. I have never wanted to be isolated in the “ivory tower,” producing publications that would be read only by other philosophers. I have always wanted my work to be useful to people outside my discipline. I also learned from Hook that careful attention to empirical data is essential to producing informed philosophical work. (Hook read avidly about history and science.) Finally, Hook was a master of clear, incisive analysis of other people’s ideas. Studying Sidney Hook’s work prepared me for writing about creationism.

I have also published on the subjects of philosophical and methodological naturalism, which was also one of Hook’s central concerns. Methodological naturalism is the procedural stance of the scientist, who is limited to seeking natural explanations for the natural world. Science doesn’t work when unverifiable supernatural concepts are incorporated into it. Philosophical naturalism, on the other hand, is a metaphysical view that excludes the supernatural. Scientists need not — and many do not — adopt naturalism as a personal worldview, even though they must leave the supernatural out of their work as scientists. They can be both good scientists and faithful believers as long as they respect the procedural limitations of their science and the epistemological limitations of their faith.

Creationists, however, especially the intelligent design creationists about whom I have written so much, deliberately conflate philosophical and methodological naturalism. They argue that leaving God out of scientific explanations is tantamount to personal atheism. So my concern as a researcher has been to clarify the relationship between philosophical and methodological naturalism. I argue that although philosophical naturalism rests on what we have learned about the world through the naturalistic methodology of science, methodological naturalism does not, conversely, require philosophical naturalism as a personal worldview because it does not exclude the logical possibility of the supernatural. I think that this is the most accurate and intellectually honest position to take even though I myself am no longer religious.

Finally, I have applied my research concerning creationism and naturalism to the discussion of public policy in regard to public education and the separation of church and state. These were natural extensions of my research into creationism.

7. If you currently conduct research, what form does it take?

I am not currently doing any research. My answer to this question is not what you expected, but I hope that you will print it. It illuminates what is happening across the United States to institutions whose operating budgets — hence whose students and faculty — are bearing the brunt of a conservative political philosophy that treats public universities, young people, and teachers as liabilities rather than assets. Ultimately, American society will pay a high price for this shortsightedness.

Louisiana is governed by a conservative Republican, Bobby Jindal, who treats public institutions as a liability rather than an investment in the future. In only five years, he has cut $650 million from public universities while privatizing state services and giving hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to out-of-state companies. My university alone has absorbed $48 million in cuts since 2008. As a result, the university revoked reassigned time for faculty research, and teaching loads have increased. Despite being a tenured full professor who has published extensively in both scholarly and popular venues, I now have the teaching load of a beginning tenure-track instructor. I absolutely love teaching, but my philosophy colleague and I are currently teaching a total of nine undergraduate courses this semester alone. So my teaching load leaves me no time for research, despite the fact that I have achieved an international reputation for my work.

I am proof of the value of public schools and universities, having more than repaid the investment that my fellow citizens made in my education. Moreover, my work has been useful to people outside my discipline, which is something that I think most philosophers cannot say. The book I co-authored with scientist Paul R. Gross, Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design, was a central resource for the plaintiffs’ attorneys in the first legal case involving intelligent design creationism, Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District (2005).

But because of the current political priorities in Louisiana, I have no time for research any more, despite the fact that I could still be doing productive scholarly work. On the other hand, I now have the luxury of reading books that I want to read for my own enjoyment. And my first grandchild was born recently, so I am delighted to have more time to be his grandmother!

8. If you had infinite funding and full academic freedom, what would you research?

I am fortunate to already have full academic freedom at Southeastern. The university has been wonderfully supportive of my work, despite its being more controversial than what professors typically do. I would be quite happy with just enough funding for a one-course-per-semester teaching reduction! But if I had infinite funding, I would establish a research center for finding effective ways to counteract the influence of the Religious Right — specifically, the Christian Right — in American education, culture, and government policy. That’s a tall order, I admit. However, I see the Religious Right as one of the most destructive and pernicious influences in America today. It is the force behind creationism, anti-gay bigotry, and some types of mean-spirited economic policies. If I had infinite funding, I would use it to support focused, results-oriented research by philosophers and other scholars, journalists, and policy analysts in an effort to find effective ways to get past this perennial problem in American life.

Please note: I am not saying that religion is the most pernicious influence in America. I don’t believe that. Although religion has been a divisive force throughout most of human history, it is also a fascinating and important aspect of human experience. Having once been very devout myself, I have been on both sides of the religious divide and understand both sides. But the Religious Right has infused American culture and politics with bigotry and ignorance. Counteracting its agenda has required the expenditure of both time and money by people and organizations that otherwise could have and should have been doing more productive work. So the country needs a well-integrated, long-term commitment by people who can focus exclusively on how to help the country transcend the Religious Right’s influence. Even with infinite funding and infinite academic freedom, I couldn’t do that all by myself!

9. Since you began studying Philosophy, what do you consider the controversial topics? How do you examine the controversial topics?

I think that the most controversial topics concern the theory of knowledge, or epistemology. Both historically and today, the ways in which people claim to know things have influenced everything that humans do, from founding religions to running governments. Knowledge claims also shape our moral conduct. Depending on what the answers to epistemological questions are, human beings can either benefit greatly or suffer terribly at each other’s hands.

The two most basic epistemological questions are these: (1) What truly qualifies as knowledge? and (2) How do humans acquire it? Given the fact that humans must get things done together on the basis of shared understandings of the world, nothing is more important than clarifying what it truly means to know something and creating a body of shared, publicly accessible knowledge. Actually, we already know how to do both of these things, but few people outside philosophy are either familiar with or concerned about epistemological questions. I was flabbergasted to read in Barack Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope, his insightful discussion of precisely this issue. He understands that “the best we can do is to act in accordance with those things that are possible for all of us to know, understanding that a part of what we know to be true — as individuals or communities of faith — will be true for us alone” (p. 220). We cannot build public policy on private, hence unverifiable, religious experience, even if it is a genuine epistemic state. But such epistemological awareness is unusual in anyone outside academia, much less politicians.

There are only four basic ways in which people can claim to know things: (a) supernatural revelation, (b) some form of intuition, (c) rational reflection (reason), and (d) sense experience. The first two are highly problematic because they are by definition private and unverifiable. Revelation requires the psychological influence of charismatic leaders and the power of authoritative institutions to convince people of its truth. Intuition, similarly, can be used to assert literally anything without any accountability for one’s claims. So that leaves reason — or rational reflection, which everyone can do — and sense experience, which everyone naturally has, as the only reliable sources of knowledge. All humans have the natural equipment for those. Whatever progress humanity has made during our collective history has come from those two sources.

I see the lack of understanding of epistemological issues as at least part of the reason that the Religious Right has been able to accumulate the influence that it has. (But the problem is much more complicated than that.) People such as Tony Perkins, who runs the Family Research Council, promote harmful, insidious ideas that are unsupported by any rationally defensible arguments or evidence. The beliefs that Perkins and his FRC associates promote, such as the false claim that gay people are more likely to be pedophiles, are fuelled and funded by their supporters’ uncritical acceptance of their claims.

Consequently, in some of my work I have examined the issue of how public policy — for example, concerning the teaching of evolution in public schools — is shaped (or mis-shaped) by ideas about what qualifies as knowledge.

10. How would you describe your early philosophical framework? Did it change? If so, how did it change?

I am by nature a generalist. I think that the study of philosophy is enriched by integrating data from history, science, and other disciplines into it. I never teach my students about any philosopher without first setting up the broader context in which the philosopher’s work was done. This makes philosophy much more accessible to students. So I have always been drawn to philosophers who were interdisciplinary thinkers and who made a conscious effort to make their work accessible and useful to people outside philosophy. The greatest philosophers — for example, Plato, Aristotle, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and others — addressed societal issues, and they interacted with people other than philosophers. These thinkers were broadly knowledgeable in areas other than their own disciplines. In addition to their purely philosophical work, they used their expertise to address matters of concern to their fellow citizens. This is why they are still worth studying.

So I began my formal study of philosophy with a strong attraction to whatever kind of philosophy would be useful in helping to solve “real-world” problems. The philosophers I studied who most effectively addressed such problems were the pragmatic naturalists, especially Sidney Hook and John Dewey, who understood, among other things, the importance of science and public education to democracy. They weren’t narrow specialists. I also studied some of their like-minded colleagues such as philosopher of science Ernest Nagel. Hook and Dewey’s pragmatic naturalism was a natural fit for me since I already leaned strongly in that direction. Of all the modern philosophers I have studied, their work made the most sense to me and still does. So I have not had any major shifts in my own philosophical framework.

11. In 2007, you co-authored with Dr. Paul R. Gross Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design, what is the origin of the title? What does the book depict?

Our editor at Oxford University Press suggested the main title, Creationism’s Trojan Horse. Although at first I thought it was trite, it captures the essence of the intelligent design (ID) creationism movement: ID is nothing more than the most recent variant of creationism, which its proponents promote as science to gullible people. Paul and I came up with the subtitle to capture the most important aspects of the book’s focus. The book actually grew out of my research into the Discovery Institute’s “wedge strategy,” which is its plan for promoting ID. The strategy is outlined in a 1998 document entitled “The Wedge,” which was aimed at prospective donors. I was able to authenticate this document, which was leaked and posted on the Internet, and to establish that most of the strategy was being executed — with the exception of producing real science, of course. Paul, who is a distinguished scientist, did a very thorough and careful critique of the “scientific” claims of ID proponents.

The book brings together a huge amount of evidence showing that the Discovery Institute’s aims and rationale for ID are — as stated in their own words — explicitly religious. The Discovery Institute’s primary aim is to create an opening in the public mind — analogous to using a metal wedge to split a log — for the idea that the supernatural is essential to scientific explanations. They also aim to get ID into the public school science curriculum by exploiting policy-making processes.

12. You served as a Plaintiff on the first legal case involving Intelligent Design, Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District, in 2005. What events preceded the case? How did the litigation proceedings conclude? What does this case entail for future legal battles of this kind?

I was so proud that my work resulted in my being called as an expert witness for the plaintiffs, all of whom were parents of children in the Dover, Pennsylvania, school system. In 2004, eleven parents sued the Dover school board in federal court for trying to present intelligent design to children as a scientific alternative to evolution. The school board members weren’t doing this because they knew anything at all about science. In fact, they were completely ignorant about the science. They simply had personal religious objections to teaching evolution and were determined to force their views into the science classrooms of Dover High School.

The litigation ended in December 2005 with a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs. Judge John E. Jones III ruled that because ID is creationism, it is a religious view and therefore cannot be taught in a public school science class. He issued a permanent injunction against the school board. Even though his ruling is legally binding only in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, it has already dissuaded school boards in other parts of the country from following suit.

Whenever and wherever the next ID legal case comes up, the first thing that the presiding judge will do is read Judge Jones’ Memorandum Opinion, which is a powerful and thorough decision that he wrote with future cases in mind.

13. In 2006, you were the co-recipient with Dr. Kenneth Miller of the Public Service Award from the American Society for Cell Biology. What does this award mean to you? What further responsibilities does the award entail?

This was a very nice award from the scientific community in appreciation for the work that both Kenneth Miller and I had done to defend the teaching of science. Ken was also a Kitzmiller expert witness. We were both involved in such work even before that case. To me, the award signified the fact that I was able to successfully put my philosophical training to use for the public good, which I had always wanted to do. My work was just as important in the Kitzmiller case as that of the scientists.

As for further responsibilities, the award didn’t formally require anything. But I view my work against creationism as a civic duty, so I have continued to do it. For example, I serve on the Board of Directors of the National Center for Science Education. I would have done the same things even if I hadn’t received the award.

14. Who most influenced you? Can you recommend any seminal books/articles by them?

Keeping the list to just a few is difficult. As I said earlier, I am a generalist. But I would have to say that the philosophers whose work most influenced me are Plato, Aristotle, David Hume, John Stuart Mill, and Sidney Hook. Their influence stems from their ability to use their expertise to illuminate issues outside philosophy.

In the Republic, Platostressed philosophers’ civic obligation to their fellow citizens, who, through a public education system, provided them with the finest education available. Philosophers must therefore make a concerted effort to contribute to the public good in payment of this debt. The Republic has guided me throughout my career in this respect.

The other thinkers influenced me because of their interdisciplinary orientation to philosophy. They thought deeply and broadly about practical issues. Aristotle, for example, in his Nichomachean Ethics, offers a still-workable ethical system based on virtues of character acquired through one’s actions. He stresses the civic importance of virtuous conduct.

In An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume, who was a major figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, presciently recognized the need to study human cognitive faculties empirically in order to analyze their capabilities and shortcomings. In doing that, he illuminated the epistemological deficiencies of supernaturalist religion. He also analyzed religion as a human phenomenon in The Natural History of Religion. He respected (although he was not convinced by) its more rational aspects, reflected in traditional arguments for God’s existence, while warning against its irrational manifestations such as clerical charlatans and what we now call fundamentalism. A century later, John Stuart Mill, a 19th-century thinker who embodied the best aspects of the Enlightenment, offered one of the most powerful defenses of intellectual and personal freedom in the English language in On Liberty. Everyone should read that.

No one, however, influenced me more indelibly than Hook, who was one of the most important public intellectuals of the 20th century. He wrote with a clarity and incisiveness that made the most complex ideas understandable. He avoided unnecessary philosophical jargon and never lost his ability to communicate with non-academics. I think that this stemmed from his very humble beginnings in the slums of Brooklyn.

Hook’s essays in The Quest for Being and Other Studies in Naturalism and Humanism influenced my own philosophical work. (This book is available in pdf at Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/sidneyhooktheque033567mbp.) He discussed diverse topics such as “Philosophy and Human Conduct,” “Modern Knowledge and the Concept of God,” and “Scientific Knowledge and ‘Philosophical’ Knowledge.” He was never jealous of his philosophical turf. He understood that science has deprived philosophy of most of the metaphysical territory that philosophers have considered uniquely their own and argued that philosophy is more than metaphysical pipe dreams (my term, not his!). In Philosophy and Public Policy, he states forthrightly that philosophers must take time to learn the relevant facts if they wish to contribute effectively to policy issues. This statement struck me as I was casually browsing through the book in the university library when I was in graduate school. Knowing how disconnected philosophers can be from life outside the academy, I never forgot it, especially in my work on intelligent design creationism.

15. Where do you see Philosophy going?

My answer here is shaped by the fact that, except for a few other philosophers who are involved in the creationism issue, I have actually worked more with scientists than philosophers. So my vantage point is mostly from outside the community of academic philosophers.

Concerning philosophy as a teaching discipline, I think that reputable universities will continue to see its value in helping students learn to think about major questions with which human beings are concerned. Unless a university education is reduced to little more than vocational training, philosophy will continue to be a vital part of the humanities. Young people should learn to think critically and insightfully about how to live a moral life, how to address societal issues such as social justice and equitable distribution of resources, how scientific reasoning works, and, of course, how these issues intersect with epistemological ones. Students are very interested in those things. There is also tremendous value in studying the history of philosophy. Much can still be learned from Plato and Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, etc. Good teaching — which is the most important job of any academic — can highlight the continuing relevance of the great philosophers.

I am not as optimistic about the relevance of philosophy as a research discipline. Philosophers will certainly continue to do research and publish, but much of modern philosophy, in my opinion, has become largely irrelevant to what is happening outside both the discipline and the academy. If the budgets of public universities continue to be cut, philosophers will become vulnerable unless they can demonstrate that what they do is valuable to someone other than themselves. You probably couldn’t find ten people in a hundred in the United States who can name a single working philosopher. Most of them have heard of scientists such as Stephen Hawking because of the reach and influence of their work. One can learn about scientists merely by reading Google News! But people don’t know anything about living philosophers. This is because philosophical research has become so specialized and insular that it benefits virtually no one except other philosophers who are doing the same kind of work. Most philosophers live in a very comfortable academic bubble. (That is true of academics in general, however.)

There have been historically and are currently notable exceptions. For example, Kant was concerned about political issues and directed some of his work at a broader audience than other philosophers. Currently, Phillip Kitcher writes about the intersection of science, democratic society, and politics, and he makes an effort to address issues of concern to non-philosophers. Kitcher, too, has expressed concern about the “the increasing narrowness and professionalization of academic philosophy” (http://philosophy.columbia.edu/directories/faculty/philip-kitcher). In addition, my friend and colleague Robert Pennock, a philosopher of science at Michigan State University, set the standard for addressing the problem of creationism. And there are other philosophers who are using their professional expertise to communicate with and benefit the wider world.

Certainly, someone has to do the pure, basic philosophical thinking that helps to clarify the conceptual foundations of broader, more practical questions. But if that pure, foundational work is not at some point useful to people other than philosophers themselves, there is little point to it. To the extent that academic philosophy has a future, I think that it lies in taking a more interdisciplinary approach that demonstrates the relevance of philosophy to the concerns of scholars in other disciplines and, ultimately, to the concerns of ordinary people. Otherwise, most of us philosophers could drop off the planet tomorrow and the world would neither notice nor be any worse off.

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2023-01-27

Dr. Rakefet Ackerman: Assistant Professor, Psychology, Technion: Israel Institute of Technology

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/10/15

1. What academic positions have you held? What academic positions do you currently hold? What is your expertise?

During my Ph.D. studies, I taught Cognitive Psychology in the Open University of Israel and Human Memory in the University of Haifa. During my post-doc, I did not teach. At present, I am a faculty member at the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology. This university is focused on science and engineering, and does not have typical social-science departments. My position is in the Faculty of Industrial Engineering & Management, which is a highly heterogeneous faculty including engineers, mathematicians, computer science researchers, finance researchers, etc. and psychologists. The group of psychologists includes three domains: marketing, organizational psychologists, and cognitive psychologists. I am in this latter category. At the undergraduate level I teach human-factors engineering, which combines my backgrounds as a system analyst in the software industry and cognitive psychology. For graduate students I give metacognition class, which is my domain of expertise.

Metacognition is a set of cognitive processes that accompany each cognitive task we perform. For example, when a student studies, beyond the transfer of information from the information source (e.g., a book, computer, or auditory source) into memory, the learning process involves regulation of the memorizing and comprehension processes. The student asks herself how well she knows each particular paragraph and decides whether to move on or to restudy it. In other words, during studying, she assesses her progress, and decides whether her progress is adequate or another learning strategy would better be applied. Alternatively, seeking help is desirable. Finally, she may consider taking a break or decide that the acquired knowledge is satisfactory for achieving her goals. Similar processes take place with facing a test. Prior to answering each question, the student considers the question’s difficulty. Whether a point exists in searching her memory for relevant knowledge or she knows too little about the solicited information. After providing an answer, she considers if the answer is good enough or more work is needed. Such knowledge assessments and regulatory decisions are metacognitive processes that take place in large variety of contexts, beyond learning. For example, when a doctor considers a diagnosis, she should consider whether she knows enough about the phenomenon or should seek more information, whether she needs additional blood tests for assuring her hypothesized diagnosis, and whether she is confident enough about appropriate medication. Similar processes take place in every profession. Take a daily example, when baking a cake, you ask yourself whether you remember all the ingredients and procedures or better consult the cookbook.

The assessment of our knowledge, progress, or success, is called “Monitoring”, and the decisions we take in light of this monitoring are called “Control” or regulatory decisions. The metacognitive research domain focuses on exposing factors and conditions that affect our monitoring differently than our actual performance – these discrepancies suggest that the monitoring processes are not always reliable. Furthermore, we better acknowledge situations where monitoring is particularly biased and others in which it is more reliable. This is important because people cannot know their actual knowledge or expected success without external feedback. Thus, they take actions in light of their subjective monitoring. If the monitoring output is biased, it is expected to mislead the regulatory decisions. For example, if the student is overconfident about her knowledge and assesses her knowledge to be adequate she would cease studying even though her knowledge is too low to achieve her goals. In one of our studies (Ackerman, Leiser, & Shpigelman, 2013), we found that undergraduate students who studied explanations how to solve very challenging problems were misled by non-informative illustrations incorporated in the explanations. They assessed their understanding to be higher for the illustrated explanations than for the plain explanations, although their actual performance was in fact lower. Their subjective assessment of comprehension was above 90% while their actual success rate was below 40%. This means they exaggerated their assessment of comprehension in about 60%. For the plain explanation versions, they exaggerated “only” in 30%. In another line of research, we showed that studying texts from the computer screen results in larger overconfidence and lower test scores than studying the same texts on paper (Ackerman & Goldsmith, 2011; Ackerman & Lauterman, 2012). In the examples above, such overconfidence may have clear undesirable outcomes like inadequate medical diagnosis or a messed-up cake. Underconfidence is not desirable as well, as it may lead people to invest too much effort in a particular item while the time could have better be used to study other materials, or for going out with friends…

2. What was your original dream? If it changed, how did it change? Furthermore, what changed it? Where did you acquire your education?

In the high school, I studied in a program, which elaborated on computer science. When I joined the Israeli army, as all Israeli boys and girls, I took part in a software development program, which involved two-year studies and four more years of service in a software development unit. I started as a team member, and later on worked as a system analyst and led a software-development team. As part of this program, we could start our Bachelor Degree in the university. I saw my future in software development, but the degree had to include an additional course. I was interested in psychology, and finally graduated in a combined degree: computer science and psychology. After this, I worked for software companies and led international teams with up to 20 people. I worked with systems that involved large databases and faced challenges that involved management of large amounts of data. After more than 10 years in this industry, I arrived at a new point in my thinking. I thought the software industry should be informed by cognitive science. The human memory system manages large amount of data with great efficiency. Thus, I thought that insights from its great data processing capabilities may inform the software industry. At that point in time, I was already a mother to three young daughters, which made studying a new world, not an easy decision Nevertheless, I decided that two years of M.A. studies might allow me to bring a fresh point of view to the software world.

As part of my search for studying about the management of the human memory system, I encountered the domain of Metacognition, and the lab in the University of Haifa, Israel, where leading researchers of this domain work. Dr. Morris Goldsmith became the supervisor for my M.A. thesis. As well, Dr. Asher Koriat, head of the lab, was a collaborator on another research project. During graduate studies, I felt astonished by intriguing research questions studied in this domain and rigorous research methods employed to address these questions. As a result, this two-year program was converted into a direct Ph.D. course. I realized that there was no way back to the industry for me. I got caught in the research world.

The metacognitive research domain evolved as part of memory research. This domain, called meta-memory, involves monitoring and decision control involved in memorization of word lists and answering knowledge questions by retrieving information from memory. I am attracted to more complex cognitive tasks, such as reading comprehension and problem solving. I learned more about these complex tasks from my post-doc supervisor, Dr. David Leiser, at the Ben-Gurion University, Israel. Now, I see metacognition as ubiquitous, but hidden behind the scene, in every task people perform. My mission is to contribute to the scientific understanding of the metacognitive processes involved in performing complex cognitive tasks and lay the grounds for developing methods for improving their quality.

3. What kinds of research have you conducted up to the present? If you currently conduct research, what form does it take?

Mainly, my studies are performed in my lab, but some occur in classrooms or over the Internet. The lab includes eight computer stations in a small room. The tasks involve learning, question answering, or problem solving. In all tasks, immediately after performing each task, e.g. solving a problem, the participant indicates how confident she is, on a scale of 0% to 100%, that her solution is correct, and then she moves on to the next item. I measure accuracy of the response, confidence, and response time. All my studies are experimental, which means that we manipulate a variable or two. In the example above, we manipulated the presence of the illustrations in the texts. This was manipulated within participants. This means that each participant studied half the texts with illustrations and half without them. Each text had a version with illustrations and a plain version. The assignment of texts with and without illustrations was random for each participant for ruling out effects of particular texts and/or illustrations on the results. In the media experiments, we manipulated the media for studying between participants – half the participants performed the entire task – learning, predicting their success at the test, and test taking – on the same media, either screen or paper. This was done to avoid attracting participants’ attention to the media, which may contaminate the results. In other studies, we compare working with and without time pressure, or manipulate motivation for success by assigning higher point value to some items than for others.

4. If you had infinite funding and full academic freedom, what would you research?

As stated earlier, I see my mission in spreading the word regarding the proneness of the subjective assessments of knowledge to numerous misleading factors in all aspects of life. The problem in this domain is that the research progresses slowly – we must be very careful and make sure that our studies are rigorous in order to draw reliable conclusions. The study domain is still young, and we know little about the processes involved in performing complex tasks. For example, what are the metacognitive processes involved in engineering work of designing a new machine? Therefore, I need many collaborators and graduate students to share my ambitious to understand better the biasing factors and think together about ways to overcome these biases. Up-to-date technologies, like virtual reality, eye tracking, fMRI, can contribute to this avenue. My dream is to see educational systems and professional development programs incorporate in every activity acknowledgement in the potential metacognitive biases and the necessity to minimize these biases for effective performance of tasks.

5. What controversial topics exist in your domain?

Examples of controversial issues in metacognition are:

Is the metacognitive monitoring and regulation of cognitive efforts conscious or unconscious?
Does the metacognitive monitoring only drive behavior, in a top-down fashion, or also informed by the behavior after it was done, in a bottom-up fashion?
Is there a central monitoring mechanism with common characteristics for all cognitive tasks, or are there differences between the metacognitive processes that take place in the various tasks?

6. How would you describe your philosophical framework?

A combination of focus and openness is my secret. I realize, of course, that this sounds like an oxymoron. As mentioned above, I see metacognition everywhere and keep analyzing the world from this point of view. This is the focus side. The openness side is that I see myself as a collector and integrator of ideas more than as an inventor. I keep listening to people, seniors, and juniors. In particular, I learn a lot from discussions with students. I enjoy greatly their fresh minds and the original links they make between topics they study or from their personal life experience. This attitude brought me to major leaps in my research programs. One of my studies evolved from a private conversation with a junior (at the time) colleague who asked an intriguing “what if” question regarding the study I presented to him. Another study evolved while I was standing in a traffic jam, and watched how people get into the junction and sometimes take risks just because they are tired of waiting for the junction to clear. A collaborative study with Dr. Daniel Bernstein, from Kwantlen Polytechnic University, evolved from a short discussion during a coffee break in a conference. Yet another example is a study in which our plan failed, but my graduate student suggested a new way of looking into the results we already collected. This was then developed into a new study which provided us with highly interesting insights. From a more general perspective, failures often provide opportunities to learn something new. One of my papers in a leading journal (Thompson et al., 2013) was evolved from a failure in replicating a well-known finding. The graduate student who her very first study was failed was so disappointed that she almost left the program. However, we then considered an explanation for the failure, with the help of Dr. Valerie Thompson from Saskatoon and together came up with beautiful findings and a theoretical contribution.

7. What advice do you have for young Psychology students?

I think that the previous answer, regarding the combination of focus and openness tells the main story. Most students do not know their focus yet. Therefore, openness is the main thing, while it is clearly relevant for those who know their focus as well. I suggest benefiting from the university period much beyond the studies per se. Go to talks of guest speakers, go to other faculties if something there attracts your interest, interact with researchers from various disciplines, consider interesting questions, and search for answers. For those who consider research as their future direction, get involved in research as early and as much as possible. At the beginning, take part in experiments as a participant, and later on as a research assistant. Take courses that involve developing research proposals and conduction of pilot studies. This is the only way to understand this world and examine whether it attracts you.

8. Who most influenced you? Can you recommend any seminal books/articles?

The papers that influenced me the most were writings by Tom Nelson, Louis Narens, Janet Metcalfe, Robert Bjork, John Dunlosky, Keith Thiede, Valerie Thompson, and Asher Koriat. I recommend a recent review paper and a friendly book that summarize the domain nicely and point to its applied relevance.

Bjork, R. A., Dunlosky, J., & Kornell, N. (2013). Self-Regulated Learning: Beliefs, techniques, and illusions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 417-444.

Dunlosky, J., & Metcalfe, J. (2009). Metacognition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, Inc.

9. Where do you see Cognitive Psychology going?

I hope to see the cognitive psychology go beyond artificial tasks that can be generated only in the lab, into real-life tasks with larger variety than studied up until now. This requires sophistication and development of research methods that support it without compromising on rigorous research methods.

References

Ackerman, R., & Goldsmith, M. (2011). Metacognitive regulation of text learning: On screen versus on paper. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 17(1),18-32.

Ackerman, R., & Lauterman, T. (2012). Taking reading comprehension exams on screen or on paper? A metacognitive analysis of learning texts under time pressure. Computers in Human Behavior, 28, 1816-1828.

Ackerman, R., Leiser, D., & Shpigelman, M. (2013). Is comprehension of problem solutions resistant to misleading heuristic cues? Acta Psychologica, 143(1), 105-112.

Thompson, V., Prowse Turner, J., Pennycook, G., Ball, L., Brack, H., Ophir, Y., & Ackerman, R. (2013). The role of answer fluency and perceptual fluency as metacognitive cues for initiating analytic thinking. Cognition, 128, 237-251.

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2023-01-27

Dr. Gira Bhatt: Principal Investigator and Project Director, AT-CURA

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/10/01

1. What academic positions have you held? What academic positions do you currently hold?

My professional academic career began at the University of Mumbai, India. Briefly, I worked as a clinical psychologist at a children’s hospital. Later, I was a lecturer at an undergraduate institution affiliated with the University of Mumbai. After completing my Ph.D. at Simon Fraser University, BC, Canada, I taught at Camosun College and University of Victoria, BC, Canada.
At present, I am a faculty member in the Psychology department of Kwantlen Polytechnic University, BC, Canada. As well, I am the Principal Investigator and Project Director for Canadian government funded Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) project. CURA is a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional, multi-partnership project involving four academic institutions, seven researchers, and eleven community agencies.
Additionally, I am actively involved as the board member and the secretary of the International Relations Committee of the Canadian Psychological Association.

2. In brief, how was your youth? How did you come to this point?

I was born and raised in Mumbai, India. My family tradition was guided by strong commitment to scholarship and spiritual pursuits. My father was a journalist, poet, writer, and later a Yoga teacher in retirement. My mother was gentle, but strong, and kept the family life stable and happy. I had strong extended family ties. I recall being surrounded by numerous cousins and visiting relatives, which provided for many happy times. I loved school. From a young age, I wanted to be an academic.

When I turned 16, I began questioning some of the traditions of life in India. I became an “atheist” much to the despair of my relatives, and surprise of my friends. However, my father provided me with a long list of books on philosophy and religions for study. The turning point was the study and practice of Yoga for over 8 years. Although practice of Yoga had been part of my family tradition, I needed to examine the philosophy of it, which appealed to my rational mind. The secular roots of Yoga provided a strong ground I was seeking to keep my mind balanced and a perspective that went beyond the immediate.

Yoga and Psychology are intertwined. Therefore, it was natural to veer in the direction of Psychology.

3. When did Psychology interest you?

Actually, my entry into Psychology was accidental. As an undergraduate student in Mumbai, India, I wanted to major in English Literature because I loved the works of classic writers and poets including Shakespeare, Jane Austin, Bronte sisters, and others. However, my English department informed me that it did not have enough students to offer the major. On this basis, they advised me to sit in any class for the first two weeks, and wait for more students to come forward to declare English Literature as their major. Of course, I was disappointed and a bit worried.

Anyway, I decided to go to a class. My friends told me about a hugely popular class taught by a popular professor. I always remember that class. There were 150 students in the classroom, no microphone, and the old professor was sitting in his chair talking very gently to a very captive audience. It was an Introductory Psychology class! There was no turning away from there! Two weeks later the English department approached me, much too late…

4. Where did you acquire your education?

I completed my Bachelor’s degree with honors in psychology and Master’s in Clinical psychology at the University of Mumbai. I then came to Canada and earned my second Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Social psychology. Yes, I switched from clinical to experimental field of psychology as I wanted to pursue basic research rather than practice in the field of psychological illnesses.

5. What kinds of research have you conducted up to the present?

I have three concurrent research tracks. One is focused on Cross-Cultural Psychology examining the issue of self, identity, and acculturation. Second pertains to Applied Social Psychology working with a network of academic scholars and community agencies targeting prevention of youth violence and gang involvement. Third is an overarching philosophical and historical examination of psychological knowledge.

6. If you currently conduct research, what form does it take?

Having worked within community-involved research for the last five years, I have decided to work only on collaborative research projects with community input, academic rigor, and a set of clear application-to-life goals.

7. You have conducted practical and applied research through AT-CURA along with researchers from your university as well as Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria, and Langara College. What is AT-CURA? What is the purpose of AT-CURA? Why do you consider unifying ‘community partners and academic experts’ through a common vision important?

Acting-Together: Community-University Research Alliance (AT-CURA) is a five-year long project (2009-2014) funded through Canadian government’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The goal of this $1 million project is to identify protective factors that may prevent youth from violence and criminal gang involvement. Importantly, unlike most traditional academic projects, academic research is but 1/3^rd of the project. The other two major arms of the project are; ongoing training/education of all involved in the project including youth, and continual knowledge dissemination using both academic and popular media.

SSHRC’s mandate for CURA projects is that academic researchers must work alongside community partners at every step of the project from day one until the conclusion of the project. I wholeheartedly embrace this ideal.

As an academic researcher, I had remained rather painfully aware of the two solitudes created by the academic and the community. Academics, especially social scientists, have carved out an ivory tower, which they parachute out of from time to time into an outside community to “collect data”. Next step is to remove any trace of the individual identity of the data contributor. This “coded data” is taken back to the ivory tower where these data pieces are examined, analysed, chopped up, decorated with charts and tables to be served on the platter of research journals, conference presentations and books – that only a handful may actually read, understand, or find relevant. Although, there is great value in “knowledge for the sake of knowledge”, creation of academic knowledge accessible only to the academic elite is unfair and meaningless. On the other side of things, the community relies on ‘common-sense wisdom’ and works on the “application” side of knowledge without the support of the evidence-based research.

The divide between the academic and the community must be bridged, such that the context is created for the cross-fertilization of knowledge. Academic rigor and community wisdom, when amalgamated, allows for meaningful contributions by the individual and collective to create a better world.

8. If you had infinite funding and full academic freedom, what would you research?

My research goal will be to move closer to the ideal possible world where groups of people from diverse cultures, nations, religions, traditions, and political ideologies live harmoniously. Yes, understating the dynamics of intergroup relations are important, especially as we are a ‘Global Village’ with increasing movements of millions of people across continents. This expands with the world coming together and becoming connected through rapidly advancing e-technology. This is our future. Our next-door neighbors will be “different”. Yet, they will be part of our shared world. If my research can make a small, humble contribution in helping build harmonious human connections, I would consider my life blessed.

9. Since you began studying Psychology, what do you consider the controversial topics? How do you examine the controversial topics?

As a social psychologist living in Canada, controversial topics to me are inter-cultural relations. Traversing the fine line between the freedom to practice one’s cultural traditions while integrating into mainstream life in Canada. It can be a challenge. Some issues such as newcomers to Canada wearing head covers (Hijab, Turbans), face covers (Niqab), body covers (Burqa), and following tradition-specific gender norms are controversial. As well, “racial profiling” is problematic.
There is no one correct way to examine these topics. However, it is my understanding that top- down imposition of “laws” make for a greater divide and discontent within the society; whereas allowing everyone an opportunity to shape laws and policies create good will and receptivity to them. Therefore, my inclination would be to involve members of the groups who might be the targets of the controversy, the policy makers, and expert researchers to work collaboratively to come up with a win-win situation.

10. How would you describe your early philosophical framework? Did it change? If so, how did it change?

As noted earlier, growing up in India, cultural and spiritual traditions dictated my world view. My cultural value’s foundation has remained strong within me. As such I believed, and continue to believe in the inherent goodness of people, and that being able to help one and all without expecting rewards and recognition is a duty (“Dharma”), and that maintaining a larger perspective on life protects one from stresses of the here & now, and keeps one humble.

These basic values have not changed. Rather personal experiences strengthened my belief in the importance of human connections and making decisions based on the larger perspective on life.

11. What advice do you have for young Psychology students?

Make career decisions wisely. Once a goal is established, give your best to every task, no matter how small, how trivial. Never be a minimalist but go beyond what is required. Learn to be a team player.

12. Who most influenced you? Can you recommend any seminal books/articles?

From my Eastern roots, I would consider Patanjali, an ancient scholar from India’s sacred tradition as the one who influenced me deeply. His seminal work “Yoga Sutras”, a compilation of Sanskrit hymns, provides a rational and secular philosophy of human nature.

From the standpoint of my Western academic life, I would pick William James as my ideal. James- the great thinker, James- the wise scholar, James – the amazing writer is an enduring source of inspiration to me. His book “Principles of Psychology”, especially the chapter on the self and consciousness is probably the best psychological discourse I have ever come across.

13. What do you hope to achieve in the near and far future with AT-CURA?

AT-CURA research findings are gradually being disseminated and it is rewarding to see these being embraced by law enforcement agencies, policy makers, and service providers. My vision for AT-CURA is to continue the good work that the project has initiated and inspired. Our academic-community collaboration is very strong today, and work needs to continue to keep it well-nurtured so it can keep growing stronger and larger. I envision that it will have a sustained existence at KPU so researchers and community partners maintain their ties and collaborate on evidence-based programs that will help our youth make right choices in life and keep our community healthy and thriving.

14. Where do you see Psychology going?

Psychology as a discipline has very unique historical foundations, and its rapid growth since the early 20^th century has been non-linear and multidirectional. In light of this, concerns exist about the field “splitting” into too many branches. Psychology as a unitary discipline might be lost in future altogether. I am not sure if there is any trend to allow speculation about the disciplinary direction. I see one constant though. Given that human behavior remains dependent on its contexts – physical, social, cultural, political – which constantly keep changing, the discipline of psychology will never go out of business- although it may take on different garbs and labels.

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2023-01-27

Dr. Neda Kerimi: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Psychology, Harvard University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/09/18

1. What positions have you held? What position do you currently hold?

I actually studied and worked in IT, as programmer and also IT-manager, for a number of years However, I loved psychology too much so I decided to do a PhD in psychology. Since my PhD graduation in 2011, I have been project manager in Uppsala for a project relating to numeracy and now a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard investigating the impact technology has on our decisions and cognition.

2. In brief, how was your youth? How did you come to this point?

I was always interested in knowledge and had a curious nature. I was undecided between IT and Psychology so I eventually studied both. Even though my training in Psychology is more extensive, I am still a computer-geek at heart, which works for me since I am interested in how technology is changing our cognition.

3. When did Psychology interest you?

I think I have always been interested in psychology. People interest and puzzle me and I love talking and hearing people’s stories so it just came naturally I guess.

4. Where did you acquire your education?

I actually got my MA in Informatics first and worked a few years in IT. Meanwhile I studied psychology at Stockholm University, Sweden, where I eventually got my PhD.

5. What kinds of research have you conducted up to the present?

I have been involved in many projects with the denominator Judgment and Decision Making. For instance how Medical Doctor’s make decisions, how voting systems impact preferences, how students choose study strategy, how information is processed and distorted in consumer situations, why we procrastinate and so on. With the years, I have more and more become interested in social psychology and HCI.

6. If you currently conduct research, what form does it take?

Being an experimental psychologist, experiments are very important to me. I often look for ideas in the real world but follow it up or investigate it in experimental settings. I think triangulating and replication is important in research so I usually try to mix different methods to study a phenomena.

7. Since you began studying psychology, what do you consider the controversial topics? How do you examine the controversial topics?

My field, Judgment and Decision making, have a few controversial topics. The one that has always interested me is whether we should rely on our gut feelings or sleep on it before making decisions. Research has consistently shown that sleeping on it is better, with a few exceptions. However, I have myself not studied this topic, mostly because I am satisfied with the answers that current research has given us regarding that topic.

8. What form of multi-/inter-disciplinary research does Psychology most need in the near future? What form of research does Psychology need in the far future?

I can only talk about cognitive and social psychology, as these are the areas I have knowledge in. Both areas are actually doing a very good interdisciplinary job. For instance, many psychologists collaborate with economists and computer scientists to study financial behaviour or how technology is affecting us.

9. If you had infinite funding, full academic freedom, and zero ethical bounds, what would you research?

I would probably still do what I do, which is studying humans. But I suppose I would have more research assistants so that I could focus more on research instead. Also, not have to spend a lot of time on writing grant proposals would probably make it easier to actually do research.

10. What advice do you have for undergraduate and graduate students? For Psychology students, what do you recommend?

Well, I can only give advice about academia. 1) If you are planning to have a career in academia, make sure that you choose a topic that you love. Academia is a tough world (but fun) where positive feedback comes seldom so what drives you have to be your passion for the topic. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is that you choose topic, or any career for that matter, based on passion and not prestige, money, and power (the last three mentioned comes naturally if you do what you are passionate about). 2) Another advice would be to network, but with those whose work you love and want to learn from. Learning from others has been the most valuable knowledge I have gathered. And start early, solid networks takes time to build. 3. Focus on your strengths rather than your weaknesses. We all have weaknesses and focusing on only them will hinder you. Besides, everyone have strengths that others don’t so use that to your advantage.

11. Who most influenced you? Can you recommend any books/articles?

This is so hard because so many people have. But those who have influenced me has been people whom, despite their accomplishments and fame, are so humble and genuine. I once emailed this extremely famous professor that I wanted to meet him. I really didn’t except this person to answer. But I even got a meeting. That inspired me immensely.

12. You co-run a blog called ‘:InDecision:’. Why did you create the blog? How do you run it? Where do you see it going?

I have always been involved in curriculum activities such as being involved in research societies because I find it so rewarding and important. At the same time, I have always felt that there is a lack of forum for early career researchers, especially in my field, to network. In addition, not everyone have the same opportunities to meet other researchers and exchange ideas. So Elina, the other girl I am running the blog with, decided to create such forum. We knew that there would be interest in such blog (we thought that surely, we are not the only ones in need of such a network). However, we did not expect it to be as well received as it was. Because of the positive feedback we received, we got more inspired and motivated to take the blog further. We actually spend a great deal of our free time on the blog but we get so much satisfaction by knowing that we are making a change in the research field. It should be added that the blog had not been possible without the help of our contributors. We have many exciting projects planned and we are getting more and more visibility for every day so I am excited about the future of the blog.

13. Where do you see Psychology going?

I am probably biased but I think psychology is one of the most important fields and should be taught in every programs (that and statistics). Today, everything that in one way or another involves humans draws conclusions from psychology. I would not be surprised if every company or state will have psychologists in their team.

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2023-01-27

Dr. Sally Satel, M.D.: Lecturer, Yale University & Resident Scholar, AEI

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/09/04

1. What is your current position?

I am a Resident Scholar at American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the Staff Psychiatrist in a Methadone Clinic in Washington, D.C. I am also a lecturer at Yale University School of Medicine.

2. What positions have you held in your academic career?

I was an assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale University from 1988 to 1993. From 1993 to 1994, I was a Robert Wood Johnson Policy Fellow with the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee.

3. What have been your major areas of research?

I have written in academic journals on topics in psychiatry and medicine, and have published articles on cultural aspects of medicine and science in numerous magazines and journals. I am author of Drug Treatment: The Case for Coercion (AEI Press, 1999) and P.C., M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine (Basic Books, 2001). I am co-author of One Nation under Therapy (St. Martin’s Press, 2005), co-author of The Health Disparity Myth (AEI Press, 2006), editor of When Altruism Isn’t Enough – The Case for Compensating Kidney Donors (AEI Press, 2009) and, most recently, co-author of Brainwashed – The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience (Basic Books, 2013)

4. What is your most recent research?

My new book has focused on the extent to which brain science, and brain imaging in particular, can explain human behavior. For example, what can a “lit” brain region tell us about an individual’s thoughts and feelings?

There is enormous practical importance for the use of fMRIs and brain science. However, non-experts are at risk of being seduced into believing that brain science, and brain imaging in particular, can unlock the secrets of human nature. Media outlets tend to purvey information about studies of the brain in uncritical ways, which foster misimpressions of brain science’s capabilities to reveal the working of the mind.

5. You published a new book called Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience with Dr. Scott O. Lilienfield. What is the core argument of your new co-authored book?

My co-author, psychologist Dr. Scott Lilienfeld, and I talk about “losing the mind in the age of brain science.” We mean that brain-based levels of explanation are regarded as the most authentic and valued way of explaining human behavior. Sometimes this is the proper way to go (when we want to uncover the workings of the brain for clinical purposes or to achieve new insight about the mechanisms of memory, learning, emotion, and so on). Understanding people in the context of their lives — their desires, intentions, attitudes, feelings, and so on — requires that we ask them, not their brains.

To clarify, all subjective experience, from a frisson of excitement to the ache of longing, corresponds to physical events in the brain. Scientists have made great strides in reducing the organizational complexity of the brain from the intact organ to its constituent neurons, the proteins they contain, genes, and so on. Just as one obtains differing perspectives on the layout of a sprawling city while ascending in a skyscraper’s glass elevator, we can gather different insights into human behavior at different levels of analysis.

With this template, we can see how human thought and action unfold at a number of explanatory levels, working upward from the most basic elements. A major point we make in Brainwashed is that problems arise when we ascribe too much importance to the brain-based explanations and not enough to psychological or social ones.

6. You have argued against politically correct medicine. How do you define this form of medicine? How is it detrimental to the discipline? In turn, how does it corrupt Public Policy decision-making?

I refer you to my book P.C., M.D.: How Political Correctness is Corrupting Medicine.

In short, the book exposes ways in which the teaching of medicine and public health, and also its practice, is distorted by political agendas surrounding the issue of victimization – in particular, the notion that poor health of minority populations (e.g., ethnic minorities, severely mentally ill people, women) is due to social oppression. In P.C., M.D. and The Health Disparities Myth (Click for full text), for example, I show that despite insistent claims that racially biased doctors are a cause of poor minority health, there are no data to support this.

Politicized medicine (which is different than PC medicine) can come from both directions: left and the right. For example, pro-life advocates exaggerate the extent to which abortion leads to depression and misrepresent aspects of the stem cell debate.

7. Whom do you consider your biggest influences? Could you recommend any seminal or important books/articles by them?

I greatly admire James Q. Wilson and had the honor to know him through AEI, where he was the Chairman of the Academic Advisory Council. In his 1993 book, The Moral Sense, Wilson was impatient with moral relativism, especially the idea that man was primarily a product of his culture. He argued that a moral sense was part of our basic nature, rooted in evolutionary biology. However, he took issue with the over-correction to cultural determinism borne by rigid biological explanations of human behavior.

I am a fan of psychologists Steven Pinker (Blank Slate) and Timothy D. Wilson (Strangers to Ourselves).

8. What do you consider the most important point(s) in the cross-section(s) between Health Science and Public Policy?

Disability Reform and Mental Health Treatment are among the most important to me. In the case of Disability Reform, constructive ways exist to use incentives for guiding people back to the workforce or some kind of productivity. Unfortunately the system of disability entitlements, Social Security and veteran’s benefits, do not make good use of incentives to counteract the kind of learned invalidism that comes with chronic dependence upon disability payments. As for Mental Health Treatments, there are enlightened programs in use (though not widespread enough) to ensure that the most ill patients follow treatment recommendations and stay safe while living in the community. These programs entail a kind of civil commitment called ‘Assisted Outpatient Treatment’ and they require some strength of will on the part of policymakers to both enact and then enforce. For an effective example from the New York Times, click title: Program Compelling Outpatient Treatment for Mental Illness is Working

Additionally, organ shortage interests me. Today, 118,000 people await a kidney, liver, lung, or heart. Eighteen of them will die tomorrow because they could not survive the wait for a donated organ. Current law (1984 National Organ Transplant Act) demands that organs are given as “gifts,” an act of selfless generosity. A beautiful sentiment, yes; but for those without a willing loved one to donate or years to wait on an ever-growing list, altruism can be a lethal prescription. (Full disclosure: in 2006, I got a kidney from a friend. If not for her, I would have spent many miserable years on dialysis.)

The only solution is more organs. We need a regulated system in which compensation is provided by a third party (government, a charity, or insurance) to well-informed, healthy donors. Rewards such as contributions to retirement funds, tax breaks, loan repayments, tuition vouchers for children, and so on, would not attract people who might otherwise rush to donate on the promise of a large sum of instant cash in their pockets.

With private buying kept unlawful, available organs would be distributed not to the highest bidder, but to the next needy person according to a transparent algorithm. For organs that come only from deceased donors, such as hearts, or those that are less often given by loved ones, like livers and lungs, a pilot trial of government-paid or charity-financed funerals makes sense.

I went into detail here because I feel passionate about changing the law that makes it a felony for anyone to give something of value to a potential donor.

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2023-01-27

Dr. Diana Sanchez: Associate Professor of Psychology, Rutgers University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/08/28

1. What positions have you held in Academe?

After receiving my PhD in 2005 from the University of Michigan, I accepted a tenure-track position in the Psychology Department at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. I have been there ever since. I am currently an Associate Professor of Social Psychology.

2. In brief, how was your youth? How did you come to this point?

My youth was a bit challenging. My mother died of cancer when I was 17 and my father died of a stroke when I was 21. In some ways, academia saved me because it became my home when there was no home to return to.

3. When did Psychology interest you?

As an adolescent, I remember wanting to become a supermodel or a psychologist. I quickly became disenchanted with the idea of modeling and the unrealistic body ideals for women in the industry. No doubt my stint in modeling inspired some of my work on the danger of unrealistic body image ideals.

My true passion for psychology began as a teenager. I found myself playing the role of psychologist for my friends and family, which drew me into my present career path.

4. Where did you acquire your education?

After growing up in a small town in Cresskill, NJ, I attended Bard College on the Excellence and Equal Cost Scholarship (essentially a scholarship that allows you to pay state college prices for a private school education if you graduate in the top 10% of your high school class). At the time, Bard College was a very liberal environment full of tree-hugging liberals and high school outcasts. It suited me well. At Bard, I began conducting social psychological research with Dr. Tracie Stewart, which led me to graduate school in a joint social psychology and PhD program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

5. What kinds of research have you conducted up to the present?

I have two lines of research. The first involves examining how sexism and the social construction of gender influence interpersonal relationship. For example, I have tackled questions such as, “How do gender role prescriptions influence sexual satisfaction?” “What are the interpersonal costs and benefits of confronting sexism” and “When do gender roles restrict men and women’s freedom to be themselves in relationships?” The second line of research involves identifying the impact of biracial identities on race, intergroup relationships, and social categorization processes. This work focuses on how racial ambiguity challenges prejudice and rigid social cognition. The core question here is “What impact does the growing biracial population have on how we think about race and the relationships between racial groups?”

6. If you currently conduct research, what form does it take?

Currently, I examine the social conditions under which racial ambiguity influences racial attitudes after interpersonal interactions. I have also begun some promising work at the intersections of gender and race to better understand the experience of women of color and the health consequences of combined gender and race-based discrimination.

7. Since you began studying psychology, what do you consider the controversial topics? How do you examine the controversial topics?

Any research that challenges the wisdom of conforming to gender norms could be considered controversial in the eyes of the public because many are resistant to scientific studies that demonstrate costs of what some consider the way men and women should behave. Because my work explores the potential costs of restrictive gender roles, I sometimes receive some resistance.

In the field of psychology, I also find it controversial to study sexuality because many do not consider sexuality research a science worthy of study despite the obvious importance of sex to virtually all aspects of psychology. As a result, not many social psychologists study sexuality but I see too much importance in sexuality research to ignore this importance facet of interpersonal connections.

At first, studying biracial identity was controversial topic because many did not consider biracial identity to be a legitimate identity. The resistance to biracial identities came from both conservative and liberal circles. In some parts of the country, there was (and continues to be) a strong backlash against interracial marriages and much early research seemed influenced by conservative racial politics. For example in the 1950s, biracial individuals were described as psychologically disturbed and criminally-minded. Even after some of these ideas were discarded, others resisted biracial identities because they felt that biracial individuals could diminish the power of minority political movements by reducing the population counts of minority populations. Others accused biracial people of trying to escape their minority identity and pass as White. So, there was a public sensitivity around biracial identity, which was only recently overcome by the large, outspoken biracial community who demanded that biracial identity be recognized as a real identity. So, studying biracial identity no longer seems controversial though there is still some backlash from racially prejudiced groups who do not approve of racial mixing.

8. How would you describe your early philosophical framework? Did it change? If so, how did it change?

Do what you love and you will live a fulfilling life. This is the philosophy that led me to my career. As for a philosophical framework for my research, I suppose one could say that I adopt a self-determination approach. That is, I think that we have two core motivations that explain a great deal about behavior—the desire to belong and connect with others and the desire to feel autonomous, free, and authentic. I still believe these are cross-culturally important motivations that can help explain social behavior.

9. If you had infinite resources and full academic freedom, what would you research?

If I had infinite resources and full academic freedom, I would utilize more international samples, purchase biomedical equipment to study the interface of the physiological body and the mind, and conduct more longitudinal studies to ascertain long-term psychological consequences. If I had infinite resources that I could use for non-research purposes, I would create programs to improve the diversity of psychology programs at the graduate and faculty levels.

10. What advice do you have for undergraduate and graduate students? For Psychology students, what do you recommend?

If you are passionate about your topic of study, work will not feel like “work”. So, pick ideas that will sustain your passion. For those who strive to join PhD programs, get involved with publishable research early in your career. Moreover, I highly recommend getting closely involved in different areas of psychology because I strongly believe that the most exciting innovations to come will be those that bridge across areas of psychology.

11. Who most influenced you?Can you recommend any books/articles?

There are several mentors who influenced my thinking and advised me along my career path (Tracie L. Stewart, Jennifer Crocker, Margaret Shih, Laurie Rudman, Abigail Stewart, James Jackson). Of course, there were also those scholars whom I have never had a chance to talk to in person but whose work has and continues to inspire me (Alice Eagly, Anne Peplau, Susan Fiske, Claude Steele, Jennifer Richeson, M. Lynne Cooper, Edward Deci, Richard Ryan). And of course, there are the intellectual pioneers of the social psychology of identity, prejudice, and stigma (Henry Tajfel, Gordon Allport, Erving Goffman) whose work laid the foundation for the research that I conduct today. Perhaps, I would recommend that people start with Gordon Allport’s Nature of Prejudice and Goffman’s book on Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity.

12. Where do you see Psychology going?

I can only answer the question of where I would like to see Psychology go. I hope that Psychology continues to bridge with other disciplines so that scientific discovery can reach its full potential. I hope that we continue to explore the links between the mind and the body. I hope that we become an even more open science so that our work is more widely distributed and we can educate the public. Also, I believe a standard of open science (e.g., data sharing) can also prevent fraudulent science.

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2023-01-27

Dr. Hawa Abdi, M.D.: Physician & Human Rights Activist, Hawa Abdi Foundation

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/08/17

1. Where did you grow up? What was youth like for you? What effect do you feel this had on your career path?

I grew up in the Mogadishu area, where my mother and father lived. Growing up, I saw that in my society people were respecting and loving each other. Parents were educating their children to work hard, respect their elders and also to respect other children. It affected me in that I viewed society as sincere, and I felt that way myself and I was trusting of others. But, in this world today, I have come across many people who are cheating their way through life. However, because of my youth, I always believe that everyone has some good in them. That is why I always want to help even in the most difficult times.

2. Where did you acquire your education?

I studied medicine in the Soviet Union, in Kiev. When I returned to Somalia, I studied law at the University of Mogadishu.

3. Did you have a childhood hero?

My childhood hero was my grandmother, the mother of my mother. She was a wise, calm, strong, and intelligent woman. She was a natural philosopher. When I read the books of renowned philosophers today, I can find the same words that my grandmother used to tell me.

She always advised me to work hard, because after working hard, you can rest. She also said to me, “sitting is empty, but working is plenty.” When I was a young girl, she would wake me up at 4am everyday before the sun was even up. We would together pray, exercise, do chores, and prepare breakfast for the family. She taught me how to farm, how to take care of the animals. By going the extra mile and not limiting your work, you will find joy and good in life.

She also taught me to be forgiving and fair to everyone you meet. If you cheat or inflict harm onto other people, you yourself will become lost in this world. But, if you are fair and honest, you will succeed. I have kept with her words my entire life, and I am happy.

4. What was your original dream? If it changed, how did it change? Furthermore, what changed it?

When I was a child, I only wanted to satisfy my parents and make them happy. At that time, life was difficult and it was hard to get enough food for everyone in the family. But even as there were no jobs, it was raining plenty every season. People were farming, animals were eating grass, and in that way people were living. It was hard, but there was more honesty and happiness.

Then, when after my mother died, I had a dream to become a doctor. My mother died from delivery complications, and I was very sad. She was suffering right before me, but I could not do anything to support her. I felt a very deep pain. At that time many children like me also lost their mothers. So I wanted to help future generations and children to avoid the pain I felt. That was when I had the dream to become a doctor.

5. What have been your major areas of work?

While I work in healthcare, I also do work in education, agriculture, and law. Throughout my life, I have been working to fight poverty and malnutrition in Somalia. This includes doing very simple things like going to fishing and giving the children fish, which is full of protein. I founded a primary school on my land to educate the children. As a lawyer, I can understand what is wrong and what is right, and each person’s obligations in society. Every citizen has rights, and each citizen has to defend their own rights while completing their obligations to the government, society, family and children.

6. What is your most recent work?

Most recently, my Foundation has built a new library and science lab at the Waqaf-Diblawe Primary School with the help of the Global Enrichment Foundation. We have some English children books in the library, which were brought to Somalia when President Bush visited our camp in 1992. We are looking to obtain more books, start reading classes with the students, and build a reading culture in our community. We still need to get more tools for the science lab as well so that the children can learn both from the books and from the hand.

7. If you had unlimited funding and unrestricted freedom, what research/work would you pursue?

If I had unlimited funding and unrestricted freedom, I want to educate the 25,000 students who have grown up in my camp. I believe education is the key to everything. After their education, I want to create jobs for the students.

8. Not many individuals know of the situation in Somalia, and the work you do to improve the conditions there, you founded the Hawa Abdi Foundation. It has served to help those most needing assistance in Somalia. For the readers, what is the function of the Foundation? What kind of work does it do?

The Dr. Hawa Abdi Foundation works to give everyone equal rights and justice. During the civil war, times were very difficult and Somalis had to flee from constant violence. They found refuge on my land, where I provided healthcare, education, and food security to all Somalis regardless of gender, religion, clan, political affiliation. I treat everyone equally and I believe that everyone should be able to access their basic rights.

Today, we continue to do the same work in healthcare, education, and agriculture. We have the Dr. Hawa Abdi General Hospital and Training Centre, which is the only place of free healthcare in a 33-km radius. We have the Waqaf-Diblawe Primary School and a Women’s Education Centre to educate women and children. Also, I am cultivating my 400-hectare farmland to strengthen food security in the region.

Even as the war has ended now, there is still a lot of work to do in Somalia to help people rebuild their lives. We continue to receive up to 40 families a day looking for a safe place to live. We need to continue to give them access to basic rights and opportunities for jobs. That is what we do at the Foundation now.

9. Related to the previous question, what is the core message of the the Hawa Abdi Foundation. What can people in society do to help with your foundation’s work?

The core message of my Foundation is that everyone must have equal rights and justice. The people who have come under my care learn that it is important to be honest and friendly to all people. Whereas people are fighting because of clan divisions outside my camp, when they enter my camp, I tell them they cannot identify by clan. If they do, they cannot stay.

As I am fighting illiteracy, poverty, and disease, I will be happy if people in the society can help me in this. I want to educate and create jobs in fishing, farming, animal rearing, business, and healthcare. Some students of mine are now studying medicine, some are in Sweden, Turkey, Germany, Mogadishu – they all want to become doctors because they admire the profession. About ten of them will finish in the coming six years. This is the kind of future I see in Somalia.

But this takes time, and Somalia right now still needs help and capital to take-off. People in society can help through contributing the human and financial resources needed to train two generations lost to war.

10. You have received numerous awards for your work. Recently, you earned a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize and won the BET Social Humanitarian Award. What do nominations and awards like these mean to you?

I am very happy and grateful towards those who have given me these awards. It gives me the strength and self-confidence to continue to work. Sometimes it can get difficult, where it seems like everything and the world is working against me. In the Somali community, it is more difficult for recognition because people are busy, there is war going on and many people are doing destructive work rather than constructive work. That is why I get a lot of awards outside my country. When I receive an award, my spirit becomes alive again, and I can continue to do my job. I am grateful that I am still working and I still have my hope. I thank those people.

11. How would you describe your philosophical frameworks inside and outside of medicine? How have your philosophical frameworks evolved?

In my life, I always believe in equality, justice, and honesty. If you are honest and committed, you will not lose anything. There are challenges, but that is the will of the God. I find this in the Italian proverb, l’uomo propone ma dio dispone, which says that if God doesn’t allow it to be successful, it will never be.

12. Whom do you consider your biggest influences? Could you recommend any seminal or important books/articles by them?

Hilary Clinton has always given me the strength to work. When I met her and she said that I am doing the right thing, I felt that someone knows me and understands what I am doing. Socrates also has influenced me. He has said that if you want to know what it is to be a human being, you have to know yourself first. What you need, they need. What you hate, they hate. I believe that human being is one. Their needs are one and the world is one. I suggest that the world work together. If something bad happens in one corner of the world, it will spread to other corners. Things like war, disease, hunger. But if we collaborate, we can try to achieve justice, peace, and happiness. The human being is one and we have to defend each other collectively, regardless of colour and differences.

13. What do you consider the most important point(s) about your life’s work?

The most important points about my life’s work is to save a human being and care for a human being. Caring for a human being is a difficult task, you have to educate, train, and advise them. While their needs are the same, their characters differ. You have to learn to care and guide them according to their character. Some can be nervous and aggressive, while another may be patient. But even if someone has a bad character, we cannot just discard them. I have found that everyone has something good inside of them. We just need to learn to approach them in different ways.

14. What do you see as the future of the Hawa Abdi Foundation and similar humanitarian organizations aimed at helping people?

I see DHAF will be a place of pride in the future. It is something that is built by Somalis for Somalis, educating and training our people. If we continue to be honest and committed in our work, the Foundation will be like a kingdom to be continued for generations and generations.

There are many other humanitarian organizations, international ones like the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC). They have continued to operate for many years because they are committed. They make immediate decisions, knowing their purpose is to care for the human being, give life and hope. In Somalia, there are many local NGOs but many lack capital to provide for the people. They have to depend on larger and international ones.

I believe that DHAF will become sustainable and generate income from our economic work at our farm. But it will need some help to take off. After more fully developing our agriculture capacity, I believe it will become sustainable.

15. Finally, your most recent book Keeping Hope Alive: One Woman: 90,000 Lives Changed outlines a major theme in your life, perseverance. How important is perseverance for changing the world for the better?

Perseverance is very important. We have come from the medieval times to many new inventions and advancement in medicines that better the lives of everyone in the world. As mentioned before, the world is one and we cannot separate. In order to change the world for the better, we must first learn to love and respect one another, then we can work towards peace, then finally, unity in the world.

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To support the Hawa Abdi Foundation’s ongoing work you can visit www.dhaf.org/donate/

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2023-01-27

Dr. Zoe Dennison: Head of Psychology, University of the Fraser Valley

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/08/03

1. What positions have you held? What positions do you currently hold?

Currently, I am the head of the psychology department at University of the Fraser Valley (UFV). For many years, I was the chair of the academic appeals process and also for a few years the manager of the online campus. In academe, I have been a faculty member, a sessional instructor, a graduate student, and an undergraduate student.

2. How was your youth? How did you come to this point in your academics?

That’s a hard question to answer. My ‘youth’ was quite varied, good and bad, often weird and woolly….certainly I had no plan to become a professor!

When I was in high school, I skipped out as much as I could. My parents didn’t think much of the school system, so they were always willing to write me whatever notes were required. In my immediate family, reading and thinking were important but going to school or following the ‘rules’ were not. However, my father always said I should go to university. His description of what university would be like was quite romantic as it turned out. Few people in my family went to university or college, so my aunties looked at me with great suspicion when I did finally go.

After high school, I got a job in a bank. All the staff were women, many who had been there for 30 years or more, but all the managers were men (it was the ‘80s). After I’d worked for a few months, I looked around and thought, “I can’t do this for thirty years, it’ll kill me.” I quit my job, travelled a bit, and eventually applied to the University of Victoria. Again, no real plan, but I had some friends there and I was too timid to go where I knew nobody. I’d moved many times before that, so when I got to Victoria, I looked around and thought, “Yea, I could stay here for a year.”

I decided to take a Computer Science major. It was quite different then compared to computers today. There were no ‘personal’ computers, we all worked on individual terminals that accessed a very large computer called the ‘mainframe’. We learned programming languages like Pascal, and usually first year students got the midnight shift down in the basement. I lasted about a year and a half. I used to ask a lot of questions in class, for example, ‘what are the programs for?’, ‘how will people be able to use them’, ‘can we make computers easier to use?’ The instructors and my fellow students came to hate my interruptions and questions, and I felt like the target of the Orwellian ‘2 minute hate’. Of course, I wasn’t too fond of those folks either, so it seemed like a good idea to move on.

Now I had ruled out banking, waitressing, and computer science. I was taking a number of other courses, so I decided to interview my professors about their professions. Dr. Frank Spellacy, who taught brain and behaviour, was helpful and interesting (and he and his wife took me to lunch). The study of the brain fascinated me, so I decided to try psychology. I was behind a bit, so I had to take a lot of psychology courses at once (I never did take introductory psychology). I caught up and entered the honours program, mostly because the honours seminar was led one of my favourite professors, Dr. Gordon Hobson. In turn, he found me an excellent advisor, Dr. Otfried Spreen, in clinical neuropsychology. I had no idea how lucky I was.

A few months into my honours, Dr. Hobson asked me, “You’re applying to grad school, right?” “Sure I am”, I replied, and then had to ask around to find out what ‘grad school’ was. I was convinced none of the schools would take me, so I applied to quite a few across Canada. Pretty much all of them accepted me, I got an NSERC scholarship, and decided on UWO, again with no well thought out planning and because of some bad advice!

Frankly, I was just doing what was interesting at the time and taking opportunities as they arose. I was certainly a poor student in my first two years of university, skipping any classes I found boring and spending most of my evenings dancing at blues clubs. I recognize papers written the day before the due date easily, as I wrote many papers that way myself. I have a firsthand appreciation for the possibility that students who are doing badly in classes simply have more interesting things they prefer to do and, most importantly, that it could change. Over the years, I’ve seen more than one student who has done just that, turned things around to find something they love, and watching those students graduate and go on is particularly thrilling to me.

3. How did you gain interest in psychology? Where did you acquire your education?

My father (influenced by Hemingway and Postman) used to encourage my brother and me to develop a ‘Bullshit Detector’. Psychology is built around exactly that kind of tool, which I realized once I started taking research methods and statistics courses. I felt right at home.

4. What kinds of research have you conducted up to the present?

My main graduate research at UWO was studying learning and plasticity in rats with a model not used much now called ‘kindling’ (it is still used a bit as a model for epilepsy). I also did some research on anti-epileptic drugs that block excitatory amino acid receptors and also on neural grafting. At Mount Allison University, I worked on studying memory using a water maze.

My animal research ended when I moved back to B.C. to work at the University College of the Fraser Valley in 1993. The focus at UCFV (now UFV) was on teaching, so I had little time to do research.

A few years ago I took a short sabbatical to work on changing first year psychology instruction to increase success in some groups of first year students such as mature students, students from applied areas such as social work, and First Nations students. I used what I learned in developing my own teaching of introductory psychology and in creating a peer tutor program.

My current interests are in the area of the psychology of music, specifically health related outcomes for hand drumming and singing. However, I have not made much progress since I became department head and further work will likely have to wait until I am finished!

5. If you currently conduct research, what form does it take?

Not much right now, being head of psychology uses all my available neurons.

6. Since you began studying psychology, what do you consider the controversial topics? How do you examine the controversial topics?

What do you mean by controversial?…

7. …Self-Defined controversy in your field…

Psychology is by its nature controversial.

Any subfield of psychology challenges what ‘everybody knows’, from research methods (“Correlation is not causation”) to memory to development to social psychology and so on.

If you learn to think using the tools of psychology, you will be often on the other side of marketing in all its forms, including governments, newspapers, parents, teachers…

There are many classic studies, which we go through in introductory psychology, that illustrate this point over and over.

8. …In hindsight, do they seem controversial?

My guess is that at the time, they knew they were doing something controversial, challenging ‘what everybody knows’.

9. How would you describe your philosophical frameworks inside and outside of Psychology?

Well, that ‘Bullshit Detector’ has come in handy.

I wouldn’t say I have a specific philosophical framework anymore, but I do believe in personal responsibility and in fair processes.

10. How have your philosophical frameworks evolved?

My parents raised us as Objectivists, which is based on the writing of Ayn Rand. I sometimes call myself a ‘Recovered Objectivist’. If you look at the basic principles of reasoning in Objectivism, critical thinking and personal responsibility stand out, and I have retained those. I also retain a preference for minimal government. However, I do also believe in collective actions, like taxes to pay for education and health care, which would have me thrown out of the Objectivist meeting. If they had meetings…

Until I moved to the Fraser Valley, I didn’t realize how significant being raised without religion was to my philosophy and reasoning abilities. Now that I live amongst many folks raised with religious points of view, it is strange to have to declare myself an ‘atheist’, as other places I lived that was the dominant perspective.

11. If you had unlimited funding and unrestricted freedom, what would you enjoy researching?

I don’t want unrestricted freedom to research any question, it’s a nasty idea! Ethics boards sometimes seem a bit overly restrictive but as acting ethically isn’t intuitive, you need others to look at your ideas and question your methods. Ethics are foundational to psychology research.

12. For students looking for fame, fortune, and/or utility (personal and/or social), what advice do you have for undergraduate and graduate students in Psychology?

Tolerate ambiguity.

13. Whom do you consider your biggest influences? Could you recommend any seminal or important books/articles by them?

In my early years, I was influenced by Ayn Rand, Isaac Asimov and Oscar Wilde. At grad school, I was influenced by Doreen Kimura. Her approach to thinking about function and brain structures was exceptionally instructive to me. She made a number of important observations about the quality of the data and what could be drawn from it given the limitations of the methodology of that time.

Case Vanderwolf was also a greatly influential professor in grad school. If you asked Case a question about neurophysiology or brain and behaviour, his answer was usually, “Hmmm, I don’t know.” Then he’d pause, and then tell you all the relevant research that had been done, and how it was done, and he’d demonstrate how you went about thinking about the question, and what kind of questions still needed to be asked. After this, he’d still conclude, “I don’t know”.

I recommend to all my assessment students that they read Paul Meehl’s ‘Why I don’t attend case conferences’. It’s fairly old and somewhat acerbic, but it’s a good example that you can be trained in psychology and cognitive biases, but still fail to employ them. It’s a cautionary tale, useful reading.

I also recommend Janet Shibley Hyde’s ‘The Gender Similarities Hypotheses’ and Deborah Cameron’s ‘The Myth of Mars and Venus’, both are excellent demonstrations of critical thinking.

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2023-01-27

Dr. Athene Donald: Experimental Physicist, University of Cambridge

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/06/28

1. What is your current position at the University of Cambridge?

Professor of Experimental Physics. I am also the University’s Gender Equality Champion and a Deputy Vice Chancellor (mainly an honorary title which permits me to confer degrees)

2. Where did you grow up? What was youth like for you? What effect do you feel this had on your career path?

I was born in London. Neither of my parents had been to University, although my Grandfather had, and there was always an expectation that I would. I attended a single sex school which, probably unusually for a girls’ school of its day, had an excellent Physics teacher, something I am sure was very significant.

I had an older sister and we all lived with my maternal grandparents. My parents’ marriage broke up when I was 10 so I lived in a household of 4 women and 1 man (my grandfather). I think the most significant thing was the fact that I was always surrounded by books and with this expectation that if I wanted to go to university that I should. It was just taken for granted, particularly since I did well at school.

I was jumped up a year at school. My birthday is in May and during my secondary schooling (which is normally from 11-18) I was nearly 2 years younger than the oldest child in my year. I am sure this was significant as I didn’t fit in well with my ‘contemporaries’, probably because during adolescent such a big age gap can make a big difference. Probably this encouraged me to keep my head down and work hard, because I wasn’t going to fit in anyhow.

No one in my family were particularly interested in science, nor was it a subject I remember being discussed in a serious way. I did get taken to the Science Museum (in London) but I didn’t really connect that with my lessons at school or with any idea of a future career.

The hobbies I had were ornithology – which perhaps reflects an interest in ‘systematising’ but again, it was just what I did for fun and I didn’t connect it with anything I did at school – and music. There was a lot of music during my growing-up and as a teenager I was very involved both with singing in choirs and playing in orchestras. I played the viola and, since not many children do play this instrument, I had lots of opportunities to play with seriously musical peers. It was a major source of relaxation and also a way for me to socialise with other girls – both older and younger – given the trouble I had with fitting in with my ordinary classmates.

2. Where did you acquire your education? How did you come to the University of Cambridge?

My mother says I declared at 7 I was going to go to Cambridge University to read maths. This is probably an apocryphal story, but I think somehow I always fixed on the idea of going to Cambridge. It was where my grandfather had been after all (he read Classics there before the 1st World War), so there must have been some sense of connection. I first had Physics lessons when about 13 and seem to have known almost at once that this was what I wanted to study.

Cambridge University back then was overwhelmingly male, as none of the colleges was yet mixed. I am not sure I really thought very hard about that. One had to do a special entrance exam. I was very badly prepared for this as my school had been participating in a pilot course of study in Physics, with only about 7 schools pursuing this exam at A level. So I knew little of what others knew but lots of other stuff, particularly ‘modern’ physics. As well as an entrance exam for Cambridge, the colleges interviewed prospective students. Probably then I came across as much stronger for exactly the same reasons: I knew stuff they weren’t expecting interviewees to know. For whatever reason I was accepted by 2 colleges (there were only 3 that admitted women), and I chose to go to Girton, the college I had always had set my mind on.

3. Was Physics always ‘in the cards’ for you? Were you mathematically precocious in childhood and adolescence?

I always was highly competent at maths, but I don’t think I was precocious in the sense that I didn’t pursue it beyond the classroom in any way that I remember. I just got on with it. But physics was just something that clicked with me. I did then start reading around the subject, certainly by the time I was 16 or so, but I had no clear idea of what it might mean as the start of a career. In my day, and in my school, I got no careers advice and I simply didn’t think seriously about life beyond university. All I knew was that I wanted to study physics at university; it just seemed the logical thing to do.

4. Did you have a childhood hero?

No, I don’t think I thought in those terms at all. I had neither heroes nor heroines. Nor did I really think of gender as an issue either. I am sure that was in large part because I just didn’t really know any teenage boys – other than beyond the orchestra I played in and we simply got on with our music. When I met a bunch just before I started at university who asked me what I was going to study, their reaction for the first time told me it was odd for a girl to want to do physics. I don’t think, having been at an all-girls school, that had really crossed my mind before. There was no one to discourage me.

5. What was your original dream? If it changed, how did it change?

I also didn’t have a dream. I didn’t look ahead. If I thought about the future I just assumed that I would marry, perhaps a few years after college, and have a family. There was no expectation of a career as such. Having a career in academia was just something that happened; I never looked more than a year or two ahead. I was probably well into my 20s before I even started thinking about this. By then I was married (I got married to a mathematician during my PhD – and we’re still married!) and the complications of trying to sort out two lives to the satisfaction of both reared their heads. It is never easy.

6. What have been your major areas of research?

My field of research has constantly evolved. That is how I like it. I started off studying metals, using electron microscopy to study their internal structure. The technique of electron microscopy has remained a constant during my research career. After my first, and very unsuccessful postdoc in the USA (Cornell University) I switched to apply electron microscopy to plastics. It wasn’t till that point, after 5 years of research, that I really fell in love with it. I had an incredibly productive 2 further years in the USA and then returned to Cambridge. Over the years I have moved from the study of largely synthetic polymers to naturally occurring biopolymers including those relevant to food. I researched the internal structure of starch granules for many years, during that time building up collaborations both with industry and with plant geneticists. Then I moved on to study protein aggregation, a subject relevant both to food and to those studying many neurodegenerative diseases. I have continued to do electron microscopy, developing a technique which allows one to study samples without the dehydration usually necessary; this approach is known as environmental scanning electron microscopy and we did a lot of development work on it, analysing how to interpret images and seeing just how far we could push the technique. We also applied it to a wide variety of biological samples from bacteria to plants. This move into biological problems was also reflected in a modest research activity in cellular biophysics.

