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Big Ideas from my Intellectual Adventures
- ACCOUNTING – Being a mathematics major in college, accounting always seemed an obvious corollary (joke intended). Hey… math jokes are hard to find… take them where you can find them!
- ASTRO-PHOTOGRAPHY – Ever since I started solo-camping, I have enjoyed the night sky. In November 2023, I used my iPhone 14 Pro to do some amateur astrophotography. The next question was, “Could I upload one of my night sky photos to an app that would tell me what part of the sky I was looking at?” Turns out….. YES!…. The website is Astrometry.net. You can upload an astronomical image of the sky, and they will give you back astrometric calibration meta-data, plus lists of known objects falling inside the field of view. Very cool!!!
- PHILOSOPHY – I took a philosophy class in 1982 on Critical Thinking. I enjoyed it a lot. In 2023, I restarted my philosophical journey by enrolling in a 1 year Certificate in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. My professor is urging me to say a lot about a little. It’s currently very difficult for me, but it’s exactly what I want to be doing. Unfortunately, I have a long journey ahead to meaningfully distill my thoughts, focus my intellect, and sharpen my communication. In only 3 months, I have discovered that…
- I am a “Compatibilist” – causal determinism is true, but humans still act as free, morally responsible agents when, in the absence of external constraints, our actions are caused by our desires.
- I am a “Mind-Body Dualist” – there are two kinds of substances: mental and physical. The mental can exist outside of the body, and the body cannot think.
- I am an “Interactionist” – matter and mind are two distinct and independent substances that exert causal effects on one another.
- I am an “Ethicist” – humans are morally responsible for their actions.
- I am a “Causal Dialecticist” – humans are “adequate causes” of our own actions, though not the “sole and unique” cause of them.
- I am a “Chaotic-Compatibilist” (my own term) – a version of compatibilism that adds: (1) uncertainty, (2) alternative possibilities, (3) causal feedback of INUS[1]1 conditions and (4) irrationality.
- PHYSICS – Mathematics was my first love, but I always wanted to see how it applied to real-life. Physics is the answer.