#cilliers

Emile Cilliers' final disgusting insult to wife Victoria after trying to murder her twice

Cadena perpetua para exsoldado que manipuló paracaidas de su esposa

Parachute trial: Emile Cilliers guilty of attempted murder

The rise of powerful technology is not an unconditional blessing. We have to deal with what we do not understand, and that demands new ways of thinking. It is in this sense that I argue that philosophy has an important role to play, not by providing a meta-description of that which happens in science and technology, but by being an integral part of scientific and technological practice. (2)

[T]he heart of the matter is that our technologies have become more powerful than our theories. We are capable of doing things that we do not understand. We can perform gene-splicing without fully understanding how genes interact. We can make pharmaceutics without being able to explain effects and predict side-effects. We can create new sub-atomic particles without knowing precisely whether they actually exist outside of the laboratory. We can store, and retrieve, endless bits of information without knowing what they mean. Central to all these developments are the phenomenal capacities of the electronic computer. It forms part of most of our tools (like washing machines and motor cars); it infiltrates our social world (think of financial matters and entertainment); and it is rapidly becoming the most important medium for communication. Although we know that nothing 'strange' happens inside a computer nobody can grasp all aspects of what happens when a computer is performing a sophisticated task - at least not down to the level of switching between zeros and ones. It is simply too complex. (1)

A complex system is not constituted merely by the sum of its components, but also by the intricate relationships between these components. (2)

The hype created by chaos theory has abated somewhat, but the perception that it has an important role to play in the study of complex systems is still widespread. Although I would not deny that chaos theory could contribute to the study of complexity, I do feel that its contribution would be extremely limited. [...] As a matter of fact, it is exactly the robust nature of complex systems, i.e. their capability to perform in the same way under different conditions, that ensures their survival. [...] My claim is [...] that chaos theory, and especially the notions of deterministic chaos and universality, does not really help us to understand the dynamics of complex systems. (IX)