Overall the sorts of physics I do can be summed up as soft matter physics moving into biological physics. When I started working on starch, physicists doing this sort of work were regarded as very unusual. Now it is much more main-stream physics.

7. What is your most recent research?

As I say, I have moved systematically towards biological problems. The work we do on protein aggregation has implications for various neurodegenerative diseases, although I am always very careful to spell out we won’t be curing any diseases ourselves, we simply hope to provide some basic underpinning knowledge. But, as a physicist, I try to look for generalities of behaviour, particularly since we are interested in what happens when biological control is lost. In our case we typically use heat to study the response when proteins are denatured, which of course is totally non-physiological, but in the diseases of old age proteins also lose their native structures due to loss of biological control, so the parallels are fairly close.

8. If you had unlimited funding and unrestricted freedom, what research would you conduct?

I would like to be able to get much closer to biology and work in truly interdisciplinary teams on the subjects of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases.

9. There exist many cases of silence, even denigration, about the lack of women in science, especially young women. In fact, a case of speculation comes to mind on the part of an ex-President of Harvard – no less, Dr. Larry Summers, about innate average differences between men and women potentially explaining the difference of the sexes’ scientific prominence. To me, it seems silence on debating these issues exacerbates the problem. Given your involvement in advocacy for women in science, does silence exacerbate the problem? What things need doing? What message backed by data needs more advertising?

In the UK at least I don’t think silence is the issue any longer. I think many leaders appreciate the problems and are actively trying to overcome the under-representation and the lack of voice some women feel. Within UK universities we have a benchmarking scheme, the Athena Swan awards, for STEM departments which are very effective at making universities and individual departments look at both their statistics and practices, and come up with appropriate action plans. Indeed, some funders make such awards a condition. This has really changed the climate. However, there is no doubt there are still pockets of resistance, the unconsciously held views that all of us hold which stereotype people (and not just women in science) in all kinds of ways without stepping back and being objective.

We do need statistics, but we also need to recognize how much social conditioning affects every child from birth. I get fed up with being told that the statistics ‘prove’ girls don’t want to do physics, when we cannot tell much more than that boys and girls are encouraged to do different things as children, are treated differently and cultural messages are different.

10. In line with the previous question, what can people in society, without the influence of the Academy, do to help bring a new generation of women into science?

Avoid stereotyping any individual, boy or girl. Make sure that they appreciate any field is wide open to them. Encourage girls to explore their world – be it putting new washers into taps or climbing trees. Let them be brave and not be put off by being ‘nice’ or pretty. Give them solid aspirations and not just aiming at domestic virtues.

11. As an addendum to the previous two questions, can you describe the Matilda Effect to our readers?

The Matilda effect describes how women’s contributions to research are systematically undervalued and under-described. One specific example would correspond to the role Rosalind Franklin played in the discovery of the double helical structure of DNA, with Jim Watson never giving her contributions the credit they deserved. More generally, women working as part of a team may find that their names aren’t mentioned and their deeds can be attributed to others. Even when women are quite senior and leading teams you find comments being made implying such collaboration is a weakness not a strength, as it would be for a man.

12. How would you describe your philosophical frameworks inside and outside of Experimental Physics? How have your philosophical frameworks evolved?

I don’t think in these terms! What I do know is that I enjoy constantly exploring new areas, evolving from one area of research to another. A lot of the work I do is interdisciplinary. To succeed at such work one needs to be prepared to put the time into learning the language of someone else’s discipline, at least sufficiently far that you can explore the shared problem together. This can be challenging, but ultimately it is very rewarding. I am not the kind or person who likes to know everything about a small area, I prefer to take a more broad brush approach, look for connections between different areas and forge new connections. This means all the work I’ve done forms a sort of connected web, even though there may appear to be many different threads.

13. For students looking for fame, fortune, and/or utility (personal and/or social), what advice do you have for undergraduate and graduate students in Experimental Physics?

Work out what it is that you enjoy about physics. Is it simply the ability to problem solve, or getting stuck into some experimental technique or another? What motivates you – curiosity, solving some specific problem or contributing to a team effort? There can be so many reasons for pursuing physics and you have to work out what it is that you particularly enjoy. If you are seeking a fortune, then you will probably either want to do something more entrepreneurial or quantitative (eg in the financial sector), but if it is simply that you are curiosity-driven, there are many directions to head in. Physics is often described as a ‘difficult’ subject. If you are struggling it may simply be that your motivation isn’t high enough and you should choose some other path that excites you more.

14. Many assume a need for a genius level-intellect or above-average levels of mathematical facility (even in childhood) to think of a career in science. How much of this seems true? How much of this assumption seems like a myth?

You undoubtedly need to be competent at maths, but genius level is an overstatement for many parts of the field. I think it is probably more the case you need to be very logical in how you approach problems, able to think things through by breaking down a tough challenge into its component parts. You also need to be able to think in abstract terms. Physics isn’t just a case of memory work; you need to be able to understand underlying mechanisms and be able to see how to apply the mathematics and models you have learned in one situation to another, perhaps less familiar one.

15. Whom do you consider your biggest influences? Could you recommend any seminal or important books/articles by them?

Having a teacher at my school who was on top of the subject and able to answer my questions without anxiety was a great start. At university, having a ‘director of studies’ who was very supportive when I was struggling and encouraged me not to give up was also crucial. After I’d moved into research my supervisor at Cornell (Professor Ed Kramer, now of UCSB) and my head of department after I’d returned to Cambridge (Sir Sam Edwards) were also great influences on me, inspirational in the way they tackled their own research. They believed in me, believed I could follow a research career and gave me many opportunities early on that enabled me to lay down a firm foundation for my subsequent research. Finally the Nobel Prize winner Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, who was a friend of Sir Sam’s and whom I met fairly often in Cambridge, also was immensely supportive and inspirational. De Gennes wrote a number of books, of which ‘Scaling Concepts in Polymer Physics’ was probably the most important for me, even though at the time I found it very hard to understand!

16. What do you consider the most important point(s) about your line of research and work?

My research has moved from being fairly traditional for a physicist, working on conventional synthetic polymers, to working on natural materials such as starch and proteins. Initially some of my colleagues were very critical of me working on such materials, thinking they were far too messily complex to be able to do physics on them. But I persisted, applying standard physical tools and approaches to them. Ultimately I think others understood better that this was perfectly good physics. However, now much of my time is focused on issues around gender and I read a lot of sociology papers. This work is obviously not research-based. Some of it is experiential and it seems that, because I have a successful academic pedigree, people are more willing to listen to what I have to say. There are still many issues for women in science, so I am keen to use my voice to encourage others to think about their local practices and possibly prejudices.

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2023-01-27

Dr. Azra Raza, M.D.: Professor and Director of MDS Center, at Columbia University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/06/18

1. What is your current position?

My position is Professor of Medicine and Director of Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) Center at Columbia University.

2. What positions have you held in your academic career?

I earned the appointment of Full Professor at Rush University in Chicago (Age 39). Subsequently, the University of Chicago appointed me the Charles Arthur Weaver Professor of Cancer Research. The Department of Medicine created a Division of Myeloid Diseases, where I was first Director. I moved in 2004 to the University of Massachusetts as Director of Hematology and Oncology. They gave me the Gladys Smith Martin Chair in Oncology. I have been in New York since 2007. Presently, I direct the MDS Center at Columbia University.

3. Where did you grow up? How do you think this influenced your career direction?

I grew up in Pakistan. This greatly influenced my career and life. Post-graduate work in Science was non-existent. I entered medical school as a tangential way of becoming involved in Molecular Biology. However, once I began seeing patients, I knew that I would never give that up. This led me to the idea of doing translational research. When I felt ready to graduate medical school, it had become abundantly clear to me, even after those three years of clinical work, that if I stayed back in Pakistan, I would not be practicing translational research, but would have no choice other than to become an activist. The conditions under which an impoverished population faces disease are such that one has few other options. I felt that way. Here, I came to understand my primary duty – sincerity to my passion: Science. In a way, I took to heart the advice of Polonius to Laertes:

“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

(Shakespeare, HAMLET, Act I, Scene III).

4. Where did you acquire your education?

Pakistan.

5. What was your original dream?

I became obsessed with ants at a very young age, maybe 4 years old. I used to lie for hours and watch them zip in and out of their little holes in long hot summer afternoons in Karachi and imagine their lives. I constructed imaginary homes for them and social lives complete with romance and all. As I grew and read about biology, I obsessed over Darwin and Freud. In fact, I obtained the first position in my pre-medical examination by scoring high during the viva part of the test, when I engaged the external examiners in a heated debate over Darwinian versus Lamarckian theories of evolution and showing why I was a die hard Darwinian at the ripe old age of 16. If I had grown up in the West, I feel confident I would be a scientist, and not a physician, but I had no way of following my dreams there. Medical School was the only option to study Biology. So I went to Medical School.

6. What have been your major areas of research?

I have focused extremely on studying the biology and pathology of myeloid malignancies since the start of my career, even before I started my Residency. This happened because I had come to the US soon after graduation from Medical School and had six months before the start of my Fellowship. I started working at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RCPI) in Buffalo New York, where I started working with Acute Myeloid Leukemia patients. On completion of my Residency, I returned to RPCI for my Fellowship and stayed on as a faculty member for another 6 years. During this period, I had an experience with a patient who had acute myeloid leukemia (AML) which had evolved from a prior MDS or a pre-leukemia. This made me interested in MDS. As a Fellow and young Faculty member, I defined the Cell Cycle Kinetics of Myeloid Leukemia cells in vivo in both MDS and AML by developing a novel technique of studying cellular proliferation directly in patients. These studies led to a startling revelation that the low blood counts in MDS patients were not because of bone marrow failure. Rather paradoxically, the marrow was in a hyper-proliferative state. This led to the logical examination of rate of cell death and we were able to resolve the paradox by showing that the majority of hematopoietic cells in the marrow were undergoing a suicidal self-destruction by apoptosis. Further, this cell death appeared mediated by pro-inflammatory cytokines, especially tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Next, we treated MDS patients with the anti-TNF drug thalidomide, which produced complete responses in 20% patients. Thus, over a course of 10 years, we were able to develop biologic insights into the disease that translated into a novel treatment strategy.

7. What is your most recent research?

I remain completely focused on understanding the Etiology and Biology of MDS and now use the latest genomic technology to interrogate the pathology of these diseases. With the enabling technology, this whole field has become extremely productive and exciting. We are using exome sequencing, RNA Sequence and global methylation studies to carefully study large numbers of patients to identify new drug targets in MDS cells, and hopefully develop novel non-toxic therapies for these malignant diseases of the elderly.

8. If you had unlimited funding and unrestricted freedom, what research would you conduct?

My commitment is to therapy driven research. How can basic molecular research improve the outcome for my patients? I feel strongly that many effective drugs already exist to treat common cancers, but we do not know how to use them intelligently. Instead of tailoring therapy for individual patients, we blindly treat many with the same drug with the result that 20-30% patients respond. Usually, we do not know the responders.

The goal would be to match the right drug to the right patient. A goal for which we need detailed cellular signalling and molecular information. Basic concept: it seems that while multiple signalling pathways that start proliferation in normal cells, cancer cells become addicted to a particular pathway. These pathways of addiction differ between patients. It is critical to identify which pathway a particular patient’s cells are addicted to and then devise ways of interrupting it. If I had unrestricted funding, I would start a dedicated program to perform detailed genomic and methylation studies described above on every patient at diagnosis. Hopefully, this would eventually help identify the vital signalling pathways in individual patients. With this information available, the elegant concept of Synthetic Lethality can be applied where drugs or natural compounds are identified that can interrupt the particular pathway to which the cell is addicted and cause it to stop proliferating. So my dream research revolves around individualized targeted translational research. I would like to give one example here. In a recent patient, we identified a mutation that leads to over activity of the b-catenin pathway of proliferation. I was planning to treat the patient with a monoclonal antibody against TGFb, which is in trial at the MDS Center. However, it turns out that one of the checks on the b-catenin pathway is TGFb. In other words, if I had not performed whole exome sequencing on the genome, I would have treated the patient with an agent that would likely have worsened the disease by allowing the b-catenin to run amok with no checks at all. This information alone, which is the direct result of using genomics is probably life saving for the patient. In addition, we found that one possible way of interrupting the b-catenin may come from using small molecules that interrupt this pathway. Several of them being in trials in humans already, and also that Vitamin A (all trans-retinoic acid or ATRA) could do the same. In short, we saved the patient from getting a potentially harmful agent. Additionally, we may have found a perfect treatment for individualized therapy, which is a vitamin! This is my dream research if I have all the resources at my disposal.

As a second dream project requiring unlimited resources, I want to describe the Virome or viral make up of every MDS patient. The goal is to identify all endogenous and exogenous viruses that have become part of each patient’s genome and see whether any of these could have the label of causative. After all, cats regularly get MDS. In their case, the disease is because of the Feline Leukemia Virus. Practically every cat is infected with this virus, but only a handful get MDS. There must be
other co-factors involved in MDS causation. Defining the Virome would help all of this research.

9. What is your philosophical foundation? How did it change over time?

Humanism dictates the foundation of my philosophy. However, the practice and ultimate goals have undergone subtle changes over time. In my formative years, I felt more interest in dedicating myself to grander themes. For example, believing that the thinking and work of a few can change the lives of millions (penicillin is a prime example), I became consumed with a desire to find the cause and cure of cancer. Whether I would ultimately achieve it or not, at least I was ready to dedicate my life to the pursuit of this goal. With age, and one hopes, some level of maturity, the issues for me have transformed to more immediate and individual goals. Human conduct is connected by a series of incidents where one act is the result of another. This necessitated a philosophy that requires a dynamic accounting of one’s knowledge, desires, and deeds, and then to harness these in the service of humanity with humility and forbearance. In other words, instead of the grand designs of curing cancer for many, each individual patient has acquired a special place in my life and caring for their every physical, emotional, and psychosocial need has become far more important. This by no means indicates that my obsession to find the cure for cancer has lessened, but it means my focus shifted from many to one, from cancer patients to Mrs. X, Y, or Z. It is similar to Salman Rushdie saying in Midnight’s Children: “To understand one human, one has to swallow the world.” For me, the road to understanding and treating the disease is through grasping individual variations at the clinical level and caring for each patient as a special case. Of all the philosophical ideologies, humanism remains mine, but with an altered vision over time about how best to conduct myself in a manner that would be faithful to its basic principles.

10. What do you consider the controversial topics in your field? How do you examine the controversial topics? What do some in opposition to you argue? How do you respond?

In the current atmosphere of cancer research, researchers study the evolution of a cancer cell rather than its etiology. In at least a subset of patients, I have hypothesized for about two decades that MDS may begin as a viral disease. I committed a form of professional suicide by presenting very early work related to this hypothesis at an MDS Foundation meeting held 19 years ago in Prague. They have not invited me back to that meeting in the last two decades. I learnt a tremendous amount from this experience. For one thing, I became more self-critical and stringent in examining our own data. For another, I started collaboration with the top virologists in the country (Drs. Robert Gallo, Don Ganem, and Joe DeRisi). Finally, it made me more committed to finding the proof for my hypothesis. In that, instead of throwing up my arms in frustration, by persisting in our search for a virus, we are taking full advantage of next generation sequencing to identify non-human elements in the human genome and re-construct viruses from these pieces. The technology has reached a point where we are poised to unravel possible new retroviral sequences from the RNA Sequence data we have generated. This will still be only half the battle. The important study will be to prove the etiologic relationship of the pathogen to the MDS under study. This is where all the controversy creeps in again because the pathogens are often known organisms and no one is ready to believe they are the agency for causing the malignancy. Remember that to prove that helicobacter pylori was the cause of gastric ulcers, Barry Marshall had to swallow the pathogen and nurse ulcers in his own stomach before anyone would believe him! (Eventually, he got the Nobel Prize). Now we know that this bacterium is the cause of many stomach cancers. So, in my opinion, the etiologic studies remain extremely controversial and many a career has been sacrificed on the altar of virologic basis of malignancy. I nearly lost my career, but have been able to survive – thankfully. I continue my studies in the area, always trying for that moment:

“Chance will strike a prepared mind”

11. What advice do you have for young MDs?

A life without work is a life without worth, and this work should be done for the good of mankind as well as for one’s own good. Last year, I was fortunate to win the Hope Award for Cancer Research and in my acceptance speech; I gave advice to my 18 year old daughter which I wish to quote for the young MDs:

“At the risk of being a spendthrift of my own celebrity, I want to address my teenage daughter who is a sophomore at Columbia University and like her parents, plans on a career in science and medicine. You might be wondering why I have to use the 3 minutes allotted to me to do so in this room…well, as Nora Ephron once said, “When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you.” Actually, it is for two reasons…first because she is a captive audience and second because of the presence of all of you in this room and what this moment means and how indelibly what I say today may be etched on her brain. Sheherzad, as a result of several decades of experience and observation, I have narrowed down the formula for personal success to three cardinal rules: find your passion, find a mentor and then give it everything you’ve got. However, there is a different kind of success, one which many in this room epitomize. As living beings, we know that death will come inevitably, but thankfully, we do not know the hour of our death. What goes through the hearts and minds of souls who have received a diagnosis of cancer and hear the footsteps of death approaching closer every day? Theirs are the heroic stories of hardiness, ingenuity and resourcefulness. Some of us have the privilege of witnessing on a daily basis, the remarkable dignity with which they face their ongoing ordeals. You have decided to join the ranks of these privileged caregivers. As a little girl from age 3 to 8 years, you have already witnessed your father go through a losing battle with cancer. When faced with such human suffering, your qualifications, your CV or your degrees do not help. What helps is your heart, your sensitivity to feel the pain of others. On this special day, realize that you are fortunate to be in a room full of such compassionate and deeply committed individuals, realize that you will not need magic or miracles to help your patients but you will need serious scientific research and deep sensitivity to their anguish and suffering. Today, I use the honour bestowed upon me through this award to urge you to pledge that even as you will strive for excellence and follow the three rules to guarantee success in your personal life, you will never forget the dues you owe to the patients you will be caring for very soon.”

12. Whom do you consider your biggest influences? Could you recommend any seminal or important books/articles by them?

As far as my personal life is concerned, I am a reader of classics where the themes are grand, the language is noble, and the message is startlingly fresh for all times. When my husband Harvey Preisler died after a five year long battle with cancer, the way I dealt with the loss was to read (and re-read in most cases) the 100 Great Books of the Western Literary Tradition starting with Euripides and Aeschylus and working my way to Rushdie and Morrison. In this, my biggest influences have been the great authors. I feel deeply moved by poetry. My favorite poets are Shakespeare, Dante, Milton and Ghalib. I come from an oral tradition and committing poetry to memory was a given for as long as I can remember. Currently, I am memorizing the entire 33^rd canto from Dante’s Paradiso during my morning runs. I feel profoundly affected by the thinking of these poets and have translated and interpreted (with my co-author Sara Goodyear) Ghalib’s Urdu poetry for our English speakers in a book, Ghalib: Epistemologies of Elegance. Among the American writers, the books of fiction I admire most are Melville’s Moby Dick and Morrison’s Beloved. Among the Europeans, it would have to be Cervantes’s Don Quixote and Dostoyevsky’s The Brother Karamazov. Finally, in non-fiction, my two favorite books are both autobiographies called The Confessions written 1000 years apart by Augustine and by Rousseau.

As far as my professional life is concerned, the biggest influence comes from patients. In particular, I had an encounter starting me on the path to dedicate my life to MDS, when I was barely 30. Here is a short accounting of that episode:

I had just finished my Fellowship in Medical Oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. A beautiful, young 32 years old woman was admitted with a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The story she gave was rather peculiar. She had become pregnant almost two years before this admission with twins. During the pregnancy, she developed a fetish to smell gasoline. Most days of those nine months, she would go to the corner gas station, buy a dime’s worth of gasoline and smell it all day. At the end of nine months, she delivered a healthy set of twin daughters, but six months later, she was found to have low blood counts. Over time, a diagnosis of MDS was made. This was probably in some part at least, related to the toxic exposure she had experienced from smelling gasoline. In any case, there was no treatment for MDS at the time, and she only received supportive care with blood transfusions. Six months later, the disease progressed to AML and that is when she came to see us at Roswell Park.

We gave her high dose induction chemotherapy, to which she responded well and after a rather stormy course, entered a complete remission six weeks later. How sweet it was to see her going home with her lovely daughters at the end of this therapy! We then gave her three courses of standard consolidation therapy. She did well. During these repeated hospitalizations, and interim outpatient clinic visits, we became very close to each other. During each encounter, we talked to our hearts’ content, and JC shared many of her personal anxieties with me. I learned to appreciate the challenges of a schizophrenic life torn between fighting a potentially lethal illness at the ripe age of 32 while pretending to be a normal mother to 3-year old girls. At times, it felt heart breaking. At other times, the sheer force of her courage and sublimity of human spirit was brought home with incredibly graphic detail.

Courage takes many forms. There is physical courage, there is moral courage. Then there is still a higher type of courage; the courage to brave pain, to live with it, to never let others know of it and to still find joy in life; to wake up in the morning with an enthusiasm for the day ahead.

After stopping the final round of chemotherapy, JC returned to her normal life. She got caught with the daily routine of raising 3-year old twin daughters. Unfortunately, after a year and a half of remission, her leukemia relapsed, and this time around, none of our therapeutic approaches seemed to make much of a difference to her resistant leukemia. She developed a fungal infection of the lungs too. We were not able to give her any chemotherapy for fear of making the fungus spread faster. At this time, she made a wish to be admitted to the Hospital for her terminal illness as she did not want her daughters to be frightened unnecessarily. With a heavy heart, I took her in. It was instructive and astonishing to watch her face almost certain death with such unparalleled grace and equanimity. I noticed on my daily rounds was that she would be writing furiously. Finally, I mustered enough courage to ask her one day, “JC, what are you writing?” The answer she gave me changed my life forever. She said, “I am writing letters that I want my twin daughters to open on their birthdays. I have reached their twelfth. Keep me alive till I reach their twenty-first”.

Alas, we could not keep her alive for the few days she had asked for. I went home that day. I told my husband that I should study MDSs because this stage precedes the development of acute leukemia in a number of patients. Maybe, I could have saved JC, if I had treated her at the MDS stage of her disease. My idea was that the molecular and genetic lesions in frankly leukemic cell are too complicated. Perhaps, it would be better to start studying the biology of these cells at an earlier stage of the disease, say as in JC’s case when it was still MDS. If we follow the course of the disease and study serial samples, it may become possible to identify the sequence of events that convert a normal cell into a leukemic one. Another advantage of studying MDS would be that if we could effectively treat the patient at this earlier stage of the disease, then the patient would never evolve into the potentially lethal acute leukemic phase. Finally, I felt that at the MDS stage, the drugs required for treatment may not be as toxic as those needed for the acute leukemia stage. For all these reasons, back in 1984, I decided to dedicate myself to the study and treatment of MDS along with my continuing research in acute leukemias.

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2023-01-27

Dr. Cory Pedersen: Psychology Instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/06/10

1. Where did you acquire your education?

At the undergraduate level, at the University of Calgary. At the graduate level, at the University of British Columbia, from where I earned a Masters and Ph.D. degree in Developmental Psychology.

2. What originally interested you in psychology? In particular, what interested you about human sexuality?

Well, I acquired my degree from the department of educational psychology and special education. I applied there because I particularly wanted to work with one of the faculty, Dr. Kim Schonert-Reichl. She was doing research in socio-emotional learning and competence, and how it relates to things like psychopathology and peer relationships. That’s what I was initially interested in. In particular, I wanted to study those variables as they related to mental illness and various childhood mental disorders, and I especially wanted to work with Kim. However, well into my academic career, after many years teaching adolescent development, it came to my attention that textbook coverage of sexual development was lacking in many respects, and outright wrong (I hypothesized), in others. So I developed my first lab at Kwantlen (tentatively called a “Development Lab”) and conducted two large scale studies on sexual development among adolescents. From there, I developed an entire human sexuality course and changed the focus of my research to human sexuality.

3. What topics have you researched in your career?

As a graduate student, I was in two different research labs at UBC. One was the Socioemotional Development Lab run by Kim. We investigated things like moral reasoning, moral development, peer relationships, bullying, conduct disorder, empathy, and pro-social moral reasoning.. My masters work came out of that lab. The other lab I worked in was the Self-Regulated Learning Lab, which involved work on the self-regulated learning components of learning disabilities among children and adults. Kids and adults with learning disabilities tend to lack self-regulated learning. They tend to be unaware of their own learning difficulties. We developed some self-regulated learning strategies to help them monitor their own cognition, and their own learning styles. I was in that lab, and we did a number of studies in the local schools.

For my Doctoral Dissertation, I looked at children’s conceptions of mental illness, ‘how do children come to understand mental illness in their peers?’ They do see it – unfortunately. How do they understand its cause, its prognosis, its severity? How do they perceive these individuals in terms of friendship quality? Whether they would be good friends or bad friends, whether they would like them or not. And since leaving graduate school, and coming to Kwantlen, I have done several studies; most recently on human sexuality among adolescents and emerging adults. Things like the developmental progression of sexual events in life of adolescents and emerging adults. What do they do in their developmental progression? In other words, what they do first, what do they do next, and so on, and whether these series of events predict their level of promiscuity and level of unusual sexual activities. I also did another study on the predictors – I do a lot of regression research – of infidelity as measured by the big five personality variables.

4. What areas are you currently researching?

I have a couple of things on the go. Right now in my human sexuality lab we are looking at changes to current trends in exotic dance. We have two directions in which we are going. If you look at the popular media, you have lately seen a lot of exotic dance put out there as normative behavior. A person can take pole dancing classes. A person can learn how to lap dance, provide a lap dance. Popular culture is trending towards putting lap dancing and pole dancing out as a good means for aerobic exercise. Some researchers have coined the term `stripper chic`, which is the new culture of empowerment for exotic dancers. Given that, we hypothesize that there has been a shift. Traditionally, exotic dance has been stigmatized in the literature. Much literature has come out of the field of sociology, which results in a tendency towards female liberalism. Female exotic dancers have been viewed largely as victims. But we have a different take on that. While admittedly many exotic dancers have been victimized, we are putting forth the argument that exotic dancing can actually be sexually liberating. That exotic dancers are earning legitimate capital gain. They are providing a legitimate service, and with the general trend toward what is called `stripper chic, it may be changing not just societal views, but the views among exotic dancers too. The view of their own stigma; that their personal identity is viewed more positively. Also, we are going to look at predictors (regression is my thing!) of things like psychopathology, self-esteem, and standard measures of restrictive or permissive sexuality. We hypothesize that there will be no difference between the average population – Kwantlen students – and exotic dancers.

The other study that we are looking at is the enmeshment of gender identity with sexual orientation. There is considerable anecdote, even research, that people confuse sexual orientation with gender identity. For instance, there is a perception that if someone is gay, this person must not be gender normed; the perception that gay men are feminine and that lesbian women are masculine. We plan to tease this enmeshment apart by having participants evaluate the degree to which they think a gay person would be suitable for a job description that is exceptionally masculine or feminine. Of course, we think gay men will be viewed as less competent and that lesbian women will be viewed as more competent in a traditionally masculine job and visa versa.

5. What epistemologies, methodologies, and tools do you use for your research?

Almost all of my research is cross-sectional. I have not conducted any longitudinal designs, as many trained in developmental psychology do. Most of my research is quasi-experimental in nature that does not involve any manipulation of variables for the most part, but only to examine variables as they exist in cross-sections of the population. Two exceptions to this general trend; the study recently done in my lab on the confounding of gender and sexual orientation, and work with my honours student on sexual paraphilia. These were both experimental designs.

6. With your expertise, what do you consider the most controversial findings in psychology? What do you consider some of the implications of these findings?

Well, I cannot speak to the whole field, of course. However, if I were to speak generally I would look back at my introductory psychology classes and cover a broad range of topics. Generally, I would say, probably, in issues to this day of consciousness. How to know what consciousness is? How to measure it? These are still problematic for psychologists and philosophers. I would say, in my particular field, some of the big issues are things like causes of sexual orientation, and at a deeper level whether we should be even asking such questions. Such questions are biased, as we do not ask about the causes of heterosexual orientation. Being straight is presumed status quo. I would say, in my field, this area counts as one of the biggest of controversy.

There is also controversy around certain sexual disorders. In particular, hyper-sexuality and gender identity disorder as disorder. Both of these are in considerable debate as to whether they should be included or not in the DSM. I do not believe that either of those should be included, personally, from the research that I have read. I think they simply represent variations in human sexuality, which is exceptionally varied. I have difficulty reconciling many sexual disorders in the DSM, because they suggest there is a normative amount of desire; that there is a normative amount and that anything more or less than that is pathological. I consider human behavior much too varied, especially human sexual behaviour, to say, “Oh, this is the appropriate amount of sex, and any more than this, or less than this, is pathological.” I have some difficulty with that.

In the developmental field, again there is controversy relating to the DSM, particularly, what constitutes developmental psychopathology? What is considered appropriate behavior for children? Determining whether a children’s behavior is pathological hinges on the adult’s perception of the behavior, and so it is the parents or teachers that go to a psychologist or physician and say, “My child is ill.” The child rarely goes into the doctor and says, “I think there’s something wrong with me.” You don’t see that, right? There are disorders in the DSM for children that are debatable. Take for example, a new one that was under consideration, I think it was to be called temper-tantrum reaction disorder or something like that, being proposed for the DSM-5. It is based on parent’s reports of children having unreasonable and excessive temper tantrums; in other words, more than the norm! I am not suggesting that there are no mental illnesses among kids. I simply mean that the DSM has expanded to the point where much “normative” behaviour is designated pathological if the parameters are not exactly right. I think those are the biggest debates in the field of psychology that are of most interest to me.

7. If you restructure, or at least reframe, the study of sexuality, how would you do it?

Well, that is a tough question. I think this links somewhat to my earlier comments about pathology. I am teaching human sexuality now. The last several chapters are about things wrong in sexuality. Commercial sex, prostitution, exotic dance are wrong. Selling sex is wrong. Then, there are the sections of sexual dysfunction, like hyper-sexuality and hypo-sexuality, and how these are ‘disorder’. And then next week it is paraphilia; exhibitionism, fetishism, BDSM, etc. And it is all so structured like, “Wow, look how wacky everyone is…” Even the chapter on gender identity that I did last week was all about why would people want to transition from male to female? What is with these people? Look how these people are different? The science is set around pointing out what is presumed to be “normal”. Some textbooks are grey because they call these topics ‘sexual variations,’ but the implication is the same; that there is something somewhat wrong about it all. I do not like that. I do not teach my class that way. I am very liberal in my class encourage tolerance of these differences. There is nothing wrong with these differences. So, I would re-structure our science in how we pathologize everything, make everything seem like it is abnormal. I do not like that. While I appreciate that there IS pathology, I often believe much of the stress and stigma associated with pathology comes from the fact that we pathologize!

8. If you had unlimited funding, what would you research?

Unlimited funding? If I had unlimited funding, I would get two different pieces of equipment. One, I would get a penile plethysmograph, which measures tumescence of the genital organs for males. Two, I would get a vaginal photoplethysmograph, which is a measure of vasocongestion. They are both measures of physiological arousal. In sexuality research, the field is burdened by the social-desirability bias. People are going to say what they believe other people want to hear. Take for example the standard question, this is just an example, but take the standard question, “How many sexual partners have you had?” Men tend to overestimate their number of sexual partners and women tend to underestimate their number of sexual partners. The truth is somewhere in between. It is hard to measure things like sexual arousal based on self-report. And that is all the kind of data that I have been primarily working with; questionnaires, self-reports, survey data. If I had unlimited funding, I would buy those pieces of equipment and hidden camera equipment to conduct observational research in labs.

If I had unlimited funds, I would also want an fMRI machine. It would be amazing to see what happens in the brain during orgasm. Is it diffuse or localized? I would put technology on my side if I had unlimited funding. Although I have asked the university for a vaginal photoplethysmograph and a penile plethysmograph, there is so far no such luck in getting this equipment.

9. When you entered academia, you likely had a certain philosophical framework for understanding the world. How have your philosophical views changed over time to the present?

Well, there is no single salient point, right. I mean, as a professor, the only thing I want my students to take away from my class is – if you forget everything about theories, facts, and numbers – the most important thing that every student should take away is how to think critically – how to be a critical consumer of information. That is the most relevant thing in psychology. The knowledge we have about the brain, its desire to explain cause and to do that via making connections that are probably superfluous, they are not real – and I want students to be critical consumers of information because psychological information is everywhere. It is in the news, on the radio, on the television. If you cannot be a critical consumer of information, you are in trouble. Not everyone has a critical thinking style, which is why I consider it extremely important for people to be critical consumers.

10. What advice would you give to undergraduate psychology students aiming for a work, career, and general interest in psychology?

Good grades are important, but they will only get you so far. If you want a career in psychology, you need more than an undergraduate degree. That is my advice. Grades will help you get into graduate school, absolutely. But, back to my regression models, there are many predictors of success in graduate school. Grades are only one path – grades will put you into the competitive pool of graduate school. Yet, you will have more chances of getting into graduate school with strong letters of reference. Grades will provide your letter writer with something solid to comment on about you. However, that is where it stops. My advice for people in psychology is A) apply to graduate school and B) get in good with faculty. Join a committee. Join their lab. Participate in research. Do something in some way to make yourself known to them because that is the only way they will be able to write you a letter of reference that says something besides, “This is a good student in class and they have a good grade point average.” That is all that most professors could say with only grades to recommend you. Letters of reference go a long, long way.

11. Who have been the biggest influences on you? What books or articles characterize their viewpoint well?

God, I do not even know. This is a tough one. I do not even know, honestly. I would put my supervisor Dr. Kim Schonert-Reichl right up there. She is exceptionally well-published and a fabulous speaker. And she knows how to conduct research. She really taught me how to be a researcher and a critical thinker. I remember once that she told me about a study she was designing. She had developed a program evaluation for a well-known socioemotional development program called “Roots of Empathy”. The initial results were promising. Data suggested that kids exposed to the program had less classroom problem behavior, participated less in bullying, and displayed greater social competence and prosocial behavior. I remember Kim saying to me one day, “Look, the data indicates that bullying is decreasing and social competence is increasing. This is fabulous, but so flawed.” I wasn’t sure what she meant. She said, “Well, the bullying behaviors are decreasing and the social competencies are increasing, but compared to what? How do we know whether the behavior of all kids becomes better as the year progresses?” Now, it seems obvious. There was no control group! No baseline! Kim incorporated a control group into her subsequent evaluations of the program. It seems so obvious, but you have to be a sharp researcher to be able to recognize that flaw. That is critical thinking. That is just one of the many intelligent things that Kim has said since I have known her. She is just a solid researcher and really knows her stuff. She is well published and just recently made full professor. I feel like she has influenced many of my ways of doing and thinking about things. Even outside of being her student, when I first designed the human sexuality course – and I had not been her student for years, though we speak regularly – I told her about it and she suggested that I include some statement in my course outline about the topics discussed in the course bringing up difficult issues for some people. She is always thinking ahead. She said, “You may want to tell people that if they have difficulty with the material than they should be referred to see someone.” She is very thoughtful. She is always trying to help me be more thoughtful that way too. Some of the fundamentals of conducting research with kids she has introduced to me. Some basic stuff – this is how to treat your participants. This is how you ensure your participants are going to be willing to participate in your study. That the participants understand anonymity and confidentiality, and that they understand their contribution and why it is important. That is what I do with all of my studies now. That is how I relay the importance of my studies to all of my participants. I think she has been profoundly impactful on the way I conduct research, as well as how I run my class. She always made her classes relevant; she always brought the material around, emphasized how should we be studying this particular topic. Why we should be studying this particular topic. She took it away from the theoretical and brought it down into the relevant, the practical applications. And thanks to her, I have always tried to be that way too. That is my style with my own students. Even the way I write articles have been influenced by her writing style, the way that I mark papers, the way I make suggestions in comments These are just some examples of someone who has been immensely influential.

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2023-01-27

Aislinn Hunter, PhD (In-Progress): Instructor of Creative Writing at Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/06/05

1. What positions have you held? What position do you currently hold?

I am currently a faculty member in the Creative Writing department at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, but I tend to teach part-time (in one semester) so that I can write more than four months a year. This has allowed me to take on writer-in-residence positions at other universities (Memorial University in St. John’s Newfoundland, Lancaster University in England, and Macquarie University in Australia) and to do freelance or contract work that interests me. It’s also afforded me time to undertake a PhD. Before coming to Kwantlen I taught creative writing as a sessional instructor at The University of Victoria and before that I worked on a contract-basis as a broadcaster and producer at CBC Radio and as a researcher at the National Film Board of Canada.

2. In brief, how was your youth? How did you come to this point in your academics?

My family was above middle-class economically but I didn’t grow up in what I’d now call a ‘culturally rich’ environment. (My friend’s parents owned an art gallery and they used to wake their kids up by blaring classical music – I remember feeling completely envious of their arty world.) My mom, who was a nurse, took a few university classes in psychology and sociology when I was growing up and her excitement and what she brought home from those classes helped cultivate my enthusiasm for learning. When I was old enough to express my leanings she enrolled me in dance classes and supported my interest in theatre. I was an inconsistent high school student (A’s in the arts, D’s in maths and sciences) but an amazing day-dreamer. At sixteen I dropped out of high school (where I was miserable) and at seventeen I moved on my own to Dublin, Ireland and got a job in a pub. A few crucial years followed: in them I had the freedom to discover what excited me – for example, I remember being obsessed with the material residue of the past which seemed to be everywhere in Ireland. At twenty-one I was accepted at the University of Victoria as a ‘mature’ student and I fell in love with art history and creative writing. In second year I unexpectedly received a small bursary, the Patti Barker Award for Writing, and it was a life-changing moment – I’d never been recognized for excellence before. I think that award gave me a new way to identify who I was and what I could do. An MFA in Creative Writing followed and then three book publications and then an MSc in Writing and Cultural Politics, and now I’m almost through my PhD in English Literature at Edinburgh. I’ve received a lot of encouragement in the form of academic awards along the way and I’ve worked hard. Still I think any success I’ve had has a lot to do with that old adage: do what you love and the rest will follow.

3. How did you gain interest in Creative Writing? Where did you acquire your education?

I was involved in theatre until I was 18 or so and had always been a bit of a scribbler, but I didn’t formally arrive at writing until I took an introductory creative writing class at The University of Victoria when I was twenty-one. That year Patrick Lane walked into the classroom, opened a book, read a poem by Gwendolyn MacEwan and made me, in one fell swoop, want to be a poet; made me want to know something the way a poet knows it, and to be able to say that back to others in the same way that MacEwan did. Patrick was around fifty then and a Governor General Award-winning poet with, I believe, a high school education. Still, in one year he taught me more than any other writer or professor about writing and about what it might mean to be a writer in the world. My soon-to-be-husband was like that too: a kind of Renaissance man with no formal post-secondary education, but incredibly, incredibly intelligent. He taught me, mostly by example, how to be a critical thinker. Any success I’ve had in my formal education (an MFA at The University of British Columbia and an MSc at The University of Edinburgh) owes something to these two men and the wonderful mentors inside and outside academia who have followed them.

4. You have written five books. What form has your creative expression taken over time?

I work in a variety of genres so generally the topic or the material dictates the form – something will generally ‘feel’ like content for a poem or for an essay or fodder for something more involved like a novel. I am obsessed by the past (as both a construct and as a site of historical events) and by how we engage with it (and it with us) and so that is always at the centre of my creative, and I suppose, my academic work.

5. Most recently, you have worked on your PhD at the University of Edinburgh. What is the basis of it?

I’m looking at resonance and beloved objects in Victorian culture, and asking why certain objects appear again and again in Victorian writers’ museum collections. It’s ‘thing theory’ so to speak (I’m asserting that certain ‘things’ are more fit for the task of acting as remembrancers than others) with a narrative through-line in that I am also looking at how, in life-writing and literature, we tend to describe the way an object presences the absent beloved for us. It’s quite a fascinating topic and intersects with some of the themes in my new novel.

6. Since you began in writing, what do you consider the controversial books or poems? Why do you consider them controversial?

I had to think a lot about this question because I don’t think I’m considered controversial at all (in relation to my work in the Canadian literary landscape). I am quite an earnest writer, a meliorist, and that effects, I suppose, how much I’m willing to discombobulate or challenge the reader. That said I think that there’s a slightly controversial position hovering thematically under a lot of my work (academic and literary) – ideas around how we humans presume too much agency for ourselves when things and events are actively shaping us all the time. I’m also interested in extended mind theory and in how we cognize the world through limiting ontologies (i.e. the depth ontology in Western culture where we forefront the concept of the ‘inner being’). The most deliberately provocative work I’ve done has been in the essay form. I wrote a piece on why writers shouldn’t do reviews for The Quill and Quire (an unpopular position) and a piece on the impossibility of competition amongst poets for Arc Magazine.

7. How do you describe your philosophical understanding of the art of Creative Writing?

I once said to a second-year creative writing class at The University of Victoria that “to be a writer one needs to procure wisdom, knowledge or wonder.” I said it wanting to be challenged but no one so much as raised an eyebrow or a hand.

8. How has it changed?

Well, given that I sort of believed what I said to that class a decade ago (though I remain open to revision) I’d have to say that my understanding of what is required of a writer or ‘writing’ hasn’t changed: I believe you need something of use to say, or an ability to create a sense of wonder in another, and craft in order to do so in a way that locates and dislocates the reader simultaneously, adds to what they had when they entered into the conversation with your work. But the literary landscape has changed significantly in the last few years, in part because what’s valued drives the market. Information is highly valued now (the kind of ‘information’ that’s arguably different from wisdom or knowledge) as is escapism, and so there’s a commerce in that; digestibility matters too, and that means that what gets written and what sells, what is ‘successful’ changes. I still tend to differentiate between classes of literature which is probably an old-fashioned thing to do in the age of the blog-turned-film-turned-novel.

9. What advice do you have for undergraduate and graduate students in Creative Writing?

Fail, fail better. Take risks. Remember that rejection makes you stronger.

10. Whom do you consider your biggest influences? Could you recommend any seminal or important books/poems by them?

I think the first time I felt as a reader that I was in the hands of a master writer was reading the Irish writer Dermot Healy. He’s widely considered a writer’s writer because you can marvel at his craft even as you’re set adrift in his narrative or poetic worlds. I especially love A Goat’s Song which is a novel and What The Hammer (poems) but all of his work has taught me something, and he innovates every time when a lot of writers would be content to repeat their successes. Anne Carson, Jan Zwicky and Carolyn Forché (all poets) make me think ‘why bother’ – they’ve already said so much so perfectly – but they also inspire me to keep at it. Alice Munro inspires me on numerous levels. It’s not that I want to write like her but I am in awe of her craft and her tenacity. She makes me aspire to be a better writer, to try to be great at it.

11. What poem has most influenced you?

TS Eliot’s Four Quartets. I don’t actually have an academic’s handling of it, but it sends me off in a new direction with every reading and I think his thinking about time in it is perfectly complex: ‘Time present and time past / Are both perhaps present in time future, / And time future contained in time past…’. It’s directly influenced a lot of my work.

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2023-01-27

Dr. Carla MacLean: Psychology Instructor, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/05/14

1. What positions have you held in Academe? What position do you currently hold?

I am currently a faculty member at Kwantlen Polytechnic Universtiy (KPU). My past positions include typical graduate student work like research and teaching assistantships and also lecturer positions at both the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University. My position immediately prior to starting at KPU was as a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada post-doctoral research fellow at Simon Fraser University.

2. How did you come to this point in your academics?

I arrived at this point in my career by serendipity. It would have been convenient if I always knew what I wanted to do and I simply executed my plan – that is not how my career evolved. Rather, I followed my interests, kept an open mind, and talked with people (all sorts). That process gave me a realistic understanding of what different career paths looked like and it also opened doors for me. My good luck led me to my career as a psychology faculty member.

3. How did you gain interest in psychology? Where did you acquire your education?

I asked a lot of “whys’ and “hows” growing up and being an inherently social person it was very natural for me to apply that curiosity to people. Although I pursued a number of interests in my undergraduate schooling, at a certain point psychology felt more right than the other subjects I was studying. Once I selected psychology I never looked back.

My university education began at the University of Victoria, then to Saint Mary’s University in Halifax to acquire a MSc. in Industrial/Organizational psychology, and then back to the University of Victoria for my Ph.D. in experimental psychology. My education was not as continuous as my brief description above would suggest. I took opportunities during these years to work, travel and ultimately cultivate experiences and a sense of self outside of the institutions I was studying in.

4. What kinds of research have you conducted up to the present? If you currently conduct research, what form does it take?

I enjoy research. My past and present research merges the areas of forensic and occupational health psychology. Although my interests are diverse, the core of my research pursuits is the understanding of how: (i) people assess one another and (ii) we might reduce bias and/or maintain accuracy in people’s assessments of situations, information, and individuals. I typically pursue these core interests in the applied areas of eyewitness memory and investigator decision making to an adverse event (industrial incident or forensic).

Historically my research on investigator decision making has explored ways to minimize confirmation bias in industrial investigation. People who investigate industrial events are typically foremen, supervisors or health and safety professionals of the organization in which the accident occurred. The contextual knowledge that comes with familiarity with the work environment can result in biased decision making as investigators may seek information that supports their preconceived notions. The eyewitness to an industrial or criminal event is equally as important a member of the investigative dyad as the investigator. Hundreds of studies tell us that eyewitness memory is fragile, malleable, and susceptible to forgetting, even in optimal conditions. I study factors that may lead to inaccurate witness recall post-event and/or factors that can help maintain the quality and quantity of a witness’s information. In collaboration with others, I have researched: the effects of witness fatigue and misinformation, access to memory of a central instance of a repeated event, post-event information on investigator and witness identification evaluations, and psychologically-based incident report forms.

5. Since you began studying psychology, what do you consider the controversial topics? How do you examine the controversial topics?

There are many areas of controversy in psychology but the areas that directly relate to my research are: how we as researchers try to ensure we are drawing reliable and valid findings from our studies, the role of personal responsibility (i.e., human error) in event causation, and the influence of post-event suggestions on memory (my co-contributor to this In-sight issue, Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, is likely a better candidate to tackle the implications of this last topic).

To address the first issue in the above list, because I am aware of the possibility of spurious results I take small steps to try to minimize error in my reporting of results, e.g., replicate when I can, use large sample sizes when possible, show restraint when talking about the implications of my findings. The other controversial area that I mention above is the role of personal responsibility in event causation. People’s views regarding human error can fall on a continuum from “the event was caused by a rogue employee who made an inappropriate decision” all the way to “there is no such thing as human error, all inappropriate worker action is a result of latent failures within the system.” A great deal of time has been spent discussing the most productive viewpoint to enhance safety. This controversy touches my research because the view of human behaviour taken by the investigating officer/organization may have implications regarding how information is sought and interpreted during an investigation, as well as, what the organization will do with the investigative findings.

Last, one area that I do not study but I follow closely is deception detection. This is a fascinating area that has evolved rapidly over the last few years. Researchers are pursuing different features of deception such as emotion and cognitive load to try and generate effective tools to enhance detection e.g., asking for the narrative in reverse order, asking about unanticipated features of the event, the strategic use of evidence or the emotion based microexpression research. This is a fun area of study that is always interesting to read about.

6. If you had unlimited funding and unrestricted freedom, what would you enjoy researching?

Well if there was really no constraints (and we could ensure no consequences for the people participating) I would move my research into a more externally valid framework. That is, I would expose people to high stakes situations and manipulate their physiological and psychological state to see how these factors affect their recall and decision making. It is hard to find research done in high resolution environments but a fairly recent collaboration of note is Loftus’s and Morgan III who used military recruits in survival school as their participants.

7. For students looking for fame, fortune, and/or utility (personal and/or social), what advice do you have for undergraduate and graduate students in Psychology?

I am hesitant to answer this question as I have neither fame nor fortune and my utility is likely up for debate (just kidding). My personal experience has taught me a few general principles that worked well for me: first, do your homework so you have a good understanding of the scope of what it is you are considering, second, talk with people and find out the pros and cons of any given situation/position, third, be open to feedback – it is rarely intended to insult rather it is usually offered as a means to help you grow, and last, get hands on experience when you can. If you have a career in mind, talk to people who hire for that job and find out exactly what they require as this will enable you to target your education and experiences more effectively.

8. Whom do you consider your biggest influences? Could you recommend any seminal or important books/articles by them?

The people who influenced me the most were the people I worked directly with during my graduate training, Dr.’s Elizabeth Brimacombe, Stephen Lindsay, Don Read, and Veronica Stinson. Each one of these academics modeled a unique approach to study, research, and networking and from each relationship I took valuable lessons. On a purely scholarly note I would say that the most influential author for me over the years has been Daniel Kahneman. His work encouraged me to think in depth about how we synthesize information and this ultimately helped me script my dissertation research. I hear Kahneman’s recent book, “Thinking Fast and Slow,” is very enjoyable and accessible reading (which I look forward to getting to when my busy first year of teaching is behind me!). The other authors I watch with interest tend to be more applied researchers, to name just a few, Elizabeth Loftus, Saul Kassin, Christian Meissner, Dan Ariely, Itiel Dror, Garry Wells, and Aldert Vrij.

9. You may consider many areas of Psychology important for academics and non-academics. Even so, whether one or many points, what do you consider the most important point(s) of Psychology as a discipline?

Humans are a marvel – we habituate but then adapt with lightning speed. We are frugal with our allocation of resources yet act with close to optimal performance with little (or no) executive effort. In psychology we recognize that the complex nature of people cannot be studied using only one perspective, we use a biopsychosocial approach and this is our strength. This multifaceted approach not only broadens our understanding of human behaviour from within psychology but facilitates collaboration with researchers from other disciplines (e.g., medicine, cultural anthropology). Being open to fresh perspectives and approaches may ultimately provide us with new and exciting understandings into human behaviour.

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2023-01-27

Dr. Elizabeth Loftus: Distinguished Professor of Social Ecology, and Professor of Law, and Cognitive Science at the University of California, Irvine

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/04/22

1. What is your current position at the University of California, Irvine?

My title is Distinguished Professor. My main appointments are in a couple departments. One is Psychology and Social Behaviour. Another is Criminology, Law, and Society. Then, I am also Professor of Law.

2. Where did you grow up? What was youth like for you? What effect do you feel this had on your career path?

I grew up in Los Angeles, not very far from UCLA.

I would say it was peppered with tragedies. My mother drowned when I was 14 and my brothers were 12 and 9. A few years later, our house burned down, and we had to live somewhere else while it was being rebuilt. Through all of this, I managed to keep studying and got into college.

Well, I feel a little like it contributed to my workaholic ways. You know, just keep working, working, working, and feeling a sense of accomplishment. Then, distract yourself from painful thoughts. Since I do not do psychotherapy that is just an armchair self-analysis.

3. Where did you acquire your education?

I went to college at UCLA. UCLA was close by to where I lived. UCLA was probably not the greatest idea since I lived about a half-mile away, and I ended up living at home. I graduated from UCLA and then ended up going to Stanford for Graduate School. I got my PhD in Psychology from Stanford.

4. What was your original dream?

At some point because I had a double major in mathematics and psychology, I thought I might teach mathematics. Something like high school or junior high, but that is not what I ended up doing. I don’t know if I had a dream. I just kept on with school, until I had a PhD and became an assistant professor.

5. How did you gain an interest in Mathematical Psychology?In Chapter 3 of Do Justice and Let the Sky Fall, Dr. Geoffrey Loftus recounts your hemming skirts and keeping familial correspondence up to date during your Graduate School training at Stanford. When did you realize Experimental Psychology was the new dream for you?

I did that because I was bored with mathematical psychology. I later happily discovered memory, ha! It’s what ultimately I would get a little more passionate about. I ended up going to Graduate School in mathematical psychology because I thought that combining my two majors in what would be a perfect field. I was not in the end taken by it. I did other things while listening to, in one ear, the talks, or presentations that were being made.

6. You have published 22 books and over 500 articles. You continue to publish new research on an ongoing basis. What have been your major areas of research?

Well, most generally it is human memory. More specifically, I studied eyewitness testimony for a long time. I studied people’s memory for crime and accidents, and other complex events that tend to be legally relevant. Even within that area, I studied how memories can change as a result of new information that we are exposed to. I did hundreds of experiments studying everything you would want to know about memory distortion in that kind of context. In the 1990s, when I started to get interested in what would be called ‘The Memory Wars,’ the debate about psychotherapy and whether some subset of psychotherapists were using highly suggestive procedures that were getting patients to create entirely false memories. I, with my collaborators and students, established a paradigm for studying the development of what we would later call, in a paper with Bernstein, Rich False Memories. Not just changing a detail here and there in memory, but actually applying people with suggestions so that they would develop these complete false memories.

7. Your research did not have immediate acceptance among professionals. In fact, it attracted much anger, which spilt over to you. In particular, what research set the controversy? What became the controversy? How did this come to a resolution?

I would take us back to around 1990, when I was confronted with an opportunity to consult on my very first repressed memory case. A case where someone was claiming repressed memory. It was a murder case where a man named George Franklin was being prosecuted for murdering a little girl twenty years earlier. The only evidence against him was the claim of his adult daughter that she had witnessed the murder when she was 8 years old and had repressed the memory for 20 years, and now the memory was back. It was in the context of that case that I began to scour the literature of what was the evidence for this kind of repression. She was claiming that she had repressed her memory of the murder. That she had repressed her memory for years of sexual abuse that the father had supposedly perpetrated on her. I could really find no credible scientific support for the idea that memory works this way. That you could take years of brutalization, banish it into the unconscious, and be completely unaware of it by some process that is beyond ordinary forgetting – and that you could remember these experiences completely accurately later on. And so I began to ask, “Well, if these memories aren’t real, (If there is no credible support for the idea that memory works this way) where could these memories have come from?” I began to dig through literature, and examples, ultimately court cases, and would discover that some of these memories were being created by highly suggestive psychotherapy procedures. When I began to speak out about this issue, then people began to get mad, and for those who got mad, this was something for whom repression was one of their treasured beliefs. The repressed memory therapists and the patients they influenced.

Early in my interest in memory distortion, I was thinking about legal cases. In fact, my earliest experiments were designed to map onto what happens when a witness sees an accident or a crime, and then is later exposed to some newer information about that experience, e.g. talks to other witnesses, is questioned in a leading or suggestive fashion, or sees media coverage about an event, my research modeled after that real-world situation.

Some things have happened in the law. In the eyewitness cases, because of many, many psychologists’ work, some jurisdictions have revised the way they handle eyewitness evidence in a case. Some courts have suggested that, and recognized the scientific work by devising new legal standards for handling eyewitness evidence. That’s been a change, and a fairly recent change. And then in the repressed memory cases, I think some jurisdictions have recognized now that this whole claim of massive repression is highly controversial at best. Some courts have ruled that it is too controversial for the cases to go forward. You know, one day we may prove that repression exists. It has not been proven. It is my opinion that we should not be throwing people in prison based on an unproven theory.

8. Subsequently, you took the role of expert witness in a number of important, controversial, and intriguing court cases. What are some of the court cases? Can you describe some of the more memorable moments with individuals involved in them?

Many of these cases involve people no one has ever heard of, of course, I have worked, and consulted, on some famous cases involving people like Michael Jackson, Martha Stewart, and Scooter Libby – a politician in the United States. I think some of the more memorable ones are people looked at accused of crimes convicted based on somebody’s memory when these people are either definitely innocent or probably innocent.

I think a memorable one was a man named Steve Titus, who was charged with rape based on the testimony of an eyewitness who somehow in the course of being interviewed went from not being particularly certain to being completely certain it was Steve. Steve Titus was convicted. Ultimately, he was able to get a journalist to show that another man committed these crimes. So Titus was freed, but he was very, very bitter. He had lost his job. He lost his fiancé. He lost his reputation. He lost his savings. He filed a lawsuit against the police and just as that case was about to go to trial, he woke up one morning and doubled over in pain and died of a stress related heart attack at 35. That is one of the saddest cases I have ever encountered.

If you want to write about one up in Canada, you might write about the teacher Michael Kliman, who, based on claims of repressed memory, had to go through three trials up in Vancouver before he was freed. I would bet my house the man is innocent.

9. What is your most recent research?

I started a line of work with Dan Bernstein and a couple of Graduate Students. We were looking at the repercussions of having a false memory. If I plant a false memory in your mind, does it have consequences? Does it affect your later thoughts, or intentions, or behaviours?

We started by trying to convince people they had gotten sick as children by eating certain foods. We succeeded in persuading people that they got sick eating hard-boiled eggs and dill pickles, and we did it with a fattening food, namely strawberry ice cream. Then, we showed that it could effect, not only what people thought they wanted to eat when they went to a party, but what they actually ate when you put food in front of them. Bernstein has gone on with some other collaborators to do further experiments on how it effects eating behavior. Most recently we have published a paper with collaborators showing these kind of suggestive manipulations work not just with food, but also can work with alcohol. We can plant false memories that you got sick drinking vodka and you don’t want to drink vodka as much.

That’s one line of continuing work.

For instance, in Asparagus: A Love Story, we described a study that showed that you could plant not only a getting sick memory that people then want to avoid. You could also plant a warm, fuzzy memory for a healthy food, and then people want to eat it more.

10. If you had unlimited funding and unrestricted freedom, what research would you conduct?

I am not sure if I want to conduct it, but with unlimited funding and no worry about ethics, ha! You could maybe do the kind of experiment to explore whether massive repression really occurs or it doesn’t. Where you could be able to expose people to prolonged brutalization, and really get a chance to study them thoroughly, but ethical concerns would prohibit that kind of study.

11. Currently, you are on the executive council for the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal – or CSI for short. What role do you play on the executive council? What is the core message of CSI?

I am a fellow of the CSI. Periodically, I give talks at various conferences that the organization holds or I might write something for the Skeptical Inquirer. But I am so busy with so many organizations that I don’t play a large role in the executive council. I mean, other people may have been providing more input to what to bring to the conferences or activities that the organization might engage in, but I am on so many committees and boards that I am spread a little too thin to spend too much time at one.

It’s an organization of people that are pro-science, against pseudo-science and flimflam. Trying to expose efforts to manipulate people into believing or thinking things that might be dangerous, harmful, or untrue.

12. Since you began studying psychology, what do you consider the controversial topics in Psychology? How do you examine the controversial topics in Psychology?

That is a big question, and I do not get into all of them. I’ve got my own little area in memory and memory distortion. I know a lot about the science of memory and lay beliefs about memory. I sort of tend to focus my efforts there. There are many controversial areas that one could look at, but you are going to have to find a different expert to talk about some of the other ones. A related one to the one I care about is using facilitated communication with autistic kids. There is controversy about vaccinations. I don’t think it is particularly controversial. There is controversy about the human contribution to climate change. I don’t think there is much of a controversy. You can find a few people out of the mainstream.

13. How would you describe your philosophical frameworks inside and outside of Psychology? How have your philosophical frameworks evolved?

I would say one of the things, and this is one of the great things about training in psychology, even if you do not go on to teach psychology or even to be a psychologist in your professional life. It teaches you a way of thinking. It teaches you to be thinking about, “What is the evidence for any claim that somebody might try to fob off on you?” We know not just how to ask, what is the evidence? But really, what exactly is the evidence? What kind of study was done? Was it an experimental study? Where you and say something about causation. It is it just correlational? Was there a control group? How well was it done? Is the sample size sufficient? What were the statistical results? We know how to think about evidence. That is one of the gifts that experimental psychology, the study of psychology, research methods in psychology, has given to people who have taken the time to expose themselves to it.

14. For students looking for fame, fortune, and/or utility (personal and/or social), what advice do you have for undergraduate and graduate students in Psychology?

It certainly helps if you can find some research to get involved in. As an undergraduate or graduate student, find some interesting research to get involved in. If you can feel a little passion about it, it can keep your motivation up to keep working hard. I think it is very helpful for students to try to work with faculty members, where you are working on something the faculty member is interested in, and hopefully with a faculty member is generous about publications with students. Having scientific research under your belt can open doors for you. It can get you into Graduate School. It opens doors to jobs. It can open doors to advancement in your field. Anything that you can do to beef up that aspect of your experience is bound to be helpful.

Once you get that under your belt, you might want to get something in a magazine or a journal.

15. You have earned numerous awards, but the AAAS award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility seems most relevant to me. In your acceptance speech you state, “We live in perilous times for science…and in order for scientists to preserve their freedoms they have a responsibility…to bring our science to the public arena and to speak out as forcefully as we can against even the most cherished beliefs that reflect unsubstantiated myths.” I quote this in an interview with Dr. Daniel Bernstein and ask, “How important do you see criticizing ‘unsubstantiated myths’ in ‘perilous times’ for Science?” He says, “I think that this is excellent advice. Science has a responsibility to “give back” to the communities and cultures that invest in it. Scientists can and should correct myths whenever the opportunity arises.” Can you expand on this idea of scientific responsibility to society?

You know, I think he put it beautifully. Not everyone has to do everything, I think collectively we can all contribute to giving back to the society that supported the scientific work. Some people are going to be good at getting the experiments done and published in journals, and they’re uncomfortable speaking to the press or speaking in the context of legal cases. Other people are comfortable doing that. Some people are not comfortable writing for lay audiences. They only want to write for concise scientific journals. Collectively, I think there is something of a responsibility in an ideal world for people to want to give back.

16. Whom do you consider your biggest influences? Could you recommend any seminal or important books/articles by them?

Back in Graduate School, I had a professor that I did some research with on semantic memory that really taught me how to be an experimental psychologist. To be able to design a study with him, conduct and gather the data, analyze the data, and write up a publication. That was a great benefit for me. That collaboration was with a social psychologist named Jonathan Freedman. That was an important influence in terms of turning me into an independent experimental psychologist. I would say, in terms of people that I have never met whose work has probably set the stage for the tradition in which I work, Bartlett from England who was famous for his work on reconstructive memory. I see my work in the tradition of reconstructive memory. He was an important forefather.

If people want to read about memory distortion, I think they may want to read something more recent. I have a book by Brainerd and Reyna. It is rather advanced, but it is called The Science of False Memory. It is sort of everything you would ever want to know about false memories up to 2005 or whenever that book was published. For your readers, if they wanted something easy and fun for reading, I would recommend The Memory Doctor in Slate.com written by Will Saletan. That will give you a small slice of memory research. If you want more, you could probably read The Science of False Memory.

17. What do you consider the most important point(s) of Psychology as a discipline? In particular, what do you consider the most important point about cognitive psychology?

I do not think I want to go there. (Laughs) There are just too many. I have just been focused on the study of memory. I think the study memory distortion is an important area because of its practical and theoretical implications. I think some recent work in a completely different area has to do with learning and memory, in a classroom or an educational setting. The work that shows that if you test people, they learn better than if you just ask them to study again. All these findings on testing effects are interesting and we will see more work in that area.

This of course has many people interested in memory and neuroscience, and brain imaging. It is not something I do, unless I am collaborating with someone who does, but we will see where that will lead. It is certainly the subject of a lot of current research.

18. Three years ago, I informally asked Dr. Anthony Greenwald, “Where do you see Psychology going?” He said the frontier lies in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. However, a first generation of researchers, like the first round of soldiers marching out of the trenches, will fall – making all the necessary mistakes. After that point, the next generation of researchers will have learned from those mistakes to make deep progress. In the same stream of thought three years later, “Where do you see Psychology going?”

That is interesting because he has been quite successful with the implicit association test and all kinds of ramifications in uses of it, but he does not seem to be going in a neuroscience direction. However, he is a smart guy, whose speculation I would invest in.

People are enamored with this neuroimaging stuff. I do see a lot more research. I was about to say progress, but I do not know yet. The neuroscience of cognitive psychology, there has been a lot of discussion in our interdisciplinary teams, people seem to be enamored with the idea that if you bring together people from all different types of perspectives and fields, then you can come together to tackle problems. Will we see more of that – more funding of those type of enterprises? More research, more publications, involving these large interdisciplinary teams. It is a speculation, but it is an educated one given how enamored people seem to be of this notion.

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2023-01-27

Louise Meilleur: Graduate Student, Ohio State University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2013/02/08

1. How did you gain interest in psychology? To date, where have you acquired education?

I was first interested in Psychology in high school, but I knew that I wasn’t interested in counselling as a profession and, like many, I didn’t really realize that Psychology involved much more than counselling. In 2004, I looked for a career change. I decided to attend an information session on the Bachelor of Applied Arts in Psychology and the whole world of applied and experimental psychology was opened up to me. I could see how I could pursue Psychology, but also leverage my experience working with technology. Before that, I felt held back by the idea of “starting from scratch”, but when I realized that I could build off of my past experiences, rather than leave them behind altogether, returning to school to pursue a BA didn’t seem quite so over whelming.

I received my Associate of Arts and my Bachelor of Applied Arts (Hons) from Kwantlen Polytechnic University. I am currently working towards a PhD at Ohio State University. I will receive my MA in Psychology in December 2012. I’m also working on a Master’s of Public Health in Health Behavior and Health Promotion which I’ll receive in May of 2013. If things continue as planned, I should be finished my PhD in May of 2015.

While I was still working I also completed a couple of programs that helped to further my telecommunications career. I received a certificate in Telecommunications Management from Vancouver Community College and a Data Network Administration certificate from Langara College.

2. What did you pursue prior to your interest in Psychology?

I spent 12 years working in telecommunications. I started in a Call Center, providing bilingual (French/English) customer service for long distance customers. From there, I started night school to move ahead and ended in management positions at companies like Bell Canada, Telus, and Best Buy Canada.

3. What kind of research did you pursue as an undergraduate student?

I worked in Dr. Bernstein’s Lab for two and a half years studying various aspects of social cognition. The B.A.A. at Kwantlen allows you to experience a lot of hands-on research. I was able to pursue projects in many different domains, which helped to refine my interest and led to my honours project – studying the effects of perceptual fluency on risk perceptions. More broadly, I became interested in how our judgments and decisions, and subsequently our behavior, are influenced not just by pertinent information, but erroneous sources that “rationally” should not affect our behavior.

4. What have you specialized in at Ohio State University? What do you currently research as a graduate student?

Officially, my specialty is Quantitative Psychology but my focus is in Judgment and Decision Making, which is grouped together with Quantitative Psychology at Ohio State University. What that means is that my required coursework is mostly in stats, while I pursue my own interests/research. I’m in the CAIDe (Cognitive and Affective Influences on Decision making) working with Ellen Peters. My main interest is in Medical Decision Making and I have been studying how we can manipulate attention to improve health decisions. One of the ways to measure attention is through eye movements. Therefore, much of my data is collected using eye tracking equipment.

5. Since you began studying psychology, what controversial topics seem pertinent to you? How do you examine the controversial topic?

To be honest, I am not terribly concerned with controversial topics. I am much more interested in the application of psychology to improve people’s lives. For example, how can we change the way that information is presented so that it actually changes behavior? In my area of research, the biggest controversy that I perceive is the ability to use what we learn to impact people’s behavior, specifically their health related behaviors. The question is, “where do you draw the line between libertarianism (free choice) and paternalism (influencing people to do what you think is best)?” We want to construct an environment that leads to people making the best choice, but who decides what is the best option? As a scientist, my interest is predominantly in how I can affect behavior, but I also need to consider the ethics of using my knowledge in a way that might impede free choice, as well as consider any unintended consequences of any intervention I might construct.

6. How would you describe your philosophical framework for understanding psychology?

In general, I am a pragmatist. I am open to using any reliable methodology that allows me to answer the questions I want to ask. I ask questions with a pragmatic nature. In that, they have a clear application with the intention to improve or “fix” a real life problem.

7. If you had sufficient funding for any topic of research, what would you like to research?

I am in the enviable position to have the necessary resources available to conduct the research most interesting to me at this time. Later on in my career, I hope to apply my training in psychology and public health to conduct research in order to develop public policies and programs that can successfully improve people’s health. We focus so much of our attention on disease, but the major causes of death and disease are due to health related behaviors (e.g., tobacco use, over eating). I would like to continue to research ways to help people improve their negative and positive health behaviors.

8. What advice do you have for undergraduate students intending to pursue graduate-level studies and research?

The most important thing is start early. Get involved in as much research as possible, go to as many conferences, and if possible present. Start studying for the GRE early; it took me at least 100 hours of preparation. There are dozens of reference books that will tell you what you need to do to get into grad school. Read them because they are mostly correct. The thing that cannot be stressed enough is the importance of selecting an advisor. This is true in undergrad for your honours thesis, but it is critical for graduate school. In a sense, I was lucky when applying to graduate schools; I did not have a clear understanding which schools were good, bad, or average – particularly the American schools. Specifically, I focused on finding people I was interested in working with rather than schools I wanted to go to. I contacted all of the people I wanted to work with via email, phone, and in person where possible. When it comes to the selection process, as much as they are interviewing you, you need to interview them to make sure you can work with them for the next five plus years. Regardless of how great a program, student, or advisor is, if the fit is not right, everyone loses. Even at Ohio State, where the competition to get in is fierce and the faculty are amazing, I have peers who are stagnating, partially due to mismatch with their advisor and, as a result, a number of them have left the program. I am lucky in that my advisor and I have very similar interests and we work well together. It has made all the difference in my research productivity.

One final note, if you do choose to go to grad school you need to prepare yourself for a big change in perspective. Overnight you go from being one of the top students to being decidedly average, and if you don’t feel stupid on a regular basis, you’re probably doing something wrong and aren’t being challenged sufficiently. It gets better, but there will always be someone who is smarter, progressing faster and publishing more than you. You’ll need to make sure you don’t compare yourself to others and focus on challenging yourself based on your own goals (and those of your advisor).

9. What individuals have influenced your thinking the most?

Except for the obvious choices of my advisors, I think I am too green to name someone who has influenced my thinking most with respect to psychology. I will have to get back to you on that. I will say that I have been enormously influenced by various mentors and teachers throughout my life. When I think of the trajectory my life has taken, and try to pinpoint a single thing that has enabled me to pursue my goals, what is most salient to me is the impact that my second grade learning assistance teacher had while helping me to improve my reading skills. I

was told, in no uncertain terms, that I was not allowed to use the phrase “I can’t” ever again, followed by frequent reinforcement over the span of a year. Looking back through the lens of my psychology training, I am certain that banning “I can’t” at such an early age had a much greater effect than simply changing my vocabulary. Asking the question “how do I,” rather than immediately saying “I can’t,” led to small successes that grew over time and helped me to develop a strong sense of personal agency, that has impacted every aspect of my life including how I approach my education and research.

10. If you have any books to recommend for people, what would you recommend as seminal/influential/required reading?

For a general overview of judgment and decision-making, the Blackwell handbook is quite good. It is a collection of chapters written by leading experts in various topics within judgment and decision-making.

The Blackwell Handbook of Judgment and Decision Making. Eds Derek Koehler & Nigel Harvey, 2007

Heuristics and Biases is another collection of papers by various researchers, but it focuses on intuitive judgments, which is to particular interest to me.

Heuristics and Biases, The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment. Eds Gilovich, Griffin & Kahneman, 2002

A couple of more commercial books that deal with intuitive decision making that I really enjoyed:

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking. Malcolm Gladwell 2007

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness. Thayler & Sunstein 2009

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2023-01-27

Dr. Kevin Hamilton: Instructor, Psychology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2012/12/09

What positions have you held with Kwantlen? What work have you performed here?

I have been a faculty member with Kwantlen’s department of Psychology for approximately 15 years, teaching and conducting applied research in an area known as Human Factor’s Psychology. During that time I have been involved in a number of department and institutional initiatives.

A little over 10 years ago I headed a committee responsible for developing the first applied academic degree, namely the Bachelor of Applied Arts in Psychology (BAA). This degree focused on workplace psychology, community service, research methods, and data analysis. The BAA was designed to provide employability skills including those necessary for further graduate training. Later I headed a committee that initiated Kwantlen’s Office of Research and Scholarship and our current Institutional Research Ethics Board (IRB). From 2008 to 2011, I served as Department Chair for Psychology, during which time our first formal program review and strategic plan were completed. Currently I serve on Kwantlen’s IRB and on the Senate Task Force for Academic Rank and Advancement.

How did you gain interest in Psychology? Where have you acquired your education?

I became seriously interested in Psychology while completing a Masters Degree in Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto. Prior to studying at York I completed an Honours BA at the university of Prince Edward Island with a double major in Philosophy and English. In secondary school I was enrolled in a pre-engineering program.

At York, I studied with Dr. Daniel Cappon, a physician who investigated human behaviour and health in the context of the built environment, architectural design and building interiors. While completing this degree, I was a teaching assistant for a professor in the Psychology department, who conducted Human Factors research, and was later introduced to Dr. Barry Fowler a Psychologist who worked in this same area with the School of Exercise and Sports Science. Dr. Fowler specialized in extreme environments and human performance. My doctoral work with him examined cognitive impairment associated with deep sea diving – inert nitrogen narcosis. My comprehensive area focused on biological rhythms and shiftwork. As part of my doctoral studies, I was employed as a research assistant and helped manage some of Dr. Fowler’s research contracts with Defence Canada.

Following my Ph.D., I was awarded a Post Doctoral Research Fellowship, funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council (NSERC). In this capacity, I became further involved with Defence Canada for 2 years studying spatial disorientation effects associated with pilots training on flight simulators.

Where have you gone to work prior to joining Kwantlen.

In 1989, following my Post Doc, I began work as a Defence Scientist at the Defence and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine (DCIEM) in Toronto. DCIEM is a Human Factors Lab and in this position I was engaged in a number of projects concerned with the performance of military personnel in a variety of extreme and unusual operational environments. Here, I developed considerable expertise in Environmental and Human Factors Psychology.

After approximately 7 years I left Defence Canada and moved to Vancouver to take a job with Hughes Aircraft as a Human Engineer, helping to redesign Canada’s air traffic control systems. The project was called the Canadian Automated Air Traffic Control System (CATS) and focused largely on workstation and computer interface design and large scale evaluations. As CATS neared completion, I was hired by BC Research Inc. (BCRI) as a Senior Ergonomist. At BCRI I was involved with several Coast Guard and US Army projects, again focused on performance in extreme operational settings. In 1997, I moved to Kwantlen to help teach in what was to become a new Applied Psychology Program.

What kinds of research have you conducted up to the present? If you currently conduct research, what form does it take?

In addition to the work I’ve already described, I have had a number of Honours students at Kwantlen and have supervised their theses in areas including Post Traumatic Stress in firefighters; computer interface evaluation with online learning; GPS integration in aircraft cockpits, and, most recently, hazard recognition training with coastal tree fallers – the most at risk profession in North America for accidents and fatalities. Currently I am helping WorkSafeBC looking at the use of 3D degraded imagery in hazard recognition training.

Since you began studying psychology, what controversial issues seem pertinent to you?

Working in applied research, I have seen several instances of people’s and organization’s agendas getting intertwined with how information is collected and reported. I learned that ‘politics and science’ can frequently become intertwined. As a researcher, I firmly believe that we need to be very cautious of such influences and that we should strive to be as objective as possible, regardless of research outcomes. In my view, the best approach is to let the science speak for itself.

How would you describe your philosophical framework for understanding psychology? Have your philosophical frameworks changed over time to the present?

