Gregory Chaitin’s The Unknowable is billed as the companion volume to his Limits of Mathematics, though it also, in many ways stands on its own. In this work, Chaitin sets out to explain the way that his work follows from Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem and Turing’s Halting Problem. The story begins with the mathematician David Hilbert… Continue reading The Unknowable by Gregory Chaitin
Category: Book Reviews
Economics of Attention Ch 5-8
Chapter 5 In Chapter 5, Lanham attempts to highlight the two different ways of seeing once again, through an at or through form of attention. Focusing in one way tends to mean we don’t focus in the other way. For example, Lanham gives the research who specializes in a topic, and can even teach that topic well, but struggles to put… Continue reading Economics of Attention Ch 5-8
Economics of Attention Ch4: An Alphabet that Thinks
Back to Chapter 3. I know you’re wondering about the image. I’ll get there! In this chapter, Lanham explains that ebooks have almost entirely attempted to simply reproduce print books. This is so much the case, that often the ebooks you find for sale are just PDF copies of the original book. Why would… Continue reading Economics of Attention Ch4: An Alphabet that Thinks
Economics of Attention Ch3: What’s Next for Text
Back to chapter 2. The third chapter of Economics of Attention is where things start to get really interesting, at least for my interests. Lanham traces the evolution of text in an attempt to understand how it’s been used to convey meaning in ways that are beyond the actual meaning of the words. These… Continue reading Economics of Attention Ch3: What’s Next for Text
Economics of Attention Chapter 2
Back to Chapter 1. This chapter explores the art of Warhol and the Dada Movement as part of its argument that {fluff,style,rhetoric} has made a come back and is equally, if not more important than actual stuff: “The lesson was simple and, once learned, tedious. Art is not stuff made out of stuff taken from the earth’s… Continue reading Economics of Attention Chapter 2
Economics of Attention: Chapter 1
Back to introduction. The preface and first chapter of [amazon_link id=”0226468674″ target=”_blank” ]Economics of Attention[/amazon_link] attempt to set the stage for what is to come. The author tells us that this book is written to answer the narrow question: “What happens when words move from printed page to electronic screen?” The answer, it turns out, is… Continue reading Economics of Attention: Chapter 1
An Educational Philosophy Contrast
vs. [amazon_link id=”B006QS0MDU” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link] In what may be described as an overzealous use of the library, my first trip to Wake County libraries consisted of searching for “Montessori” and checking out every in-stock book that appeared. While mostly successful, a few books that weren’t really Montessori related slipped under the… Continue reading An Educational Philosophy Contrast
Philosophy Book Review: The Montessori Method
As a follow-up to the reading of Dewey’s Democracy and Education, I recently read The Montessori Method. Written in 1914, it purports to be one of – if not the first – attempt at scientific pedagogy. The emphasis is on designing education around a method that actually works for the way children behave naturally, rather than… Continue reading Philosophy Book Review: The Montessori Method
Philosophy Book Club: One World
I recently read Peter Singer’s [amazon_link id=”0300103050″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]One World[/amazon_link] while working on lesson plans for a Governor’s School course proposal. Although some of the information in here is a bit outdated, the overal premise is still relevant and extremely important to think about as the trend toward globalization continues to increase. The most… Continue reading Philosophy Book Club: One World
Umberto Eco’s History of Beauty
An important piece of preparing for my upcoming aesthetic’s course is [amazon_link id=”0847835308″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Umberto Eco’s History of Beauty. [/amazon_link] Eco claims to take a look at beauty historically with no preconceived notions. As far as that task goes, it’s a huge success, and I was personally introduced to a wide variety of artistic styles with… Continue reading Umberto Eco’s History of Beauty