Cultural Immune Systems.

Notes from Phædrus

Rober M. Pirsig
Lila
An Inquiry into Morals
Bantam Books 1991
(KXXX - pages in Kindle edition.
Notes from
Michael Shermer.
The Believing Brain
Henry Holt and Company, 2011
Page references from
Advance Readers edition

Phædrus

 What it always means is that you have hit an invisible wall of prejudice. Nobody on the inside of that wall is ever going to listen to you; not because what you say isn't true, but solely because you have been identified as outside that wall. A cultural immune system.  K58 

It was classical nineteenth-century science and its insistence that science is only a method for determining what is true and not a body of beliefs in itself.  K59 

Patterns of culture do not operate in accordance with the laws of physics .   How are you going to prove in terms of the laws of physics that a certain attitude exists within a culture? K60

The trouble was that man ins't suited to this kind of scentifec pbjective study.  Objects of scientific study are supposed to hold still. ...Man doesn't do this. Not even savages.61

Shermer

As a fiscal conservative and a social liberal ...I have close friends in both camps, and over the years I have observed the following: no matter what the issue is under discussion, both sides are equally convenced that the evidence overwhelmingly supports their position.  I am sure it does because of the confirmation bias, or the tendency to seek and find vonfirmatory evidence in support o already existing beliefs and ignore or reinterpret disconfirming evidence.  AR259

A work in progress.  I am in the process of reading Lila.  More quotes and finally analysis and commentary to follow.  

Freedom of Speech Collection Post

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

There is actually an argument that Religious Extremists are not covered by the First Amendment in the USA which specifies freedom of religion, all religions including Nones. It was in part enacted to prevent the Calvinist extremists from requiring an Oath to God meaning the Calvinist God as a requirement of holding office. 

 George Washington added "So Help me God." to the official oath required by the constitution as a political sop to the Black Regiment of politically active Calvinist extremists pending further efforts by Jefferson and others to keep religious freedom (from Calvinism) in the US . See the Treaty of Tripoli forced on John Adams the most religious of the Founders, although not fundamentalist anything.

Game Theory Collection Post

http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/02/23/in-favor-of-niceness-community-and-civilization/

TL;DR So a useful excerpt:

So let’s derive why violence is not in fact The One True Best Way To Solve All Our Problems. You can get most of this from Hobbes, but this blog post will be shorter.
Suppose I am a radical Catholic who believes all Protestants deserve to die, and therefore go around killing Protestants. So far, so good.
Unfortunately, there might be some radical Protestants around who believe all Catholics deserve to die. If there weren’t before, there probably are now. So they go around killing Catholics, we’re both unhappy and/or dead, our economy tanks, hundreds of innocent people end up as collateral damage, and our country goes down the toilet.
So we make an agreement: I won’t kill any more Catholics, you don’t kill any more Protestants. The specific Irish example was called the Good Friday Agreement and the general case is called “civilization”.

So let’s talk about how beneficial game-theoretic equilibria can come to exist even in the absence of centralized enforcers. I know of two main ways: reciprocal communitarianism and tit-for-two-tats.

Reciprocal communitarianism is probably how altruism evolved. Some mammal started running TIT-FOR-TAT, the program where you cooperate with anyone whom you expect to cooperate with you. Gradually you form a successful community of cooperators. The defectors either join your community and agree to play by your rules or get outcompeted.  

The most useful strategy for a community seems to be a variety of tit-for-two-tats. Some forgiveness for transgressions but recognition of the fact that consecutive transgressions are socially dysfunctional.  This is particularly useful in social situations where communication is possible between the “players” and the first transgression can be identified as such and some sort of counselling available as to community standards.

This strategy is inherent in the UU First Principle of Radical respect. The first transgression is attributed to ignorance of social standards and not malice. The second transgression especially after the reciprocal “tit” even without counseling can be attributed to malice and appropriate action taken.

A 40 Minute Hotel Room Workout.

 Actually 60 minutes from rolling out of bed, to dressed for work.

 I hate running.  Even on an interesting parkway.  Running in airport hotel parking lot is self inflicted torture.  But exercise is a necessity.  When I was travelling a lot and working too many hours a day to fit in a decent walk I had to make do.  