I suppose I would say that I try my best to strive for a philosophical perspective that is broad, all inclusive, and as objective ‘as possible’. Human Factors research utilizes a systems approach in trying to understand the complex relationships between human beings, their behaviour, the tools they use and the environmental contexts in which they work and live. These relationships are the result of a multitude of variables interacting. Identifying relevant variables, their relative contributions to system output, and how they coexist dynamically, I believe is the key to really beginning to understand how things work. However, developing this kind of perspective is ongoing and rooted in accepting that we must continuously change how we look at things. Science in itself is but one system of comprehension, founded on assumptions which have their own logic and reality. I am intrigued when modern physicists argue that what we used to consider inarguable realities, such as time and causation, may in fact be mere mental constructs – lenses through which we view the world and ourselves in it. That James Lovelock, the reputed NASA scientist, in his mid-nineties decided we need to re-think everything and consider earth is one living organism is indicative of the value of fostering ever changing and broader perspectives. The universe and understanding what’s in it and how it works may be out of reach for mere human cognitive capacity. But the privilege of being able to contemplate such matters is a gift beyond compare. Perhaps the Taoists had it right when they said that as soon as you begin to use language to differentiate thought, real comprehension becomes impossible. In answering your last question – “have your philosophical frameworks changed over time” – absolutely – and I am excited by the prospect that they will continue to do so!

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Dr. Daniel Bernstein: Psychology Instructor, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2012/11/10

1. What positions have you held at Kwantlen? What work have you performed here?

I have been an instructor of Psychology since 2005, when I began working at Kwantlen. In addition, I have sat on various departmental and university-wide committees while at Kwantlen.

2. Where have you worked prior to Kwantlen?

After I graduated from Simon Fraser University with my Ph.D., I was a Postdoc from 2001 to 2004 at the University of Washington. I started working at Kwantlen in 2005, and for the first year at Kwantlen, I was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Washington,

3. How did you gain interest in Psychology? Where did you acquire your education?

I was always interested in Psychology. I was the go-to person when I was young for friends’ troubles. I was always the mediator for relationships going askew because I never managed to have lasting romantic relationships of my own. When I was young, I took a real interest in the Clinical aspects of Psychology, the areas that tend to be of most interest to people. Later, I started taking an interest in the non-Clinical aspects of Psychology.

My undergraduate degree was from the University of California Berkeley. Following this, I did a Master’s degree at Brock University in Ontario. Then, I did my PhD at Simon Fraser University, and finished a Postdoc at the University of Washington. That is all of my Post-Secondary education.

4. What kinds of research have you conducted up to the present? If you currently conduct research, what form does it take?

That would take a long time to answer. I will give you very broad-brush strokes. I started doing work in sleep and dreams as an undergraduate student. I continued that work as a Masters student. I did my undergraduate and master’s work on sleep and dreams. While a Masters Student, I became interested in the cognitive effects of mild traumatic head injury. I continued that work when I started my Ph.D., but that was not the subject matter of my PhD. My Ph.D. work was on memory. More specifically, I studied how people make mistakes when thinking about the past. During my post-doc, I studied cognitive biases – or how people err in their cognition. I continue to pursue this work now.

5. Other institutions in Canada host more research-activities. Where would you like to see research move forward in Kwantlen?

I would like to see Kwantlen embrace a research culture without being bogged down with the treadmill mentality of chasing publications for tenure, and that is a fine balance to strike because it is hard to get people interested in research if that is not part of their job. I would like to see Kwantlen develop more of a research culture by offering and attending research talks and colloquia. Exposure to research will stimulate discussion about research. Currently, most conversations at Kwantlen center on teaching. This makes sense, after all, because Kwantlen is primarily a teaching institution.

6. Since you began studying Psychology, what controversial topics seem pertinent to you? How do you examine the controversial topics?

I think the first controversial topic that I really sank my teeth into was mild traumatic brain injury, which came from my own experience of skiing into a tree while a senior in High School. I had other head knocks growing up playing sports. I was just very interested in how these experiences affect someone’s cognition over the long term. The prevailing wisdom in 1993 was that people recover almost entirely from these head knocks within a short period, typically within 3 months. I did not believe that. I also did not believe that researchers were using the right tasks to elicit long-term cognitive deficits associated with mild head injury. Therefore, I took a controversial stance and argued, along with others, that these injuries possibly never resolved completely. I thought that if you smack your head hard enough that you have to stop what you are doing because you are dizzy, disoriented, or unconscious, you will have subtle residual deficits for the rest of your life. It does not mean everybody will have these deficits after a mild head injury. Instead, it means that when compared to individuals who have not bonked their heads, those who have sustained mild head injuries, will perform worse on highly demanding cognitive tasks years after the injuries. I think the tide is changing, and more people are open to this possibility.

When I was an undergraduate student, I studied dreams too, which was controversial by its very nature. While working on my post-doc much later, I got interested in False Memory. A highly controversial topic. I worked on this topic with Elizabeth Loftus, who served as a kind of lightning rod in this controversy. Beth showed me how to navigate controversy. In addition, while doing my Postdoc, I got interested in doing Hindsight Bias and Theory of Mind. Theory of Mind is the understanding that other minds are different from one’s. The prevailing wisdom in the developmental psychological field is that by the age of four and a half or five, children develop a theory of mind. It is as if a ‘light bulb’ goes on inside the child’s head. You not only understand that other minds are different from your own but that other people can hold mistaken beliefs about the world. Once you have this mature theory of mind, it is not something that extinguishes. But the acquisition of theory of mind is regarded by many as all or none – you have it or you do not. Very few things in psychology or in the world at large are all or none. With the exception of neurons, which either fire or do not fire, I can’t think of other examples of all-or-none constructs. I remember that in graduate school I was taking a seminar course on neuroscience. One of my colleagues in the program was doing his presentation on gender differences in the brain. He had racked his own brain for hours in preparation for his presentation and he had come into the presentation without any sleep. He came to class dishevelled the morning of his presentation. He said something to the following effect: “It occurred to me a few hours ago. The problem with this field is that gender is not discrete. It is continuous. It is not a categorical variable. Moreover, the reason that this field is so fucked up is that people refuse to appreciate the nuances of continuity. Instead, they want to slot you into this gender or that gender. Then, they look for differences in the brain. Well guess what folks, these differences are very difficult to detect on a consistent basis.” This was a deep insight. As I said, with respect to Theory of Mind, most people believe that it is categorical, you have it or you don’t. I am trying to show that it is not categorical. This is a controversial topic in a controversial field.

7. If you had sufficient funding for any topic, what would you research?

Exactly what I am studying now: Hindsight Bias, Theory of Mind, and False Memories.

8. Many assume scientists and social scientists to have ‘Eureka’ moments, where they discover some fundamental process about nature in an instant. Yet, the truth of research comes from the rarely heard story of the scientist or social scientist assiduously working for years in the laboratory, and finding clues to fundamental processes in nature. How do you conduct research? What do you consider your methodology for coming to new ideas, developing research hypotheses based off them, and designing experiments and requisite materials for said ideas?

I do not know. I do not think that I am very organized about it. I pursue questions that are interesting to me. Sometimes I wonder if I am interested in too many questions. Something will occur to me and I think it is a good question. I talk to colleagues, and they sometimes agree that it is a good question. Sometimes, they disagree and tell me that it is not a good question. If I think that a question is worth pursuing with an experiment or set of experiments, then I will set out to design the simplest experiment(s) to answer that question. Very few questions can be answered with a single experiment. I start with an experiment that can answer part of the question. As I delve more deeply into the question, I realize that I am signing onto years of experiments to answer the question more fully. I speak here only for myself. Many questions I choose to ask will not have ready answers, and I know that they will take years to answer. I probably choose hard questions intentionally. Who wants to answer easy questions? I find that boring. In fact, in research, I do not think I have answered fully any question I have asked. However, I am not alone. I do not think Psychology fully answers the questions it asks. Psychology is too variable. It is too multifaceted, and it is too fraught with interactions. We try to simplify things as much as possible so that we can do our experiments and talk about the nature of behaviour as if we understand it. Moreover, the busiest we ever seem to get in an experiment is a 3-way interaction. Really, folks? We are studying human nature and behaviour after all. Thus, it is unlikely that we will derive a satisfactory explanation from a 2-way interaction or a 3-way interaction. Our answers will probably require a 100-way interaction. We are years away from answering even the most fundamental questions regarding human behaviour precisely because those answers require extremely complex interactions. Perhaps we ask hard questions in Psychology because we do not want to answer those questions quickly. We want a good set of questions that we can pursue long into the future.

9. For students looking for fame, fortune, and/or utility (personal and/or social), what advice do you have for undergraduate and graduate students in Psychology?

As much as possible and widely. Do not be afraid to ask difficult questions. Do not be discouraged by people’s attempts to tell you that you are wrong. In the end, it is not so much about who is right or wrong, but about sticking to your guns and pursuing your questions, being open to criticism and feedback, valuing criticism and feedback, incorporating it into your pursuit, and adjusting your pursuit accordingly. That said, I remember reading an article some years ago in the APA monitor, the magazine of the American Psychological Association. The person who wrote it was a long-time cognitive psychologist. He had supervised some of the most influential cognitive psychologists working today. His advice was that it is just as important to have a good question that you can pursue for a long time, but that it is also important to be able to give up if the question is intractable. If you are pursuing a question that does not seem to be yielding at all, then it is time adjust your question, potentially ditch it and find a new question that does yield.

10. Whom do you consider your biggest intellectual influences? Could you recommend any seminal or important books by them?

Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. I took a course as an undergraduate with George Lakoff, who is a modern Whorfian and a linguist. Lakoff believes that our language and metaphor dictate the way we think rather than vice versa. This idea turns cognition on its head. It is not so much the way we think that dictates the way we speak, but the way we speak that dictates the way we think. The course was on metaphor, and the course was pivotal in shaping my interests. This course taught me to ask big questions, and to embrace controversy. In this class, we read “Metaphors We Live by”, Lakoff and Mark Johnson. Great book. Also as an undergraduate, I read Freud’s Interpretations of Dreams in my second year, when I took a directed study with my undergraduate supervisor Arnie Leiman. More than Freud, Arnie Leiman sparked my intellectual curiosity. Leiman was incredibly well read and once told me that, “When you cease to be well-informed, you become an asshole.” He was describing academia and beyond. If you want to be a responsible academic or world citizen, you should be well informed. This reminds me of Bob Dylan’s great line in a Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall, “I’ll know my song well before I start singing.” Other intellectual influences? During my PhD, I worked with two really smart people: Vito Modigliani and Bruce Whittlesea. During my post-doctoral work, I had the great fortune of working with Elizabeth Loftus, whose “Eyewitness Testimony” profoundly shaped the way we interview witnesses and view their testimony in legal cases. In addition, during my post-doc, I worked with Geoff Loftus and Andy Meltzoff who have both had huge impacts on psychology and my intellectual development. Other great academic works: Vygotsky’s Language and Thought and Mind in Society. Works of Fiction: Brothers Karamazov by Fyodr Dostoevsky. I once read or heard, but have not verified that Freud called Dostoevsky the greatest Psychologist. I think writers of fiction have a finger on the pulse of human nature and human behavior, and psychologists often overlook this fact.

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Patricia Coburn: Graduate Student, Simon Fraser University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2012/11/03

1. Where did you acquire your undergraduate education? Where do you conduct your graduate studies?

I graduated with a BA Honours in Psychology from Kwantlen Polytechnic University. I recently began my Masters in the Forensic Psychology Program.

2. Where did you work prior to researching in Psychology?

I had various jobs. I was a farmer, a sign-maker: my most recent job was at a Casino.

3. You worked in a cognition lab with Dr. Daniel Bernstein. How did you become part of his lab?

There were two reasons. Mainly, I was interested in going to graduate school, but I felt unsure of how to get there. As well, I received good advice from the current Chair of Psychology at Kwantlen, Dr. Wayne Podrouzek. He suggested if I wanted to go to graduate school, I should acquire some research experience. I had taken memory with Danny and really learned a lot while enjoying the experience. I thought he was a friendly and approachable person.

4. How would you describe your experience working in a Psychology Lab? What positive and negative parts come with managing a lab?

I would describe the experience almost entirely positive: necessary to go to graduate school, and probably a big component of my education. I have recently realized that a lot of my education that is relevant did not come from the classroom alone, even though I really enjoyed my classes, learned a lot, and appreciated the instructors. However, there comes a point where you are so proficient at learning material in a textbook that you need a new experience, such as a lab setting with all concomitant experience. It brought me out of my comfort zone. It gave me all of the skills that I needed for graduate school. I can only recommend it for anyone wanting to go to graduate school specifically in Psychology. Additionally, I think it prepares people for graduate school in general because of the workload. Managing a lab of 12 people really took a large amount of time: scheduling the studies, trying to get rooms for the studies, keeping track of everyone for their studies, overseeing data entry, ethics applications, and contacts with people in the research office. Even though, it was challenging and time-consuming at times, it probably, in terms of graduate school, was the most valuable experience I had at the undergraduate level.

5. What kinds of research have you conducted up to the present? For your graduate studies, what research do you conduct?

Up until I graduated from Kwantlen, my research mainly focused on perspective taking, different cognitive biases, theory of mind, theory of mind deficits, individual differences in perspective taking, and a lifespan approach to theory of mind. As well, I did a bunch of hindsight bias research with Danny and worked on one of his false memory studies. I acquired a fairly well rounded experience, in terms of research, but most of it looked at perspective taking. My research now looks at perceptions of child witness credibility. In particular, I look at how adolescents are perceived in legal settings. I try to incorporate what I learned at the undergraduate level. I look at the way certain biases and stereotypes influence decisions, when people are dealing with children and adolescents. Although, my undergraduate research has influenced or transferred to some degree I have taken a slightly different path.

6. With your expertise, what topic(s) seem most controversial to you? How do you examine these topic(s)?

Maybe not controversial, but in my area because Judges do not like to talk about the way their decisions are determined and jurors are prohibited from talking about the deliberation process, my research is limited. It could be considered controversial because it is different from the American system. Jurors are allowed to discuss the process, making the system more transparent in a sense. Although, I understand the reasons for why jurors are prohibited from discussing the deliberation process in Canada, it makes my research difficult. I end up having to do many mock juror designs, which could be criticized. Many people might question the ecological validity of that type of research. However, I use university participants, as many of us do. I try to argue that certain cognitive processes are inherent to all human beings. So, we can look at university participants and how they make a decision in a certain area, or if presented with a certain scenario. Some of that will transfer to a juror or even a judge. I believe that judges are better trained than the average person is, but some of these biases will be inherent to the fact that they are human.

7. How would you describe the evolution of your philosophical framework?

My philosophical framework, I would say that my philosophical framework has evolved even since I entered graduate school. I am still a strong believer in things that can be measured empirically. I subscribe to the empirical model, especially that model of acquiring knowledge. Taking Law courses and looking at the operation of the legal system, I have begun to understand certain questions cannot be understood in the lab. I am beginning to gain a broad perspective on how to best answer questions in different areas. I have acquired a better appreciation for other approaches to knowledge. I have gained some practical experience in court and feel there are some questions we simply do not have the answers for, and we cannot necessarily find them using measurement and experimental design. From this, I have gained an appreciation for people that simply spend a great deal of time thinking and debating the hard questions.

There are certain things where we never know what ground truth is. However, even though I have an appreciation for debate or discourse that attempts to get at questions that do not, or appear to not, have an answer, it does not mean we cannot move closer to the truth through replication and good methodology. We can move towards the direction where we become more confident with those results. Of course, we have to be open to the fact that we could have been wrong. Having good methodology and replicating studies will increase our confidence in those questions that seem difficult to answer. Sometimes it is really more of a philosophical question such as “What is a natural human right? What are human rights?” these sorts of question can only be debated and not measured, as far as I am concerned. However, so many questions can be measured. It is about getting the right study, asking the right questions, gathering the information and bit by bit we get closer to learning the answers.

8. If you had sufficient funding, what would you most enjoy researching?

I am notoriously bad for being interested in too many areas. If I had unlimited amount of funds, I would probably, staying in my own area, travel to different countries and observe different legal systems. I would talk to jurors that I am allowed to talk to, and do decision-making research. I would compare the different country’s legal systems, and their different approaches. These are important questions. I consider how we treat people in the legal system from the time they are arrested to the time they are acquitted or convicted says a lot about our society as a whole, and looking even to our most direct neighbours there is a good deal of difference. It is evident in the standard of living and the quality of life for the citizens. I would love to do a kind of thing that’s international – it seems somewhat idealistic, but you have given me unlimited funding – I would like to do an international comparison of different legal procedures and look at which ones seem to have the best outcomes, and the least consequences. I think the treatment in some countries in some areas less than humane and there is a lot of room for improvement, just through the legal system, e.g. through prosecution, conviction, acquittal, wrongful convictions, how people are dealt with in the community, how people are released and rehabilitated in the community.

9. For students looking for fame, fortune, and/or utility (personal and/or social), what advice do you have for undergraduate students aiming for jobs/careers in Psychology?

For students looking for fame, write a good ‘catchy’ book, because you will not become famous doing the hard-core science: being an experimental psychologist. Some do, but much of your hard work and time will be spent in front of a computer. I do not think it is about being famous. One of the things I have learned over the past couple years is a lot of my time is spent writing…alone- writing for myself and not really for other people. It is something you do because you are simply motivated. You will not have that constant positive reinforcement, especially those looking to become famous. If you are lucky, I think you can become a successful psychologist. Yet, I truly think those who become famous are rare. I suspect for the most part an academic career, in experimental psychology, means spending a number of hours in solitude in your room, office, or lab with your own ideas…But there will always be time for fun……..at conferences.

10. Whom do you consider your biggest influences? Could you recommend any seminal or important books by them?

I tend not to have famous people as influences. I tend to look up to people who I have contact with on a regular basis. Those are the people that I consider my role models. Obviously, my current supervisor. I think she is a great fit for me. I have a great deal of respect for her. She is a very hard worker. She knows a lot about the area and is very dedicated. She is someone I consider a role model and has a lot of influence in my current life. Of course, Dr. Danny Bernstein is perhaps the most influential in my undergraduate career. He pushed me to work harder than I ever imagined. If it were not for him, I would not even know what I could do. In addition, he helped me become a better writer, which is a difficult skill to improve on once you begin to get A’s on all of your papers. Working with him really improved my skills. I am grateful to the entire Psychology department because it is a good set of instructors. I find, probably across my lifetime and especially in my time at Kwantlen and SFU, teachers have had the greatest influence. So, I can only recommend two books because I do not really read many books, unless they are assigned to me: the Road and the Count of Monte Cristo. Although, if you are like me, and kind of a crier, then you might not want to read the Road. The only famous person that has really influenced me is Camus. I do not even really know why, but I think his viewpoints or writings during World War II are moving. If I was to pick a famous person, it would be Camus, and the book would be the Plague or perhaps the Outsider – not the Outsiders – but the Outsider. I did not read the French version of either, and I will admit to that, but the Plague would probably be my favourite.

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Nicole Pernat: Graduate Student, Simon Fraser University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2012/10/28

1. Why did you start studying psychology? Where have you acquired your education?

I took an intro course in first year and loved it. I received my BA (Honours) Psychology from Kwantlen, with a minor in philosophy, and ended up getting a certificate in language studies (4 courses of German) after I graduated.

2. You published a paper with Dr. Elizabeth Loftus & Dr. Daniel Bernstein in 2011 entitled The False Memory Diet: False Memories Alter Food Preferences. What did you find in this research?

This particular publication gathered work that had already been done—largely by Danny (Bernstein et al., 2005), professor Loftus, Dr. Alan Scoboria (U. of Windsor), Geraerts (et al., 2008), and Laney (et al., 2008). The general theme was applying false memories to food experiences. Loftus’ famous work on false memories found that people’s memories for events, including videos, could be manipulated by wording. For example, subjects watched a video of a car accident and were asked to rate how fast the car was going. When the questions used loaded words such as “smashed” rather than “hit,” subject gave higher speed ratings. Memories can clearly be altered.

Entire memories can even be fabricated. The thesis of the book chapter was that implanting entirely false memories could change people’s food preferences and eating behaviour. Through various experiments, the aforementioned authors discovered that people can develop false memories about foods, such as getting sick from a particular food (e.g., egg salad sandwich), or liking the food as a child (e.g., asparagus). People are more likely to develop false memories for uncommonly eaten foods, such as ice-cream, and less likely to develop them for common foods, such as cookies. This makes evolutionary sense; humans are wildly omnivorous—we can eat almost anything, meaning we often encountered novel foods and needed to learn quickly if that food was poisonous. Thus, we can more easily develop aversion to novel food. In contrast, it is difficult to convince us that familiar foods that we have eaten for years suddenly turned poisonous and made us sick.

There are some commonly eaten foods, however, which are amenable to false memories. These are foods that contain naturally more “disgusting” (easily spoiled, or smell rotten) components, such as yogurt (dairy spoils) and eggs (which naturally smell of sulphur). This also makes sense in evolutionary terms. Although, pickles are also among that list, which is a bit mystifying.

Most interestingly, and to the point, they found that with false memories came corresponding attitudinal and behavioural changes. In one study, half the subjects developed the belief that they loved asparagus when they first tried it. A week later, the experimenters emailed the subject asking them to come into the lab, and pick what foods they wanted to eat; they ranked a list of sandwiches and vegetables by what they preferred. Thirty-four percent of the subjects in the Love Asparagus group indicated that they wanted asparagus. This suggests that false food memories influence preferences and behaviour. In another study, subjects were told that they got sick from egg salad as a child. Thirty-five percent falsely believed that this happened. Different types of sandwiches were offered at a later session, including egg salad. There was also a follow-up four months later, disguised as an unrelated taste-test. Participants were told that the food was going to be thrown out and that they could eat as much as they wanted. Those who erroneously believed they got sick from egg salad were less likely than others to eat egg sandwiches, both shortly after and four months after receiving false feedback. They also gave lower appearance and flavour ratings to egg.

I was not involved in the original experiments. My part was on researching applications for other health issues and disease. This focused on the “false memory diet,” suggested and coined by Danny and Loftus. It’s highly controversial idea, suggesting the implantation of false memories in order to manipulate diet choices. Nevertheless, it could be useful for neo-phobia (fear of trying new foods, which often results in restricted vegetable and fruit intake) and obesity. Ideally, the false memory diet would help people eat more healthy foods and fewer unhealthy ones—including alcohol.

Unfortunately, an average of merely 23% of subjects developed false food memories. So even if a false memory diet were to catch on, it would have a small market. Moreover, it’s unclear exactly who would benefit in the first place. Then there are obvious ethical concerns. First, you’re implanting fabricated memories. Second, a false memory diet could exacerbate eating disorders. That said, just as how the same medication brand may be good for one but harmful to another, false memory diets could still be helpful for some people.

Relevant references:

Bernstein DM, Laney C, Morris EK, Loftus EF. Soc Cognition. 2005a;23:11–34.

Bernstein DM, Laney C, Morris EK, Loftus EF. P Natl Acad Sci USA. 2005b;102:13724–31.

Bernstein DM, Godfrey R, Loftus EF. In: Markman KD, Klein WMP, Suhr JA, editors. The handbook of imagination

and mental simulation. New York: Psychology Press; 2009. p. 89–112.

Geraerts E, Bernstein DM, Merckelbach H, Linders C, Raymaekers L, Loftus EF. Psychol Sci. 2008;19:749–753.

Laney C, Morris EK, Bernstein DM, Wakefeld BM, Loftus EF. Exp Psychol. 2008a;55:291–300.

Laney C, Kaasa S, Morris EK, Berkowitz SR, Bernstein DM, Loftus EF. Psychol Res. 2008b;72:362–75.

Laney C, Bowman-Fowler N, Nelson KJ, Bernstein DM, Loftus EF. Acta Psychol. 2008c;129:190–7.

Scoboria A, Mazzoni G, Kirsch I, Relyea M. Appl Cognit Psychol. 2004;18:791–807.

Scoboria A, Mazznoi G, Jarry J. Acta Psychol. 2008;128:304–9

3. You entered an emerging field co-founded by Dr. Patricia Churchland called ‘Neurophilosophy’. Can you describe the field?

Neurophilosophy is the study of consciousness in philosophy that draws heavily on (cognitive) neuroscience and related sciences. My supervisor, Dr. Kathleen Akins, gives an excellent detailed description on her website:

“‘Neurophilosophy’ is an interdisciplinary field at the intersection of philosophy and the neurosciences. In neurophilosophy, we attempt to understand how various traditional, long-standing problems about the nature of the mind and the world can be resolved (or at least nudged towards resolution) by current findings within the neurosciences. In this group, we use current research within neurophysiology, neuropsychology, neurethology and psychophysics in order to understand the nature of perception, cognition, consciousness, the emotions and mental representation in general.”

http://www.sfu.ca/~kathleea/

(Please excuse the lack of APA style citation for the sake of ease).

I understand that ideally, there would be a 2-way dialogue between the disciplines—neuroscience informs philosophy, and philosophy can help guide neuroscience through testable hypotheses. Though I do not know how often, philosophers actually affect contemporary psychological sciences.

Neurophilosophy can be confused with philosophy of neuroscience, but they are distinct. The latter belongs to philosophy of science, and studies the foundations of neuroscience and its methods (see Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [SEP]). SEP gives the following examples; philosophy of neuroscience might ask about different conceptions of representation and how they are employed in neuroscience. In contrast, neurophilosophy might examine how neurological disorders affect our view of a unified self.

4. Why did you choose it for graduate studies?

Because it is sexy. I wanted to get at the root of consciousness—specifically the neural correlates– and felt as though cognitive and perceptual psychology mostly tap around the periphery. I wanted to get at the heart, and figured that it would be either cognitive neuroscience or philosophy that would get me there.

Anyhow, I emailed Dr. Christoff Koch (Biology department, but famous for his work on the neural correlates of consciousness with Dr. Francis Crick) for advice on what was required to get into CalTech program. He was very amiable and responded soon after, advising a strong background in math, physics, chemistry, and/or bio. At least a minor in one of them would be preferable. Bummer. I was at the time, willing to go back and get the requisite background, but my lack of quantitative aptitude would continue to be a hindrance (I did well in psychological stats, but struggled horribly with calculus). I didn’t feel like I would thrive in the hard sciences environment. That’s certainly not to say that philosophers don’t make good quantitative people! Often it’s quite the opposite—for example, many physics undergrads with a thirst for the nature of reality (metaphysics) end up in philosophy. This comes from a professor of mine, Dr. Holly Anderson, who has a BA in physics.

Aside from the quant conundrum, I still loved philosophy. A previous PHIL professor, Dr. Colin Ruloff, finally helped convince me that philosophy was a sweet route. He had been telling me for years that I should go into philosophy, but I kept saying, “No, I like philosophy, but I want to do Psychology. I want the empirical side of things.” Well, in neurophilosophy, you get both. Colin pointed out that Dennett and Churchland (both prominent neurophilosophers) visit neuro labs and talk to the scientists. That sounded good to me. I mulled everything over and decided that I would go philosophy.

5. What topic(s) seem unsettled and controversial in neurophilosophy? If any, how do you analyze the topic(s)?

Take your pick. The nature of representations, unity of self, colour vision, inverted spectrum, sensory modalities, perception of time, emotions, social cognition… Neurophilosophy is still a toddler—a really smart toddler, mind you. It’s an open field out there. (Ha, stupid pun.)

Analyzing the topics is a challenge, at least for someone who’s not used to coming at a problem from two different disciplines. Take the following illustration: I am taking this fall (2012), appropriately called “Neurophilosophy.” For our projects, we pick a topic that traverses both philosophy of mind and neuroscience (surprise!). We look at the literature in both fields, and then synthesize them. So there are two components in neurophilosophy; analyzing the issue from both sides, and then synthesizing the sides. I do not know if it is all like this, but looking at some other pieces of neurophilosophy (e.g., the Churchlands, Akins), it seems to be a similar sort of process. I would recommend the piece, “What is it like to be boring and myopic?” where Kathleen describes in detail a bats echolocation system and surmises that through bat physiology and neuroscience we can indeed know what it’s like for a bat to be a bat (Akins, 1993).

6. You probably had philosophical assumptions prior to entering university. How have your philosophical views changed over time to the present?

I would say so. I now realize that philosophers can (and often do) object to assumptions that I’ve carried over from psychology. For example, I thought that it was a pretty easy answer as to whether there are moral truths; namely, “no, there aren’t any.” After all, morality evolved. If it evolved, then it’s superfluous to posit moral truths that exist objectively and independently of moral/social creatures. Now I realize, after working on the third version of a final paper for a meta-ethics class, that this question is not so easy to answer. There are many smart people arguing for moral realism, and they can make quite convincing cases. I was questioning my view (as I should be). Now, my view on morality is basically the same as it was (I don’t think there are moral truths), but it took more reasoning than I expected. In sum, I am slowly learning that sometimes what seems most obvious actually takes a good solid argument to establish.

In addition, I thought that science could answer every question, though now I am not so sure. Science can’t tell us what we should do; it only describes how things are. Science doesn’t tell us exactly what an explanation is, or how much you must explain for an adequate explanation. For example, if a 4-year-old asks, “Why does that thing float?” Their parent could answer “because it’s a boat and boats float.” In other words, for a child, learning that something belongs to a category with a particular property is sufficient for an explanation. Obviously, the same is not true for a physicist. They probably want a detailed causal story. But are laws sufficient? They seem rather empty, merely describing rules. And what exactly is causation? Is it a mechanism with consistent, identifiable parts? Is it what you get when you intervening on variables to control them? Again, it comes down to defining what exactly an explanation is. That is where philosophy comes in.

Lastly, I used to assume that the scientific method was independent of philosophy, thank you very much. Now I’ve changed my mind. The “artful” component of experimental design seems to be a philosophical exercise, for example. It’s the juice that gets the scientific method up and running. Or consider that when we construct operational definitions, we’re stipulating them. We’re picking out things in the world and identifying them. For example, perhaps “happiness” is X amount of endorphins or being paid more than $60 K a year. Of course we draw on past empirical work to help us along, but how and why we choose particular operational definitions, I argue, are at least partly philosophical. Reason marries science and philosophy.

In short, my previous assumption that science was all and Everything Forever has been overturned. Philosophy, it seems, helps us address questions that science, strictly speaking, cannot—what we should do, what explanations are, or how to design an experiment.

7. What advice do you have for undergraduate students in psychology intending to pursue graduate-level study?

Take time to figure out what you really want to do. Talk to many people in different disciplines, professors and students included; when you are prospecting potential supervisors, ask their students what their relationship with the prof is like, because your supervisor is someone you are going to be in close contact with for 2-7 years. Apply for a Tri-Council Scholarship. The process is a… challenge, but it’s rad if you get it. (Food!)

Ask yourself if you willing to spend another 2-9 years getting a degree, that might not get you the job you want? Also, if you don’t like travelling, academia probably isn’t the place for you; if you pursue academic work, you’ll go wherever the schools are and wherever the job is. Psychology and philosophy are overflowing with masters and doctorates, and there are very few jobs out there. For example, if you get a PhD from one of the top 50 philosophy programs, you might have a 25% chance of actually getting a career as a philosopher. And don’t expect the career to happen right away. Many have to wait a number of years before they get an untenured job as a sessional, with no health benefits and unstable work. It’s a damn tough market. That said; if your dream is to be a psychologist or philosopher, do not give up on it quite yet. Even though it’s tough to get into, there is still a job market. I hear it is slightly better for psychology.

Of course, you should read Scott Jacobsen’s blog.

8. Who influenced your intellectual development the most? Have they written any noteworthy books/articles that characterize their views well?

At the risk of sounding cliché, my professors at Kwantlen played important roles. Certain profs stand out clearly; in Intro Psychology I brought up some sketchy “evidence” from a book for some weird claim about consciousness; Jocelyn Lymburner asked to see the book’s references. That has stuck in my mind for eight years now. Wayne Podrouzek also punched some of the dumb out of me. He pushed me to really think about morality, consciousness, pseudo science, and personal issues. I used to think I had substantially different sensations and perceptions than others–Rick LeGrand challenged my interpretation, suggesting that perhaps I pay attention to those things more, and that because I share the human physiology, it’s likely that others (can) have similar experiences. Danny Bernstein drilled better writing skills into me (any errors I’ve made here are thanks to my neglecting his advice). I’m convinced that the 15 rounds of editing on one manuscript gave me my wicked score on the GRE’s analytic writing section. Overall, the most valuable thing that I got out of my degree was a radical shift in how I look at the world. I used to have unsubstantiated “New-Age” beliefs (ghosts, psychic powers, etc.). Now I have the training to scrutinize such claims and realize that either there is no evidence, or “evidence” from studies that usually had shitty methodology. It took most of my degree (and the professors) to get there, and the rest to hone my skills.

Outside of Kwantlen, I’ve been particular touched by the “4 horsemen,” Dan Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens. These four to me are paragons of critical thinking applied to religious dogma (find them on YouTube to see what I mean. I recommend Harris’ (audio) books “End of Faith” and “Letter to a Christian Nation.” Harris’ succinct, eloquent style is ear-candy; I recommend Harris’ (audio) books “End of Faith” and “Letter to a Christian Nation” His book, presumptuously entitled “Consciousness Explained,” is an eye-opening read for anyone interested in blind sight, split-brain phenomenon, illusions of time, 1^st person science of consciousness, and I host of other related issues.

On the topic of colour vision and its pervasive use in philosophical thought-experiments, Kathleen Akins has moved me. She and Dr. Martin Hahn (SFU) are currently coming out with a tome on colour vision. Colour is not the basic property philosophers and others often think it is; chromatic information (hue / wavelength, brightness, and saturation) are each processed for multiple different functions, such as motion detection, object identification, and distinguishing surface properties from atmospheric ones (e.g., looking at obnoxious blue pants in a yellow-lit store looks different than under sunlight, but we compare the pants to colours of other objects to figure out what the colour of the pants actually are).

On a totally different vein, my interest in physics have led me to David Bohm’s “The Implicate Order,” where he discusses a notion based on quantum mechanics that events, not objects, are basic units of reality. In the first third of the book, he even suggests a verb-based language to reflect this—a rather philosophical endeavour for a physicist! He later argues that the universe is something like a hologram, with information about the whole existing in every part.

Of course, no dilettante of physics would be complete without Stephen Hawking, the god of black holes. His book “A Brief History of Time” is a pleasant-to-read, comprehensive overview of physics, starting with some of its philosophical roots (Aristotle), and discussing the evolution of physics, including, of course, our theoretical knowledge of black holes. I fell in love with those mysterious things in grade four, and owe much of the satisfaction—and sparking—of my curiosity to Hawking. Could black holes really lead to other universes? Is that where half of my socks have gone?

Coming back to Earth, dish-washing has become a mental adventure; the dishes feel solid, but are actually mostly empty space interlaced with collapsing probabilities—or something to that effect. (Thank you string theorist Brian Greene, for your description of quantum mechanics). When you are exposed to these ideas, you look at your environment and think, Holy shit, this is awesome. And then you wonder how a physical thing like your brain could produce all these fantastic experiences. And then you pursue something like neurophilosophy.

How has physics for lay people influenced my intellectual development? (1) By giving me mental stimulation, satisfying and provoking my curiosity in the nature of reality, and (2) by showing me that this is the value of science brought to the public. I think that science has a duty to share its findings with the public, and these authors have demonstrably (and admirably) fulfilled that duty. I think the same is true of all academic disciplines; access to what the Ivory Tower is finding can enhance the life quality of the (interested) public. At least, it did for me. And considering the public funds our work, it’s important to give information back to them. In this way, every academic author of books (that I have read) for the common person has affected me.

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2023-01-27

Dr. Sven van de Wetering: Instructor, Psychology, University of the Fraser Valley

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2012/10/02

1. Where did you acquire your education?

I did my education all over. I went to grade school at various schools in Powell River, Greater Vancouver, and Calgary, including three alternative schools: the Oxford House of Knowledge (an extremely unpretentious place that happened to be on Oxford Street), the Ideal School (which didn’t quite live up to its name but was a big step up from conventional schools), and, in Calgary, the Alternative High School.

I received a B.Sc. in biology at UBC in 1983. Then, after some years of drift, I went back to school in 1988 and studied psychology at Concordia University in Montreal (though I spent a visiting year at Albert Ludwigs Universität in Freiburg, Germany), got my B.A. in psychology in 1992, then spent the next ten years doing my graduate work at SFU.

2. Why did you pursue that field of study? How did psychology interest to you?

I originally intended to be a clinician. I was working in a home for the mentally handicapped in 1988, and was quite burned out, but thought the work was important and wanted to pursue it at a higher level. I thought clinical psychology was the field for me. Of course, that didn’t quite work out.

3. What topics have you researched in your career?

I have researched only a restricted range of topics in my empirical research career. As an undergraduate, I was looking at belief in the paranormal. As a masters student I tried to develop a relatively nonreactive measure of prejudice, then as a doctoral student, I stayed in the area of prejudice, but tried to study whether people use gossip as a technique to incite prejudice in others. Once I started teaching full time, I could only do one project a year, but have looked at things like beliefs about the nature of evil, predictors of people’s car purchase decisions (this was in an environmental context), a couple of studies on system justification theory. My last several studies have had a very striking tendency to produce null results.

4. What areas are you currently researching?

If I can ever get it up and running, I hope to conduct a study on the relationship between narcissism and political attitudes. It’ll be a correlational study, and I’ll probably toss in a whole bunch of variables in the hopes of finding something.

5. How do you engage in research? What methodologies do you employ?

My methodology tends to be very straightforward, either simple correlational studies or experimental studies with just one or two variables manipulated. Most of the time this is done using simple paper-and-pencil measures, but sometimes I’ll do something a little fancier in an attempt to assess implicit cognition.

6. Within the field of psychology, what do you consider the most controversial topics? How do you examine the debates pertaining to these topics?

If one takes “controversial” to mean that everyone has a very strong opinion about the issue, and the opinions aren’t all the same, I would have to say that number one is still the status of psychoanalysis. A determined minority of psychologists still considers Freud half a step below God, a majority seem to think of him as some deluded anti-empirical megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur and no data, and not many psychologists sit on the fence about this. I may be one of them, though. The number of issues on which Freud may have been right is slowly growing in my mind, and I’m not quite as ready to dismiss him as I once was. To be honest, I barely examine this issue at all, though. Just in a few isolated moments I think “Hey! Freud may’ve been right about that!”

Another debate of the same ilk concerns the status of evolutionary thinking in psychology. Relatively few academic psychologists actually deny that human evolution has occurred. The issue is more whether the fact of our having evolved actually furnishes significant insights into current human psychology. This is a thorny issue that I do have to deal with on a fairly regular basis, and I must confess that my strategy here is to read the arguments on both sides, and then come to an informed decision based largely on intuition.

The most troubling argument I have heard goes something like this: “Evolutionary psychology promotes patriarchy.” I don’t think it does; at least, there are a number of feminist evolutionary psychologists out there, one of whom I know personally. Furthermore, having taught evolutionary psychology, I’ve gotten the impression that there is almost no other point of view so very good at making a lot of typical male dominance behaviours look completely ridiculous. Nevertheless, I must admit that, when I go to evolutionary psychology conferences, I do get the impression that the typical evolutionary psychologist is somewhat to the political right of the typical non-evolutionary psychologist.

What disturbs me about the argument though, is the idea that an idea should be suppressed if it has negative consequences, even if it happens to be true. I feel ambivalent about this idea, but tend to think that suppressing potentially true ideas is, if not always wrong, at least almost always wrong. The quest for truth is what got me into academic life in the first place, and I find the idea that we should hide the truth distasteful and potentially destructive.

A third controversy that doesn’t so much play out within psychology but instead between psychologists and other fields in the humanities and social sciences is whether there is such a thing as human nature at all. Most psychologists who are not behaviourists will answer this in the affirmative, but some learning theorists and many anthropologists and sociologists will contend that human behaviour is almost infinitely plastic, and that those who seek to find an enduring core to human nature will find nothing but sand. Given the large number of cross-cultural universals we have found that also seem to be thoroughly anchored in individual human development, I find the idea of an infinitely plastic human nature odd and contrary to all evidence I am aware of. This is not a dispute I spend a lot of time on; I’ve never yet heard a decent argument from the infinite plasticity camp, and so I consider it a big waste of time.

Please note that I am note contending that there is no plasticity; clearly there is. Learning takes place, cultures differ, and the brain rewires itself under certain circumstances. My objection is only to the idea that these processes are so all-encompassing that there is no longer an unchanging core that is resistant to these processes.

7. What do you consider the conventional epistemological framework in psychology?

This is of course hard to summarize in a few words, since we teach whole courses on epistemology to our undergraduates (though we call them “research methods” and “statistics”), and then make our graduate students study more epistemology. So it’s a complicated topic.

Despite this complexity, I may be able to point to a few basic assumptions. First, we tend to assume that there is no great mystery about what people do, only about why they do it. Hence, relatively little energy goes into purely descriptive work, whereas a tremendous amount goes into elucidating the causes of those simple, taken-for-granted behaviours. Thus, we may say that the goal of psychology is to attempt to explain human behaviour in terms of chains, or more likely webs, of cause and effect linkages.

A second mainstream assumption, one not shared by many environmental psychologists, is that these causes have the potential to be isolated from each other. That is, although all competent psychologists (and many incompetent ones as well) are aware that in many everyday situations a large number of causes may be operating at the same time, that it is nevertheless a viable analytical strategy to assume that this complex causal web can be usefully broken up into a number of simple, measurable causes, each of which can be experimented upon or otherwise examined individually.

A third mainstream assumption is that psychological propensities are relatively stable entities that do not change from time to time and place to place. You can see this if you look at the verb tenses in an APA-style article. The description of what was done in the experiment is written in the past tense, indicating (very properly) that the experiment was conducted in the past. The interpretation of the results, however, is written in the simple present indicating that the particular results obtained in the past was a particular manifestation of a broad, general, enduring core of human propensities. Please note that I endorsed the idea of an enduring human nature a few paragraphs back, so I don’t necessarily think this assumption is wrong (though I do think many psychologists’ lists of enduring human propensities are too long, and that a lot of psychological findings are the product of ephemeral culturally and historically situated propensities).

8. If you could restructure the epistemological foundation of psychology, how would you do it? Furthermore, how would you reframe the approach to that foundation?

I think the approach described above has some huge successes to its credit, so I certainly don’t want to see it scrapped or seriously revamped. What I would like to see is greater pluralism in epistemology, a recognition that we don’t really know what that psychological knowledge is, and that we should therefore be tolerant of a fairly wide range of epistemological approaches.

There’s a great section near the end of Kurt Danziger’s Constructing the Subject where Danziger points out that two basic classes of factors go into any psychological finding. One, of course, is the “real” world telling us how it works. The other is social factors (what some people might call artifacts) derived from the way the investigative situation has been set up and interpreted. Looking at any given psychological investigation or even any given psychological research program, it’s not clear how much, if any, of the core finding is “true” rather than a product of the investigative situation. However, if a bunch of people with very different epistemologies that have led them to set up very different investigative situations and interpret them using very different concepts and processes of reasoning nevertheless investigate the same approximate issue and come to the same basic conclusions, then it seems likely that the social factors largely cancel each other out and that that agreed-upon finding is derived from some fairly fundamental feature of the way the world works.

I always thought that this was a cool idea, but it only works if psychology comprises a wide variety of vibrant research programs based on a variety of very different epistemological foundations. A second prerequisite for this to work is that there have to be psychologists willing to look at work from all these different paradigms without to much prejudice to the effect that psychologists working in such-and-such a tradition are not “real” psychologists.

9. If you had unlimited funding, what would you research?

I’m not sure unlimited funding would change the general topics of my research all that much, but it would make the scope of the research projects much greater, and if the funding included course releases, I might also do more than one project a year.

My number one area of interest is summarized by the title of a paper I presented 11 years ago, “If everyone’s an environmentalist, why are SUVs selling so well?” There is a big disconnect between people’s stated concern for environmental issues and what they actually do, and I would love to explore that a little more. The question of discrepancies between attitudes and behaviours has been around since at least the 1930s and LaPiere, but in this applied context, there’s a lot more still to learn.

The other area I would love to research a little more is the study of trust, cynicism, and political participation. One of the most frightening trends I’ve seen lately is for young people to disengage from politics more or less completely, to the point where many people (not just the young) know nothing about what the politicians are up to in their name, and then either don’t vote or vote from a position of near total ignorance. The more widespread this becomes, the less politicians are held to account, with the result that the lying, corrupt scumbag politicians who turn people off politics in the first place find it easier to rise to the top without even having to pretend to be decent human beings. A better understanding of why this is happening would be a great thing.

10. What do you consider the most salient point for people to understand about psychology in light of your background, research, and current perspective?

I’m not sure there is a salient core truth about psychology that I can impart. Psychology is a sprawling multi-tentacle monster with no obvious centre and very few widely shared premises. As I indicated above, I consider this a good thing, and maybe would even like to see it become more like this.

After saying that, I have to admit that pluralism makes me a little uncomfortable. I went into psychology thinking that there were a relatively small number of core truths about human nature. That those truths were discoverable, and that psychology either had found or would soon find the way to get at those truths. The truth about human nature would lead to a technology of human nature, which would make the solution of a large number of problems with psychological roots a much more straightforward matter than it currently is. I find it much harder to believe in this now, for two reasons. First, I seriously doubt that psychology is on track to discover many such truths. Second, to the extent that we do have a technology of human behavior, the people who use it are not concerned citizens trying to solve human problems, but rather rich people trying to get richer and powerful people trying to get more powerful. For example, advertisers use a technology of behaviour to induce people to buy goods they don’t need with money they don’t have, which is all right, I guess. However, in the process the advertisers incidentally persuade many people that buying things is the primary route to happiness. We have data suggesting that this is an astonishingly pernicious belief to hold.

11. As you observe academics pursue their careers in search of fame, fortune, and/or utility (personal and/or societal), what course do you recommend for amateur academics? If you perceive pitfalls or benefits in particular reasons for and types of an academic career, can you bring some of these to the fore?

There are a bunch of different people who fall under the heading of amateur academics, and I think different things will bring them utility.

First, there are those who are in the academic world more or less by accident, perhaps even against their will. They`re living at home, and their parents will kick them out unless they either get a job or go to school. So they go to school. Or they`re on their own, but the economy`s bad, so they get student loans and study for a while.

I have a lot of sympathy for people in this situation. I have ‘been there, done that’. As an instructor, I often don`t like having people like this in my class, because their palpable boredom drags down the rest of the class, but I usually manage to avoid blaming them for it. I do have advice for such people: pretend you care. It`s not as good as really caring, of course, but it`s better than simmering in ennui and resentment for four years.

A second group, unfortunately much smaller, is motivated primarily by curiosity. These people don`t need advice. They`re in the right place, their appetite for new information will be satisfied as in almost no other environment, and all they have to do is follow their natural proclivities in order to succeed.

A third group, overlapping with the second, is the glory seekers. They hope to make a name for themselves by making some sort of big discovery, etc. My advice here is more complicated. First, if you`re part of this group, you`d better also be part of the second group, or you`re not going to make it. The process of discovery is so demanding of time and energy that if you don`t enjoy the actual process, you`re not going to get anywhere. Second, I`ve discovered that freedom is overrated.

Let me explain that remark. I`ve discovered that in graduate school, there are two sorts of academic supervisors. One type has a highly active research program on the go, with lots of graduate students and research assistants working on various components of that program. When the new graduate student comes, their range of freedom is severely limited: do they want to plug into this part of the program or that part? The second type of supervisor, for one reason or another, does not have a program of research which the student can plug into. They therefore give the student a great degree of freedom to do what they want. This has the advantage that the student can pursue their true interests, but also the disadvantage that the student gets relatively little guidance, and endlessly seems to be reinventing the wheel. This is a lot of fun for students in the second group, the highly curious, but a bit of a handicap for students in the third group, the glory-seekers, because productivity is likely to be low throughout graduate school and may remain low in their academic career.

12. Who have been the biggest intellectual influences on you?

When looking back on who has exerted the biggest influence on my thinking, it`s remarkable how few are psychologists. My move into social psychology in the early 1990s was inspired by Shelley Taylor, but the longer I stay in the field, the less I actually draw on her ideas. The two books I have read in the last 10 years that have influenced me the most have been Jared Diamond`s Collapse and Robert Putnam`s Making Democracy Work. I`ve traditionally been a big fan of Wittgenstein, though that influence is also waning. Probably the single psychologist who has changed my thinking the most in the last little while is Philip Tetlock with his Expert Political Judgment, which really revitalized my uneasy endorsement of pluralism.

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2023-01-27

Dr. Betty Rideout: Instructor, Psychology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2012/09/22

1. Where did you acquire your education? How did you become interested in Psychology?

My first two years were completed at Kwantlen, back when Kwantlen first separated from Douglas college and was a series of trailers on 140^th street. I was a mature student (relatively speaking) and wanted a way out of the boring job I was in. From Kwantlen I went onto UBC to complete my BA in Psychology (was tied for the governor’s general award at Kwantlen, GPA), but lost the award to another student because a few of my courses I had completed were taken at Cap College. At UBC I went on to complete an MA in Counselling Psychology, and I recently completed a PhD through an interdisciplinary faculty in education, the Centre for Cross Faculty Inquiry, which was a more sensible choice for me than a PhD in Counselling Psychology since my research interests had long since strayed from psychotherapy. My advisor though was the same advisor for my Phd as was for my MA, from Counselling Psychology.

2. What topics have you researched in your career?

My Master’s degree looked at the influence of divorce on adolescents – this was in the 1980’s and there actually wasn’t a lot of research at the time on that topic.

3. You recently earned your PhD. What did you research? How do the results extend into larger society?

My research looked at how young adults who describe themselves as spiritual but not religious, assess and critically reflect upon their spiritual beliefs. The research questions were twofold: what were young adults’ beliefs, and secondly, how did they critically reflect upon them. The second research question utilized King and Kitchener’s reflective judgment model to interpret and assess participants’ beliefs.

How do the results extend into the larger society? We found that participants scored at about the norm for their age and education level, but having said that, were alarmed at how participants’ beliefs seemed tentative and were not grounded into their personal philosophies. Hanan Alexander (2002) points out that “today’s spiritual seekers experience their moral intuitions as fragmented and ungrounded” (p. x) and comments that part of a spiritual exploration is asking big questions, meaning of life questions, the type of questions that typically include pondering the nature of goodness. These sorts of questions, and the answers we decide for ourselves, seem particularly relevant for young adults since one’s idea of the nature of goodness can guide both their career and relationship choices. It’s possible then that the kind of spiritual seeking that appears to be so common these days, without some type of intellectual support, inquiry, etc. may be one piece that contributes to the higher rate of depression and anxiety that we see in young adults today. There’s no doubt that institutional religion is no longer a source of undisputed guidance and meaning, more and more people tend to pick and choose their favourite religious pieces, but how effectively can we integrate those pieces into a larger personal philosophy that coheres, has integrity and can provide an authentic source of guidance for ourselves?

4. Other than the social domain, where would you like to take your research?

Well, I suppose the main thrust of my research is that I hope individuals will entertain the idea that one’s epistemological stance bears examination, and that the ideas and personal philosophies we hold outside of the academic world warrant just as much critical examination as the topics we prepare for in an examination. Maybe even more, because, if spiritual beliefs tend to include a notion of what is goodness, then this is a foundational belief that can only benefit from close scrutiny in order to make that belief a lived experience.

5. What do you consider the most controversial research in psychology? How do you examine this research?

In Psychology, hmm – I think actually I’d point to work in Philosophy and its influence on Psychology as a more significant source of controversy, particularly the work by post-modern theorists such as Foucault and Derrida. They’re changing the nature of language and core social concepts – and that’s powerfully influential. Foucault argued that the Social Sciences were the most influential academic area because it is the Social Sciences that produce and institute our cultural ideals, for better or for worse.

6. How have your philosophical views changed over time – in and out of psychology?

I’ve changed from a simple naïve realist to someone who is much more open to ontological possibilities I never would have considered in my thirties. I remain convinced that the method of science is the most powerful epistemological tool available to us, but wonder whether this method may evolve as well, and sometimes ponder whether there are possible realities that the human mind simply has yet to evolve the capacity to comprehend.

I’m also interested in Jonathan Haidt’s (2012) research – who points out that Psychology has solidly been influenced by a rationalist perspective from the time of Plato on – there is a direct line of influence to Piaget and Kohlberg. He argues that so much of human processing is non-rational – and we rationalists overlook this at our peril. My research falls squarely into a rationalist perspective; King and Kitchener were influenced by William Perry, who was influenced by Kohlberg, who was influenced by Piaget. There are researchers who propose a personal epistemology that is more embodied, intuitive, and perhaps I’ve overlooked the importance of this given my rationalist bias.

7. What advice would you give to undergraduate and graduate students aiming for a career in psychology?

Consider what your specific goal is, and if it includes working as a psychotherapist, make sure that you have had lots of opportunities to work in that kind of capacity before you commit. Not everyone is ideally suited to working with other people’s painful experiences, and psychological change is a slow process, successes are measured out in teaspoons.

8. What books, article, and/or people have most influenced your intellectual development?

I quite admire Jonathan Haidt – his book The Righteous Mind (2012) is a timely read given the polarization politically that is so dominant these days.

I admire Charles Taylor’s scholarship and ability to integrate diverse perspectives: A Secular Age (2007) and Sources of the Self (1989).

Foucault’s Madness and Civilization

Richard Rorty and Gianni Vattimo: The Future of Religion, argue a kind of post-modern update of religion, their ideas were brand new for me.

I still like Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents

9. What do you consider the take-home message of your research?

Know thyself? Perhaps not in the true Platonic tradition, but at least Jungian, and while we are blessed to live in multicultural times where the internet exposes us to lots of different perspectives, whatever ideals we choose we need to make our own, and that’s best achieved through the hard work of critical inquiry as well ensuring that our beliefs also become our lived experience.

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2023-01-27

Dr. Wayne Podrouzek: Psychology, Chair, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2012/08/07

1. What is your current position in the Psychology Faculty?

I’m currently full time faculty and chair of the department.

2. Where did you acquire your education? What did you pursue in your studies?

I did my undergrad work in Nova Scotia at Mount St. Vincent U, although there is (was) an interuniversity agreement there where many courses can be taken at Dalhousie, Saint Mary’s, or the Mount and simply count at the other universities, so I took many courses at the other schools. At Dal and SMU I did quite a bit of philosophy and religious studies, some bio at Dal, some behavioural stuff at SMU, etc. It’s actually quite a good system. All the universities are within about a ½ hour drive of each other, offer diverse courses, and there are a minimum of administrative obstacles.

I got edjamacated ‘cause I was working with children and teenagers with the equivalent of the Ministry of Children and Families and the Provincial Attorney General (with teens who had been incarcerated) in Alberta and realized that to have more influence I would need some university education (I had obtained a diploma). Mt. St. Vincent had one of Canada’s only two programs for working with children (Bachelor of Child Studies – BCS) and so I sent back there to pick up that credential.

3. What originally interested you in Psychology? If your interest evolved, how did your interest change over time to the present?

As part of the BCS, we were required to complete a substantial number of bio and psych courses, and I became interested in psychology, subtype developmental psychology, specifically child language development. I completed my BCS, then did a BSc Honours in Psych (minors in Math/Stats and Biology), and started a Masters in Education (I picked this up in my last year of my Honours as extra courses) and completed all the coursework but not the project. I was subsequently awarded an NSERC, and some other money, and was accepted into the MA at Simon Fraser, so abandoned my MEd to come out here. I kind of wish I had finished the MEd now – but I really just didn’t see the necessity at the time. Because of its emphasis on counselling and testing I could have used it to become registered in BC – it would have opened some doors. Can’t y’all just seem me as a therapist? Hmmm, that’s scary.

At any rate, I originally went to SFU because it was supposed to get some equipment to do acoustical analyses of language (which at the time was about a $60K piece of equipment called a Sonograph, and today you can do the same thing with an A-D board that costs less than $100), and I had done my Honours Project on “An acoustical analysis of pre-lexical child utterances in pragmatically constrained contexts” (or something like that and wanted to continue that work.) However, the equipment fell through, so I switch to perception. I did my MA thesis in perception on the question of the order of visual processing (what do you process first, the global scene and then analyze for the bits, or the bits first and then synthesize them into the whole scene: the Global-Local question).

I began my PhD in perception, but then met Dr. Bruce Whittlesea, and became interested in memory theory, so I switched to that area and completed my PhD in his lab. I did my dissertation on Repetition Blindness in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation Lists (an examination of the phenomenon that you tend not to see repetitions of words in quickly presented word lists).

Since my PhD I have become interested in how the blind spot gets filled in, subjective contours, retrieval induced forgetting, and for a brief time, the science underlying neuropsych testing.

4. Since your time as an undergraduate student, what are the major changes in the curriculum? What has changed regarding the conventional ideas?

Wow, that’s a hard one – so much has happened in so many areas. When I started as an undergrad (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth with people), the areas then are usually considered the “core” areas now. These included methods, stats, measurement theory, bio, social, developmental, cognitive, and behavioural in the experimental areas, and testing, abnormal, and therapy in the clinical areas. We had rat labs in intro – every student got two rats and we ran experiments on the rats and wrote the experiments up in the lab books (something like doing chem labs. Then we got to kill them). Consciousness was not discussed – that was akin to studying magic. Evolutionary Psych did not exist (although its precursor, sociobiology did). Although Kuhn had published his controversial book “The structure of scientific revolutions”, his ideas were discussed but, I think, not taken to heart by most scientists. Later, with other philosophers of science (e.g., Feyerabend, Lakoff), publishing works that in some ways augmented his, our assumptions and views of even methodologies changed. Of course, change your assumptions, change your methods, and you change your field. Things loosened up considerably. Areas of enquiry and the acceptable methods and what could count as reasonable data become much more encompassing, and thus new areas of psychology emerged. We certainly didn’t have courses on sex, for example, or prejudice, cultural, gender (other than straight up sex differences, other aspects of that field would have been taught in “Women’s Studies”), and the list goes ever on.

When I attended university there were upper level specialty courses in Psycholinguistics (Chomsky) – a brilliant, complex theory of language (particularly, syntax and transformations, and semantics), Piaget and Vygotsky, behaviour, modification (applied behavior analysis), parallel and distributed processing, and other things that are now of historical interest, but at the time were all the rage.

5. Many students graduating with a Psychology degree will not pursue careers in Psychology. What are your thoughts on this?

That’s great – I think society needs people who have broad understanding of the principles of psychology in a wide variety of positions. Psychologists tend to be quite well trained in methodology and stats, and this certainly enhances their ability to think about things methodological – certainly one of the pillars of good critical thinking.

Perhaps some of those folks with a good educational underpinning in critical thinking could go into politics? That would be awesome. It would be good to have some folks in government who can actually think.

Psychology interfaces well with Law: Again, the methodological and thinking skills can be brought to bear.

6. Kwantlen is attempting to expand that research on campus. What are the current attempts to expand research on campus? What is the progress of those attempts?

I know there is a real push to expand research at Kwantlen. Outside of Psych I’m afraid I’m not very knowledgeable about what’s going on. However, in the psych department we have many faculty who have active research programs, within Kwantlen and in collaborating with other universities and agencies. Several have international reputations. Given the level of funding, and our workload in teaching and service, I am pretty impressed at the level of research many of faculty in psych are managing.

7. If Kwantlen provided incentives via funding (grants), would you be interested in conducting research at Kwantlen?

Grants might be nice – along with time release for doing research. However, in my case, a lot of what I need is tech support. Many of the kinds of experiments I want to do require substantial expertise in programming and integrating output from different technologies. I haven’t done any programming in over 20 years now, and everything has changed (and what I did then was on MAC), and I don’t really have the inclination to take a year or two to learn to do it well. I have quite a few (I think) fairly good ideas for studies, but without substantial tech support, I’m afraid, I won’t be the one to be doing them.

And, I’m getting a tad long in the tooth to retool for a substantial research career. It would likely take me 1-2 years to get up to speed in a new area, and that pretty much puts me at retirement age. So, I just like doing what I think is interesting “stuff|” with like-minded students, at a very pedestrian pace.

8. To you, what are the most controversial areas of Psychology? Why do you (and your colleagues) consider them controversial? What are your personal views on them?

Lol – that’s a good one. I certainly won’t speak for my colleagues because I often play in the sandbox pretty much by myself.

Put 6 psychologists in a room and have them discuss any topic and you’ll get at least 7 positions. Except for perhaps bio, some descriptive developmental, low end sensation (which is pretty much bio), some social, and some behavioural, most areas of psych are pretty controversial, although there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of controversy – we just choose to ignore the difficulties and bung on ahead. And, for the most part, it doesn’t matter too much – we live in our little bubbles and every once in a while something we do becomes useful, and the rest of the time it doesn’t matter too much and it’s an excellent theoretical and intellectual exercise. Even in things like method and stats, there are different opinions on what is appropriate and why and how things should be interpreted, and so on. Don’t get me wrong, I think that in the long run what we do will become incredibly important, when we get to a certain point and it becomes integrated. All of it contributes to that corpus of knowledge, and even if wrong is very important. We learn most, I think, when we find we are wrong in interesting ways – and that really does entail controversy.

Where I get my knickers in a twist is when what we do has real implications for real people, and we are less than totally rigorous. I remember the “repressed memory” debacle, in which folks were sent to jail on the basis of testimony by psychologists. It turned out to be, what word am I looking for here, ah right, “crap”, and it ruined people’s lives. That has now turned from the repressed/false memory debate into the “dissociative identity disorder” debate. That is pretty controversial (at least in some circles).

And how about the “facilitated communication” debacle (there was, perhaps is still, even an Institute for Facilitated Communication at Syracuse, NY) – again, folks lives were ruined. Now, as before, psychologists fixed that through continued study (although not before being hired by a lawyer to see if it “really” worked), but much damage had been done. But that was a few years ago, and we tend to forget our past errors.

Another area that doesn’t seem to get much controversy, but perhaps should, is the use of certain measure of psychopathy. They are, as I understand it, being used outside of the parameters in which they were developed, and people’s lives are being profoundly affected by them. One girl (17 I think) was declared a Dangerous Offender and put in prison indefinitely based on misdemeanour crimes and her score on “the” checklist and the testimony of some “psychologist” or other. This was subsequently overturned in the Supreme Court of Canada, but again, damage had been done. What I find controversial is, where was the psychological community in expressing outrage over this travesty? Let me guess, the same as we usually hear from the Department of Foreign Affairs, “working quietly behind the scenes”.

The problem with Psychology is the same problem we have with Medicine and biochemistry, just worse. Very few people understand it, and it is complicated stuff (which is why I don’t understand why most folks think psych is some kind of a bird discipline that anyone and his dog could do). Psychologists are human, they want to have their moment in the sun, and money, and they say stuff and people believe it – without trying to critically evaluate it, and often in the absence of the ability to critically evaluate it. Sometimes it makes no difference. Whether memory is a series of stages or structures or is a set of differentially instantiable processes based on some form of information harmonic in the current circumstance is a very interesting question but is not likely to affect too many folks’ lives in the immediate future. So if people ignore the debate and believe one thing or the other makes little difference. However, the same cannot be said for so many other areas.

So, I guess that I think that much of psych is controversial. But that’s not a bad thing – it’s just that we should acknowledge that much of it is controversial not take ourselves too seriously. We are young, some 130 years old. Much of Physics is controversial as well – is the speed of light the limit of particle movement in the universe outside of the movement of the universe itself? (Although this result seems to be the result of a loose cable connection). Are there bosons? We speak of mass and gravity, but what the hell are they? Do causes always precede effects? What is the nature of time? Lots of debates = controversy. That is the stuff of science.

9. What do you consider the prevailing philosophical foundation of Psychology? If you differ, what is your personal philosophical framework?

Wow – you know how to pick your questions.

First, I don’t think there is ONE philosophical foundation in psychology any more. We are all linked by our methodologies – but even those are much more diverse than before. Not too many years ago, anything that remotely smelled like qualitative methodology was looked at askance by most experimental psychologists. Now, in our own department, we find there are several faculty using these methods, and the rest of us still associate with them, if begrudgingly… (Ok, joke).

Some years ago most of us would likely have identified as some variant of positivist, but now I suspect that, again, it’s much more diverse, and many might identify as cognitive relativists. I don’t even know how many of us would identify as ontological objectivists (philosophical realists) anymore. Actually, this is an interesting question, and I could see an honours project in some variant of this issue.

So, if we’re looking for the kinds of underpinning that really links us altogether I guess (hope) it would be some lip service to the general tenets of “science” and empiricism (although I have to wonder, when in our ethics – provided to us by the tricouncil guidelines, developed by “scientists” – we are to ensure the “spiritual” safety of our subjects – whatever that is: I just want some variant of quasi-objective measure of “spiritual well-being”). Perhaps there are more Cartesian Dualists out there than I would have thought. (Still the issue of measurement, though). There is no specific set of methods on which we all agree, no set of criteria to which we hold ourselves – but perhaps a Wittgensteinian language-game understanding of the word “science” is broadly descriptive, and perhaps good enough.

10. To you, who are the most influential Psychologists? Why are they the most influential to you?

I wish I were better read in psychology so I could better answer this question. I have great admiration for Skinner. I think he got the short end of the stick in evaluation of his debate with Chomsky (who I think is likely one of the brightest puppies to walk, crawl, or slither on the earth today – although I have always disagreed with virtually all of his psychology – considered “state of the art” when I was going to university: psycholinguistics, the pre-eminence of syntax, the existence of a language acquisition device, etc.). I think that Skinner’s contribution to psychology has been undervalued, and that much of his work may well reincarnate later in our history. I really liked the “tightness” of Skinner’s work: methodologically sounds, often insightful while being atheoretic, clever. I think he was a bit of an idealist and I don’t think his idea of Walden 2 would ever fly, but an interesting idea. I got an appreciation of Skinner’s work when I studied under one of his grads, Ron vanHouten.

I was also quite influenced by Vygotsky’s work “Thought and Language.” In particular he has helped shape my understanding of the relationships between thought, language, semiotics, and pragmatics, in a developmental context.

Of course, there are many psychologists in my own areas that have influenced my thinking. My advisor, Bruce Whittlesea, is certainly one of these. You cannot work closely with someone for a few years without walking away influenced. There are also big names – Tulving, Jacoby, etc. I tend to think about human processing in “Transfer Appropriate Processing” terms (a la, Bransford, Franks, Morris, & Stein). However, someone who is not so well known, Paul Kolers (Procedures of Mind, Mechanisms of Mind) has most influenced me in terms of thinking about theories of the types of processing that occur in mind. And Gibson’s notion of affordances always haunts my thought when I bend it to thought and action.

A number of philosophers; Carnap (logical positivism), Quine (ontological relativism and the underdetermination of theories), Popper (falsificationism), Nagel (philosophy of science, antireductionism re consciousness), Putnam (excellent discourses on reductionism and functionalism), and other philosophers of science (such as Russell) have probably had more influence on my thought about the nature of theories (in particular, cognitive theories) than psychologists. It’s kind of the difference between methods and substantive areas. The method is paramount; the understanding of the substantive area follows from the understanding of the method.

So, the short answer is: gee, I don’t know. It’s all pretty much a swirl.

11. Finally, many Psychology students are interested to know, do you know anyone famous within Psychology?

I’ve met several, and spoken with them, but I would not say that I “know” them. We would not even count as acquaintances, although quite a few are nice and say “hi” to me at conferences.

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2023-01-26

Grieving, Metaphor and the Enlightenment

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021/06/26

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson is a Registered Doctoral Psychologist with expertise in Counselling Psychology, Educational Psychology, and Human Resource Development. He earned qualifications in Social Work too. Duly note, he has five postsecondary degrees, of which 3 are undergraduate level. His research interests include memes as applied to self-knowledge, the evolution of religion and spirituality, the aboriginal self’s structure, residential school syndrome, prior learning recognition and assessment, and the treatment of attention deficit disorder and suicide ideation. In addition, he works in anxiety and trauma, addictions, and psycho-educational assessment, and relationship, family, and group counselling.

Here we talk about the web of life.Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You characterize life as a web. New weaves added while others removed or changed in the web of life. To a more general point, why does psychological writing rely so heavily on metaphor? Does this reflect, in a way, the amount known while the huge amount not known about the human mind’s dynamics while also the importance of immediate conveyance in meaning in spite of it? Do psychotherapy and counselling amount to controlled-environment, systematic rituals for clients with therapists?Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: Metaphor is a kind of mental scaffolding that allows us to explore new concepts using more established, well understood ones. Metaphor predominates in psychology because it is a new science playing catch-up. We might blame Rene Descartes and his Faustian bargain with the Roman Catholic Church for this. Cartesian dualism held that the natural world could be understood by science and reason, but the mind or soul could only be understood from divine revelation. This dualism likely contributed to Descartes avoiding the censorship and imprisonment faced by his contemporary, Galileo, but the notion that the study of mind was beyond the ken of science set back psychology by about 200 years.In the newspaper column you cited I said each of us builds a mental structure of significant others that supports our self definition as a person. This structure can be compared to a spider’s web with each foundational thread representing a significant other. When a foundational person dies, our mental web collapses and we must re-weave it in accordance with this new reality. Such a metaphor is useful in understanding the purpose and task of grieving, but it is not as useful in understanding who we are in other contexts. In mapping the self more recently (Robertson, 2016; Robertson and McFadden, 2018), I have shown that who we are is more than the relationships we have established. I have also shown how complexes of memes that initially exist outside our selves can appropriate our resources after becoming attached (mind virus; woke virus). Metaphor helps us to understanding new phenomena by scaffolding new information on concepts that are already understood, but we need to be cognizant of the probability that the new phenomena also differ from the metaphoric concept in some ways. While mind viruses are like physical viruses in that they can only propagate from inside a host, as non-physical agents they avoid the limitations of proximity required by their natural world cousins.With respect to your second question, I hope that psychologists do not descend to prescribing set piece rituals. While I believe that we as human beings benefit from ritual, and we may suggest clients consider enacting a meaningful ritual in a given situation, it would be unethical to prescribe any specific ritual. Grieving, in this example, is not the ritual; it is the culturally mandated practices associated with grieving that are ritualized. Psychologists need to be able to transcend such practices. For example, I have helped individuals who have been unable, for psychological reasons, to attend funerals of loved one by assisting them to identify individualized alternatives. Our project is to transcend both ritual and culture where necessary for the well-being of the individual by helping our clients choose from menus of new possibilities.Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson.

References

Robertson, L. H. (2016). Self-Mapping in Counselling: Using Memetic Maps to Enhance Client Reflectivity and Therapeutic Efficacy. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 50(3), 332-347.Robertson, L. H. (2017). The infected self: Revisiting the metaphor of the mind virus. Theory & Psychology, 27(3): 354-368.Robertson, L.H., & McFadden, R.C. (2018). Graphing the Self: An Application of Graph Theory to Memetic Self-mapping in Psycotherapy. International and Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Sciences, 7(1), 34-58. doi: 10.17583/rimcis.2018.3078Citation: Robertson, L. H. (2021). Year of the virus: Understanding the contagion effects of wokism. In-sight, 26(B). Retrieved from https://in-sightjournal.com/2021/02/22/wokism/

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2023-01-26

The Connection between the Self-esteem Movement and a coming Dark Age

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021/06/04

Here we talk about self-esteem, psychology, old articles, and socio-psychological phenomena.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: We have commented briefly on “The Age of Psychology,” “Epidemic of Low Self-Esteem,” “Crazy Making in Our Communities,” “schizophrenia,” “From Lloydminster to Lenningrad,” and religious fundamentalism. It has been a small bit since the commentary. What are some developments on the views there for you?

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: You certainly delved into my personal ancient history for this question, Scott. “The Age of Psychology” was the first column I wrote prior to the millennium for the now defunct newspaper The Northerner. My intent was to show how pervasive applied psychology is in our lives, for both good and ill. I do not think that has fundamentally changed in the intervening decades. You have actually linked six articles I wrote from that era, and I am guessing that you see them connected in some way. I think they all relate to how we interpret the world, creating and maintaining our worldviews.

My views on the “epidemic” of self-esteem have become more nuanced since I wrote that article. While low self-esteem continues to be an issue often confronted by counselling psychologists, and I continue to recommend that parents find the good and positive in their children, the “epidemic” label has led people to become afraid of giving balanced and constructive feedback. This has resulted in a disconnect between subjective and objective reality. For example, U.S. students typically score higher on measures of mathematical self-concept as compared to Chinese students but the Chinese students score higher on measures of mathematical achievement. The result is that many U.S. Americans do not know what they do not know, but they think they are doing just fine – not cognisant that they are being outclassed by the Chinese.

In North America we have witnessed grade inflation to maintain student self-esteem. In an example of this, I case-conferenced with a teacher to discuss reading problems with his adult upgrading class in a northern community college. “But they all have marks in language arts above 80%,” I said. “I know,” he replied, “I helped them get good marks by reading the questions to them and by helping them with their answers”

The teacher said that about a third of his students were functionally illiterate, and he wanted to know what he could do to help them. I suggested he could begin by giving honest feedback. Students need to know their strengths and weaknesses so that they can dedicate their efforts to overcoming those weaknesses. This unfortunate teacher sensed that for these students it was already too late – that they did not have the skills to handle such constructive feedback.

The flip-side of the over-zealous application of the self-esteem movement is mental fragility. Students have been taught that they can be whatever they want to be, but the self that is then created is fragile. Sooner or later reality impinges on illusions. We now have the word “micro-aggression” to describe and defend against that experience. When someone, usually inadvertently, says or does something to challenge a fragile worldview, the fragile self at the core is taught to feel the experience as a micro-aggression. Lashing out with defensive anger and hatred, they demand apologies, community censorship, even firings. If these demands are met they feel vindicated with their fragile selves affirmed.

The other four articles you referenced, Scott, all have to do with how people create and enforce dysfunctional realities. “Crazy making” describes a woman who, after being convinced by an abusive family and community that she was crazy, began displaying symptoms of schizophrenia. “Schizophrenia” describes a common reverse process – people who actually suffer from the disease refusing to take their medication because they believe that they no longer have the condition. “Lloydminster to Leningrad” describes the ways two racists, separated by distance and time, held on to their anti-Semitic beliefs in the face of evidence. “Fundamentalism” describes how a religious congregation attempted to shut down La Ronge’s only bookstore for carrying the wrong kind of books.

As a society we made considerable progress in combating racism, supporting people with mental health problems, and in promoting free speech and the diversity of ideas. I fear a new dark age where society is being re-racialized through identity politics, gaslighting is occurring at a societal scale to challenge our ability to think objectively, and authors and academics are being “de-platformed” so their ideas cannot be heard.

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2023-01-26

Religious denial of self and the repression of male emotions

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/04/16

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson is a Registered Doctoral Psychologist with expertise in Counselling Psychology, Educational Psychology, and Human Resource Development. He earned qualifications in Social Work too. Duly note, he has five postsecondary degrees, of which 3 are undergraduate level. His research interests include memes as applied to self-knowledge, the evolution of religion and spirituality, the aboriginal self’s structure, residential school syndrome, prior learning recognition and assessment, and the treatment of attention deficit disorder and suicide ideation. In addition, he works in anxiety and trauma, addictions, and psycho-educational assessment, and relationship, family, and group counselling.

Our guest today is Teela Robertson, M.C., who earned a B.A. in Psychology from MacEwan University and an M.C. in Counselling Psychology from Athabasca University. She has been a Board Member of the Center to End All Sexual Exploitation (CEASE), and a Transitional Support Worker through the E4C Youth Housing Program. Now, she is a Registered Provisional Psychologist with a non-profit community agency.

Here we talk about religion and individuality, innervation of beliefs into professional practice, empowerment, and more.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Lloyd, in “Ask Dr. Robertson (and Teela) 14 — Adlered with Eclecticism: A Confidence of Riches,” you stated, “There is a tension between psychology and religion that is often not recognized and is even less often addressed, and that tension stems from conflicting worldviews.” How does religion undermine “client individuality, empowerment, and self-actualization”?

