In Life there are three lines: the Life of Pleasure, the Life in Society, and the Life of Contemplation – Aristotle
This is, as always, a time of change. Our purpose here will be to comment on almost any topic of interest in a world of constant change, including, but not necessarily limited to, change occurring as a result of new developments in science and technology.
There are many potential areas of interest to choose from and we won’t try to list them all here. They can be found in physics, biology, computing, mathematics, economics, education, and indeed every area of scientific or social inquiry. We’ll not only examine, from our own point of view, some of the interesting things that are happening, but perhaps how and why, as well. We’ll also want to look seriously at the implications from a humanistic point of view, and what those implications may mean to ourselves and to our future quality of life.
If change must occur, it will be much better if we understand where it is leading us. We need to examine issues related to whether or not new innovations will improve our lives or perhaps even threaten them, and in what ways, so that we may prepare for the future with some understanding, and confidence that we may be able to deal with whatever the future may bring.
It is said that there is nothing new under the sun, and indeed our ancestors thousands of years ago pondered these same kinds of issues and asked the same kinds of questions that we may ask today. Of particular merit was the work of the ancient Greek scholars, and we will take cues from the likes of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and many who followed them. The message here is that perhaps we need to add a somewhat philosophical element to our undertaking, and that is just what we have in mind – in the form of serious contemplation.
In this website you will find venues for not only reporting and commenting on new developments, in the blog itself, but also a place for imaginary dialogues in the Socratic tradition, where we can ask and try to find answers or directions for further thought on matters related to what is happening in our world. As time goes on, we may well add other venues for discussion and further thought on any matter of interest or concern. And then, lest we forget our humanity, there should always be room for light-hearted commentary of any kind, and I have chosen poetry as a form of expression, sometimes just for fun, and sometimes as an alternative form of expression about anything that might be of interest.
Finally, you may be wondering about the author of this blog. More will be said from time to time as he refers to his own experience and knowledge base. Briefly, the author has reached the point in life where he feels entitled to wax philosophical on perhaps many things. The author sees himself as an observer, just like you, possibly enlightened, possessing a certain amount of real-life experience, and possibly just having a certain dash of common sense to bring to bear on issues that are sometimes greater than any of us can well handle.
The author is a former professor and holder of an endowed university chair. He was also a long-time consultant to one of our largest industries, and found time to run his own entrepreneurial ventures, as well. He is semi-retired. He has had a truly interesting life with opportunities to work on many things of interest, including early work on computer generated music, optical computing, multidimensional digital signal processing and scientific computing. He has worked with the elements of artificial intelligence, and tends to view things from a point of view of dynamic systems, which in his opinion relate to just about everything in our dynamic world of experience. Okay, enough of that for now, there will be time for many things to come.
Aristotle famously observed that in life there are three lines: the life of pleasure, the life in society, and the third line is the life of contemplation. What could be more fitting than to follow the lead of Aristotle into the life of contemplation, when there are so many interesting things to contemplate (and just possibly so little time to do so, as well)?
At the time of his trial in Athens, Socrates reportedly told the judges who condemned him, “a life not investigated is a life not worth living”. Let us then begin our investigation with contemplation of whatever may be deemed to be of interest and importance in our lives.
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