 I adapted a gymnastics warm up and cool down plus a bit of the RCAF 10 minute workout, added 23 minutes of high intensity Aerobics I learned as a part of a study run by the Physiology Prof and gymnastics coach at Stanford Wes Ruff.  

 The gym team among others were volunteers to determine the optimum level of aerobics to maintain peak Cardiovascular health.  That study is the reason for the universal recommendation for 20 minutes of aerobics in any exercise program.  We were divided into groups with varying levels of time and intensity and monitored monthly on a EKG bicycle with a breathing mask.  (The worst part of the study.)  Intensity mattered less in maintenance of existing levels of CVH, if you could do it at all 20 minutes kept you where you were and more didn't help at all.  It didn't hurt of course, and strangely pushing the intensity didn't help either. You were stronger and had more endurance but the basic level of CVH didn't change (for the College Varsity level athletes in the study.)

In any event the workout:
Two minutes of limbering and stretching I use the usual six point strech, the first six limbering, the last full 30 second stretches.  
Two minutes 4 position Yoga position bicepts work
Thirty second supine planche,  feet on the floor now. 
Thirty second seated toe touch stretch
One minute supine bicycle ab work
Fifteen seconds of push ups, as hard as you can make them Chest slaps originally, lucky to stay off knees now. 
Back arches as needed for tone.  Too many may overpower core and cause back issues.  
Two minutes of back stretches (Pretzel) for back issues
One minute of crunches as hard as possible.

 That should put you at about 9 minutes for a minute breather and drink and "Exercise pulse rate." 

 Twenty three minutes (nominal) run in place intervals.  18 sets of a minute run + 20 sec .Jumping Jacks or sprint as able. I know that is 24 minutes but you can run and jump faster than that can't you? If you get much below 23 jack up the intensity. I count steps and jumps rather than watch a clock.

The clock comes at the end of the 23 minutes.  Hit the lap timer, find a Jugular pulse in ten seconds, and count 10 seconds X6  for your intense rate.  That was the study protocol which I have stayed with all these years to track a reliable baseline.  I assume modern gadgets are better but I can't be bothered.  

Cooldown 
30 Sec wide leg, straight foot wall stretch
One min. light exercise, I use a in place mogul run.
30 second each one leg stretch
30 sec each one leg knee bends, balance and mild exercise
30 sec wide leg, splay foot deep wall stretch to end.  

Another pulse check, S.S.S. and 20 minutes later a recovery pulse check (optional it doesn't change much except when you slack off for a while.)

Bicycle Stories.

 I was the "Businessman on a bicycle." in New York City in the '70s who used a full lane I memorized the Vehicle Code number from circa 1900 that established the bicycle as equivalent to a horse drawn carriage and horses, entitled to the use of a full traffic lane. I always used one. The law was for the occasional cop who shouted at me to move to the parking lane and I shouted back NYVC 10-25 or whatever it was. For cabs more aggressive measures were needed. I had a huge master lock on a fairly long hardened chain, which hung on the traffic side handlebar and occasionally slid off forcing me to catch it before it swung too close to an encroaching cab. Even cabs intent on forcing me into the parked cars got the message. I never had to make contact but the word spread rapidly and soon editorials began to appear that bike lanes on the Avenues were needed. I got some "help" from bike messengers in establishing the need for bike lanes South of Central Park. They not only used traffic lanes, but all available space on streets and sidewalks. Bike lanes came relatively quickly and established the unfortunate precedent of being located on the traffic side of the parking lane. Much better than none, but I still carried the lock when prudence dictated leaving the bike lane for the traffic lane.

 An amusing aside, I was riding down 5th Ave. past Rockefeller Center spring break and a class of kids saw me about 51st and screamed Look a Businessman on a Bicycle which was picked up by class after class all the way to about 46th. I at least smiled and waved.

 Most of my bike commuting was downwind and down hill going to work so a suit and tie was OK if I took it easy. Clean bike gear was in the saddlebags. Coming home involved a change at work, a long steep hill upwind, a shower in bike gear after the strength workout, and a cool dryer. Even strong tourers rode my wheel up Geneva in SF into a 40 mph wind after belittling my "easy commute of only 6 mi. My favorite however, was a 15 miler from Sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge through Sausalito to Mill valley. No sweat at all to work in the morning if I took it easy up a couple of hills and the bridge. Home was an easy warm up to the Bridgeway Hill where the tourists dropped out and the work out began for the rest of the way home.

