Re: Mind's Eye Re: A Call To Democratic Arms?

My last was a lab-shepherd with high energy till he grew old- age 13.
Also had a Chesapeake Bay retriever- another large dog that loves
water. I have a large backyard but he really needed a field- stream-
woods,etc. This cold is hard on paws- some fit their dogs with
sweaters and booties.//Yes- it does seem the Brits collapse in snow
and unusual weather but it's a strange year- even Jerusalem could make
snowmen this year. Anyway- happy travels today.

On Jan 22, 12:56 am, archytas <nwte...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Max loves the snow - though we rarely drop much below freezing here
> even with wind-chill.  I'm off into Manchester today, assuming out
> trains run on a quarter of an inch of snow,
>
> On Jan 22, 1:07 am, Molly <mollyb...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > brrr.  We might be there overnight.  The deep freeze.  Wonderful
> > world.  We move through it regardless.
>
> > On Jan 21, 10:24 am, rigs <rigs...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > My earlier post has been diverted to outer space, it seems.
>
> > > That loneliness may be a cover, you know.
>
> > > Saul Bellow was a rascal.
>
> > > The speed of information leads to surprise and a protean miss, often.
> > > I look for patterns in history/culture and try to keep two columns-
> > > pro and con with hope for the margins. The top tiers of government are
> > > usually the culprits rather than their off-spring- and it's true of
> > > tribes as well as complicated systems- the buck really does stop- even
> > > in suitcases of cash and packets of Viagra.
>
> > > My "dog" would need diapers- we're at -30 wind chill factor.
>
> > > On Jan 21, 6:10 am, archytas <nwte...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > Of course, I don't expect anything tangled-up with government and
> > > > academic bureaucracy to produce much practical.  The gist was once
> > > > that we should aim for praxis, a form of rational action.  For some
> > > > the guide was marxism, but most of us grew up with a form of Keynesian
> > > > guide - the economics of full employment and FDR's never completed
> > > > second Bill of Rights.  More recently we have reverted to the control
> > > > fraud of banksters and neo-classical economics.  I was never much
> > > > interested in the 'grand theory' - as a cop I was more interested in
> > > > what people were hiding and lying about, as scientist the grand was
> > > > excluded as rigorously as possible a the laboratory door and as a
> > > > university teacher I was more interested in developing resourceful
> > > > humans than daft, religious managerial theories.  As a kid, my elder
> > > > brother and sister always claimed I changed the goalposts in argument
> > > > and as I grew up I discovered this was what argument was generally
> > > > about - the goalposts changing name to root metaphor and paradigm.
> > > > Experts in argument are bought like lawyers and have about the same
> > > > ethics.  When Socrates gestures at the Sophists claiming 'I know
> > > > nothing, but even this is to know more than they' he is just being the
> > > > smartest guy in the room.
> > > > We say 'jaw-jaw' is better than 'war-war' - but there is no crucial
> > > > experiment to decide in 'jaw-jaw'.  The problem with argument is that
> > > > it needs arbitration if human beings are involved in it and the seeds
> > > > of its own destruction are laid in most people having no training in
> > > > how it is constructed.  If you get some training in this you can be
> > > > bought like a lawyer as a mouthpiece.  Machine knowledge bases and
> > > > reasoning capacity potentially offer a democratisation of argument
> > > > expertise, manufacturing capability, medicine, finance and much more -
> > > > evidence-based practice for all.  In practice, doing management
> > > > information systems, one soon learns those currently in the know want
> > > > to keep things that way.  I believe the professions are currently
> > > > preventing this as surely as those smashing machines in the industrial
> > > > revolution.  I believe this is the central issue of the moment - and
> > > > my reasons concern the dream I have of the precipice of disgusting
> > > > war,the dullness of politics, religion and literature.  Economic
> > > > growth is nearly all uninteresting - FlopBook and so on - and rarely
> > > > about the growth of capital I would value.  Would we could dream up
> > > > something else - and why we cannot when 2% of labour can provide our
> > > > food.  I miss any sense of collective dreaming and find only the
> > > > loneliness more 'primitive' people I've met would comment on in the
> > > > first blush of their experience amongst us.
>
> > > > On Jan 21, 9:18 am, archytas <nwte...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > > Those who have contributed to the thread have shown me there isn't
> > > > > much general awareness of the 'technology'.  There are already
> > > > > intelligent systems like Watson (IBM) doing a fair job on embodied
> > > > > expert knowledge (medical in this case).  The general idea is in this
> > > > > from New Scientist:
>
> > > > > In your wildest dreams, could you imagine a government that builds its
> > > > > policies on carefully gathered scientific evidence? One that publishes
> > > > > the rationale behind its decisions, complete with data, analysis and
> > > > > supporting arguments? Well, dream no longer: that's where the UK is
> > > > > heading.
