“The Matrix and Philosophy: Explaining the Ideas Beneath the Groundbreaking Sci-Fi Trilogy - Associated Content” plus 1 more |
| Posted: 01 Feb 2011 12:31 PM PST But when The Matrix came out in 1999, it seemed as if the glory days of cerebral sci-fi fare were back with a vengeance. The movie asked us to contemplate a philosophical theme at least as old as Rene Descartes. How do I know that the experiences I have are actually real, and not simply cognitive stimuli coming from some hidden source? To Descartes, this became what we now call the evil demon hypothesis. Descartes wondered how we could disprove the idea that every single thing we experience wasn't really some nefarious entity tricking our minds. That illustration seems rather antiquated to the secular mind, and Harvard philosopher Hillary Putnam repopularized the idea by asking how do I know I'm not just a brain in a vat? Putnam asked us to imagine a disembodied brain, suspended in some life sustaining goo, that was hooked up to a set of wires that transmit signals to the brain the way our own nervous system does. At the other end of those wires is a computer that sends inputs to our mind, causing us to process sensory information that we perceive to be sights, sounds, tastes, etc. In reality, however, we're just receiving electrical impulses via some unseen source. This is the world Neo finds himself in when he finally "wakes up" from the matrix. He was, in quite a literal sense, plugged in to a machine that fed his mind a false reality. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| H-E-B benefits from ‘never satisfied' philosophy - MySanAntonio Posted: 02 Feb 2011 04:40 PM PST Recognized for its low prices and diverse, neighborhood-oriented stores, H-E-B has embraced a never-satisfied approach to business that should set the stage for continued growth, the president of the San Antonio-based grocery chain said Wednesday. "The hallmark of H-E-B is restless dissatisfaction," said Craig Boyan, who added the title of president last year to his role as H-E-B's chief operating officer. "We constantly want to make our business better." That was part of Boyan's message to a crowd attending St. Mary's University's Forum on Entrepreneurship Breakfast Series. H-E-B has used that philosophy to become one of the nation's fastest-growing retailers even during the recent recession, the executive said. More growth is anticipated even though H-E-B is not planning to expand outside of its current footprint in Texas and Mexico, said Boyan. "Our goal is to try to serve everyone in Texas," he said. That has pitted H-E-B squarely against Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, which has a powerful presence in both Texas and Mexico. Wal-Mart claims a larger share of the Texas market than H-E-B and is considered the local company's main competitor, Boyan said. But he said H-E-B has outperformed Wal-Mart since consumer spending began to sag as the recession hit. Pricing is a big part of it. Boyan said H-E-B's prices typically are 1 percent to 2 percent below Wal-Mart's. "That's a big deal for us," he said. Wal-Mart officials did not concede their prices had been bested by H-E-B. Still, they said consumers should benefit from the competition between grocers in Texas. "We want to offer them (consumers) the lowest prices for the things they'll need," Wal-Mart spokesman Daniel Morales said. "We feel we'll continue to be the low-price leader in the state." H-E-B's market share grew last year to 71 percent in San Antonio, an increase of five percentage points, and to 26 percent in Houston. Boyan said he's looking for more growth this year. The company's habit of tailoring individual stores to the specific needs of neighborhoods has fueled much of that growth. Boyan said the importance of reinventing the product for each neighborhood was particularly important in Houston, where H-E-B faced tough competition. "We almost died in Houston," Boyan said. That city became home to the company's first Joe V's Smart Shop, a no-frills discount grocery, last year. Houston, like other cities, also hosts H-E-B stores with product mixes and price ranges that are aligned with the neighborhoods around them. Howard Davidowitz, chairman of the retail consulting and investment banking firm Davidowitz & Associates Inc., called H-E-B a "powerhouse" company that's likely to grow because of its appeal to Hispanic markets and the quality of its produce and service departments. He could not say if it was lower priced than Wal-Mart but said it is "attractively priced." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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