When I moved to Silicon Valley a bicycle as transportation didn't provide efficient exercise, but I would occasionally ride up to the City to sneer at the van riders on Sunday's weekly closure of 4 miles of Cañada Road. A nice warm up, but why the van to get there?

 Then there are the real bicycle pros.  Nephew Nick missed the 7-11 team only by an admission to UCB.  He lived in Carmichael east of Sacramento, rode to the Davis Double, rode the double and rode home. All in a day's work(out.)  

Any serious cyclist needs to spend some time with the cones to learn where to look.  Hint it isn't at the trouble, it is where you want to go.  A bicycle is incredibly responsive.  If you look at oncoming trouble you will hit it. This is how I got hit on a bike path. I was going where I needed to go and the other rider looked their bike right into my wheel.

There are at least two tribes of cyclists: those who cycle for transportation, and those who cycle for fun. There may be a third tribe, weekend warriors for serious fun cycling. Both and maybe all three have quite different priorities with respect to automobile traffic. Fun cyclists want bike lanes, cycling paths and closed roads. Transportation cyclists want shared lanes everywhere. Even shared transit lanes and shared breakdown lanes on freeways. They consider bike lanes, even protected bike lanes death traps.  Turning drivers especially left turners don't even see bike lanes or cyclists.  A left turner trying to beat oncoming traffic will be going fast enough to cause serious injury to a cyclist in the bike path. In rush hour traffic drivers aren't even aware of bike lanes. On weekends in light traffic they may be all right.

I don't care if the freeway breakdown lane stays open to cyclists or not.  I'll pass.  I trust cyclists more than motorists. A cyclist is naked on a 30 pound open frame.  So am I.  A motorist is surrounded by a ton of steel and unyielding plastic which will save herm butt no matter what hesh does or does not pay attention to.

A Patient Perspective on Cancer Treatment

I was diagnosed with Stage IV HPV+Squamous Throat and tongue cancer early May, 2016 and the tumor board recommended Chemo + Radiation.  I am a lifelong advanced level avocational symphonic choir singer with important concerts imminent and elected to forgo radiation as damage to the vocal instrument was certain and rehab to singing level was unlikely.

 I have lived a "healthy lifestyle" of the non-weirdo variety all my life, conventional (little fast food few sodas) diet, lots of exercise, plenty of sleep, etc. But living long enough puts you in the high cancer risk category no matter how you live as I have found out. Cancer is nature's way of telling you it is time to let the kids take over. Modern medicine is pretty good at dealing with cancer, and aside from cosmetic horrors most people who are otherwise healthy generally can deal with it easily. The cancer scare tactics are medical and alt fact marketing that can be ignored.   But most important I didn't buy into the belief unfortunately promoted by the medical profession that Cancer is a terrible monster that must be eradicated from the patient at whatever cost.

  IT.  IS. NOT.

 Cancer like heart disease, strokes, and many other infirmities of age, are things that need medical attention and may affect life style, but if they are not fatal are issues that must be dealt with in the context of doing things that are important to the patient, even if lifestyle choices may affect the treatment and even the outcome of the disease.

 These diseases of age are analogous to joint damage, broken bones even spinal injuries and concussions.  They may kill you outright, we all die someday, but if not life style changes to fix the problem should not be the primary form of treatment.  A friend of mine was paraplegic as a result of a ski accident on KT-22.  Instead of gently learning to use a wheelchair to avoid further damage to his injury he was organizing wheelie races in the rehab center.  Skiing might have killed him but it wasn't about to change his life style dead legs notwithstanding.

