worKIn on IT

Notes on the KI Symposium on Nov 15, 2007

The symposium invited two much-lauded professors from NUS and that made me look forward to hearing from them again–Helmer Aslaksen (Mathematics in Arts and Architecture) and KP Mohanan (Research Workshop). I thought the former had a humble presentation which would open the eyes of KI-beginners, while the latter’s reminded me quite entirely of what I had learnt in the good old days. Chris Smith, the last speaker, had a really interesting presentation which presented an alternative way to deliver a lesson even when you are down with a sore throat. David Fahy (CJC), the presenter of a “Concurrent Session” on Knowledge Inquiry and Atom Autonomy and Anatomy, gave a very thought-enriching seminar that threw me back to the times of academic discourse not so long ago. (“The presentation involves reference to the use of Cartesian doubt/ skeptical inquiry in the construction of so-called scientific knowledge using the claimed existence of atoms in all the matter of the physical universe by way of illustration, and the further claim that the entire world [world in the sense of everything that exists] is made up of nothing but atoms.”)

I reproduce here the personal and very abstract notes of the sessions:

– Wittgenstein: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. DF Pears & BF McGuiness; Routledge, 2006. => see it in e light of NSM ~ say what you can ascertain & leave those that can’t unsaid => maxim of relation, quality

– “1421: China discovered the world” & “1421: Myth exposed” => source reliability; pseudo-citations => technology enables credibility to be more easily established perhaps

– Da Vinci Code, Golden Ration: fact or fiction?

– Are we looking for originality (arts’ view) or understanding (math’s view) in works?

– physiognomy

-“The sun rises from the east” => the sun moves about e Earth => an age old belief => becoming a common way of saying

– all knowledge can be doubted but the degree of reasonable doubts is what makes knowledge credible or not.

– www.shambles.net/web2

– slideshare.net

– Are higher levels of thinking not able to be attained with tools technologically driven?

– Can digital equality bridge the knowledge divide?

– Length of serious academic discussions–restrictions sometimes don’t do justice to the quality. Digressions are necessary.

– “All knowledge begins with our first experiences of the world.”

– A question of one and only world view of a subject, or a dominant world view of the subject?

– “The Value of True Belief” by Richard Swinburne in Epistemic Justification VS False beliefs are equally useful (~Bernard Williams, Oxford [myths, lunacy]) => Qn: How we arrive at our beliefs? The processes.

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(ST, Oct 11, 2007) A pretty creative Singaporean ad.

Last GP lesson

There is a GP lecture at the Audi this Fri 9 Nov 2007 from 10.30am to 12.30pm. Please turn up for a surprise!