problematizing xkcd

At this point, I've been reading online comics (so-called "webcomics") for over ten years, and still make time in my daily schedule for the habit of dropping by a handful of sites more or less frequently. In that time, I've seen several comics come and go; as some increase in popularity and quality, others begin to wane in both (sadly, often the quality goes before the popularity).

One such comic on which I started to pick up around 2004 was xkcd, Randall Munroe's self-described "webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language." Given my background in mathematics and science, and ties to nerd/hacking culture, I was fascinated and amused by Munroe's quirky insights on life, romance, and "common sense" notions.

As my academic pursuits and interests drifted away from the hard science side of things and further into the liberal arts/humanities, I continued to read xkcd. However, in recent years, I've begun to regard its humor as increasingly less amusing, and, simultaneously, more a matter of concern.

I was interested, upon a quick web search, to find the blog xkcd sucks, not a blind critique of xkcd, but actually a thoughtful criticism on xkcd's particular flaws. All the points which I would raise in a commentary on xkcd have already been raised there, and quite thoroughly.

As an example of my issues with the strip and a subset of its devoted followers, however, consider the following shirt:

(reproduced from the xkcd store)

What is the message of this shirt? In his store blurb, Munroe claims
"We finally figured out that you could separate fact from superstition by a completely radical method: observation. You can try things, measure them, and see how they work! Bitches."

My translation of his message is this: Science Works, and, by implication, Your Methods Don't.

It's a great slogan, except for the awkward fact that it's overly simplistic, and often simply untrue.

"Science: It Works." Works for what? The best answer that I can think of is, Science Works if I am trying to generate a scientific theory. Well, except when it doesn't. Superstring theory, a current promising candidate and hot topic in physics, is often criticized for being untestable and, hence, unscientific.

And even assuming that science always works to accurately generate good scientific theories, it must still collaborate with other disciplines - engineering, marketing, business, and sales - in order to make an impact on the greater scope of humanity. In fact, one could argue (I might argue) that the average individual's incomprehension of scientific advances is as much due to science's inability to disseminate information widely and simply as it is to the average person's apathy towards it or inability to wrap their unscientific minds around advanced scientific information.

I might be criticized for reading too much into Munroe's t-shirt: after all, it's just a handful of words on a tee, why raise my hackles for it?

The answer is twofold:

First, I'm not convinced that Munroe is simply making the claim that Science Works As Science; that is, I am not sure that he is saying "If you want to get scientific results, do science." I strongly suspect, based on the context of his strip, that Munroe is saying "If you want to get results, do science."
If you want to figure out love?
-Do science.
If you want to live a good life?
-Do science.
If you want to make an impactful, caring contribution to humanity?
-Do science.
Maybe this is too strong a reading; but even caricature is grounded in real observation. And my observation is that Munroe seems to be a man who holds the belief that society would be so much simpler, better, and more fun if we could just Do Science and be silly (in a "quirky, zany" way) and stop being such silly (in a stupid, unscientific way) complicated irrational beings.

The problem? Complicated irrationalities are not obstacles to humanity; actually, akrasia and cognitive dissonance lie at the core of humans' special cognitive identity. These complications Munroe seems to disdain are actually what make us human, a fact with which he seems to go back and forth on agreeing.

Second, even assuming that Munroe's intent in this shirt is to present a limited critique of the efficacy of "science vs. superstition" in the realm of generating scientific fact, I am concerned by how Munroe's fans will interpret this shirt.

I obviously wouldn't claim that anything except science has any role to play in, well, doing science: that's simple logic of identity (which, as a matter of fact, is not only a mathematical field, but actually lies well within the realm of philosophy). Superstition is an easy target, a straw man. But the polemic thrust of the shirt seems to be towards something rather less defenseless, proclaiming, in spirit, that "Doing anything except science doesn't work/works less effectively/is useless."

This is quite simply untrue. Even in the life of the most scientifically-minded and capable person, holistic well-being must be based on something other than the Scientific Method: Science, a perfectly good approach to theories, ideas, and empirical observations, is significantly less useful, or even outright disadvantageous, when applied to relationships, aesthetic interests (films, books, art, music), and the like. There are realms of the human experience which science is not meant to address, and testing claims to the contrary, while they are perfectly good hypotheses (it's scientific, after all!), does not result in emotionally and descriptively positive results. According to its own criteria, this thesis fails.

Unfortunately, I think this shirt promotes a unilateral valuation of one's approach to life, a point of view whose traces I've seen in some of my scientifically-minded friends and acquaintances. It saddens me to think of someone valuing any one discipline to the point of allowing themselves to adopt a one-dimensional, one-size-fits-all approach to the many splendors of life, whether the (obviously smart and thoughtful) Randall Munroe, or any of his fans.

