Bruin Alliance of Skeptics and Secularists

Last Friday, we had a lot going on. Global Warming, memes, car analogies, everything. Pretty much, if you missed this, you missed out.

Among other things, we discussed topics and ideas that we’d like to see in the future. Popular ideas included having more formal debates between two members, having a meditation at the beginning of the meeting, or discussing the film What the Bleep!? (critically, of course). Look out for these things in the future. Also, note that Darwin Day, Darwin’s bicentennial, is coming up on February 12.

Global Warming:

Today, we had a presentation prepared by Paul Zimmerle about Global Warming, who had read the IPCC report. For the completely confused, Global Warming is the idea that increased amounts of greenhouse gasses will cause the Earth’s overall average temperature to increase. Greenhouse gasses, which include carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor, reduce the amount of heat that leaves the earth. Carbon dioxide is the biggest contributor. The increase in greenhouse gasses is thought to primarily come from human sources.

One of the problems with Global warming is the positive feedback mechanism it may cause. As ocean water warms up, the ice caps begin to melt. Smaller ice caps means that the overall albedo of the Earth decreases (meaning, less sunlight is reflected off the surface, heating the Earth further). Because Antarctica is not merely a floating island, the melting of ice in Antarctica will also cause the sea levels to rise. One of the fears is that if the temperatures continue to rise, this may shut down the so-called North Atlantic Current, which will cause the next ice age cycle to start early.

Global Warming has many effects. In some areas, increased drought was observed. Increased precipitation in other areas should also occur, though it hasn’t yet been directly observed. Bay waters will become saltier. Heat waves (and associated health issues) have become more common. There are more mosquitoes, and the pollen season starts earlier. It may also affect hurricanes, but in absence of further evidence, we are not sure.

After the presentation, we had questions and discussion. Is the controversy about Global Warming real, or is it exaggerated? BASS members compared it to the evolution vs Intelligent Design debate, which primarily lives in the public’s imagination rather than in scientific circles. However, scientists still argue about the degree of Global Warming. What can we do about Global Warming? Paul said that there is not a whole lot we can do at this point, that there are ideas floating around, but no well-accepted solutions. A few people put forth the idea of increasing particulate pollution, thus dimming and cooling the planet. This supposedly occurred in the 1950s due to increased numbers of coal power plants.

Memes

Memes are a concept initially introduced, or at least popularized by Richard Dawkins. A meme is any idea which is passed on between individuals, propagating itself. It is intended as an analogy to genes, in that memes mutate and undergo natural selection.

Putting all my cards on the table, I myself am very critical of the idea of memes. I stated that memes may be a good rhetorical device, but the analogy with genes is not good enough to merit any serious study. In particular, amemogenesis (the creation of a meme without any clear parents) and meme hybridization (the combining of two or more memes together) are too common for the analogy to be accurate. Other members noted that Dawkins himself has disassociated himself from the idea of memes, and that anthropologists dislike the idea because it is not a good description of how ideas are passed on. And if we’re only trying to say that memes propagate themselves, this is a rather trivial and useless fact, unworthy of the analogy.

On the other hand, some people still think memes are a good way to think about and visualize the spreading of ideas. And in fact, the concept is used by some prominent psychologists, such as Daniel Dennett and Susan Blackmore. And then we got to talking about religion as a meme. Daniel Dennett has compared religion to a meme or a parasite. But some people thought a virus analogy would be more apt (personally, I would go with none of the above).

Robin was declared skeptic of the week for his analogy between Global Warming and a Yugo. It’s probably not safe in the long run. I’m told that car analogies transcend all other kinds.

I should mention that all readers are welcome to continue any discussion here. Comments are moderated, so don’t expect them to appear immediately.