Local Group Blogs - Humanist Society of Scotland

Alice Atkinson, 18th December 1925 - 27th November 2008

I first met Alice only a few years ago when I joined the Glasgow group of the Humanist Society of Scotland. I turned up at my first meeting, feeling out of place and at 50, too young. Then this glamorous lady came in; she lit up the room, came straight over and sat down with me saying “You’re new. What’s your name? I’m Alice.” She made me welcome as she did everyone who crossed her path, whether a middle aged man at her local humanist group or a teenage boy on her stained glass window course at Glasgow North College. She was a lady with charisma.

She was born Alice Wright Campbell in Glasgow’s East End; at number eleven Muslin Street to be precise, not a stone’s throw from Bridgeton Cross, the youngest of a family of five. Her family’s strong working class background anchored her lifelong left-wing, atheist, republican, principled life stance. But this working class girl was destined for the glamour of the international jet set, before the term had been invented.

In the forties Alice became an air hostess with BOAC on the Sunderland Flying Boats to South Africa via Cairo; Nairobi to Cape Town and then the run to South America stopping over at Santiago, Buenos Aires, and Rio. There are photographs of Alice with her forage cap set at a rakish angle welcoming the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Stafford Cripps, onto her flight. At the RAAF Club at Prestwick she mixed with the local RAF pilots and one in particular caught her eye, Bill Atkinson. In 1950, they wed, set up home in Troon and Alice concentrated her talents on being a housewife and mother.

After the children flew the nest, Alice and Bill moved to Glasgow, and Alice took to “retirement” like a duck to water. Her interests blossomed: The Glasgow Philosophical Society, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, and the then Glasgow Humanist Group. But it was with the humanists she made her biggest mark, as membership secretary of the newly formed Humanist Society of Scotland. She took the membership from around 300 to over 2000 when she finally retired from the post in 2006. Throughout that period her strength and quiet charm were effectively used to lead the humanists with steadily but ever increasing numbers to a position where their influence on Scottish society was being felt.

She had other interests and in particular “Decorative Stained Glass”; an interest that took her to Glasgow North College where she happily learned alongside the teenage students, and thought nothing of clambering up scaffolding to be find out how to fix broken stained glass.

She liked to live by Dame Thora Hird’s mantra ‘It’s not being old that stops you doing things, rather it is not doing things that makes you old’. She was the busiest and most glamorous 82 year old I’ve ever met. She is survived by three children and five grandchildren.

Gordon Ross

Be the first to comment on this article

Highland Local Group

| Print |

Please look at the Highland Events page for details of the Highland group's current events

Be the first to comment on this article

Picking Up Momentum

| Print |

When the brilliant Atheist Bus campaign finally takes to the roads in January there will be standing room only, if it is in any was as popular as the Sunday meetings held this season by the Glasgow group. Be the first to comment on this article
Read more...

The Phenomenal Human Brain

| Print |

The Phenomenal Human Brain

Speaker: Roger Redondo. Chair: Jack Gold

A fine talk from Neuroscientist Roger Redondo, HSS Edinburgh Group Committee Member, and ex-President of Edinburgh University Humanist Association. Roger's talk was aided by OHP, laptop presentation including video and various other imaginative aids. I estimate around 90 people turned up, a large gathering by any standards.

Roger kicked off by asking us to memorise different objects hidden around the hall under cups to later test our capacity to remember. I had the impression he was a little surprised that most folks DID remember where the toy pineapple and other items were to be found, and not just the £20 note.

If we ever had any doubts about the complexity of the human brain they were soon dispelled. Roger clearly explained what goes on inside the brain, how and why the brain functions, what makes us human and how it can all so easily break down.

Comparisons were made with other creatures, whose brains are simple compared to our own but are absolutely right for the correct functioning of those creatures in their particular environment - fewer brain cells for such creatures would prevent proper functioning; too many more brain cells would be too 'expensive' a strategy.

Audience volunteers were connected to each other by coloured ropes, from wrist to wrist, that were then selectively disconnected to demonstrate the cooperative and cumulative learning process of brain cells, a process that results in progressively successful human behaviour. This was a great demo and a lot of fun.

Two kinds of brain cells deserved special attention from Roger. 'Place-cells' help creatures know where they are and how to navigate successfully. A firework display of sparking neurons happens every step we take (at least on simulations!), some neurons apparently 'recognising' particular locations and working collectively with other cells to navigate spaces or avoid obstructions. Successful Place-cells are rewarded; unemployed or navigationally challenged cells drop away. 'Mirror cells' appear to help us empathise with other humans as, through our senses, we recognise body language, facial expression, moods etc. This may even be the keystone of consciousness according to Roger. Anyone familiar with David Chalmers' 'Hard Problem' that differentiates human self-knowledge, subjectivity, self-consciousness from HOW the mind and body works, could be forgiven for considering Mirror cells a possible solution. After all mirror cells apparently help us empathise with others, therefore why not the mother of all empathies Roger asks - with the person we spend most time with - ourselves? Could this not explain consciousness? If, that is, the same system is in operation?

Roger demonstrates video footage of robots benefiting from what we know about brain cells - robots that learn a kind of spatial awareness, and a kind of self or bodily awareness that apparently aids its navigation - or at least it is meant to - their attempts to walk or crawl seemed quite haphazard. Roger hints that the more complex such robots become the more species-like they will become. Perhaps they could even pose a threat, he ponders, were they able to reproduce (manufacture other versions of themselves) I wonder.

My comments, to finalise (if I may)

Sorry Roger, I disagree about the robots thing. Complexity of transistors may simulate human complexity but inside that robot machine it is DARK. Compared to our subjective minds, lit with creativity and qualitative perception, these machines will always be artefacts made by humans to mimic humans, but they will never be human - or even a parallel 'species'.

Put more simply, I love the smell of a rose and so do most people. We know what each other means when we describe the smell of a rose to each other. But words fail the actual sensation we each get as individuals - the real joy is somehow special to us like the smell of coffee, a great piece of music or a lovely sunset. My point, finally (!) is this; Roger, you can build a robot to appear to appreciate those subjective sensations, the ones that make us human, and that will be a marvellous achievement - but a robot will never smell a rose or appreciate music as we do - it will always be a zombie and always be dark inside.

(Feel free to disagree!)

Be the first to comment on this article

Fun with Darwin

| Print |

click on the image above to see full size version

This is just a bit of Humanist, humorous fun really, but also with a serious side. Just for a moment, suspend your disbelief - Edinburgh District Council has agreed to celebrate Darwin 200 big time. OK, they haven't really, however this image represents what Edinburgh might look like if they did. See how many references to Darwin and evolution you can spot in the image above. To see all the detail, click on the image and view the full size version. (Image created by Jack Gold, Edinburgh Group)

Comments (3)

A New Season.

| Print |

Abbotsford House

Glasgow group Summer Outing news and the programme for 2008/2009 is well in place.

It is often said that organising humanists is like trying to herd cats. In hippy parlance cats are cool! The Glasgow Group, while taking its normal summer break, managed to herd enough members onto a coach for the summer outing on August 17th.

Comments (1)