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: In my new book The Evolved Self that will be coming out September 15, I discuss how the “modern self” capable of individual volitional planning is a cultural artefact that evolved prior to the “Axial Age” when most of the great religions of the world came into being. I make the argument that religion was effectively a way to keep the individualism inherent in having a self in check, to keep the collectivism of humans as social animals paramount. Traditionally, Christians have been taught that the self is wicked and must be denied. Buddhists proclaim that the self is the source of all suffering and they proclaim a doctrine of “no-self.” Confucian teaching subjugates the self to the family and tradition. The word “Islam” means “submission” or “surrender.” Although, it came later in mankind’s cultural evolution; its roots are in traditional Judaism. In each case, the self is something to be given up in favour of a reality defined by the dogma and leaders of the religion. This places those leaders in the role of defining the will of the collectivity.

Contrary to Foucault’s teaching, the self did not come in to being with the European Enlightenment. What the Enlightenment did was proclaim that the notion of objective reality that could be discerned by the individual was a good thing, instead of fearing the individual self, the Enlightenment embraced it. This led to an outpouring of ideas and objective inquiry, and the scientific revolution it spawned is still on-going today.

Psychology came late to the scientific revolution, in part because it was actively repressed by religions, more so than other fields of objective inquiry. All psychotherapies start from the premise of the client as an individual with unique experiences, interpretations and social relations. The client is then empowered to make changes to themselves in keeping with those experiences, interpretations and social relationships. The very act of empowerment supports the ability of the person as an individual to make such decisions. Positive Psychologists, in particular, have come under criticism for undermining collective societies. What do they do that is so undermining? They ask the client what is meaningful for him or herself and they ask what would make them happy.

Jacobsen: Teela, you said, “When the beliefs of the psychologist and client do not align, we not only have to be aware of where our biases come in, but also the limits to our knowledge about the client’s belief system.” What is an example of this innervation of the beliefs and biases of the counselling psychologist in practice? A hypothetical case extrapolation from practical experience would suffice, too.

Teela Robertson, M.C.: An example of this might be a similar situation to what my dad described in our last interview where a therapist has taken a course on a culture, let’s say North American Aboriginal people, and believes they now have good understanding and make assumptions based on what they have learned. Engaging in this type of practice negates the individuality of lived experiences as well as aspects unique to each community. To further this example, let’s say the therapist is an atheist and the client is a devout practicing Christian, the therapist has a role to try and be aware of any assumptions they hold about the client’s culture and beliefs and differences between them and the client. In this case, a therapist rejecting a client’s use of prayer or church simply due to a belief. It is a fable and ineffective would not be helpful if it would damage the rapport built with the client. On a cultural front, a therapist assuming an Aboriginal client should turn to traditional healing, or connect with elders without knowing how that client feels about and connects with their own culture could be damaging. I have found in practice it is best to ask clients what things mean to them and to hear about their practices before inserting assumptions and interpretations.

Jacobsen: Teela, why does Canadian culture teach men to refuse showing ‘weak’ emotions, including the aforementioned sadness or anxiety, or even to name the feelings?

Teela Robertson, M.C.: The societal failure to teach men it is acceptable and normal to have and express the full range of emotions seems to come from times past. It can be demonstrated in statements many, even women, have heard growing up such as “stop crying”, “man up”, “I’ll give you something to cry about”. These statements are all telling children it is not acceptable to feel and express their emotions. In turn, children may come to believe it is wrong for them to cry. That to be a man they need to be tough and that means not crying. Instead, anger becomes a more acceptable emotion to show and those deeper emotions come out looking like anger. I don’t know that I have a good answer to why this has been taught.

Jacobsen: Lloyd, what is the impact of Male Stigma, as preliminarily researched by you, on the full expressive range of the emotions of men?

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: One of the common experiences of men in my stigma study was that when they attempted to express their negative emotions about how they were abused by the justice system, child welfare agencies, employers and even neighbours who assumed men are perpetrators and women are victims. They were told by feminists, both male and female, to “man up” or “be a man.” The message is clear. Men are asked to share their emotions, with the suggestion that they are unwell if they don’t, but they can only share those emotions which are acceptable to the prevailing ideology. This put them in a double bind — they were blamed for not sharing their emotions and they were blamed when they did.

Jacobsen: Lloyd, following from the last query, how are young and old, men and women, and so on, culpable for this prevention of the full flourishing of men’s emotional lives in Canadian society?

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: The repression of emotions in men is very old indeed. Male circumcision was practiced by numerous ancient societies as a rite of passage. Boys had to bear the pain without crying to become a man. The practice also taught the new men submission to the collectivity in a way that made them good warriors. Curiously, we still do not commonly refer to the practice of circumcision as “male genital mutilation.”

In a different interview, I talked about my experiences as a youth growing up in the industrial town of Lloydminster. I talked about how men knowingly kept jobs that they knew were dangerous to their health and well-being because they needed to support their families. Even today men predominate in jobs that are dangerous, unhealthy or involve a lot of travel. And if they get paid more for working in these jobs, then there is talk about a “gender wage gap.” Men are expected to take these jobs without complaint and, apparently, to not be paid extra for the privilege. Yes, we as a society are still just as culpable for repressing male emotions as we always have been. The problem with that repression is that it sometimes comes out anyway, as anger.

Jacobsen: Teela, following from the previous question, how does this impact the emotional, social, and even, potentially, intellectual growth of men in Canada?

Teela Robertson, M.C.: It seems to me many people, not only men, end up struggling to show and communicate emotions whether theirs or someone else’s. This can be damaging in relationships where one might feel they should not express emotions, and that their feelings are not being heard or validated. If we do not know how to express our emotions, we may instead be fighting them and trying to keep them down. We may also feel uncomfortable with others’ emotions and end up sending a message that they cannot express emotions to us, which in turn hurts emotional closeness in relationships. Rather than simply disappearing the negative emotion may fester and each seemingly small pain adds to the point the emotion boils over and can not be hidden. This can be dangerous depending how the emotion erupts, for instance, it could be in the form of physical violence, or a verbal assault.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson and Teela.

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: You’re welcome Scott. My pleasure.

Teela Robertson, M.C.: You are welcome.

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2023-01-26

How to Protect Yourself by Knowing the Psychology of Advertising

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/12/25

Here we talk about advertising and marketing.

*Listing of previous sessions with links at the end of the interview.*

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You spoke on advertising and marketing deluging our consciousnesses throughout or modern lives. How can education and individual initiative, and conscientious, protect against some of these negative forces?

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: If you think that advertising is about announcing new products, then you are vulnerable. Advertising is rarely about announcing a new product, and even when it is, it is about pushing your buttons to buy that product. We think we are freely choosing a product or service, but as I have argued previously free will is largely an illusion (see: Free Will), and can only be exercised in a limited way by having objective knowledge of relevant conditions. If we are primed to buy, vote or otherwise interact by unconscious triggering, then we are not exercising free will.

A recent television ad reveals how this works. The ad begins with the upbeat rock tempo of Barracuda, a song about a sexually aggressive woman who trolls men. With this music in the background two young men offer, “Shopping while hungry… is a dangerous game.” We then see a short, plump and wide eyed woman drinking a brown liquid from a bottle while frantically pushing a shopping cart down a grocery aisle. We then see several actors including one who is rubbing her pregnant belly soulfully repeating the phrase, “Shop like a mother.” We don’t know whether the woman who was drinking chocolate milk while shopping is a mother, a barracuda or both. But here I am exhibiting the uniquely human trait of finding relationships where none exist. We are given four disjointed memes without a defined storyline. If any one of those memes (classic rock from a women’s band, men referencing shopping as “a dangerous game,” anxious shopper, or motherhood) connect our subconscious with the supermarket in question, then we will think of that store when the trigger meme presents (For a discussion of this mechanism see: Mind Virus). Unlike this example, most advertisements have some sort of narrative, but the narrative is not the part of the ad that programs you to buy, shop, or act in a way intended by the advertiser. It is the memes imbedded in the ad that are the activating agents.

You may think that when that expensive $2.5 million T.V. ad comes on during an all important football game, you ignore it and go to the fridge for a beer. What brand of beer? I am old enough to remember when European beers outsold U.S. beers which were commonly compared to dishwater in Canadian pubs. But after an extensive long-term multimedia campaign that including identification with Canada’s national game (hockey), one of those foreign brands has become dominant in the Canadian market. More money is spent producing television advertising than is spent on the programs that attract you to the T.V., because it works on targeted consumers. Psychologists have become mental technicians using sophisticated eye-tracking and brain wave experiments as well as surveys and focus groups to help the corporate elite push your buttons. They are using your dreams, desires and subconscious triggers to sell you stuff that you otherwise might not want.

Sometimes they use fear. We are all familiar with negative political advertising. A rival is painted as having a “secret agenda” or as having a questionable past. The same technique may be used in marketing. One European carmaker, promoting its reputation for safety, weakened the structure in a selection of competitor’s vehicles while reinforcing their own beyond production standards to produce an ad where rollovers produced disproportionate damage in North American vehicles. Safety fears would then drive customers to their brand.

Negative advertising has also been applied to the sale of foods. The phrase “health food” is used to imply that competing products are not healthy. One “health food” chain actually developed an aerosol spray which they used daily in their stores to mimic the smell of 19th-century grocery stores with the implied assumption people used to eat healthier. The so-called health food industry became a victim of its own success. The established chains began selling the same products with lower overhead, but the emphasis on negative advertising remained. Goods are now often promoted on the basis of what they do not contain instead of what they do contain. Going “gluten free” or “lactose free” is a necessity for people who are allergic to those products but of little import on most of us; and, the alternatives are often more expensive with less nutritional value. For example, while almonds have been shown to have similar nutritional value to milk, less than 2% of “almond milk” is actually almonds. The product is essentially coloured water.

Advertisers do not always succeed. A company selling shaving products recently ran a series of ads degrading masculinity as “toxic.” While the ad won favour with a particular political lobby, it offended a large percentage of the constituency that buys most of their products. Sales plummeted, and the company replaced the offending advertisements with ones that celebrated masculinity demonstrating that consumers have the capacity to defy advertisers.

You asked how we may avoid the negative effects of advertising, Scott. We need to do more than simply not buy a product when we are offended. Simply turning off the remote is insufficient because it only results in advertisers increasing their saturation through multiple mediums. The amount of advertising space on television has more than doubled in the last 35 years, and on U.S. channels you can be deluged with 12 minutes of advertising in a 30-minute slot. You may have noticed they also turn up the volume to ensure that if you don’t see the ad you will at least hear it. Ads appear on shopping carts, parking meters and even electronically triggered above urinals. The cartoons that used to introduce movies were replaced by advertising long ago. My internet provider asked me if I wanted to stop seeing an ad, and when I hit the “yes” button, it then asked me why. And my computer was frozen until I answered the question! The cost of all this advertising is built into the price you pay for the product.

One way to protect yourself from advertisers is to avoid buying heavily advertised products. A more sophisticated variation of this strategy is to know your triggers and refuse to buy from advertisers who push those buttons. For example, the majority of males are attracted to women. If this is one of your buttons, refuse to buy from an advertiser who pushes it. Many feminists miss, but most men know that the attractive woman with the .7 waist to hip ratio selling overpriced consumer products is not selling sex but status. By noticing men with high-status women are, in fact determining the status level of men. Men who lack status, such as the 90% in prisons who are men, the 80% who are homeless, the 75% who commit suicide, and the 50% who are victims of domestic violence are invisible to most women. The promise of the advertisers pushing this button is that if you purchase this overpriced product, you will demonstrate status. I know of one of the federal political leaders has two Rolex watches. Even one Rolex is an excessive display of wealth similar, in kind, to a peacock displaying his feathers to the peahen. Both men and women have sex and status buttons but they also have the power to ignore advertiser’s attempts to push them.

The ultimate answer is to research each competing product comparing quality and price. For example, we could research the nutritional value of a variety of foods and match these foods against our own nutritional needs. We then may add additional factors such as taste and price in making a decision. Unfortunately, we do not have the time to sufficiently research every product we buy. We are forced to rely on heuristics.

Some people simply buy the cheapest. While this is often this a good policy, you could be sacrificing quality. You could also be sacrificing your long-term interest. U.S. “transnationals” are famous for undercutting local companies only to jack up prices when the competition is gone. This not only hurts consumers but leads to a loss of jobs and often to a reduced tax base.

We become creatures of habit almost by necessity. We buy the same brands until we have reason to change that decision. If this is your profile, then compare shopping with others from time to time, looking for alternative opinions to research. Knowing that we become largely creatures of habit, advertisers target children. Soft drink companies vie for the school market. The Pepsi-Cola company has “donated” sports equipment, and Coca-Cola has “donated” scoreboards in exchange for the right to have vending machines in the school. Like the early Indian reserves that were designated “Anglican” or “Catholic”, educational institutions may be designated “Pepsi” or “Coke” but not both. Fast-food chains and pharmaceuticals offer to go “in partnership” with schools in supplying textbooks, computer equipment and curricula. Sweden has banned all advertising aimed at young children because of the long term habituation.

Your free will may be exercised if you become a knowledgeable shopper. This means ignoring advertising and forming your own ideas about quality. Do the research on selected shopping habits from time to time. Avoid impulse buying. Throw away coupons unless they are something you already wanted. Know whether the product is local or foreign. Read consumer reports. Be careful about buying heavily advertised products. Approach all advertising skeptically.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson, again.

Robertson: You are most welcome Scott.

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2023-01-26

How Religious and Cultural Background Can Affect Therapy

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/11/04

Here we talk about religious and non-religious background in the context of counselling, a culture of one, secular and faith-based approaches, and men and women in counselling/being counselled.

*Listing of previous sessions with links at the end of the interview.*

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What are the risks of personal religious or non-religious background influencing the professional work of a counselling psychologist while in session with a client — in general terms?

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: I attended a cousin’s wedding during the 1980s officiated by an Evangelical Christian minister. As part of the ceremony, the minister advised the happy couple that disagreements were part of marriage, and that if they had problems that they cannot resolve they should go see a pastor, a church elder, or a trusted family member. He advised them to never see a psychologist. There is a tension between psychology and religion that is often not recognized and is even less often addressed, and that tension stems from conflicting worldviews. I make no apologies for expressing a worldview of client individuality, empowerment, and self-actualization. The imposition of my worldview beyond this fundamental understanding would be unethical.

Our worldview is a kind of map of our understandings and expectations that, in turn, colours and even distorts our perceptions of reality. Our worldview begins with our childhood experiences and our interpretations of those experiences. Psychology is premised on the view that humans are volitional individuals capable of discerning reality acting in the social interest, and as I have argued, psychology is largely about teaching those skills to our clients (see: free will). Religion is premised on the view that humans are not up to this task, and that we need external direction on questions such as good and evil, ultimate meaning, and transcendence. Religion is inherently directive, and while psychology is not always non-directive, client empowerment is its core objective. Psychotherapists must bracket other aspects of our worldviews that might interfere with client self-actualization. There are obvious limits to this approach. For example, it would be unethical for me to help a sociopath become more successful in systematically harming other people. Instead I should offer to help the client overcome whatever pathology presents with the hope of self-actualization within a socially useful frame. This places me in the role of the expert with respect to diagnoses.

Teela Robertson, M.C.: One’s cultural background influences their perceptions and meaning making of situations. This includes faith, ethnicity, local culture, family culture, and so on. Psychologists are not immune to the effects of how our personal perspective influences our perceptions of clients, the trick is to ensure we are self-aware and able to monitor when it is our beliefs coming through versus the clients. Ideally we work with a client based on their cultural background and beliefs regardless of how this fits with our personal beliefs. This is not always an easy task. When the beliefs of the psychologist and client do not align, we not only have to be aware of where our biases come in, but also the limits to our knowledge about the client’s belief system. So to answer your question, the main risk I see is that the psychologist may start to impose their own beliefs upon the client.

Jacobsen: Dr. Robertson, you work with each client as a culture of one. How does this approach respect clients with unique versions of common and uncommon personal issues? Teela, in conversations with your father, how does one incorporate secular and faith-based approaches to suit the preferences and background of clientele in counselling sessions?

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: My “culture of one” approach assumes the uniqueness of each individual. By understanding individualized inner motivations, we will often find that behaviour that otherwise presents as abnormal is really a logical attempt to satisfy basic needs. Therapy then consists of brainstorming with the client alternative ways to meet these needs.

It may be that the client most at-risk for culturally inappropriate counselling has a therapist who is a member of the same racial, cultural, or religious group. The risk here lies in the therapist assuming an understanding of the client’s personal culture. If that happens, the client will likely feel compelled to “go along with” the therapist’s assumptions for fear of being labelled a deficient member. The second biggest risk might be for clients of culturally sensitive counsellors who have taken a workshop on the culture of the client. Let me use the example of a hypothetical non-aboriginal therapist counselling a person with ancestry that is indigenous to Canada.

Such a therapist will likely have learned about sweat lodges, a ceremony indigenous to most aboriginal cultures in northern North America. The sweat lodge ceremony may be used to connect to a transcendent power, heal certain ailments, or bond with fellow community members. Asking an aboriginal client whether they attend sweat lodges might be off-putting to those aboriginal people who view such ceremonies to be witch craft. Such people might be particularly sensitive to such a question because some Aboriginal Spiritualists have referred to them as “apples” for not following their traditions. Asking a woman if she attends sweats might be an insult if she is from a more traditional community that practises male only sweats. It is better to understand the personal culture of the individual before exploring behavioural alternatives, and it is safer to come from a perspective of “not knowing” where the client is considered to be the expert on him or herself.

Teela Robertson, M.C.: Whether one is religious or not I try to match the counselling tools to the client’s needs and beliefs, I believe my dad does the same. One way we have discussed incorporating faith into counselling is through the tools they already have that they find helpful, a common one is prayer. I think the trick is to ensure that the client is using tools in a healthy way. For instance, if a client were to tell me that they pray to God to take away all their negative emotions, we will need to modify the expectation that they can stop feeling any negative emotion and engage in psycho-education about emotion. Something like prayer can be quite healing in providing people with a sense of hope that positive change can happen.

Jacobsen: Speaking of differences in background, in general, do men and women require different counselling methodologies based on different needs? If so, how, and why?

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: There are statistically significant differences between men and women for a number of behaviours, but the range is such that you cannot predict the values, attitudes, and behaviours of any one individual based on their sex or gender. Again, I would recommend that each client’s personal culture be explored without presuppositions. Following exploration of the client’s worldview and agreement of presenting issues, I like to offer the client a range of possible interventions drawn from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Adlerian Psychotherapy, and Narrative methods, and then have the client co-construct a treatment plan.

Teela Robertson, M.C.: In my opinion the differences in approach I take lie more with personality. I find a greater proportion of my male clients than female clients have been taught not to show “weak” emotions such as sadness, and anxiety, instead they may show these as anger or a lack of emotion. To combat this I often find I spend more time with males working on the basics of learning to identify and name emotions, as well as creating a supportive relationship where it is safe for them to share these emotions with me. I commonly explore how they learned about emotions and what they were taught about how to deal with them, as well as how they were treated when they showed emotions. As a whole I don’t find a great deal of difference between treating men and women.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson and Teela.

Teela Robertson, M.C.: Thank you.

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2023-01-26

Soviet Psychology, Christian Counselling, Feminist Psychotherapy and Professional Ethics

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/09/17

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson is a Registered Doctoral Psychologist with expertise in Counselling Psychology, Educational Psychology, and Human Resource Development. He earned qualifications in Social Work too. Duly note, he has five postsecondary degrees, which is a lot, of which 3 are undergraduate level. His research interests include memes as applied to self-knowledge, the evolution of religion and spirituality, the aboriginal self’s structure, residential school syndrome, prior learning recognition and assessment, and the treatment of attention deficit disorder and suicide ideation. In addition, he works in anxiety and trauma, addictions, and psycho-educational assessment, and relationship, family, and group counselling.

Here we talk about counselling and ethics.

*Listing of previous sessions with links at the end of the interview.*

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You give insight into counselling in the fact that, in general, advice is not given, as in counsellors do not tell clients what they should or should not do.

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: That is correct, Scott. As explained previously in this series, I practise in Adlerian tradition where advice giving is anathema, and this view comes from a humanistic view that we, as a species, are defined by our ability to reason in an objective, volitional and internally consistent way. I made the argument that psychology, as a profession, seeks to teach people to reach this human potential in their individual lives (see: Free Will). While the advice giver is usually well-meaning, advice giving puts the receiver in a dependent position. In its most extreme form, advice giving reduces the receiver to an automaton waiting for direction. The advise that is given is necessarily from the perspective of the one who is giving it, not from the perspective of the receiver.

Often counselling and psychotherapy are considered to be synonyms, but Adlerians make a distinction: counselling is essentially joint problem solving done with clients who have intact selves while psychotherapy involves the reconstruction of part of the self (for a discussion of reconstructing the self see: Self-mapping). In either case the psychologist acts as a kind of consultant who has expertise in change while the client is recognized in having expertise in understanding himself. The counselling session becomes the collaboration of two experts.

I think the notion that counselling is advice giving comes from outside the profession, but is popular enough that some psychologists accept that definition. But they then typically view themselves as psychotherapists. As I said, the professional ideal is to promote individual volition, and this typically involves constructing alternatives with the client mapping pros and cons and deciding on a plan.

Jacobsen: What is a way in which counsellors violate professional ethics and codes of conduct here? How have things gone wrong in the past? What examples speak to this in the history of counselling?

Dr. Robertson: Were the therapist to impose his views on a client, that would be unethical. We need to understand that the client is in a vulnerable position, and that is why they are seeking counselling or psychotherapy. A therapist with the best of intentions may think that the answer is obvious, but unless the client arrives at that conclusion by considering his or her alternatives, priorities, goals and worldview then the imposition of a “solution” that appears right to the therapist does nothing to build the client’s capacities as an independent volitional individual. I think this is a standard understanding of most historic schools of psychotherapy, but there are exceptions.

Soviet psychology of the 20th century provides an example of systemic unethical diagnosis. Soviet psychologists viewed the communist man (inclusive of women) to be more collectivistic and altruistic than others. It seemed to them self-evident that the mentally healthy person, if given the opportunity, would want to participate in such a society. Those who did not agree with this worldview and were in conflict with the authorities were deemed to suffer from what was termed “sluggish schizophrenia.”

When an ideology or religion is used to modify terms like “psychology,” “counselling” or “psychotherapy,” I become wary. For example, how does “Christian Counselling” differ from counselling? Christian counsellors I have talked to define their religion as having certain superior attributes with respect to love and spiritual fulfillment. But a secular counsellor, on finding that a client believed in prayer, for example, might invite the client to pray as part of his or her therapeutic plan. A difference might be that if the prayer does not work to the client’s satisfaction, the secular counsellor might be more willing to explore other alternatives while the Christian counsellor might be more prone engage in self-limiting platitudes such as, “Maybe God does not want this for you.” Counsellors employed by Catholic Family Services are routinely required to sign a statement stating they will respect the Church’s beliefs regarding “the sanctity of life.” This is regularly interpreted to mean that counsellors in their employ may not explore the option of abortion with pregnant clients, and if a client chooses that option, she will do so without the support of her counsellor or therapist. Counsellors from a variety of Christian denominations actively discourage people who are non-heterosexual. A particularly unethical practice is encapsulated in the oxymoron “Conversion Therapy.” Conversion implies a template outside of the individual to which the individual converts. It is, therefore, the opposite of therapy where the client defines his own template. Overall, Christian counselling does not add to the professional practice but is subtractive, limiting the options permitted clients.

The notion of limiting psychology’s ability to increase to individual choice and volition is pervasive. Feminist Psychotherapists argue for equality between the sexes, but most psychotherapists already embraced this ideal long before there was Feminist Psychotherapy; indeed, Alfred Adler introduced the idea to the Viennese psychological circle founded by Sigmund Freud in 1911. The purpose of Feminist Psychotherapy has not been to develop new therapeutic techniques since the methods typically used, such as journaling, re-framing, assertiveness training were all initially developed by other schools of psychotherapy. We are left, therefore with an ideological reason for its existence, as one feminist writer of textbooks noted (Corey, 2001) “A goal of feminist therapy is to replace patriarchal ‘objective truth’, with feminist consciousness…” In this formulation, objective reality is deemed to be patriarchal, and since most schools of psychotherapy assume that there is an objective reality to which the client may reference (Narrative Therapy being an exception), then those schools are, by this definition, patriarchal. In a decision that reminds us of the Soviet diagnosis of “sluggish schizophrenia,” the American Psychological Association has decided to recognize a category called “toxic masculinity.” In a move that reminds us of Conversion Therapy, the Canadian government has decided to fund feminist organizations and therapists to convert toxic men into… something else. I have demonstrated that male stigmatization exists (see: Stigma), and my fear is that a purpose of this conversion therapy will be to have men internalize this stigma whith the long term effect of further eroding their mental health.

Scott, you asked me about professional codes of ethics. Codes of ethics are written by those with the power to do so. Conversion Therapy as practiced by some Christian groups has been ruled unethical. The feminist version has not. I believe that freedom of conscience involves a duty to conduct oneself to a higher ethic, and in my case that ethic involves supporting individual volitional empowerment. Individual volition operates within the constraint that there is a reality outside ourselves and if we stray too far from that reality we will harm ourselves and others. We cannot gain empowerment by feeding a delusion.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson, again.

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2023-01-26

Victim Culture and Personal Empowerment

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/09/19

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson is a Registered Doctoral Psychologist with expertise in Counselling Psychology, Educational Psychology, and Human Resource Development. He earned qualifications in Social Work too. Duly note, he has five postsecondary degrees, which is a lot, of which 3 are undergraduate level. His research interests include memes as applied to self-knowledge, the evolution of religion and spirituality, the aboriginal self’s structure, residential school syndrome, prior learning recognition and assessment, and the treatment of attention deficit disorder and suicide ideation. In addition, he works in anxiety and trauma, addictions, and psycho-educational assessment, and relationship, family, and group counselling.

Here we talk about personal responsibility, victim culture, and more.

*Listing of previous sessions with links at the end of the interview.*

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You comment on a couple of cases of personal responsibility and, more particularly, personal fault passed onto others or systems & institutions. How can institutional systems and legacies completely disempower parts of new generations of peoples?

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: As I re-read the commentary I wrote nearly twenty years ago, it seems, sadly, to be even more relevant today. At the time I viewed the legal cases from lawsuit happy U.S. America, as bizarre and slightly humorous anomalies. For example, the thief who got trapped in a garage and subsisted on Pepsi and dog food until the home owner came back from holidays, and then had the nerve to sue for unlawful confinement, had to be one of a kind. So I thought. But it is like a mental virus that has grown and evolved into something quite dangerous.

My original conclusion was that if we blame others then we are basically saying they have power over us and we are mere victims. About a dozen years after I wrote that an indigenous man murdered his wife and kidnapped his stepdaughter in my home community. After the man was apprehended, his sister told the press that her brother was the real victim because he had gone to an Indian residential school. My point is that yes, bad things have happened in the past, but that is not an excuse bad behaviour in the present. We have the power to choose how we will respond, and from that realization comes our own empowerment. We may not be able to control what others do, but we can always choose how we will react. And we can react with dignity in a way that makes the world a better place. Unfortunately, there are psychological reasons, and sometimes money, to be made from playing the role of disempowered victim, and this has contributed to the rise of a victim culture in Canada.

Jacobsen: Please explain what you mean by “victim culture.”

Robertson: Certainly, Scott. I operate from a humanist perspective that accords every individual worth and dignity by virtue of being human with the implication that people should conduct themselves accordingly. But if your self-identity is moulded around being a victim, you are proclaiming that power rests with the perceived victimizers. The victim then attempts to persuade people with even more power to punish the victimizers and redress the wrongs, often through financial compensation. But this comes at great cost to the individual. Let me give you the example of marriages. I have found marriage counselling to become more challenging over the past thirty years despite the fact that I have become more skilled with experience. Half the battle in marriage counselling is communication and developing the ability to understand the other’s perceptions with empathy. Increasingly I find that one or both partners have developed narratives of being a victim. And when they are presented with an alternative perception they simply repeat their own victim narrative verbatim, only more loudly. And when this does not work they declare themselves to have “not been heard,” and this further increases their sense of victimization. A couple of years ago I published some research on secular weddings and I found that people are as likely to have been legally married at least once by the time they reach my age, as they were 50 years ago, but at any given time over half the adult population is single. There is a reason for that.

We have evolved to the point where people’s primary identity is as a member of a victim group who have been considered historically wronged. Academics have even coined the word “transectionality” to describe people who are simultaneously members of multiple victim groups thereby attaining a higher ranking in the world of victimology. This is not to say that some of the victimization isn’t real. Even white males can point to accurate examples of victimization. But if our primary identity is based on something negative as opposed to something positive, then we pay a heavy psychological price.

You asked about the role of institutions. Ultimately, victim culture leads people to become helpless victims waiting for the state, or others, to make things right. Whole classes of victim groups have emerged with status accorded to ascribed degree of victimhood. Some politicians are only too happy to gain votes by acknowledging various groups sense of victimization and even apologizing for it. They may even pay compensation. But in the end this only reinforces dependency and disempowerment. Which suits the politicians because then they can go after the same votes, in the same way, time and again.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson, again.

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2023-01-26

Christmas and Satanic cults in northern Saskatchewan

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/08/13

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson is a Registered Doctoral Psychologist with expertise in Counselling Psychology, Educational Psychology, and Human Resource Development. He earned qualifications in Social Work too. Duly note, he has five postsecondary degrees, which is a lot, of which 3 are undergraduate level. His research interests include memes as applied to self-knowledge, the evolution of religion and spirituality, the aboriginal self’s structure, residential school syndrome, prior learning recognition and assessment, and the treatment of attention deficit disorder and suicide ideation. In addition, he works in anxiety and trauma, addictions, and psycho-educational assessment, and relationship, family, and group counselling.

Here we talk about the youth and attraction to Satanism, Christmas, pagans, Christianity, the Devil, gossip, and more.

*Listing of previous sessions with links at the end of the interview.*

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You have commented on the ways in which gossip can even move to the point of Satanic cults and the like. You have remarked on Satanic beliefs among youth and the reasons for the attraction of it.

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: I wrote the first column a couple of years after a child was murdered in La Ronge, Saskatchewan by two older children, age 14 and 8. The murderers believed that if they drank the rendered fat of a virgin they would gain the power to fly. The victim had been dead for a couple of days before his family realized he was missing and reported his disappearance to the police. Nonetheless, the story was circulated that the police would have acted more quickly if the victim were “white.” Then the story was circulated that a Satanic cult was operating in the community and the perpetrators had been “possessed.” Fingers were pointed at adult individuals who were seen to be potential cultists.

Several years later, I was asked to do workshops on Satanic cults in two communities of the Peter Ballantyne Cree to the east of La Ronge. Some youth had murdered several cats and smeared the blood in a local church. Soon after, Satanic symbols were found scrawled on walls in a second community. The RCMP, at the time, had a special unit to deal with cults and that unit was brought in. The Department of Indian Affair funded cult experts to come in. I had a chance to talk to some of the youth involved. In a nutshell, they were angry with their parents and the adults in their communities and this was seen as a way of giving expression to their anger. But to this day, you will find adults believing that some mysterious cult had entered their community and possessed the minds of their youth.

I would like to update an account I gave in the second article linked to your question, Scott. The account given, that Satanism is a mutated form of early paganism involving pagan survivors of Christian persecution, was an accepted narrative within anthropology. But I now believe that the vast majority of women and men who were burnt at the stake during the 16th and 17th century European witch-hunts were, in fact, Christians who had no connection to either pagan or Satanic beliefs. A kind of malignant gossip mutated and spread inciting fear and the need for drastic action engulfing, in some cases, whole communities. You can read my recent work on mind viruses here: Viruses.

The “Scott Boyes” mentioned in the first article was the editor of The Northerner that originally published this series. He had final say on whether my teasing him about hypothetical gossip would be seen by the readers.

Jacobsen: Your writing on Christmas and its history is of interest here too. Is there a common system of belief around oppositions? In that, those leaving Christianity may be more attracted to inverted belief systems, where negative valence beliefs become positive in the newer worldview, e.g., the interest in the archetype of evil in Christianity in the Devil seen as representative of the highest good. Is this particularly the case among the young?

Robertson: That certainly was the case with respect the Peter Ballantyne youth. Their parents were all Christian as were the authorities against which they rebelled. Although there is no evidence that the Church of Satan was involved in their activities, having looked at their website, I believe that church represents an inversion of Christianity as well. To be clear, if Christians are seen to do evil, as they did with the Indian Residential Schools for example, then that which the Christians fear must be good. Of course, the logic does not necessarily follow.

There is no evidence that the boys who murdered and ate the flesh of the young virgin were operating from any inverted belief system. The Christianity of their parents simply made magical or supernatural thinking acceptable, so their actions must be seen within the same paradigm that allowed for the burning of the witches. Immoral superstitious actions done out of fear or opportunism have the same result to the victim. The antidote for such viral thinking is a healthy dose of rational and scientific thought. I think that critical thinking should be taught at all levels in our educational systems and that no topics should be exempted from rational inquiry.

By the way, in my seven years of writing for The Northerner, there were only two articles they refused to print. One of them was this article on the history of Christmas. I was told it would offend some Christians. The other was an article critical of Toshiba.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson, again.

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2023-01-26

Connecting racism and cults through fascism

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/07/21

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson is a Registered Doctoral Psychologist with expertise in Counselling Psychology, Educational Psychology, and Human Resource Development. He earned qualifications in Social Work too. Duly note, he has five postsecondary degrees, which is a lot, of which 3 are undergraduate level. His research interests include memes as applied to self-knowledge, the evolution of religion and spirituality, the aboriginal self’s structure, residential school syndrome, prior learning recognition and assessment, and the treatment of attention deficit disorder and suicide ideation. In addition, he works in anxiety and trauma, addictions, and psycho-educational assessment, and relationship, family, and group counselling.

Here we talk about racism, white supremacy, power dynamics, sense of unworthiness, cults, dealing with racism and cults, and more.

*Listing of previous sessions with links at the end of the interview.*

By Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: A serious social disorder remains racism. A sense of superiority based on a non-biological, but still sociological and fictitious, category with real-world consequences. For example, you wrote on white supremacist forms of racism.

One correlation or driver is the power dynamics of racism. The power differential, presumed or perceived, may create fertile grounds for the sense of unworthiness described in the writing on cults, too.

What seems like cultural means by which to deal with racism and cults, as a set or separately? What tools of the psychological trade can be useful here?

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: I was hopeful, when I wrote the first article you cited, that racism was in decline. The idea that racial categories were arbitrarily defined was gaining acceptance, laws against racism were being enforced by human rights tribunals, fewer people were spouting racist ideas, and those that were would often be publically challenged. That trend line has been changing. Just this last week a law professor at Penn State in the U.S. said that her country would be better off if it restricted immigration to “whites.” A teaching assistant from the same university said she always asks black females students questions first. From there she ranked a series of minorities based on her estimate of “deserving” ending with white males whom she said she called on only if there is nobody left.

If I was to guess the psychological mechanism prompting the law professor’s racist statement would involve fear — fear that cultural values she holds dear are disappearing. The driving emotion of the teaching assistant’s racism is probably anger. She has a sense of social justice based on real or imagined historical wrongs, and she is intent on using her power to right those wrongs and punish those she sees as evil or in some way responsible. Historically it is not uncommon for the racist to describe the victims of racism as evil.

The law professor may be afraid that the underlying values of her civilization, having built the richest, best-educated and most tolerant civilizations known to mankind according to Steven Pinker, are being challenged in a way that will eradicate those advances. The teaching assistant, also driven by feelings, believes that the whites who have tended to dominate the economic pyramid in that civilization need to be replaced. The two are united in believing that there exists a pendulum with the teaching assistant believing that the pendulum should swing to favour those who have been historically disadvantaged. Those who wish to set the pendulum exactly in the middle like to set quotas for university entrance and various occupations based on population estimates, but the setting of such quotas reward tokenism or place-holding over ability and initiative thereby reinforcing the law professor’s concerns. The only way to eliminate racism is to get rid of the pendulum.

The pendulum is the concept of race, and as I pointed out in my initiating article, race is an illusion. All physical characteristics tend to blend into various population groups and no one set of characteristics is common to any. Anthropologists in the 1970s and 80s tried. By comparing blood type, skin colour, head shape and other physical characteristics they came up with three major races: Negroid, Caucasoid and Mongoloid. But even these categorizations are not discrete. Let me give you an example. In Canada, Jagmeet Singh likes to say he is the first visible minority member to lead a major political party. But his ancestry is Indo-European — he’s a Caucasian. He could still be a member of a visible minority if we define “white” more narrowly than Caucasian — and that is exactly what happens. Racial categories are defined by political expediency with people who would formerly have identified as “white” now claiming aboriginal, Hispanic and black status for the benefits accorded those categories through the quota system. We can remove the pendulum through colour-blindness. One of the participants in my doctoral research refused to identify as Metis because she did not live “Metis culture.” (see: Aboriginal Self). She did not identify as “white” either and when reporting to the census takers she would attempt to list her ethnicity as “Canadian.” What if, in any event, this woman was discriminated against because of her ascribed race? I would propose that laws against discrimination on the basis of race or any other fantasy categories continue.

Jacobsen: Okay, what is the connection between cults and racism, if any?

Robertson: In its original meaning “cult” meant a system of religious veneration directed toward an individual or saint, but in its modern form it connotes a form of mind control. “Mind” as used in this sense is the product of a self that is structured to incorporate elements of individuality, volition, constancy and logically consistent thought. David Martel Johnson, after studying pre-Homeric Greek and Egyptian cultures concluded they did have minds. I think his judgement is a little harsh, but they certainly did not have minds that functioned to differentiate the objective and subjective as we commonly value. Cultists operate by convincing their following to give up their sense of reason, and to trust the leader. Nazi philosopher Martin Heidegger masterfully deconstructed science and reason as flawed, but he was not a relativist. He taught that one who was “Dasein” could determine ultimate truths and, of course, he and the Fuhrer were Dasein. Of concern, Heidegger may be considered the modern founder of postmodernism.

Cultish societies are xenophobic, and this antipathy for the outsider can easily lead to racism. Tribal societies, as existed in all of our pasts, were notoriously xenophobic, so this may be a tendency built into us. One of my concerns is that identity politics may be leading toward a kind of tribalism that involves the demonization of the outsider. The antidote for cultism, tribalism and attendant racism is to help people construct healthy selves that are capable of “minding” that Martell describes. I have argued that the project of psychology is to teach people to exercise free will as is possible with a complete and healthy self (see: Culturally evolved self).

Related to this, I would suggest the terms “western medicine” and “western science” are racist. What is referred to by these terms is a method of streamlining our reasoning processes that occurred as a result of the European Enlightenment, so from a historical sense the use of these terms is defensible. How it is used; however, is to imply that there are “alternate ways of knowing” that are more effective or more appropriate for non-European peoples. It is Heidegger all over again, and it is used to discourage non-European peoples from exercising their individual reason in favour of some collectivist or groupist template. It thus puts those people in a cognitive disadvantage.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson, again.

Robertson: It was my pleasure, Scott.

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2023-01-26

Connecting Humanism and Good Mental Health

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/06/26

Here we talk about psychology, low self-esteem, crazy, and more.

*Listing of previous sessions with links at the end of the interview.*

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: In “The Age of Psychology,” you describe, in brief, the ways in which psychology is utilized in the modern world. The “Epidemic of Low Self-Esteem” described how this age of psychology can be used for the positive.

“Crazy Making in Our Communities” talks about the ways in which individuals can go wrong, act strangely, or malfunction depending on the frame, as in the case of schizophrenia.

“From Lloydminster to Lenningrad” spoke to the manifestations of the social illness of racism reflected in certain psychologies, which seems to reflect religious fundamentalism.

If we look to treat extreme mental or social illnesses, how can the age of psychology, moving forward, help with their treatment — either reduction or even eventual elimination?

Humanist Canada Vice-President Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: Scott, you honour me by referencing articles I wrote for the now defunct weekly newspaper, The Northerner, 20 years ago. The main theme of The Age of Psychology seems to be even more apropos today. As a heuristic, if you read something, don’t learn anything new, but feel angry, chances are someone has been pushing your psychological buttons to get you to do something. My views on self-esteem have broadened substantially since I wrote Epidemic. I continue to recommend that parents spend considerably more time finding what is good and positive about their children than the negative; however, I believe that the self-esteem movement has gone too far producing people who overestimate their abilities while feeling entitled to the benefits that come with greater achievement. Studies comparing U.S. American and Japanese high school students, for example, have found that the U.S. students have higher self-esteem as related to their abilities in mathematics but their math achievement is substantially lower. Yes, we need to praise people, particularly for effort, but they also need to be grounded in reality. I am sorry, but we cannot all be whatever we want to be, we each have limitations, and in any case it requires work to accomplish that which is worthwhile. Our reluctance to give negative feedback has resulted in people with fragile egos who cannot handle criticism and have learned to treat negative feedback as “traumatizing.”

I was fascinated in the Lloydminster to Leningrad article to observe two people separated by 50 years and 7,000 kilometres who held identical racist views about Jews. Efforts to have them question their biases with facts just led to a series of rationalizations, often based on conspiracy theories, to explain away those facts. Those mechanisms are also used by the religious fundamentalists described in the article of that name. In his book The Deadly Doctrine Canadian psychologist and humanist Wendell Watters described religion as a kind of mental illness and in this he is in the company of Sigmund Freud who viewed religion as a kind of mass hysteria.

All of this speaks to my favourite article you referenced, Crazy Making. What is “crazy?” It is not being in touch with reality. The antidote is to teach reality testing skills based on natural rather than supernatural explanations using the rational and scientific skills honed in the Enlightenment. These skills need to be coupled with the belief that one can always choose courses of action that will make one’s future better instead of worse. This is the positive in self-esteem. But Crazy Making goes beyond this simple analysis. Communities, even societies, “make crazy” selected people they choose to demonize. The people could be Jews, Muslims, right-wingers, left-wingers, men or any other identifiable group viewed as “toxic” in some way. The 1960s rock band Jethro Tull, in their song Aqualung, sang of demonizing the homeless as a way of making the majority feel good about themselves. As a humanist, I don’t believe in demons. I believe people are essentially good and I agree with something Jordan Peterson said that we should approach every encounter with the attitude that here is a human being who knows something I do not yet know. I think that if we hold our own beliefs to be tentative dependent on further evidence, and that the people holding contrary believes are, nonetheless, good in their intentions, that we will have done a lot to improve mental health in the world.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson, again.

Robertson: Thank you for this opportunity to go down memory lane, Scott. I hope my reflections will help others to also reflect, each in their own way. The ability to reflect is in effect, the ability to reprogram ourselves, and that is a key part of what it means to be human.

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2023-01-26

The Stigmatization of Men and Social Work

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/05/14

Here we talk about male stigma in social work and more.

*Listing of previous sessions with links at the end of the interview.*

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You wrote an article, recently, which is associated with Humanist Canada. What was the research question around male stigma? What was the tentative conclusion from the article published in Humanist Perspectives?

Humanist Canada Vice-President Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: Scott, you always tend to, and I shouldn’t overgeneralize and I’ve heard you do this before, but you tend to ask big questions that take a long time to answer.

The first part of the answer to my question is that the definition of “stigma” has to be clear. It is not the same thing as “discrimination.” Certainly, where stigma occurs, you expect discrimination to follow, but you can have discrimination without stigma.

Stigma, in the definition that I am using, is the imputation of a character defect, which when believed renders members a targeted group to be unfit, not also for interactions but, for particular social interactions.

I was looking for examples of stigma that fit that definition in the population. So, using that definition, I wanted to know when gendered stigmatization occurs. That was the research question.

To do that, I had to examine the experiences of a group of men. I had a sample of 16 men who agreed to partake of in-depth interviews on their experiences. I matched those experiences to the definition of stigma.

The conclusion was that stigma does occur. Now, given the restrictions of the research method, I am not able to say how prevalent that stigma is in society. That can be answered by future research.

Jacobsen: If we’re looking at those 16 men, what are some highlights from their self-reports?

Robertson: The two takeaways, the 16 men had some overlap. Some men experienced two forms of stigmatization. One was stigmatization with respect to role as parents. Men are less responsible, less able, or less reliable to be good parents and more of a threat, therefore, to children and women in general.

The other form of stigma, which was related to that. It is more about the threat rather than the ability level. Certain jobs, men had to prove that they were not a danger to functional success in those jobs.

One of the jobs being social work.

Jacobsen: How is this reflected in the numbers of men entering those professions in history as well as the present day?

Robertson: Overwhelmingly, in social work, men are underrepresented. Some of this underrepresentation can be traced to stigma. In my study, for example, I found that two men who were in the social work profession were judged to be in the first case not able because men don’t relate as well, and don’t communicate as well.

(Ed. Robertson interviewed two social workers, two social work students, and three social work clients totalling 7 individuals or almost half of the sample in the study, who all experienced or reported stigma from members of the profession.)

Therefore, this man had difficulties and was treated differently than if he had been female in the same position. As I said, discrimination, itself, is not by itself the same thing as stigma.

But if it is believed that because of men as a class have a particular characteristic that can be stigmatic, in the second case, a man graduated from social work. In his first job, and in his first job as a matter of fact, he was given the responsibility for assessing a woman, a single parent, and the women complained to his supervisor that he reminded her of an abusive uncle or an abusive family member in other words.

The supervisor asked as a claim of sexual harassment and was unwilling to interview the woman earlier for fear of furthering her trauma. As, not the male but the, female members of this persons team in social work who he had just started to work with, whether they felt comfortable with him given that he had been accused of sexual harassment, he lost his job.

I don’t believe a woman who some man said, “Well, she reminds me of an abusive aunt.” I don’t believe that woman may have been treated the same way with those suppositions. That is, supposition of being dangerous. Now, this is a complete surprise.

I didn’t, at any point, in the survey ask whether a particular profession was possibly had stigmatic views against men. I, certainly, did not single out social work. But it kept coming up. Remember, these are 16 men.

Two of them were students. In one case, the man in class argued against what was being presented; that domestic violence was a male event perpetrated by women. He brought forward evidence in terms of research that showed that domestic violence as 50–50. Most of the research that I have seen is 50–50.

It can be initiated by males or females in the domestic situation. He provided an argument. He defended his position. By the end of the conversation, he was compared to mass murderer Marc Lepine.

There is a suggestion here that because of a man disagrees with the stats being used; therefore, he is, now, like a mass murderer. It may be hard to understand the leap. But we can understand what happens, subsequently. He was drummed out of the profession.

He was kicked out of school. He was later won on a settlement because it was unjust, clearly. Why would this happen? Is it that only women can challenge such statistics on domestic violence without getting a reaction of this sort?

Noting only 16 men in the study, 3 of them were in events, where they were in custody battles with their ex-spouses. In each case, a bias was evident. I’ll give you one example. This example is, actually, from your province of British Columbia.

The male, in this case, bought a house close to the school, where his children went, because he wanted them to be comfortable going to school. He wanted to make this transition as easy as possible for the kids, because he knew a divorce is difficult on the children.

The social worker, in this case, said to him; that he was wasting his money. Because, in her opinion, the woman gets the children pretty much all the time. That can be an example of discrimination and not necessarily stigma.

But then, the same social worker about a month later after the woman in question had ignored an order with regard to visitation rights and the man complained. The social worker says, “Well, you are the man. In my opinion, I have to go with the lesser of two evils.”

There you have evidence of a stigmatic attitude. This kind of things happened over and over in the study. There was surprise that one profession should be mentioned so often in such a small sample.

Jacobsen: Even though, we have preliminary findings on some male stigma in social work in particular. What would be further directions of research deeper into the subject matter of social work male stigma or into male stigma in other domains of work?

Robertson: This method used in this study established that the conditions satisfying the definition of stigma exist as applied men. Quantitative methods are needed to establish how prevalent this stigma is found in Canadian society.

It was significant that nearly half the men in this sample recounted examples of stigma in their experiences as workers, students and clients of the social work profession; however, this does not prove that the profession as a whole is rife with this stigmatization.

The stigma could be limited to time or place or to, for example, men of a particular personality type. A study aimed specifically at the social work profession is needed answer these questions. It would then be possible to replicate such a study on other domains of work.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson.

Robertson: Okay!

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2023-01-26

Practicing Psychology Intergenerationally

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/04/02

Here we talk about generational differences in educational training, and private practice counselling psychology work in comparison to non-profit community work.

*Listing of previous sessions with links at the end of the interview.*

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Let’s start some of this within the context of a generational difference, for one, Lloyd and Teela, you come from different generations of counselling psychology. For two, you are a father and a daughter. You’re family. Any points to make at the outset here?

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: Issues such as those involving gender diversity, transsexuality, changing male roles and multiple lifetime careers were, I think, normative markers for Teela’s generation, and I consult with her regularly to avoid a feeling of being “stuck in the past.” I have talked before in this series about treating every client as a culture of one and the process of exploring each person’s unique culture has saved me from a lot of grief; however it is good to know what the client is talking about. I consult with Teela regularly about new and changing perspectives, and newer communication patters by which those perspectives are transmitted. I think I bring a historical perspective to the table.

Teela Robertson, M.C.: Given my dad raised me, I was influenced by his Adlerian approach, specifically regarding beliefs about human nature such as people are unique given their context, goal oriented, and capable of change. In my training I found myself automatically ascribing to an Adlerian framework which was pointed out by a professor early in my Masters. It was no surprise, but of course we typically try to differentiate from our parents. I agree my generation and particularly my personal experiences offered a different perspective for me to draw on when consulting with my dad. On the other side, my dad’s range of professional experience and expertise is a platform for me to draw on as I continue to learn and develop my professional self.

Jacobsen: Another difference, though not necessarily or, at least, fully based on generations, is the private practice versus not for profit professional lives in the latter-2010s. Lloyd, you work through Hawkeye Associates, i.e., a private practice. Teela, you work with a not for profit agency.

Lloyd, how does private practice possibly provide more in-depth and intimate experiences with clients or patients in comparison to not for profit agencies? Teela, does a not for profit potentially give a more consistent and narrow range of possible issues and concerns of patients compared to a private practice clientele?

Lloyd: Although I have maintained a private practice under a registered business name since 1985, I have also worked for the provincial government, indigenous band governments, school boards and a community college. I have experience as a psychologist in each of those settings. While the private practise route allows the practitioner more flexibility in controlling his or her schedule, it also has some drawbacks. For example, if the client is a “no-show” normally the practitioner does not get paid for that missing hour; Further, most private practice work is funded through various plans each of which has their own limitations. For example, one Employee and Family Assistance Provider limits paid sessions to three every calendar year. Successful therapy usually takes longer than three sessions. Of course, there may also be limitations when employed as a psychologist by an agency. For example, the provincial mental health program had a policy that therapists were not to do marriage counselling or ability assessments. School boards often did not like their psychologists doing mental health work. In private practice, I could do it all.

Teela Robertson, M.C.: Working in a community agency with accessible services that includes a sliding scale we see a wide range of client issues and concerns. Often this means clients who might otherwise only receive 3–5 sessions through insurance or employee assistance programs can continue therapy at a reduced rate. I am typically able to see my clients until we agree services are no longer required. Being in an agency there are some practice expectations to follow, however, at least in the agency I work there is a large amount of flexibility in terms of working with clients in our own style as opposed to having to conform to a specific modality or approach. What is somewhat unique although not exclusively, is that the agency I work for is faith-based and encourages us to take into consideration the client’s cultural and spiritual beliefs to the extent we are competent to and the client wants us to. This is an area I believe my dad and I practice very similarly. In that we may intentionally included a client’s cultural or spiritual practices as a strength they can draw on, something they may already be doing that they find helpful, prayer is a common example. Often times it is helpful to help clients consciously identify what it is they are already doing to get through tough times and do those things more intentionally, as long as they are productive for them.

Lloyd: There is research demonstrating that prayer can be effective in treating certain conditions such as depression and anxiety. But when you break down the results of that research you find that prayer involving a request that a deity give them something or do something to change their circumstance is not very effective. The prayer that is effective is non-demanding and contemplative, something like the notion of mindfulness. But often that is not sufficient. Psychotherapy is a value added process focusing on client empowerment and self-change. Using myself as an example, I was raised in a very religious family. Being a nervous sort, I found a quiet prayer to myself before each exam calmed me down and gave me the confidence to do my best. And it worked! I graduated from high school with a B average. Then I went to university and eventually decided I had the ability to do better by establishing my learning goals and sticking to a plan to reach those goals. In the process, I no longer needed the prayer to calm me down because I was now confident in my knowledge and ability. Since then, with one exception in my masters program, I have had straight As. Adler said we all have within an innate drive he called “striving for perfection.” The client who has stopped striving is discouraged. Our job, in part, is to help the client see that he or she has the capability to make a meaningful difference and to develop a plan to be the difference he has already decided is meaningful. As Teela said, that decision needs to be grounded in whatever cultural norms with which the client has chosen to self-identify.

Jacobsen: Lloyd and Teela, from educational experiences at the time of graduate training, what techniques were emphasized as core and then others as more secondary, even experimental — to provide a sense of the development of the discipline of counselling psychology over time?

Lloyd: In my masters program, it was emphasized that a psychotherapist had to pick one so-called “theory” of practise and learn it well. Eclectic practitioners were viewed as muddled and slightly irresponsible. In fact, these were not theories at all but competing schools of practise that regularly, and shamelessly, appropriated techniques from each other. Most psychologists today describe themselves as eclectic, and this has allowed for an evolving disciplinary paradigm that I described in my article on free will. This paradigm will, I think, allow for the development of psychology as a science, and has already allowed practitioners to refine their craft using best practices from a variety of schools.

Teela Robertson, M.C.: In my program Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT) were the popular choices. I believe this is due to the evidence backing CBT as well as the clear tools in each approach to help clients in very few sessions, this can be less intimidating for novice therapists. Another popular approach is mindfulness based techniques, I often draw on mindful techniques. Similarly to my dad’s experience I was told to pick a theory I most closely prescribe to as many still hold a negative view of eclecticism as an approach but acknowledge most therapists draw on tools from multiple theories. I am technically eclectic, although an Adlerian approach allows for this in terms of drawing on various techniques helpful for the client.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson and Teela.

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: You are very welcome.

Teela Robertson, M.C.: Thank you for having me.

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2023-01-26

The difference between Counselling and Therapy

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/03/19

His research interests include memes as applied to self-knowledge, the evolution of religion and spirituality, the Aboriginal self’s structure, residential school syndrome, prior learning recognition and assessment, and the treatment of attention deficit disorder and suicide ideation.

In addition, he works in anxiety and trauma, addictions, and psycho-educational assessment, and relationship, family, and group counseling. Please see Ask Dr. Robertson 1 — Counselling and Psychology, Ask Dr. Robertson 2 — Psychotherapy, Ask Dr. Robertson 3 — Social and Psychological Sciences Gone Wrong, Ask Dr. Robertson 4 — Just You and Me, One-on-One Counselling, and Ask Dr. Robertson 5 — Self-Actualization, Boys, and Young Males: Solution:Problem::Hammer:Nail as these are the previous sessions in this educational series. Here we talk about memes, the self, and Aboriginal or Indigenous issues.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Let’s start with memes and the self in relation to the Aboriginal self this session, please. The self is a cognitive structure and, thus, in part, a cultural construct. It also links to memes.

A meme is described as “an elemental unit of culture that exhibits referent, connotative, affective and behavioural properties. Connotation and affect were assumed to be the source of the attractive and repellent “forces” identified by Dawkins.

In addition, the self exists as non-static.[1] This view of the self as a dynamic whole within an environment is reflected in the eco-maps idea and cultural construction.[2] You have described one caveat of the self-stability as important as our selves evolving through time, or the dynamism of the self, too.

Also, the self, as it has evolved, is a reflective project. As noted, there can be consistency in the memeplexes, and so the average self across selves, e.g., consistency in volition in spite of cultural repression in the case of Maomao. In a way, the self remains not entirely a cultural construct in this resistance to cultural repression.

You explain the modern self as follows, “The modern self may be understood as a self-referencing cognitive feedback loop having qualities of volition, distinctness, continuance, productivity, intimacy, social interest, and emotion.”

The self, as a referent point, simply seems non-trivial as a point of contact here. Adler stated the self is core in worldview. Obviously, this links worldview to culture, the cultural construction of the self, the average self across selves, the dynamic self evolving through time, and, ultimately, the reflection in the structure and dynamics of the brain and so the mind.

Thus, these diverse points of contact centered on the self may be a means by which to help patients, as some work shown by you.

What other contexts provide explanation of the self and memes as further background — ignoring for the moment other work by Blackmore and others on technology and “memes”?

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: Thank you for that intricate summary of my work in this area Scott. I am not going to accept your suggestion that we ignore Blackmore for the moment, because I think that she offers a good starting point to understanding my contribution to self studies. Briefly, she viewed the self to be an illusion created by complexes of memes infesting human bodies turning us into “meme machines.” Given that the self is not a material thing, but an entity consisting of units of culture that describes a relationship with one material human body, hers is not, at first glance, an unreasonable metaphor. But we cannot be the corporeal body Blackmore assumes us to be because such bodies, by themselves, lack self-awareness or consciousness, and we have both. In the alternative, we might be the memeplexes so visualized, but that leads to the image of ethereal bodies waiting to infest some unsuspecting dumb brute in a kind of non-theistic dualism. From whence did such ethereal bodies come? The answer, of course, is that the memeplexi had to come from the bodies to begin with, which means there could be no infestation, no take over, no dualism between the two. Our bodies and our minds co-evolved and the distinctions we make between the two are simplifications that may benefit our analysis in some ways but cannot completely or holistically describe the phenomena.

When did the first self emerge? Well, I could say when the first ape-like creature recognized his reflection in a pool of water, but an argument could be made for millions of years earlier — when the first organism recoiled when penetrated by a foreign object. Of course, neither the ape nor the organism had a self we would recognize as such. The evolution of the self was aided by the invention of language that allowed for increasingly sophisticated conceptualizations, and equally important, a process whereby phonemes can be recombined to create new meanings — a process that is mimicked in the process of recombining memes in new and novel ways. The modern self with elements of uniqueness, volition, stability over time, and self descriptors related to productivity, intimacy and social interest, is one such recombination that proved to be such value that it was preserved in culture and taught to succeeding generations of children. This modern self occurred as recently as 3,000 years ago, but had such survival value that it spread to all cultures.

When I use the term “modern self” it should not be confused with “modernity” which is said to have occurred with the European Enlightenment. Foucault mistook the ideology of individualism that flowed from the Enlightenment with self-construction in declaring the self to be a European invention. Let me explain. To engage in volitional cognitive planning each person must first situate themselves within a situational and temporal frame. Even when engaged in group planning, each individual must so situate themselves in determining their contribution to the group effort. The Europeans did not invent this. While the potential benefits to societies containing individuals who can perform forward planning are obvious, the individualism inherent in defining oneself to be unique, continuous and volitional are potentially disruptive. I have argued that the rise of the great world religions was an effort to keep the individualism inherent in the modern self in check. Confucians sublimated the self to the family and tradition. Buddhists declared the self to be an illusion. Christians instructed the devout to give up their selves. Hindus controlled self-expression through an elaborate caste system. One of the accomplishments of the Enlightenment was to reverse the moral imperative. The individualism inherent in the self was now seen as a good and the enforced collectivism restricting the freedoms of the self, especially with regard to freedom of thought, was deemed to be oppressive. It is with this background early psychologists like Adler were able to declare the self to be central to a unique worldview.

Jacobsen: This can relate to Aboriginal peoples too, especially in the forced attempts at construction of new selves for the Aboriginal peoples in Canada with the sanction of both the churches — in general — and the government of Canada.

You stated, “The botched church-directed attempt to re-make the selves of aboriginal children led to the distinctive symptoms of Residential School Syndrome even in individuals who were not sexually or physically abused at school. Since the self both creates and is created by the surrounding culture…”

That links to the individual and cultural construction of the self in an Aboriginal mistreatment context. However, nuances exist here. The history remains gray rather than black and white — so to speak. In “The Residential School Experience: Syndrome or Historic Trauma,” you state, “…the residential school experience traumatized a generation of children without the necessary pre-condition that each one experienced physical or sexual abuse.”

Robertson: If I can interject here, I was engaging in literary hyperbole in the last quote you correctly attributed to me. Not every residential school was the same during all periods in which they existed, and not every child who attended an Indian Residential School was traumatized. I have worked with a number of adults who report good experiences at such schools. Having said that, there are numerous examples of physical and sexual abuse, but that is not the whole story. The point I was making here is that the system itself was potentially traumatizing without the necessity of introducing those “life and death” causal factors necessary for a traditional diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

All trauma can be viewed as damaging to the self of the individual who experiences it. In the case of Residential School Syndrome, children were removed from their families and their communities for extended periods of time. The churches wanted to minimize familial influence that might negate their sacred mission to proselytize. Isolated individuals have difficulty maintaining their sense of self. In the residential school environment students would not have typically received such reinforcement for their self, except possibly from their peers. From the staff, these students were treated like different persons from who they were in their communities and this was in an environment where they were disempowered. The new self was often grafted on to the old self but often without a good fit, or in some cases, the old self was discarded entirely. If we were only talking about physical or sexual assault then a diagnosis of PTSD would be sufficient to understand the condition. Considerations of self expand the range of recognized triggering events and expands the range of symptoms. It also introduces the possibility of intergenerational transmission.

Jacobsen: Also, you noted the possibility, as when Waldram reviewed the work of Manson (a study of U.S. high school students) and 8 other studies, of low rates of exhibited PTSD in Aboriginal peoples — because they simply have low rates of PTSD. In other words, it’s not everyone.

That is to say, there is a difference between the Aboriginal sub-populations who have and have not gone through Residential Schools, and differentials between individuals and people groups who went through the Residential School system. (All this skipping over issues of blood quantum and status, as described.)

Robertson: The mixing of “blood quantum” and culture invariably leads to racism, but for this discussion, we do not need to go there. At the time that I wrote the article to which you refer, the research on PTSD in aboriginal populations consistently showed lower rates of PTSD despite a higher proportion of potentially traumatizing incidents with survivors of residential schools in Canada being an exception. Since Waldram’s work, Brave Heart, who popularized the notion of “Historic Trauma,” has argued that PTSD in indigenous American populations is much higher than had been diagnosed, but this argument is based on the idea that high rates of alcoholism, domestic violence and crime are evidence of trauma. In my opinion, there are other possible reasons for such destructive activities.

Jacobsen: For example, there will be differences in the efficacy of methodologies between, for example, the Cree and the Blackfeet. It can be the same with different methodologies for men and women too.

As we discussed in the last session on pornography and video games and young men, described in the case of international students who were middle eastern men, you explain, “In the new, unmonitored environment, their post-secondary studies suffered because they spent several hours per day gaming and viewing pornographic websites.”

This may need a different intervention than with women who may be less likely to have these problems and different issues, if they do have them, manifesting with them, too.

One practical therapeutic example included a woman. You researched the construction of the map of the self, where the map of the self may help youth with the serious issue of suicidal ideation, as in the case of “Suzie,” alongside CBT and EMDR.[3]

However, males may respond in different ways. Therefore, different cultural groups and sexes & genders may require different methodologies. How can the ideas of memes and the self incorporate into different therapeutic methodologies for different Aboriginal peoples — and for Aboriginal men and women?

Robertson: There is an assumption in your question that different methodologies are appropriate for different classes of people. I treat each client as a culture of one with that culture identified through exploration. Once the client’s personal culture is understood, or in the process of developing that understanding, we co-construct treatment plans based on the uniqueness that is inherent. When we talk about differences between the sexes, or between racial and ethnic groups, these differences are merely averages and cannot describe any one person within the group. Any attempt to define people by their membership to an ascribed identity ends up being oppressive. People must define themselves.

Jacobsen: Further on the issues of men and women, and Aboriginal peoples, you have explained, in part, how this church (and state) imposition impacts the ways in which PTSD-like or PTSD symptomatology can be passed through the generations. You have described some of the atrocious outcomes:

The churches’ plan to pay for school maintenance costs through the labour of the students was unsuccessful, and this resulted in cutbacks to diet and health care. A 1941 study found that half the children who entered residential schools prior to that date did not survive to adulthood.

This relates to the cultural construction of the self passed through peoples with the trauma generated and delivered socioculturally down the generations. Also, as you note, ideological stances, such as some feminisms, may impute selves into men as a category, causing real-life havoc and lifelong damage.

This may become an issue or concern, or a reality, for many Indigenous peoples within the bounded geography of Canada, as they may be imputed, by the wider non-Aboriginal culture, with certain selves with damage to healthy senses of self. The aforementioned trauma, obviously, can impact the sense of self.

As noted in counselling services, the ethnicity and sexual orientation of the counsellor can influence who shows up, where, in a North American context, similar “ethnicity appeared to be more important to Amerindian than to Caucasian students…”

Dealing with aforementioned points of contact at the outset, for those Indigenous youth, or even older, affected with PTSD or PTSD symptomatology, could the storytelling and metaphors, e.g., the medicine wheel, help in the discovery of the newer healthier self, especially if done through an Amerindian counsellor as an example?

Robertson: My concern is not so much that people who are not aboriginal to North America would impute damaged selves to those who are, but that aboriginal people make the imputation to themselves. For example, when Waldram first suggested we consider that lower rates of PTSD have been diagnosed among Amerindian populations because they actually have lower rates of PTSD, there was a huge outcry, not from the non-indigenous populations, but from indigenous academics. These academics and others in the indigenous community believed that Waldram was minimizing the effects of colonialism, but this interpretation was a misreading of his work. His actually said that we should explore resiliency factors in aboriginal cultures that lead to a greater ability of members of those communities to cope with potentially traumatizing events, and I agree. We need to explore community strengths instead of focusing exclusively on weaknesses or past wrongs. Indeed, a focus on weakness can be damaging irrespective of the money and resources thrown at that weakness. Let me give an example.

Supposing there is a terrible death in a community and the grieving family invites me to help them with the grieving process. I let them know I will be right over. While they are assembled in the front room waiting for me, Aunt Mary arrives with a cake. We can all recognize that Aunt Mary is not there to show off her baking. She is there to provide comfort and support to the grieving family. Now, supposing instead of inviting Aunt Mary in, the family tell her they are waiting for this expert on grieving to arrive, and they ask her to come back later. What Aunt Mary has learned is that her approach, what she has to offer, is not good enough. She is less likely to offer her coping skills in the future and less likely to pass her skills on. One of the co-constructed community activities that we developed to combat high rates of youth suicide in Stanley Mission during the 1990s was to have elders teach the wilderness survival skills. These camps proved to be very popular with the males and therapeutic. When we asked the elders why they had not taught these skills to their grandchildren previously they replied that in this modern age they didn’t think anyone would be interested.

The storytelling tradition runs deep in cultures indigenous to the Americas, and indeed, one of the ways we make sense of the world is to tell stories to ourselves. Usually, in these stories, we are either the protagonist or the story is told from our perspective. The first task is to gain an understanding of the meaning of the metaphors and images embedded in the story. Then I look for evidence of the protagonist overcoming great difficulty. If the self that is in evidence from these narratives does not evidence the ability to overcome obstacles, then that is an area of self-definition that needs to be addressed. Over time, the self-narrative will change to include empowered self-volition, and with that change the individual can assess their circumstance from new perspectives.

The medicine wheel concept offers the promise of understanding complex situations; however, the medicine wheel as is popularly used falls short of that ideal. If you believe that the medicine wheel is always divided into four and that the primary constituents of that fourplex include physical, mental, emotional and spiritual then you have moved it from being a useful construct for understanding complexity to a simplistic dogma. In any case that medicine wheel is not particularly traditional. For one thing, there is no word for mental in the Algonquian family of languages, nor in any other indigenous language as far as I know. In Cree a word meaning “He is crazy” is usually used much to the chagrin of mental health workers. Second mental disorders are usually inabilities to modulate, control or act on emotions so “mental” necessarily includes both cognitive and emotional functioning. Finally, and most tellingly, the wheel is not indigenous to Amerindian cultures. There has been a lot of cultural appropriation going on in the construction of the modern medicine wheel. There are hundreds of ancient stone circles stretching across the length of the Great Plains of North America that are too big or too intricate to be tepee rings, the stones that hold the flaps of a tepee down and are left when a camp moves. These ancient circles were divided in many ways and not always from the center like spokes in a wheel. Following that older tradition, I invite clients to construct their own personal medicine wheel using whatever symbolism that fits with their history and worldview.

Jacobsen: Herein, we have a deeper question about the necessity of the categories of the Aboriginal self and non-Aboriginal self, or, rather, the selves. The important part seems the development of a functional self in the first place.

As you noted, cultures evolve. Or, more quotable, “As culture is the collective expression of the people who constitute it, cultural evolution is tied to self-change.” Static assumptions do no one good here, described earlier; either at the individual or the collective levels.

Some examples of this include Indigenous Christianity exemplified by Dr. Terry LeBlanc, Dr. Raymond Aldred, the late Rev. Richard Twiss, and others. Cultures collide and third ones arise. You posed the question, “How many non-aboriginal memes can be incorporated into a self before it ceases to be aboriginal?”

Looking into the future, the First Nations cultures will remain. The Second Nations or settler-colonialist cultures will stay. Simultaneously, a third set of cultures will emerge from this history. What might be the next manifestation of a third culture?

Robertson: During the 1960s Anishinaabe Duke Redbird used to say that the truck is a very important part of Amerindian culture. “How do I know that?” he would rhetorically ask, only to answer “Because whenever I visit a reserve anywhere in Canada, there are old half tons and plenty of reserve mechanics who know how to keep them running.” I would add that the trucks are a lot newer these days.

It is not so much that Amerindian or First Nations cultures will remain as that they will continually be co-constructed and reconstituted by the members that identify with those cultures. Those reconstructions will inevitably involve cultural appropriation. The concept of nation as applied to Amerindian peoples in Canada is one such appropriation. The idea of the nation began with Joan of Arc who rallied people who spoke various dialects of French to oppose the British. Although French forces eventually repelled the British, the idea that the French were a nation that owed each other and the nation allegiance did not take root until the French Revolution and was exploited by Napoleon to almost conquer all of Europe. Arguably, however, the first nation occurred earlier in the form of the Dutch Republic. The Anishinaabe could be a nation if they defined themselves as such, and if they did they would organize something like an Anishinaabe national council. Irrespective of issues of sovereignty and self-government, a band that may consist of two or three extended families, is not the same thing as a nation so when the term “First Nation” is used at that level it represents a misappropriation. It seems that the term “First Nations” represents a conflation of “first peoples,” but even here we have waves of migration so that the descendents of the Clovis peoples would be arguably the first, the Dene the second and the Inuit the third.

Given the historical record your use of the term “Second Nations” is confusing. You may be referring to the formation of Canada led by John A. Macdonald. He attempted to form a nation out of British North America but in his attempt to assimilate French and English speakers into that nation he was extending the definition of the term. In any event, the experiment did not work as planned. Beginning with Rene Leveque, the Quebecois defined themselves as their own nation but English speaking Canadians have never defined themselves as an English speaking nation. All of this prompted Justin Trudeau to describe Canada as a post-national formulation in a New York Times interview. In Trudeau’s opinion, the Canadian nation no longer exists.

You asked about the emergence of a third culture, but that has already happened and is continuing to happen. Canadian culture has been evolving from a “mosaic” pattern distinctive from the U.S. American “melting pot.” It is descended from the fur trade and the mercantile system that distinguished British North America heavily influenced by geography, climate, and cultures that were indigenous to the land. It is also a culture that is descended from the European Enlightenment as well as its Christian traditions. It will continue to evolve as a negotiation between its peoples.

Jacobsen: As you imply, the objective world matters, as objective truth provides the basis for empirical models for comprehension of the natural world. However, the work with Indigenous or Aboriginal peoples with PTSD symptomatology can become a difficulty.

As you explained, “The scientific method developed as a way of reducing subjectivity in our quest for the objectively real. Rational thought is anathema to thought systems that propagate through non-rational means.”

How can healthy concepts of self and, with them, reliance on approximations of objective truth derive a basis for a third culture — secular and religious — more constructive and positive than destructive and negative of relations between the First Nations and Second Nations — so to speak — or the settler-colonialists and, in fact, a basis for different and innovative forms of treatments oriented with the context and conceptualizations of memes the self?

Robertson: First I would like to explain that I am not a post-modernist. I had a professor who said science is just a “white male way of knowing.” I countered that if this was true then accounts of colonialism are just a “Politicized Indian way of knowing.” For the very same reasons why I believe there exists an objective reality outside ourselves, I believe the holocaust and the colonization of the Americas occurs irrespective of the race, gender or ethnic membership of the speaker. “His truth” or “her truth” is always trumped by “the truth.” It is our challenge to find what is true, and that is the mission of science.

Instinctively, we know this is true. Clients with very low self-esteem don’t change just because the therapist tells them they are worthy and capable. They change only when they see sufficient evidence that counters their low self-evaluation. It is not that they are afraid to believe in themselves, it is that they are afraid to believe in themselves falsely. They take a theory as to who they are and they keep to that theory until it is overwhelmed by evidence to the contrary. They are scientists.

Evidence that is based on blaming others is self-defeating because the act of blaming transfers one’s personal power to those who are blamed. A problem with victim culture is that it depends on redress from the more powerful with the result that it breeds perpetual dependency. PTSD is characterized by a disempowered self surrounded by a worldview that is hostile to the individual and unpredictable. The anecdote for both those with PTSD and those immersed in victim culture is to define oneself as capable of contributing to a secure future within a world that is mostly, but not always, supportive and predictable. The positive self-esteem that results is then a result of one’s own efforts within a social interest context.

Blaming or demeaning others is a cheap and ultimately ineffective way of building self-esteem. Let’s deconstruct your use of the term “settler-colonialist.” The 19th century Cree, after they defeated the Dene in most of what is now northern Saskatchewan, settled in the now vacated land building family trap lines and ultimately forming communities. Since they came from what is now northern Manitoba and settled in a land to which they had not previously occupied, they were settlers. But after a generation or two, their descendants could no longer be viewed as settlers because they were born in and were part of the land that was once Dene. The term “settler” only applies to the generation that settled. The notion that white people will always be settlers because of their race is, I think, racist. I am reminded of a political conversation I had with a group of people at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College back in the early 1980s. At one point a Cree woman who refused to acknowledge that she also had European genes loudly stated, “I wish all the whites went back to where they came from, and you Metis should go half way back.” We all laughed. In those days we were not so sensitive to humour. But when you think about it, the idea that the Metis should drown in the North Atlantic is a racist idea, but at the time we knew she didn’t really mean that. The fact is, the whites aren’t going anywhere. Calling them “settlers” only breeds a perpetual sense of self-defeating disempowering victimization.

I notice that when the words aboriginal and settler are used in the same sentence, the word “aboriginal” is usually capitalized while the word “settler” is never capitalized. This is rather curious because both words are descriptive adjectives. Why would adjectives describing one people be treated differently than adjectives describing another? Now, in fact, in English adjectives that end in “al” are never capitalized, but in Canada we have recently ignored that convention. Perhaps we believe that by capitalizing the word aboriginal we will build the self-esteem of people who are aboriginal to this land. I think there are more meaningful ways of building self-esteem. As a person with such ancestry, I don’t need to capitalize a self-referencing adjective to build my self-esteem.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson, again.

[1] It is referenced in other research by Dr. Robertson, “…this understanding explains how the syndrome may be transferred intergenerationally. That being said, it would be a mistake to assume that all who went to residential school suffer from the associated syndrome or that therapeutic self-reconstruction can be done by PLAR facilitators.”

[2] Interestingly, as a small point, the self can have implications for how one views the need for weddings too. Dr. Robertson states, “It is postulated that marriage ceremonies have persisted among the non-religious due to needs to authenticate or recognize transitional changes to the self, but these needs have been met through ad hoc strategies as opposed to a uniform demand for humanist services.”

[3] Ignoring the prior learning assessment, though intriguing, as this does not suit the needs of the educational series here, the work with Dianne Conrad repeats the other interesting points about the need for integration into the models, of the practitioner of “self-development,” of a dynamism in other words.

Some interesting commentary, “The literature of higher education and adult learning has long recognised the value of providing adults with not only cognitive and workplace skills but also with tools for development in the affective — social and emotional — domains of learning.”

Some more intriguing commentary, “…the practice of recognising prior learning, as a means of credentialing and a form of validation, must be rigorously and ethically administered to ensure appropriate recognition of real achievement.” How does one keep the accurate conception of self mapped to the notion of the “self”?

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2023-01-26

Self Actualization of Boys and Young Men

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/02/11

In addition, he works in anxiety and trauma, addictions, and psycho-educational assessment, and relationship, family, and group counseling. Please see Ask Dr. Robertson 1 — Counselling and Psychology, Ask Dr. Robertson 2 — Psychotherapy, Ask Dr. Robertson 3 — Social and Psychological Sciences Gone Wrong, and Ask Dr. Robertson 4 — Just You and Me, One-on-One Counselling, as these are the previous sessions in this educational series. Here we talk about self-actualization.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Famously, so famous, in fact, as to become a common phrase indicative of common sense wisdom — which, as one may joke about ‘common sense,’ may be uncommon sometimes and other times not-so-wise, the late Abraham Maslow, American Psychologist, remarked on the existence of problems and tools to solve them:

I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.

Dr. Philip Zimbardo, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, and others — including Dr. Warren Farrell, who speaks in a pace and tone so as not to offend even the fly on the wall, for content reasons, obviously — continue to focus on some overlooked issues for males, young males and boys in particular; where as a collective, interrelated culture, these become issues for us, too. Maslow constructed the hierarchy of needs in the 1943 paper entitled A Theory of Human Motivation.

Zimbardo, who specializes in the psychology of evil (Stanford Prison Experiment in experiment and Abu Ghraib in reality, though this experiment came under more critical scrutiny, recently) and time perspective (e.g., living, mentally speaking, in the past, the present, or future), spoke on young men and boys since the early 2010s right into the present.

In particular, Zimbardo spoke on the failure of some boys and young men in multiple domains of life, where mainstream cultures — multinationally speaking — demand certain levels of performance and expect achievement of specific milestones by culturally affirmed ages for social approval. If not, then cue the epithets and societal reproval.

It is not an all-or-nothing evaluation, but it is a change in the ratio of the boys and young men succeeding compared to previous generations on average — and, especially, in contrast to the wonderful rise of girls and women. It becomes a dual-facet phenomenon of decline for boys and young men and incline for girls and young women with higher-order analysis implications, in time and in persistence of culture in bounded geography. Zimbardo reflected on the failures, by his estimation, as indicative of a hijacking or hacking of the hierarchy of needs by pornography, video games, and fatherlessness/(male-)mentorlessness — in part.

That is to say, with the self-fulfillment and psychological needs removed from the hierarchy of needs or ignored by the boys and young men, this left, at least, pornography, video games, and mentorlessness as central pillars in the decline of self-actualization and psychological needs, in boys and young men.

In the end, Zimbardo argues the result becomes a context in which young men and boys find themselves fulfilled as purely safety-and-physiological-needs-based beings, while also creating, in his research and assertions, i.e., not formally accepted by the academic psychological community in the DSM-5, “arousal addictions”: a psychological mode of a move towards pleasure and drift, or shift, away from pain in every life dynamic with a consistent need for novelty, which is an addiction for similar hyperstimuli with perpetual novelty, e.g., pornography and video games, as opposed to the same hyperstimuli, e.g., cocaine and gambling.

Of course, as a side remark, Dr. Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D., American Psychologist and Physician, describes endocrine disruptors and educational system changes as additional factors in this.

No planning, no contingencies, no notions of the future, no orientation towards larger life goals, and little or no incentive to move out of this hedonistic, presentist mental state. Did Maslow predict this psychological orientation of young men and boys? If so, how? Did anyone (else)?

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: Your pre-amble certainly covers a lot of ground, Scott! The short answer as to whether Maslow predicted the current psychological orientation of young men and boys is “no.” He was interested in individual as opposed to collective psychological development. On the other hand, his hierarchy of needs may be applied to such developments.

There is a lot of evidence that males in modern Euro-American cultures are not doing well. Males, on average, die younger. Male unemployment is increasing with large numbers of younger males considered virtually unemployable, yet 97% of workplace deaths are men. Seventy percent of graduates in Canadian universities are women. Male suicide rates are four times that of women. Men are more likely to suffer from addictions, be incarcerated and be victims of violent crime. Eighty percent of homeless are men. Things have gotten worse for men since ex-feminist Warren Farrell wrote his book two and a half decades ago. From a Maslow hierarchy of needs perspective, things have not been going well, and part of that can be attributed to the influence of feminism.

Sax, whom you also referenced, in a brilliant analysis of kindergarten curricula in the United States, said that the curricula had been changed in preceding decades to conform to girl’s normative development. Specifically, he said that kindergartens had come to emphasize verbal skills which developmentally favour girls at that age. Had kindergartens emphasized spatial skills then boys would have been favoured. The result of this gynocentric curricula is that boys are more likely to experience frustration in their early schools, like school less, and more frequently experience failure. If female normative development and behaviour is set as normative across society, then boys and men will be disadvantaged. But that is only part of the story.

Using qualitative methods, I was able to demonstrate that a diverse sample of Canadian men have experienced harsh stigma as a result of their sex. Stigma is the imputation of characteristics to a class of people that renders them unfit for certain social roles. The men were viewed as a threat to others or irresponsible with respect to family responsibilities simply because they were men. As a result, they were judged as unfit, or less fit, in their roles as parents or as employees in specific occupations despite a lack of evidence of any wrongdoing. We see this stigma in society with notions of “toxic masculinity” where guilt does not have to be proven, it is assumed. Thus, even when men overcome disadvantages built into education, they remain at a disadvantage. The alienation of fathers from their families, in large part because of stigma, compounds the problem because boys, raised by single parent mothers, are less likely to have effective role models matching their gender and they are more likely to experience addictions, incarceration and suicide.

So, as Zimbardo has argued, many young men are dropping out. They are not competing for careers. They are not establishing families. They are not contributing meaningfully to society. They are occupying themselves with short term gratification. Maslow argued that until self-esteem needs are met, people are more preoccupied with meeting those needs than pursuing self-actualization. If a group of people are disadvantaged in education and suffer stigma for being a member of their group, it could be expected that in accepting the dominant society’s normative view, they suffer low genderized self-esteem. Zimbardo’s famous prison experiment showed definitively that people tend to become the roles societies set for them. The scary implication of this is that many of these young men could become the “toxic masculine” stereotype feminists have set for them. But I think there is another way of looking at this.

About three decades before Maslow built his famous pyramid, Alfred Adler said that all humans are born with a “striving for perfection” which is similar to Maslow’s idea of self-actualization. Those who give up this striving are people who are discouraged and this describes those young men who are dropping out. We need to combat society’s message to boys that they are both bad and failures and we need to reintroduce the striving for goodness.

Robertson’s article on Male Stigma can be found at: https://www.hawkeyeassociates.ca/images/pdf/academic/Male_Stigma.pdf

Jacobsen: Following from the previous question, what therapeutic methods, in a professional setting — group and one-on-one, work with the young men and boys, who, by standard cultural expectations, continue to fail at, probably, increasing rates?

Robertson: In 2012 I attended a workshop on how to counsel men at a Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association annual convention. The presenters were both women one of whom asked, with wide eyed innocence, how many of the attendees, who were overwhelmingly women, had actually counselled a man. Fewer than half the workshop participants raised their hands. The workshop then proceeded with a review of statistics on how few men seek psychotherapy, how men experience depression and suicide ideation less but nonetheless commit suicide at higher rates, and how men sublimate their mental health needs through alcohol, anger, and violence. The prescription of the presenters was that men need to learn how to admit their failings and seek help; they need to be in touch with their feelings more and make themselves “vulnerable” by discussing those feelings; and they need to find allies and build support systems. In short, they need to become more like women.

The suggestions of these female facilitators are not totally wrong. Many men benefit from honing these skills; but I would argue that many women would benefit from learning skills in which men tend to more easily excel. The problem with the paradigm that was presented at this workshop is exactly the problem Sax found with gynocentric kindergarten curricula — it sets up female developmental experience as normative to which both sexes should aspire.

The dominant themes in psychotherapy have always been gyno-normative, even when most of the practitioners were male. For example, Freud’s patients were all female (and rich females at that), and it was on his experience with them that he based his theories. It is probably no coincidence that the psychoanalysis he developed consists of symbolism, dream interpretation, random thoughts, free associations and fantasies in a process that can take years. In contrast, the male approach is to define a problem and solve it. Sometimes this involves setting aside one’s emotions so that rational processes are better able to take charge. My experience with men is that they do not want to be in therapy for a long time. Albert Ellis’ Rational Emotive Therapy makes sense for many men although women may equally benefit from this approach.

I don’t mean to recapitulate John Grey’s Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus thesis. A non-sexist psychotherapy will treat each person as a culture of one with the therapist setting out to learn that culture; however, we need to recognize that there are certain tendencies that may be culturally or genetically driven. Sexist psychotherapy occurs when the normative experience of one sex is set as the norm for both. For example, the presenters at the “How to Counsel Men” workshop I just cited were mystified as to how it was that men were far more likely to commit suicide than women but were far less likely to suffer from depression. It did not occur to them that the American Psychological Association defines depression using the female normative experience. Male symptoms that differ from the female expression are not recognized, and I submit this is one reason why men are under diagnosed with this condition.

It is not at all clear that men’s mental health needs will receive serious attention any time soon. The APA Guidelines for the Psychological Practice with Men and Boys released last year, attempts to link traditional masculinity to racism, ageism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism, and this, we are told, results in “personal restriction, devaluation, or violation of others or self.” The unsubstantiated suggestion is made that men commit higher levels of intimate partner violence and are estranged from their children because they lack the will or ability to have positive involvement in healthy family relationships. Psychologists are cautioned about believing their male clients who protest their innocence because, in the words of the APA, “Male privilege tends to be invisible to men.”

I think we should consider the possibility that men do not seek counselling or therapy because they do not see counsellors and therapists as sympathetic to their experiences and the APA guidelines fail to dispel this perception. This should not be seen as an indictment against all therapists. Jordan Peterson’s “Twelve Steps” are based on practices that are common to Rational Emotive and Cognitive Behavioural therapies, and he expressed surprise that his approach has been overwhelmingly endorsed by young men because those approaches are gender neutral. I think his experience demonstrates that men are willing to seek help for their mental health issues if the helpers are seen to be sympathetic to their lived experience.

My advice to men who are interested in psychotherapy is to interview a number of psychotherapists before settling on one. Ensure that the therapist you choose is sympathetic to your needs and has an approach with which you feel comfortable. I think most therapists would feel comfortable answering such questions, and if they do not, you do not want to use the services of that therapist.

Jacobsen: Recalling a remark by Sax, he noted, after the age of 30, no reliable intervention — inasmuch as his research and professional practice work are concerned — for the aforementioned failure, in terms of steerage back onto the high seas of normal cultural life. He states, according to recent research on the architecture of the brain, an adult female is aged 22 and an adult male is aged 30.

Robertson: Neuropsychology is not my field; however this sounds like an old idea that girls mature faster than boys. I will rely on Susan Harter on this who did a meta-analysis and concluded that the frontal lobes normally complete their development around age 25 for both sexes. She published this in her 2012 book, and there may be subsequent research of which I am not aware. On the other hand, Sax is on solid ground in contending that there are inherited sex-linked differences with respect to personalities, drives and certain aptitudes although it should be remembered that when discussing such differences we are talking about averages and that knowing a person’s sex will not reliably tell us anything about any individual person’s personality or aptitudes. In any case, we are not born with a blank slate as Steven Pinker classically articulated in his book of that name, and on that point I think Sax is on very solid ground scientifically.

The 1950s and 60s popular notion that girls mature faster than boys was grounded in a number of observations that included girls verbal and social development, and the fact that young women were often ready to settle down and raise a family by their late teens. Young men, on the other hand, were often more interested in things than people and would rather explore and experiment than settle down and raise a family. The related conclusions regarding maturity was again grounded in a gynonormative perspective. We now know that different lifestyles and experiences can affect the brain’s structure such that male curiosity, if allowed expression, will result in a strengthening of relevant parts of the brain. Neo-natal scarcity can also lead to phenotypical gene expression that may be adaptive in a world of grinding poverty but are maladaptive in the modern context. Sax may have been thinking of this research in putting limits on when profitable interventions may be undertaken. Recent research has debunked the idea that the brain loses all plasticity by age 30, and in any case, I have helped many adults past middle age to lead satisfying lives after having had a career of dysfunctionality.

Jacobsen: Looking at the last two questions, if we look at the short, medium, and long term futures of men and, thus, in part, societies, what will be the outcomes for those who begin to succeed, and those who continue to fail, by the standard cultural expectations in Canada? What will be the outcomes for the Canadian culture if the trends lean towards further failure or further success — as defined before? For example, Sax reflects on the work by Professor David D. Gilmore, Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, with the likely dissipation and replacement, as an assessment and not a judgment of Gilmore, of secular English-speaking culture in North America, and, in fact, elsewhere, because of the lack of strong bonds across generations and the current cultures with young men and boys on one failure, and girls and young women on another standard success, trajectory, where these sub-cultures in larger Canadian society will not reproduce themselves for a variety of reasons and, therefore, will undergo steady replacement by other sub-cultures enacting the behavioral, communal, familial, and mating patterns indicative of those who have endured in previous generations for millennia, e.g., the Navajo, the Chinese, the Jewish, and so on.

Robertson: Again, there is a lot packed into your question. I would predict that some men will continue to succeed and they will assume the position of alpha males. I predict that large numbers of men will continue to fail, in part due to societal structures that lead to this result, and in part due to their own state of personal anomy flowing from a breakdown in the intergenerational transmission of values. I would argue, however, that reproduction below replacement levels is occurring worldwide and cannot be attributed solely or even primarily to events unique to Euro-American cultures but seem to be correlated with higher levels of educational opportunity available to women that allow for alternate avenues to self-actualization besides the mother archetype. I don’t think a low birth rate is necessarily a bad thing, but I am concerned about male roles in this new culture.

With the words “alpha male” my mind went immediately to the Canadian prime minister who may or may not be prototypical. Alpha males operate by different rules than are available to ordinary males. Feminists in Trudeau’s cabinet like Chrystia Freeland and Jane Philpott gave Mr. Trudeau a pass on substantiated allegations of a past sexual assault while applauding the expulsion from the Liberal caucus backbench members who faced unproven allegations of sexual assault. This would be an example of how rules between classes of men differ in the new society. The problems men who are not alpha face are either invisible or ignored. Even though three times as many male aboriginal men are missing or murdered as compared to aboriginal women, a Canadian inquiry into the problem excluded consideration of the men. When the government announced that Syrian refugees would be admitted, single males were specifically excluded from refugee status. When foreign aid increases were announced, agencies receiving the aid had to agree that none of it would go to men. I do not think the majority of men can expect much consideration from such feminized alpha males.

One problem faced by the majority of men is we do not normally confide in and support other men. I have been part of that problem. In 1969 I marched with Women’s Liberation to protest the “Saskatoon Club.” This was a club for well-to-do men in the city of Saskatoon. Men got to relax, play pool, discuss business and politics, and enter into mentoring relationships without the perceived distraction of women. We succeeded in opening it up to women. About three years later a succession of women rose at a meeting of Women’s Liberation to state that there were women present who felt intimidated by the presence of men. They politely asked the men present, who numbered about a quarter of the group, to leave, and we did so without protest. The result is that there was no net gain in inter-sex cooperation. The difference involved a shifting of gender specific networking and mentoring capacity. Ordinary men to this day remain largely unorganized.

The lack positive male self-identity can be traced to an intergenerational fail in the transmission of values. This fail began long before the advent of feminism. With the Industrial revolution men were forced to work in factories for 12 to 16 hours per day six days per week. Men became absentee parents whose contribution to the family was largely as a “good provider.” Mothers raised their children but necessarily gave them a woman’s perspective. This division of labour became a cultural norm, maintained long after working hours were reduced. Most men still measured their self-worth by their ability to be that good provider for their families differing to women in matters of child-rearing. But now, if men work hard and achieve financial success they are told that they are the recipients of unearned male privilege. Some men are saying, “Why bother?” I think the appeal of people like Peterson is that he has given them a reason to bother that transcends current ideological constraints, and that reason has to do with the development of personal integrity. In a sense, he is reaching out intergenerationally, filling a need in building positive male identities, as I also hope to do in this interview. Thank you for the opportunity.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson, once more.

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2023-01-26

Rapport and Transference in Counselling

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/01/28

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson is a Registered Doctoral Psychologist with expertise in Counselling Psychology, Educational Psychology, and Human Resource Development. He earned qualifications in Social Work too.

In addition, he works in anxiety and trauma, addictions, and psycho-educational assessment, and relationship, family, and group counseling. Here we talk about the clientele.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: When working with clients or patients one-on-one, how do you build rapport and trust with them? I imagine, on a one-on-one basis, difficulty in working with them without rapport or, especially, trust.

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: Numerous studies have found that client-counsellor rapport accounts for up to 50% of the variance in therapeutic outcomes, and this has led some psychologists to conclude that the methodological school of psychology one practises is not important. What the data actually shows is that without rapport the client is less likely to experience positive outcomes regardless of methods used, but that still allows for the possibility that some practices are more efficacious than others for particular issues.

Probably the easiest way to build rapport is to identify commonalities between therapist and client. This could include gender, race, ethnicity, religion, social status, and so on. Once the client has revealed the problem or issue that has brought him or her to therapy, the therapist may share that he has faced a similar issue, and this too has the effect of establishing rapport, but there are risks associated with this approach.

The first such danger is that it can undermine the therapeutic process. As discussed in an earlier conversation, psychotherapy is predicated on the notion that each of us is a unique self-determining individuals. By over emphasizing our external commonalities, we run the risk of denying that self-empowering process. The clearest example I can think of occurred when I was Director of Mental Health for Northern Saskatchewan. Concerned with the lack of effectiveness of its alcohol and drug addiction program, the province brought its addiction program under the authority of the mental health program. I discovered that addictions workers had been hired, not on the basis of their competence in psychotherapy, but on the basis of their status as “recovered” alcoholics. These workers had maintained sobriety for years, and they thought they could use their own experience as a template for others. They gave advice based on their own experiences and they thought they were doing therapy. Such an approach denies the individual experiences and cognitions of the client.

A second danger of establishing rapport through the development of a common identity is that it could confirm a dysfunctional worldview. Psychotherapy is about change. If a man comes to me having been abused by women, and I reveal to him that I also have been abused by women, then we could commiserate and blame while avoiding dealing with the changes the man will need to make to have healthy transsexual relationships. Similarly, Feminist Psychotherapy adds an ideological perspective to the field and that perspective could keep female clients from undergoing beneficial self-change.

I am not discounting using therapist and client commonalities in building rapport, I am just cognisant of some of the risks that need to be monitored while taking such an approach. There is another way of building the therapeutic alliance. Adler viewed the client or patient as an expert in himself and therapy as a collaboration between two experts. Another way of picturing this approach is to view the therapist as a kind of consultant. The client identifies the issues he or she wishes to tackle, and I offer alternative therapies the client may use to reach agreed upon goals. We then co-construct a treatment plan. Treatment then is in part experimentation to see which approaches are most effective in this situation given the unique attributes the client possesses. In the process, the client learns self-monitoring and self-assessment skills that can be applicable in other situations.

Jacobsen: What are you bearing in mind in this working environment, in one-on-one counseling? How do you gauge individual needs and project possible timelines of the patients?

Robertson: In most cases, the client comes to me with an issue or issues on which they wish to work. We don’t necessarily stay with the same issue. In one example, the client came to me with the complaint that she was too sensitive to criticism. Following a couple of sessions, it became apparent that she was the recipient of emotional abuse, so this shifted the strategies we used. In another case, the client came to me with problems maintaining attention, but it became apparent that the reason she had difficulty focussing was depression. Such changes in focus involve a re-negotiation of treatment planning. I like to project a certain number of sessions in which to incorporate a treatment plan with the idea that at the end of those sessions we, that is the client and I, evaluate the achievements obtained. This could result in terminating our sessions, continuing with the present treatment plan, or negotiating a new plan.

Jacobsen: How do you work to prevent the possible transference of trauma to the counsellor or reactivity of the counselor, in case they or you may have had prior similar negative life experiences? For example, a male counselor who witnessed abuse of one parent by another in youth, and then hears a recounting of a client’s experience with this. This may work them up.

Robertson: Hopefully the counsellor has dealt with his or her related traumas before they attempt to help someone who has had a similar traumatic experience. If the counsellor has not successfully dealt with that trauma then he or she should not accept such clients. On the other hand, if the counsellor has successfully dealt with a similar event, that counsellor may be able to offer unique helpful insights. The person who experiences a trauma is not necessarily forever wounded by it.

The issue of transference was first noted by Freud who viewed the client or patient’s attribution of emotions and motivations to the therapist as an opportunity to generate positive insight. I think what you might be concerned with is the issue of countertransference where the therapist takes on the emotions of the client. The counsellor or therapist has a special relationship with the client involving a kind of intimacy. Karl Rogers called this therapeutic stance unconditional positive regard. Alfred Adler said you have to get into the client’s skin to see the world through his eyes. The danger here is that the therapist may so identify with the client that he takes on aspects of their worldview and trauma. This, of course, does not do anyone any good. The therapist is conducting a cognitive exercise in monitoring the client’s cognitions, emotions and behaviour. By maintaining this cognitive distance from the client’s emotions and behaviour, the therapist is actually modelling those skills the client will need to gain control of problematic emotionally laden behaviours. Some people equate cognitive distance as a lack of empathy, but this is a misunderstanding of the concept. The therapist practising cognitive distancing is empathetic enough to understand that the client, to gain control of his or her emotions and behaviours, must be able to sufficiently objectify them to understand them and thereby gain control.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson.

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2023-01-26

Interview: Science gone wrong, misapplied psychology and Indian Residential Schools

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/01/14

In addition, he works in anxiety and trauma, addictions, and psycho-educational assessment, and relationship, family, and group counseling. Here we talk about different notions of empirical and ethical wrongness (and rightness) in science in general and then in psychological and social sciences in particular.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: When do social and psychological sciences go wrong? In that, the hidden premises of the field poison the research questions asked and skew the findings in response to the questions.

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: The first part of your question, Scott, is “when do sciences go wrong?” The answer, of course, is “all the time.” Science is, at its core, careful observation. It is always possible that our observations are imperfect, or that our interpretations of well-observed phenomena are mistaken. Therefore, scientists will always acknowledge that their knowledge claims are provisional, dependent on further evidence. This is why, in modern science, replication and peer review are so important in identifying any biases that may have affected interpretations placed on research.

You may have been referring to Thomas Kuhn with respect to the second part of your question on hidden premises. Kuhn said that for a discipline to become a science it had to be united by a paradigm which he defined as a body of intertwined theoretical and methodological belief. In 1970 he declared psychology to be a proto-science because it lacked such a unifying paradigm. A quarter of a century later Pat Duffy Hutcheon examined three possible paradigmic formulations in psychology — the psychoanalysis of Freud, the developmentalism of Piaget, and the classical behaviourism of Skinner — and she found all had failed to establish themselves as the dominant paradigm in psychology for various reasons. I believe that since then a fourth paradigm has implicitly taken root in the field and that is the subject of the final chapter in a book I am writing about the evolution of the self. That paradigm is based on our self-definition as a species that includes our selves as discreet, relatively stable, volitional, reflective and rational beings. At this time results within the field of psychotherapy are overwhelmingly interpreted from this cognitivist paradigm. Consistently obtained scientific results that cannot be understood within this paradigm would force a scientific revolution replacing this paradigm with another more inclusive one. I suppose you could say the research and interpretations of findings are “poisoned” by the assumptions built into the more primitive paradigm. The classical example of this would be the pre-Copernican notion that Earth was the center of the universe. Using this paradigm, the planets exhibited complicated orbits around Earth, sometime speeding up or slowing down, performing strange loops and so on until the paradigm shifted placing our sun in the center of the solar system. I have argued that an emerging paradigm in psychology includes a self-definition of us as a species as volitional and capable of rational choice (see: https://www.hawkeyeassociates.ca/images/pdf/academic/Free_Will.pdf). It has been argued that such a view favours the construct of individualism and “poisons” the individuals so-counselled against collectivism. I do not happen to share that view. But that is an academic debate.

I do not believe the general public perceives the self-correcting tentativeness built into science. Instead of viewing science as a method for obtaining knowledge, they often view it as a belief system like a religion or an ideology. Religions and ideologies encourage this misunderstanding because they identify Truth, with a capital T, as authoritative and absolute. If scientific evidence runs counter to what they take as authoritatively true, then science is seen as a defective belief system that has “gone wrong.” An example of this would be the attack on the theory of evolution by people who want to believe Earth is only 6,000 years old. A second example would be people who believe environmental scientists are part of a great conspiracy to fake evidence related to global warming. A third example would be people who wish to think that evidence debunking notions that our minds are a “blank slate” when we are born are part of a patriarchal backlash. In an interview with the late Carl Sagan, the Dalai Lama said that if science proved reincarnation was impossible, then Buddhism would have to change. We need to carry something of that understanding into all our belief systems or we end up becoming the mindless servant of those belief systems.

Jacobsen: If we look at some aspects of interests for you, and if we look at some long and dark periods in Canadian history for some demographics within Canada, have social and psychological sciences been utilized in such a way to impact Indigenous communities disproportionately negatively? If so, how so?

Robertson: When I was Director of Health and Social Development for the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations during the 1980s, many chiefs repeated the refrain that they had been “studied to death.” They were, of course, not claiming that they had been physically harmed. They were claiming that there had been numerous studies and they had not seen any positive results. In some cases, studies were conducted but the results were not communicated back to the communities in question. I believe that knowledge should be “open access” and shared between all stakeholders.

The question as to how psychological knowledge has been utilized is, of course, a different question. While I was Director of Health and Social Development, a band education authority in a reserve in northern Saskatchewan hired a psychometrician from Edmonton to assess the intelligence of their elementary students. Sixty percent of the students were labelled mentally handicapped. My master’s thesis is on cultural bias in intelligence testing, and I know the reserve community in question and I can tell you that the psychometrician must not have followed test protocol with respect to testing children whose second language is English and who come from cultural traditions do not favour speeded, timed tests. At first, the band education committee was happy with these results as they received considerable extra funding for special needs children. But this was, in my opinion, a false economy with a negative impact. You see, educational programming for mentally handicapped is quite different from what was needed. When I was Director of Life Skills for the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College during its early years, we educated students from often remote communities in those habits of mind and organizational skills that were needed for academic success. The program added an extra year to the student’s university education, but it was incredibly successful. Teaching students cross-cultural skills for academic success in a modern industrial society is better than teaching independent living skills aimed at the mentally challenged in such cases.

Jacobsen: Using the same sciences but asking better research questions with the greater good of society and individuals in mind, what may alleviate some of the impacts of phenomena including residential school syndrome?

Robertson: A good research question is one that when answered extends our knowledge in some way. Accumulated knowledge may then be used to bring improvements to society but that is beyond the purview of scientists in their role as scientists. I am suspicious of power-brokers limiting research based on some notion of the “greater good.” For example, a former prime minister limited research into climate change presumably because he and his party felt this was in the greater good. Decisions by authorities on what constitutes the greater good are often ideologically based. That being said, research into ways to alleviate human suffering interests me, and as you have alluded, residential school syndrome has been one of my interests.

As a kid who stayed with the families of friends on reserve in the 60s, I knew something about the dark history of Indian residential schools. So, I was surprised when chiefs in Saskatchewan commissioned me, along with my colleague Perry Redman, to do research into keeping one of these schools open after they had been closed elsewhere in the country. Later, I was hired as a school psychologist with a specialty in youth suicide prevention at a different Indian Residential School that was kept open under an Amerindian administration. About a decade after that I was commissioned by Indian Child and Family Services in Lac La Ronge to assess the students at one of the last remaining residential schools in the country. Then, at the turn of the millennium, I accepted a contract with the Aboriginal Healing Foundation to provide psychological support to various projects aimed at alleviating the effects of residential schools in northern Saskatchewan. I have published articles on residential school syndrome and the related concept of historic trauma.

Residential school syndrome is a form of post traumatic stress disorder that affects a minority of people who attended residential schools and is characterized by symptoms like extreme rage, lack of emotional connection with one has children, and aggressive alcohol and drug abuse in addition to those symptoms that are normally associated with PTSD. I have found a combination of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy coupled with aspects of Narrative Therapy that draws on the tradition of aboriginal storytelling as a way of meaning making to be effective. Treatment needs to be individualized. Some clients have benefited from learning and practicing aboriginal traditions, but others have a different worldview. In one of my articles I describe how the elders in one community found attempts by their band health administration to introduce Aboriginal Spirituality to be oppressive (see: https://www.hawkeyeassociates.ca/images/pdf/academic/ColonizationStanley.pdf)

A concern I have is the tendency of some to essentialize and universalize experience. One woman approached me worried that she might be “in denial.” She had good memories of her residential school experience and was leading a happy and productive life, but the negative media reports about these schools had led her to question her remembered experiences. Not all residential schools were the same and not all students at such schools suffered or witnessed abuse. Even worse, in my opinion, is the concept of historic trauma, where a whole race of people is said to suffer from a psychological condition irrespective of when, where and under what conditions colonization occurred. In my mind, undo psychologising is destructive of peoples’ mental health.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson.

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2023-01-26

Interview: Freud, Jung, and the Purpose of Psychotherapy

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/12/27

In addition, he works in anxiety and trauma, addictions, and psycho-educational assessment, and relationship, family, and group counseling. Here we talk about psychotherapy.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: In a previous interview in two parts for The Voice Magazine, we covered some material on a course taught during the time at Athabasca University for you, which is the largest online university in Canada. You brought forward some analysis of psychotherapy and prominent figures in it. What is psychotherapy?

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: As you mentioned, I touched on this in our last interview Scott. Psychotherapy is a process of effecting change in an individual who voluntarily enters a therapeutic relationship as a client or patient. The change is psychological in that it is intended to impact positively on the client’s cognitive and emotional functioning. The therapist acts as a facilitator of such change in keeping with the client’s goals. There is a consensus across the schools of psychotherapy that the therapeutic process is not advice giving. To give advice is to presume that the advice-giver knows the client better than the client does. To give advice is disempowering because, if the advice works, it leaves the client dependent on the advice-giver the next time there is a problem. Rather, the practice of psychotherapy involves the development of the individual to be a competent volitional actor with a sense of personal worth and constancy within a social milieu.

This definition, while sounding elegant, is not complete. Some schools of psychology are quite strict in proscribing advise giving. Others might allow advise giving where the client has an intact self and the focus of the intervention is problem-solving. In such cases, the therapist is not doing psychotherapy, but may be viewed as doing counselling. Still other schools conflate the terms psychotherapy and counselling. This latter view is not completely without theoretical merit as any change in behaviour that brings a feeling of success is likely to affect the psyche in some way.

Jacobsen: Following from the prior question, what did the major well-known figures, Freud and Jung, get wrong and right in their work?

Robertson: Both Freud and Jung drew attention to phylogenetic factors that contribute to the development of the psyche. By suggesting that archetypes are encoded, instinctive, preconfigured patterns of action, Jung was, in effect, taking a deterministic stance. Similarly, in Freud’s tripartite division the poor ego is left frantically balancing the instinctual drives of the id with the dictatorial culturally determined superego. Although I am not a determinist, I count the recognition of genetic and environmental constraints as an important contribution. I think Freud’s greatest contribution is that he popularized the idea that psychology is a science. Another of Freud’s contributions was that he brought the study of human sexuality out of the constraints imposed by Victorian morality by making it central to his theories. This is connected to something that Freud, in my opinion, got wrong and that is the notion of “penis envy.” As Alfred Adler noted in reply, if women were envious of men during the beginning of the twentieth century when this conversation occurred, it was more likely due to inequality in social relations than the fact that they are born without a penis.

Jung’s conceptualization of archetypes from which we create meaning has application to cultural and self studies, but he dabbled in mysticism and his notion that there exists a collective unconscious has bolstered the beliefs of some religionists. This can have dangerous consequences. For example, his speculations on the collective unconscious of the so-called “Aryan race” and the notion that they are somehow “rooted to the land” while the Jews are a “rootless people” played to the rise of Nazism. His comment that the psychology of Freud and Adler were okay for the Jews but his psychology is for the German “Volk” could be viewed as either religious or racial bigotry.

Jacobsen: Following from the first query once more, who were the figures of similar note as Freud and Jung but, unfortunately, not brought into the light of public consciousness as much as the aforementioned?

Robertson: I think Alfred Adler has not received sufficient recognition. For example, Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, leaders of Humanist Psychotherapy, failed to credit Adler as offering a precursor for some of their ideas such as self-actualization and client centred therapy. Adler included the former term in what he called “striving for perfection” and anticipated client centred therapy by declaring that the patient or client was expert in his or her self with psychotherapy defined as a collaboration between experts.

Adler also had a foot in the Behaviourist camp. His “homework assignments” were a method of shaping and reinforcing behaviour. But the classical behaviourist might have been put off by Adler’s support for the idea that mankind has consciousness and the power of choice. In this way Adler anticipated Cognitive-Behaviourism. The founder of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, Albert Ellis, did credit Adler’s influence in the development of his school of practise. By suggesting to clients that they consider revising their worldviews, Adler was anticipating those modern psychotherapists who view humans as meaning makers.

Today we have a plethora of schools of psychological practice with the founders of each emphasizing some feature or technique that makes their school distinctive. I argued in https://www.hawkeyeassociates.ca/images/pdf/academic/Free_Will.pdf that these schools are united by a theory of human potentiality and that the project of psychotherapy is to teach people to reach the potential implied by that theory. I think Adler tapped into this vision of what it means to be human over a century ago and he addressed it holistically.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Robertson.

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2023-01-26

Interview: Psychology and Psychotherapy

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): HawkeyeAssociates.Ca

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/12/14

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2023-01-26

Ask A Genius 596: Down-‘Lifting’ Forces

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021/07/04

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Yeah. So what are the down lifting forces?

Rick Rosner: All right. So, we ended the last session on uplifting people in the future with me bitching about Rupert Murdoch. The deal is that, well, there are a couple of things. One is to some extent, you make the planet safe for yourself by uplifting the planet. That you don’t want to have such huge gaps among people that get a huge population that’s pissed off and will try to destroy you. Now some people will – some of the hyper rich, a lot of them, I think – work to insulate themselves from the angry masses. But I think most people have some inclination to want to uplift out of fairness and out of having a world that’s not miserable and chaotic. At the same time, everybody has their limits to uplift. The same way people have different limits to how far they’re willing to go to recycle.

Most people now believe that climate change is happening and want to do stuff within reason to slow it down. But everybody has a different idea of what is within reasonable expectation. So similarly, everybody has their idea of what might and will happen in the future as things happen. Everyone will have their idea of what’s reasonable and what isn’t going to uplift the world. It’s expensive to uplift. And it’s even more expensive when you have active forces that are down lifting people, the forces that keep people dumb. And that leads to the question of why would somebody want to keep people dumb? And in America, at least, it’s very much tied to money that the Republican Party has become the slaves of their rich donors, their hyper rich donors.

And the Koch brothers and people who are worth hundreds of millions and billions of dollars. And who don’t want to pay taxes, who don’t want to pay for stuff like infrastructure, who have so much money that they feel that they can buy their own services and they don’t want to pay for anybody else’s services. So, for 20 years and more, the Republican Party has been working against stuff for the public good: schools, infrastructure, and health care. If you’re rich and can afford to pay for it yourself, you don’t want to pay for anybody else’s shit. And not wanting to pay for schools, I mean, the majority of people are in favor of things like schools and libraries and decent roads.

And it’s to the benefit of rich Republican donors to have a very angry, mobilized base that thinks that roads and schools are socialism because it serves the purposes of the money driving the Republican Party to keep people down lifting and stupid in this way. There are also some doctrinaire stuff that keeping people worked up about abortion. But again, most of it goes back to feeding people’s prejudices and ignorance and stupidity to get what you want if you have the money to pay for it. And given the way politics works in the U.S. has been for the past 50 years and more, the Democrats have suffered for wanting to play fair, for thinking they have more popular and better ideas and thus don’t have to engage in the same kind of branding and often dishonesty that the Republicans engage in.

And the Democrats suffer from this. This naivete or laziness or confidence in their own goodness and confidence that normal political systems working normally will lead to the triumph of goodness and to the triumph of popular things, things that most people want being voted, coming to pass via legislation. And increasingly, lately, that’s not true because the Republicans play dirty. And a question for the near future is whether Democrats will play dirty too? It’s something that I’m writing about in my novel, where the main character plays dirty when that character finds it reasonable to do so. All right.

[End of recorded material]

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2023-01-26

Ask A Genius 595: A Book Cometh By Way of Thought

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021/07/04

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Okay, so, what are you thinking along the lines of, on the one hand just giving up on humanity versus trying to uplift or bring people into kind of this science fiction in near future that is likely on the…

Rick Rosner: So, I’m writing this novel set in the near future. And the main character in the novel is part of a large tech enterprise. And is in the middle of changes that are going on with regard to just stuff that is in the middle of the ongoing tech revolution. And if writing about this, the near future and about this character, I have to think about what will happen to, well, humanity in the near future as well as in the medium future. And there’s been a theme or a trend in science fiction for a long time, at least as far back as H.G. Wells, The Time Machine.

Jacobsen: Which is a great movie and book.

Rosner: Several pretty good movies. It tries to present the very far future. A future, I don’t know hundred thousand years from now, and then I think we get a peek at the future many millions of years from now. But the more fleshed out version of the far future is, maybe a couple of hundred thousand years from now, when humanity has split into Eloi and Morlocks. And Eloi are like fairies. They’re very physically fragile. They live on the surface. They flit around. They’re not good at stuff. They’re just like kind of cute little fairy creatures. And then the Morlocks live underground. I haven’t read this in a gazillion years. And they do all the work, maintaining whatever technology remains. And they come to the surface, I think, and capture and eat Eloi.

So anyway, you’ve got the trolls underground and you got the little fairies above ground. And that’s a very early, I don’t know what, 1910, 1920 version of humanity bifurcating into two different forms, two different species. And then more recently in the Trump era, you’ve got books like Neil Stevenson’s Fall and books by Cory Doctorow, like Charles Stross and Doctorow wrote Rapture of the Nerds, probably more than 20 years ago. Now that has America having been split into Jesus land and then, like technologically advanced areas, it kind of takes you on a tour of the various fragments of America.

And kind of the theme in some of these books is that some segments of humanity might be beyond help, beyond saving. That the vast majority of the people in the fallen lands or Jesus land are turning into savages and are being left behind. Mostly as a matter of their own doing as they fall for propaganda that sells them deranged versions of the world that they form their own insular populations. And it’s tough to get out of there and join the rest of the world. And the rest of the world doesn’t really want to deal with these insular populations because they’re insane and dangerous and violent and dumb. So it’s an issue in my book too, and I haven’t come up with any, I don’t think deeper insight than some of these other people have come up with.

But it’s hard to tell whether to what extent the current malaise, Jimmy Carter gave a speech about the national malaise back in 1977, 1978. And it was among the reasons he didn’t get reelected because he gave a fairly pessimistic speech. He says, we need to get our shit together. We need to address the challenges of today. And we need to drive smaller cars. We need to save energy. And then Reagan came along and said, its morning in America and everything’s great. And SUVs originated under Reagan. These big ass vehicles. And people like that better than Carter, Carter’s national malaise. But anyway, our current malaise with Republicans being a deranged political party and trying to pass, attempted to pass 400 laws, individual states to suppress voting.

And by voter suppression, we mean people who would vote Democratic, black people, non-rich people. But it’s hard to tell whether the current malaise is more of a blip or whether it’s an ongoing trend and whether the insanity of a quarter of the U.S. adult population is a temporary aberration or just an ongoing thing that’s going to continue to be a problem and even more of a problem as the potential for a technological gap grows. I mean, given some of the technology that is coming, you don’t have to be a dumb redneck to be fearful and intimidated. So I guess my money would be on the technological gap, the intellectual gap. That all these gaps are going to be persistent and troublesome.

So I mean in the 14th century, the gaps among people, I mean, they were significant. On the one hand, you could be a king or a queen. On the other hand, you could be somebody who lives in a mud hut. But they were nowhere, but still everybody was like medicine didn’t work in the 14th century. There was no air conditioning. There were no cars, no telephones. There was not a lot of stuff. So the gap between the richest and the poorest. I mean it was significant. But it left many areas of life still basically equal. Everybody died like crazy because medicine didn’t work. But in the year 2050, the potential for some people having great medicine that extends their lives almost indefinitely and other people dying even younger on average than they do now because they’re stuck in relative poverty and relative ignorance.

I just saw a statistic today that of the one third of Americans who haven’t yet been vaccinated, 74 percent say they will not get vaccinated. So what three quarters of one third is like one quarter of Americans are vaccine resistant, which for the first time I think ever the average life expectancy in America has declined for several years in a row. I think its setting records, the declining lifespans and whatever. But like, the decline in life expectancy is not evenly distributed among Americans. It falls on the poor, the dumb, the despairing. It’s not just COVID that kills a shitload of people. I think opioid overdoses, I think, has over the past 12 years killed half a million Americans.

So anyway, the potential for greater and greater divides among different populations, I don’t think that’s going away. And people in the future who have the power to decide how much resources, how many resources are going to be devoted to bringing people along to uplifting people will, as they are now, be forced to triage or will prefer to triage. Various organizations and individuals and governments will be making decisions in the future about how hard to push to bring the dumbest, the poorest, the most belligerent, the most insane of us to try to get them out of their dumb propagandized funk.

Except there is the addendum. Rupert Murdoch, the guy who created Fox News. And it seems like it’s been around forever, but I think it’s only been around for about twenty-five years. Rupert Murdoch is ninety. And you could make the case that he’s done more damage to humanity than any other living person. Maybe any other person ever, given the number of people he’s impacting. He also happens to be married to Mick Jagger’s ex-wife, Jerry Hall, which is insane. She’s a former supermodel. And this old evil fuck he’s married to. He’s ninety and he’s still out there, still pushing Fox News to do more damage. All right, the end.

[End of recorded material]

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2023-01-26

Atheist Refugees Doubly Vulnerable

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The refugees in Germany can be atheists, apart from the image of Muslims and other non-Christian religions coming into the country. These are atheist asylum seekers fleeing persecution; sometimes, simply for their lack of belief in the dominant mythology of the culture in which they were born.

As reported by DW, “Mahmudul Haque Munshi’s name was on a hit list in Bangladesh. After five of his friends and associates were murdered, the authorities warned the blogger: ‘There’s nothing more we can do for you.’ Munshi had to leave the country in 2015.”
Oftentimes, these refugees or asylum seekers will have to travel through several nations simply to find some destination of safety. Some have seen what is labeled a “Global Hit List” of some listing, formal or informal, of the nonbelievers or those who left their faith that need to be killed.

Some names include people of Bengali descent and who are refugees. Many refugees fear being killed not by a God but simply by other refugees or others who feel personal resentment and need for retribution for individuals who leave religion, often common within the Islamic faith.
If someone leaves the faith, or publicly speaks out against some of the theocratic intents of some of the faiths, this becomes the basis for the reactionary violence against people simply for not adhering to the dominant faiths of the culture.

One refugee organization is devoted to the plight of the non-religious and is titled the Atheist Refugee Relief organization. It has helped 37 nonreligious refugees since November 2017 and continues to do important work for them.

Dittmar Steiner of Atheist Refugee Relief stated, “Conservative Muslims criticize women who go around without headscarves… We are actually dealing with assaults, exclusion, threats and violence.”

A 31-one-year-old, Worood Zuhair, stated this as a common experience for herself, who is a biologist from Karbala, Iraq. She is under police protection and continues to receive death threats because of the lack of personal religious belief.

These prices are often paid with lost time in life or in blood for the nonbelievers or the non-religious around the world. The refugees among them will be far more vulnerable to the attacks against them that are not beholden to others within the community.

As reported, “The physical and mental abuse has left Zuhair deeply traumatized. “When your own father gives your soul to Azrael, the angel of death, that is enormously painful,” she told DW. “He did it so often. I couldn’t take it anymore.”

Now, Zuhair speaks about the multitude of abuses against women refugees, including those who need asylum because of their religious criticism and work for the rights of women where she “supports the (OWFI) Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq.”
For too many women refugees and women atheists, this poor treatment and abuse is common. Islamists are one such group who wish to punish individuals who criticize or leave the faith.

But it can go even deeper than this, as noted about Munshi, “Munshi attracted the wrath of Islamists when he founded the Shahbag movement in his home country in 2013. The movement called for the punishment of those responsible for war crimes committed when Bangladesh fought for its independence against Pakistan in 1971. Roughly three million people died during that war.”

In this, we can see moral acts of courage being socially punished with the threat of retribution permitted by culture. With a prominent blog and network, Munshi garnered about half of a million followers. There were mass protests in the streets with subsequent death threats.

The main struggle for these atheist refugees is for freedom from religion. The ability to live apart from the enforcers of religion and the cultural enforcement of religion on them. But these refugees live a life on the run while fleeing in a manner of speaking.

Atheists aren’t the majority of refugees and are not the vast majority of the world’s population, but atheists are a struggling group within the global and refugee population based on fear and stigma by the religious and motivated by ignorance and hatred to create problems for them around the world.

The report states, “According to a statement by the country’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), origin from a particular country or a particular reason for fleeing, such as religious affiliation or atheism, does not automatically lead to a protection status.’”
Thus, atheism can become a specified indication of a person’s need on their sprint in life. Steiner stated, “The number of people affected is increasing… A year ago it was two to three requests a week — now it is between seven and nine a day.”

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2023-01-26

Turkish Atheism on the Rise

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

There has been a continuous growth in the number of non-religious people in the Turkey, which, by some reckonings, has been quite dramatic via the increase in the number of atheists within the theocratic state known for working via the state to keep evolution out of the classrooms

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues to have a theocratic politics with the ongoing encouragement of Islam to the Turkish people. But, at the same time, we see this rise in the number of atheists within the country. Those for whom religion simply doesn’t take or didn’t take.

As reported, “According to a recent survey by the pollster Konda, a growing number of Turks identify as atheists. Konda reports that the number of nonbelievers tripled in the past 10 years. It also found that the share of Turks who say they adhere to Islam dropped from 55 percent to 51 percent.”

The official directorate of religious affairs in Turkey, Diyanet, declared in 2014 that 99% of the Turkish public identifies as Muslim. However, with recent survey data from Konda, this has created heated debated within the country.

Ahmet Balyemez, a 36-year-old computer scientist, stated, “There is religious coercion in Turkey… People ask themselves: Is this the true Islam?… When we look at the politics of our decision-makers, we can see they are trying to emulate the first era of Islam. So, what we are seeing right now is primordial Islam… Fasting and praying were the most normal things for me.”

Cemil Kilic, a theologian, considers both statistics correct. In that, 99% of Turks identify as Muslim but only identify as such from a cultural and a sociological perspective. Kilic, here, is making a distinction between cultural Muslims, as in cultural Christians, and spiritual Muslims.

The theologian Cemil Kilic believes that both figures are correct. Though 99 percent of Turks are Muslim, he said, many only practice the faith in a cultural and sociological sense. They are cultural, rather than spiritual, Muslims.

Kilic stated, “The majority of Muslims in Turkey are like the Umayyads, who ruled in the seventh century… The prayers contained in the Koran reject injustice. But the Umayyads regarded daily prayer as a form of showing deference towards the sultan, the state and the powers that be… Regular prayers have become a way to signal obedience toward the political leadership… And prayers in mosques increasingly reflect the political worldview of those in power.”

Kilic explained how the lack of a formal religion, in this case Islam, does not negate a moral compass of the individual, as he states that some atheists are even more ethical and conscientious than a great number of Muslims.

One of the facts floating around this issue of Islam and atheism on the rise within Turkey is that fact that President Erdogan has been in power for about 16 years, as prime minister until 2014 and then president onwards into the present.

Kilic argued the state admixture with religion is part of the problem and the atheists may, in fact, be more consistent in their beliefs than the Muslims at times. Ateizm Dernegi, the central organization for atheists in Turkey, has, through its leader, Selin Ozhoken, stated that the desire by Erdogan to produce devout Muslims has, in fact, failed miserably in a number of ways.

Dernegi explained, “Religious sects and communities have discredited themselves… We have always said that the state should not be ruled by religious communities, as this leads to people questioning their faith and becoming humanist atheists.”

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2023-01-26

Canadian Atheists Win Discrimination Case

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

In a recent discrimination case, the atheists won it, which was in British Columbia, Canada.

The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal awarded $12,000 to the based on a daughter of a couple being “kicked out” of Bowen Island Montessori School (BIMS). It was labelled discrimination by the BC Human Rights Tribunal because the school, as stated by the BC Human Rights Tribunal, “…treated them differently from every other parent at the school, and sought to suppress their expression of concerns about the nature of the curriculum that were grounded in their race, ancestry and religious beliefs.”

That is to say, discrimination for lack of belief in the prevailing mythology. The parents are Gary Mangel and Mai Yasué. The child was enrolled in 2014 and Mangel sat on the board of directors. Then the school wanted to know the way in which to celebrate the holiday time properly.

One person recommended “clay elf ornaments.” But Mangel rejected this idea, as this, to him, promoted a Christian holiday. One asked if a Hanukkah activity may be better. But Mangel rejected this too.

But Mangel was rather rude in the email correspondence:

I don’t think it’s appropriate to celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or any other religious/political event at preschool (including Remembrance Day). [My child] is three years old… [and] cannot consent to being involved in decorating military wreaths or Christmas trees or lighting Hanukkah candles. Having the kids do these things seems inappropriate, given their absolute inability to understand the religious and political symbolism associated with those acts. As Richard Dawkins (author of The God Delusion) has written, there is no such thing as a Muslim, Jewish, or Christian, etc… baby/toddler/child. They are simply too young to be making these sorts of decisions.

Other board members argued the important of a “cosmic education” through the inclusion of different religious imagery included into the school, as this was important to the philosophy of the Montessori folks at the school.

Mangel stated that there should “atheist Christmas ornaments.” Things escalated from there, more explicit details can be gleaned from the link. Mangel wanted none of the celebrations while the board want as many as possible or, at a minimum, the major traditions to be represented.

No one changed their minds and there was something like a “reality TV show,” according to Mehta.

Things really came to a head when “Mr. Mangel responded, ‘I’ll sue them too’ and then began doing the Nazi salute and marching around while he sung a different version of O Canada in which he substituted his own lyrics.”

The arguments continued over the holidays. Then the school wanted the atheists to sign a contract that stated that “Multiculturalism, including the observation of a wide variety of celebrations is important to us.”

The atheists refused to sign it. Then the school took this as a basis to not re-enroll the daughter of the atheist parents. The atheists being belligerent was not the legal complaint but, rather, the response to the signing, i.e., the refusal to sign it.

BC Human Rights Tribunal member, Barbara Koenkiewicz, stated, “I find nothing in the evidence that could justify the refusal to register [the child] unless Dr. Yasué and Mr. Mangel essentially agreed that they would be significantly limited in their ability to raise issues about the cultural aspects of the BIMS program.”

The school was ordered to pay $5,000 per parent and $2,000 for the child/daughter.

Link to the source material:

https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2018/12/13/atheists-win-discrimination-case-against-bc-school-that-kicked-out-their-child/

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2023-01-26

1200-Page Dossier on “Actively Gay” Priests and Seminarians

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Newsweek reported on a massive dossier, at 1,200 pages, listing several priests and seminarians who are labelled as “actively gay” in Italy alone.

This was sent to the Vatican via the archdiocese of Naples. Francesco Mangicapra created the document. He is a gay male escort and did not like the hypocrisy of the priests and decided to do something about it.

He said, “The aim is not to hurt the people mentioned, but to help them understand that their double life, however seemingly convenient, is not useful to them or to all the people for whom they should be a guide and an example to follow.”

Now, an Italian Cardinal and the Archbishop of Naples, Crescenzio Sepe, stated that none of the named priests are currently stationed in Naples. Note, this does not deny the veracity of the claims in the large dossier.

Now, this is simply adding to the pile of accusations against members of the Catholic hierarchs around the world but, this time, focused on Italy in particular.

As reported, “Last month, an Italian court issued a 14-month suspended sentence to a Vatican tribunal judge for sexual molestation and possessing child pornography. Monsignor Pietro Amenta, a judge on the Rota (a court that hears mostly family cases), was arrested last March for publicly fondling an 18-year-old man in Rome.”

With the examination of the computer, the authorities found pornographic images of the young on the person computer. Then there was a plea bargain accepted by Paloma Garcia Ovejero, Vice Director of the Vatican Press Office. In an email from the Catholic News Service, it stated that he had “resigned as the prelate auditor of the Roman Rota.”

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2023-01-26

Global “Convinced Atheism” Increased by 80% in 12 Years

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The atheist community has been seeing an unprecedented rise in its international notoriety and respect by the wider public, but with this increase in visibility and dignity for the minority community within the non-religious international movements has been the backlash. Regardless, atheists are on the rise globally with differences depending on the nation or the region in consideration.

Big Think reported on the increases in the atheist population, especially in authoritarian China and in Europe in general. There was a survey of 60,000 or more people on 68 nations around the world with comparison from a 2005 survey.

The survey data gathering and analysis was done through the reliable and respected WIN/Gallup group. The number of people who identified as having no religion in 2005 was marked at 77%; whereas, for the survey done recently – in 2017, the number was 62%. A significant decrease, while not a majority, of 15%.

For the members of the atheist community with an interest in the ways in which atheist has continued to garner popularizers, famous speakers, best-selling books, and packed-house debates and dialogues, one is through the global transformation of the religious identification landscape.

For the in-depth analysis of the research, or the deeper reportage on it, please see the link associated with the survey rundown done by Big Think. But the big takeaway from the news reportage is the level of atheism, by which the survey states as “convinced atheism,” is most prominent is China – a huge number of the global population of atheists harboured there – and in Europe with most of the top 20 being in North America.

When looking at the breakdown of the 15% over the approximately 12-year-period, we can see noteworthy increase from 5%, in 2005, to 9%, in 2017, for the global convinced atheist population. That is to report, there has been an extraordinary increase of 80% for the convinced atheist population around the world in only about a dozen years.

The main factors argued for are age, education, and income: more of each means less religion; less of each means more religion. There is a direct negative correlation for these factors.

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2023-01-26

Newfound Irreligiosity Around the World

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The basic premise within the atheist community or more generally the formal non-religious community throughout the world remains the increase in the number of religious in the global view and the increase in the non-religious in select regions or nations.

In the research done by WIN/Gallup and reported on by Big Think, the number of the self-identified religious is 62% of people – as found when asked if they consider themselves religious people. They surveyed 60000 people across 68 nations. In 2005, the number was 77%.

This represents, in the scale of dozens of countries, a massive ground shift in the perspective of the religious and the non-religious, and the ways in which the international public perceives the categories for self-identification.

This says the overall number of people identifying as religious has been on a precipitous decline since the start of the 21st century. The number of atheists embed within the set of formal non-religious. In other words, the 15% drop in the religious indicates a concomitant rise in the formal non-religious but only a smaller portion of the 15% rise in the formal non-religious as atheists.

The formal non-religious can be brights, atheists, humanists, secular humanists, agnostics, and so on.

As described in the article, “In 2005, just 5% of those surveyed in 2005 considered themselves ‘convinced atheists’ – the remaining 18% were non-religious or ‘don’t knows’. In 2017, the fish-nor-fowl brigade had grown to 30%. ‘Convinced atheists’ had increased as well, but only to 9%.”

It indicates stellar increase in the number of convinced atheists by 80%, from 5% of the total to 9% of it. The opinion in the reportage continued to opine on the beliefs of the non-religious who may see parts of religion as reliable and valuable in some way.

“People may believe in aspects of religion even if they don’t consider themselves religious (and vice versa). As other results from the survey show, a higher percentage than those who say they’re religious believe in a soul (74%) and God (71%). Inversely, a lower percentage believe in things that many theologians would say are essential to religion, such as heaven (56%), hell (49%) and life after death (54%),” the article explained.

The third property was the aspects of a belief in the Architect of the Cosmos, or lack thereof, and the non-direct association with materialistic belief, and so, potentially, a non-belief in a supernaturalist or metanaturalist soul embedded with the person’s body.

Many external factors influence the degree to which an individual considers themselves religious. If someone has a higher income, if someone is older, and if someone is more educated, then this person will more likely be less religious; if the opposite factors, then the more religious.

Geography factors into the belief in God as well. Although, some countries have older populations, more educated populations, and richer populations, which, obviously, may associate with the aforementioned factors.

“For cultural, social and/or political reasons, some countries have a much higher degree of atheism. Europe is a regional hotbed, but even here, direct neighbours may be at great variance,” the article stated, “The most godless country in the world, however, is China. According to the survey, fully 67% of respondents in China considered themselves ‘convinced atheists’ – more than double the percentage in the world’s second-most atheistic country, Japan (29%).”

East Asia remains a major center of atheism, in fact “convinced atheism.” However, the other 18 of the 20 major convinced atheist nations emerge in Europe. Slovenia has 28%. Italy has 8%. Outside of Europe and East Asia, Australia has 13%. Canada has 10%. One African outlier is the Democratic Republic of the Congo at 8%.

Interestingly, 4% of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s population identifies at convinced atheist. (More detailed statistics with images are provided in the link at the preface to the article.) If you look at some of the more in-depth analyses provided in the presentation by Big Think, you will be surprised to note some of the Arab majority states and the level non-religious identifying citizens, even in purportedly highly Muslim countries.

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2023-01-26

Dialogue with Claire Klingenberg: President, European Council of Skeptic Organizations

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Claire has a background in law and psychology, and is currently working on her degree in Religious Studies. She has been involved in the skeptic movement since 2013 as co-organizer of the Czech Paranormal Challenge. Since then, she has consulted on various projects, where woo & belief meets science. Claire has spoken at multiple science&skepticism conferences and events. She also organized the European Skeptics Congress 2017, and both years of the Czech March for Science.

Her current activities include chairing the European Council of Skeptical Organisations, running the “Don’t Be Fooled” project (which provides free critical thinking seminars to interested high schools), contributing to the Czech Religious Studies journal Dingir, as well as to their online news in religion website. In her free time, Claire visits various religious movements to understand better what draws people to certain beliefs.

Claire lives in Prague, Czech Republic, with her partner, and dog.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: When it comes to the demographic or sociological analysis movement more broadly or the New Atheist movement for narrowly, I notice one trend. Others notice this trend as well.

That being the greater number of white men compared to most other demographics in the atheist and New Atheist movements. What seems like the source of the disproportionate amount of white men and men in general in the atheist and New Atheist movements?

Claire Klingenberg: I think it stems from history. Men were, white men were, prevalent in the sciences, in high positions, in professor jobs, in everything. This is continuing that. There are more women getting engaged in these issues.

It is going to take some time to change. Having time to do activism that advocates for the change of the bigger picture, and does not precisely deal with the here and now, is a luxury. Both the atheist and skeptic movement do deal with the here and now, but in a much broader sense, which makes them a luxury item. Unfortunately, as we see the demographics in the US, people of color are not always in the socioeconomic position to be able to afford this kind of luxury.

So, we have to work on making our movement more accessible to various different socioeconomic demographics.

Jacobsen: Other than SES or socio-economic status. What other variables seem to play into this split in the community, where far more men than women?

Klingenberg: Seeing your own people in the movement. Historically, the skeptic movement was created by the demographic of older white men. I can imagine some people do not feel welcome when they do not see some of their own within that group.

Fortunately, within the Czech Republic, one of the founders was a woman. She opened the door for us. I can understand why some cannot feel like they can bond with someone seemingly wholly different or that they will not be understood by anyone.

Jacobsen: I like the last note as well. It notes the logical implication. If you did the vice versa, you would find other communities heavily dominated by women or the African-American community in America.

If you look at much of the Christian community represented by comedic people like Steve Harvey and others, you find largely a base of African-Americans. Also, within the atheist movement, you have Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and more modern New Atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens… These are white men.

It is having the SES to have a theme to get out of the community and think about these things. But it seems like a dual-based problem, “I am in community. I am comfortable with this.”

So, it is an unfortunate fact. Human beings are tribal and connect with each other on base measures of “identity,” if I can use that term, of skin tone.

Klingenberg: The skin tone does define the circumstances in which you live and which influence you. Because of that, you may feel “How can these people understand what I am going through?”, and especially the feeling “How can these people have the same goals as I do?” This logic or thinking could be another barrier.

Jacobsen: In some commentary that some may give, I notice an underlying tone. That tone being, “People of particular groups should belong in a certain category, should act in such a way.”

The common trope is the white guy breakdancing [Laughing]. It doesn’t look good. Similar thing in a more serious context, an African-American woman must be religious, must be Baptist, and heavily involved in the community.

That is a stereotype that gets played en masse. If someone doesn’t behave as expected based on their ethnic heritage, or their national status as well, they may be coerced or pegged into behaving in one way.

Neil deGrasse Tyson talked about his deep passion for astrophysics and astronomy. Even though he had that, he felt pushed with the undertone of coercion to sports activities. “I am in sprinting, and running, and other things,” rather than astrophysics and astronomy.

He notes that he was lucky. He met Carl Sagan. That continued to stoke the fire. That passion pushed through the attempts at coercion away from what he really a) had the ability to do and b) the passion to pursue, which was astrophysics.

It can even be good will and good intentions that exacerbate societal splits along belief lines and eventual outcome lines.

Klingenberg: Last month, I was at a talk by Anna Grodzka. She is a Polish trans woman. She founded a supporting organization for trans people in Poland. She had this beautiful quote, “We live in a world haunted by stereotypes, which do not reflect reality but impose upon us.”

I think that it is a beautiful way to summarize all of this. People have these stereotypes in their head, which many times do not come close to even reflecting reality. However, we are forced to live and fight with them on a daily basis.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Claire.

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2023-01-26

The New Mythologist and the New Atheist: A Neuroscientist and a Psychologist Dialogue on Truth

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to Psychology Today, a practicing Canadian psychologist and an American neuroscientist discussed religious claims to truth.

The psychologist is Jordan Peterson. The neuroscientist is Sam Harris. It has been an ongoing debate with the New Atheists dominating in the 2000s. They were ascendant and debating the prominent Christian philosophers and theologians.

The 2010s see a different debate happening with many of the prominent New Atheists aging or deceased. The current debate between the two were about religion and true speech with a connection to myths and then also the world of rationality and science.

As reported, “What makes the debate so mercurial is that Peterson himself does not believe in traditional Christian claims such as the resurrection. Rather, he sees religious belief as a Darwinian adaptation that remains mostly unconscious.”

The orientation of Peterson is the potential for a spiritual reality with the truths from the religious myths. That is, human psychology and societal structures can be illuminated through the mythologies of times past.

One evolutionary biologist, Bret Weinstein, moderated some dialogues in Vancouver and Dublin. Then there was one with Douglas Murray as well. Harris and Peterson looked into the roots of religion and the ways in which this relates to truth.

“One illuminating way of thinking about religious belief, evoked in their second debate, involves a loaded gun. If we are taught to treat all guns as loaded, the argument goes, we will be safer in the long run,” the article explained, “Whether or not it is true that a particular gun is loaded or not does not matter—so long as we treat every gun as if it is loaded, we will be more likely to survive. A society that believes that every gun is loaded, then, is more likely to survive than a society which does not.”

Harris spoke the literal truth and the metaphorical truth. The latter as having utility within the world of fiction. Then these metaphorical truths can be more helpful than literal truth in some cases. The thought is that the society built on the assertion of human beings being built in the image of the creator of the universe is better for having a basic purpose.

Peterson argued for the utility of the Biblical stories within the framework of Darwinian evolution. That these stories must have survival significance.

“In his lectures and writings, Peterson describes the story of Cain and Abel as a warning against envy and resentment, and the Tower of Babel as a call for caution against centralized, totalizing systems. These stories, he argues, are ‘metaphorically true,’ even if they are literally false,” the article stated.

Harris pointed to some of the religious narratives containing some moral data. However, they can be useless too. Because these assume gods or a God. It becomes a “misapprehension of the causal structure of the cosmos.”

Peterson’s concern comes in the form of a secular ethic coming from preceding ethics; if we lose those preceding ones, then we lose ethical systems now. We need to know their origins. He directed attention to human and animal sacrifice. The idea is give something up now for later. He argues for this as the discovery of the future.

Harris argued for the utility of the narratives but without the belief in revelation or the supernatural in essence.

“Here, the debate reached a kind of impasse. Peterson insisted that because so much of our thinking is unconscious, and stories are our way of describing the behaviors that emerge from that unconscious processing, our old religious stories might have far more to teach us about ourselves than we can rationally discern on our own,” the article stated.

Harris argued this was an evasion on the part of Peterson. However, for the three discussions, the main conversation focused on the nature of the truth. Peterson, apparently, echoed the arguments of one Christian philosopher, Alvin Plantinga.

That the adaptively evolved faculties should be judged on the ability for greater survival of the organism. Harris views this as a stretch. That even, in one thought experiment, if humans died off as a species; our fundamental scientific and rational discoveries would still be true.

Peterson stated that if we die based on some ideas then, maybe, those ideas are not true.

The article concluded, “At the end of the debates, the fundamental question of religion and the human mind remains unsettled. But that doesn’t take the joy out of watching two scientists tear out the foundations of truth, morality and culture beneath their feet and try to put them back together again.”

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2023-01-26

Sin by Wifi

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to Laughing in Disbelief, one atheist is bringing his own brand of atheism to the world of stand-up comedy.

There is a clip called The Lock In. In it, there is a discussion around the subject matter of atheism and God, and the connection with the youth world and dating arena for the young people. It is part of a larger special called Bad Comedy For Bad People.

In the synopsis of the special, it describes Jensen began a Twitter account for his daughter. It garnered an international audience: @MaxTheTiger. He did not expect international audience. One usually does not even expect a national audience with a Twitter account for a daughter, or for themselves for that matter.

As reported, “Then again, he probably never pictured having the “death talk” with li’l MaxTheNecromancer as his small, ardent atheist tried to Lazarus a froglet. And even that one wasn’t as odd as learning a thing or two from the comprehensive “sex talk” his wife and several organic, fair trade bananas laid on their nephew.”

With the latest release through Stand Up! Records, he talks about the ethics around homelessness and incarceration. The complexities around veganism and teenage depression. Then he slides into a monologue on the Civil Rights Movement and the music around it.

This then moves into speaking to the gay marriage and the issues of aging with hope for a “better, kinder, future.”

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2023-01-26

Bad Comedy for Bad People” with Keith Lowell Jensen

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to Laughing in Disbelief, one atheist is bringing his own brand of atheism to the world of stand-up comedy.

This then moves into speaking to the gay marriage and the issues of aging with hope for a “better, kinder, future.”

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2023-01-26

Atheists Faking Muslim Identity for Safety in Indonesia

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to Friendly Atheist, many atheists in Indonesia fear for their lives and so live under fake Muslim identities.

Indonesia has the largest population of Muslims in the world. The number of Muslims in standard statistics may be misleading because of the fear of reprisal from the community, the family, and even the state. If someone is in fear for their livelihood, then they may simply work to fit into the pack.

As reported, “Living a double life isn’t all that uncommon in Indonesia, where atheists live in fear of being sent to jail (or worse) thanks to fundamentalist religious groups. AFP profiled one of these atheists, identified only as “Luna Atmowijoyo,” about her de-conversion from Islam years ago.”

Atmowijoyo lives with her parents. But still, she wears an Islamic headscarf to simply fit into the family and so the community, and to avoid the backlash, potentially and likely, of her father. She was told to not have friendships with non-Muslims.

She is 30-years-old and still finds a lot of the simple things bother her. Atmowijoyo stated, “Like I couldn’t say Merry Christmas or Happy Waisak to people of other religions,” where other problems involved the treatment of homosexual males and females as in some way dysfunctional/abnormal.

The juxtaposition of the Quran and science were also problems. Then the idea entered her brain, that God may not exist. The reportage notes the Abrahamic faiths’ marginalization of the sexual orientation and gender identity minority communities.

It continued, “But for most of us, going public with that idea will lead to a loss of family or friends. It’s not a death sentence. In Indonesia, atheists who speak out about their beliefs risk their lives and freedom.”

The law of the land in Indonesia does not help, either. It has some purported stipulations about the freedom of expression. However, the freedom expression of speaking about a lack of a belief in God or gods becomes something that places an individual at risk of arrest of killing by the authorities.

The six religions recognized by Indonesia are Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and others. However, with over 90% of the population believing in Islam, the criticism of religion and a religious Theity, including the Islamic one especially, becomes potentially grounds for public and legal punishment.

It may even be a greater risk for a woman. In 2018, one student was charged for a Facebook post that made a comparison between Allah and some Greek gods, while also stating the Lord of the Rings is comparable in reality to the Quran.

Alexander Aan received 30 months in jail in 2012 for the posting of explicit material of the Prophet Mohammed while also declaring himself – Aan – an atheist. The government will not acknowledge any hypocrisy between allowing someone to be an atheist but only keeping it to themselves, under potential punishment with the force of law.

Abdurrahman Mas’ud, head of the research and development agency at the Ministry of Religion, explained, “Once somebody disseminates that idea, or the concept of atheism, that will be problematic.”

The article concluded:

Blasphemy laws are always going to be blasphemy laws. Nobody is falling for this “atheism is legal” nonsense, and there’s a good reason some atheists are hiding their lack of faith from everyone in Indonesia. Without reforming the culture and the laws — with the help of believers who truly believe in free speech — nothing will get better in this area.

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2023-01-26

On a Bishop and Waning Catholicism Due to Lack of Interest in Religion

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to Rome Reports, Cardinal Antonio Marto argued that the main issue for the religious is the actual lack of interest in religion. It was a short news article on the story of the cardinal and bishop, and his perspective on the waning interest in religion now.

Marto was the one who welcomed Pope Francis to Fatima – his city – in 2017 and the then-pope Benedict XVI in 2006. Coming from a family of deep faith, Marto knows the Roman Catholic religion and theology, and cultural and social life.

Marto was ordained as a priest with a doctorate in Theology with Benedict appointing him the bishop of Fatima, of the city. He was reluctant to take the position; however, the pope, at the time, wanted Marto to be the bishop.

As reported, “Fatima receives thousands of people from all continents every year. For this reason, it’s interesting to get his opinion about what should be the Church’s priority.” Marto is concerned about the state of the Church. This is someone with authority, education, and influence within the Roman Catholic Church from a Catholic news source.

“At this moment, the priority is to bring God to the hearts of men and women, and men and women to the heart of God, and this is part of the message of Fatima,” Marto opined, “This is because we live in a time of religious indifference. Our greatest enemy is not militant atheism but religious indifference. This indifference is fought with the joyful and convinced testimony of faithful Christians.”

The decline in the global interest in religion – though continued growth in the numbers – remains a concern for the individuals within the Roman Catholic Church including the hierarchs such as Marto.

The article concluded, “It’s this issue he hopes to continue working on as cardinal and theological bishop of Fatima one who finds rests by walking in the mountains or spending time with his family and friends.”

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2023-01-26

Firefighters Face Religious Discrimination Too

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to Friendly Atheist, there can even be discrimination around religion against particular members of the community who are beloved: firefighters.

The reportage states, “In 2016, atheist Jeffrey Queen filed an unbelievable lawsuit against the city of Bowling Green (Kentucky) based on what he witnessed while working for the fire department. The lawsuit only came after his complaints were ignored, some by Deputy Chief Dustin Rockrohr (also named in the lawsuit), and he was formally discharged.”

The claims are extensive within the lawsuit. Some of them including the referring to non-Christians as pagans. The asking of the person in question on the job if they would like to join the church. Another stating that he should “get right with Jesus.”

Others included that atheists should burn or that a colleague would be damned if they would atheists and feels glad that “none of those fuckers work here.” The man, Queen, was forced into participation in a Bible study at the fire station. Then after coming out as an atheist, the Captain, Eric Smith, and one other firefighter stated that they would, therefore, burn down his house.

He was called a faggot almost every day, or queer. He is straight and married, for the record. His colleagues would not touch gay people because of their potential for having AIDS – “probably had…” Then there was a statement that if a homosexual works there then they would make sure he dies in a fire; also, they stated that they would chop his feet off.

One man did not get help with chest pain after hearing he was gay. Some firefighters refused to help out. Then African-Americans were referred as “hoodrats” and “thugs” and even the n-word. As reported, “He witnessed members of the Fire Department refer to Muslims as ‘towelheads,’ ‘jihadis,’ ‘ali-babas,’ and ‘sand n—–.’ He heard those same people say of Muslims, ‘we need to ship them all back where they came from’ and ‘let the bombs torch them, they are going to hell anyway.’”

Queen took an absence from work due to the harassment. He resigned due to the hostility in the work environment. No one would have known about these instances without the whistleblowing of Queen. He went public and suffered as a result of it, professionally and personally.

“Since that lawsuit was filed, though, the city and Rockrohr have tried to get the courts to throw it out. They don’t dispute what Queen witnessed,” the article explained, “Instead, they claim ‘that jokes, pranks, and teasing are all part of the fraternal environment at the Fire Department that Queen enjoyed and participated in.’”

However, Queen did not enjoy it. He hated it. The fire department is claiming the harassment on the basis of atheism was not a possibility because they did not know, at the time, that he was a closeted atheist in the fire department.

However, Queen states that the statement about the burning down of his house due to his atheism as a result of the colleagues in the fire department finding out about his atheism.

The article continues, “On Friday, however, a judge ruled that there was more than enough reason for this case to move forward. There’s plenty of information regarding religious discrimination and retaliation that a jury would have to sort out, the judge said, and the reasons for dismissing the case are absurd.”

It resulted in a 14-page ruling on Friday issues by the U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley that the allegation of a hostile work environment based on religion and claims of retaliation could proceed reasonably to a proper trial.

In a 14-page ruling issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley allowed the allegation of hostile work environment based on religion and claims of retaliation to proceed to trial.

McKindley stated, “A reasonable jury could find that the harassment and threats were in retaliation for his complaints regarding the workplace… According to Queen, his work environment got so bad that he had to take a medical leave of absence and eventually forced him to resign.”

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2023-01-26

Richard Dawkins likes Cathedral Bells

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to The Atlantic, Dr. Richard Dawkins spoke on a cultural taste for the bells of cathedrals and a distaste for the calls of ‘Allahu Akhbar.’

Dawkins tweeted an image of himself in Winchester, England on a Sunny day.

Richard Dawkins is at it again.

The famous atheist and bestselling author of The God Delusion tweeted on Monday a picture of himself sitting on a park bench and enjoying a sunny day in Winchester, England. For many people, this moment might have been a chance to just kick back and relax. But apparently not for Dawkins.

“Listening to the lovely bells of Winchester, one of our great mediaeval cathedrals,” he tweeted to his nearly 3 million followers. “So much nicer than the aggressive-sounding ‘Allahu Akhbar.’ Or is that just my cultural upbringing?”

Yes, actually, it is, replied thousands of people. Many flat-out accused him of racism, xenophobia, bigotry, or Islamophobia. News outlets from The Independent to Newsweek reported on the public outrage. Even by Dawkinsian standards of provocation, this latest statement felt to many like a shock.

In fact, however, it’s pretty common for native English speakers to perceive Arabic sounds as “aggressive.” So much so that American accent reduction coaches make money off Arabic-speakers by warning them that their native language “may cause [them] to sound harsh or aggressive.” Another adjective often applied to the language is “guttural.” Many people characterize German in the same way.

Sociolinguists, who study the ways people’s cultural beliefs affect their beliefs about various languages, say this is no coincidence.

“A lot of times people’s negative or positive attitudes about a particular group get transferred onto the language,” explained Christopher Lucas, a professor of Arabic linguistics at SOAS in London. “They start to believe that it’s just the linguistic content of the language that is the bearer of those features that they experience as negative or positive, when that is almost never the case in actuality. … Sounds are just sounds. They don’t have any objective content that you can map onto specific emotional states.”