Bluechoice Carefirst: An Insurance Nightmare

An acquaintance of mine recently won a years-long battle with his old insurance company, Carefirst.

Long story short, Jason (not me; Jason-my-friend, not Jason-myself) and his family moved away from Maryland around the end of summer in 2007. They had been covered for medical insurance by Bluechoice Carefirst, a local independent Maryland health insurance provider; but, as they were moving away from the area, Jason decided to cancel his account with them. After jumping through several hoops, they still didn't take him off their books, and he was stuck with a $900+ monthly charge on his credit card for over a year and a half.

After further legal wrangling on his part, uncovering further action in bad faith on their part, and involving the state government, Bluechoice Carefirst has finally been ordered to repay all his bills, plus 6% interest. Congrats, J.

For Jason's full account of the story, head on over to his blog.

it's been a long time

i shouldn'ta left you/ without a hot blog to get through

you know how it is, this is the life, right? I done been staying moving for the past 2 weeks nearly non-stop:

for the first week of Yale College's spring break, I was on tour with Living Water in western West Virginia (holla @ Williamson) and Kentucky.

After catching a midday flight back last Saturday, I got back into New Haven at 11:30 Saturday night, with just enough time to unpack, catch some sleep at home, wake up, pack, and head out for a full day of driving to the UCW Habitat for Humanity 2009 site, in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania (holla @ Greene County and my people in Waynesburg).

After a week of building (a brick....) howwses and such, we took the 10-hour drive back yesterday, I spent ~4 hours fixing my computer which got infected by the Trojan.Vundo rootkit, slept, went to church, and spent a thoroughly joyful evening watching tv, napping, and thinking about streetwears and hip-hops, right where i now sit.

bidda-yow.

Big ups to the NV$N brand, Rich Long, dallas to the penn, kalvin trancao for the busy works tee, edem glover the realest hip-hop head in Berea, living water, Darlene "Dusky" O'Toole, Peter Van der Beek, "Hank Leigh", Big Ray, Lil Ray, Bobby Ray, janice wong, and time to stay moving.

more to come, but for now a quick overview of all that i had going on over the few weeks immediately preceding my travels (2/2 - 3/3/2009):

Thursday02.05.2009

In mid-January, Niche started stocking Head Porter both
in-store as well as online, making them one of the few
stores on this side of the Pacific (if not the only store) to
do so. Having recently misplaced my old Manhattan
Portage cell phone case, I seized on their January free
shipping offer and copped my first Head Porter item.


"My Philosophy" (c) KRS-ONE.



Friday02.06.2009


"ALL YOU SEE IS... CRIME IN THE CITY"

Tails! tags at the corner of Wall and Temple, New Haven.

Saturday02.07.2009

I love to see it when my people get put on...


Jess Chang and I been down since my freshman year
at school. She is a real up-and-coming talent on the
burgeoning (?) classical music scene, and her string
quartet is making big moves... it don't stop!!


B and I lived together for two of my years in Morse, and he is captain
of the Yale track team this year!!! Sonn be lookin good [||] on that poster,
doing what he do best.

Sunday02.08.2009


Sighted at church: design FAIL.

"Halls" be lucky that Hallmark isn't more litigious than they are... or
are they??


SHERLOK and SOLE stickers, New Haven.

Monday02.09.2009

After kickin it with him for a while, I crashed at my boy
Ray's downtown place Sunday night; i emerged to find
the weather crisper'n a pair of white nikes.


I dare anyone to complain about Morse college's looks!!
This is proper, nah right?


Just a good day - I kicked it in the library all afternoon, just getting
some work done and enjoying the view.

Tuesday02.10.2009

More birthdays: both David Chen and Iris Yang. Chea!


You know how we do, got the mad mad crew up in the house (c) KRS.


Green


Before they were a couple... but you can see it right?


One of my favorite Hawai'ians






Don't never say the kid doesn't still have the wild style! Holla BACK!


Birthday cake pt 1...


And pt 2.






Bday kids

Wednesday02.11.2009


I stay fly with mad styles, but you already knew that,
didnt you?

And just as I was headed out the door dressed like that,
a package I been waiting for with anticipatory and
bated breath showed up on my doorstep! So you know I
had to take that, rewind it back... (google it)


Chea!


Man... Staple even has customized packing tape...
This sort of attention to the details is just one of the
many reasons why they are absolutely killing the
game right now.


What's inside??? let's see... stickers...


Thanks Jeff!


Oh... aiight... that's what's up... and all in my size, too.


Word!! Pretty much every CD out on Staple Sounds right now,
including some live CD's of Hiroshi Fujiwara (!) jam sessions.


