PhiloMadrid meeting Skype 8:00pm TUESDAY 28th February: Returning to the sea

Dear Friends,

This coming Tuesday we are discussing: Returning to the sea.

The topic was proposed by Jorge and in my few notes I try to identify a
few issues about the topic:

Returning to the sea
https://www.philomadrid.com/2023/02/returning-to-sea.html


NEWS
--Oscar's book is now available from Oscar himself:
"Toranzo, 88 ilustraciones y coplillas" by Oscar at €35
https://www.philomadrid.com/2022/09/toranzo-88-ilustraciones-y-coplillas-by.html
If you need more details please let me know and I'll put you in touch
with Oscar.

--It is with great sadness that I have learnt Julian Martelli passed
away early in October this year, 2022. Julian was very active during our
meetings in Molly Malone and participation was always respected by all.
Christine kindly wants to share with us a photo of Julian with her and
friends. You can find the FaceBook link below.

I also include a link for our visit to Toledo in 2008 when Julian came
with us on the day trip.

Julian
https://www.philomadrid.com/2022/11/julian.html

--Jorge has kindly sent us the link to his book which is available for
Free Distribution at:
Evolution of Thought and its Influence on Society and Technology
https://www.adneli.com/store


Please let me know whether you need the Skype link, thanks.


Best and take care
Lawrence


telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com

PhiloMadrid meeting Skype 8:00pm TUESDAY 28th February: Returning to the sea

Returning to the sea

Returning to the sea

 

Topic by Jorge

Notes by Lawrence

 

 

The sea is a very hostile place. So hostile that our original ancestors could not get out of it fast enough.

 

Hence the idea of returning to the sea requires further clarification. Do we mean humans returning to live in the sea, whence we came from? Probably this is a bit late in the day to even imagine going back lock, stock, and barrel to the sea.

 

Of course, if we mean exploiting the sea for our benefit then surely we are already doing this. The only problem is of course that the sea, as already mentioned, is a very hostile place. And, although, this might not have a bearing on any philosophical issues it might help us reconsider the risks and opportunities.

 

In the meantime today we are doing a huge amount of damage to the fauna and flora of sea life. And not just through mindless exploitation but also from criminal pollution. These two activities by themselves can today prejudice the future stocks of said life forms.

 

We are already familiar with diminished stocks of fish (see the EU fisheries policy) but to this scenario we have to add first, the mercury pollution and other toxic wastes that is supposed to be present in most fish. And secondly, the modern curse of micro plastics that we are now being alerted by marine biologists and scientists.

 

Mining the sea for mineral resources, we are told, would certainly destroy the oceans and all living creatures. The best news so far is that using wave power is already a promising technology and placing wind turbines off shore is an accepted form clean power.

 

But the topic begs the question: what is wrong with using the land we have for our resources and needs? It is not a valid argument to argue that we are fast destroying the habitable part of the Earth. If this is the case then surely the simple answer to stop those who are fast destroying the Earth. In any case what is to stop us from destroying the sea even further.

 

But to stop the destruction of the Earth is easier said than done, since this would involve political cooperation at the global level. Not to mention controls on the unethical behaviour of some people amongst our mist.

 

Today we talk about climate change and global warming. But these are terms that do not mean much for most people even if these memes are quite catching. Shouldn’t the relevant meme be “Save the world from us!” …?

 

Best and take care
Lawrence


telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com



PhiloMadrid meeting Skype 8:00pm TUESDAY 28th February: Returning to the sea

 

PhiloMadrid meeting Skype 8:00pm TUESDAY 21st February: 3D printing and other technologies in our life….

Dear Friends,

This TUESDAY we are discussing: 3D printing and other technologies in
our life….

The topic was proposed by Ana and in my short essay I try to tease out
some philosophical issues about the topic. But the bottom line must
surely be: what can we use a 3D printing machine at home besides making
fancy trinkets?

3D printing and other technologies…
https://www.philomadrid.com/2023/02/3d-printing-and-other-technologies-in.html

NEWS
--Oscar's book is now available from Oscar himself:
"Toranzo, 88 ilustraciones y coplillas" by Oscar at €35
https://www.philomadrid.com/2022/09/toranzo-88-ilustraciones-y-coplillas-by.html
If you need more details please let me know and I'll put you in touch
with Oscar.

--It is with great sadness that I have learnt Julian Martelli passed
away early in October this year, 2022. Julian was very active during our
meetings in Molly Malone and participation was always respected by all.
Christine kindly wants to share with us a photo of Julian with her and
friends. You can find the FaceBook link below.

I also include a link for our visit to Toledo in 2008 when Julian came
with us on the day trip.

Julian
https://www.philomadrid.com/2022/11/julian.html

--Jorge has kindly sent us the link to his book which is available for
Free Distribution at:
Evolution of Thought and its Influence on Society and Technology
https://www.adneli.com/store


Please let me know whether you need the Skype link, thanks.


Best and take care
Lawrence


telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com

PhiloMadrid meeting Skype 8:00pm TUESDAY 21st February: 3D printing and
other technologies in our life….

3D printing and other technologies in our life….

 

3D printing and other technologies in our life….

 

Topic by Ana

Essay (short) by Lawrence

 

What does 3D printing got to do with philosophy? The Wikipedia article on the subject notes that additive manufacturing is synonymous with 3D printing. 3D printing is the process of using dedicated machines for creating objects with computer aided designs by adding such materials as plastics (this is a very simple and simplistic description). Compare this with subtractive manufacturing, which as the name implies, creates objects by removing part from a block of material. We are all familiar with the flint arrowheads and spear heads from prehistoric people.

 

So where does philosophy come into all this? To be fair the present technology of 3D printing has advanced enough that individuals can have access to such machines at home or at a scale that can be used for business ventures. In industry 3D printing is advanced enough to be employed in all sorts of manufacturing stages of a product.

 

The manufacturing model so far has always been to creating machines or gadgets that perform a function or set of functions and we buy that gadget. But many times the gadget has so many functions that we will never use many of these functions or impossible to learn how to use these functions let alone know they exist. Will 3D printing and other modern technologies imply we can build gadgets that we as individuals want with the functions we want and no more?

 

I would safely claim that the vast majority of people on this planet do not take full advantage of the features on their mobile phones or personal computers or even toaster. And that despite such social media platforms as YouTube or TikTok where people post videos on how to use most gadgets ever invented so far.

 

It may be argued that at the Philosophy of Economics level 3D printing and other technologies might help with maximising the use of scares raw resources with little or no waste. It might further be argued that the relative ease of manufacturing gadgets or part their off will imply less energy consumption than the subtractive manufacturing processes. This might certainly affect the theory of the firm but will this technology overcome such theories as the demand-supply curve and diminishing returns.

 

At the business level we already know that 3D printing and additive manufacturing already makes sense. Many customised parts of other products or cross border manufacturing is being achieved by sharing computer files rather than having to set up dedicated production lines. This also means that the best people a company needs to design products need not work and live at or near the manufacturing plant.

 

One of the trends in the 1990s was to miniaturise machines to table to size to make personalised products: from tailor made medicines to fresh mozarella cheese to short run printed books (even if these were a bit larger than a table top). I do not know what happened to the first two ideas, but short run printed books are today very popular and very accessible even with mobile phone designs.

 

At the personal level, today people need to be familiar with many technologies just to be eligible to work in any work environment. Of course, this does not mean we need to be experts in all systems but we certainly need to know how to use common applications and common gadgets such as computers, mobile phones and maybe office printing machines. And if we don’t we know how to learn quickly.

 

Another philosophical issue about these new technologies is what will be the unintended consequences of such technologies? Will manufacturing lead to overall cheaper gadgets? And will gadgets become even more user friendly or made to customer specifications by making the manufacturing the manufacturing easier to perform. The computer company, Dell, already had the idea of making customer specific computers for businesses and individuals who knew what they were buying. But this idea begs the question, how will companies make a reasonable profit with these new technologies. Today many companies make excessive profits by manufacturing in developing countries or China.

