Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Friday, November 20, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
No words
Why have I had a consistent feeling all my (english speaking) life that there are a large percentage of thoughts, feelings and experiences for which there are no words? I don't consider myself to be a slouch when expressing myself verbally, and the English language is not exactly deficient in this area either, but I have noticed from my brief brushes with other languages eg. French, that the focus of expression is different, to the point that French can express concepts that English can't, and vice-versa.
And i'm not speaking so much here of the oral aspect, more of the mode in which we think. I have some glimpse of it due to the fact that I'm fluent in two languages of different origin, namely English and Afrikaans, but it's clear I have to learn more languages, from different origins.
Still, I regularly find that I am unable to express myself (to myself) because there does not appear to be a specific word that is even an approximation to what I am experiencing. What to do? Should I be inventing words, or a new language? Both are mammoth tasks, and a bit woolly to boot.
And let's not even get into the philosophy of the need to name things. I have had many passionate discussions surrounding the process of naming things, versus simply experiencing them sans labels, but lets be honest, no man is an island, and the nature of being human is the sharing of experience. What is the point of love, otherwise? What is the point of hate, otherwise?
How does one share experience, without the language to express it? The ability to communicate effectively is an evolutionary advantage, and is desirable. Surely as time passes, it is considered progress to be more (NOT less) able to share life experiences by describing them?
I propose that all language is actually Meta-Language. As an example, consider the following scenario: you are engaging in an activity with a friend, lets say for eg. African Drumming. There seems to be an understanding between you, and there is communication on a theme. Put that into words? Or you listen to a classical music piece, and you know, across the centuries, what the composer was trying to say. Put that into words? (Note the music aspect here) How about wine afficionados.... "Lightly wooded with a strawberry overview and a nutty afterhint" (Note the smell aspect here) Or you share a particularly intense game of squash with a friend, that flows like a dance (note the physical and dance aspects here)
All language is describing experience, on one level or another, and we all have those experiences. Language is the way we describe it to ourselves, NOT the experience itself, but there is no real memory of the experience, if we don't have a language to describe it to ourselves. Only after that does the sharing of experiences come.
Hmm.. I can see I will have to express myself better.
And i'm not speaking so much here of the oral aspect, more of the mode in which we think. I have some glimpse of it due to the fact that I'm fluent in two languages of different origin, namely English and Afrikaans, but it's clear I have to learn more languages, from different origins.
Still, I regularly find that I am unable to express myself (to myself) because there does not appear to be a specific word that is even an approximation to what I am experiencing. What to do? Should I be inventing words, or a new language? Both are mammoth tasks, and a bit woolly to boot.
And let's not even get into the philosophy of the need to name things. I have had many passionate discussions surrounding the process of naming things, versus simply experiencing them sans labels, but lets be honest, no man is an island, and the nature of being human is the sharing of experience. What is the point of love, otherwise? What is the point of hate, otherwise?
How does one share experience, without the language to express it? The ability to communicate effectively is an evolutionary advantage, and is desirable. Surely as time passes, it is considered progress to be more (NOT less) able to share life experiences by describing them?
I propose that all language is actually Meta-Language. As an example, consider the following scenario: you are engaging in an activity with a friend, lets say for eg. African Drumming. There seems to be an understanding between you, and there is communication on a theme. Put that into words? Or you listen to a classical music piece, and you know, across the centuries, what the composer was trying to say. Put that into words? (Note the music aspect here) How about wine afficionados.... "Lightly wooded with a strawberry overview and a nutty afterhint" (Note the smell aspect here) Or you share a particularly intense game of squash with a friend, that flows like a dance (note the physical and dance aspects here)
All language is describing experience, on one level or another, and we all have those experiences. Language is the way we describe it to ourselves, NOT the experience itself, but there is no real memory of the experience, if we don't have a language to describe it to ourselves. Only after that does the sharing of experiences come.
Hmm.. I can see I will have to express myself better.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Gravitons
Either I've got the wrong end of the stick, but if it's particles that mediate the interactions between everything at the quantum level, and nothing escapes from a black hole - except gravity - no radiation, no light, no other particles..... (with some odd exceptions) then obviously gravitons have a special dispensation, OR gravity is not mediated by a particle.
Since gravity also is defined as the curvature of spacetime, I doubt that there is actually a particle involved, virtual or otherwise. As a star collapses, it's density climbs beyond the schwarzchild horizon, and the gravity well gets extreme enough that nothing escapes (almost), meaning that it becomes a black hole. What does this mean? Does this mean that as the gravity gradient gets steeper that more gravitons are emitted (how? from where? its all the same stuff, just in a smaller space), or the nature of the gravitons changes and they get more....umm... concentrated? I don't think so.
The simplest argument is that there is no such particle, which begs the question about some of the other particles. I know the ether theory is obsolete, but if spacetime is bending in the presence of mass, then obviously spacetime has as valid an existence as some virtual particle, no?
enlighten me.
Since gravity also is defined as the curvature of spacetime, I doubt that there is actually a particle involved, virtual or otherwise. As a star collapses, it's density climbs beyond the schwarzchild horizon, and the gravity well gets extreme enough that nothing escapes (almost), meaning that it becomes a black hole. What does this mean? Does this mean that as the gravity gradient gets steeper that more gravitons are emitted (how? from where? its all the same stuff, just in a smaller space), or the nature of the gravitons changes and they get more....umm... concentrated? I don't think so.
