Different kinds of truth and the need for scientific pluralism

I have argued that truth is a vector quantity. (See my review of  Theories of Truth: a Critical Introduction, by R. Kirkham, at amazon.com, 25 September 2008.) There are various kinds of truth and these are each components of the truth vector. Things like:
      Valid deduction from true assumptions
       Satisfying a definition
       Agreement with observation
       Usefulness
       Coherence, consistency
       Etc.
There are then different kinds of science making use of the various different ways of assessing truth (Along these lines see B. Latour, An Inquiry into Modes of Existence, Harvard U. Press, 2013). This is a further argument for the need for scientific pluralism.

Beauty

Humans use the value/concept "beauty" in both mate and scientific theory selection.  My artificial intelligence Asa H and most other AIs do not currently have a concept of beauty, see, for example, my blog of 21 September 2010. Dorner's Psi cognitive architecture does incorporate a notion of beauty, modeled as an emotion. (D. Dorner, Bauplan fur eine Seele, Reinbeck: Rowohlt, 1999, pg 373) Perhaps I should try to give Asa H a concept of beauty. I have Bach's microPsi 2 software running in my lab. (See my blog of 2 March 2015.) Several groups have assembled software modules that assess the beauty of humans.  Even if an AI does not need such a value for its decision making it might still prove useful for man-machine communication and understanding. (Another example of reconceptualizing reality.)

Doing science can make you more intelligent

Models of cognition involve a value function, a dopamine circuit in humans. (See, for example, the model in my blog of 1 Sept. 2012) The goal of any intelligence is to maximize rewards. How intelligent you are depends upon how good your value system is.  If you have bad values you make bad decisions and get fewer rewards.  Doing science promotes and develops some of the values which we then apply elsewhere in life, things like evidence-based belief.

Expanding consciousness

Using mobile robots, simulators, and hand coding the network fragment that constitutes Asa H's concept of self (see 21 July 2016 blog for a listing) has now been grown, adding the vectors: smell=(MQ-2 sensor, MQ-3, MQ-4, MQ-5, MQ-6, MQ-7, MQ-8, MQ-9, MQ-135), taste=(pH, salinity), touch=(contact1, contact2,..., force1, force2,..., whisker1, whisker2, ...), see=(camera1, camera2, ..., light sensor, color sensor, IR sensor, ...), temperature=(temperature1, temperature2, ...), pain=(pain1, pain2, ...), sense=(smell, taste, humidity, touch, see, hear, pain, B field, E field/charge, sense far, sense near, motion sensors, sense weight, compass heading, accelerometers, wind, temperature, air pressure, GPS positions, solar power), image manipulation=(shift y, shift x, rotatecw, rotateccw, scale +, scale -, reflect, invert), think=(sort, load, save, simulation, search, deduction, interpolation, extrapolation, update, image manipulation, mutate, sensitivity analysis, forgetting, compression), leave=(sense near, move, sense far), battery charge=(battery1 charge, battery2 charge,...), act=(grasp, release, kick, lift, lower, walk, move, carry, turn, approach, leave, push, pull, twist, recharge, taste, electromagnet, fan, messaging, telemessaging), health=(battery charge, pain, temperature, hardware diagnostic, software diagnostic). The development of hardware and software diagnostics is an ongoing project. All together Asa's concept of its self has roughly doubled in size.

Specialists in academics

Its faculty recognition time again. Following the industrialization of education our command hierarchy (following the fuhrer principle) tells us that we all must perform teaching, research, and service, each in specific assigned amounts.  I would think that specialization might actually be more efficient than this.  One person might perform only teaching, another only research, and another service.  We already have those who only do administration. Some people might perform two or more of these basic functions but there is no need for everyone to do three or all four. "From each according to his ability."

Specialist agents in Asa H

We would like to slowly grow a society of A.s.a. H. agents.  Each agent would be a specialist and might be developed relatively independently and then added to the society in order to expand its overall expertise. To what degree is this possible?  On the other hand what capabilities must ALL agents share? Some agents might assist or care for others.

Beta > 1 plasmas

I have suggested that fusion researchers should put more effort into the study of beta > 1 or wall confined plasmas. Magneto-Inertial Fusion and the Magnetized Target Fusion projects at Los Alamos National Laboratory are recent examples of this.  Unfortunately, theoretical studies of such systems may be employing overly optimistic models of the magnetic thermal insulation. One might well expect such systems to have stochastic field lines.  If that is the case then we might want to employ turbulent thermal insulation as suggested in my papers: Current Science, pg 991, 1988 and Bull. Am. Phys. Soc., Nov. 4, 2009 (51st Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics).