Welcome to the Hall of Presidents.
There's only one reason anyone ever heard of the Sphex wasp. When it lays its eggs, it builds a burrow and stuffs a caterpillar into it, to serve as food for its eggs. But if you steal the caterpillar while the wasp is building the burrow, the wasp will go through the motions of putting the caterpillar into the burrow and burying it, oblivious to the fact that it's accomplishing nothing.
Daniel Dennett points to the Sphex as the decisive argument in the debate over determinism and free will. Free will, he declares, lies in the ability to recognize futility. The Sphex can't recognize the futility of its actions because it's like a little clockwork automaton, going through preprogrammed motions. Humans, on the other hand, can recognize futility, so they have free will.
Has Dennett glimpsed the truth? He has, but he has only glimpsed it, and that glimpse has sent him fleeing to hide under the quilt from the monster that lurks under his very bed- the monster of COGNITIVE DISSONANCE! For Dennett cannot permit himself to see the obvious- that he lives in a world full of clockwork people, devoid of free will as they rattle along their tracks!
Do you want proof? Read War Stars: the Super Weapon and the American Imagination, by H. Bruce Franklin, mighty god of the Pantheon of Perspicaciousness, arrayed in lightning and thunderbolts!* Gaze upon it, and despair!
Franklin's history of strategic bombing, in a nutshell: roughly 80 years ago, the military establishment became convinced that strategic bombing was the ultimate weapon to end all wars. In World War II, America tried to defeat Japan by incinerating every single Japanese city with incendiary bombing. That didn't work, so they tried incinerating a few Allied cities- specifically, Japanese-held Chinese cities. That didn't work either. Then they had an idea. Obliterating cities with squadrons of bombers wasn't working, but what if they could obliterate a city with a single bomber? That's the ticket! Then they built the atomic bomb. Truman, in his infinite wisdom, spared three Japanese cities so that they could be destroyed with single bombs instead of multiple ones. Then, just as the Russians destroyed the Japanese army in Manchuria, America obliterated two of the remaining three cities on the Japanese mainland. Japan surrendered, obviously due to that last bit of bombing. Thanks be to God that Truman had the wisdom to retain a few cities to nuke! If he had incinerated them with conventional bombs, there wouldn't have been anything left to drop an atomic bomb on, and an invasion of Japan, costing a hundred thousand American lives, would have been inevitable.
Then came the Korean war. North Korea was so saturated with bombs that the few trees left standing were each given individual commemorative plaques by the North Korean government. America mysteriously lost, despite the undeniable supremacy of strategic bombing.
Then came Vietnam. First, we bombed the enemy until there was nothing left to bomb. That didn't work. Looking for something, anything, to turn the ultimate weapon against, we started bombing neutral countries. That didn't work. Then we started bombing our South Vietnamese allies. That didn't work either. We lost.
Flash-forward to Gulf War II. How will the free-willed pinnacle of creation handle this one, with the painful lessons of Vietnam still seared upon their collective memory? It's obvious: they'll launch a blitzkrieg- re-branded "Shock and Awe"- and bomb the absolute kajingus out of Iraq. After such a massive bombardment, controlling the country will certainly be a cakewalk, right?
And what's the big issue in the news today? Bush is trying to get us all wound up over Iran.
* This blog is not associated with or paid for by H. Bruce Franklin in any way.
Daniel Dennett points to the Sphex as the decisive argument in the debate over determinism and free will. Free will, he declares, lies in the ability to recognize futility. The Sphex can't recognize the futility of its actions because it's like a little clockwork automaton, going through preprogrammed motions. Humans, on the other hand, can recognize futility, so they have free will.
Has Dennett glimpsed the truth? He has, but he has only glimpsed it, and that glimpse has sent him fleeing to hide under the quilt from the monster that lurks under his very bed- the monster of COGNITIVE DISSONANCE! For Dennett cannot permit himself to see the obvious- that he lives in a world full of clockwork people, devoid of free will as they rattle along their tracks!
Do you want proof? Read War Stars: the Super Weapon and the American Imagination, by H. Bruce Franklin, mighty god of the Pantheon of Perspicaciousness, arrayed in lightning and thunderbolts!* Gaze upon it, and despair!
Franklin's history of strategic bombing, in a nutshell: roughly 80 years ago, the military establishment became convinced that strategic bombing was the ultimate weapon to end all wars. In World War II, America tried to defeat Japan by incinerating every single Japanese city with incendiary bombing. That didn't work, so they tried incinerating a few Allied cities- specifically, Japanese-held Chinese cities. That didn't work either. Then they had an idea. Obliterating cities with squadrons of bombers wasn't working, but what if they could obliterate a city with a single bomber? That's the ticket! Then they built the atomic bomb. Truman, in his infinite wisdom, spared three Japanese cities so that they could be destroyed with single bombs instead of multiple ones. Then, just as the Russians destroyed the Japanese army in Manchuria, America obliterated two of the remaining three cities on the Japanese mainland. Japan surrendered, obviously due to that last bit of bombing. Thanks be to God that Truman had the wisdom to retain a few cities to nuke! If he had incinerated them with conventional bombs, there wouldn't have been anything left to drop an atomic bomb on, and an invasion of Japan, costing a hundred thousand American lives, would have been inevitable.
Then came the Korean war. North Korea was so saturated with bombs that the few trees left standing were each given individual commemorative plaques by the North Korean government. America mysteriously lost, despite the undeniable supremacy of strategic bombing.
Then came Vietnam. First, we bombed the enemy until there was nothing left to bomb. That didn't work. Looking for something, anything, to turn the ultimate weapon against, we started bombing neutral countries. That didn't work. Then we started bombing our South Vietnamese allies. That didn't work either. We lost.
Flash-forward to Gulf War II. How will the free-willed pinnacle of creation handle this one, with the painful lessons of Vietnam still seared upon their collective memory? It's obvious: they'll launch a blitzkrieg- re-branded "Shock and Awe"- and bomb the absolute kajingus out of Iraq. After such a massive bombardment, controlling the country will certainly be a cakewalk, right?
And what's the big issue in the news today? Bush is trying to get us all wound up over Iran.
* This blog is not associated with or paid for by H. Bruce Franklin in any way.
posted by Wintermute at 1:22 AM
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