 The tumor board was not happy with my decision to skip radiation, but accepted it and  suggested a very aggressive and dangerous Perfusion Chemo as an alternative to standard Chemo and Radiation with the warning that it was potentially life threatening but would not damage the vocal instrument.  For me the risk/benefit equation of certain loss of singing ability vs a dangerous regimen of Chemo made the Chemo the best choice.  As a singer friend noted priorities are 1. Don't die if possible. 2. Keep singing, 3. Manage the cancer.  I was in excellent health, with an athlete's level of fitness, and decided I could deal with the aggressive Chemo and live through it to deal with any remaining cancer at a later date if necessary.  The tumor board assumed that later meant radiation and more Chemo. I did not.  See 2 above. One thing cancer treatment does is that it forces management of priorities to accommodate the extra sleep, and immune system degradation associated with any cancer treatment regimen.

 Two important events I chose to accommodate were coordinating a convention blood drive early in the treatment, and singing a concert at the end of the treatment.  The blood drive was relatively easy. An aggressive medical face mask to deal with the crowd and instead of commuting I stayed at the convention hotel to provide frequent rest breaks, and longer sleep at night.  The concert preparation was more difficult as the extra evening rehearsals could not be missed, nor could the vocal exercises be ignored as the Chemo affected the vocal instrument, and had to be compensated for. I had to assume the chorus was basically healthy as a face mask could not be worn while singing.   Non-essential time sucks like Facebook and Email got minimal attention, and other social activities were eliminated as possible.  But I did sing the concert with my voice in good shape right after the end of the Chemo.  


 It is important for the patient to understand all of the side effects of the chosen procedures and be prepared to enlist the help of the procedure specialists ahead of time in dealing with ER and attending physicians that may not be aware of some of the less common side effects.  One that I found out the hard way was that perfusion can totally shut down the GI system so that no food is processed even if it can be forced down.   Another is the tongue can be totally disabled by sores and thrush so that even liquid nutrition ingestion is difficult without aggressive treatment of the thrush. A popular Chinese folk medicine called Watermelon Frost in English was helpful once the GI system was able to process food. It is unknown to most physicians as it is not an officially recognized treatment of tongue sores.  Ask a Chinese friend who will probably have it at home or can get it for you at a Chinese ethnic market.  Professionals on the Oncology staff should know about this folk healer and suggest it as "maybe helpful." They have suggested Culturelle and L-Glutamine as "maybe helpful" and they have been "maybe very helpful."

 The aggressive treatment as advertised nearly killed me after each Chemo session not helped by some "going through the motions" inpatient attendings, but I actively managed my treatment and made it through the rough spots.  It was all worth it as the cancer was undetectable at the end of the treatment much to the surprise of the tumor board. 

 A routine checkup nine months later showed a recurrence of tumor and a new round of the aggressive Chemo was tried.  That one had to be terminated half way through because of a new side effect that caused a cardiologist to discontinue the chemo.  The tumor was half gone but that was not good enough so it looked like I would have to bite the bullet and go ahead with radiation.  I eliminated all the other options after thorough investigation with the help of the radiologist who in his investigations found a procedure that would minimize radiation exposure to the vocal chords while providing therapeutic radiation to the cancer.   As he explained it the chords would be minimally affected but there were no guarantees on the rest of the instrument.  Again I had an important concert at the end of the procedure and decided that if I exercised the instrument diligently I might even be able to sing the concert.  A different chemo and the radiation was benign enough that singing daily was no issue, and the voice survived the treatment in better shape than before the treatment.  I sang my part of the concert and even got a few unsolicited comments on my vocal quality.  

 I don't assume that I am done with cancer even though the latest scans are clear, but pushing the specialists to find alternatives to the standard and very effective treatment of Cisplatin plus aggressive radiation, has resulted in a treatment protocol that I can live with that has minimum inpact on the important lifestyle choices that are necessary to happiness. I assume it does not comply with the cancer industry's paradigm of kill the cancer at whatever cost to the patient, but it works for me.  

 The Kaiser Foundation's Northern California HMO worked just as advertised.  They put my lifestyle needs first throughout the treatment protocols, and once I refused the "No problem, the cancer is above the clavicle we can cure that for sure with Chemo and Radiation." they put the whole Northern California Cancer team on working out an acceptable solution to my treatment. Specialists as far away as Sacramento were involved to rule out a new hi-tech surgical procedure to deal with the residual cancer, and the pros and cons of Proton radiation therapy were explored with an associated facility at Scripps Institute.   

 They certainly lived their motto of "Thrive" according to the patient's lifestyle standards.