May 2013
24 posts
“The opposite of hate is not love. The opposite of hate is sanity. Hate justifies...”
1 tag
“We’re living in an economy where productivity is no longer the goal, employment...”
1 tag
Grand Strategy Annex: Technological Unemployment... →
geopolicraticus:
The Ongoing Discussion of Technological Unemployment
Recently on my other blog I wrote a couple of posts on what is now with increasing regularity called “technological unemployment” — Automation and the Human Future and Addendum on Automation and the Human Future. This is simply the…
1 tag
Big history - a transcript from TED Talk - by...
First, a video. (Video) Yes, it is a scrambled egg. But as you look at it, I hope you’ll begin to feel just slightly uneasy. Because you may notice that what’s actually happening is that the egg is unscrambling itself. And you’ll now see the yolk and the white have separated. And now they’re going to be poured back into the egg. And we all know in our heart of hearts that...
The amygdala, a part of the limbic system, controls fear and aggression. This means that fear and aggression are closely related to one another. Strangely, the amygdala also controls male sexual motivation, which explains why males are more sexually aggressive on average. It may also have something to do with why males are more likely to confuse dominance and exploitation with sex.
“What we really are is a community of mind, knitted together by codes and...”
– McKenna (via inthenoosphere)
When pattern-detection systems in the brains,...
“The human brain is an amazing pattern-detecting machine. We possess a variety of mechanisms that allow us to uncover hidden relationships between objects, events, and people. Without these, the sea of data hitting our senses would surely appear random and chaotic. But when our pattern-detection systems misfire they tend to err in the direction of perceiving patterns where none actually...
Ignorance of crucial non-economic cultural...
Studying the economies of traditional small-scale societies, researchers from industrial and postindustrial capitalist societies run the risk of interpreting anthropological data in terms of their own technologies, their own values of work and property, and their own determination of what is rational. Take, for example, the following statement from a classic textbook in economics: “In all...
Science constantly reinvigorates the mystery of...
The challenge of trying to make sense of the biology of some of the really interesting things we do as humans, including invented belief systems, is recognizing us as just another off-the-rack mammal. Some of the time it’s just another plain-old mammal using standard physiology in utterly unstandard ways, and some of the time it’s built around us being unlike anything that’s ever...
“Identity is defined as ‘absolute sameness in all respects’, and it is this ‘all’...”
– Alfred Korzybski, Polish-American scientist, engineer, mathematician, philosopher, linguist, logician, author of Science & Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, and is remembered most for developing the theory of general semantics (1879-1950)
“A system can be defined as a set of elements standing in interrelations....”
– Ludwig von Bertalanffy, (1901-1902) Austrian biologist, systems theorist, and founder of general systems theory (GST)
[Wikipedia: Alfred Korzybski] Non-Aristotelianism
mymindtank:
While Aristotle wrote that a true definition gives the essence of the thing defined (in Greek to ti ên einai, literally “the what it was to be”), general semantics denies the existence of such an ‘essence’. In this, general semantics purports to represent an evolution in human evaluative orientation. In general semantics, it is always possible to give a description of empirical...
“Our dreams and stories may contain implicit aspects of our lives even without...”
3 tags
75 spectacular quotes from Buckminster Fuller
75 Spectacular Quotes from Buckminster Fuller:
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
― Buckminster Fuller
“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.”
― Buckminster Fuller
“When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty…….. but when I have...
sentimental-lydisabled:
“[Science] is distrusted not because of what it can do, but because people don’t understand how it does what it can do — and that absence of understanding, or misunderstanding, of the power of science is what makes people afraid. … Just because you don’t understand it, doesn’t mean it’s bad for you — go figure out how it works! That’s why we need a scientifically literate...
Science constantly reinvigorates the mystery of...
There’s a wonderful Arthur C. Clarke story that perfectly captures this fear that people have of what scientific knowledge can bring, called “The Nine Billion Names of God” (the traditional Tibetan belief that there are nine billion names of God, which is meant metaphorically to be an unattainable number). A bunch of Tibetan monks have teamed up with the greatest computer...
April 2013
78 posts
“The ignorant man is driven hither and thither by the laws of nature, a helpless...”
– Annie Besant (via heartbloodspirit)
“As recently as the year 2000, only one-quarter of all the world’s stored...”
– The Rise of Big Data | Foreign Affairs (via thisistheverge)
“To attempt to abstract an emergent system into a formula or a simulation is to...”