>
> > > > > It has been a long time coming, according to Chris Wormald, permanent
> > > > > secretary at the Department for Education. The civil service is not
> > > > > short of clever people, he points out, and there is no lack of desire
> > > > > to use evidence properly. More than 20 years as a serving politician
> > > > > has convinced him that they are as keen as anyone to create effective
> > > > > policies. "I've never met a minister who didn't want to know what
> > > > > worked," he says. What has changed now is that informed policy-making
> > > > > is at last becoming a practical possibility.
>
> > > > > That is largely thanks to the abundance of accessible data and the
> > > > > ease with which new, relevant data can be created. This has supported
> > > > > a desire to move away from hunch-based politics.
>
> > > > > Last week, for instance, Rebecca Endean, chief scientific advisor and
> > > > > director of analytical services at the Ministry of Justice, announced
> > > > > that the UK government is planning to open up its data for analysis by
> > > > > academics, accelerating the potential for use in policy planning.
>
> > > > > At the same meeting, hosted by innovation-promoting charity NESTA,
> > > > > Wormald announced a plan to create teaching schools based on the model
> > > > > of teaching hospitals. In education, he said, the biggest single
> > > > > problem is a culture that often relies on anecdotal experience rather
> > > > > than systematically reported data from practitioners, as happens in
> > > > > medicine. "We want to move teacher training and research and practice
> > > > > much more onto the health model," Wormald said.
>
> > > > > Test, learn, adapt
>
> > > > > In June last year the Cabinet Office published a paper called "Test,
> > > > > Learn, Adapt: Developing public policy with randomised controlled
> > > > > trials". One of its authors, the doctor and campaigning health
> > > > > journalist Ben Goldacre, has also been working with the Department of
> > > > > Education to compile a comparison of education and health research
> > > > > practices, to be published in the BMJ.
>
> > > > > In education, the evidence-based revolution has already begun. A
> > > > > charity called the Education Endowment Foundation is spending £1.4
> > > > > million on a randomised controlled trial of reading programmes in 50
> > > > > British schools.
>
> > > > > There are reservations though. The Ministry of Justice is more
> > > > > circumspect about the role of such trials. Where it has carried out
> > > > > randomised controlled trials, they often failed to change policy, or
> > > > > even irked politicians with conclusions that were obvious. "It is not
> > > > > a panacea," Endean says.
>
> > > > > Power of prediction
>
> > > > > The biggest need is perhaps foresight. Ministers often need instant
> > > > > answers, and sometimes the data are simply not available. Bang goes
> > > > > any hope of evidence-based policy.
>
> > > > > "The timescales of policy-making and evidence-gathering don't match,"
> > > > > says Paul Wiles, a criminologist at the University of Oxford and a
> > > > > former chief scientific adviser to the Home Office. Wiles believes
> > > > > that to get round this we need to predict the issues that the
> > > > > government is likely to face over the next decade. "We can probably
> > > > > come up with 90 per cent of them now," he says.
>
> > > > > Crucial to the process will be convincing the public about the value
> > > > > and use of data, so that everyone is on-board. This is not going to be
> > > > > easy. When the government launched its Administrative Data Taskforce,
> > > > > which set out to look at data in all departments and opening it up so
> > > > > that it could be used for evidence-based policy, it attracted minimal
> > > > > media interest.
>
> > > > > The taskforce's remit includes finding ways to increase trust in data
> > > > > security. Then there is the problem of whether different departments
> > > > > are legally allowed to exchange data. There are other practical
> > > > > issues: many departments format data in incompatible ways. "At the
> > > > > moment it's incredibly difficult," says Jonathan Breckon, manager of
> > > > > the Alliance for Useful Evidence, a collaboration between NESTA and
> > > > > the Economic and Social Research Council.
>
> > > > > Hearts, minds and funding
>
> > > > > There are economic issues. Most of the predictable areas where data
> > > > > and evidence would be useful span different departments, and funding
> > > > > for research that involves multiple government departments is near-
> > > > > impossible to come by at the moment. "Only counter-terrorism gets
> > > > > cross-departmental funding," Wiles says.
>
> > > > > And those at the frontline of all this may also need convincing. Some
> > > > > teachers have already expressed reservations. There may be problems
> > > > > with parents not wanting their children to take part in education
> > > > > trials. For instance, in a control group they will feel left out of
> > > > > innovation; in the experimental arm they will worry that the old ways
> > > > > were better. What's more, teachers
>
> ...
>
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