I just realized that I’ve not posted anything for a few days. The days have flown by (for reasons not directly related to the blog) and I’ve been spending more time reading other blogs (when online) than on P.C.

I expect to clear the logjam late Sunday or Monday. For now, here are a couple of interesting threads I’ve been following and one technical note:

5GW

Dan at tdaxp has been exploring the dimensions of fifth-generation warfare, as mentioned in my last entry. I suspect this is a topic I’ll be revisiting from time to time because it raises many questions which I haven’t answered adequately for myself.

The present question is whether we are approaching a time when the costs of pre-5GW types of wars will far outweigh any potential benefits. If so, pre-5GW wars will not disappear — because madmen, idiots, and egomaniacs don’t always do a cost analysis before initiating violent conflicts! — but perhaps democratic nations (at least) have more checks on such madmen, and advances in technology and knowledge in general would unearth the net loss which high-tech pre-5GW wars promise.

For instance, wars over the control of natural resources might offer a good payback, but not if infrastructure is too destroyed to make use of those natural resources! (Not to mention the possibility that the loser in any such conflict would almost certainly engage in industrial sabotage, terrorist activity, etc., further increasing the cost of such a war for the “victor.”)

But I am only speculating at the moment. Dan at tdaxp has a few recent posts that deserve further study:

• Dreaming 5th Generation War
• Emerging NetWar / SecretWar Tactic: Stealth Shareholder Activism
• 
  SecretWarriors Walk Without Rhythm, Won’t Attract the Worm

Defending the Objectivist

Gus Van Horn has responded to my recent post on the Young Objectivist. I am not convinced by his defense, but then I’m still thinking over the apologia: A Thought Exercise.

Particularly, I question his use of a dichotomy for explaining differences in philosophies: Primacy of Existence vs. Primacy of Consciousness. I thought it was an odd phrasing, until I read the same phrasing today on another Objectivist’s blog — naturally, I’m tempted to lump it into the “rote recitation” category I mentioned in my entry on the Young Objectivist, now that I know it’s part of the Objectivist argot.

The dichotomy implies a Dualism which I doubt, although I know what Gus means by it. It’s just that I think the “primacy of consciousness” group is actually quite small. How many people actually doubt the existence of a definite Universe, or believe that the Universe is only what they think when they’re thinking, and nothing more? A few extremists certainly seem to think their thoughts determine what is real; a vast majority of humans seem to not realize how their thoughts have “clouded” their perceptions of the Universe; but most people, when asked, would say that, Yes, there’s a Universe beyond their imagining of It. (In fact, Objectivists seem to claim more knowledge of It, more true perceptions of It, than they’d allow all others to claim.)

The dichotomy seems used to present the Objectivist as the only type capable of consistently viewing the Universe as it is. The dichotomy suggests that everyone else is really dreaming. Well, okay, I think illusion is in no danger of becoming extict; but like the Objectivist, my consciousness is telling me that.

I plan to return to the subject of Objectivism soon, am only lobbing water balloons in this entry with these quick responses.

A Technical Note

In my continuing war on spam — against the same spambot, I’m sorry to say — I’ve used a more flexible method of screening hits, via variables in the referrers which are checked when a visitor comes to Phatic Communion. Unfortunately, today two visitors were redirected “back” to a gambling site unassociated with them. In both cases, the visitors clicked on a link to Phatic Communion from Sitemeter logs, and instead of getting this blog, they were redirected to that gambling site. I have been unable to determine exactly which filter caused this, since the referrer listed for Sitemeter didn’t match any of my variables, but I did erase a few of those variables, and the problem appears to be fixed.

I apologize to anyone who ended up on that gambling site when trying to visit Phatic Communion from Sitemeter.