[MD] The Academy is Evil! Here's what I'd do instead...

[Platt Holden]

On Sat, Dec 4, 2010 at 1:13 AM, 118 <ununoctiums at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> There has been little written on the process of natural selection
> itself, except that it may be somewhat random.  So random mutation
> facing random selection, causes ordered life.  In my opinion, any
> proclamation of randomness is simply another word for God.  If we do
> not understand it, we call it random.  In this way, the theory has not
> evolved either, it is still based on mysticism.
>

Platt
Exactly. Also, if we do not understand it we call it "emergence."

Mark
> Oh, one final point on a statement of yours (that I deleted) saying
> that nobody in the Academy fears new ideas.  I would have to disagree.
>  There is constant fear that one's own position will be destroyed by a
> new idea.  New ideas are suppressed much more than they are accepted.
> This is a predominant aspect of Academia, in my opinion.  It is not
> just a bunch of congenial professors having coffee.  The competition
> is awesome.  Groups hold together defending each other.  Dissenters
> become outcasts.  I have seen this.  Personally I have always stayed
> out of this group behavior.
>

Platt
Then there are those professors who base their course on a book they
have written and require their students to buy it, otherwise known as
a protection racket. .