Tyson/ Krauss/ Harris

Now I'm imagining that with Rolf giving the knockout punches.

"I'm Jake the Peg, diddle-iddle-iddle-um
With my extra leg, diddle-iddle-iddle-um
The people always laugh and stare
Cause I ain't got no underwear"

Or some such thing is how my friends and I would sing it when I was like seven years old. Liked Rolf Harris a lot as child, disturbing to say that he might have liked me too, too much.

Since I didn't introduce the three, and I guess they're not as well-known as I thought (they were mentioned to me at this forum when I did a Dawkins and Hitchens poll), I'll say a little about them and myself, but not in a really narcissistic way, I hope.

Tyson is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. He did a later version of Cosmos, classically hosted by Carl Sagan and he was inspired by Carl Sagan. I loved Carl Sagan's Cosmos when I was young, and I still have the book that accompanied it here somewhere. I wanted to become an astronomer or astrophysicist when I was young, but I was lazy, especially when it came to maths so I basically became a deadbeat instead. Anyway, I loved his version of Cosmos and it was essential family viewing in my household (along with Planet Earth and various Brian Cox series such as Wonders of the Universe and Human Planet). My ten year old son particularly adores nature programs and plans to become a biologist. Here's hoping, at least my wife is in the sciences.

Prof. Lawrence Krauss is an American-Canadian theoretical physicist and cosmologist who I've had the pleasure of watching a presentation by in Vancouver. He also appears on various science shows, and is a science celebrity. He's done many debates, and did the Unbelievers with Richard Dawkins. Easy to find on youtube, and pretty easy to chat with on Twitter. He is a big tweeter, and doesn't put much effort into his tweets. I'm sure he has lots of religious enemies. He can come across as far too arrogant and sarcastic. He wrote the the Physics of Star Trek, which I recommend highly to Trekkies, and A Universe from Nothing, which is a very interesting, if perhaps a bit too simple a read. But then he, like people such as Hawking, he makes it a mission to try to bring science to the public and make it more accessible. I think that's a worthwhile aim, but Krauss's anti-religious stance where he can treat beliefs as idiotic (never mind if they are) can be really alienating, offensive, and generally off-putting to religious people. I am rather anti-religion myself, but I prefer it when he's talking physics.

As for Sam Harris, some label him a bigot for his anti-religion sentiments and his associations, like having Douglas Murray on his podcast talking Islam (although he considers himself spiritual and has some affinity with Buddhist traditions). I don't think he's a bigot, but we all have our biases. He is an American author, philosopher, and neuroscientist. He, along with Hitchens, Dawkins, and Dennet was one of the four horsemen (of the so-called new atheist movement). I love his podcasts, and like with the others I've followed them in various ways, youtube videos, books etc. the entertainment highlight for me of every week is listening to Sam Harris' podcast. To choose a favourite one,I like the one with Paul Bloom called Abusing Delores (a Westworld reference) who is a Canadian American professor of psychology (my favourite philosophers are commonly cognitive scientists/ psychologists). Considering that the American politics thread here is so hot with talk of Trump, I would recommend to those people his one with David Frum (another Canadian-American).

I listen to his podcasts from samharris.org, but they are also on youtube:



I'm hoping to see him in Vancouver soon, have put off buying the tickets as I don't like going to these things by myself, but as my wife is a church-going theist I don't want it to be an unpleasant experience for her (and well, lost touch with many friends that would be interested). Perhaps I could hook up with someone from PA, but I may be the shyest, most socially awkward member here.

I like the forum at https://www.samharris.org/, since it deals with many topics of interest to me, and I love the idea of discussing the podcasts with people there. I only posted twice, but I find put a lot of effort into what they write, and I'd want to to brush up on logical argumentation, and also I don't get the impression that my absurd sense of humour would go down there well. I judge my comfort in a community by how people joke around. And people there seem pretty damned serious on the whole, but I probably haven't looked around enough. Its not until you laugh with someone that you emotionally connect with someone from my personal experience.

Another name that has meant a lot to me over the last year or so has been Steven Pinker who is a professor at Harvard and is a Canadian-born American cognitive scientist, psychologist, linguist, and popular science author. I'm reading The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined right now by him.   Surprising how many Canadian born people I admire considering that I'm rarely interested in Canadian media (but then those people mostly left for the US). I do like the Beaverton, and of course we have David Cronenberg.

Fun quiz:

QUIZ: Are you homophobic, Islamophobic or arachnophobic?
https://www.thebeaverton.com/2017/06/quiz-homophobic-islamophobic-arachnophobic/


I doubt that anyone will read all of this, but sometimes rambling is its own reward.



Edited by Logan - August 02 2017 at 12:48

Tyson is the only one of these I could sort of see. Tyson is not so controversial, tries to be more apolitical,is less strident on issues such as religion, and Harris and Krauss are both extremely critical of Trump.   Tyson, like Harris and Krauss, is also very critical of Trump's anti-science, including anti-climate change initiatives position. The three are friends, but Harris has said that Tyson should be more critical of Trump, but Tyson thought that that would not help his role as an educator -- it would alienate rather than convince people.

Elon Musk, who also connects with those people in circles, quit as an adviser, of course. If you quit Paris, I quit you! He realized that it was pointless and lending his name to the President wasn't doing any good. You cant advise those that don't listen and who are not open-minded or truly value truth.

^

I posted this in the American politics thread, but deGrasse Tyson twittered (or is that tweeted?):

When I meet President Trump, I may first grab his crotch -- to get his attention -- then discuss Science with him.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson)

Which of these three would you most like Donald Trump to take on as an adviser, and for him to listen to.