tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28189019.post3103676039879720985..comments2023-11-03T11:37:04.473+00:00Comments on nothing new under the sun: The worst mistake in the history of the human racebyron smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17938334606675769903noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28189019.post-37370847475653942502008-02-24T21:47:00.000+00:002008-02-24T21:47:00.000+00:00Part of that discipline should be keeping track of...<I>Part of that discipline should be keeping track of, and giving other people a sense of, what sort of argument is being made.</I><BR/>I agree, and his equation of archeology with the natural sciences in the opening paragraph doesn't help this.byron smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17938334606675769903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28189019.post-35675171927877660152008-02-23T12:13:00.000+00:002008-02-23T12:13:00.000+00:00[I will try to keep my grammar under control this ...[I will try to keep my grammar under control this time.] <BR/><BR/>The story about the progress of civilisation, in which the development of agriculture and the growth of cities are prominent, will do as a myth: it's widely-known, gets presumed in all sorts of discussions without the participants necessarily noticing, grounds other stories, and lets people place themselves. Is it true? <BR/><BR/>Bruce Yabsleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10091471695711534450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28189019.post-2625621366465195012008-02-23T05:58:00.000+00:002008-02-23T05:58:00.000+00:00Hey Byron. Etiquette demands that I say something ...Hey Byron. Etiquette demands that I say something conciliatory here and tie off the discussion. Perhaps reflecting on the fact that I should probably go read <EM>Guns, Germs, and Steel</EM> would serve this purpose ...<BR/><BR/>... but I'm afraid I just don't have a sense of humour about mythmaking-in-the-service-of-mythbusting. Maybe it's the scientist thing; maybe it's a failure to be relaxed Bruce Yabsleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10091471695711534450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28189019.post-74889888345807380522008-02-23T00:40:00.000+00:002008-02-23T00:40:00.000+00:00Replacing a myth of progress with a myth of scienc...<I>Replacing a myth of progress with a myth of science-progressively-challenging-antropocentric-smugness is not itself scientific work, it is an appropriation of it that goes beyond the scientific work and well beyond its authority.<BR/>[...]<BR/>Part of how the sciences work is restriction and focus on questions that can be made objectively answerable.</I><BR/>I agree. I guess I was less byron smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17938334606675769903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28189019.post-4062360603217653172008-02-21T00:06:00.000+00:002008-02-21T00:06:00.000+00:00I have always meant to, but I will confess that wh...I have always meant to, but I will confess that when I saw Diamond's own TV miniseries adaption of it --- at least, it was narrated by Diamond and starred him --- my resolve weakened. Ecological determinism of the most extreme crudity. From your question I take it that the book is better?<BR/><BR/>Regarding the agriculture article, I am not an anthropologist or an archaeologist, so let me just Bruce Yabsleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10091471695711534450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28189019.post-42316868879324912572008-02-20T22:25:00.000+00:002008-02-20T22:25:00.000+00:00Bruce, have you read Guns, Germs and Steel?Bruce, have you read <I>Guns, Germs and Steel</I>?byron smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17938334606675769903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28189019.post-64328571628563337602008-02-20T13:59:00.000+00:002008-02-20T13:59:00.000+00:00<rant>As a scientist, I find Jared Diamond e...<rant>As a scientist, I find Jared Diamond even more irritating than Richard Dawkins. Dawkins at least gave us <EM>The Blind Watchmaker</EM>, a genuinely wonderful piece of popularisation, in amongst the polemic. Re Diamond: You do not get to play the role of provocateur and bad-boy-prophet --- saying the <EM>opposite</EM> to whatever vulgar myth prevails in society --- and still claim theBruce Yabsleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10091471695711534450noreply@blogger.com