Comments by Crossman

1. Biologists Take Evolution Beyond Darwin Way Beyond

Comment #156104 by Crossman on April 6, 2008 at 6:49 pm

#28: I think you may be right that group selection might work in that case; however, the general problem with group selection is when it postulates traits that are beneficial to the group but *harmful* (i.e. reduce reproductive fitness) at the individual level.

If the trait is neutral at the individual level there's probably no problem.

However, it occurs to me that having a trait that helps one's own group is also directly beneficial to one's own fitness. So I find it hard to imagine a trait beneficial to the group but *strictly* neutral to the individual.

2. Biologists Take Evolution Beyond Darwin Way Beyond

Comment #155875 by Crossman on April 6, 2008 at 7:46 am

This is all a little vague. Probably Wired's fault. I don't like this tendency to explain things by invoking "emergence". Ultimately, everything above the level of quarks is an "emergent" phenomenon. So calling something "emergence" doesn't explain anything.

You might as well just invoke "magic" and be done with it.

Edit: I should acknowledge the author who convinced me of this:

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/08/the-futility-of.html

3. Murder plot against Danish cartoonist

Comment #126257 by Crossman on February 12, 2008 at 8:06 pm

babrock:

I don't know. There's a sort of vicious circle being formed: they attack our freedom of speech, so we repeat the speech even louder, which makes their protests more intense and violent, which makes us speak louder still, and so on.

Where does this end? We're not going to stop having freedom of speech and they're not going to stop wanting respect for their prophet. I don't see a way out except for both sides to just agree to draw a line under the whole thing.... until next time....

4. Murder plot against Danish cartoonist

Comment #126248 by Crossman on February 12, 2008 at 7:38 pm

jaster:

"I find it unfortunate that so many people are ignorant/naive on the specifics of torture, but are quick to condemn all facets of it."

The naive argument is to assume that all or most torture can be justified with the "ticking bomb" sort of logic. How much torture is actually justified? A tiny percentage. The real world isn't like 24.

"But I reiterate, I am not in favor of torture except in those rare cases where a captive may have vital information that could be used to save lives or assets."

Well, exactly. There's too much of the other sort.

[Edited since I had missed that bit of your post I quoted second]

5. Murder plot against Danish cartoonist

Comment #126239 by Crossman on February 12, 2008 at 6:47 pm

agn et al:

"If in a sizable population there are one hundred rebels, all of whom are then rounded up and killed, the number of rebels present at the end of the day is not zero, and not even one hundred, but two hundred or three hundred or more; an equation based on human nature which seems often to baffle the military and political mind." -- Iain M. Banks

Replace "killed" with "tortured" and we're basically there. Any mistreatment of "the enemy" is a bad idea. It's a propaganda victory for the other side.

6. Banks are helping sharia make a back-door entrance

Comment #116618 by Crossman on January 26, 2008 at 8:22 pm

There's so much unthinking bile on this board it's troubling. All that's happening is that banks, which are private companies, are offering MORE CHOICE in their "products".

Now, I take a rather low view of the banking industry, but equating MORE CHOICE with the imposition of Sharia Law on the population is just silly. Nobody's being forced into anything.

7. Controversial Anti-Muslim Dutch Film Adds to Already Simmering Tensions

Comment #97747 by Crossman on December 12, 2007 at 3:14 pm

"Wilders makes the point that books like 'Mein Kampf' are banned Holland, except as reference books, so why not the Koran?"

There are both principled and practical objections. The principle of free speech has been asserted many times in this thread. On the practical side, the hardliners think the West is out to wage war on Islam. I want them to be proved wrong, not right, otherwise their appeal can only grow.

8. Controversial Anti-Muslim Dutch Film Adds to Already Simmering Tensions

Comment #97559 by Crossman on December 12, 2007 at 11:00 am

"Four months ago, he called for the Koran to be outlawed in the Netherlands."

Bah. It's stuff like this that gets us labels like "secular fundamentalists". We mustn't be like this.

9. Daniel Dennett Debates Dinesh D'Souza

Comment #94120 by Crossman on December 4, 2007 at 9:05 pm

Agreeing with you somewhat steve99, I believe the fine-tuning argument is a very good argument for God, one of very few that I take really seriously. But the fine-tuning argument does have to make one extra assumption that is seldom made explicit: namely that there is only one universe.

If there are a great many universes then the whole argument falls to bits. And I would suggest that there's just no evidence that would enable us to say how many universes there are.

10. The Transcendental Argument for God

Comment #81433 by Crossman on October 24, 2007 at 5:56 pm

Evolution explains how rational beings, albeit with lots of biases, can come about through non-rational forces over millions of years.

11. Dan Dennett award and speech at AAI 07

Comment #79662 by Crossman on October 18, 2007 at 5:18 am

Does anyone know what his Turkish phrase means? "Her insan dogar, yasar, ve olur"... I've been wondering for ages.