That’s not to say the perception of sound is entirely socially constructed. “There is some non-arbitrary link between sounds and the meanings people associate with them,” said Morgan Sonderegger, an associate professor of linguistics at McGill University. For instance, he said, it’s pretty well established that words with higher-sounding vowels tend to denote smaller objects, while words with lower-sounding vowels tend to denote bigger things; this is true cross-culturally. He cited a 2016 study that examined words from nearly two-thirds of the world’s languages and found that people everywhere often associate certain sounds with certain meanings. And an earlier cross-cultural experiment found that when people are shown a curvy shape and a jagged shape, and are asked which one is a bouba and which one is a kiki, they overwhelmingly associate the curvy shape with bouba and the jagged one with kiki. Sonderegger noted, however, that although human beings do seem to have some built-in associations, even these are just “raw materials that can be overwritten by cultural biases.”

The linguist Vineeta Chand argues that there’s actually nothing inherent in the sounds of a language that make it more or less enticing. Instead, people tend to find a foreign language attractive when the group it’s associated with enjoys economic or sociocultural prestige—think of the popularity of French as “romantic.” And the linguist Guy Deutscher argues that people tend to find sounds or sound combinations grating when they appear rarely or not at all their own native language—like the consonant cluster lbstv in selbstverständlich, which is German for obvious.

Lucas added that he believes Dawkins’s “vague soup of negative ideas [about Islam] is bleeding into his transcription.” The author’s tweet refers to “Allahu Akhbar,” but the proper transliteration would be Akbar, because this Arabic word contains no kh sound (as opposed to, say, the word sheikh). “He’s transcribing it as if it’s a kh, and for people who are native speakers of a language that lacks a kh sound—like most dialects of English—that is very often felt to be a harsh, ugly sound. People here in the U.K., when you ask them what’s your opinion about German, will say ‘Oh, it’s ugly! You’ve got all these kh, kh, kh sounds.’ But there are many other languages with these sounds, like Dutch. And no one in my experience says that Dutch is ugly.”

Dawkins posted a new status on Twitter on Wednesday, after a barrage of intense media attention: “The call to prayer can be hauntingly beautiful, especially if the muezzin has a musical voice. My point is that ‘Allahu Akhbar’ is anything but beautiful when it is heard just before a suicide bomb goes off. That is when Islam is tragically hijacked by violence.”

The tweet, which seemed meant to defuse criticism from the left, reinforces the linguists’ point: The words sound “aggressive” to Dawkins, not because of some inherent acoustic harshness, because he associates them with suicide bombers.

Earlier this year, Dawkins made headlines for giving away free copies of The God Delusion to Muslims after discovering that millions of copies had been illegally downloaded in Arabic translation in Muslim-majority countries. Yet for the atheist provocateur, taking issue with the Arabic language seems to be something of a pattern. He did it in 2013, 2014, and 2015. His 2014 tweet is especially striking for its similarity to this week’s remarks: “I’ve read that Arabic is the most beautiful language,” Dawkins wrote then. “I questioned that aesthetically & was bizarrely accused of racism. So I deleted it.”

But Dawkins keeps repeating himself. And many of his followers seem content with that: His “Allahu Akbar” tweet collected more than 16,000 likes.

“The people who get away with simplistic ideas about languages are people who don’t speak them and haven’t lived the experience of those languages being used to express love and anger and hilarity and sadness,” Lucas said. “If you’ve been exposed to a language a lot, that pretty much guarantees you’re not going to have simplistic ideas about it.”

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2023-01-26

Supreme Court of Canada Supports LGBTQ

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to Mondaq, there was a Supreme Court of Canada decision on June 15 2018 relevant to LGBTQ rights.

There was a landmark decision on the Canadian limits for their institutional religious freedoms. It amounted to the law school wanted by an Evangelical Christian University in Langley, British Columbia being rejected on legal grounds.

As reported, “The decisions concerned regulator rejections of a law school which required that students sign a covenant prohibiting any form of sexual activity outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.”

Two cases – Law Society of British Columbia v Trinity Western University and Trinity Western University v Law Society of Upper Canada – had the Supreme Court of Canada find both the Ontario and British law societies’ legal decisions to not accredit the law school came from a balanced place.

The law societies made the decision to not accredit the law school for Trinity Western University (TWU). The decision was said to have made a balance between the Law Societies’ mandates and religious freedom.

It continued, “TWU is a private post-secondary institution that provides education in an evangelical Christian environment. While LGBTQ students are not prohibited from attending TWU, all students are required to sign a covenant that prohibits any form of sexual activity outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.”

This limits students. With the covenant, the Law Societies made a vote. The vote determined a proper denial of the accreditation of the law school proposed by TWU. With extensive deliberations, it was decided that TWU was discriminatory against LGBTQ people.

“On judicial review, Ontario’s Divisional Court held that the Law Society of Ontario had properly exercised its statutory mandate to act in the public interest in refusing to grant accreditation to TWU’s proposed law school because its mandatory covenant was discriminatory,” the reportage stated.

The denial of the accreditation, apparently, violated the Section 2(a) religious right found in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court was found to have made a proportionate and balanced decision on the equality rights and the Law Society of Ontario’s public interest mandate.

“In contrast, the British Columbia Court of Appeal reversed the Law Society of British Columbia’s decision not to approve TWU’s proposed law school. The court instead found that the decision’s effect on TWU’s religious rights was severe compared to the minimal impact on Law Society of British Columbia’s statutory public interest objectives,” the article said.

The appeal was then made to the SCC. The SCC made a staggering 7-2 decision to deny accreditation to the TWU law school. Most of the SCC found that the Law Societies violated the communal religious freedom of TWU.

However, with the Charter right invoked for the legal societies’ decision, the SCC used a decision-making framework from some previous decisions. It was the Dore/Loyola framework. It was meant for the balance of the Charter rights and the statutory objectives.

Reportage continued, “The Supreme Court held that the Law Societies had balanced competing interests reasonably and proportionately. As with many administrative decisions, the decision under review did not need to be correct; it was only required to fall within a range of possible reasonable outcomes.”

Two sides were present. The SCC ratiocinated that the religious rights of the TWU community were not limited based on the mandatory covenant because of this not being a requirement of the Christian environment.

The other was that the statutory public interest mandate is to prevent harm to LGBTQ students of law. It means a diverse bar with equal access and opportunities. The decision highlighted the balance between public interest and religious rights.

“In a minority concurring decision, Justice Rowe found that TWU’s religious rights had not been engaged by the Law Societies’ decisions. He argued that while religious rights protected individuals and faith communities’ beliefs and practices,” the article explained, “it did not protect their attempts to impose adherence to others who do not share their beliefs.[9] With no Charter right balanced against the Law Societies’ public interest mandate, the decision to deny TWU accreditation was entirely reasonable.”

There was another minority decision happening concomitantly. The Chief Justice McLachlin stated that the Dore/Loyola framework shall be applied. It was commentary from McLachlin on the freedom of association and the freedom of expression.

“She ultimately agreed, however, that the decision of the Law Societies was reasonable as they had a heightened duty to maintain equality and avoid condoning discrimination,” the article stated, “In dissent, Justice Côté and Justice Brown argued that the Law Societies’ statutory mandates did not include the governance of law schools.”

There was further commentary by Justice Côté and Justice Brown about the mandatory covenant not being discriminatory. Their argument was that the covenant did not target LGBTQ people in particular and, therefore, this did not comprise any form of standard discrimination.

It, on the implications, continued to state, “The decision serves as a high-profile example of judicial review of administrative decisions engaging Charter rights. The Supreme Court declined to depart from the Dore/Loyola framework, despite criticism in some circles.”

The SCC made balance with the statutory objectives and the religious rights within the context of the Dore/Loyola framework. The decision may show SCC deference to the statutory mandates of administrative bodies.

“The impact of these decisions extends beyond adjudging the quality of various legal tests. The number of interveners (23) across religious and human rights spectra illustrate how personally important these decisions were to groups across Canada,” the article concluded, “As noted above, the Supreme Court focused on interests of diversity and equal access to the legal profession in reaching its conclusions. Many will view these decisions favourably as a continuation of the use of the Charter to advance the rights of LGBTQ Canadian citizens.”

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2023-01-26

#ChurchToo and Sexual Harassment Training

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The #MeToo movements around the world are now impacting the Christian church more broadly with the hashtag #ChurchToo.

A training event for the prevention of sexual misconduct was scheduled to educate church staff about healthy boundaries. This event was arranged by the Mennonite Churches of Eastern Canada (MCEC) and conducted in Kitchener, Ontario by Rev. Dr. Marie Fortune where representatives of 10 denominations of Christianity attended the training in order to begin dealing with the sexual harassment happening within their own ranks. This endeavor is linked to the #ChurchToo movement — which branches off of the #MeToo era which began by exposing predatory male behavior and sexual harassment in enclaves like Hollywood and the mainstream media — and is now spreading throughout the rest of society.

Church Leadership Minister for the MCEC, Marilyn Rudy-Froese, stated, “It’s all over in our society. It’s not just happening in the movie industry, and it’s not just happening in the Catholic Church… It’s the work we all need to be doing: we need to be shifting our culture to be attentive to the voices and stories of victims.”

Fortune founded the FaithTrust Institute in the Seattle area where she was a young United Church minister circa 1979. She wants survivors of sexual misconduct to come forward with their narratives of abuse.

“It’s harder — it’s not impossible but it’s harder — for institutions to ignore anymore,” she said. “That’s always been a challenge in addressing this issue, is they really don’t want to know and their knee-jerk reaction tends to be wrong in terms of institutional self-interest,” Fortune stated.

Rather than be one of the ones who have been ignoring the problem either passively or systematically, Fortune wants to help these Christian organizations move head first into dealing with the problem. She advises them not to fear looking bad to the community.

Fortune emphasizes the need to prevent sexual misconduct within the church in the first place by developing healthy boundaries — especially for sexual predators who “don’t care about education”— to put policies in place so that abusers can be identified, investigated and appropriately punished. The training will focus on both preventing sexual misconduct and also to deal with predators who somehow slip through the cracks.

It’s not about the fear of looking bad, but about the social, and the church’s need to deal swiftly with criminals. Fortune noted the importance of those investigating to be transparent with congregants so the victims feel free to come forward.

Rev. Darren Roorda, Canadian Ministries Director of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, stated, “People in various levels of the church — women especially — are much more comfortable to say, ‘I have an issue with fill-in-the-blank,’ or ‘my history includes some difficulty or challenge or persecution’… People are much more apt to identify themselves. That comfort level is really, really healthy and good. We’re glad about that.”

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2023-01-26

Religion as Showing Off

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to Psychology Today, there is an argument to be made that religion is about showing off.

The article states that altruistic acts in some forms have been hard for scientists to explain. These speculations become especially true in the instances of the kinds of self-sacrifice that make humanity seem heroic in some manner.

The people who give to others without a thought for any other hand-back to themselves. This seems at odds with the evolutionary point of view. There is a theory called Costly Signaling Theory. It tries to make some sense of the extreme forms of altruisms.

As reported, “The term Handicap Principle has often been used as a synonym for ‘Costly Signaling Theory.’ This reflects the origins of the theory in research on animal communication. Some animals ‘handicap’ themselves with extremely costly biological features that only individuals in excellent condition can afford to maintain.”

The examples given are the plumage of a peacock or the antlers of an elk. They are handicaps, very materially expensive. The theory proposes that the honest signals of oneself via handicaps can be hard to fake but that this can then have some long-term benefits for us.

It continued, “Costly signaling is very much about truth in advertising. A ‘low-quality’ signaler who attempts to fake a high-quality signal will deplete whatever resources that he may have available, leaving the signaler in such a vulnerable position that the strategy will prove to be counterproductive. “

But if someone is a high-quality signaler, this individual has the resources to burn this signalling. It becomes adaptively beneficially in comparison to the costs of the signalling. The big example is public magnanimity.

Those who are willing to give a lot. It provides the individual a sense of social status among their peers. The argument from Costly Signaling Theory would be that the display shows the person to be of a higher social status than the others, which means the display may not be entirely selfless.

“There is anthropological evidence that individuals who have a history of being magnanimous are rewarded by others when times get tough, and laboratory studies by psychologists have also demonstrated that charitable donations and other acts of kindness are most likely to take place when the behaviors are easily observed and recognized by others,” the article explained.

Many researchers view the conspicuous displays as potential advertisement of personality traits to potential mates. Some research confirmed males display altruism in front of attractive members of the opposite sex. Women did not do the same thing.

The article stated and asked, “It’s no secret that young men are notorious for engaging in foolish, risky behavior. How could this predilection for recklessness have evolved in young men?”

Attention is directed to some of the early human societies, where adulthood comes from a man’s standing in front of the social group. This could not masculinity reset through leaving one group and joining another one.

“For this reason, high-risk competition between young males provided an opportunity for ‘showing off’ the abilities needed to acquire resources, exhibit strength, and to meet challenges to one’s status. Consequently, heroic or even recklessly daredevil behavior was rewarded with status and respect—assuming, of course, that the young man survived the ordeal,” the article said.

One anthropologist, Kristen Hawkes, founded the Show-Off Hypothesis. It is the idea well-replicated within the hunter-gatherer societies research. The men use the risky hunting strategies in order to garner the greater sexual access to the women of the world.

It is costly and a form of heroism in the sexual selection arena. Many experts in the evolutionary psychology field see apparent true heroism as giving advantage to some individuals. The heroism in war time is one example of this.

More can be seen in the signaling in the capitalistic societies with the wasteful spending of resources not essential to the survival or even for comfort of the individual ridding themselves of the resources in costly displays, signaling.

The article described, “A series of seven studies, confirmed that wearing brand label clothing does indeed increase perceptions of a person’s wealth and status, and that this perception leads to all sorts of advantages.”

Individuals who wear the expensive brands will get more compliance in requests and will get better jobs with higher salaries. They get better outcome in some social scenarios and can be more successful in the solicitation of donations from others. People buy expensive environmentally friendly products to see of higher status in the eyes of others. This then leads to ideas about religion and social status, and costly signaling.

“Religion has long been thought of as a social mechanism for enforcing cooperation within cultural groups. One of the ways in which it may successfully accomplish this is by using religious commitment as a costly signaling device,” the article said, “All religions have rituals, taboos, and other requirements that can be very costly in terms of time, money, or effort. Fasting, tithing, frequent and lengthy prayer and/or religious services, and dietary requirements that are difficult to follow require a good deal of commitment.”

That is, the commitment to religion is a signal to the efforts and values of the group. These become hard to fake within the group. Because the people within or the members of the group want to see you as a worthwhile and contributing member of the group. Analysis of communal societies apparently show this to be true, especially for those to have survived a long time. There are costly memberships with religion as one big cost.

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2023-01-26

License Plate Blasphemy

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to Friendly Atheist, there is an effort ongoing to prevent the mockery of religion by a Kentucky man.

In 2016, the head of the Kentucky Division of Motor Vehicles rejected atheist Ben Hart‘s request for a license plate. It stated, “IM GOD.” He had this plate while living in Ohio. No problem, he lived in Ohio for 12 years. There was no issue there for the same license plate.

But then the Kentucky DMV told Hart that the plate was “obscene and vulgar.” Then this changed, “Not in good taste.” He then made a formal response in a lawsuit. He argued that this was a violation of his freedom of speech.

“…the DMV’s actions were a violation of his free speech. What Kentucky wanted was silly, he argued, because they allow you to buy an “In God We Trust” license plate template. How is that okay while taking a position on God on the plate itself is illegal?” The article stated, “The lawsuit is still working its way through the courts. Earlier this year, the judge rejected the state’s request to toss out the lawsuit. This case will be decided on its merits. We await the judge’s decision.”

Then some intriguing events took place. The DMV is going through all license plates now, or appears to have done so, to tell all those with a previously approved religious message that they are no longer allowed to have them.

This may amount to a tactic for the courts, so that the individuals who are trying to prosecute him can say that they are not simply being bigoted and singling out Hart for his atheism. One Susi Burton has “PRAY4” for her license plate. She had it for 8 years. Now, she is furious.

“… she was stunned the other day — no make that “horrified” — to get a letter from the State Transportation Cabinet telling her that she had 20 days to return her license plate to the Fayette County Clerk’s office or the state would cancel her 2016 Lexus’ registration,” the article explained.

She found this a serious hassle and annoyance. The state law is against license plates that target particular religions. However, the double standard is applied and obvious to Burton.

As the report stated, “Burton said she’s offended by the thought of a plate that says “IM GOD,” but that doesn’t mean the northern Kentucky man shouldn’t have it. That lady gets it. What’s really ironic in all this is that Burton is demanding Kentucky be more accommodating of her religious views.”

The article continues in more depth on the issues of the beliefs of the governor and then Kim Davis. Then also, those who are pushing back against them, but those are direct but peripheral issues to this particular license plate blasphemy news.

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2023-01-26

Firefighters Face Religious Discrimination Too

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to Friendly Atheist, there can even be discrimination around religion against particular members of the community who are normally beloved: firefighters.

The report states, “In 2016, atheist Jeffrey Queen filed an unbelievable lawsuit against the city of Bowling Green (Kentucky) based on what he witnessed while working for the fire department. The lawsuit only came after his complaints were ignored, some by Deputy Chief Dustin Rockrohr (also named in the lawsuit), and he was formally discharged.”

The claims are extensive within the lawsuit. Some of them included the referring to non-Christians as pagans. The asking of the person in question on the job if they would like to join the church. Another stating that he should “get right with Jesus.”

Others included that atheists should burn or that a colleague would be damned if they would be atheists and feels glad that “none of those fuckers work here.” The man, Queen, was forced into participation in a Bible study at the fire station. Then after coming out as an atheist, the Captain, Eric Smith, and one other firefighter stated that they would, therefore, burn down his house.

Queen took an absence from work due to the harassment. He resigned due to the hostility in the work environment. No one would have known about these instances without the Queen’s whistleblowing. He went public and suffered as a result of it, professionally and personally.

However, Queen did not enjoy it; he hated it. The fire department is claiming the harassment on the basis of atheism was not a possibility because they did not know, at the time, that he was a closeted atheist in the fire department.

However, Queen states that the statement about the burning down of his house due to his atheism as a result of the colleagues in the fire department finding out about his atheism.

In a 14-page ruling issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley allowed the allegation of hostile work environment based on religion and claims of retaliation to proceed to trial.

McKinley stated, “A reasonable jury could find that the harassment and threats were in retaliation for his complaints regarding the workplace…. According to Queen, his work environment got so bad that he had to take a medical leave of absence and eventually forced him to resign.”

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2023-01-26

The Decline of Canadian Nuns

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to The Globe and Mail, the numbers of the most faithful Christians in the forms of nuns is on the decline in Canada.

The news report spoke of several decades of decline in the numbers entering and staying in the convent. Some monasteries, as noted, go back as many as four centuries in Quebec. One is the Ursuline Monastery in Quebec City.

One woman, Andrée Leclerc, stated, “We know we are going off there to die…. This was my home, where I lived, I slept and I prayed. My whole life is here.”

There has been a massive decline taking place over decades in the numbers of the faithful of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec. The nuns would run the provincial schools and the hospitals. But those are going away.

The number of Catholic nuns peaked at 47,000 in Quebec in 1961 and now sits at fewer than 6,000. The majority of the extant nuns are in their ninth decade. The numbers, at face value, may not tell the entire story of the religious community.

If one looks at the 76% of Roman Catholic population numbers, and if one then looks at the level of those practising in a serious way, most are not practising in a serious way. It is a secular province and, overall, country and culture.

As reported, “With little new blood, Catholic religious orders are shrinking. The last novice joined the Ursulines in the mid-1990s. Only 215 nuns remain in the order across Quebec today, down from more than 900 in the mid-sixties.”

The origins of monasteries such as this one began as far back as a voyage from France in 1639. It truly is a remarkably long history for the religious institutions of the world, but it is also a story coming to an end or a transformation on many fronts.

“They set up a school that has become the oldest institution of learning for girls in North America. Centuries on, the École des Ursulines’ interior courtyard still rings out with the shouts of uniformed schoolgirls (boys were admitted in 2010 and a secular board took over four years later, a nod to changing times),” the article stated.

One nun, Sister Suzanna Pineau, was a boarder at Ursulines at the age of 8. She is now 82. She said, “We don’t wear makeup or jewellery. We’re not in the latest fashions.” She made some remarks about the Muslim veil, pointing to the 300 years of veils by nuns while no one said anything.

“There are difficulties in all walks of life…. I committed myself to the Lord, like others commit themselves to a marriage or to working for a company,” Pineau opined.

Their average age in the monastery is 87. It is an ancient collective of women who themselves are well into their elderly years. With the decline of religion in Canada, and in Quebec in particular, we are seeing the decreased prominence of once powerful institutional forces including the nuns in monasteries.

The nuns will be entering a modern facility in the fall with a forced downsizing to the Soeurs servantes du Saint-Coeur de Marie. In September, these nuns will make their last trip from the monastery to then begin a downsized life in another one.

Sister Andrée opined, “I’ll miss the soul of this place…. The idea of living differently brings tears to my eyes. It’s physical. It’s psychological. My entire being is affected. When I was a teenager I left my family home in the Charlevoix. Leaving here is harder.”

This becomes the trace of religiosity with the increased secularization of the province and, indeed, the nation of Canada. There are real people behind these declines, who have their hearts in these institutions.

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2023-01-26

On a Bishop and Waning Catholicism Due to Lack of Interest in Religion

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

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2023-01-26

Two Canadian Mormon Men Under House Arrest for Polygamy

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

In Cranbrook, British Columbia, two men took many wives, some as young as 15.

The two men will not serve any time in jail based on the decision of the B.C. Supreme Court judge. They were given conditional sentences. The two men were Winston Blackmore, 61, and James Oler, 54. They are part of a breakaway Mormon sect.

These became of the first Canadian cases of polygamous arrest in over a century. The judge was Justice Sheri Ann Donegan. She sentenced the Blackmore to 6 months and Oler to 3 months. The men are serving house arrest with the exceptions for work and other necessary errands and medical emergencies.

Blackmore will serve 150 hours in community service work. Oler will do 75 hours.

Donegan stated, “Determining a proportionate sentence is a delicate task … Sentences that are too lenient and sentences that are too harsh can undermine public confidence in the administration of justice.”

Blackmore’s relatives cried and embraced with the announced sentence.

“The court heard Blackmore married his first wife, ex-Bountiful member Jane Blackmore, in 1975 and went on to marry 24 more women in so-called celestial marriages. Nine wives were under the age of 18, and four were 15 at the time they were married, Donegan noted in her decision,” the article reported.

Oler had five wives, one as young as 15 with another turning 17 at the time of the marriages to Oler. Blackmore and Oler were raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is a tradition of some sects of the Mormon church to practice “plural marriage.” Men marry lots of women.

There was a schism in 2002, which led to the rival factions growing into what is known as the community of Bountiful in the south east of British Columbia.

Oler had five wives, Donegan said. One was 15, and another had just turned 17 at the time of their marriages. Oler got excommunicated from the church in 2012. He lives in Alberta now. Blackmore lives in the original community.

The judge described both men as hard working and law abiding citizens. But they practice polygamy due to their deeply held religious convictions.
Donegan stated, “He’s made it clear that no sentence will deter him from practising his faith. … The concept of remorse is foreign to him in this context because … he cannot feel remorseful for his family.”

One reference case confirmed the illegality of polygamy in Canada in 2011 but Blackmore continued to practice it. Blackmore failed to heed the fair notice in the reference case. Donegan has no doubt that Blackmore was practising polygamy based on fundamentalist beliefs inculcated at a very, very young age. Therefore, Blackmore feels no remorse for any of the victims or for any harm caused via his offense.

Donegan stated, “He does not feel any remorse for his offense because he feels he did not know any other way of life and sees no harm or victims in his offense.”

The maximum prison sentence for polygamy is five years based on the Criminal Code. Only two other convictions have occurred in the history of Canadian law. Those happened in 1899 and 1906. They did not set a precedent.

Blair Suffredine, the lawyer for Blackmore, said, “It’s a light at the end of the tunnel… He’s had 25 years of government coming after him for something he wasn’t sure was a crime and he felt it was only because of his religious beliefs that he was doing it.”

This sentence, hopefully, sends a moderate to strong message to the members of the bountiful British Columbia community about practicing polygamy and how this may result in jail sentences.

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2023-01-26

Patriarch Kirill in Concern About Disappearance of Christian Communities

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Christian religious leaders gathered in Russia over concerns of a purported spiritual and moral crisis.

The Moscow Patriarch Kirill (secular name: Vladimir M. Gundjaev) sent some congratulations to the World Council of Churches (WCC) for 70 years of establishment since the original August 23rd, 1948 gathering after WWII. The WCC gained the Russian Orthodox Church, part of the Eastern Orthodox Church and subservient to Putin.

The article stated, “Addressing the WCC secretary, the Norwegian Lutheran theologian Olav Fykse Tveit, and the entire Central Committee, the Russian Patriarch recalled that the Council is ‘a major international organization and unique platform for dialogue between Christians of various confessions. For the years of its work, the World Council of Churches has done much to develop inter-confessional dialogue, to promote justice in society and peace among nations.’”

Kirill recalled how this was important to the Christian community because it provided the opportunity for joint efforts to work in international relations. Typically, this will translate into Christian churches working globally to undermine secularism or gain political power.

It continued, “The message also thanks the WCC ‘for the solidarity that our brothers and sister shared with us in the desire to overcome the restrictions of religious freedom as a consequence of the state policy formed by the ideology of militant atheism.’”

The phrase “militant atheism” insofar as I know started with the TED Talk presentation by the distinguished science educator and zoologist Dr. Richard Dawkins. Apparently, Kirill was known to speak on the ecclesiastical propaganda used to conceal religious persecution. That raises all sorts of questions about Kirill’s time as a young “Soviet” bishop in the Nairobi assembly in 1975. He denied religious persecutions in the USSR at the time.
“However, the head of the Russian Church does not indulge in the re-evocation of those difficult times, but turns instead to future prospects, where the patriarchate of Moscow has every intention of being a leading player,” the reported explained.

Kirill argues that the purported problems for religion back in the days of the USSR are no different than the alleged problems for religion today. That is, the asserted existence of spiritual and moral crises that are deviations of the Christian faith’s values and traditions.

Kirill argues the world is on the brink of a global war. He continued to state that there is a threat of Christian communities in the region. Apparently, that created the foundation for the meeting of the Roman Catholic Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill to meet in Havana during 2016.

“The other reason for the rapprochement, in conclusion of Kirill’s message, is the gratitude to the WCC ‘for the firm position expressed by the Secretary General in his appeal to the state authorities of Ukraine, in defence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,’” the article said in its concluding parts.

The meeting seemed as if an attempt to prevent the dissolution of the Christian church religiosity levels seen in the region and then casting people shedding religion as persecution and discrimination against the church. Christian leaders seem on the defensive.

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2023-01-26

Noura Hussein Hammad Escapes Death Penalty

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

A court in Sudan overturned the prior death sentence of a teenager named Noura Hussein Hammad.

Hammad murdered her husband. The claimed reason for the murder has a background. Hammad was forced into a child marriage and then underwent marital rape in Sudan. When the husband tried to rape her again, she killed him.

The article stated, “Her legal team told CNN on Tuesday that Hussein, now 19, has been given a five-year jail term for killing the 35-year-old man. The court ordered her family to pay 337,000 Sudanese pounds ($18,700 or €15,970) in “blood money” to the man’s family.”

The lawyers for Hammad want to appeal the jail term and payment of Hammad, even though she was not killed. She was given the prison sentence and blood money fine. According to Hammad, her family forced the marriage on her at age 15.

She did finish school. Then there was a public wedding three years later. The husband wanted to consummate the marriage. However, she refused his sexual advances. At that point, several of his family members held her down as he raped her.

He raped her again one day later. She went to her family for help, but her family turned her over to the police. She was forced to live with the man. She did not eat or leave her room for the first days of being with him.

Hammad said, “On the ninth day his relatives came, his uncle told me to go to the bedroom. I said no so he dragged me by my arm into the bedroom and his cousin slapped me. All of them tore at my clothing. His uncle held me down by my legs and each of the other two held down my arms. He stripped and had me while I wept and screamed. Finally, they left the room. I was bleeding, I slept naked.”

The following day, Hammad recounts, was when he grabbed her, threw her on the bed, and attempted to climb on top of her. She fought back. She found a knife under the pillow. He cut her hand and bit on her shoulder.

The court overturned the decision based on the acceptance of Hammad’s recall of the events. One key point of the narrative was finding the knife under the pillow prior to the stabbing. It was not from the kitchen.

The case has garnered the attention of the international world with an enormous number of petitions from around the world calling for Hammad’s case to be dropped. The legal marriage age in Sudan is 10. Marital rape is not seen as a crime.

Amnesty International called Hammad’s case a need for a call for change in Sudan.

“While the quashing of this death sentence is hugely welcome news, it must now lead to a legal review to ensure that Noura Hussein is the last person to go through this ordeal,” said Seif Magango, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, “Noura Hussein was the victim of a brutal attack by her husband and five years’ imprisonment for acting in self-defense is a disproportionate punishment … The Sudanese authorities must take this opportunity to start reforming the laws around child marriage, forced marriage and marital rape, so that victims are not the ones who are penalized.”

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2023-01-26

Bizarre Purported Punishment from God Because of Abortions

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to Dead State, there was a bizarre claim by Rick Wiles about a “brown invasion” as a punishment from God for abortions in America.
Rick Wiles, a well-known fundamentalist conservative Christian radio host and conspiracy theorist, took on a stance associated in the report with Christian-styled anti-abortion/pro-life position tied to white nationalism.

Wiles runs the show called TruNews, where he holds forth on his fundamentalist and conspiracy theorist ideas. In one short reported-on segment, he spoke on what he characterized as a “brown invasion” from Latin America.

This, he surmised, was a punishment of white people for the sin of abortion. He stated that this was a soil soaked in babies’ blood and so the soil is making a cry for some form of justice.

Wiles opined, “Four thousand babies killed every day, their guts, their intestines, their brains, their blood flushed down the toilet in the baby butcher shops … [it] goes into the sewer system, carried in the sewer pipes under the city streets, into the sewage system. Our country is soaked in blood and the soil is crying out for justice.”

He argued that there needs to be repentance based on these assertions. Otherwise, another people, presumably not white people, will take the land. He is known as an End Times conspiracy theorist who is pro-Trumpism.

He originally considered the people to take over the United States of America would be the Chinese or the Russians. However, he changed his mind. The purported “invasion” comes from those who are from Central America. They are the source of God’s punishment.

“It just hit me in the past week … We’ve already been invaded. We’re already being pushed off the land. It’s already happened … The judgment has been underway for years and we didn’t see it,” Wiles stated, “God is bringing another people in to America and pushing the white Europeans off the land … We have a brown invasion that has come in … This is the land vomiting the people out.”

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2023-01-26

Younger People More Unscientific

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Big Think reported on the increasing non-scientific beliefs of the Millennial generation. The blog talked about the wonderful developments in the sciences over the centuries, especially the great minds and mathematicians such as Isaac Newton.

Although, he spent a long time trying to decode the Book of Revelations from the Bible. He also did foundational work in mathematics and physics, and so engineering too – used to this day as far as I know.

However, when it comes to the numbers of those in fringe informal disciplines long abandoned, the Millennial generation has begun to adhere to them more and more including Astrology, flat Earth theories, and the denial of the moon landing. Why is this an increasingly common belief system among the Millennials? Asks the article implicitly.

“Astrology as a system of belief has been around for thousands of years. It implies that the location of the stars and planets at the time of someone’s birth determines their personality and life course. Those astrologers dedicated to the process write horoscopes and claim that they can predict your fate and reveal your true nature through zodiac charts,” Big Think stated.

It amounts to an allure, a charm, and lure for the young and naïve full of youthful vibrancy who may excitedly grasp as bad explanation rather than no explanation. Younger generations identify less with formal religion and more with the pseudoscientific. It appears to have replaced the formal religious pseudo-explanations of the ways of the world.

After some commentary, the article continues to talk about the citation of a Finnish research study, where question sets were given “to people signed up for adult education classes, explains that those signed up for astrology courses were more prone to have recently experienced more crises in their life.”

Astrology and other beliefs, when people lose footing in their lives, become helpful for people to garner some sense of internal locus of control, internal order, in their own lives.

Big Think opined, “Astrology is arguably an inane and harmless belief. Aside from you wild Scorpios butting heads with a quick-tempered Aries, it’s safe to say that astrology isn’t that big of a problem. Rather, it’s the underlying mindset that leads to trouble.”

Another phenomenon among the young came in the form of superstitious thought and the idea of all-encompassing conspiracies about the world. The critical thought is important. However, excess skepticism in the wrong degree, applied to the incorrect areas, and not in the right way can lead to all-encompassing theories.

Mono-explanations for the nature of the world, even though no evidence exists or sufficient evidence does not exist for the conspiracy theory. “Challenging questionable status quos of history and scientific inquiry is good for the advancement of knowledge,” the article argues.

However, according to the opinion piece, “unfounded claims and arguments that we never landed on the moon and that Earth is flat have tired themselves out to any rational-minded person. There’s really no need anymore to defend against these ridiculous claims.”

The reason for these explanations about the world tend to be the powerlessness over personal life. It makes one feel as if they have special knowledge not held by others too. More education leads people to feel more control and so less likely to believe or adhere to all-encompassing conspiracy theories.

“One reason for the pervasiveness of groundless ideas and theories is that they serve as a way to make sense of a chaotic world. People would rather believe that they’re ill-fated by a bum roll of the astrological dice or that a secret order is the reason they can’t get ahead in life,” Big Think explained.

If one can feel more agency in their lives and have a greater and firmer knowledge about the world, then that someone can be less inclined to believe in or adhere to the conspiracy theories and pseudoscientific theories.

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2023-01-26

New Book – Queer Disbelief

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Camille Beredjick announced a new book earlier in 2018 entitled Queer Disbelief. She was a former frequent writer for Friendly Atheist back in the day.

Beredjick wrote on the important topic of the rights of sexual orientation and gender identity minorities under the banner of LGBTQ rights.

As noted by the Friendly Atheist article reporting on the announced book, “The book was called Queer Disbelief and it was all about the LGBTQ and atheist communities: how they overlapped, where the comparisons broke down, how religion hurt (and helped!) LGBTQ people, and why atheists couldn’t ignore this issue.”

With June as Pride Month, the cost of book has been lowered now. It has been listed at only $9.99 in paperback version and $6.99 in Kindle. This deal, as per the month of Pride, will end at the completion of the month.

If you have not read it, and have a deeper interest in the LGBTQ rights, and the activism and writing of Beredjick, then you may want to take a look into it.

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2023-01-26

Polling Done on Young Catholics

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Independent Catholic News reported on Pope Francis’ Synod on Youth for this fall. Recent research indicates the change in the faith and lifestyle stances of the young Catholic adult population. There appears to be a decrease in agnosticism and atheism.

The decrease, according to the reportage, comes to about 7% between 2009 and 2017 from 49% to 42%. There has been an increase in the frequency of Mass attendance from 25% in 2009 to 36% in 2017. The data comes from Research Now for the Catholic Youth Ministry Federation and Camino House (strategy consultancy).

The polling was done between September and October of 2017. The results showed about “10% more young adults in 2017 are likely to have experienced stress across a range of factors than the comparable group in 2009.”

Young women Roman Catholics will feel anxiety more frequently than their male peers during the week on all measured factors, especially regarding personal appearance with a 79% for female and 54% for male split in the data.

Also, women felt more anxiety about having enough money for themselves and their families (66% female vs 50% male). 2017 young Catholics view the helping of others as an aspiration and expectation of their lives more than those from 2009.

However, this comes to an attitudinal stance because there was no real change in volunteering or campaigning activity. “Female young Catholics say that they have taken more action on social issues in the past year than their male counterparts,” the Independent Catholic News stated, “whilst young male Catholics are more likely to say that they attend Mass (either regularly or irregularly at 82%) than females (71%).”

The report with the data was called “Complex Catholicism.” It was intended to look into the issues import for the young Catholic population. Their “willingness to identify as Catholic/Roman Catholic, beliefs about Jesus, and maintaining contact with young Catholics through life transitions.”

The identification of the spiritual experiences for the young Catholics showed wide range of self-identified experiences. 10% claimed to sense the presence of an angel.

“Through this research, young Catholics have articulated a strong openness to Christian belief, to social action and to belonging to the Catholic community; but they are also living complicated lives with some perhaps paralysed by pressure,” Matthew van Duyvenbode, the author of the report, explained, “The Church today has an opportunity is to follow the call of Pope Francis to reach out to those on the peripheries and demonstrate an authentic, dynamic and humble expression of Catholicism for the 21st century.”

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2023-01-26

The “Voices of Reason” Godless Choir

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The Religion News Service reported on the godless choir entitled the Voices of Reason. 8 years ago, a woman signed up for a course in singing at the Santiago Canyon College. It is a community college. She works there in Orange, California. The students had to sing as a choir.

When the hymns and the performances at various religious events were mandatory, the woman, Amanda MacLean, did not like it. The final straw, or song, was the singing of the City of Orange’s Christmas tree lighting three years back-to-back-to-back.

MacLean stated, “I knew there had to be nonbelievers out there who felt like I did, who had no place to sing without being forced to sing about Jesus… I actually thought atheist choirs were a thing.” As she went to look for those choirs, she found Bobbie Kirkhart.

MacLean and Kirkhart founded the Voices of Reason in 2001. One other non-religious person, Michael Jordan, was one of the co-founders. After three years, the Voices of Reason separated. However, one 450year-old IT consultant who worked for Apple, Yari Schutzer, got a new group of singers together.

Schutzer was one of the original members before the group originally disbanded. As far as the reported from the Religion News Service goes, the Voices of Reason is the “only atheist choir in the United States, its members say, and one of only a very few in the world.”

The merry band of disbelievers spread their cheer and songs at various atheist events, public libraries, science events, and Unitarian Universalist churches. The plan is to do outreach to schools and nursing homes for future performances.

The executive director of the Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles, James Underdown, described the Voices of Reason choir as a good fit for the organization. The purpose of CFI is to foster a secular society. Underdown stated, “There’s a lot of music out there that celebrates religious beliefs… appreciate hearing something that lands in their perspective every once in a while.”

With a rehearsal, recently, one dozen people wrap in stance around a piano with sheet music reading and singing in order to warm up.

The article said, “Voices of Reason members say they don’t simply avoid religious references. They draw attention to their rejection of religion, often picking songs that comment on its shortcomings. They have been in touch with members of Britain’s London Humanist Choir, which calls itself atheist as well, but doesn’t go for the jugular as they do.”

One “quintessential” atheist song, according to Schutzer is the song “Imagine” by the late John Lennon. Also, the “Evolution Chorus” in place of the “Hallelujah Chorus” by Handel. Another favorite is the Monty Python song from Meaning of Life the movie called “Every Sperm is Sacred.”

Schutzer opined, “There’s this fine line between humor and offense and we try to walk that line.” The point, according to the reportage, is not to denigrate religion. The intention is to defend atheism.

An Annenberg Public Policy Center from the University of Pennsylvania stated 1 in 7 Americas, wrongly, hold the belief that atheists do not have the same First Amendment protections as people who are religious. Although, a Gallup poll found that 58% of Americans would vote for an atheist president.

“We’re still human, we still want some sort of entertainment,” Schutzer explained. The Voices of Reason may fill a void in people without the cost of mandatory belief. Many of the choir members spent their youth in religious homes.

Kirkhart stated, “Music is common to all humankind and is extremely important to bonding groups… Church has this way of bringing people together, to sing together and that connect to the person next to you, connect to the meaning of the songs.”

One study in 2016 from the journal Psychology of Music found that choral singers had higher well-being than those who were solo singers. It is seen as more meaningful to its participants than those involved in team sport. Other research found singing in a choir can increase endorphins and can regulate the heart rates of those involved in it.

“Voices of Reason is there to build a community,” Schutzer concluded.

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2023-01-26

Canadian Christian Group Anti-LGBTQ Therapy Event Cancelled

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

CBC News reported on one known controversial Christian group. It wants to host an event. It acquired critique from LGBTQ or sexual minority activists. Following that, it was cancelled for unknown reasons.

Journey Canada wanted to host a retreat at the Villa Madonna Retreat House. It is operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint John.

The Canadian group was formerly called Living Waters and based in Vancouver. It is a non-denominational religious sect. It is focused on the healing of the “relationally and sexually broken.” The group has spoken on their values being against those acts seen as violations of God’s bounds for proper sexual expression.

These include compulsive masturbation, mutual masturbation, oral sex, and pornography use. The retreat for the group was scheduled to happen between July 22 and July 28. The Administrative Director for the Villa Madonna, Dianne O’Dell, stated, in an email to the CBC, that the event was cancelled.

The reasons for the cancellation were not given to the CBC. As stated in the article, “CBC News tried the Diocese of Saint John and Journey Canada on Wednesday afternoon but did not receive an immediate response. Critics, including St. Thomas University professor Erin Fredericks, said the courses offered by the group amounted to ‘anti-LGBTQ therapy.’”

Fredericks considered this an organization the community does not want training local leaders. Those local leaders who would work with youth, even working with members of other faith groups. She was happy to hear about the cancellation of the Rothesay event.

Fredericks stated, “We were surprised to see that they were coming to New Brunswick, because they haven’t before, and we’re upset that this message was coming to a province that we believe had made some real steps forward in the last couple years toward supporting LGBTQ New Brunswickers,” Fredericks said.

The concern from Fredericks was the potential ripple effect of the event. In that, the event could inspire the spread of a message of intolerance and even hate. “It’s not just about people who attend the event, it’s about the influence that they have after,” Fredericks opined.

Journey Canada is Living Waters, but Living Waters became Journey Canada in 2015 through a name change. It received $666,548 in donations in 2017. More than 9,100 people in 42 cities across Canada were ministered based on the annual report for 2017.

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2023-01-26

Spain Elects Atheist Prime Minister

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Spain made the headlines with the recent election vote results against the current leader of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, and for the political opposition, Pedro Sánchez. Sánchez has been sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Spain.

Sánchez is the leader of the opposition party called the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party. When Sánchez took the oath to be sworn in as the Prime Minister, there was no crucifix or Bible to place a hand on at the time. By which the report means, Sánchez is an atheist, even though 2/3rds of the country are Roman Catholic.

In a 2014 interview, Sánchez stated, “I am an atheist and I believe that religion should not be in the classrooms, it has to be in the churches, in the classrooms you have to form citizenship, not people with religious beliefs, that corresponds to the private sphere.”

When Sánchez gave a godless oath as well, however, he only has 84 members of the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party in the 350-seat Parliament. The question of success for an atheist leader in a majority Roman Catholic Church nation remains to be seen.

In the oath, Sánchez stated, “I promise by my conscience and honor to faithfully fulfill the obligations of the office of President of the Government with loyalty to the King, and to keep and enforce the Constitution as the fundamental norm of the State.”

He switched the word promise in place of swear and emphasized conscience and honor rather than Christian Theity who intervenes in the world.

The article concluded, “But when you have someone who looks to evidence and reason for guidance over internal religious dogma, it’s at least a good starting point.”

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2023-01-26

“In God We Trust” to Stay on American Currency

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

A Cincinnati, Ohio, reportage on a federal appeals court decision talked about the rejection of an atheist’s attempts to have “In God We Trust” removed from American currency.

The federal court concluded that the phrase is not compelled speech. This was a decision in agreement with the lower court ruling. That the complainants in the case have other alternatives in cash if they do not prefer this motto.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals stated, “Plaintiffs’ complaint does not allege that anyone has ever attributed the motto to them. And the Supreme Court has strongly suggested that the motto’s inscription on currency does not compel speech.”

It continued to talk about the lack of universal access to credit or bank accounts. However, the financial situation for the plaintiffs does not foreclose the opportunity for the access to checks or credit. Michael Newdow has filed several lawsuits to challenge the admixture of government and religion.

He submitted one in the Southern District of New York in March, 2013. He claimed the motto – In God We Trust – violates the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution. Why? It is a means by which there is a proselytization to the non-religious or unbelievers.

“But in September of that year, U.S. District Court Judge Harold Baer, Jr., nominated by Bill Clinton, rejected Newdow’s arguments, opining that “the inclusion of the motto on U.S. currency . . . does not violate the Establishment Clause [of the Constitution],” the reportage said.

Then Newdow made a case to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, New York in May, 2014. The court ruled against Newdow once more. The claim by the court is that the inclusion into the design of the U.S. current is a religious heritage reference.

Newdow went to find some plaintiffs. The plan was to challenge the motto of “In God We Trust” from a different angle. Bill Clinton signed the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) in the 1990s. Newdow filed a suit with 43 plaintiffs. Nine were children.

They claimed the phrase was a burden on the beliefs of atheist, of them.

Their complaint said, “When [the child] is confronted with ‘In God We Trust’ on every coin and currency bill she handles or learns about in school, the power and prestige of the federal government is brought to bear upon her with the message that her father’s (and her own) atheism is false.”

Judge Benita Pearson – on December, 2016 – was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama. Pearson ruled against the complainants. She argued that a reasonable person would not see the handling of the money with the motto would be an attempt to spread a religious message.

Pearson wrote, “A person does not own the bills and coins printed by the United States Treasury. The government does not require citizens to display money. Money does not exist for the express purpose that it be observed and read by the public.”

Newdow and others then appealed to the Sixth Circuit. This court also upheld the decision made by Pearson. Why? The plaintiffs are not being forced to pay for various purchases with cash.

The three-judge panel said, “Plaintiffs do not allege that they must engage in cash-only transactions; rather, they allege merely that they use cash frequently and prefer to do so. For example, one plaintiff, as an octogenarian, ‘often feels more comfortable using cash rather than credit cards or checks,’ while one child plaintiff ‘uses money almost every week to buy books, magazines, treats and gifts.’”

The panel continued to say that the allegations by the plaintiffs do not show that the government has forced them to violate their religious beliefs or had any significant suffering as a result.

1956 was the year when Congress passed a resolution for “In God We Trust” to be made the national motto. The U.S. House of Representatives upheld this in 2011 396-9 in a vote.

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2023-01-26

Atheists Can ‘Go to Hell’ for Wanting Commission Invocation

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to the Wichita Eagle, one Sedgwick County commissioner stated atheists “[can] go to hell.” This was based on the atheists wanting to deliver an invocation at commission meetings.

One online commentator said, “I heard they’re not so closed minded in hell. And there’s less Police per capita than Wichita so it can’t be all bad.” While another opined, “Some one needs to tell this guy that atheists don’t believe in Hell and that’s literally the point.”

The commissioner David Unruh stated that atheists can go to hell based on a personal feeling from a letter sent by the Freedom From Religion Foundation or the FFRF. The FFRF argued that the county violated the Constitution with the denial of an atheist to provide a commission meeting invocation.

The FFRF is devoted to the secularist ideals of the separation between church and state. Unruh said, “If you don’t believe in (God), that’s fine with me… I don’t care, go to hell. It’s fine.” Richard Ranzau, another commissioner present, supported the “encouraged Unruh’s remarks,” according to the Wichita Eagle article.

The local publication wrote about the prayers of the county before stating concerns about the exclusion of non-Christians.

The President of Wichita Oasis, Alex Simmons, was surprised by the inability of an atheist to perform the invocation. Oasis is part of a larger network for the religiously unaffiliated to find community of common values.

A local Wichita atheist, Mike Marlett, was offended. He opined, “No atheist wants to sit there and listen to have someone have a prayer and nobody who’s religious wants to sit there and hear an atheist talk about atheism… And that’s OK. This is not a forum for religious discussion.”

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2023-01-26

Harry Shriver on Women Teachers and Guns

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Hement Mehta, and the best Friendly Atheist around, reported on Alabama State Rep. Harry Shriver considering the arming of schoolteachers as a ineffective overall methodology to protect middle and high school students.

He thinks that since many women are teachers; women are scared of guns; and so teacher should not be armed with guns.

Shiver said, “I’ve heard… that 75 percent of Republicans support it, but I was there live and in person and I know what it is like in the schools… Most women wouldn’t like to be put in that position.”

In a conversation with Al.com, Shriver continued with the same comments. He talked about not all women but most schools having the majority of teachers as women. Mehta stated the right position was taken for the wrong reasons.

In an interview, Shiver said, “I’m not saying all (women), but in most schools, women are (the majority) of the teachers… Some of them just don’t want to (be trained to possess firearms). If they want to, then that’s good. But most of them don’t want to learn how to shoot like that and carry a gun.”

Mehta argues more guns in teachers’ hands will create more fun violence, not less.

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2023-01-26

Humberto – Executive Director, White Ribbon

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What was family background and personal background in terms of becoming started in activism that is against violence against women?

Humberto Carolo: It dates back to my student years. Even as a boy and young man, I have always been interested in social causes and in the helping profession. It is an early interest of mine, back in the early years when I lost my mother when I was 6-years-old.

It led me on the path to begin studying social sciences, studying the gender relations and sociology, human sexuality. I did a lot of volunteer work while I was in university. I got in student council and student politics.

I was the human rights officer for our student council here at the University of Toronto. When I graduated, I started working in the community in HIV prevention. I have gone to White Ribbon when it officially opened up to coordinate initiatives between Canada and Brazil on the topic of engaging men and boys in gender equality and reducing violence against women.

That opened the pathway into this work.

Jacobsen: It is the largest organization of men and boys looking to prevent and eventually end violence against women and girls. With that as its mandate, what is its current status since it was started in 1991 in Toronto?

Carolo: It was created by 3 men 2 years after the December 6th Montreal Massacre. Our founders felt men needed to come forward, step up, and speak out against violence against women. The White Ribbon as a symbol to pledge for men to never commit or condone or remain silent about violence against women.

It was a grassroots movement. It started in Toronto and spread across Canada and the United States. Further from there, today, we counted about 65+ countries around the globe where initiatives of White Ribbon, e.g. campaigns, have been implemented.

Jacobsen: How can people become involved with it?

Carolo: I would encourage everyone to visit our website at whiteribbon.ca, connect with us on Facebook or Twitter. There is a pledge people can take online on our website. Then there are specific campaigns that we ask people to get involved with to make change and accept change for the individual and collective levels.

It Starts With You campaign starts with a series of things including fathers and family members and how they can promote gender equality and healthy relationships, and what people can do in everyday life.

We also provide tools for educators such as male teachers on how to engage students and how to be good role models on gender equality and respecting women in schools, in the community, and in the home.

It is engaging young people and young men on this issue because for us we know that most of the violence committed against women and girls is committed against men, but not all men believe in or use violence.

A lot of men stay violent because they do not know what to do or what to say. We try to encourage everyone and try to give men and everyone the tools and language to speak on these issues in the community, in the schools, in the workplace, and so on and so forth.

We ask people to check out our resources and campaigns to see how they can get involved in a way that makes sense for them. In a workplace, they can organize an event or a working group. Same at the universities with the campaign or starting a club.

They can start a task force and bring in speakers and organize events to help raise awareness. Or in our case here in Toronto, we help organize a Walk a Mile in Our Shoes. We invite everyone to literally walk a mile literally in the shoes in order to show support, raise awareness, and to stand in solidarity with women and girls.

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2023-01-26

Reddit AMA Participant Claims Nazism an Atheistic Doctrine

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

One Canadian professor has become popular, according to the reportage in The Vermillion, as a popular person among the far-right in the United States.

His popularity extends to the disaffected and insecure men, which, apparently, is a “key demographic in the modern conservative movement.” As with a host of public intellectuals, many will enter into domains outside of their expertise.

The article talks about the lobsters and social behaviour example, which was taken on by some marine biologists. In a Reddit Ask me Anything, the claim by Peterson was Nazism was, in fact, an atheist doctrine. When confronted on the answer with more questions, Peterson reaffirmed the claim.

The article retorts by stating that the Nazi Party and Nazi Germany were “very clearly Christian. By 1939, at the start of the Second World War, only 1.5% of Germans identified as atheists. Even if some atheists were pretending to be Christians to avoid persecution, that’s still a low number compared to the 95 percent that identified as Christian. This fact alone debunks the lie that Nazism was atheistic.”

On the belts of the Nazi soldiers, there was a phrase: “Gott Mit Uns” or “God is With Us.” It started with the Prussian military, but carried over into the Nazi Germany one. Hitler declare that Christians and not the international atheists who are the head of the nation (Germany) at that time.

Hitler, in translation from German to English, said, “I will never ally myself with the parties which destroy Christianity.” Hitler abandoned some beliefs later in life. However, he appealed to the religious sensibilities of the general populace in order to win support.

Germany had an intriguing movement. It was called Positive Christianity. The purpose was to purge the Jewish roots of Christianity to merge state worship and Christianity.

The article stated, “Although its attempts to ultimately separate its belief from both Catholicism and Protestantism makes this sound like a heretical Christianity, it still shows how the Nazi party found religion useful in establishing their dictatorship.”

The Vermillion clarifies. Christians were Nazis, but not all Christians were Nazi – not all Nazis were Christians. Nonetheless, the Nazi Germans leveraged religion to enforce worship of the state. “Blasphemy would be equal to treason, and vice versa. Eradicating dissenting opinions is how one ideology conquers a country,” the article explained.

The author concluded on state and religion separation. That these can “short-circuit empathy and rationality,” which can be some of the most toxic beliefs around us. “When pseudo-intellectuals try to lie about what dictatorships enforce to exercise control, they pose a danger to the rest of us.”

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2023-01-26

The Nones on the Rise in Many Places

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Baptist Global News spoke on the rise of the Nones, not only in the US but around the world.

They reported that the renunciation of religion does not necessarily limit itself, as a phenomenon, to North America and Western Europe. In particular, the young adult groups throughout the world have begun to give up their faith in the efficacy and veracity of religion.

The Pew Research Center data is cited in the report. In general, the Nones are on the rise around the world. The leaders of most traditions are struggling with a decline in affiliations and memberships in their respective religions.

“In a June 13 study titled ‘The Age Gap in Religion Around the World,’ Pew found that young adults globally tend to be less religious than older people, and that ‘the opposite is rarely true,’” the article reported. “The expansive report delves into a range of factors that predict religiosity. Those include income levels, lifespan, geographic region and social standing.”

It remains a complex phenomenon, but it shows a clear a trend in the reduction of religiosity over time around the world and not in the United States alone. One issue noted for the American religious leaders is the disjunction between the old and the young.

The old tend to adhere to a religious faith. The young tend to reject faith. Then the average age for the religious tend to go higher and higher, but the mean age for the Nones remains lower than the average age for the religious.

Not only in self-identification, the young tend not to practice their faith as fully as the older generations even if they do identify with a religious belief system.

The Pew report stated, “But this is not solely an American phenomenon … Lower religious observance among younger adults is common around the world.”

While there is that split between the generations, it does depend on the country with some countries showing bigger or smaller gaps than others. Some with the adults who are 40-years-old or younger view religion as less important or are “less inclined to view religion as ‘very important.’”

That data arises in Canada, Iran, Nigeria, and Switzerland. Exceptions to that rule exist too.

“While this pattern is widespread, it is not universal … In many countries, there is no statistically significant difference in levels of religious observance between younger and older adults,” Pew explained, “In the places where there is a difference, however, it is almost always in the direction of younger adults being less religious than their elders.”

About 41 countries have 18-to-39-year-olds who feel less attached to religion.

Pew identified 41 nations where people 18 to 39 years old “are significantly less likely than their elders to have a religious affiliation.” These include Canada, Mexico, much of South America, and the United States of America.

The young do not pray as much. Only Chad and Liberia showed that the young adults prayer two times per day. In 53 out of 102 nations, the under 40s are much less likely to go to a weekly religious service than the over 40s.

However, Armenia, Liberia, and Rwanda were exceptions to that trend in in attendance at weekly services.

The article said, “The gaps between generations are small in many countries. The overall average is 5 percentage points for affiliation, 6 percentage points for worship attendance and 9 percentage points for prayer.”

The US is one of a number of countries where the differences remain larger. Finally, there is a gulf of a minimum of 10% between the old and the young who identify with a religious group, mostly Christian populations, in the Americas and Europe.

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2023-01-26

The Alleged Humbling of Atheists by The National Post

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to an article in The National Post, there has been an alleged humbling of the atheists as of late. Others disagree.

The opinion piece spoke about the event in the O2 arena of London. Here, Sam Harris, world-famous New Atheist and neuroscientist, and Jordan B. Peterson, clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Toronto, sat and had a discussion.

The article stated, “There is a pop cultural title belt on the line, and for the first time in years, the atheist will be the clear underdog. Peterson is a psychologist whose popular appeal is partly based on his repurposing of religious myth for modern life.”

Peterson claims a complicated relationship with the Christian faith in terms of self-identification, where he does not believe in the Abrahamic God but acts as though such a God exists. The argument proposed in the report is that the publications of the New Atheists – Hitchens, Dennett, Dawkins, and Harris – should indicate a declining interest in the questions of religion and faith.

However, the latter 2010s represent a re-emergence of interest in faith-based topics from within the framework of the faith-based topics.

The article accused, “The New Atheists — the hyper-rationalist anti-religious movement of which Harris was once a star — are not new anymore. Quite the opposite. The enlightened, progressive, secular left wing has turned on them as they struggled with their own scandals of intolerance, Islamophobia, sexism, and sophist sloganeering.”

Going on to quote the philosopher of biology Michael Ruse, who opined the movement was akin to a balloon that once “pricked, it went nowhere,” the article reflected on the timeline of observation for Ruse, where the dynamic of atheism into the New Atheism comes with a history.

In particular, a history with the “crisis point in 1982” with Ruse’s attendance in Arkansas as an expert witness for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The purpose was to challenge the teaching of so-called “creation science” or, more properly, Young Earth Creationism and Old Earth Creationism – in the majority of cases.

Ruse attended alongside the prominent evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould. Gould considered science and religion compatible insofar as they consist of “Non-Overlapping Magisteria” or independent domains of inquiry or universes of discourse.

That is when one speaks of religious themes and moral narratives, they not contradict the empirical evidence and theoretical groundings of science, for example with Evolutionary Theory, because these are areas that do not mutually contradict one another.

The article covering the case later stated, “It was like the Scopes Monkey Trial all over again. Ruse compared this experience to ‘going over the top at the Somme,’ and said it gives him ‘street credentials” in the atheism ‘world. More recently, he has found himself using that cred to criticize those who take atheism too far, especially Dawkins, whom he compared to Donald Trump as someone who argues by ‘trivializing the stuff into slogans.’”

Ruse, apparently, sees a shift in the cultural zeitgeist happening since the tragedy of 9/11. The time when the then US President George W. Bush proposed a religious framing for a clash of civilizations. There were fears around then prime minister of Canada Stephen Harper harboring a Christian agenda and that anti-evolution was being proposed in American schools, all at the same time.

“In those times, there was a countercultural boldness in standing up for atheism. People were especially keen for a coherent opposition to Islamic extremism that was fair and humanistic, distinct from the Islamophobic Christian right wing that was keen to rouse a new crusade,” the article asserted.

Then some of the New Atheist leading lights began to rise and the push back against religious fundamentalism, and pseudoscience became important as a public criticism. With the developments into the present, the article claims that the trend has been a humbling of the New Atheists, where the social meaning or force of New Atheism declines in its “urgency.”

The report continued to note that the prominence of creationism at one time has waned and alongside this decline in urgency of a reaction came the decrease in the prominence of New Atheism. It quoted Ruse once more stating the two sides have been cooling, where it “takes two to tango.”

“Sociologically, the expectation was that religion would decline and atheism increase as science literacy increased, and as older people who were raised with religion at home are replaced by younger people who were not,” the article explained, “But that is not what has happened. On the contrary, supernatural belief in things like miracles and angels seems to actually decline with age, according to recent surveys. Among Canadians who tick “none” for their religion on sociological surveys, which have risen from 10% in 1985 to about 25% today, about two fifths say they believe in God all the same.”

This then leads to commentary by the University of Waterloo sociologist Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme. She commented on the context with the non-religious not being atheists by necessity and the unaffiliated having more than the average amount of religious sensibilities with “individually constructed belief systems and personal spiritual practices.”

That points to the main assertion of The National Post that the individuals involved in the work atheism as a modern movement work within a context of religion and science being seen as more often compatible compared to the prior decade or two.

The article asserts and concludes, “This is why religion has survived not only the progress of science, but also the attacks of atheists. Their arrows miss their mark, and as the dangers of religious extremism fall down the list of cultural preoccupations, so too does movement atheism.”

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2023-01-26

Islamists Murder Freethinkers and Atheists in Bangladesh

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The problems for the non-religious community in Bangladesh for blogging continue into the present. The issue has been reported on since at least 2015. As noted in an old but not outdated article by Daylight Atheism, it reported on the problems ongoing in Bangladesh in 2015. There have been recent reports on the ways in which Bangladeshi activists, freethinkers, and humanists continue to be killed simply for exercising one or all of the following rights: freedom of expression or speech, freedom of (ir)religion), freedom of belief, and freedom of conscience.

In particular, the report pointed to the continuing murder of the atheists and freethinkers within the country at the hands of political Islam, or Islamist, followers: those who want to impose theocracy with use of violence, sometimes, fatal, and other means.

One person who died was Shahzahan Bachchu. He was assassinated earlier in June. Now, the Bangladesh government is doing nothing to protect the non-religious activist community against the outright murder of them, including people who have some leverage for providing a platform for voices, e.g. the publisher Bachchu.

The article stated, “Since Bangladesh’s government can’t or won’t protect its citizens, the only recourse I see for secularists is to leave the country. Thankfully, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) is making this possible, there and elsewhere, through its Protect Humanists at Risk crowdfunding campaign.”

IHEU is an important and bright light in the work to expose theocratic overreach and abuse of citizens around the world. The campaign by IHEU is intended to provide support for the humanists at risk of violence.

Also, it is intended to help with advocacy and political campaigns for those who are at risk of governmental persecution. This can include blasphemy or apostasy laws. This is all included in a comprehensive research report entitled “Freedom of Thought Report.”

Bob Churchill and others are the brains behind this huge research project. The crowdsourced funding campaign is aiming to raise $26,000. In 12 countries, the penalty for a belief – in violation of the freedom to believe – or more an affirmation of atheism, is death.

This is based on so-called apostasy laws.

“In many more countries, ‘blasphemy’ laws are used to stop humanists promoting human rights, including women’s rights, LGBTI rights and non-religious rights, when they are accused of ‘insulting religion,’” the report explained. “In recent years, freethinkers have been attacked in countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives and India. Humanists have been threatened with prosecution or violence in countries including Malaysia, Egypt, Afghanistan and Iran.”

The state has punished people for purported or alleged crimes including apostasy, the enmity against God, and the promotion of atheism. This has occurred in Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan.

However, if one looks at nations including Bulgaria, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Turkey, or the United States, some demagogues and ultra-conservative populist movements work to undermine both democracy and secularism.

In the process, this can harm the rights of the non-religious in general who really need secularism. IHEU may provide a bulwark against these regressions against and infringements on the rights of the non-religious around the world.

The Freethinker talked some more about it. It noted the fatalities connected to the threats against humanists and freethinkers. In 2015, the freethinking community lost Avijit Roy, Washiqur Rahman, Ananto Bijoy Das, and Niloy Neel.

There were coordinated attacks on publishing houses in October of 2015 in Dhaka. Secular activists and LGBT publishers continue to be victims too. Note, this seems clearly religious individuals killing secular people, humanists, freethinkers, and sexual orientation and gender identity minority people.

It does not seem to happen the other way around. However, and to conclude the report, the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stated that the attacks against the non-religious activists was because of the criticisms against religion and then the prosecution threatened under the ICT Act, which is an act that makes the hurting of religious sentiments a criminal offense.

If there is not a criminal indictment, then the public goes for its own bloody justice. We should do something about this for their and our sakes.

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2023-01-26

Egyptian Scholar Recommends “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

One infamous text in the history of the 20th century and right into the 21st has been the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It is widely regarded as a fabrication and a fundamentally anti-Semitic and racist book. It is purportedly, and falsely one might add further, the description of the Jewish plan for world domination.

The whole basis is that the text is a collection of discussions among Jewish leaders about their plan for Jewish international hegemony through the subversion of the morals of the Gentiles alongside the control of the world’s economic systems and media.

That leads to a recent assertion by an Egyptian man. According to Memri TV, Dr. Samir Taqi Al-Din, an Egyptian scholar, made recommendations for The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

He further went on to assert that the fact of Freud being a Jew, a Zionist, and a Freemason were non-coincidental. Furthermore, he extended this to Sartre as being the father of existentialism and being a Jew as well.

Al-Din stated, “… people who came up with the materialistic, secular, atheist ideologies were all Jews … When you read The Protocols [of the Elders of Zion], you will know that what I’m saying is true.” His address was broadcast on the Egyptian Al-Rahma TV channel on April 20.”

Al-Din talked about how Freud had the focus on human activities originating in sex. That Emile Durkheim being the father of collective consciousness and so on. That the ideas of a democracy, where the people are the final arbiters in a society of the “source of all authorities.”

Freud, Sartre, Durkheim, and democracy as sourced in materialistic, atheistic, and secular ideologies. So, he recommends the text.

Al-Din continued, “Of course, you should read The Protocols of Whatever Zion… I don’t want to say ‘Wise Elders’ because they weren’t wise or anything … When you read The Protocols, you will know that what I am saying is true.”

The book has been used by racists and anti-Semites for some time now.

Please see some of the transcript below as provided by Memri TV:

Samir Taqi Al-Din: “Freud said that all human activities originate in sex. It is no coincidence that Freud was a Jew, a Zionist, and a Freemason. It is no coincidence that Sartre, the father of existentialism, was a Jew too. It is no coincidence that [Émile] Durkheim, the father of collective consciousness… After that, we had democracy – one thing leads to another – in which the people is the source of all authorities.

[…]

“It is no coincidence that the people who came up with the materialistic, secular, atheist ideologies were all Jews. Of course, you should read The Protocols of Whatever Zion… I don’t want to say ‘Wise Elders’ because they weren’t wise or anything… When you read The Protocols, you will know that what I am saying is true.”

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2023-01-26

Dr. Leo Igwe on Religion’s Influence on Nigerian Education

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Dr. Leo Igwe in AllAfrica states that the influence of religion on education and learning within Nigeria is net negative.

Dr. Igwe talks about the ways in which the religious organizations within the country formed the construction and foundation of educational institutions throughout Nigeria. He notes the Christian and Islamic proselytizers introducing formal educational institutions within Nigeria.

“In fact, today over 80 per cent of the private schools in the country are owned or managed by mainly Christian and Islamic religious individuals or groups. However, little attention has been paid to the negative effects of religion on the educational system, especially the fact that religion undermines academic programmes,” Igwe said.

The almost mandatory incorporation of religion into education has been at times non-promotional of good performance in academics. That is, the religious texts, and so on, restrict good teaching and repress knowledge about the world.

Igwe said, “Recently, students from some universities across Nigeria responded to interview questions on the state of religion and free thought on the campuses. According to one student, campus religiosity had become a nuisance to the environment … Actually, universities have sections in their premises where places of worship could be constructed.”

The questions remain, however, and Igwe ponders about the reasons for universities, or postsecondary institutions in general, that have not created further order in the institution with the obstructions to student learning, with the places of worship causing nuisances of various forms for different students of different faiths and non-faiths.

Igwe continued, “University authorities should be able to demarcate and ensure a separation between prayer and study/reading/lecture halls. But a student pointed out that such a measure could not be taken because many university lecturers were usually behind these prayer meetings.”

Religion and education in one seems unhealthy. One student connected the highly religious nature of the students to the post-secondary institutions’ management also holding deep religious faiths. Then the bias gets replicated throughout employment and admission into the universities.

Religion gets free reign and range for expression and proselytization in these contexts. There is a correlation between the level of religiosity on campus and the amount of noise pollution.

“In fact, some students observed that the noise that emanated from students religious observance could not allow others to adequately prepare for their examinations. The noise from the prayer grounds won’t even let students who have come to study understand anything,” Igwe explained.

Then many students do not perform as well in their academics as they could have otherwise. Many students argued that there will be a viable future for atheism and freethought in the campuses in Nigeria, which seems like an optimistic sign for the young Nigerians in the educated classes.

“Religion is used to sanctify lack of academic diligence and intellectual laziness,” Igwe said, “Students noted that this kind of reasoning was rampant and that the spread of atheistic viewpoints would at least mean fewer people subscribing to this mediocre way of thinking; otherwise the university would keep producing half-baked graduates.”

Igwe laments the low ranking of the Nigerian universities compared to the rest of the world and the low-quality graduates coming out of its postsecondary institutions. He views the religious climate as part of the problem.

Where a potential remedy may be the inclusion of the room for freethought for freethinkers and atheists on the campuses, he views the university being full of intellectuals in the 21st century who are highly religious to be “unbelievable!”

Further details in the article link to AllAfrica replication of The Guardian article.

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2023-01-26

Younger People Are More Unscientific

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Although, he spent a long time trying to decode the Book of Revelations from the Bible. He also did foundational work in mathematics and physics, and so engineering too — used to this day as far as we know.

Now, with the era of computers, Google, and the like, we, especially the younger generations such as the Millennials, can search the internet for more information. “Today, we have the entire wealth of human knowledge literally at our fingertips. You’d think that’d pave the way for a cultural renaissance of sorts that might eclipse our 15th-century Florentine forefathers,” the article opined. However, when it comes to the numbers of those in fringe informal disciplines long abandoned, the Millennial generation has begun to adhere to them more and more, including Astrology, flat Earth theories, and the denial of the moon landing. Why is this an increasingly common belief system among the Millennials? asks the article implicitly.

It amounts to an allure, a charm, and lure for the young and naïve, full of youthful vibrancy, who may excitedly grasp as bad explanation rather than no explanation. Younger generations identify less with formal religion and more with the pseudoscientific. It appears to have replaced the formal religious pseudo-explanations of the ways of the world.

Astrology and other beliefs, when people lose footing in their lives, become helpful for people to garner some sense of internal locus of control, internal order, in their own lives.
Big Think opined, “Astrology is arguably an inane and harmless belief. Aside from you wild Scorpios butting heads with a quick-tempered Aries, it’s safe to say that astrology isn’t that big of a problem. Rather, it’s the underlying mindset that leads to trouble.”

The reason for these explanations about the world tend to be powerlessness over personal life. It makes one feel as if they have special knowledge not held by others too. More education leads people to feel more control and so less likely to believe or adhere to all-encompassing conspiracy theories.

If one can feel more agency in their life and have a greater and firmer knowledge about the world, then that someone can be less inclined to believe in or adhere to the conspiracy theories and pseudoscientific theories.

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2023-01-26

Roman Catholic Blogger Speaks on Alleged Satanic Plan

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

LifeSiteNews reported on the American pundit and Roman Catholic blogger Matt Walsh. Recently, Walsh spoke on the alleged plan of the purported Satan.

He spoke on his surmising of the battle plans of the alleged Devil. He asserted the first methodology would be the old school paradigm with the persecution of Christians, who were martyrs. He stated this was a tactic of killing the Christians.

The report stated, “Walsh told his audience that Satan is using this tactic on Christians who are being persecuted across the world on an ‘unprecedented scale.’ Although the media and the Church in the USA largely ignore it, ‘the reality is that the ground all over the globe is soaked in Christian blood.’”

He stated that the Christian persecution and genocide is worse than the rest of its history. Walsh sees this as an “astounding fact.” In America, Walsh stated, the attack on Christians comes from a different angle.

That is, he compares the sacrifices of Egyptian Christian pilgrims who gave all they could for Jesus Christ against Islamic extremists. Walsh asked the audience during the speech about the amount they would be willing to give up for Christ.

“Most of the so-called believers in this country will lash out angrily is you so much as suggest that they give up watching certain TV shows or listening to certain music,” Walsh stated, “They’ll explode in fury if you urge them to change their lifestyles to any degree whatsoever… And yet we think we possess the conviction and the faith to just give up our lives for Christ.”

He continued to explain, from his point of view, that the American Christians would “grovel and weep at the feet of our Muslim captors.” That they would recite the Quranic prayers demanded by these purported captors.

LifeSiteNews asserted, “Therefore, to the Satan, American Christians simply aren’t worth killing, Walsh theorized. These ‘Christians’ are so spiritually lazy and so comfortable with their sinful ways that they aren’t any threat to Satan.”

Walsh went on to elaborate about the Plan B or the second strategy of Satan for the life of the Christians in America. That being, the work to make them subjugated inside of America by the forces of evil.

Walsh asked, “Why would the demons waste their time tormenting someone who’s already walking to hell of his own volition?” He assumes the church in America, broadly speaking, has allegedly been infiltrated by the forces of evil, by the American church’s enemies.

He brings attention to those who argue for acceptance, being welcoming, tolerant, and preach a live and let live lifestyle who do not worry about “sin.”

“Satan himself speaks from the mouths of many priests and many pastors in this country… urging their flocks to conform with the culture, making the orthodox feel silly, or even bigoted, for trying to rise above the standards of this world,” Walsh said.

He notes the ways in Christians struggle to excitedly go to church. It becomes a chore for them. He views this as a materialistic Christian community in America, who are soft. He asserts this is something that prevents the Christians from meeting God.

Walsh provided a purported cure to this alleged problem with the use of prayer above all. He sees prayer as making us less sinful and more holy. Walsh said that when Christians do drag themselves to church, desperate for guidance, they are given “nothing” from most pulpits.

“… You start to find that a lot of music you listen to, that a lot of shows that you watch…no longer appeal to you… You find that certain sins and temptations have less of a hold on you,” Walsh stated, “That desire [for God]… is kindled, and we know it, and we start to feel it. And that’s the crucial thing: for us to want the right thing.”
The article concluded on the further assertion by Walsh that he considers this to be the truth and a “terrifying reality.”

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2023-01-26

Boy Scouts for a Religious America

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The Boy Scouts of America remains closed to the non-religious population, i.e., the atheist population in the United States.

Over time, especially in recent history, the Boy Scouts of America have begun to accept a broader palette of child and adolescent into their ranks. This includes, increasingly, gays, trans, and girls. They may change their name.

The work is based on pressure to have an inclusive environment. There has been an increase in the tolerance of the organization while also seeing a decrease in the number of people who join in the organization.

In essence, it alienates the evangelical Christians and Mormons of the organizations in the process of greater inclusivity. One large and growing group in the United States is the Nones, the ever-famed and defamed ones.

The Scout Oath mentions the “best to do my duty to God” alongside the Scout Law that talks about a goal of reverence for God. These become the basis for exclusion of atheists or non-believers. Only a few weeks ago, the Boy Scouts of America declared, or re-declared, their belief in the no atheists permitted in the organization policy.

Because it is an organization for a belief in God, essentially. The National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America accepted a resolution, stated as follows:

A couple of weeks ago, the BSA doubled down on their pledge to keep atheists out of the fold. At the group’s annual meeting, the BSA National Executive Board adopted a resolution that effectively blocks open atheists from joining. It reads as follows:

Boy Scouts of America National Executive Board Resolution Reaffirming Duty to God
WHEREAS the foundational values of the Boy Scouts of America are reflected in the Scout Oath and Scout Law;
WHEREAS the first part of the Scout Oath declares “On my honor I will do my best to do my Duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;”
WHEREAS the Declaration of Religious Principle in Bylaws of the Boy Scouts of America states that:
The recognition of God as the ruling and leading power in the universe and the grateful acknowledgement of His favors and blessings are necessary to the best type of citizenship and are wholesome precepts in the education of the growing members. No matter what the religious faith of the members may be, this fundamental of good citizenship should be kept before them.
WHEREAS the twelfth point of the Scout Law is Reverent and while the Boy Scouts of America is absolutely nonsectarian in its view of religious training, Reverent means that a Scout is faithful in his or her religious duties and respects the beliefs of others; and

WHEREAS these faith-based tenets have been a part of the Boy Scouts of America since it was

founded and, notwithstanding any changes to Scouting programs, the commitment of the movement to Duty to God is unwavering;
Now therefore be it resolved that the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America hereby reaffirms its unequivocal commitment to the Declaration of Religious Principle as a fundamental component of the mission of the Boy Scouts of America.