Another pair of my favorite denims, the Stapleton
1975. Levi's 501 cut, 14.5 oz Italian denim. No details,
no branding except for a leather hip patch, just good
jeans. I bought a pair as soon as they first came out
two Fall seasons ago, and have worn them ~2-3 times
a week, almost every week, since... good thing that i
copped when i did, too, because the price has since
jumped from extremely reasonable (120) to what they
probably deserve (170-190, comparable to APC)...
but the price for these = $0!


And more... the DJ Muro collabo tee, and a short-sleeve... in the current
Springtime weather, this is gonna get some wear, you know it.

MAJOR props to jeffstaple, the reed space crew & staff, and twitter (i
guess...). This is how you build a client base, for life.

Friday02.13.2009

James' sister hit town and we went out for Thai Food, along with
other UCdubbers.



Sunday02.15.2009


Esther Lee's phone is adorable, that's all I wanted to say here.

Monday02.16.2009


Some stickers... SOLE is gettin up...


I unboxed my ALIFE "Frog Pack" Everybody Hi's
on account of the weather being so fresh that day.


Joints scraped my achilles tendon region all raw.
Moral of the story: either break in the kicks first,
or wear something OTHER than low-profile athletic
socks.


Some of yall get this.

Sunday02.22.2009

Having not taken a day off in about two weeks, I still had a long
week of intense work to look forward to, which unfortunately
included succumbing to illness, working through it, my condition
steadily decreasing, and ultimately, starting Thursday night,
deciding to spend the following 50 hours in my room in order to
recuperate and scramble together a sermon for Sunday. At some
point during that time, I decided to bounce to New Yiddy after
church on Sunday, to kick it with the fam out there.

First night I hung with Steve Yu.


Late-night dinner..... falafel in midtown... yea!


One of the dudes I look up to and have relied on the
most, no lies.

Monday02.23.2009


Steve and his roommate have a solid place in the midtown housing
jects

After an afternoon kicking it with an old man (blee), I headed uptown
to Harlem House, home of some of the rawest dudes I know in the
City: the NYU Navigators.


You know how they get down in the city!!!


After linking up with my boy Lando Schelrissian at
the house, we headed downtown towards NYU to
his evening Bible discussions and a leadership
meeting.


Shopping with big L


He takes care of his kids way bettern I do

Tuesday02.24.2009


Uptown baby, we gets down baby, for the crown baby...

St. Nicholas Place, Harlem! It's rough in the skreets!

before heading out of town, you know I had to drop
by SoHo... but I only had about an hour of downtime
before my train left for New Haven, so I had to
choose wisely... you know UNIQLO never ever
disappoints!


This is how they're displaying the upcoming S/S 09
line. In miniature!

After finally copping the short, light, well-fitting pea
coat that I've been looking everywhere for (but
finally found in Uniqlo... sadly in canvas, not wool),
I headed back to New Haven, refreshed.

Wednesday02.25.2009


POO. Best tag.


Nobu and I straight kicking it.


Nike SB "November Rain" Dunk Mids.


"In the Chaplain's office, there are no right answers
about religion, only really good questions" <= Public image FAIL. I've noticed that they've since changed that line in their printed materials.... good for them.

Thursday02.26.2009


You said it... i guess?


The colors are pretty ill. It seems that all of em (except blue?) are
representing on this plate. Way to go James!


Tiffs & Staple design denim & jacket.


My roommate David was kind enough to bring me by
the New Haven post office... I copped a NIKE SB suit
vest (yea they made those) and the seller made the
obvious gaffe of ordering signature confirmation. So
I had to haul myself out of my little world of foot
traffic and hoof it out there thanks to David's coupe.

Let me just put this out there: NO ONE who works is
gonna be home in the middle of the day to sign for
your package!!! [||]. Come on, people.

And having copped a sweet vest, you know I had to go
all out afterwards.




Oh yeah it's like that.

Frisday02.27.2009




My Sun Chips got wedged into the Berkeley basement vending
machine. The first time in years that I used a vending machine
wound up costing me a gold dollar and aggravation. SMH.


Moh lei made a cake for Ben's bday! Ausome.

Saturday02.28.2009


As I passed the Grove St. Cemetery, I noticed these
little birds. All chillin' and such.




Andrea hard on the grind...


Waiting for the bus back home, I noticed for the first time that Yale's
recycling bins are specially branded for them. Nice touch.

Sunday03.01.2009


AISON (?) tag, New Haven.

Tuesday03.03.2009

For my upcoming birthday, my parents copped me an
H&M slim fit suit, seeing as how ive been both getting
into more growed-up wears (don't worry, streetwear is
still the default!) and also seeing as how even so-called
tailored suits are usually too large for me.




Thanks mom & pops.