Life and Responsibility

Life sure is fun. Aside from all of the technical stuff that has excited me since I was a wee lad, reading and writing has always been great loves of mine. Slices of life. Fiction and nonfiction. Reliving the experiences of others through their words and insights printed on paper; coming alive in my minds eye. Life, the universe, you know what I mean. The covert and hilarious insights into life provided by Douglas Adams and in a similar, light-hearted vein Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, one of my favourite strips. Right up there with Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterson. Black Adder. Black Books. Other good, subversive material that often comes out of the UK. But not always.

On a more-serious side, the Kuhn-Popper debate on scientific orthodoxy and the periodic overturning of contemporary theories by new theories versus the naive, rational, scientific assumption of falseability promulgated by Popper. Denied by many philosophers in the modern day. Basic truth to the thinking man. Denied in the citadel of scientific funding and adminstration.

The relationship to completeness in the Turing sense, self-referential Godel statements, and the various towering works of Bertrand Russell culminating in the History of Western Philosophy. Linguistics and number theory as put by Douglas Hofstadter in his masterpiece GEB The Eternal Golden Braid. More later on his thesis about the development of consciousness as a result of the 'I' symbol that develops in our minds.

I am more likely to have my friends and family throw something at me to return my own serve of a delicious pun. Not always does my turn of phrase, choice of imagery or morsel of word play satisfy to dish a platter of words, the ingredients that resonate tastily with my listener. To mix a metaphor is fine, not only five; tell me why?

There is a formal relationship between personal and professional ethics, intellectual integrity and the way in which responsible members of society address public debate. In the home, as we grow through studies, the workplace, the wider world. To make an informed choice is more than just to take the random opportunity to express an opinion. My colleague and very good friend Geoff pointed me towards a wonderful, historic speech by William Clifford to the London Metaphysical Society in 1876 that deals with this very issue.

In business, to meet governance and compliance regulations and the duty of care owed to various stakeholders through the corporation act, common law and good sense. The members, the shareholders are owed the greatest duty of care and diligence in carrying out the affairs of business. Other peoples money. The integrity model is one key to assessing strategy. Corporate social responsibility presents another, more challenging face to meeting less obvious, though no less important, obligations to indirect stakeholders. A formidable challenge.

We enjoy so many privileges and are gifted with incredible opportunities to live freely and to seek out, to achieve our ambitions. Our wonderful society allows us to pursue which ever endeavour and to chase our pleasures, both fanciful and real in our families, our friends, our colleagues, our society and our civilisation.

Qui pro quo. With privilege taken we have responsibilities owed. Luck and good fortune play their part in the unfolding of our lives. I believe it is a great pleasure to contribute to our society in any way that we can.