Somehow, welcoming girls doesn’t affect the “fundamental component of the mission” of the BSA, but slightly rewriting the Oath and Law is a bridge too far.

As noted in Friendly Atheist, “They don’t want your kid. If you’re atheists, they don’t really want your involvement, either. It’s also why the BSA shouldn’t receive government funding or access to public schools. No organization that discriminates on the basis of religion should be rewarded by the government.”

The organization continues to open the doors to more and more types of people from diverse identities and backgrounds. However, this area continues to remain closed, purportedly on the need for God and reverence in the Scout Law and the Scout Oath.

“The strangest thing about this resolution is that the BSA has done a good job of opening the doors to more and more people even when it meant changing the very nature of what they’ve always been. They were willing to break with tradition because the old restrictions no longer made any sense,” Friendly Atheist stated.

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2023-01-26

Co-Founder of United Atheists of Europe Interview

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

A representative from The Good Men Project gave an interview with the co-founder of the United Atheists of Europe. It is an organization devoted to the coordinated efforts and community building for atheists in Europe. The co-founder is Nacer Amari, who comes from Tunisia and lives in Europe.

Amari talked about the living in the southern region of Tunisia as a youth; the ways in which religion has its own customs, norms, and traditions.

Amari said, “I grew up in a Berber family with Arab culture where parents are illiterate and not religious… Usually, it has a negative impact on the child’s personality, but I consider myself to be lucky compared to the children where I grew up, even though my parents were illiterate and managed to raise me without being affected by religion.”

He began to have some doubts as he entered into and during high school. He noticed that classmates would pray during high school while his parents did not pray at all. He noticed the purpose of prayers, religion, and God and began to question them.

“Then I completely lost my faith in God during the 10th class, identifying myself as an atheist,” Amari remarked. At some point, he and friend, named Karrar Al Asfoor, founded a social fraternity, United Atheists of Europe.

He described the organization as a means for the secular world and the ex-Muslim community to work together. “In the meantime, it is considered a small-sized social fraternity, but it’s open for every atheist who is interested to join. Our future goals are to have the effective means to challenge religions and protecting secularism in Europe and to empower atheists in the Islamic world pushing it into secularism there,” Amari said.

Amari, in a small critique on one facet of Islam, Ramadan, described the ways in which ex-Muslims and others protest by not eating during Ramadan, and then explained some of the background. In Tunisia, as an example, people have to not eat during Ramadan. The basis for this is in the constitution but, of course, this relates to the religion as well.

Amari explained, “…there was a ban from the Ministry of Interior requiring restaurants and cafes to obtain touristic permits to be able to serve food and drinks during Ramadan with the windows covered. The constitution has been updated after the revolution with a new chapter, which is called ‘the good ethics chapter’ giving the ban legal status.”

He went on to explain how this started 1,400 years ago with the ancient religious rites. Those rites that exist to this day. Amari said, “This is a holy month par excellence for Muslims. It is one of the five pillars of Islam, as they believe that the revelation of the Qur’an was a ‘night of fate’ this month, also the only month of which the name appears in the Koran.”

So, to be a good Muslim or a good citizen as per the constitution, a person must refrain from eating during Ramadan. Expanding on this point, Amari went into religion in Tunisia in general. That is, the social environments and the borders of Tunisia link to political and religious conflict.

Amari argues this has been the case since the independence of Tunisia. The Islamists took the country over. This led to increases in terrorist activities and assassinations. It continues to this day, even with the critique of religion.
Amari concluded, “The freedom to criticize religion in Tunisia is complicated, because in the new constitution, there is a contradiction in the laws, where we find in the first chapter mentioned that ‘Islam is the religion of the state’… However, in chapter six, ‘The State protects the religion (Islam), guarantees the freedom of belief, conscience and the exercise of the cults.’”

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2023-01-26

Anti-Atheist Sign Removed from High School

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to the Friendly Atheist, there exists a common meme. One can see this in social media in general. It states atheism as a non-sense belief, the basic assertion being that atheism does not make any sense. As noted by the article, the intention is to show atheism as a ridiculous belief through a straw-manned representation.

It goes as follows:

Atheism

The belief that there was nothing and nothing happened to nothing and then nothing magically exploded for no reason, creating everything and then a bunch of everything magically rearranged itself for no reason whatsoever into self-replicating bits which then turned into dinosaurs.

Makes perfect sense.

It represents evolution as not really evolution because the gradual steps do not seem implied but, rather, a leap in change is purported over an instant from “self-replicating bits” into “dinosaurs.” Of course, the world is several billion years old and evolution took several billion years to evolve organisms as complicated as dinosaurs.

“Anyway, it’s the sort of statement you expect to see in a Ken Ham lecture or in a sermon from a pastor who didn’t do his homework that week and is desperately searching for material. It’s a cheap laugh for ignorant people,” the article states, “You don’t expect to see it in a public school classroom. Yet a sign with those words was seen inside a classroom at West Stanly High School in Oakboro, North Carolina.”

Somehow, a picture was sent to WSOC-TV in Charlotte. Then the superintendent of the district was contacted, which led to the sign being taken down immediately. Apparently, the superintendent said that “personnel action was taken.”

No person or reason is known as to why the sign was placed there in the first place. Friendly Atheist rhetorically asks, “Imagine if an atheist teacher put up the Christian version of the same sign in a classroom? We’d never hear the end of it.”

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2023-01-26

Muslim Studies Program Director Argues New Atheists Misrepresent Islam

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to the Tehran Times, the New Atheist writers and thinkers tend to “misread and misrepresent Islamic sources” based on the interpretation of their work by one Michigan Professor, Mohammad Hassan Khalil.

Khalil is the author of Jihad, Radicalism, and the New Atheism. He is the Director of the Muslim Studies Program of Michigan State University. He said, “In fact, their [the New Atheists’] portrayals of Islam are sometimes even more extreme than those of violent radicals themselves.”

In a brief interview, Khalil described the New Atheist writers including Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins, as seeing Islam primarily as a violent religious ideology. That members of al-Qaeda and ISIL who engage in the acts of terrorism are acting in the name of Islamic scripture when they commit the acts of terror.

Khalil argues that the terrorists and extremists are in fact deviating from Islamic scripture. In response to a query about the main message of his book, he responded:

My central argument is twofold: (1) Violent radicals cannot be considered “literalists” who adhere carefully to Islamic scripture and tradition. I offer various examples of radicals diverging from and misreading Islamic sources. (2) Prominent New Atheist writers also tend to misread and misrepresent Islamic sources. In fact, their portrayals of Islam are sometimes even more extreme than those of violent radicals themselves.

In other words, first, Khalil argues violent radicals are not “literalists” who deviate and misread Islamic scripture; second, the New Atheists portray Islam in a more extreme way than the radicals or extremists themselves.

Further on the second point, he argues the Western world’s academics who have been influenced by the New Atheist interpretations take the same extremist interpretation approach. Khalil, as far as can be ascertained from the interview, argues against New Atheists’ and the radicals’ interpretations rather than providing a full-breadth alternative.

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2023-01-26

Harry Shriver on Women Teachers and Guns

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Hement Mehta, the best Friendly Atheist around, reported on Alabama State Rep. Harry Shriver considering the arming of schoolteachers as a ineffective overall methodology to protect middle and high school students.

He thinks that since many women are teachers, women are scared of guns, and so teachers should not be armed.

Shriver said, “I’ve heard … that 75 percent of Republicans support it, [the arming of teachers,] but I was there live and in person and I know what it is like in the schools … Most women wouldn’t like to be put in that position.”

In a conversation with Al.com, Shriver continued with the same comments. He talked about not all women; but most schools have the majority of teachers who are women. Mehta stated that the right position was taken for the wrong reasons.

In an interview, Shriver said,

“I’m not saying all (women), but in most schools, women are (the majority) of the teachers. … Some of them just don’t want to (be trained to possess firearms). If they want to, then that’s good. But most of them don’t want to learn how to shoot like that and carry a gun.”

Mehta argues more guns in teachers’ hands will create more gun violence, not less.

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2023-01-26

Radical Islam Being Fought By Women Quran Experts in Morocco

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The nation of Morocco is known as a hotbed for the creation of recruits for terrorism. However, Morocco has not had a significant attack on its country since 2011. The last terrorist incident or attack happened when there was a bombing of Marrakesh café. Many ISIS attackers in Europe have been Moroccan Islamic terrorists. It may feel offensive to some, but this is true.

The only purported survivor of the 2015 Paris rampage is the Moroccan-Frenchman. The Brussel airport and tram bombings were coming from the ethnic Moroccans. Same with the suspected driver of the van who drove over shoppers in Barcelona: Moroccan ethnic background.

Since 2012, 1,600 Moroccans have joined mostly ISIS and some other fledgling terrorist groups. Although it does not compare to the 7,000 coming from Tunisia to join the terrorist organizations, the public debate is around the ways in which to prevent the embrace of radical Islam on young minds.

The Atlantic said, “Germany, Britain, and Belgium have developed programs that focus on further integrating radicals into their community. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, focuses on finding jobs and wives for recruited jihadists.”

As with gangs, once an individual has joined, it becomes nearly impossible to get them out. They are now part of an organization devoted to extremist ideologies and terrorist acts. Under the Obama Administration, the article states, there was the CVE (Countering Violent Extremism) approach that focused on community leaders and groups rather than government officials in order to combat the extremism and potential terrorism.

The Trump Administration has defunded some of the programs devoted to counter-extremism. But there are many other programs that have taken on the tasks. There are those in Morocco who continue to fund similar initiatives as those found under the Obama Administration with the prevention of extremism and terrorism through the community leaders and groups.

To be clear, ISIS attackers with Moroccan backgrounds are bad. Moroccan initiatives to prevent extremism or terrorism are good.

One Moroccan counter-extremism initiative comes with an emphasis on women. At the elite new school, L’Institut Mohammed VI Pour La Formation Des Imams, Morchidines, et Morchidates, there are religious scholars being training in order to take on the radical Islamist pockets of the country.

Those little enclaves on the Moroccan landscape are known to be prime recruitment ground for disenfranchised youth to join the extremists. It is through the utilisation of spiritual teachings and guidance in order to reach them and prevent further recruitment into the extremist and terrorist organizations.

Each trained woman is a spiritual guide. The program director, Abdeslam El-Azaar, said, “I’ll tell you frankly, the women scholars here are even more important than men. … Women, just by virtue of their role in society, have so much contact with the people — children, young people, other women, even men. … They are the primary educators of their children. So it is natural for them to provide advice. … We give them an education so they can offer it in a scholarly way.”

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2023-01-26

Louis Farrakhan Delivers Speech Many Deem Anti-Semitic

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Sophie Tatum from CNN: Politics reported on an allegedly anti-Semitic speech by Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan has been the leader of the Nation of Islam since 1977.

Often, he is deemed rather extreme in his remarks, especially around Jewish people around the world. He has stated, “The Jews are my enemy.” Also, he has said, “White folks are going down. And Satan is going down. And Farrakhan, by God’s grace, has pulled the cover off of that Satanic Jew and I’m here to say your time is up, your world is through.”

Tamika Mallory, a Women’s March Co-Chair, was in attendance at the time. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam a hate group with “deeply racist, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBT rhetoric.”

It often teaches, according to the reportage, black racial superiority. Rep. Keith Ellison has faced pressure in the past because of his ties with the Nation of Islam in the past. In previous years, Ellison had a relationship with the group for about ten years or more.

In December of 2016, Ellison spoke out and said that he “rejects all forms of anti-Semitism … the right wing has been pushing these stories for years to drive a wedge between Congressman Ellison and the Jewish community.”

When Ellison ran for the DNC Chair, the Anti-Defamation League and J-Street defended him.

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2023-01-26

Jewish Woman First to Head Americans United

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on a the first Jew and woman working to take a US group into the secularist world through advancement of the separation of religion and government.

Rachel Laser, who is 48-years-old, is the Executive Director of the Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Laser is working on something important to her, which is the cause of secularism. Through the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, she will work to separate religion and government.

She said, “I appreciate that ‘separation of church and state’ is a term of art, but as a Jewish person it doesn’t always work perfectly for me as a shorthand.” Barry Lynn, the previous director, retired from the organization.

Lynn was a United Church of Christ minister, which makes the switch to a Jewish woman bigger than either a non-Christian or a woman alone.

Laser comes from Chicago and is a lawyer. She has worked with “the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, Planned Parenthood and the National Women’s Law Center. Her work has centered on fighting for issues such as women’s rights, LGBTQ equality and promoting interfaith relations.”

She considers these federal policies and laws the most important and pressing issues of the day because these permit the discrimination against sexual minorities while also denying the safe and equitable access to reproductive health care. Often, religion restricts these.

Laser explained, “We’re witnessing an alarming moment in American history, where our country’s top leaders are failing to honor America’s promise to separate religion and government.”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State is concerned about the newer policy from the government that permits taxpayer money to be used for the reconstruction or repair of houses of worship in the case of natural disasters.

Laser came from a home filled with social justice activism and work. She values building bridges between communities. “I entered that work with fear and trepidation, and I ended that work convinced that there is remarkable space to bring unusual bedfellows together,” Laser acknowledged.

As Laser is a member of the religious minorities, she works that much harder for the secular ideals of the separation between religion and government.

She has three children with her husband, Mark Davies. Interestingly, Americans United for Separation of Church and State’s membership came from the political conservative before. Now, the larger population of the membership comes from the progressives.

“I don’t think it’s intuitive anymore to a lot of Americans that what separation of religion and government is about is freedom of religion,” Laser opined. “[It] is your ability to believe what you want to believe and to practice your own faith or to choose no faith.”b

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2023-01-26

The View Host Apologizes to US VP Pence

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to The Hill, one of The View hosts apologized for comments about those who claim to speak personally to Christianity’s Jesus Christ.

Joy Behar, the co-host, said, that if you are experiencing Jesus talking to you that this was a sign of mental illness. Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, said that Behar apologized for offensive comments about the Trump Administration and Christians.

Joe Flint of the Wall Street Journal was in attendance at the shareholder meeting in Houston, Texas, and did tweet that Behar had directly apologized to Pence. One White House source, according to The Hill article, confirmed an apology for Pence by Behar.

“It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talk to you,” Behar had said, “That’s called mental illness, if I’m not correct. Hearing voices.” Vice President Pence criticized the comments one day after they happened (Feb. 13) on February 14.
VP Pence said, “To have ABC maintain a broadcast forum that compared Christianity to mental illness is just wrong. … It is simply wrong for ABC to have a television program that expresses that kind of religious intolerance.”

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2023-01-26

Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs Argues Against Islam and Reform

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to Ahval, a Turkish Cleric argued that Islam and reform do not go together. The Turkish cleric is the head of Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs.

Ali Erbaş proposed that the Fiqh or the philosophy of Islamic law cannot be updated, as he talked to CNN Türk television. “It is not correct to put the words of Islam and reform next to each other in any way,” he said, “But Fıqh is always subject to update and needs to be updated.”

Erbaş’s statements follow from a call that he had with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan about the adaptation of the religious practices and worldview within the context of the modern socio-cultural world.

Erdoğan talked at the time when, recently, some Islamic preachers in his own country were speaking in support of violence against women.

“We, as the Directorate of Religious Affairs, reject every kind of interpretation and thought that condones violence against women,” Erbaş said, “There is not one single source in either our Prophet’s teachings or in Islam that condones violence against women.”

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2023-01-26

A Religion Saved by Online Dating

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

ABC News stated that the Zoroastrian religion may be saved by the use of modern technology to couple people up into eventual marriage and family life, which is an interesting commentary international minority religions and the maintenance of the religious community broadly speaking.

Zoroastrianism is an ancient monotheistic faith older than Islam and Christianity, but with far fewer members. It was birthed in Persia. One Mumbai-based mother of two manages a database of Zoroastrian singles, bachelorettes and bachelors.

Her name is Zarin Havewala. She said, “So far, 55 couples have found their partners through my efforts — 53 couples are already married, and two more couples are engaged to be married soon. … About seven years ago, it struck me very badly [that] a lot of our youngsters are getting married outside the community. … I thought maybe they are not having enough avenues to know that there are other young Parsis available.”

The database is quite extensive and incorporates ages, careers, email addresses, names, numbers, and qualifications for the single coupledom-searchers. Originally, it was an idea for Indian Parsis, but then this extended to the globe with people from “Austin to Auckland and Iran to Oman.”

People simply started contacting Havewala. One woman, Auzita Pourshasb, said, “When you’re taught that you’re a part of a diminishing community … you feel like you’ve got a sense of responsibility to meet a Zoroastrian and to help those numbers grow.”

Based on the census information from 2016, there were only 3,000 Zoroastrians living in Australia, for an example. Pourshasb, herself, married a Christian man. Now, she is 30.

Around the world, the global Zoroastrian community is estimated to only be 200,000 with as many as 30 percent living in India alone. There are converts to some of the communities, but many of the orthodox Zoroastrians do not like the conversions into the faith.

The community is concerned about how best to bring about a maintenance and even growth of the 4,000-year-old faith. What does this also mean for other faiths and traditions with similar small or dwindling global numbers in proportion to the other dominant faiths of the world?

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2023-01-26

Islamic University Bans Full-Face Veils, Gets Criticism

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

One Indonesian state Islamic University is facing some heat from Muslim activists and groups because it banned women from wearing the full-face veils based on the fear of radical Islamic ideology spreading on the campus of the post-secondary institution.

Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world with most of them practicing as ordinary or moderate followers of the faith. However, in the recent years, there has been an upsurge in the number of the more conservative and fundamentalist, sometimes called literalist, strains if Islam.

This has been seen as a threat to the “religious tolerance and diversity” of the country that has been a cherished value set for a long time. The State Islamic University or UIN in Yogyakarta City on Java Island said that 41 students would have to remove the full veil also known as the burqa if they want to graduate.

One group, the Islamic Defenders Front, is a conservative set of campaigners who look for activities that may be un-Islamic, so that they can then work against them. One women’s rights activist argued this is a restriction on the ability of women to wear what they want.

Lathiefah Widuri Retyaningtyas, the women’s rights activist, said, “Using full-face veils is a choice and we cannot interfere in their choice and their freedom… Female students wearing the burqa, and radical groups, they are disturbing the teaching process.”

Retyaningtyas argued women should be able to wear the headscarves that do not cover the face. One recent social survey found that 1/5th of the high school and university students would support a caliphate over a secular government including the one in place right now.

This data has been an alarming point for the authorities. The Indonesian government has been struggling to keep boundaries on the growing Islamic elements of its own society.

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2023-01-26

Hundreds of Churches Shutdown by the Government in Kenya

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

In Nairobi, Kenya, there is a move to close over 700 churches in the capital city for the safety, noise, hygiene, and other alleged concerns described by the President, Paul Kagame.

In reality, many consider this a way to trample on religious freedom. On March 6, the police detained six pastors with the charge of “conspiring to rally other clergy in defiance of the government’s shutdown orders.”

After he ordered the closures, the Chief Executive of the Rwanda Governance Board, Anastase Shyaka, said this was about ‘honoring God’.

“It means that if we are Christians, where we worship must meet standards showing respect for God,” Shyaka explained, “It means that if we are Christians, where we worship must meet standards showing respect for God.”

Of the 714 shutdown church sites, most were Pentecostal churches such as the ones that have multiplied throughout the continent of Africa for decades. The Lutheran Bishop Evariste Bugabo argues that the closure did not target any particular denomination.

In Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, there are more than 1,300 churches servicing the 1.2 million people there.

“Are these boreholes that give people water?” Kagame asked, “I don’t think we have as many boreholes. Do we even have as many factories? This has been a mess.” One Rwandan international development advocate from Canada, David Himbara, said the official reasons for the closures are bogus because fear and paranoia mount to the real reasons.

David Himbara, a Rwandan international development advocate based in Canada, called the government’s justification for the closures bogus and said the “real reason … is fear and paranoia.”

“Kagame tightly controls the media, political parties, and civil society at large,” Himbara said, “The churches constituted the last open space. Kagame knows this. The localized community of churches offered a slight space for daring to imagine and talk about change.”

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2023-01-26

Hindu Right Increases Religious Battles

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to the Washington Post, a mob of Hindu fundamentalists recently destroyed and dismantled a mosque with pickaxes and rope. Many ended up with bloody hands in order to bring down the mosque.

There was dust and smoke in the air. A series of nearby homes were torched. 16 Muslims were killed with a total of 2,000 dead by the end of the riots across India in the days that followed. Another mosque, Babri, was destroyed 25 years ago in northern India.

This was in an area considered to be the birthplace of the Hindu Lord Ram. This was a blow to the secularism of India. Ayodhya, India, has ben synonymous with struggle and strife since that time, as fundamentalist Hindu leaders want no mosques there and instead a large sandstone temple devoted to Lord Ram.

India’s Supreme Court has been hearing arguments about the title dispute over the purported holy site. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a Hindu nationalist, which has an appeal for those of a hardline Hindu approach and conviction.

Modi has a brand of religious patriotism devoted to a Hindi India. With his rise, there has been a rise in the level of religious violence with lynching increasing 16% as of 2017 based on data from the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Many Indian Muslims state that the Hindu nationalists are flaring up tensions along religious lines in order to be able to gain political points and other support. The supporters of the Ram Temple will be having elaborate gold pillars around the temple in a flatbed truck.

The World Hindu Council, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, will have religious ceremonies in towns and villages in order to continue the moment for their movement that wants to see a sandstone Ram Temple erected.

A District Leader for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, Smrita Yiwari, described the sense of freedom for the Hindus in India with the Hindu nationalist leadership in government with Modi.

“We used to feel that we had come from the outside and Muslims completely controlled the country,” she said, “Now, with Modi in power, things are different. We can unfurl the saffron flag for the first time… Muslims are very fanatical… They only think about their religion. They are not good to us. We don’t go to Mecca and claim a place there. Why should they be given the land where Lord Ram was born?”

Hindus and Muslims have been arguing and fighting for over 100 years about the Babri Masjid, which was constructed in order to honor the Mughat emperor Babur from 1528. These enmities go back decades and centuries.

The Uttar Pradesh high court ruled in 2010 that the mosque built on the ruins of a Hindu temple made the land needing to be split into three parcels with two for the Hindus and one for the Muslims. Hindus and Muslims have agreed that the proposed or demanded division of the land into the three parcels is unacceptable.

Religion continues to divide and be highly involved in the lives of Indians. Youth unemployment is high and many peoples have migrated elsewhere from Ayodhya. The fight over the land and Lord Ram will likely continue into the indefinite future.

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2023-01-26

Islamic School Burns Hundreds of Mobile Phones

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

One hardline Islamic school in Bangladesh has burned hundreds of cellphones in a bonfire because the mobile phones were distracting students.

The Islamic school is called Darul Ulum Minul Islam and is an Islamic seminary. The school administrators tossed hundreds of cellphones into a fire. The seminar is 123 years old as an institution with over 14,000 students in attendance.

One spokesperson for the school, Azizul Hoque, described the phones as ruining the character of the young. Hoque was pro-technology, but cited the negatives such as ruining the character of young students.

The country is more or less secular, but the religious leaders such as the Muslim clerics have a huge influence and power in particular areas of the country, especially in the more conservative areas. The madrassa in Hathazari (outside the port city of Chittagong) is headed by Ahmed Shafi, the leader of a hardline Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam.

There have been large and growing movements to turn the Bangladesh secular government into an Islamic theocracy. For example, of the Hefazat supporters alone, hundreds of thousands marched to Dhaka in 2013 “demanding implementation of religious laws including criminalising blasphemy and segregating genders in the workplace.”

The protests created violence with about 50 people dead. There was an accord struck with the movement and the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Hasina “agreed to recognise academic qualifications from hardline seminaries, allowing their students to apply for government jobs.”

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2023-01-26

Star Wars Borrowed From Christianity, Used by One Catholic Chaplain

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The Edmonton Journal reported on modern religious education and how one chaplain in Canada has been incorporating Star Wars into the classroom.

Mike Landry is from Spruce Grove and a Roman Catholic chaplain at Evergreen Catholic Schools. He teaches lessons about the Bible through comparisons with the First Order and the Resistance.

“When you’re sitting in a religion class, you’ve got people from all these backgrounds who come from all these different perspectives,” Landry said, “and you’re trying to see how you can meet all of them where they are without them feeling pushed, or judged, or forced, but inviting them into something that I believe will help them.”

Landry argued for the parallels between the Star Wars universe and Christianity when speaking at the Greater Edmonton Teachers’ Convention last week. Not the first Edmonton chaplain to take advantage of these corollaries, Landry said he is continuing the work of the late Father Michael Mireau. Father Michael Mireau often weaved Star Wars references into his homilies. He would bring Star Wars into his religious lectures and wave a light sabre around from the pulpit. Mireau died of cancer at the age of 42 in 2014.

Landry works at St. Peter the Apostle School and visits an additional 9 schools within his division. Star Wars by George Lucas, the creator and developer of the franchise, was heavily borrowed upon. The Force, the Jedi Council, the Sith, the Jedi, and so on, have been pulled from the mythological world into a modern multi-billion-dollar franchise of Christianity.

“I don’t think they have trouble understanding (religious teachings). I think they have trouble wanting to understand. They want to see that it’s relevant to them.” Landry said, “A Jewish carpenter from 20 centuries ago, what does he have to do with what I’m doing in Spruce Grove today? And sometimes these stories become a nice bridge.”

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2023-01-26

Black People are Monkeys to Chief Rabbi

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The Times of Israel reported that Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef in Israel referred to black people as monkeys in a weekly sermon.

Yosef was speaking about the Jewish legal aspects of the blessing on seeing fruit trees blossoming during the Hebrew month of Nissan. The context was whether to bless a tree or two in the speech during Nissan.

Yosef mentioned coming across a black person with two white parents in America, which he considered an “unusual creature.” He has been seen calling black people “Kushi,” which is a pejorative term.

Known to spark controversy in his sermons, Yosef used a term meaning “monkey” to describe the black person. Yosef’s office told the outlet Ynet that the term comes from the Talmud. He has gone to court over controversial quotes before. Previous controversies arose during his sermon when he mentioned secular women who dress immodestly are behaving like animals.

In March of 2016, he retracted a statement — announcing non-Jews should not live in Israel — with a defense that the statement was “theoretical.” He general notion was that the seven Noahide Laws, which are “prohibitions against idolatry, blaspheming God, murder, forbidden sexual relations, stealing, and eating limbs off a live animal,” should be followed by non-Jews and that non-Jews in Israel are there to serve Jews alone.

There are two main or chief rabbis in Israel.

“Yosef represents those with origins in the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, and the Middle East, and David Lau represents Ashkenazic Jews, with origins in European lands of the Roman Empire,” the Times of Israel reported.

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2023-01-26

Atheist Gayle Jordan Loses in Special Tennessee Election

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Roy Exum spoke about the Republican values of the Tennesseans in the Chattanoogan. A special election was held where Shane Reeves and Gayle Jordan were present.

Reeves is a respected businessperson from Murfreesboro. Jordan is a liberal and atheist activist. Reeves is Republican. Jordan is Democratic. Both people were looking for the District 14 seat in the state Senate, which opened up when Jim Tracy resigned from the position.

Tennessee’s District 14 has a deep red and mid-state county set of Bedford, Lincoln, Marshall, Moore, and Rutherford. People in the Tennessean landscape know about the same-sex wedding approvals by Jordan several years ago.

Gay marriage and similar hot-button issues are important topics for the people of Tennessee.

Randy McNally, Tennessee’s Lt. Governor, said, “In my 40 plus years in Tennessee politics, I’ve seen few candidates as dangerous as Gayle Jordan. She is not just out of step with a majority of Tennessee on matters of policy, she is out of step on matters of values and faith.”

McNally pointed out that Jordan runs the Recovering from Religion organization, which he sees as at odds with the strong believers who happen to be many Tennesseans. He opined, “This is not the type of person we need in the Tennessee Senate,” speaking of Jordan.

Jordan is an attorney that runs a farm in Rutherford County and ran for the State seat in 2016 as a Democrat. This is not a new move in political life for Jordan. Of all Tennesseans, 80% identify as Christian based on a 2014 report.

“I just feel Gayle Jordan’s views are radical,” Reeves said. “They are out of touch with the district… I am a Christian and that is going to serve as a filter, serve as a moral compass, at how I look at things if I am fortunate enough to get elected.”

In the final tally of the recent, March 13, 2018 special election, Jordan lost and Reeves won the vote.

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2023-01-26

Resistance to Atheist Becoming Navy Chaplain

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to Commercial Appeal, there is active work to prevent an atheist from becoming a navy chaplain.

Mid-South senators are taking a stand to block an atheist from becoming a U.S. navy chaplain. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., sent a letter to the Navy Secretary Richard Spencer and the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson.

In the letter, Wicker wanted them to reject the application of a secular-humanist from acquisition of a post as a U.S. Navy chaplain. Wicker is a U.S. Air Force veteran and is a member of the Senate armed services committee.

As many as 22 other senators signed the letter with him. The letter expressed the fear that the U.S. Navy “may expand the Chaplain Corps beyond its clear purpose of protecting and facilitating the constitutional right of service members to the free exercise of religion.”

Tennessee Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker and Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran did not sign the letter. Prominent individuals who signed the letter were Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz.

Jason Heap is the atheist trying to become a chaplain in the U.S. Navy. In 2014, he was endorsed by the Humanist Society. Heap sued. He lost.

The letter from the senators said, “The Navy has sufficient authority to create programs for humanist or atheist service members. … The Chaplain Corps is not the appropriate place. The Chaplain Corps serves religious needs, not philosophical preferences.”

One letter with the endorsement of 45 House members makes similar lines of reasoning. Hement Mehta had commentary stating, “It’s an absurd, literal argument that does a disservice to those actually serving in the Navy… Just because atheism isn’t a religion, per se, doesn’t mean that non-religious soldiers don’t have emotional needs. Depriving them of a chaplain who speaks their language hurts our military.”

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2023-01-26

Rick Saccone Considered Those Against Him Evil

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to the Friendly Atheist, the PA Republican House Candidate Rick Saccone considers political opponents to have a hatred for God.

At the time of the report, Conor Lamb was competing against Saccone in a special election. Saccone, according to the Friendly Atheist, is a Christian conservative with a tendency to want to instill the Bible in society rather than the Constitution.

Saccone had blame for a specific set of people, “They’re energized for hate for our president… Many of them have a hatred for our country. I’ll [tell] you some more — my wife and I saw it again today, they have a hatred for God.” In short, those that do not like God.

Hemant Mehta, the Friendly Atheist, hypothesizes that Saccone was pointing to the Trump and Republicans as on the side of the good and Democrats and other opposition as on the side of evil.

In other words, Mehta suggests, “But this sort of thinking — that you’re either with Trump and the Republicans or you’re on the side of evil — is why Saccone and anyone like him deserve to lose. They have no desire to represent everyone in their District. They only care about the people who believe as they do.”

The results of the election: Saccone lost.

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2023-01-26

Turkish Religious Leader Urges Islamic Preachers to be Careful

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Hurriyet Daily News reported that the highest religious body leader recommended that Islamic preachers in Turkey be more careful when speaking of or about women.

Ali Erbaş, the Directorate of Religious Affairs in Turkey, made the comments at a meeting on March 10 in the southeastern parts of Hakkari in Turkey. He argued for the means to prevent the abuse of religion was through providing the truths of Islam.

“Even preachers who speak and work with good intentions and sincerity should be extra careful not to make their comments open to misinterpretation,” he said, “Everyone who writes, talks, or reports about Islam has to be more careful.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticized many Islamic writers for their sexist commentaries and then Erbaş made comments shortly thereafter.

Erbaş reflected on the July, 2016 attempted coup, where he considers that the “truths of Islam were misused and exploited.” He connects this to groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or ISIL.

At the March 8 International Women’s Day event, the President of Turkey opined about the marginal people looking to discount the values of Islam or the country of Turkey. Nureddin Yıldız, the head of the Social Fabric Foundation made some controversial statements about violence against women, which sparked the debate and the need for both the religious leader and the president to comment around the sparked debate as well.

It started with the words from a video posted online by Yıldız, which said, “Women should be grateful to God, because God allowed men to beat women and be relaxed.”

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2023-01-26

Andrew Seidel Comments on a 40-Foot-Tall Cross

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Andrew Seidel, Civil Rights and Constitutional Attorney for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, commented in a short letter to The Washington Post about the cross-shaped monument making some of the news as of late.

As Seidel notes in the March 3, 2018, Metro article, the article is described as a cross-shaped monument. Seidel, not one for beating around the bush, said, “It’s a cross. A 40-foot-tall cross. ‘Cross-shaped monument’ suggests that there is some dispute over this or that this massive cross is only incidentally a Christian cross. While there is some dispute over its history and legality, there is no dispute that it is, and was intended to be, an enormous Christian cross.”

He notes that the cross’s presence violates the Constitution of the United States of America with the Metro article being partial and biased with a slant towards those who would violate the American Constitution.

The article, as Seidel with laser eyes points out, “For instance, it said “the Supreme Court … has not provided clear guidance about displays of religion on government land.” In reality, no court, including the Supreme Court, has ever upheld a cross on public land.”

That is, the Supreme Court has never, ever supported the presentation of a cross, especially a 40-foot-tall one, on public grounds. Seidel claims that Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, was wrong to call the court’s decision an offense to every veteran in the country, or “an affront to all veterans.”

“The cross is the affront. There are atheists in foxholes. And Jews and Hindus and Muslims and nonbelievers and non-Christians of every stripe. We owe them better,” Seidel concludes, “Their sacrifice helped secure our freedom just as must as the sacrifice of our Christian servicemen and women. The court got this right.”

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2023-01-26

Anthony DeStefano Declares Atheism Religious But Bankrupt

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Faith culture reporters view religion as under withering assault as the growth of atheism throughout the world is seen as “growing at an alarming rate across the globe.”

Anthony DeStefano reported that countries in Western Europe and North America have been increasing in atheism in a “very short time.” He notes that the second largest group of the religious demographics are the religiously unaffiliated.

The United States of America is comprised of a quarter of that population, the religiously unaffiliated or the Nones. Within the previous decade, the Nones have overtaken the Roman Catholic Church in the United States as a faith group.

The Nones, according to the Pew Forum, are growing and the faithful have been ridding themselves of faith to become more non-religious for a myriad of reasons. Some of those include the idea that religious belief and rational thought are incommensurable.

People of faith have been behaving in atrocious and domineering ways, bad ways. Others do want the spiritual elements of life but without the formal strictures one can find in the traditional religious denominations within the continents mentioned.

The firebrand atheists found in the New Atheism are seen, by DeStefano, as confident and that this is seductive allure for the younger generations, who he sees as “hedonistic, self-centered, self-absorbed… with no moral truths or commandments.”

Atheists are rejecting the dominant dogmas of the majority religions, which is a concern for DeStefano because the religious beliefs and ethics appear to not have much relevance for their lives. This extends to believers; “they are believers in name only.”

He views them as functional atheist or those who live as if God does not exist.

DeStefano opined, “It’s not an exaggeration to say that the world we live in today is literally facing a crisis of faith. I believe that too many Christians today are sleeping. They live a very comfortable Christianity.”

He considers that Christian is under attack in a “very bold, aggressive, and fearless way.” He asserts, “…the new atheism is a religion that has its own philosophy (materialism), morality (relativism), politics (social Darwinism), and culture (secularism). It even has its own sacraments (abortion and euthanasia).”

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2023-01-26

Fox News Contributor Opines on Atheism and Christianity

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Fox News reporter, Anthony DeStefano, argues that the atheists of today are bullies working to silence the religious with intimidation.

In “Atheists are bullies — and they are doing their best to intimidate the rest of us into silence” (2018), DeStefano calls the atheists of the modern culture arrogant, dangerous, and ignorant.

Not only this, they are the most of each of those traits on Earth. He points to examples of atheists protesting against religious imagery in public and the mentions of “Merry Christmas.” He points to an example from American Atheists.

American Atheists had a campaign in December, 2017, with the annual billboard campaign wit this one saying, “Stay Away from Church—it’s All Fake News.” He took aim at the American Humanist Association with the mention of Christianity and Jesus Christ by President Donald Trump without mention of non-believers too.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation became another target with the late Rev. Bill Graham being laid to rest in the Capitol Rotunda prior to the burial. DeStefano says, “Yes, these atheists are loud, nasty, unapologetic and in-your-face.”

He considers atheists dismissing the vast majority of human beings as being in ignorance for most of human history. He pivots to stating that the greatest contributions to civilization have been on behalf of believers including “Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Isaac Newton all believed in God” as well as Antoine Lavoisier, Werner von Braun, Wilhelm Rontgen, William Whewell, and others.

He points to the proposal by Fr. George Lemaitre as for the big bang in Big Bang Theory, and to the case of Gregor Mendel, a monk, as the father of modern genetics. DeStefano continues, “Yes, the new atheists have an ignorance of history bordering on madness.”

He asserts atheism can only support an ethic of “ruthless social Darwinism.” Then he moves on to the assertion of religion always being about “economic gain, territorial gain, civil and revolutionary conflicts,” and not religion in general and Christianity in particular, where known wars back to 8,000 BC have been mostly not religious in nature.

He uses Philip Axelrod from Encyclopedia of Wars as the main point of reference. He asserts 360 million people were “killed by atheist governments.” That there is “a profound and frightening connection between atheism and death.

DeStefano says, “The facts are incontrovertible. Between the years 1900 and 2017, approximately 150 million people were killed by atheistic political regimes. 150 million! And it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Atheists don’t believe in God, so they don’t believe in any transcendent, objective moral law.”

“Nor do they believe that human beings are made in the image of God, and so they don’t believe humans possess infinite value and dignity,” DeStefano continues, “When you put these two beliefs together, you have a deadly recipe that makes killing ‘problematic’ human beings quite easy and defensible.”

Near the end of the opinion piece, DeStefano says to look the increased numbers or access to abortions, euthanasia, homicide, infanticide, and suicides in “a thoroughly secular and functionally atheistic culture.”

He concludes that the modern atheists are bullies and that believers need to fight back based on the arguments presented by him.

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2023-01-26

Judge Vance Day Denied Marriage Licenses to Homosexual Couples

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Hement Mehta reported on the Marion County Circuit Judge Vance Day’s punishment by the Oregon Supreme Court with the “longest sentence it’s ever given to a sitting judge.”

Judge Day refused to marry same-sex couples for three years. He told staff to avoid the “public detection” of his activities in the denial of equal marriage to homosexual couples. For example, if a same-sex couple came to his workplace and asked the staff for a marriage license, the staff would declare that Day was unavailable at that time.

This was not the case for heterosexual or straight couples. Day has been suspended. He will not be given pay. Of 8 claims of professional misconduct, he was found guilty of 6. Vance is a proud Evangelical Christian.

What Day doesn’t understand is a simple truth about his office. As the saying goes, he put his hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution, not the other way around,” Mehta stated, “His private beliefs about gay couples go out the window when he’s on the clock. Instead, his poor judgment was always on display. It’s about time he got punished for it.

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2023-01-26

Mission: America Founder Speaks Mind at Convention

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The founder of Mission: America, Linda Harvey, provided a speech to the Bringing America Back to Life Convention on the LGBTQ+ community and the pro-life movement.

She considers the LGBTQ+ community and the pro-abortion movement as potentially a “meltdown” in sexual and human identities as part of the judgment of God against Americans for the abortion of “children” or foetuses, blastocysts, and the like.

She claimed that with homosexual or same-sex intimate relations that “there is no life and there is often disease,” adding, “It’s the recipe for personal, societal, cultural, and spiritual disaster. Death is the central driving force for the abortion movement — the death of a person. Death and the absence of new life are also the connection among the LGBT movement.”

Harvey believes, based on the statements, that LGBTQ+ community exists only in negation or opposition, in the rejection of “heterosexual norms – husbands and wives who create babies,” of the heterosexual couplings found in marriage solely devoted to the sexual intimacy for procreative purposes (if interpreted right).

“These are the same people who go on and on about the horrors of some gay people having multiple partners… even though they get equally angry at the thought of a monogamous same-sex couple that wants to get married. They claim babies are central to relationships,” Hement Mehta, everyone’s favourite Friendly Atheist, wrote, “but infertile couples and straight people who just don’t want kids are given a pass. And they assume all forms of gay sex are disgusting… which ought to be irrelevant since the only people who need to be satisfied in a sexual encounter are the participants.”

He concluded that the claim by communities such as Harvey’s is a love of gay people but grounded in acts of abuse and discrimination of those LGBTQ+ American citizens.

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2023-01-26

Muslim Teenager Kills at Sleepover Over Ridicule of His Religion

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Time reported on the murder of a 13-year-old boy who made fun of religion during a fight. The killing happened during a sleepover.

The situation “had been monitored by federal and other authorities for months.” The murderer, a teen aged 17, was put into a juvenile detention center following arraignment earlier in the week. The charges are first-degree murder and attempted-murder charges.

It is unknown whether the 17-year-old will be charged as an adult. The boy fatally stabbed Jovanna Sierra, who was the 13-year-old, as well as injuring Elaine Simon, a 43-year-old mother of a boy named Dane, and Dane Bancroft, a 13-year-old son.

The sleepover was part of a birthday. The teenager stated that he was upset because one of the boys had “made fun” of his Muslim faith. The boy had read the Quran prior to going to the home for the sleepover.

The lawyer for the teen did not respond to a voicemail in order to find a comment. Law enforcement agencies and the FBI have been aware of the threats made by the teen in the past, as he sympathized with some terrorist groups as well.

Local authorities and the FBI are discussing the pursuit of charges.

The FBI declined comment Friday.

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2023-01-26

PNN News Executive Editor Thinks Satan Used Hawking

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

An Executive Editor of PNN News (a conservative news site), Mike Shoesmith, explained his own theory for professor Stephen Hawking’s existence after his death, recently and unfortunately.

His explanation for the purpose of Hawking’s existence was to oppose the late Reverend Billy Graham. Hawking, argues Shoesmith, was sent by Satan to oppose Graham.

As Shoesmith explains, “The Lord sees his [Graham’s] heart, gives him a tremendous ministry, and who do you think is sitting in the background going, ‘I have to do something about this, this guy is sold out, I have to do something’? Who do you think is sitting in the background doing that? The devil, right?”

He continues to argue that the Graham ministry flourishing in 1942. His theory is that Hawking comes from a line of atheists and the Devil said, “’OK, this guy was just born and I’m going to use this guy. This guy is already primed to accept my message that there is no God. He is already primed for it, he is going to be awash, immersed in atheism all his years as a child, I’m going to take over this guy’s life.’”

Shoesmith thinks Hawking was kept alive, even with the crippling condition for him, by demonic forces. He goes on to say that only if Hawking had submitted to the one true God, the Christian God, then his illness would have been cured. But he didn’t, and did not declare his atheism until 2014.

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2023-01-26

Dawkins Books to be Translated and Published Around the World, for Free

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Richard Dawkins’ books will be open access soon. He wants them to be free for people. Interestingly, if you look at the Arabic translations of the book The God Delusion, it has been downloaded 13 million times.

There are people in Muslim-majority countries, apparently, with a need for the taste of atheism. People want atheism. They want science education. They want all of this from Richard Dawkins’ books.

Dawkins’ organization, the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, merged, recently, with the Center for Inquiry. There are plans ongoing in order to advertise the translations and spreading Richard Dawkins’ writing around the world for those that are questioning their faith or for those who have lost it.

Dawkins said that he has had a tremendous amount of encouragement from these developments, especially as he has heard in an earlier time that digital or PDF versions of the book were downloaded inside of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Dawkins, based on reportage from Hemant Mehta, will have the books provide in Arabic, Farsi, Indonesian, and Urdu. The books with legally translated editions cannot be offered as PDFs. Nonetheless, those books without his own stamp of approval and not released by the local publishers will get his stamp of approval.

For an author to give away some of his most prized books, most purchased and read books – that have reached literally millions of people, Mehta claims is “unheard of.” Dawkins does this for two reasons: one, get people interested in science; two, have people turn away from religion, likely.

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2023-01-26

The University of North Georgia Will Have New Atheist Student Group

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The University of North Georgia Vanguard reported that the university has a new gang in town, the local atheist student group. Jeff Burt, a freshman biology major in pursuit of a second bachelor degree, said, “Atheism is simply the lack of a belief in a god or gods.”

Burt has self-identified as an atheist for some time now. However, he was raised as a Seventh-Day Adventist in his earlier years. Seventh-Day Adventists believe the Earth was created in 6 literal days with God resting on the seventh.

The University of North Georgia, or UNG, has a total of 200 student-led organizations with as many as 29 registered as faith groups and zero as non-religious groups. Their atheist group may be the first one at the university for atheists.

At the UNG Gainesville campus, Burt is in progress of making that a real transition from the no atheist groups to a whopping one.

Burt, who earned his first degree from Full Sail University, has considered himself an atheist for students there. “It is important for other atheists who live here,” Burt said, “and who go to this school to know that there are other atheists out there.”

The founding members of the atheist group are “Jeff Burt, adviser James Grindeland, Jenya Rector, Caleb Brookshire and Mason Carlisle.”

The group held its first unofficial meeting on February 21 where three students discussed “the creation of the club, write a constitution, generate ideas for meeting activities and think of possible names for the organization.”

Some prospective names floating around were UNG Atheists and The Atheist Nighthawks. Some events that the UNG atheist group may hold on the campus may be “Does God exist?” debates and “Ask an Atheist Day,” which is used to reduce the stigma and create more understanding on the part of the student body of atheists.

The group is open to a bigger umbrella of the non-religious with agnostics, skeptics, and others, even those who believe in God too. Burt wants to “know and understand students of all backgrounds.”

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2023-01-26

Professor Stephen Hawking was an Atheist

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

According to The Washington Post, The British theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Professor Stephen Hawking, died at the age of 76 in England on Wednesday, March 14 in the United Kingdom.

He often stated that he was an atheist and did not see a reason for a creator. In that, the universe, given the laws of mathematics and gravity, can be explained with the tools of theoretical physics without the need for a divine architect.

In an El Mundo interview, he described science as the tool through which to understand the world with a “more convincing explanation” and before science that God was the natural explanatory filler for the existence of the cosmos. Reiterating, that he was an atheist.

In a Reuters interview from 2007, he said that he was not religious in a regular sense of the term. Hawking was a believer in science as the discoverer of certain laws. Those laws were fixed and found by science.

The laws in nature described the dynamic structure of the universe over time. In those laws and their descriptions, the universe is explained without a God based on the statement of Hawking and the explanatory closure found in the laws of science.

In a book, The Grand Design, co-authored with Leonard Mlodinow, they considered, based on the science, that the big bang in standard Big Bang cosmology was inevitable “because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.”

Hawking and Mlodinow continued in the book, by explaining, “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing… Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”

He did not believe in an afterlife but, rather, in the brain-as-computer model of consciousness and the mind, where computers do not get an afterlife. As he said, “I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.”

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2023-01-26

Atheist Experiences in Modern Africa from Dr. Leo Igwe

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Dr. Leo Igwe, human rights advocate and humanist, wrote on the widespread impression of Africans being both theistic and highly religious. He recounts surveys describe these two facts as pervasive and true.

But he reported on the more limited emphasis on the atheists in the midst of Africa, where this non-religious subpopulation has been largely ignored or poorly treated or misrepresented. Igwe talks about the intolerance and hate, and the psychological and physical mistreatment of atheist Africans.

This, according to Igwe, makes many atheists apparently invisible and compels them to hide their own experiences. He talks about meeting a number of African atheists online and offline. He notes that his own experience has been with some of the first freethought forums in Accra, Banjul, Ibadan, Kampala, Lagos, Lilongwe, London, and Yaounde.

Many people at the meetings never met in person, never met another atheist, but these meetups provide the basis to finally meet another atheist in person. In a 2017 meeting, in Lagos, Nigeria, Igwe pointed out two groups of people: old-timers and first-timers.

By his observation, the first-timers were coming up-close with atheism for the first time as a community and had an aloof behaviour about them. Some were religious people who were feigning atheism because they themselves were on the fence.

They did not want the photographs and selfies. The other people, the old-timers, were more or less the celebrities of the groups who were able to interact more freely as they knew one another and were comfortable in that atmosphere.

Those old-timers were more relaxed and confident in their interpersonal interactions. He found a similar sentiment in social interaction with those gathering in Ghana, Malawi, and Uganda. Igwe had been around, apparently.

People at these meeting would share jokes, laughs, and positive times together with some based on the Muslim Sheikhs and Ayatollahs around the world and even on individual getting excommunicated from the church.

He talked about the experiences of the older atheists and their experiences in coping with the religious pressures and the way those pressures extended into the social environment too, which may make the lives of atheists in Africa difficult.

He described not only conferences but social media as an important outlet for the atheist population in Africa with new media networking technologies as important for the sharing of experiences of religious oppression and discrimination.

One common theme in the piece was the hate towards the non-religious. That religious believers not only disliked them but would not accommodate their belief, or more properly lack thereof. Igwe sees the many of the religious believers promoting hatred, intolerance, and violence against non-believers whilst teaching love and tolerance.

Igwe explained that many atheists were forced to keep their mouths shut during some conversations and that this became a compelled time to suppress their own views and opinions because of the potential for offense against the prevailing religious ideologies in Africa.

Her argues freedom of religion and belief, and thought and expression, are then for the religious, or at least more for the religious, and not for the non-religious as much or at all. Atheist in Muslim majority communities he says are even worse off than the others because it is a capital offense to either criticize or leave Islam.

Atheism is haram and so worth being a capital offense in those communities. The main thrust from Dr. Igwe about many African atheists is that they, in fact, fear the religious because of the environment that has been bred in those areas of the world over the non-religious, where violence and hatred and intolerance against the non-religious is shared by the theists.

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2023-01-26

Attack Ads Continue Against Gayle Jordan

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

A short update on the situation with the Tennessee Republicans: they are continuing apace on their smear campaign against the atheist Democratic contender, Gayle Jordan.

Jordan is running for the State Senate. The previous Republican who held the position did not take a position on the current Republican Trump Administration in the United States.

The district that Jordan is running in is a highly red state and Republicans running for the positions will likely win, but she is persisting nonetheless.

The Tennessee Republicans are using one major angle in order to smear and attack the repute of Jordan based on her non-belief in god or Gods: affirmation of the Judeo-Christian God in particular, which may be the assumption in the ad campaigns speaking about how Jordan is an atheist.

Associated with these attack ads are claims about her being too liberal, pro-choice, and pro-universal healthcare. These are not considered good things to the good Tennesseans.

There have been claims that she is out of touch with the values of Tennessee, which may translate as not Christian and conservative based on the ads from Tennessee. The aim of the Republican attack ads is to equate atheism with anti-theism, as astutely distinguished and pointed out by Hement Mehta.

Mehta notes that the idea is “since Jordan is an atheist, then she must be against theism,” where the assertion of no gods becomes something of an affront and deliberate being against that which she does not believe in but the Tennesseans at large, according to the Republican attack ads, believe in.

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2023-01-26

Swedish Party Proposes Elimination of Publicly-Funded Religious Schools

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The National Secular Society reported on the Swedish government’s plans to end “free” religious schools.

Sweden’s ruling political party is proposing elimination of publicly-funded religious schools within its manifesto or the upcoming election in the Fall of 2018. A press release published by the party, the Social Democratic Party, stated, “Religious influence has no home in Swedish schools.

The Social Democrats want school to provide all children with a good education regardless of their background, gender or religion.”

There are more than 70 religious schools in Sweden with the majority being Christian, 11 as Islamic, and a few are Jewish. The Abrahamic religions dominate the publicly-funded dollars for the religious schools.

They are run the local authorities within Sweden as the are publicly funded. The policy would be applied to the publicly funded schools, where they would be required to follow the guidelines given by the government.

The National Secular Society commented that this should be a reminder for the politicians in the United Kingdom to think similarly about tackling religious schools within their own borders.

“We often hear that it’s too hard to take on religious interests in our education system,” the National Secular Society’s Education and Schools Officer, Alastair Lichten, said, “but this is a reminder that it’s both desirable and possible to roll back their influence. Politicians in the UK should take note.”

The National Secular Society has been at the forefront of the campaigning for an open and inclusive system of education with a transition from faith schools in the public system to their elimination as they comprise as much as one third of the publicly-funded schools in England and Wales.

The Scottish and Irish schools are continuing to have sectarian divides that are split by a line drawn by religion.

The Swedish Minister for Upper Secondary School and Adult Education, Anna Ekström, noted that religious influence in public schools is not acceptable. That faith or not is the choice of the child alone.

Ardalan Shekarabi, the Minister for Public Administration, spoke of Iranian upbringing and the oppression that they did not want to come into the Swedish public school system, where these could be seen in the religious or faith public schools in Sweden because, obviously not in the same but similar way, the schools are promoting and foisting religion or faith onto children without consent.

One Islamic headmaster has openly expressed a desire for a Sharia Law to be allowed in a new school, though state governed. There has been a ruling that gender segregated sports lessons in the Islamic schools “were potentially discriminatory.”

“The regulatory framework will be tightened. Those who do not support fundamental values around equality and human rights should be stopped from running free schools in Sweden,” Gustav Fridolin, the Swedish Minister of Education, said, “No child should be exposed to direct or indirect compulsion to take part in religious activities in any school in Sweden. And all education should be completely free of religious influence.”

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2023-01-26

Atheism Claimed as Reason for Shooting in Marshall County High School

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

In January of 2018, a 15-year-old named Gabriel Ross Parker shot two classmates in Marshall County High School. In the midst of the shooting, Parker injured several others as well. Since Parker is now 16, he is being charged as an adult with a few court documents and videos made public too.

There does not seem to be any reason for the shooting, but the carnage took place. Parker may have wanted to see the classmates’ reactions and see how the community and police would respond to the “science experiment.”

There is a public conversation based on one of the videos that shows County Sheriff’s Capt. Matt Hilbrecht of a conversation between himself and two lawyers. Hilbrecht is the person who investigated the crime. He was asked about Parker’s motives.

The response from Hilbrecht was that Parker was an atheist and that Parker felt life had not purpose or meaning, and same with other people’s lives. He was wanting to make society better through science and had been studying science, Hilbrecht stated in the recording. He thought that since he was failing a science course and that there is no reason to life meant that there was no reason to his own (Parker’s) life.

Parker, apparently, wanted to “break the monotony.” Hemant Mehta, a publicly known atheist, opined that this meant that Hilbrecht is a professional and was doing his job, but that he was concerned that religious conservatives would use this as “proof” that the morally bankrupt in the world are atheists.

Mehta, in a commentary on the recordings captured and brought to light, noted that atheist does not equate to nihilism and many atheists see meaning in their lives without God. Mehta continues on the note that he does not know the inside of Parker’s mind, but does not know how Hilbrecht made the conceptual leap from atheism to a lonely and empty person.

Hemant Mehta concluded on the point that the boy, Parker, did not kill in the name of atheism and those making accusations that the those who have the most atheism kill without meaning in their lives has to explain a more important factor; that the most religious countries in the world have the highest rates of gun violence and the nations that have the least religion and religious fervour tend to have the lowest rates of violent crime.

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2023-01-26

The First Endowed Chair in Atheism, Humanism, and Secular Ethics

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The first Atheism, Humanism, and Secular Ethics endowed chair is coming to the University of Miami according to internal sources. It will be the first in the United States and held by Professor Anjan Chakravartty.

According to University of Miami: News and Events, there has been the creation of an endowed chair for the study of “Atheism, Humanism, and Secular Ethics,” which goes to show the advancement of the increase in diverse secular subject matter in the academic realm with even the controversial sentiments about secular, non-religious content in the public domain.

There have been recent studies, according to the report, that the number of the religious is in decline and the world appears to be in the midst of a global secularization. There will be implications for modern life.

The endowed chair was funded through a $2.2 million donation from the Louis J. Appignani Foundation. Bear in mind, though this is a good step, it is the first chair of its kind in the United States of America. The University of Miami Provost, Jeffrey Duerk, explained, “Atheism is a philosophical position to be explored and analyzed, and since we already address the topic in various departments — including our Religious Studies Department — this chair will add to an already established discourse.”

Anjan Chakravartty, will be the new chair and will join the University of Miami on July 1, 2018. Chakravartty is also a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.

Otavio Bueno, a philosophy professor, described the timing for the endowed chair a ripe time for the exploration of the complex academic topic of non-religiosity linked to morality. Bueno said, “The U.S. is currently polarized in so many dimensions. Complex issues need to be addressed, and it’s important to talk about them and to have resources to analyze them carefully. … The university, as a research institution, should address these issues—seeking to understand their sources and why it’s so hard to settle them—in interesting, careful, rational and evidence-based ways.”

Bueno continued to explain the position of Chakravartty as having an “impressive outreach ability” with the intention to and ability to take on discussions in an open manner in order for the comprehension of innately complicated issues to be readily available for anyone.

A professor of philosophy who was the chair of the department for 12 years, Harvey Siegel, noted on his first time of meeting the endowed chair donor, Louis Appignani, 15 years prior, where Appignani made it clear in a Miami Herald article that the primary purpose that drove the donor was to challenge “religion” and advocate for “atheism.”

“We tried to find some kind of way that our scholarly ambitions could meet his own ambitions — and after 15 years we found a way to do that — through the endowed chair,” Siegel said. “He appreciates that the U cannot advocate for atheism, but he also appreciates that it’s of value to study the questions in their full historical and philosophical dimensions.”

Appignani had explicit statements in support of some of the most influential people in the living atheist movement in the world today, including Dr. Richard Dawkins.

Appignani expounded, “Dawkins is probably the most influential educator-philosopher who has been expounding the cause of free thinking, questioning facts, and promoting critical thinking. … He met with students, went to classes, and gave a final lecture that filled up the stadium with over 4,000 — he really made a big impact.”

Professor Chakravartty will be teaching on science and humanism in the Fall of 2018. He had his own statements to make to the public as well.

“First and foremost, we’ll be looking at an important area of philosophy which concerns values—a number of issues exploring how the sciences and values intersect with and impact society,” Chakravartty stated, “It’s in the context of this relationship between science and society that I would like to engage the idea of humanism.”

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2023-01-26

Generation Z, 1999 to 2015, Seen as Post-Christian

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

There is a claim that this current generation is among the most post-Christian generation, according to CBN News reportage, on so-called Generation Z.

One recent study shows that as many as 35% of Generation Z, or the post-Millennials, identify with the worldview of either agnostic, atheist, or unaffiliated. Could this be the first and most non-religious generation in the history of North America?

The Christian leadership has concerns about this as there has been lots of brainstorming, meetings, and conversations around the best ways to bring the youngest generation into the ‘gospel truths’, according to CBN News.

The Christian Post reported that the youth groups and churches were told to “step up to the plate with common sense and relational response” by Greg Stier of Dare 2 Share.

“The youth groups trend of fun games and short Bible studies have resulted in frail youth groups and shallow young people. And spiritually immature teenagers will not lead their atheistic friends to Jesus,” Stier said to The Christian Post, “And if young atheists have doubled, we must double down, and the first step is to double our prayers.”

Recent information coming from the Barna Group on generation Z, or those born between the years of 1999 and 2015, shows that this generation “the percentage of teens who identify [as atheist] … is double that of the general population (13 percent vs. 6 percent of all adults).”

Some have termed them “the first truly ‘post-Christian’ generation.”

Stier continued:

We must program the priority of prayer into our actual church services and youth group meetings… Through prayer, we tap into the very power of the Trinity to turn the statistics around in a way that only God can get the credit for.

If we want to reach the lost we must pray for the lost. As it has been said, ‘Before we talk to people about God we must talk to God about people.’

For the Christian community, this appears to be a crisis. For the atheist community, this appears to be an indication of the future for the next two decades of an increasingly secular, non-religious – atheist, agnostic, and religiously unaffiliated – youth sector.

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2023-01-26

Vatican Expresses Concerns to United Nations

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The Vatican reported to the United Nations on the potential hostility towards religion with “some nations” seeing “religious pluralism as a threat.”

The Crux reports that the Vatican considers the world more connected and linked up, and that some nations view the increasing religious pluralism as a threat with failures to protect religious minorities and even some attempting to marginalize believers of all faiths (based on reportage from a Vatican representative).

Vatican representative Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic told the UN Human Rights Council that some organizations and agencies on the international scene consider religions at odds with their own agendas.

Jurkovic spoke on March 2 in Geneva to the UN agencies with an emphasis on freedom of belief and religion. Jurkovic made an open quotation of the Pope’s denouncing said international agencies and organizations who promote “modern forms of ideological colonization” in the front of human rights with imposed programs on poor nations.

Jurkovic opposed “freedom from religion” in reportage to the council by Ahmed Shaheed, who is the special rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief. He said the notion reveals a patronization of religion as whole.

He considers this to overlook the integral part religion plays in people’s lives throughout the world as well as the not seeing the wisdom traditions within religions. In the report, Jurkovic explained, “International human rights treaties are reticent on the sort of relationship a state should have with religion or belief. They do, however, impose a duty upon states to be impartial guarantors of the enjoyment of freedom of religion or belief, including the right to freedom from religion, for all individuals and groups within their territory and subject to their jurisdiction.”

He went on to say that the respect for the deepest convictions of society’s individual members is an important part of human rights and an authentic culture. That it is part of a common good, where this can only be achieved through the inclusive dialogue and the seeking of the real meaning of rights and freedoms for each person. He sees this connected to religious experience.

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2023-01-26

Mississippi Passes Most Restrictive Abortion Law in the US

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

Mississippi lawmakers on Thursday passed the most restrictive abortion law in the United States at present. It will make the abortive procedure illegal after 15 weeks of pregnancy. There was a 75-34 vote in favour of the measure in the House.

Governor Phil Bryant stated that he will be signing it. The owner of the only abortion clinic in Mississippi has made a pledge to sue. Eventually, the Supreme Court of the United States may take up the case. It is a possibility. Two exceptions are in House Bill 1510.

If a foetus happens to have a health problem that may prevent it from survival outside of the woman full-term, or if the pregnant woman’s life is at risk, then abortion is permitted in the Mississippi bill. However, cases involving rape and incest are not exempt.

In appeals court in 2015, a North Dakota attempt to ban abortions after six weeks was struck down. The North Dakota case involved a foetus with a detectable heartbeat. Arkansas would be similar as the two other cases but after 12 weeks pregnancy.

Hillary Schneller, a staff attorney for the national non-profit Center for Reproductive Rights, explained, “The Supreme Court has said and resaid again and again that states cannot prohibit women from obtaining abortions prior to viability, which is what a 15-week ban would do.”

Schneller’s group, or the one she is associated with, is based on New York City, New York. It advocates for free access to abortion and has made an open call that the bill is a) medically unsound and b) unconstitutional.

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2023-01-26

Harrison Mumia Speaks Out on Atheists in Kenya

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

The President of Atheists of Kenya, who is the 39-year-old Harrison Mumia, spoke out on atheism within Kenya. Mumia came from a devout, religious family, where they went to church, were baptised, and attended Bible Studies with the other families.

At the age of 24, as a university student, something happened for Mumia, which he explains with a laugh, “Nothing happened to make me stop believing. I wasn’t walking one day and ‘saw the light’.”

Harrison found that the questions on creation, faith, God, and ethics were simply too many and too big for the contents of the religious texts, e.g. the Bible, to suffice for an explanation for those numerous, large concerns and questions that Mumia found in the faith.

Harrison sought answers in the sciences. He found that these explanations from natural philosophy were simply more convincing than the answers provided by revelation and religious authorities.

Harrison became an atheist after the internal conflict between faith and religion was resolved. He considers the question of God and moral separate, where the idea of God as necessary for ethical life and behaviour is simply a non-starter.

Moral values exist independent of the idea of God. This would extend to the whole Biblical canon of characters with the Devil not as being at work in the world and man not as the source of evil because sin, God, and the Devil are fictions.

He does not believe that God created the world from nothing. Another Kenyan atheist, Kwamboka, with the same questions and thoughts said, “I don’t believe in God. There is no evidence that He is there. I’d rather spend my Sundays teaching my children a craft, playing with them, being there for them.”

Kwamboka has children and she is 31-years-old, but her children do not attend church and know what they know about religion from their lessons in school, even though she went to a church and came from another devout, religious family.

She thinks the Bible left her with more questions and contradictions than answers, where neither of these, especially combined together, made things easier. She views the Bible read with a critical mind as an antidote to religious faith because the massive number of type of questions and doubts that will be raised. But many Kenyans are afraid to ask around about these things.

If you look at the demographics of Kenya: “31.9 million Christians, 4.3 million Muslims (Kenya National Bureau of Statistics).” The atheist community is growing more in Kenya. “Atheism is slowly gaining ground. Consider the WIN-Gallup survey that found that those [people] claiming to be religious dropped by 9 per cent worldwide while atheism rose by 3 per cent compared to when they carried the poll in 2005,” Okello explained, “The number of atheists in Kenya rose from 0 percent to 2 per cent (South Africa was the only African country with a marked drop in religion, the number religious people dropping from 83 to 64 percent).”

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2023-01-26

Atheist Kicked Off Egyptian Show

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.

An Egyptian television host gave the boot to an atheist on public television with a recommendation that the atheist get psychiatric treatment.

The atheist, Mohammed Hashem, was invited on the Alhadath Alyoun TV studio in order to participate in a debate with the former Deputy Sheilh at Al-Azhur named Mahmoud Ashour. Hashem stated, on the program, that there is no scientific evidence of God.

He went on to discuss standard Big Bang cosmology, when Sheikh Ashour began to hurl a flurry of ad hominem attacks at Hashem to counter the claims. The Alhadath Alyoun TV host, Mahmoud Abd Al-Halim, recommended that

Hashem get psychiatric treatment. At which point, Al-Halim suggested that Hashem leave the studio. Al-Halim, the host, then said to the audience that he is sorry for subjecting the audience to “inappropriate” and “destructive ideas” on air.

Some of the dialogue went as follows:

Mohammad Hashem: “I’m an atheist, which means I don’t believe in the existence of God. I don’t believe in Him.”

Mahmoud Ashour: “What? What was that?”

Mohammad Hashem: “I’m an atheist, which means I don’t believe in the existence of God. I don’t believe in Him. That’s what atheism means. I don’t need religion to have moral values or to be a productive member of society.”

[…]

Mahmoud Ashour: “Why did you become an atheist?”

Mohammad Hashem: “Because there is no scientific evidence for the existence of God.”

Mahmoud Abd Al-Halim: “How can you say that? Who created you? Who made you exist as a human being?”

Mahmoud Ashour: “Do you know how you were created?”

Mohammad Hashem: “There are many theories explaining our existence on this planet…”

Mahmoud Ashour: “I’m asking you a question. How did you become a human being?”

Mahmoud Abd Al-Halim: “How come you exist in this universe?”

Mohammad Hashem: “Okay, let me explain. There are theories that try to explain our existence. One theory is that God created us. Okay? But there are other theories, with much more evidence, like the Big Bang theory…”

Mahmoud Abd Al-Halim: “Speak Arabic! You are in Egypt, and you are addressing simple people, so don’t use big words for no reason.”

Mohammad Hashem: “I’m using these terms because science is conducted in English…”

Mahmoud Abd Al-Halim: “What science are you talking about?

[…]

“You are confused and unreliable. You deny the existence of God and reject our religion and principles…”

Mohammad Hashem: “Is this so bad?”

Mahmoud Abd Al-Halim: “Of course. You come here to talk about a certain idea, but have nothing to offer. You offer atheism! You offer heresy! I apologize to the viewers for having an Egyptian of this kind on our show.

I’m sorry, Mohammad, but you cannot stay with us on the show, because your ideas are inappropriate, I’m sad to say. We cannot promote such destructive ideas. You have not uttered a single convincing word.”
[…]

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2023-01-26

Interview with Leslea Mair – Co-Director of Losing Our Religion

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (Blog)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/10/29

Leslea Mair is the Co-Director of the documentary film Losing Our Religion. Her work builds on the research done by Linda LaScola and Daniel Dennett through the foundation of The Clergy Project. Here we explore the documentary film. The film is scheduled for purchase in November 2018. You may order your copy from the website Losing Our Religion.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What was the inspiration for the title and content of the new fabulous document film Losing Our Religion?

Leslea Mair: Wow, that’s quite a compliment! Thank you!

I wanted to make this film after hearing about The Clergy Project. I think changing your mind about something as important to your world view as religion is such an interesting process. But for ministers to stop believing struck me as a real personal earthquake. I read the stories of the non-believing clergy in Daniel Dennett and Linda LaScola’s studies and really wanted to explore stories like that. I was so curious about how that plays out for people, not just in the short term.

Jacobsen: You co-directed the film with Leif Kaldor and based on the work of Professor Daniel Dennett and Linda LaScola. How did you come into contact with Leif Kaldor and the research of Dennett and LaScola?

Mair: Leif and I met at a film festival in central Saskatchewan, close to where we both grew up, about 20 years ago. We’ve been business partners and a couple since then. We bring complementary skill sets to directing – we’ve made quite a number of films together. It’s a partnership that works really well for us.

I was the one who tripped across the studies that Dennett and LaScola published, but we were both intrigued by it from the start. I think I first read about them on some secular/atheist blogs and started thinking about what kind of story you could tell about it, so the film was kind of my baby at the start. But we always bounce ideas off one another, so Leif very quickly became involved in the process. His take on the subject was a little different than mine – his childhood had a lot more religious influence than mine did, so it was a good counterpoint to my thinking in the early stages of developing the idea.

Jacobsen: On reflection and reading of Dennett’s and LaScola’s work, what particular findings struck you, stood out to you?

Mair: The thing that really struck me was how traumatic giving up on believing was for people. You have to understand, I’ve never been a believer, so the idea that you can still be emotionally attached to the idea of a deity even when you’ve ceased believing in it was a little foreign to me. I wanted to understand that better.

What also made an impression on me – although it didn’t completely surprise me – was how swift and unkind, sometimes even cruel, the reactions to these people were when they either confessed or were found out. I was surprised by how strong that reaction was, and that the risks people take in talking frankly about nonbelief are very real and quite severe in some places.

Jacobsen: Minister Gretta Vosper contributed to the documentary film as well. What role did she play in the film?

Mair: Gretta is one of the people who is trying to make non-belief work in a traditionally believing environment. She’s an out atheist in the pulpit. The United Church of Canada is one of the most liberal and progressive denominations out there – I grew up in the United Church myself. So when Gretta and I first started talking, it totally made sense to me that if there was any organization that could handle this, it was this one. But there was still some serious pushback. She was called up on the carpet and has been judged unfit for ministry by a panel in the UCC, but she’s still in her congregation. They’re still trying to figure out what to do with her — they don’t know how to excommunicate her because they’ve never done anything like that — there’s no process, really. It would be funny if it didn’t have such serious repercussions for her.

What role Gretta and her congregation played was to show that a church-style community could be secular in nature. They’re trying to pull a shrinking institution into the future. It’s important work, and the struggle continues.

Jacobsen: How do their narratives speak to the stories of others throughout North America?

Mair: Brendan and Jenn Murphy are our primary characters. They’re a couple in the US — Brendan is a former evangelical pastor, Jenn is his wife.

When I met them, Brendan was a “closeted” atheist and still working in ministry, but Jenn was a devout believer. So they were dealing with multiple layers of crisis. Brendan had joined The Clergy Project and Linda LaScola had put him in touch with me. When he agreed to an interview, he wanted to bring Jenn along, and I was fine with that. I didn’t think it was going to amount to anything. I was SO wrong! Jenn’s a really brave and amazing woman. She was so nervous that day, but she still sat down and gave me not just an interview, but really opened up. This was a major shake-up for her in her personal life and in her faith, and I’m still blown away at how much courage she and Brendan had in doing this.

I was able to follow their story from that point, through leaving the ministry under duress and into their current lives.

Jacobsen: What documentary films speak to telling these important narratives of loss of faith, especially in countries without the massive number of public privileges won such as our own?

Mair: There are a few out there – one of our contributors, Jerry De Witt, is featured in a film that has an excerpt out on the New York Times Op Docs called “The Outcast of Beauregard Parish” about his experience exiting the ministry. And there’s a film called “One of Us” about the struggles of three ex-Hasidic Jews who are adjusting to secular life. And Bart Campolo has just come out with a film about his relationship with his father, Tony Campolo, and how they’ve navigated Bart leaving faith behind.

I don’t know of many films coming out of non-Western countries on the subject, but it’s very dangerous to approach atheism in many places. You’d be taking a grave risk and often putting your contributors in jeopardy. I’d love to find a way to do that if some risk could be minimized.

It’s also hard to find the funding to make a full-length documentary film, or I suspect we’d see a lot more of them. The stories are certainly out there, and there are more of them all the time as people leave faith behind. As far as I know, Losing Our Religion is the only feature-length documentary on The Clergy Project so far.

Jacobsen: What targeted areas of activism seem the most relevant at this moment in time now? For example, the work to prevent the ongoing attempts at the encroachment of individual rights to reproductive health including abortion, the rights to medical care, the right to die, and so on, from groups, ironically, with open, grand, self-righteous proclamations about individualism, the “divine individual,” and individual rights as the highest values to attain within the country – ironic because their preventative and obstructive attempts stand in opposition to these individual rights of legal persons in Canada, of full adult citizens in Canada. I see a similar tragic irony in pro-life activists killing doctors.

Mair: Oh, gosh. There’s so much work to do, isn’t there?

We’re in such a rapid state of change right now. I think that the majority of people — especially here in Canada, although I know a lot of Americans who feel the same way — support reproductive rights, the right to die and universal health care. It’s the vocal minorities that get in the way of those rights. I think Dan Barker said it best in our film when he talked about the religious political right dying out, knowing they’re dying out, and lashing out at anyone and anything that threatens them. The world is changing. It’s going to continue to change. The one advantage the religious right has is that it has an organized voice. I think we have to build communities of support so that we have an organized voice as well.

The really hopeful thing is that those communities are starting to happen — the Oasis communities and Sunday Assemblies and other humanist and secular groups are starting to grow and they’re becoming more active in addressing social justice issues. So I’m optimistic. There are some really fantastic people out there.

Jacobsen: Any final thoughts or feelings in conclusion?

Mair: Not that I can think of!

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Leslea.

Mair: Thanks so much for taking the time, Scott!

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2023-01-26

How Do We Defeat the Islamic Republic of Iran?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (Blog)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/09/14

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How do we defeat the Islamic Republic of Iran?

Armin Navabi: Before we get into that, let’s first talk about the current government and the different perspectives people have on this government depending on who they are. From a regional perspective, the Islamic Republic’s influence has been growing over time. For years, they’ve been building very powerful networks all over the Middle East — especially where Shias are present — and have been promoting and selling their version of Shia Islam. Iran’s Islamic regime has a very loyal following in countries like Syria and Lebanon. And by spreading their tentacles all over the Middle East using their proxies, they have more pawns to play with than anybody else. If you’re thinking of making a move against the Iranian regime, you have to know that they are capable of making things difficult for any players running against them. This is something that the Iranian regime had worked on for years and years and it paid off big time when the United States removed Saddam Hussein. And after that, ISIS provided Iranian regime with the excuse to start intervening in other countries in the Middle East. It was like a gift from the United States to the Iranian regime.

Jacobsen: How does religion play into Islamic Republic’s meddling in it’s neighboring countries?

Navabi: Khomeini did not want the Iranian Islamic Revolution to be only about Iran. His intention was for this movement to become an Islamic movement all over the Islamic world. Unfortunately for Khomeini, nationalism and Sunnism were barriers that his revolution never managed to break. Initially his revolution scared Sunni monarchs and other leaders but eventually, most Sunnis saw his revolution as a Shia revolution and even in majority Shia Iraq, most people did not join his movement against Saddam as he hoped.

