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From TR-1 to iPod mini
karvind writes "BBC is running an interesting scoop on first transistor radio which has fair resemblance to iPod mini. The Regency TR-1 transistor radio, made in 1954, had a decent claim to be a genuine piece of innovation, however. It was, by popular agreement, the world's first commercially sold transistor pocket radio. Incidently technology watcher John Ousby realised the modern day parallels and matched photos of the transistor with photos of the iPod mini. The similarity between the two has 'created quite a stir' particularly in the Mac community."
Old slashdot article
I'm not making a statement regarding the truth of biological intelligent design here, just defending its claim to validity. Just as bad as those who would censor evolutionism are those who would censor creationism or intelligent design. Evolution is incomplete, because every scientifically-testable theory must be incomplete. Intelligent design is incomplete, because it depends on faith as much as proof.
It is very simple:
Intelligent design is not science.
Therefore, intelligent design should not be taught in science class.
Keeping intelligent design out of science classes is not censorship. All the other gibberesh about evolution being incomplete, or teaching the controversy, or alternative theories is meant only to muddy the waters and sidesteps the issue:
Intelligent design is not science.
Teach science in science classes, religion in religion classes, and philosophy in philosophy classes.
Simple, eh?
Download my free songs!
Intelligent design is incomplete, because it depends on faith as much as proof.
No, it depends entirely on faith. There's no reason, at all, to think that all of the factual evidence of evolution has been faked up by a deity with a twisted sense of humor, and that the processes we see around us every day do not result, over time, in the birth of species. Rather, it takes a willful act of self-delusion to ignore all of that evidence, and to embrace instead the fundamentally self-contradictory stuff that's being woven together by the ID crowd in an effort to feel better about their life-long religious choices.
Really, this all just comes down to people not wanting to feel bad about having been duped since childhood, and not wanting to have been demonstrably lying to their own children about how the universe works. The irony, of course, is that it requires a passionate, deliberate, and sustained act of lying to yourself and your kids to reach the point where you stop feeling so bad about swallowing the whole fairy tale in the first place.
Devout religious people who want to believe this stuff can certainly identify (one would hope) with the people, even amongst their ranks, who would wince at a person who, as an adult, believes Santa Claus actually makes rounds and delivers presents. Scientists and other basically rational people are doing that exact same wincing as they listen to the True Believers prop up their religious constructs and carefully tap-dance their way through what they will and will not willingly observe right before their church-clouded eyes.
ID is a "theory" about the origin of species in the same sense that "Santa Clause" is a theory about the origin of gift wrap. A scientist will follow the trail back the paper factory, look at the ink, the wood pulp, and the process... but the True Santa Claus Believers find it more comforting (and, of course, just a lot less work - intellectual laziness is really at the heart of the whole Creationism movement) to imagine that Santa has Elves magically wrapping paper at the North Pole. It's a (not really all that) harmless enough fantasy when you're a kid, but a developmentally normal kid will quickly put that cool meat computer to work and see through the make-believe. How grown-up people manage to cling to the slightly more elaborate make believe that powers so many churches is always amazing to me, but I think shame at the center of it.
You know... If I just keep pretending I believe, I won't have to confront the fact that I've been sort of a chump all these years. And I won't have to allow for the fact that the universe is completely indifferent to whether or not I exist, and thus have to make my own meaning in my own life through the work of my own mind and character.
Santa and his variants are so much... more cozy! But just because it feels good to wash your hands of cause and effect doesn't mean you're immune from its impact. I've noticed that people who truly believe the Creationism stuff are content to do so because it's relatively removed from daily life. People used to believe they saw the daily hand of magic in all sorts of nitty-gritty things. But since it's easy now to point to the underlying mechanisms of all sorts of things that used to be mysterious, God's now sitting at the back of the Causality Bus, just being invoked to explain the stuff that it's harder for poorly educated people to immediately grasp. And franky, I wouldn't care, except that those same people are trying to drag science education back into the Dark Ages, and it's frankly embarassing. Not to mention the long term impact on our country's ability to function prosperously in a wider world that does get causality.
Big response to your short little comment? Yup. And that's a perfect analogy to this whole discussion. The ID crowd wants a tidy little Object O' Faith to explain something complicated, and the scientists and thinkers would rather enjoy the hard work of showing it the way it
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.