– “Simulations, Humility, and Emergent Systems”, by Remi D. (via orderfromchaos)
“A hallmark of true expertise and insight is making a complex subject...”
“Science now dominates every phase of our culture to a degree that can hardly be...”
– Stillman Drake; Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (via sagansense)
“A Verb-oriented world:
Our language is noun-oriented, whereas the world that...”
– Christian de Quincey, Radical Nature (via johnsparker)
“Science, however, cannot create ends and, even less, instill them in human...”
– Albert Einstein, Why Socialism? (via zeitvox)
BitTorrent Sync creates private, peer-to-peer... →
infoneer-pulse:
BitTorrent today released folder syncing software that replicates files across multiple computers using the same peer-to-peer file sharing technology that powers BitTorrent clients.
The free BitTorrent Sync application is labeled as being in the alpha stage, so it’s not necessarily ready for prime-time, but it is publicly available for download and working as advertised on my...
3 tags
BEFORE THE BIG BANG, OUTSIDE THE UNIVERSE… If the Universe began with the Big Bang, what existed before? And if the Universe has a limit, what is beyond it? Two deceptively simple questions cosmologists have been struggling with for decades. Let’s look at the latter first. As far as we can tell, in its first moments of existence, the Universe underwent an enormous and almost...
“With robots, we are inventing a new species that is part material and part...”
– Robot Futures | The MIT Press (via wildcat2030)
Why billion dollar companies fail and 10 person... →
summitd:
New essay from Summiter Peter Diamandis.
“An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent...”
– John W. Gardner (1912-2002)
What you SHOULD say to people dealing with any of...
Anxiety: This too shall pass, even if that sounds corny and cliche. Your anxiety will subside, you are not dying, you will not die from this, everything is going to be fine. Keep taking deep breaths, try and stay focused.
Depression: You are valid and your emotions are valid. You are a good, strong person, even if you don't feel like you are right now. Things DO get better, and I know you can get through this.
Sexual Orientation: Your body, your life, your bedroom. You choose what you do with it, and I get no say in the matter, because I am not you. I'll respect you no matter what.
Bipolar: The sun also rises. For all your bad days, weeks, or longer-- you also have good ones just beyond the horizon. You know better than anyone what it means to finally hit those "highs" in your life, and I hope that you just keep growing and strengthening yourself through your treatment to extend those happy moments.
Self harm: This is your body and I'll never pass judgement over you for the things you choose to do with it. However, you should really consider speaking with a counselor about this. Not because you're "bad", but because I just want you to be safe.
Eating disorders: It's okay to eat, you have permission. Eating will not make you fat, ugly, or worthless. Eating will make you strong, healthy, and lively. You deserve to eat, you deserve happiness.
Abuse: What they did was wrong, and you had no consenting part in it. You have no need to feel guilty or shamed, although I understand that may be exactly how you are feeling right now. They're the ones at fault here, and the ball is entirely in your court if you choose to report them for that, which you are rightfully entitled to do.
Suicide: Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. You are valuable and your existence is valuable. There are billions of people on this planet, and even if you think everyone hates you and no one cares, they do and they will. You can find so many friends and loved ones if you just allow yourself the time to look for them. The world turns out to be a beautiful place and you deserve to be alive to see that.
Sexual assault: What they did was vile and disgusting. Yes, you're now left with this horrible, traumatic event to move on from, but your life is not entirely lost. Recovery is possible, and an unfortunately large number of people have to go through that-- but they make it to the other side. So can you, you can do this. You're not dirty, you're not a "slut" or a "whore", you are a human being whose rights were violated. But you are strong, and I know you can move past this in due time.
Multiple Personality Disorder: I'll always love you no matter who you are. I only hope the absolute best for you during your recovery and treatment, and maybe one day I'll be so privileged as to love you as one whole.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: The pain of suddenly reliving horrific events is almost unimaginable for me. Please try and remember that although it feels like it's real and it's happening right now, that it's not. You are okay, you are fine, and you are safe. You are in the present here and now, and that past can't manifest itself again to come and physically hurt you. Everything is just fine, these feelings will pass and you're going to be okay.
Schizophrenia: I am real and I can promise you that. I care. Try and find something grounding for you, an object that you can cling to to help you distinguish between whether or not you're hallucinating. You are not a freak, you are not a monster. You're a human being with rights and emotions who happens to be ill right now.