 

I have already mentioned the huge number of functions common gadgets have today. But can we go a step further? From having hardware to perform a number of functions to having hardware evolve to meet new functions. With some trepidation we can update parts of our computer hardware by changing the hard disk to changing the RAM chip size of the computer. Even though the latest software trend is to fill PCs with bloatware or full are full of bloatware that older machines cannot handle. Bloatware involves from applications that are supposed to be useful on mobile phones but are not, to basic software such as word processors that occupy a lot of memory just to show the bling imbedded in them but offer few new factions.

 

To make old machines cope better with new functions requires that parts can be changed easily and maybe are idiot proof without compromising the function of the machine. Will manufacturers be willing to give users such unfettered access to their machines?  Today we’re probably at the stage that it can be done in most cases, but it is not easy, and certainly not for the faint hearted.

 

Our topic certainly highlights the philosophical issue of knowledge and epistemology: our survival depends as much on our evolving knowledge as much on our interaction with our environment. But will new technologies be slowed down with the reluctance of having to change our present model. And can the average human being cope with such evolving knowledge base? It is hard enough today already trying to open a child-proof bottle of pills.

 

And what can we use a 3D printer for at home?

 

 

Best and take care
Lawrence


telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com



PhiloMadrid meeting Skype 8:00pm TUESDAY 21st February: 3D printing and other technologies……..

PhiloMadrid meeting on Skype 8:00pm TUESDAY 14th February: NEWS + What’s new….?

Dear Friends,

Our next meeting is on Tuesday the 14th February 2023 at 20:00 to
21:30pm. I can assure you that I did not have any ulterior motives
about the date!!

Last meeting we did not fix a topic, so I suggest for Tuesday something
like: What's new about the way we think these days? I have not prepared
an essay mainly because we've already discussed aspects of this subject.


NEWS
--Oscar's book is now available from Oscar himself:
"Toranzo, 88 ilustraciones y coplillas" by Oscar at €35
https://www.philomadrid.com/2022/09/toranzo-88-ilustraciones-y-coplillas-by.html
If you need more details please let me know and I'll put you in touch
with Oscar.

--It is with great sadness that I have learnt Julian Martelli passed
away early in October this year, 2022. Julian was very active during our
meetings in Molly Malone and participation was always respected by all.
Christine kindly wants to share with us a photo of Julian with her and
friends. You can find the FaceBook link below.

I also include a link for our visit to Toledo in 2008 when Julian came
with us on the day trip.

Julian
https://www.philomadrid.com/2022/11/julian.html

--Jorge has kindly sent us the link to his book which is available for
Free Distribution at:
Evolution of Thought and its Influence on Society and Technology
https://www.adneli.com/store


Please let me know whether you need the Skype link, thanks.


Best and take care
Lawrence


telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com



PhiloMadrid meeting on Skype 8:00pm TUESDAY 14th February: NEWS + What's
new….?

PhiloMadrid meeting on Skype 6:30pm Sunday 5th February: The new normal post Covid.

Dear Friends,

In view that this Sunday (5th February) will be the last Sunday before
we try the experiment of Meeting on Tuesdays I thought it was proper
that we discussed: The new normal post Covid.

I have not prepared an essay for the topic, but we have already
exhausted the topic of Covid during the height of the pandemic.

NEWS
--Oscar's book is now available from Oscar himself:
"Toranzo, 88 ilustraciones y coplillas" by Oscar at €35
https://www.philomadrid.com/2022/09/toranzo-88-ilustraciones-y-coplillas-by.html
If you need more details please let me know and I'll put you in touch
with Oscar.

--It is with great sadness that I have learnt Julian Martelli passed
away early in October this year, 2022. Julian was very active during our
meetings in Molly Malone and participation was always respected by all.
Christine kindly wants to share with us a photo of Julian with her and
friends. You can find the FaceBook link below.

I also include a link for our visit to Toledo in 2008 when Julian came
with us on the day trip.

Julian
https://www.philomadrid.com/2022/11/julian.html

--Jorge has kindly sent us the link to his book which is available for
Free Distribution at:
Evolution of Thought and its Influence on Society and Technology
https://www.adneli.com/store


Please let me know whether you need the Skype link, thanks.


Best and take care
Lawrence


telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com



PhiloMadrid meeting on Skype 6:30pm Sunday 5th February: The new normal
post Covid.