LoTM's Laws

(fm the BC thread "Flower in a Crannied Wall")

novanglus,
“The entropy of a system not in equilibrium will increase over time”

The Universe is governed by Entropy and Inertia. That means that things tend to go to Hell and stay there. The countervailing force is called variously Intelligence or Wisdom or Sentience. It is what gives us Reason, including a reason for Hope. We can get the universe off the dime. Our mind and will combine to make Archimedes' Lever. With them we can achieve amazing things.

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novanglus,
By Hope I do not mean an expectation of an outcome but a recognition of variability arising from the dimension of time. If you believe that the future can only be more of the present then you are in Flatland and there is no reason to use your reason as you cannot expect change to happen. If you believe that change can happen then you have a motivation to act and since actions have consequences there will be at least the possibility of a more desirable future. This quality uses reason and sentience but it is not dependent on logic, it is a condition that emanates from the variability of our existence. Truly, where there is life there is hope.

Regarding Archimedes and the lawyers, that sounds like a dirty joke or at least an invitation to speculate on how a Sicilian would resolve impositions by the arrogant and elitist, but I do have thoughts on restoring a more practical education to our future professional leadership. My first suggestion is to put everyone through 6 months of universal military training after their 17th birthday would expose people to certain practical problem solving situations that would benefit in many ways. It would ensure that most future academics and lawyers would, as their predecessors did, have a sympathy for just those engineering principles that you espouse. This would provide an anchor to their legal and theoretical deliberations that should on the margin prove helpful.

The secondary school curriculum should be revised to include basic accounting for all, now it is offered if at all only to the slower vocational track students, as well as Junior Achievement style entrepreneurship studies, Series 7 training, and basic shop skills classes. The inclusion or restoration of these will leave little room I fear for classes on gender identification for those aged 15 and campaigns to support the political interests of the Teacher's Union.

RWE,
(who takes 194 more words to explain why space debris is bad)

Space shrapnel or Cosmic buckshot.

May 20, 2010 - 4:23 pm