The current regime managed to get closer to Khomeini’s goal of exporting Iran’s Islamic revolution without sacrificing a fraction of blood and resources that Khomeini did. The Iranian regime has learned how to play this game much more efficiently.

Jacobsen: How did the Sunni countries react to this?

Navabi: Consider this. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia tried to export Wahhabism after Iran’s revolution, in competition to Iran exporting their version of Shia Islam and loyalty to the velayat-e faqih. Yet many Wahhabi groups across the world are now against the Saudi monarchs. If Sunni extremists caught Bin Salman today, he would probably be tortured and beheaded. Many people within Shia groups like Hezbollah and others would give their lives for Khomeini. Khomeini managed to successfully become the Supreme Religious Leader for many Shia groups inside and outside of Iran, not just a political leader. Not as successfully as he hoped but still.

The Iranian regime played a major role in defeating ISIS. Wherever Iran’s regime is meddling, it is doing so with the permission and invitation of their government. Iran’s regime often points out that their meddling was by request of the countries they meddle in, unlike the US. And that they are only meddling in their own region, again unlike the US. They needed the Iranian regime’s support. No other regime was willing to provide ground troops the way the Iranian one did. To Saudi Arabia, it looks like the Iranian regime is building a Shia Empire or a Shia Crescent all around Saudi Arabia. With the fall of Iraq, the Iranian regime’s stay in Syria, and the election of Hezbollah in Lebanon, nobody denies the amount of backing and support the Iranian regime has in the region. Once the Iranian regime moved into these countries for the excuse of defending them against ISIS and another Sunni militia, they do not want to leave. The Iranian regime now has a direct route to the borders of Israel.

Israel and Saudi Arabia are afraid of the Iranian regime. This is why these countries are now cooperating and also why they are both lobbying the United States to take a stronger stance against the Iranian regime. Saudi Arabia with all its high-tech modern weapons purchased in some of the greatest arms deals in history from the United States could not defeat the Houthis in Yemen. If they can’t defeat them, what are the chances against the Iranian regime? And Israel with all its military might could not defeat Hezbollah. Yet Hezbollah is just one of the Iranian regime’s proxies. Israel and Saudi Arabia have strong militaries and better weapons. What they don’t have is support on the ground, and that’s what the Iranian regime knows is the most valuable weapon and has invested in for years. The US and its allies have too much interest in areas where the Iranian regime has influence. This makes any military move against the Iranian regime very difficult.

When the United States was fighting ISIS, they did not have a plan for what happened after the defeat of ISIS. But the Iranian regime seemed to be a step ahead. The US’s support for groups like the MEK as an opposition to the current regime seems to suggest their lack of understanding of the lack of support for them among the Iranian people. Saudi Arabia also seems to be taking actions first and evaluating the consequences later. From their actions against Qatar, their war on Yemen and the kidnapping of Lebanon’s Prime Minister, every decision they make against the Iranian regime seems to be making the Iranian regime stronger. In Lebanon, the way Hezbollah responded to their prime minister being kidnapped was very strategic.

The greatest weakness of the Islamic Republic is the level of dissatisfaction of the Iranian people with their government. Many Iranians think that their government cares more about exporting their Islamic revolution in neighboring countries than their own people. The protests in Iran are about a wide variety of issues, including human rights violations, unemployment, and high prices. The problem for the government is that protests or any other form of dissent against the regime undermine the legitimacy of their religious authority in the region, which is the foundation they build their network on. For the regime’s brand of Shiaism to sell, it needs to portray its Islamic Republic as an ideal system. If the Iranian regime can’t maintain the illusion that it enjoys the support of its own people, their legitimacy will be questioned. This is the Islamic Republic’s Achilles’ Heel. This is why the Iranian government constantly tries to sell the idea that their people are happy with their government; and even if there are protests, there are mostly legitimate concerns that will be addressed and not a demand for regime change.

The US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel have more powerful armies, but what they don’t have is manpower, loyal followers in the region and the connections that the Iranian regime enjoys. But the Iranian regime will lose its ability to maintain and grow this network if it doesn’t present an image of legitimacy at home.

However, this is not a weakness that can be used against the government. Not without the level of trust these countries have among the Iranian people. There are some Iranians who ask for foreign support. But many other Iranians who are against the Islamic regime do not wish to see any foreign involvement.

Jacobsen: How is the United States intervening? How should the US intervene?

Navabi: Many protesters say that if the US government supports the uprising of people in Iran against the Iranian government, the Iranian regime will use this to sell the narrative that these protests are not the legitimate concern of the people but a few bad actors that are agents of foreign governments who are mostly motivated by their own agenda. Many Iranians remember how in 1953 the British intelligence and the CIA orchestrated a coup against Iran’s Prime Minister Mossadegh who was nationalizing Iran’s oil against British interests. The West has a history of supporting dictators against democratically elected leaders for the sake of stability in the region. They picked stability over democracy but ended up getting neither.

Supporting authoritarians that share your interest over democracy and human rights might seem like a good idea in the short run. But in the long term, your support makes you lose credibility, which is exactly what you need to build loyal supporters and a reliable network on the ground. Democracies prove to be other democracies’ best allies. Authoritarians often become US allies, but they are not as stable. And putting them in power comes at a cost; the cost is that people remember. If they ever get to choose their own leaders, they might not pick ones that the US would consider an ally. The problem is that lobbyists and politicians often don’t look at the long-term costs given that their careers don’t last that long. Another problem is that if you have a record of supporting dictators, not many people will believe your narrative when you try to intervene in another country in the name of supporting human rights and freedom.

Democracies are reliable allies and worth the long-term investment. Democracies produce richer economies. Richer economies become better trading partners. Trading partners are less likely to go to war with each other. When trade industries become more influential in a country’s politics than war industries, all sides win.

Jacobsen: What are some examples of the US backing authoritarians, dictatorships, and tyrants?

Navabi: We don’t even have to go back in history to find examples. Let’s focus on today. When the US supports Saudi Arabia’s massacre of the Yemeni people and allows the oppression of Saudi citizens by their government and supports Saudi Arabia’s appointment to the Human Rights Council, it loses credibility. It makes it apparent that the United States only fights human rights violations when it serves its interest and that its agenda is not really to alleviate the suffering of people.

This makes it easy for countries with even the worst human rights records to point to the double standard and give the impression that any accusation of their human rights violation cannot be trusted. The solution would be to fight against human rights violations consistently. But it’s unreasonable to expect any country’s government to take actions that don’t serve any of their own country’s interests. So the challenge for us human rights activists is to argue that being consistent with your human rights records does serve your country’s best interest. And we do that by bringing up this credibility factor.

The most effective intervention is one that the majority of the people of a country welcome. But that requires credibility. To gain that credibility, one must be consistent in his or her support for certain values. This is something that Iran’s government understands and does that well with their brand of Shiaism. The US played the same role with capitalism against communism during the Cold War. They understood well that this was a battle of ideas and not just of military might. They could have used the same strategy with a new brand: support for human rights, free speech, and secularism. But they dropped the ball on that and it would take years to fix it even if they wanted to.

Jacobsen: How can the US and other nations support human rights there and elsewhere for that matter?

Navabi: There are many options and most are cheaper than military intervention. One option is to support particular human rights and various enlightenment values. Providing easy anonymous access to social media goes a long way toward giving the people in any country the tools to fight for their own rights. Social Media companies should stop banning and removing anti-Islamic content with the goal of protecting Muslims’ religious sensitivities. The content that some policymakers in Palo Alto consider a threat to minorities are voices of dissent against oppression from the majority in Islamic countries. The PC culture is a Western trend but it has global consequences. In the name of protecting victims against abusers at home, we could silence victims globally. Access to these tools is essential. Military intervention gives you unpredictable results and managing what happens after is usually more difficult and costly than the intervention itself. Supporting dissent is less invasive, less expensive, and more effective force for change.

Jacobsen: Can military intervention be a good support?

Navabi: Military intervention can be beneficial if done right. However, it is not the solution for the Iranian regime. This war is not a cost that the people of the United States, Iran’s neighbors or many Iranian people (#NotAll) are willing to pay now. The Iranian regime is much more powerful than when Saddam’s regime was in power.

You also have to consider the agenda of the people who have an influence on such decisions. Would the war against the Iranian regime really be because of the security of your country’s citizens? Or are there other factors independent of the tax-payers’ best interest? How much of an influence are Israel, Saudi Arabia, and military lobbyists having on such decisions and do American want to pay for such a war if it is serving their interests? When groups like the MEK are influencing people such as John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani, there doesn’t leave much room for doubt that at least some – if not most – of the support for war against the Iranian regime has nothing to do with supporting Iranian people.

Any form of military intervention for the purpose of regime change without planning for what comes after is doomed to fail. When it comes to the Iranian regime, there aren’t that many good options for what comes after a regime change. What usually fills a power vacuum are the most organized and well-funded groups. As the West discovered already, it can end up with something worse than the regime they helped remove. Many people in Iran support a military intervention from a foreign regime, but many others are against it.

And the people who are against such intervention include many Iranians who are against the Islamic Republic. Such an intervention will either bring into power another authoritarian regime or a democratic one. The authoritarian regime that comes into power can be another Islamic anti-Western regime. A democratic regime is also not guaranteed to be pro-West. The images from the Iranian protests might suggest otherwise, but we shouldn’t underestimate the anti-Western sentiments many other Iranians still have, especially if such a regime is coming into power right after another military intervention in Iran.

Intervention against the Islamic Republic in Iran needs to be a long-term plan and without military involvement. The support of the people for your intervention is important. Without it, you’re either going to get a democratic regime that is against you or a dictatorship that supports you against the will of its people. The way I look at it is by evaluating every group and their goals and interests. And then look at the paths each one of these groups can take in achieving their goals. What is the opportunity cost for each path they can take?

We have to look at different sources of influence and interest groups in Iran:

1.The Islamic Republic’s main sources of power and influence:
1. Hardliners, Conservatives & the IRGC
1. Moderates and Reformists
The Iranian people:
1. Pro-regime anti-reform
1. Pro-regime pro-reform
1. Anti-regime pro-Western intervention
1. Anti-regime anti-Western intervention
Opposition groups:
1. People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran or the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK)
1. Monarchists
1. Secular democrats
1. Ethno-nationalists
1. Pan-Iranists
1. Ethnic minority autonomy groups (especially Kurdish)

Each group’s members often exaggerate the commonality of their views among the Iranian people. Without reliable polls, it is hard to determine the truth. Most people agree secular democrats and monarchists are the most popular oppositions, and that the MEK remains the most hated one. Many people underestimate the support for the government. Much of this underestimation comes from observation of the protests.

While the enthusiasm people have for the Islamic Republic is significantly less than early revolution years, it is entirely possible that more than ten million people in Iran fully support the government today. There are also many Iranians who abhor the government yet are against an attempt to topple the regime given their observation of what happened in Iraq, Syria, and Libya and the price the people there had to pay for regime change. Yet there are many other voices that demand regime change by any means necessary.

One interesting small but fast-growing group are anti-Islam anti-democracy ethno-nationalists that support the government and see Shia Islam as a hidden version of Zoroastrianism. They consider all of the Middle East to be part of the Persian empire that should one day be recaptured. They think Iran’s religion should one day go back to Zoroastrianism; that Islam and any other Arab influence on Iran’s culture needs to be erased. Even though, they believe the current government is not ideal (given that it’s both Islamic and a republic); they also feel there is no better option until they manage to reintroduce Iranians to their ancient Aryan heritage.

They consider the main enemies of Iran to be advocates of secular democracy and ethnic minority groups fighting for autonomy. Given that foreign intervention by Western powers emboldens both these groups, they spend a lot of their activism discouraging Iranians from asking for help from the international community. They often use examples in history to convince Iranians that foreign intervention has never been in the best interest of Iran. This message is finding a lot of appeal in young anti-government Iranians that have given up hope on both reformists and opposition groups that have been promising the toppling of the government for the past forty years. One key figure that is leading this movement is Omid Dana who advocates for these ideas on his fast-growing outlets including his YouTube channel under the name Rodast.

Jacobsen: How can we address all these groups?

Navabi: We need to ask what are the goals and ideal scenarios for each one of these groups and interests and how are they trying to achieve it. Then you need to see which groups and interests you belong to. After that, you need to see which other groups and interests you share the most goals with or at least which groups and interests’ path to their goal also serves yours. You need to look for the pathways of mutual benefit in order to work together as an informal coalition. You might find multiple options, but then you have to analyze the opportunity cost for each. Not every good option is the best option. The best way to predict the next moves is to assume parties are rational but have different values and interests. Then put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself what you would do to survive.

For example, the goal of some of the most influential interest groups in the US government is to reduce the Islamic Republic power in the region. The goal of human rights activists is to reduce human rights violations. Human rights activists might rely on the support of the US government for their goal. They would have to argue that giving voice to human rights activists in Iran will damage Iran’s legitimacy in the region. But then you would have to consider what impact this would have on anti-intervention Iranians. Would human rights activism be associated with an excuse for intervention and make it more difficult to bring attention to legitimate concerns?

Jacobsen: What do you recommend?

Navabi: We need to provide cover for the extant oppositions in Iran. It wouldn’t be difficult to provide the technology these groups need for them to have fast and undetectable access to social media and make it easy for the least tech-savvy people to get around government firewalls. This should be backed up with guides and tips on how to get access and remain anonymous.

This is a form of intervention that is difficult to hate even among anti-Western activists. All you’re doing is giving everyone a louder voice. You’re not adding to the voice, or meddling in their decisions. You are just providing a platform for everyone to get their message out. Including those who might be against you. By giving voices of dissent on the ground a global audience, we are encouraging activism.

Encouragement of activism in all oppressed countries gives much-needed reinforcement to the same trends that brought the West its enlightenment. Enlightenment values do not need to be exported from the West to oppressed nations. These are values that many already have been fighting for in these countries. We only need to amplify what is already there. By supporting free speech, you encourage dissent against barriers to the Enlightenment values everywhere, not merely in countries that are a threat to your interests.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, especially so in depth this time, Armin.

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2023-01-26

Who Are We To Judge People Living In Islamic Countries?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (Blog)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/14

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I hear arguments from different people on Islamic countries and people who live in them. Some argue for different standards for different beliefs and groups. If not in an explicit manner, then the implicit understanding in the conversation amounts to different standards for different people. The conversations start with the general question about judgment of people who live in Islamic countries. In these dialogues, the person may respond with a question, “Who are we to judge people living in Islamic countries?”

Armin Navabi: We are all human beings. That is what we all are. Why does care for our fellow human beings have to be dependent on their location? Why does it have to be dependent on where they were born, their race, or how far or how close they are to us? I do not understand the relevance of that. Pain is pain. Happiness is happiness. I believe that it does not matter if somebody is hungry next to you, or if somebody is hungry a thousand kilometers from you. It does not matter if somebody is being oppressed right next to you or if somebody is being oppressed a thousand kilometers from you. That somebody is human. They need your help.

We Are All Connected

The idea of “I can help people who are next to me more than I could help people far away from me” does not exist anymore. We are all connected globally, through the advances in technology, that it is so easy to help other people with little effort and little budget.

Today, you can make a huge difference for people you have never even met or will never even meet. You can make a difference for people, whichever corner of the world they are in now. In fact, you might be able to make more of a difference because you live in a country where you could speak freely.

They Need Your Voice

You live in a country where you could say whatever you want. People living in Islamic countries do not. They do not live in a country where they can speak their minds. That is why you might be able to make a bigger difference in their lives compared to people close to you. They need your voice. Because when they do speak, these people will get prosecuted and go to jail. They lose their freedom. They lose their safety. These are people taken away from their children. There are even people who pay the government for the cost of executing their loved ones.

Arrogance in Freedom

Liberated countries enjoy some or most of these rights: freedom of speech, right to peace, equality, anti-discrimination, men and women are equal, homosexuals should not to be prosecuted for being gay, and for people of the minority to express their views without being punished. The people who are enjoying these rights have no empathy for what the people in Islamic countries are suffering from there. To me, it is arrogant when some people suggest that this is maybe because these are our values but not theirs.

Morally Superior

Because of this, they claim moral superiority for following these values. That people who follow such humanist values are going to enjoy life more, and live a life with more peace and more happiness. Since we are claiming superiority for this, we think we are deserving of these values and other people are not.

Other people might never be able to see that these values are good for them because they weren’t always in the situation where they had these values. Later on, they progressed to adopt these values, but people are denying them on the same grounds. They might say, “We came to these values ourselves. They should do the same thing.” I call bullshit. There is no country, no idea, and no value that has not been influenced by other countries, by other values, by philosophers and thought leaders from different corners of the world. Europe was introduced to its own ancient values through the Arab Empire. If it wasn’t because of the Arab Empire, we would not know how much of those ancient values would have come back from Greek philosophers. They were influenced by foreign countries, foreign philosophers, and foreign thought.

No group of people or country lives in a bubble. Of course, they are going to be influenced by foreign countries. They are going to influence other countries. They are going to be influenced by other countries. There is no way a country could progress in a bubble. They need outside influence as we need outside influence. The world is connected. If that was true a thousand years ago, it is more true today because we are more connected today. If European countries want an enlightenment, because of the influence of foreign countries at that time, are you going to deny foreign influence to these countries today since we are even more connected now?

Moral and Pleasure Matrix

I will say to people who do not agree with these values, to bring on your values and sell your values to these people, but do not deny us the opportunity to come and introduce these values to people that might want them. Compete with us in the market of ideas, compete with us and tell us why your values are better; however, that is not what you are doing. You are telling us, we are not in a position to judge, so we should shut the fuck up. That is the position you are taking. I am saying, if you think our ideas are wrong, bring up better ideas, but do not deny these people the opportunity to choose their ideas. Ideas that we think are better.

If you think we are wrong, introduce them to more ideas, not fewer ideas. That is how you compete with our ideas. That is how you respond to a bad idea. That is how we respond to your shitty backwards barbaric ancient ideas. We do not silence you. We compete with you. If you think our ideas are imperialist, foreign, too liberal, too free, too empty of spiritual guidance, too empty of meaning, too empty of providing purpose to people, then I am sure. If your ideas are better, they are going to do good.

Exploiting Evolution

You should bring your ideas to the public and compete with us. Do not deny the people, who might prefer our values, the opportunity to hear us because you think somebody might take advantage of these ideas for their agenda. Because if that is your argument, then we should stop teaching evolution in Western countries. Because it was not that long ago, when the Nazis took advantage of the evolution of science to sell their agenda and to tell people why we need to stop letting some races spread, some races should be superior. The whole genocide of the Jews. All those gas chambers and crimes were committed by the Nazi Regime. They were based on the truth, based on the misuse of an actual true scientific principle, which is evolution.

If you are looking at how people could misuse something, we should stop teaching evolution in Western countries because we have a history. In fact, you should try to suggest a value to me. I could come up with a way that it could be misused.

Misuse of Human Rights

In fact, if you are worried about the fact that we are talking about human rights being misused by the military/industrial complex to bring war to these countries, why are you not equally concerned about the Islamic values that have been used, time and time again, in history, for killing, for war, for torturing people, and for denying people’s rights? We have more examples of Islamic values being used to do the same thing. Based on the argument, we should deny Muslims the opportunities to spread their ideology because of the history and examples that came from the misuse of it.

You cannot stop telling the truth because of somebody being able to misuse it. Because if you do that, then you cannot say anything. Everybody should stay home and shut the fuck up.

The only way that you could fight the misuse of good ideas is to expose them as misuse of good ideas. Because if you do not compete bad ideas with better ideas, those bad ideas are more easily used, more easily misused, than good ideas. If your values are better values, then any misuse of it is a misrepresentation and is another inferior value that you should fight for rather than it. When we say these values are superior and you say, “Well, who are you to say?” You could still say that about any claim. I could say, “Who are you to say? Who am I to say?” Let us say your claim is we should not interfere in other people’s countries, who are you to say we should not interfere in other people’s countries?

Challenge Your Ideas

The point of bringing your ideas out there is to challenge them. If you go around the argument and look at the person who is making the argument and you think that they do not deserve to make such argument, then you are making a judgement about the person, whether or not they are deserving to make an argument. Now, you are in that position where we can ask the same from you: who are you to deny this person making the argument?

Another thing is when people say, “Oh, Christianity is the same. It is as bad here. Look at the people. Look at how many police are killing black people or look how Christianity is also barbaric. Ancient ideology that could be as harmful.”

To that, I say, “Fuck you.” I am not talking about those things. I am talking about something else. An example: Imagine if you have a fundraiser for cancer. You are trying to raise money to fund research for cancer. You want to fight cancer, and then people come in and start shouting. They say, “What about AIDS? Why are you not talking about AIDS? AIDS is a disease too. AIDS is also killing people. You guys do not care about AIDS!” What would I do? I would probably kick these people out. AIDS is bad. Yes! However, we are talking about cancer because we are talking about the problems of cancer. That does not mean we are denying that AIDS is also a problem.

However, you are not helping by shifting the discussion to something that this fundraiser is not fighting for now. You are not helping, and fuck you for making everything about you. Because what you are doing is you are taking part in the Oppression Olympics. You think that if the conversation is not about the things that attacks your people or the things that have affected your life, then it is not worth talking about now. If you have been hurt by Christianity or by racism in the US, then when we come and say, “Islam is hurting people,” you are saying, “No, let us pay attention to this.” That makes you self-centered because you cannot stand it when other people are talking about being victims of something else other than what concerns you. You cannot stand people who are bringing awareness to something that you or the people around you are not victims of. If that is the case, then you are selfish and arrogant. However, some people might say this cancer and AIDS example does not make sense because Islam and Christianity have the same root.

Religion As A Whole

This is why we always want to say that we should not talk about Islam. Talk about religion as a whole. Okay, let me add to my example. Let us say we had a fundraiser about pancreatic cancer and then somebody came and said, “Skin cancer is a problem too. Why are you not talking about skin cancer?”

Is that close enough for you?

Sometimes, it makes sense to focus on a specific problem, even if it has similarities with other problems. Different problems manifest themselves in different ways. They harm people in different ways. They have different answers.

It makes sense to focus on a certain problem. Sometimes, it makes sense to look at it as a whole. However, it does not make sense when you always try to shift the attention to a different category when we are focusing on another one. It does not make sense because you are not helping. We are having a discussion about a certain topic and all you are doing is coming and saying, “pay attention to the problem that I care about.” That is what you are doing.

Better Than Most

The obsession for a certain issue might be for different reasons. It could be because you were hurt. It
might be because you know more about a particular topic. It might be simply because you care more about a certain issue. Who cares? At least, you are talking about a problem, which makes you better than most people.

For example, if somebody is going out there and rescuing dogs, I am not going to tell them, “What the fuck do you have against cats? Why are you not rescuing cats? Are other animals not good enough for you? Do they not deserve saving?”

This person maybe cares about dogs. Maybe, he is passionate about dogs. However, the fact that he is rescuing dogs. He might be doing more than most people. Do you know what you say to somebody who is going out there and rescuing dogs? You say, “Thank you.” That is what you say to that person.

For example, let us say somebody says to me, “Why are you focused on Islam? Why not all religions?” I tell them, “Why are you so focused on other religions? Why not all dogma?” They might say, “Okay, all dogma.”

I am like, “Why are you focusing on all dogma? Why are you not focusing on all bad ideas? Does a bad idea have to be a dogma for you to focus on it?” Then they go, “Okay, all bad ideas.” I am like, “Bad ideas? What about other bad things? Does something have to be an idea for you to attack it? Diseases are not ideas. Why are you focusing on bad ideas?”

“Alright, so let us be more general, bad things are bad. Good things are good. Is that general enough for you? Is that good? How helpful is that? How helpful of a claim that is… bad things are bad?” You cannot get more general than that.

General Activism

Some people prefer to look at it more generally. Others might want to look at it more focused in a more specific situation. For example, there is a certain village in the Philippines, where the people need help now. This person wants to specifically focus on this group of people. People who do not have access to water. It is focused. Nobody will go to this person and be like, “Why are you focusing on that specific village?” That is incredibly focused, but I am sure most people will say, “Congratulations, that is good. Thank you for helping these people.”

But when it comes to Islam, many people, atheists especially, say, “Why are you focusing on Islam?” I do not think it is because their problem is that you are being too focused. I think they feel a certain amount
of bigotry if you are focused on Islam because they do not say that about any other form of activism if it is focused on anything.

Have you ever heard anybody say that about any other form of activism? It looks ridiculous. Let us say somebody is focusing on the environment in Iran. Nobody comes to him and says, “Why do you not care about the environment in Iraq?”

Pushed Back for Bigotry

Every form of activism gets this bigotry pushback. However, this specific claim that you are being too
focused is either regarding Islam or nationalism. For example, if Americans are focusing on other countries, they might get accused on why are you not focusing on problems at home.

I know a lot of people who are nationalistic and anti-globalist do not like this. However, I do not understand it. Why do we have to care about a certain group of people because they happened to be born on this side of the border instead of on the other side of the border? Is that good criteria for us to start caring about somebody? Why is that? What makes this so special? With this line in the sand, all of the sudden the person that is born on this side of it matters more?

Western Values

Another thing, I want to address Western values. The name: “Western values.” The reason why it is called Western values is because it first happened in Western countries. The fact that these values were adopted more in Western countries is a historical accident. Because they are named, “Western values,” now, that does not mean that the West should own these values. The West does not own women’s rights. The West does not own human rights. The West does not have a monopoly over not discriminating against gay people. The West does not have a monopoly on secularism. The West does not have ownership over freedom of speech.

The fact people are accusing us of bigotry because we are suggesting that these values should be global and introduced globally, you are being the bigots. You are claiming ownership over some values because you happened to historically come across it — before the rest of the world. You are the people unwilling to share. You think that this is good for you, but it is not good for other people. Why is it not good for other people? What makes them so different from us that it works for you but not for them?

Western Superiority

You are the people claiming superiority. What is it about values that make somebody claim ownership over them? Why can we not introduce these values? Why can we not promote these values? It has been introduced, but we could promote it even more. Why can we not promote them? Could somebody use it to attack these countries? Reality check: somebody is using other values to oppress women.

If we go back to arguments people use when you are talking about Muslims and Islamic ideology, you are not looking at the main threat in the world. You are not looking at the main powers at play, at the destruction and the harm that they cause.

You have to see who is in control and not look at these minority Muslims in our Western countries. You have to make the difference where it matters the most now. Those are the ideas. The values that are being used to oppress people in foreign countries and in their countries by these major superpowers in the West.

I tell them that is a narrow way of looking at it because where I come from Islam is in power. You are underestimating Islam as a major superpower when you think about it that way. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. Islam is going to become the number one main ideology in the world soon.

Islam Colonization

Islam is dominating not lands but minds. Islam is used to rule over people and to oppress people. Islam has been used to colonize people. Do you think white people are the only people that can colonize?

Islam has been used for colonization way before the British discovered what that even means and that it is even an option. It is okay if it happens voluntarily. If people are adopting other people’s cultures or ideas or values voluntarily, that is not colonizing them. We are asking for these other values and ideas to be heard and considered rather than suppressed or silenced.

We asking for a seat at the table, at every table. I am not talking about a seat at a table talking about humanism and secularism in the United States, in the United Kingdom, in Canada, or in France. I am talking about a seat at a table in Iran, in Bangladesh, in Saudi Arabia, in Malaysia, in Indonesia, in Pakistan.

We demand a seat at a table. We are going to get it. if you think that that is us imposing our values on other people, fuck you. Because you are enjoying the benefits of these values, somebody at some point in your history was told that these values are not for your country. They did not stay silent. They sacrificed their lives. They sacrificed their safety. They sacrificed their comfort for you to enjoy that today. People are doing these things in Iran, in Saudi Arabia, and in Bangladesh. They are suffering for it.

Moral Cowardice

You are a moral coward for thinking that it is morally wrong for us to voice our feelings on the killing of secular bloggers in Bangladesh. Do you think it is not right for us to judge? Do you think you are not in a position to judge? To judge whether women having less inheritance rights in government, as a witness in court, on what they wear, where they go, what jobs they get, who they talk to, do you think that you are not in a position to make a moral judgment on that? That makes you a moral coward.

But what is moral or not? If you are making that judgement based on how different sets of actions influence people’s well-being, then there is always a right answer and a wrong answer. There are many good answers and many bad answers. It does not take a genius to see that hanging gay people is not good for the well-being of the society. If you think that you are not in a position to make a moral judgment for other countries, I want you to tell me what you would say to the person that is about to be hanged because they are gay.

Go ahead and tell that to that person right before they are being hanged, say, “This is not
that bad. In my country it is bad, but here, this is your culture, so shame on you for being gay. If
you were in the United Kingdom, I would be marching for gay pride and being gay and proud, but here it is a different country. So, fuck you, fuck your gay ass, you deserve being hanged here.”

For The People in Islamic Countries

All the people who are in jail in Iran or Saudi Arabia; all the bloggers who died trying to spread secularism and humanism; all the people in Malaysia who after the government came out and said that they need to hunt down atheists; on behalf of those people, all the people that were burned or tortured for accusations of desecrating the Quran in Pakistan; on behalf of all those people, I want to say, “Fuck you to whoever says that it is their culture and who are we to judge and ask, ‘What’s right for them?’” On behalf of every woman that suffered from Islam; on behalf of every homosexual person that suffered in Islam; and on behalf of anybody that dares speak against Islam and paid the consequences for it, I want to say, “Fuck you” to whoever says, “Who are we to judge?”

Enlightenment for All

The Western countries went through the Enlightenment. Now we want this for other countries as well. We want the same enlightenment values. We want to fight for those values. If you are arrogant enough to want to deny the rest of us the same process, if you are not going to help, then stay out of our way. It is interesting a lot of people come and tell me, “Armin, why are you saying these things? That is our country. It has nothing to do with our country. That is Iran.” I almost, almost want to say, “Mother fuckers, I am from Iran.” However, I do not think that is even relevant because I think you should not need to be from there for you to care about them.

Situation in Yemen

Who do I care more about right now than even the people in Iran? I care more about the people in Yemen. If I could speak Arabic, I would have been tweeting more about the situation that is happening in Yemen because they are suffering more than the people in Iran. The fact that you think we have to be from there to care about them makes no sense to me. However, if you think that, and if you do not want to be part of the solution, and if you do not want to lend a voice to people that need you to lend them a voice, the people that are voiceless. The people that cannot speak for themselves.

If you are not going to use your platform to help them, then stay out of our way because we are going to keep doing that. We are going to keep doing that. It does not matter how many times you call us a bigot. We are going to keep fighting for those people.

If you think they need to do it themselves, then fuck you again because it would be much faster and much easier if we could help them out. Because we enjoy the freedom of speech here. We enjoy some security. We could bring more attention to their problems, to their suffering. We could help. We could help. They need our help. They are asking for our help. For you to deny that to them because you think they do not deserve it, it is selfish. It is selfish to judge your life by a different standard than what you are judging their lives by.

So, who are we to judge how people in Islamic countries live? To that I say, “That is the wrong question. The right question is, “Who do you have to be to remain silent?” The answer to that is, “You have to be a monster.” You have to be a monster to have seen such crimes being done against your fellow human beings and judge it by a different standard than what you would have done if it was happening in your own backyard.

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2023-01-26

Conflicts Between “Normal” Culture And Homosexuality An Interview with Peter Gajdics – Author of The Inheritance of Shame

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (Blog)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/14

Peter Gajdics is the author of The Inheritance of Shame: A Memoir. He can be found in Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads. Here we plumb the depths – as the cliché goes – about conversion therapy, his life and experience, and book.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: As you struggled with the identification of your homosexuality as something deviant in your 20s, how did you feel? How did others feel about you – loved ones, friends, colleagues, and strangers?

Peter Gajdics: It’s true that in my 20’s, even before then, I struggled with the sense that I was somehow “deviant.” Popular culture throughout that time, the late 1960’s through to the 1980’s, reinforced this belief not only in what it said about homosexuality but in what it did not say. Silence produces its own variant shame, and the invisibility of gays in popular culture throughout my formative years—except, as I say, when homosexuality was presented as deviant and homosexuals as terribly unhappy and suicidal—imbued in me a kind of shame, or negative self-image. I experienced shame as a sort of dirtiness within my very being, my soul, which could never be washed away. This “dirtiness” or unworthiness manifested in eating disorders, for example. I think this is why we often see images, say in films or books, of people who’ve been sexually violated taking a shower immediately after the attack, because the trauma of rape and sexual violence penetrates through to a person’s core self and leaves them feeling disgraced, and violated, “dirtied” in some fundamental way. In my 20’s, I also experienced enormous rage, because the flip side of shame is often outrage. On some level, intuitively we know that shame is unnatural, not part of who we were meant to be, so our systems fight to exorcise it from our beings, just as our immune systems fight to heal us from the invasion of disease. Neither side, the shame and its opposite, is balanced, but I think the rage is at least an attempt at healing. Rage first propelled me into writing about my own experiences in the “conversion therapy,” but rage is not a sustaining force in any person’s life. Eventually, rage will turn on itself and become counterproductive.

As far as how “others” felt about me back then—I can only say that some friends were incredibly accepting of me as a gay person in my 20’s, and yet the shame and self-loathing within me persevered. I had great difficulty accepting who I was, largely because of the lie that I’d been raised to believe, which said the sexual abuse from my childhood had “created” my homosexuality. I could not find my way out of that lie, no matter how hard I tried, because the fact was I had been sexuality abused, and I was, now, homosexual. The two issues intermingled in my mind, just as the shame of sexual abuse and the shame, especially back then, of being gay, intermingled and coexisted. I could not tell one from the other. I grew up hearing my church condemn homosexuals, and that kind of hatred was parroted through my family, each time like hammering a nail into my heart. Ultimately, my own identification as a “deviant” was something I had to unlearn, just as a knot done up must absolutely be undone. I think the “problem” for many is that they don’t even see these “knots” because culture or religion still reinforces many of them as truth. If your whole community tells you that a lie is truth, how will you ever learn the difference? Knots like these strangle the life out of people, and must be undone.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How do you build fortitude in your sense of self and personal sexuality?

Peter Gajdics: The question of fortitude, I think, extends far beyond a person’s sexuality, or perhaps is inclusive of one’s sexuality in as much as we are first and foremost sexual beings. The nature of character, and personality, and a stern belief in who we are as individuals, is not really something that anyone can give us—we have to develop those things within ourselves. Building this kind of fortitude has something to do with resilience, and introspection, humility, using our hardships as life lessons in our fight to become more ourselves, even distancing ourselves from the noise of popular culture long enough to find our own voice, instead of just constantly pushing back against other voices. Forgiveness is instrumental to this development, because I think we are always being called on to forgive ourselves for not living up to our ideals, and then of course to forgive others. We forgive to set ourselves free, never to condone anyone else’s behavior. Without forgiveness we are always trapped in the past, treading upstream. Anger at being violated is reflexive, but I think that if we get blocked by or imprisoned in these kinds of reflexive emotions, like anger or revenge, we are never going to progress; rather, negative emotions like these are meant to move us to the next step, not lock us into their malevolence. The question of fortitude has a lot to do with a life well lived, but what does that mean, really? We are all, all of us, making mistakes and saying and doing things we later regret, but I think that recognizing the humanity in our endeavours also helps us build this very fortitude.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What have been the damages of conversion therapy to scores of homosexual over time?

Peter Gajdics: When we talk about the damage inflicted on scores of people as a result of this thing called “conversion therapy,” I think it’s important to remember that these “therapies” occur across a spectrum of treatments aimed at making a gay person “not themselves,” and that these kinds of attacks long pre-date the 20th century. Even before gays were called homosexual, which is still only a relatively recent phenomena, there were always people who experienced same-sex attractions, and those people also faced alienation and isolation; sometimes they were forced to live out their lives not as themselves but as the society dictated, which has been typically driven by opposite-sex pairing and desire. Of course, at different times in history, same-sex desire also has been celebrated, but the point is “conversion therapy” is a latter 20th century invention, and the persecution of people that we call gay today is not limited to the 20th century.

In terms of actual “damage”—I am not sure we can ever quantify the pain and lost lives that have resulted from these sorts of bigotry and hatred. How do we quantify this kind of “damage”? People end up killing themselves because of familial rejection, ostracism from their religion, hate crimes perpetrated by others as a result of misinformation about what it means to be gay or homosexual. This kind of “damage” is too enormous, I think, to quantify. Besides, long before anyone ever attempts suicide, many of these “therapies” can result in a person ending up living out the rest of their lives in a state of complete despair, a shell of their former self. “Shell shocked” is how I’d describe myself after my own six years in the “therapy,” and I think it’s often similar for a lot of survivors. Thankfully, I began to heal, but not without great effort.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Have there been any positives to come out of this conversion therapy movement in your opinion, even ironic or unexpected ones?

Peter Gajdics: Obviously, I would never advocate or endorse anything remotely close to “conversion therapy”. That said, one thing that often does happen during or even after these kinds of “therapies” is a sort of forced “disidentification,” to borrow language from writer Eckhart Tolle, with mainstream sexual identity. Conversion therapy—the act of stepping outside one’s sexuality and becoming more the observer, then attempting to become “the other”—this very act often forces a person outside of mainstream sexual identity, in this case, gay sexual identity, much in the same way that gays were historically forced outside of whole societies. Forced alienation and isolation like this can produce enormous distress; at the same time, an over identification with the culture of one’s “sexual orientation,” I think, is also largely ego-driven and can end up producing more of an obstacle than a vehicle toward ultimate freedom, because in attempting to be more of ourselves, which is always the goal of “coming out” and declaring one’s homosexuality, we often become trapped in the illusion of a subculture. We leave the closet only to enter an even larger one, known as our “sexual identity.” I’m not sure this is as big of a problem for those identifying as heterosexual, rather than gay, simply because straight people are the normative and so to them their culture is largely invisible—they don’t necessarily over identify with any of it. For gays, however, because we have in effect forced our way into visibility, the unfortunate tendency is to then over identify with our newfound visible culture, in effect to “become” what is largely an illusion. Conversion therapy has the potential to basically disrupt this over identification, and in a backhanded or “accidental” way to create an emotional and mental space within a person that can then present an opportunity to replace an ego-focussed lifestyle with something much deeper and resonant, call it spiritual, or closer to our essence. Again, I would never advocate the use of conversion therapy, I’m not even saying that this “forced interruption” that results from these therapies produces anything beneficial, but for me at least, this has been one positive outcome—but one that has been hard-earned.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Where does the demonizing and reasoning behind killing homosexuals, especially gay men, source itself?

Peter Gajdics: I think that this demonization of gays can be largely attributed to the forced or unnatural medicalization and moralization of homosexuality. Nothing much is new about any of this, since these kinds of judgments have been occurring for centuries, but I do think that specific events in the 20th century alone, as progressive as many have been for gay liberation, have also produced extreme trauma to scores of homosexual people. Psychiatry, as just one example, and its pathologizing of homosexuality as an illness in need of a “cure,” caused in some cases irreparable harm. Trauma like this does not end after a few decades; it can take generations for this kind of venom and lie to weed itself out of a culture. Attacks against gay men in particular, I think, can be correlated to great distress and confusion around gender, the nature of what it means to be a “man” in our culture, which homosexuality seems to provoke in many straight men. For many men still living today, homosexuality represents all that is vile about a loss of manhood—submission, sensitivity, gender variance. Images such as these can become overwhelming to some men (who in many cases may actually be closeted homosexuals), and the instinct to eradicate “the other”—to physically kill them—predominates. We are often scared of “the other”—this is what xenophobia is all about. I think that many hate crimes are committed in the name of these kinds of lies, and fear. The degree by which we could say that gay liberation has succeeded, and continues succeeding, can be directly attributed to the severity of how bad it became for gay people everywhere. But I do not think the war is over; lies, fear and shame are all shapeshifters. Gay people everywhere, each and every one of them, need to speak their own truth—not just collectively, as “a people,” but each person as their own individual. Truth is on each person’s side.

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2023-01-26

Praying for Atheist Republic

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (Blog)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/11

A Story Gone Viral

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You tweeted a picture of your mom. You pinned it on your Twitter account. Now, as of this interview, it has 12,000 retweets, 17,000 likes, and became viral “hit” on Reddit and 9gag. What is your mother’s personal story?

Armin Navabi: My mom was nine-years-old when her mother died from breast cancer. Her father remarried and the new wife asked my mom’s dad to kick out the 6 kids which he did. After that they had to figure out ways to survive on their own which made them tough kids. She and her siblings were close.

My mom was very smart. In school, she did well. She wanted to go to medical school, but she ended up being a nurse.

Before the Islamic Revolution

My dad kept asking her out on dates, but she was always playing hard to get with him. My mother spent most of her time in the library. During the time my dad courted her, she remembers getting chocolates and roses laid on top of her library book.

My dad would leave it on top of her book everytime she leaves the table to get a new book. Which, by the way, she found very cheesy. But they ended up dating for a while. They have had their relationship ups and downs, but my dad would always woo her back.

In the beginning, the revolution against the Shah was for freedom and not for Islam. But it became more Islamic. It took a turn in a way people did not expect. After the revolution, many who participated in the Islamic revolution were shot and killed by those who came into power.

The Big Sign in the Hallway

My mom was in the hospital working at the time when Khomeini was either coming down from the plane or he was giving a speech. I am not sure exactly which one. Everybody surrounded the television and watched the historic moment.

She said something to the effect of, “We’re fucked.” That comment made people turn around and look at her. The next day when she came to the hospital, there was a big sign in the hallway. On top, it said, “The Whores of West” and her name was on that list.

The Iran-Iraq War

My dad served the war as one of the doctors during the Iran-Iraq War. They had this underground hospital where they kept on cutting arms and legs without anaesthesia of people who got shot. It was terrible.

One time, he wanted to treat some captured Iraqi soldiers. They asked him why he wanted to treat the enemies. My dad replied: if he was not allowed to treat them, then he was going to leave. The doctors were in high demand, so they let him.

When my dad came back from the war, he went back to work at the hospital where he met my mom. My mom worked as a nurse in that hospital.

One day, he went to the hospital’s cafeteria. He was shocked to see how much control the religious police had there. He was not happy about the situation of seeing the police there. He asked them to leave and told them to have some respect for doctors. Suddenly, the soldiers pointed guns at him.

The other doctors surrounded my dad to create a barrier. Someone came to my mom and said something like, “There is this doctor and things got heated with the soldiers and the doctors are trying to protect him.” My mom told me that as soon as she heard this, she immediately knew that it was him.

She immediately ran to the cafeteria. While she was running, she suddenly realized that this is the man she loves.

When she got there, she saw soldiers pointing guns at what looked like a group of doctors surrounding this man, who was standing right in the middle. It was my dad. My dad saw her from a distance, looked up and said, “Hi, Jila!”

She replied, “Hi.” And then, she ran away.

The Red Scarf

Early after the revolution, the rules about wearing the hijab were stricter than they are today in Iran. Hijabs were mandatory. My mother’s hijab was red. She was arrested for it. It was a different time since it was not yet accepted to wear fashionable hijabs. As a punishment, she had to go to mandatory purifying Islamic lectures.

At the lecture, somebody was telling her something to the effect of, “My dear sister, why would you do this to our young men? They have sacrificed so much blood, so many lives for our revolution. They have died in war and you would tempt them with corruption like this?”

Her reply was, “No. You don’t understand. My hijab was red in honour of the blood that they have sacrificed for us.”

Armin’s Superstitious Mom

In Iran, many people believe and pray to god and to the Imams when they need something, even if they do not pray five times a day or do not fast during Ramadan. Not everyone with religious views is very religious. Many people who consider themselves believing Muslims, even hate religiously zealous people.

My mom was very superstitious. She believed in curses, and good and bad omens. My mom would go and find these secret spell casters and pay them lots of money for the success of her sons. They would write spells and give her instructions on what to do with the writings.

Once, she made me wear a necklace that has some Qur’anic scribblings on it. She put a stone in the chain. I still have it. She told me to have it with me during my exams. It was self-contradictory because these are Qur’anic verses. This is supposed to be a spell, but Islam is against casting spells.

Praying for Atheist Republic

I went through a religious phase. I took Islam seriously. It was annoying to my parents. I tried to make them take Islam seriously. They did not pray. I was trying to get them to pray and fast.

They never went to mosque unless there was someone’s death or celebration. I did not want them to go to hell. They wouldn’t listen to me. So, when I decided to become an atheist, it was a relief for them.

I started Atheist Republic in Iran. Soon after, I came to Canada. It started growing and growing. I quit my job in Canada. I started to focus on Atheist Republic.

My mom was supportive. You would think your mom would get very angry because my parents spent so much money on my education in order for me to get a good job and now I decided to work on activism.

She prayed to god that Atheist Republic would become successful. It was ironic. I told her, “Mom, praying to god that my war against god would become successful doesn’t make sense.” She said, “A mom has to do what a mom has to do.”

Pigeon Experiment and Losing Faith

My mom slowly started losing her faith. One thing that really got to her was the superstitious pigeon experiment. Even pigeons can become superstitious by random things; the pigeons can be conditioned to develop superstitious behaviours in belief that they will be fed.

Then she asked, “I’m like those pigeons?”

But then she said, “Maybe those pigeons feel good doing what they’re doing and getting a reward for it. Let me be superstitious. At least, I feel like I am helping you. Even when it’s not doing anything, it just makes me feel good. Let me have that.”

On Her Deathbed

I wish I called her more. I wish I talked to her more because she loved it when I talked to her. Some of my family members would get bored when I talked about religion and politics. She would talk, listen, and comment because she wanted to keep on talking to me.

When she got cancer, it was way too advanced to do much about it. My dad was not ready to let her go. They got her a VIP room at the hospital. Anything he said would happen. Since he was a doctor, he knew a lot of people in the hospital.

I wanted to go to Iran, but they knew that I wouldn’t get past airport security, and would be jailed and on death row. My mom said, “Please don’t let my last memory of you be you in jail.” So, I couldn’t go see her because of the book I wrote Why There Is No God and founding Atheist Republic.

She told the doctors in Iran that she does not want to die without seeing her son. I feel partially responsible for this because I couldn’t go and see her. The doctors said that she can’t leave the hospital. However, she said she doesn’t care. That she wants to see her son before she dies. She left the hospital and came to Vancouver.

My mom died shortly after because she was not getting the care she was getting in Iran. When she got to Canada, she had to wait for a long time to see a doctor. The good part was unlike the doctors in Iran they were not listening to my dad anymore, but asking her what she wanted.

My dad wanted chemotherapy, but my mom did not want it. She said she is done. My dad was trying to force her to do chemotherapy because he was not ready, but the doctors respected what she wanted for treatment.

One time, in the hospital, she asked me if I am sure — if I really think there is nothing after death. So, I told her, “Yes, that is what I think.”

Then she said, “Good… because I am so tired.”

One time, when I went to see her at the hospital, she had these headphones on and was listening to the Azan (Call to Islamic Prayer). She was embarrassed and said, “Armin, I know this is all bullshit, but it’s really helping me. It really helps me with my pain.”

I was like, “Mom, why are you apologizing to me? You don’t need to be embarrassed. Just do whatever you want. Do whatever it takes for the pain.” It is sad that she felt embarrassed to do something Islamic in front of me.

Before her death, she told my dad that she does not want any Islamic ceremonies for her death. She was happy to know that she is going to get buried in Vancouver because she did not want people to pray over her grave.

There were a few attempts of this in Iran for her. However, my dad made sure he cancelled all the ceremonies because it was my mom’s wish that they have nothing like that.

A lot of people asked me, “Aren’t you sad that you’ll never see her again? Don’t you wish that there was a reunion or an afterlife that you’ll meet her one day? Isn’t that such a cold way of believing in the world?”

I always respond, “Even if you ignore the fact that we have to believe in things that are true and that we have evidence for rather than the things that we like, you have to also understand that the afterlife does not come with just heaven. The afterlife comes with hell.”

We were told that most people will burn in hell. My mom would also be burning in hell right now if Islam is true.

I’m sad that I’m never going to see her again, but I am much at peace knowing that she is not being tortured right now by a fucking sadistic god because she did not worship him enough.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Armin.

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2023-01-26

Interview with Dr. Caleb W. Lack, Ph.D. – Director, Secular Therapy Project

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (Blog)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/01/19

Caleb W. Lack, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist, an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Central Oklahoma, and the Director of the Secular Therapist Project. Dr. Lack is the author or editor of six books (most recently Critical Thinking, Science, & Pseudoscience: Why We Can’t Trust Our Brains with Jacques Rousseau) and more than 50 scientific publications on obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette’s Syndrome and tics, technology’s use in therapy, and more. He writes the popular Great Plains Skeptic column on skepticink.com and regularly presents nationally and internationally for professionals and the public. Learn more about him here.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: As the Atheist Republic audience is international and, therefore, highly varied, we have to lay the groundwork, though we’ve done this before. What is secular therapy?

Dr. Caleb W. Lack: Technically speaking, “secular therapy” is any type of psychotherapy that does not invoke the supernatural in the conceptualization, assessment, or treatment of various mental health difficulties.

This doesn’t mean you’d necessarily ignore something like a person’s religious beliefs, but you wouldn’t resort to interventions which either involve some sort of religious component (e.g., praying for forgiveness, asking for a deity to heal you). However, just because someone is practicing non-religious therapy doesn’t mean that they are actually practicing scientifically-informed, evidence-based therapy.

The Secular Therapist Project (STP) was designed to be a free service to help connect non-religious individuals who are seeking mental health care with non-religious psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, and other therapists. However, what’s unique about the STP is that we aren’t just a database of therapists like you might find at Psychology Today.

Instead, we very carefully screen potential therapists who want to become part of the STP. We screen them to make sure that a) they are appropriately licensed in their state or country, b) that they are secular in nature as well as practice, and c) that they actually use evidence-based treatments, which have been shown to be effective at helping improve mental health problems in controlled clinical trials.

This means not only will our therapists not try to preach to you or convert you, but that they are also using the most well-supported types of treatment to help you.

Jacobsen: As the Director of the Secular Therapist Project, I suspect traumatic stories come to you. If I may ask, without breach of confidentiality, what have been some of the more tragic or emotionally moving secular therapeutic stories witnessed or experienced in your career?

Lack: Sadly, there are some pretty commonly repeated themes that we see. The most frequent stories revolve around abuse that stems from religious beliefs or from a loss of family and friends when someone becomes non-religious.

For example, people tell me very often about physical and emotional abuse they suffered as a result of their parents’ fundamentalist religious beliefs. This has been regular, high level corporal punishment (“spare the rod, spoil the child”), witnessing their fathers beat their mothers, being emotionally abused via being taught about their own inherent evil nature and sins, and even sexual abuse.

The sexual abuse is often by members of the clergy or high level people in their churches, which then gets covered up (as seen repeatedly in the Catholic Church), or by being married into relationships where the husband treats the wife as property to be used (and abused) however he desires. This may include denial of educational opportunities, being told to stay in abusive relationships by church leaders, and so on.

The second major theme is typically a loss of community and support. Many churches are very good at community building, fellowship, and establishing social networks. You have a built-in friend group when you belong to a church, people who share your ideals and beliefs, who offer help and support when you need it, who you can turn to if you need a shoulder to lean on.

The majority of the religious also share the same religion as their families, which means for many that faith and family are highly intertwined. Often, when an individual steps away from a church, their friends and family in that church turn their back on that person, particularly for those in fundamentalist or evangelical religions.

As such, this can mean a huge loss, as people are rejected by formerly close or even life-long friends, by family members, and by the community which they have invested huge amounts of time, money, and energy into for years or decades. So, many people are literally going through a grieving process and have nowhere to turn to for support, because their support networks have abandoned them. They feel alone, abandoned, adrift.

This can even have an impact on one’s livelihood, most prominently for those pastors, preachers, and other clergy members who move into atheism, but also for others. I’ve heard numerous stories of people who were fired from their jobs after becoming more open about their lack of religious beliefs. That wasn’t, of course, the “official” reason they lost their jobs, but it happens.

Another aspect I should mention is that of religiously-motivated abuse under the guise of “therapy.” This includes the so-called “conversion therapy” which aims to change one’s sexuality, which is so psychologically abusive that it’s been banned in most U.S. states, but also the threats of eternal damnation that are directed (often by members of their own family) towards people for something that is largely biologically driven. The LGBTQ community has borne a huge amount of abuse due to religious beliefs.

Jacobsen: For international non-believer community, family members remain religious in unhealthy ways, e.g. fundamentalist interpretations of scripture enforced on the patient. What recommendations are standard for these difficulties of the patient?

Lack: Sadly, many people do lose long-standing relationships when they realize they are no longer religious. This loss of support and community is why organizations like Recovering from Religion, Grief Beyond Belief, Camp Quest, Secular Sobriety, and others are so important. What they are doing is building a secular support network.

While scientific skepticism or secular humanist organizations provide intellectual or philosophical support and do much needed “front-end” work such as activism or lobbying, the “back-end” organizations are helping to provide emotional, physical, and psychological support.

Finding a strong, caring support system is key. While this can be difficult, being able to join online groups and reach out that way has helped many people no longer feel so isolated, and is a great step towards building offline relationships.

Jacobsen: How big is the secular therapeutic “movement” — for want of a better term? Where is the movement centralized? Are there areas of the world where the secular therapy is bereft, simply not an option — even with access to a computer and internet connection due to state or community, even familial, oppression of the individual non-religious person?

Lack: I would say that depends largely on where you are, geographically. Here in the United States, many people on the coasts are fairly horrified when I talk about how therapists who do not overtly advertise themselves as “religious counselors” attempt to bring religious beliefs into treatment.

In the Bible Belt, though, we have large numbers of counselors and therapist who have been trained in overtly religious graduate programs, often at private religious institutions, that fail to make appropriate distinctions between doing “religious counseling” and other kinds of therapy.

I have had numerous people tell me that their therapist tried to convert them back to Christianity or blamed all their mental health or relationship difficulties on the fact that they were not “right with the Lord.” And these are people who were NOT seeking religiously-inspired therapy.

Many people, especially the religious, hear the term “secular therapy” and think that it would only be something that a non-believer, an atheist would engage in. In fact, all of the evidence-based therapies that we have for mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and many others are “secular”, meaning they were developed without the use of supposedly supernatural aids and interventions.

Almost all therapists who are religious (as opposed to “religious therapists”) use secular therapy in their practice. In other words, they are not using prayer, or exorcism, or invoking some religious concepts to heal a person of their mental health problems. Instead, they are using our “secular” therapy techniques because they work.

To further complicate the issue, not all people who do “secular” therapy are also doing “evidence-based” therapy. In other words, I might use therapeutic techniques and orientations that are not actually based in scientific findings and it can still be secular in nature.

Things like psychoanalysis or attachment therapies fall into this realm — they aren’t religious, but they are also pseudoscientific. That’s one of the reasons why our requirements for joining the Secular Therapy Project are threefold: our therapists are licensed, secular, and use evidence-based practice.

Jacobsen: How does a transition from religion to formal non-religion impact marriages, common law partnerships, and relationships?

Lack: Well, as I said before, loss of support networks is a huge issue for many people who transition out of religion. When one partner in a committed relationship has a major shift in their belief system, this often puts an enormous strain on the relationship, particularly if the religious partner has a very literal, dogmatic, or fundamentalist belief system.

If you believe that your partner is now condemned to spend an eternity burning in hell, how can that not? And on the other side, if you believe that your partner is wrong about something they are basing their entire life and behaviors on, how can that not?

Working through issues such as how children will be raised (in a religious faith or not, to what degree, and so on), what family will be told about why one person is not longer attending church services, and many other issues can be very stressful, often to the breaking point. That doesn’t mean that mixed-faith marriages are impossible, they certainly aren’t, but they do require a large amount of strong communication and commitment from both sides.

Jacobsen: Are there any cases where some people simply can’t be helped?

Lack: Certainly some people find themselves in environmental situations where therapy isn’t the best solution to their problems. It doesn’t matter how excellent of a treatment I have for depression or PTSD if you are in an environment that’s actively causing you to have those problems and you can’t leave.

That’s why a good therapist will work to conceptualize an individual’s case globally, looking at not just how an individual thinks, feels, and acts, but how their environment (whether family, friends, work, or something else) may be contributing to or maintaining distress. This allows a good therapist to recommend interventions at a family level or a higher environmental level and not only need to focus on the individual.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Lack.

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2023-01-26

Islam Versus Nazism

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (Blog)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/12/05

An Interview With Armin Navabi, Founder of Atheist Republic

I recently spoke with Armin Navabi, a former Muslim from Iran and the founder of Atheist Republic, an organization with millions of followers worldwide and best-selling author of “Why There Is No God: Simple Responses to 20 Common Arguments for the Existence of God”. We talk about his opinion on the topic Islam versus Nazism, the reason why both can’t be compared, and his message to Muslims.

Scott: Why can’t people compare Islam and Nazism, according to them, and why do you think they’re wrong?

Armin: Their argument is at a time when you have the rise of the alt-right in the West, when people are discriminating against Muslims, when people who look like Muslims are being targeted and harassed in the streets. Comparing Islam to Nazism is not helpful and fueling hate. It’s helping more people demonize Muslims.

Scott: In my opinion, empowering the wrong people is a bad idea, such as the ethnic nationalists and the people that are neo-fascists. Islam is not people but a set of ideas — or more precisely a set of ideas plus suggested practices in which people practice in certain degrees and believed in certain degrees. What I think is you can make a comparison if you’re talking about ideas plus suggested practices in a similar way National Socialism or Nazism does have a set of ideas and likely suggested practices.

I suspect that the inclination behind a lot of people are saying is looking at not only a set of ideas as neutral but a set of ideas as bad and then making comparison as both ideas are bad. You can’t compare two ideas that are bad.

When people want to protect those who believe Islam but not those who believe in Nazism, they don’t want to make a comparison in what they want to protect and in what they consider a bad set of ideas, ordinary Muslims and Nazis respectively. However, if you do look at the ideologies and suggested practices, you can make comparisons.

The question that follows from that comparison is, “What is the judgment? What is the ultimate value of either particular claims and the ideologies at large”?

For Armin, the judgment is already there when you compare Islam and Nazism because when you compare two things, you are suggesting that they are the same.

Armin: My response to that is something that would make them hate me more, which is [that] I don’t think Islam is as bad as Nazism. I think Islam is worse than Nazism. They think, “Okay great job, Armin, you just gave the best narrative to the alt-right and white supremacists. You just said that Muslims are worse than Nazis”. I never mentioned Muslims, never mentioned Nazis. I said Islam. You should know that as this is coming from people who criticize Islam and they say we’re criticizing Islam, not Muslims. And when I say Islam is worse than Nazism, they’re suggesting I’m demonizing Muslims, which I’m not. They will say “you’re simplifying it”. To that I respond, You’re only listening to my conclusion instead of my entire argument.

Scott: How could you say Islam is worse than Nazism?

Armin: First of all they tell me “you can’t even compare them since they’re apples and oranges. They’re not in the same category.” To that I respond, they’re both ideologies. When I compare Christianity with Islam, nobody says anything. When I compare Communism with Nazism, nobody says anything. But when I compare Islam with Nazism, everybody loses their mind.

To be fair, I think most Nazis are way worse than most Muslims. Most Muslims are great people. And this is the problem with Islam. The problem with Islam is that it does better job taking advantage of good people to sell its evil. Nazism doesn’t have the sugar-coating required for you to take advantage of enough good people for it to spread enough.

Religions like Islam and Christianity are destructive, but they also come with these sweet messages like “Love thy neighbor”, “Take care of the poor”, “Be kind to your parents”, “Take care of the elderly”. Stuff that people already did and would have done without religion.

In fact, these simplistic morality messages within these religions were already discussed in way more advanced and nuanced way by ancient philosophers thousands of years ago before the Bible and the Quran.

So it wasn’t their invention and people would have come to this conclusion because people, in general, are nice. On average, people are more sympathetic to their fellow human beings. But the Bible and Quran take the credit for this. And by taking credit for it they have an easier job to spread.

If you have an ideology talking about how you are the superior race and how Jews are evil and how everybody else is disgusting, if that’s your main message, it’s really hard for you to sell this and spread it because you have to rely on certain kind of people to spread this.

For example:

If I have a poison pill that tastes like shit and kills you right away, it’s really hard to spread this poison. But if I have a poison pill that is sugar coated and doesn’t kill you right away, then it’s easier for me to start selling this poison and spread it far and wide.

I think that’s the genius of Christianity and Islam. It’s not genius by design; it’s genius because these are memes that survive, just like we have the natural selection for genes. It’s the ideologies that can survive longer spread farther and infect more people.

Scott: How can you say that Islam is even close to what Nazis did?

Armin: Granted, Nazism is way more harmful per year in power. By harmful I mean has more victims. Per year in power, Nazism is way more harmful. But, Nazism cannot survive for long in power. It was in power as a government only in less than one generation. It’s not fully defeated but how many Nazi regimes do we have right now? Zero. How many Islamic regimes do we have right now? More than zero. Islamic regimes last longer. They had victims for the past 1400 years and still have victims today.

People tell me, “How can you say this right after what happened in Charlottesville? You have to adjust what you’re saying and take the political climate into consideration and adjust accordingly for you not to fuel hate.”

And I tell these people, “You’re being very selfish because you’re only looking at the political climate around where you live.”

That woman dying in Charlottesville was an absolute tragedy, but you have to understand while that one person died in the hands of Nazis, there are hundreds of people dying in Yemen because of the religiously-fueled Sunni-Shia-divided Yemen.

I hate Islam because I care about its victims which are mostly Muslims. Being anti-Islam is being pro-Muslim because the main victims of Islam are Muslims. This is not anti-Muslim hate. In fact, you cannot be anything but anti-Islam if you care about Muslims.

If you don’t stand against Islam you’re abandoning Muslim women, Muslim homosexuals, Shia Muslims under Sunni regimes, Sunni Muslims under Shia regimes, Baha’i Muslims, Sufi Muslims, Ismaili Muslims etc. Not enough people talk about Yemen because it doesn’t serve the Muslims narrative because these are Muslims killing Muslims. It doesn’t serve U.S. narrative because U.S. gets a shitload of money selling weapons. This is a war crime.

You think we’re being islamophobic? Saudi Arabia is bombing mosques in Yemen. How many people are dying by the hands of Nazis today? They ask me, “what’s the point of comparing Islam to Nazism?” The point is to show people’s priorities. Because people don’t care about their fellow human beings. People care about just what’s happening in their own backyard.

Consider this: which one is worse? The atomic bomb or the Kalashnikov?

Scott: Probably Kalashnikov in the hands of people over a long time.

Armin: Number of people who died by the Kalashnikov is way more than the atomic bomb.

People are more afraid of plane crashes than car accidents. Even though car accidents have way more victims. It’s the same with Nazism and Islam. Nazim, when it came to power, managed to destroy many lives in a short amount of time. But If you look at the larger impact of Islam, it should scare us more.

The leftists accuse us of being Islamophobic and we’re trying to tell them that no, we are criticizing ideas not people. My suggestion is forget the leftists, because what’s the point of criticizing Islam? A lot of people who criticizes Islam, they’re trying to warn the West. But Islam is coming and you can’t stop it. Unless you actually talk to Muslims. And more importantly, what you’re afraid might one day happen to your Western country, is already a reality for many Islamic countries. We need to stop playing defense. We need to reach out to Muslims in Islamic countries.

The best way to fight Islam is to reach out to Muslims. And the best way to reach out to Muslims is to befriend Muslims. Trying to convince Westerners and non-Muslim Westerners that are afraid, that’s not going to stop anything because this is an ideology and it will continue spreading unless you talk to the people that believe it.

In fact, the more people see Muslims themselves as the threat, the more people will victimize Muslims. The more you victimize Muslims, the more it helps Islam to grow. Religion feeds on being the victim. The only way to stop Islam is try to reach out to people. You can’t stop it by force. You have to actually try to convince people out of it. That’s the only way you can fight Islam.

The people we need to warn [about] Islam are Muslims. To be able to talk to Muslims [about] how bad Islam [is], we have to try to convince them that us being against Islam is not us being against Muslims. That’s a very hard thing to do but not as hard as most people think.

The reason why it’s very difficult is because most Muslims see Islam as part of their identity. But I think Muslims are much more than just Muslims just like an atheist is way more than just an atheist and a Christian is way more than just a Christian.

As an atheist, I’m a husband, I’m a humanist, feminist, Game of Thrones fan. I think every Muslim is more than just a Muslim. But we have to acknowledge that many Muslims see Islam as a major part of their identity. Our attack on Islam is not intended as a personal attack. Even when they see it a personal attack. We should invite them to take our intentions into consideration when they’re judging us. This is very important for Muslims because we are all looking for allies.

I tell Muslims that they might find things we’re saying offensive. But it’s better to be offended than to be discriminated against. We will challenge your ideas, but we will stand with you against those who challenge your rights. We will fight your ideas but we will defend your rights.

So you have to see us as allies because you need allies. We need you as our allies because the bigots are not just your enemies, they’re our enemies as well.

You also have to see that the left is not helping you. Not all of them but many people in the left that are saying “Don’t say these things”, “these are offensive”, “you’re attacking Muslims.” You must understand that they are the ones being bigots because they’re suggesting that you can’t take criticism. That you are like children who need protection from these Westerners. You can’t handle criticism of your ideas.

They don’t react to us when we criticize Christianity, only Islam. So you have to see that it’s a kind of bigotry because they’re suggesting that maybe Christians are mature enough for us to disagree with them. You must fight that.

What I’m waiting for is the day that some Muslims show the world that they are tolerant, that they’re not sensitive little “snowflakes” by opening their mosque to ex-Muslims speakers. Imagine if your mosque was the first mosque that invites an ex-Muslim speaker. Be that first mosque. Show the world that you can handle criticism.

My main point is we need to reach out to Muslims instead of the left. If we try to challenge Islam, Muslims should be our target.

It might feel like a personal attack but it’s not our intention.

I usually ask Muslims if they disagree with Christianity and the answer is always “yes”. Are you a Christianophobe or anti-Christian? Do you hate Christians? And they usually say “no”.

That’s just a very simple example to show why disagreeing on an ideology is not the same as hating them because they do it themselves. Every Muslim disagrees with Christianity but most Muslims won’t say they hate Christians or they’re anti-Christian.

Sometimes I hear some Muslims say it’s okay to criticize Islam but just don’t ridicule it. First of all, we must be able to ridicule what we want but whether that’s productive or not, I would tell you that I know a lot of Muslims that came to our page because they found something offensive and they stayed on our page, the Atheist Republic page, long enough for them to eventually doubt their beliefs. It was the offensive things that attracted them until they eventually left Islam.

Second, when we ridicule Islam, we’re not coming to a mosque and ridiculing Islam, we’re not going to a Muslim page and ridiculing Islam, we’re not going into your living room and telling you that your god is fake.

We are doing this on atheist pages, atheist websites, atheist twitter accounts. So if you’re seeing these contents you don’t like, you either don’t know how to block people that you don’t like or you’re actively looking for it. If it’s the first one, I suggest a search on YouTube on how to block a page. It’s either one of those things or if you’re curious, then you can’t tell us to stop because you’re the one on our platform.

If I were to defend mocking Islam when I’m talking to a Muslim, I tell them this:

“When I was a Muslim we used to make fun of other religions. Like I ask a Muslim, “Don’t you find it ridiculous that god could have a son?”

Every religion makes fun of other religions. If it’s okay for Muslims to make fun, then it’s okay for atheists to make fun of Islam.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Armin.

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2023-01-26

Interview with Allie Jackson – CEO, Atheist Republic Part 2

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (Blog)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/11/14

Jacobsen: If we’re looking at Atheist Republic, what are we looking at in terms of demographics?

Jackson: Not surprisingly, mostly male, I do look at the demographics that follow our page. We have ~70% men to ~30% women. It is uneven there. What I find is most of our followers are probably ex-Muslim, we have a huge American, Canadian, European following.

Jacobsen: Since they are mostly men, younger, and ex-Muslim, are these the countries that the ex-Muslim men, not necessarily flee to but, get away from the dominant Islamic culture?

Jackson: It always starts off with that is what they think is going to happen. However, it’s something very emotional for me. A family, an entire family, had to flee Pakistan over a man saying, “Atheists might not be that bad,” on social media. People ransacked his house.

They had to take his children and flee to an island north of Australia, which they got to them. Their asylum there. Then they had to go to the Philippines. Mostly, it is what you can afford. If you look at the atheist community, there are not a lot of groups that help with asylum.

Asylum costs money. People need to get to these countries. They need lawyers. If no lawyers, they are taken advantage of. There was an Iranian atheist I was helping. He got a lawyer that had no idea. He had no clue about these kinds of processes.

One of the letters he wrote cost this man his asylum. The wording he used cost him his asylum. When it was all submitted and the lawyer said, “I am sure it will be fine. He is scared to go back home,” no there was a video of an Islamic video describing the beheading they were going to give him when he returned to Iran.

That is not scared to go home. That is not, “I am scared someone might hurt me.” There are people actively trying to kill him. You must be so careful about what you say in these cases. People take advantage of these cases, take their money.

The Atheist Alliance International is one of the few atheist groups that they do help with this. So, everything I know about asylum, everything that I gather is from experience. I learn from one case at a time.

When I am constantly bombarded with people saying, “I need asylum. These people are going to kill me. These people found a letter I wrote. These people saw a text message I sent to somebody. They are going to kill me. My dad and family are going to kill me,” you can only sit there and listen to that as an emotional shoulder for so long.

After that, you must get your hands into this. You must start mapping out ideas for asylum. So, I hit the books. I mean non-literally [Laughing]. I hit Google. I started getting contacts and figuring out: What is the process? What can help?

Jacobsen: Who can help them?

Jackson: That is a hard question.

Jacobsen: Let’s say, within North America, if not necessarily help, then give guidance. Should they contact some branch of Amnesty International or another organization like that?

Jackson: The UNHCR, I have worked with them the past couple of months. We have been dealing with a couple reports on what they will do for asylum seekers, and for people from Islamic countries that are atheists seeking help, because many will not talk to me.

They won’t tell me what is going on. Although, I have sent letters to one of their clients, but they will not respond to me. Finally, I got letters from their legal department, reminding me that they won’t talk to me.

I have been considering them, asking, “What will you do for these people?” The Pakistani family – that I told you about – that after he had been denied, after I sent in a letter from Atheist Republic describing what this person was going through, and that it was a verified story.

The person called them and said that they had to leave and had 90 days. I began to cry. He said, “I can’t bring my family back to Pakistan. They are going to kill me. I committed blasphemy.” If they are going to work for ex-Muslims, or for people who are seeking refuge in another country because atheism is deadly in Islamic countries, they need to know this is an issue.

I said, “Who can I talk to so I can file a report, to help you guys help people? Do you know what atheists face in Islamic countries?” I have been getting little help by the legal department. It is difficult to tell people, “You can go to this or that person because they can help you.”

I feel as if I am doing that I am passing the buck. In this case, it is somebody’s life. I can’t live with that. It has been hard. We get so many cases flowing in. Once they contact this or that organization, often, they get denied. Those organizations have 50 people coming to them per day.

It is not that they don’t care. They do. But finding an organization that is big enough and can handle the load that needs help, I don’t think it exists.

Jacobsen: I think of two cases or themes. We both know women especially in religiously dominated countries – where religion and government are one and the same – that women are functionally or effectively second-class citizens.

Bearing in mind, the religion is mixed with the government. So, if it is costing money, as you noted, to take on these cases or to travel to another country and then pay for the legal assistance, if you’re a woman that is poor, it doesn’t even come out as an option.

It might explain some of the first waves of this, into more secular societies, being men, possibly. Men will have the finances to do so. I think of another case, not from that perspective, but internal to North America.

There are issues for non-believing women who – it is a sensibility, so it is not a firm argument – must work through the arts over decades to get some manner of influence. I think of Margaret Atwood.

Where she takes real cases, in parts, compiles them into a narrative, in some near-future dystopia, with the most famous example being The Handmaid’s Tale, which is coming out, I guess, in some television series, do these seem like possible trends – not from argument, but more from sensibilities and so very loose perceptions of things?

Jackson: It is hard for me. I think of women who are trapped in religion. I think of women who break out of religion, and why. In my time of doing what I do, I am not talking about the Atheist Republic work; I am talking about the one-on-one support group.

I met three women in two years, who have come out wanting help. People ask, “Why? Why is that?” I can only speak by what those few have told me. They understood that they were a slave. They understood where they were.

They said that their dream of becoming free was too great. To know there is a way to get out, and not pursue that dream, they would rather kill themselves. One woman was being abused by her husband.

Our communication didn’t get far. She said she lost faith in Islam. She had two children. Her husband beat her and her kids, and treated her terribly. The last communication I got from her said, “He found our communications. I have to say, ‘Goodbye.’”

I don’t know what happened to her. I don’t know if she ever got out. More than likely, she was probably killed trying to leave her husband, leave Islam. It is not a kind world to women. It is frustrating because, on the one hand, everyone has a right to an opinion. But on the other hand, I think people should want to become more educated on topics to hold the right opinion because when it comes to women in countries, it is heartbreaking. It is so heartbreaking what they must go through.

There are women who have taken Stockholm Syndrome. We know women who are captured by men. People who are captured by other people will begin to identify with their captors. But, I’m sorry. When I see some women get up and say, “This is freedom for me,” I can’t help thinking of the women who felt that was slavery for them.

So, it is one of the things we were talking about earlier. We can’t block people. We can’t say, ‘All Muslims. All Christians.” I can’t say, “All women.” But I can say, ‘One woman’s freedom is another woman’s slavery.’

I think people who want to speak out against women being forced to wear a burqa. They don’t want to wear a burqa. I think that is perfectly valid. I think that we in America, and the West, need to stop looking at the burqa as a form of liberation.

It may be a form of liberation for some women, but let’s not block women. Let’s not put them into a block and say, “This is freedom for you. Take it.” It makes no sense. It is a contradictory statement [Laughing].

“You wearing that is a signal of your freedom.” It is hard.

Jacobsen: Going back to some of your Baptist roots, when you were in interaction as a very strong believer – Fox News, Baptist with father from an Abrahamic tradition, what was your perception of those that were out-and-out atheists – who were outspoken, articulate, and bold?

Jackson: I didn’t feel they existed. I didn’t believe. My dad would tell me about these people who didn’t believe in God. I though they may live in the jungle in a tribe, so that was why they didn’t believe. I didn’t think they existed.

Who wouldn’t want the love of God? I couldn’t even comprehend it.

Jacobsen: If you look at statistics, America has a prominent level of belief in angels, efficacy of prayer, demons, heaven, and so on. Did you see what you deemed “evil” behavior as influenced by a real devil, a real Satan?

Jackson: Absolutely, I thoroughly believed in demons and Satan. I thought that, maybe, I had been possessed by a demon, who was taking over my thoughts or allowing me to focus on ungodly things and wants and desires.

I thought that could happen. When I was a child, my mother constantly talked about demons and hell. She put a huge fear of demons in us. I remember not being able to sleep because I was praying to God to keep me safe. I thought I did something bad, and so a demon would come.

My mom said we were possessed when I was a baby. She was recording babble when I was a baby. Obviously, it showed she wanted to hear the recording for some reason. It said, “Come with me mama, the baby wants you to go to hell.”

So, she had our preacher come by and exorcise the house, bless the house, if you will. Now, that I look back at the story and all the things she claimed would happen, such as doors opening and closing shut all at once in the house – cabinets would open and close all the time.

When I look back at what had to have happened because she gave the tape to my dad and her pastor, who said that to the recording? Demons aren’t real. I know that. I know demons aren’t real. It is amazing when you stop believing in demons how all that fear goes away.

No more possession and fear of possession. What lengths do people go to keep their beliefs? Is it really to the point of faking a tape, so that your preacher will come to the house and bless it? I looked at the things I did as well, to keep my faith.

The various positions I would take and try to rationalize how God allow rape and slavery. I would rationalize these things in my head, to make it okay for me to keep my belief. People will go through very strange rituals to prove what they believe is real. Scary.

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, and the openness to express sensitive issues.

Jackson: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about the issues and get a chance to tell people what we do at the Atheist Republic.

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