Author Archives

• On Chomsky and Hobsbawm (cont’ned)

  By rtraba on December 29, 2016 • ( 1 )

  

  Upon visiting the splendid mosaics in Villa Romana del Casale (Piazza Armerina), one is reminded very clearly of the intelligent remark made by Karl Marx  according to which work had no social relevance in the ancient world. Because of oversupply due to slave… Read More ›

• Marcello Veneziani & l’ “Illuminismo Radicale”

  By rtraba on October 23, 2016 • ( 0 )

  

  Ne ‘Il Giornale’ del 14 Maggio 2012, Marcello Veneziani articolava una riflessione veramente degna di nota. Voglio riprodurla nella sua interezza, per la forza e lucidita’ del suo argomento (link originale qui): Alla fine ha vinto Marx. Siamo tutti uguali: individualisti… Read More ›

• On Lanthimos’ “The Lobster” & eusociality

  By rtraba on October 22, 2016 • ( 0 )

  

  “What brought a single primate line to a rare level of eusociality?” asks Edward Wilson, the well-known Harvard biologist in “The Meaning of Human Existence” (pg. 21). Eusociality is the reason why Homo Sapiens, as a species, was able to conquer… Read More ›

• Practical reason as sorcery (ii): development economics

  By rtraba on September 14, 2016 • ( 0 )

  

  In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in the towering figure of Josif Stalin, whose footprint on the 20th century has been arguably the biggest of any world leader. ‘Young Stalin‘ of Simon Sebag Montefiore has rightly… Read More ›

• Wir sind unschuldig

  By rtraba on September 13, 2016 • ( 1 )

  

  The text at the bottom of Marx and Engels monument in Alexander Platz in Berlin reads “Wir sind unschuldig”, i.e. “We are not guilty”. Guilty of what? In the preface to “A People’s Tragedy”, Orlando Figes writes very perceptive words:… Read More ›

• “Religions keeps us from thinking to hard problems”

  By rtraba on September 13, 2016 • ( 0 )

  

  Marvin Minsky needs no presentation: his unflinching atheism was proverbial as the video below clearly testifies. Less well known, as the above video shows, his connection to Russian Cosmism. Sagan, Asimov and other East coast Russian-Jewish immigrants were all permeated by the… Read More ›

• “To learn how to swim, one must go to sea”

  By rtraba on June 22, 2016 • ( 0 )

  

  The great G. W. Leibniz articulates very neatly the relationship between philosophy and mathematics (and indeed human knowledge): 1.“Sans les mathématiques on ne pénétre point au fond de la philosophie. 2.Sans la philosophie on ne pénétre point au fond des mathématiques…. Read More ›

• Video Transcoding: Handbrake + libdvdcss

  By rtraba on June 20, 2016 • ( 0 )

  

  Suppose you had your collection of DVDs which you lawfully bought in the marketplace. Suppose you wanted to see them when you are running in the gym, on your iPad. You need to transcode them, i. e. make the conversion… Read More ›

• Mass reproduction & reproduction of the masses

  By rtraba on May 21, 2016 • ( 0 )

  

  In “Illuminations“, pg. 251, Walter Benjamin makes the following remark: “Mass reproduction is aided especially by the reproduction of the masses.” In order to comment on that, let us start from a film. The Bildungsroman of StaSi agent Wiesler in “The Life of… Read More ›

• Feed-forward networks and teleology

  By rtraba on April 18, 2016 • ( 0 )

  Bertrand Russell, in “History of Western Philosophy” pgg. 86-87, writes: The atomists, unlike Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, sought to explain the world without introducing the notion of purpose or final cause. The “final cause” of an occurrence is an event… Read More ›