University Diaries

I'm strongly resisting the urge to send this link to everyone I know, but I know that it would be taken the wrong way.

No, I know that it would actually be interpreted correctly, that is as critical of positions that some people I know take as both self-evident and personal. This became apparent when a friend and I were discussing Edward Tufte's criticism of PowerPoint and Peter Norvig's hysterical reductio ad absurdum approach to that almost omnipresent software.

We were laughing at PowerPoint, at least in part because Norvig and Tufte are both funny, and there are apparently some things that should not be mocked. We succeeded in giving offense.

The sights of Worcester

One of the most intriquing sites to see in Worcester are the remains of the older Worcester State Hospital. This complex was apparently an example of Kirkbride Buildings, and the Worcester site is represented in about haf of the photographs in the slide show at the kirkbridge site.

The crumbling remains are part of the current State Hospital campus on the Biotech Park side of the campus. It's easier to get to by way of the Bioteach roads. The view from the clock tower must have been truly breathtaking back before UMASS Medical was constructed and White City became an eye-sore. Like any place else in Worcester, you can get here by turning at Dunkin' Donuts and going up hill.

For Foucault fans, the complex includes what seems to have been a panopticon. For non-Foucault fans, this was a round building with places for inmates around the walls and a place for a guard or, in this case a nurse or orderly, to be able to watch any of the inmate s at any time.

For X-files fans, one episode based in Worcester MA features a hospital with an entrance and clock tower that very closely resemble the Worcester Sanatorium building. I belive this was the second season episode Excelsis Dei, but there were at least two X-files episodes that featured action in a Worcester hospital setting and I'm not so interested that I'll put in the necessary google time to figure this out.

Leiter Reports: "Drebenized"

There have been several times this semester when I have had reason to mention this "Dreben" character, usually when we (in the 20th Century class) were reading some passage or other by Quine.

I had the chance to take a seminar on Wittgenstein with Dreben when I was at BU, though I've seen large lecture sections with fewer people in regular attendance.

My one memorably exchange with Dreben occurred when I asked him about how he would interpret my actions if I were to come into class with a duck strapped to my head. He had been trying to make a point about the difficulty assigning adjectives such as insane or irrational. The duck comments managed to bring him up short for the moment since at that moment, it did seem to be an unambiguously irrational activity.

In any case, there's an interesting discussion of Dreben's influence on
Leiter Reports

edit: this post has been duplicated on both of my blogs, sorry.

Isaac Asimov

I was reminded by reading the Isaac Asimov entry in Wikipedia that he "has works in every major category of the Dewey Decimal System except Philosophy." This time I was really struck by the fact that before I read Plato, before I read Godel, Escher Bach, before I had read much else at all in fact, Asimov had been my first real encounter with reading as way to play with ideas.

Much of Asimov's fiction had less developed characters, and sometimes less action, than the Platonic dialogs. Science fiction, thought experiment wedded to literary craft, has philosophy running through it. At least the good stuff does, I suppose that a standard shoot 'em with laser guns counts as science fiction as well, but that's not what the good doctor wrote. He wrote relatively unadorned experiments in thought. Not all the time, he is famous in part for the breadth of his output.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who was lead from Asimov to playing with ideas to philosophy. In a sense Asimov is a little like a low level drug dealer pushing a gateway drug to kids on the play ground. "Take a hit, first one's free", but then after its too late and you've got a serious habit, you find out that he never touched the stuff.

first attempt

first attempt
Originally uploaded by pbroderi.

Since I put new pictures up on flickr, I find myself compelled to constantly go back and look at them over and over again.

Success at last.

Success at last.
Originally uploaded by pbroderi.

The smile of a baby is an elusive quarry. Although quite common, they are also fleeting. Jeremy and I really had to work together to get this picture.