I was sent this today and thought I'd share it here:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Psychiatry and Politics.
Dr Michelle Tempest is a psychiatrist and editor of The Future of the NHS. All views expressed are personal and do not represent any professional or organisational body.
Why Lawyers Should Surf
Why Lawyers Should Surf
Buy the book here.
Blog Roll
- Burning Our Money
- Cambridge Daily Photo
- Chrysalis Angel
- Conservative Home
- Daily Bits n Bobs
- Dizzy Thinks
- Dr Andrew Brown
- Dr Dork
- Dr Grumble
- Dr K
- Dr Michelle Tempest
- Dr Phillip Lee
- Dr Rachel Joyce
- Dr Rant
- Ellee Seymour
- Free Medico-legal Newsletter
- GP to be
- Guy Opperman
- Hospital Phoenix
- Iain Dale
- Ian Lidster
- Jeremy Hunt MP
- Jeremy Jacobs
- Justitia
- Life in the NHS
- Lifes Spacings
- Maalie
- NHS Blog Doctor
- NHS Escapee
- Nobody Important
- Nourishing Obscurity
- Of Short White Coats and stethoscopes
- Peter Smallbone
- Prague Tory
- Quasar9
- Robert Halfon
- Rogue Gunner
- SHP
- Status Q
- The Angry Medic
- The Barrister Blog
- The Croydonian
- The Ferret Fancier
- The Future of the NHS
- The Jobbing Doctor
- The Junior Doctor
- The Paper Mask
- The politics of Well Being
- Tim Worstall
- Tory Radio
- Trust me, I'm a mental doctor!
- Vicky Ford
- Walking Dreams
- WebCameron
5 comments:
:o)
I cannot see or watch it... our firewalls prevent any u-tubes etc.. but i shall when I get to my personal computer..
Thanks for this, Michelle. Explained much in an easy to handle way. I have many other questions I would pose here, but it explained certain rudiments in a very succinct and sensible manner.
now I can ! :o)
The video makes no sense to me. The greatest risks to humanity come from unknown risks, rather than known risks.
The only way to counter unknown risks is to increase knowledge as rapidly as possible. The reason it was rational to stop Hitler from possibly developing the atomic bomb is that his potential development of this weapon and his entire ideology stopped the growth of knowledge.
Draconian measures that inhibit voluntary and mutually beneficial exchange, including capitalist exchange, decrease the rate of growth of knowledge and so increase net risks to humanity.
Stopping a Hitler increases the growth of exchange and therefore knowledge. Extreme regulations on carbon emissions decreases exchange and therefore the growth of knowledge.
Let's say that a supernova near our solar system is actually the greatest risk to our survival. Knowing more is the only way to stop this eventuality. And it also enables us to design unknown technology (like mirrors in space hovering over oceans) that prevents the earth from over-heating, if that turns out to be an actual danger to humanity.
Knowledge generates as yet unknown solutions to currently known and unknown risks, and is therefore our only insurance policy against the dangers of the future. Any policy that decreases that hastens our demise.
See David Deutsch's commentary on risk and global warming: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/david_deutsch_on_our_place_in_the_cosmos.html
Thanks,
Michael Golding (fellow psychiatrist) http://www.mycrazybrain.com
I take comfort in the inherent hostility of the universe that global warming seems to hinge upon so much. While knowing is well and good, implementing that knowledge at the right time, in the right amounts is not, historically speaking, humanity's forte. We might eventually know what to do to prevent a global disaster, but the question is, will it be implemented in time?
Post a Comment