The simplest argument is that there is no such particle, which begs the question about some of the other particles. I know the ether theory is obsolete, but if spacetime is bending in the presence of mass, then obviously spacetime has as valid an existence as some virtual particle, no?
enlighten me.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Something I wrote on the plane on the way back from mexico about ten years ago:
Humans are only concerned with two things:
Love and death; or, rather: Experience and Meaning.
We need Love as the experience, Death as the final meaning. To communicate with someone requires that we share experiences with them, in order that their and our death has some meaning.
Love and death are flip sides of the same coin. We seek a meaningful-death (2), and the love-experience(2). Is this a four-sided coin (2+2), or are the related concepts the same ?
There is a flow of give and take across the two sides of the coin here, which validates the existence of two people involved in a relationship.
I need the experience of love from you, in order that I can give my death meaning, and vice-versa. Where does this relate to our desire for sex? for acceptance? Does this this go right up the scale of our existence, our expression, our personal reality, spirituality?
These concepts tie together at least three dimensions of our existence. Is this all, or are there more?
These are the basic lessons, the skills we need to learn. Learn them and live forever.
We are built to notice the possibility of love. It is inherent between two people in a sense, but the act of love and of noticing it's possibility is the same thing, in the same way that our fear of a meaningless death and the death itself is the same thing.
After all, heaven is indistinguishable from hell; look around you: you are seeing both. It is only your perspective that changes. Is the love/death thing our means of cutting through this to find heaven ? Do some people desire hell ? Can we tell the difference ? Is our single ability to be able to distinguish between them, our act of free will ? Is this the key to existence ?
Humans are only concerned with two things:
Love and death; or, rather: Experience and Meaning.
We need Love as the experience, Death as the final meaning. To communicate with someone requires that we share experiences with them, in order that their and our death has some meaning.
Love and death are flip sides of the same coin. We seek a meaningful-death (2), and the love-experience(2). Is this a four-sided coin (2+2), or are the related concepts the same ?
There is a flow of give and take across the two sides of the coin here, which validates the existence of two people involved in a relationship.
I need the experience of love from you, in order that I can give my death meaning, and vice-versa. Where does this relate to our desire for sex? for acceptance? Does this this go right up the scale of our existence, our expression, our personal reality, spirituality?
These concepts tie together at least three dimensions of our existence. Is this all, or are there more?
These are the basic lessons, the skills we need to learn. Learn them and live forever.
We are built to notice the possibility of love. It is inherent between two people in a sense, but the act of love and of noticing it's possibility is the same thing, in the same way that our fear of a meaningless death and the death itself is the same thing.
After all, heaven is indistinguishable from hell; look around you: you are seeing both. It is only your perspective that changes. Is the love/death thing our means of cutting through this to find heaven ? Do some people desire hell ? Can we tell the difference ? Is our single ability to be able to distinguish between them, our act of free will ? Is this the key to existence ?
I quote from an interesting blog - Talk Reason :
"So the situation is this: On the one had we find that there is no reason in theory why evolution cannot account for complex systems. Furthermore, every one of the numerous complex systems studied in detail has just the structure it ought to have if it originated via known mechanisms. Scientists use this fact to formulate useful hypotheses about the history of these systems, and can claim one explanatory success after another as a result. For scientists the hypothesis that a system evolved by natural selection is the beginning, not the end, of their investigation.
On the other hand we find that ID proponents find it more plausible to invent out of whole cloth a designer capable of performing feats that can only be described as magical. They have not a single explanatory success to their credit, and have given no reason to believe their hypotheses can ever lead to anything useful. For ID proponents the assertion of design is the end of the investigation."
I think that is the most clear summary of the situation that I have seen in the last 5 years. You know that feeling when you go into the mountains, and have a few minutes or hours alone there? That feeling that the mountains have been there for a loooooooong time? how spiritual it feels? I get it every time, it makes me feel really good, and really connected, and really special, and somehow and I'm starting to think it's a trick of the light, metaphorically speaking. I'm not going anywhere different to anyone else on this planet when I die. Pauper or king, when we cease to be, its over. Sorry, but this is not some scene out of "The Highlander". (Still, I'm not about to stop going into the mountains :) )
There are too many people dying in abject poverty, famine and war to even entertain any form of deity, vengeful or loving. THERE IS NO GOD. We did it outselves, through our own triumphs and our own failures. The two most important things we can do would be to get rid of the church and McDonalds.
Stand on your own feet and live!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Well now that was a surprise.
There I was doing deep analysis of esoteric wing sections...and... how long does it take to get over true love, and how do we handle the possibility that it won't come round again? WTF is true love anyway? Why are we victims of our bodies, and where does the awesome smoothness come from when we're in tune with our bodies? I contacted my subconscious in the shower this morning. She gave me an ultimatum, without demanding anything. A Statement. Be with me, or Be without me. Perhaps we're not victims of our bodies, Our bodies are victims of us. Geez civilization is a heady veneer.
I got asked today, what do I think of homeopathy...I said, I think it works, but not for the reasons everyone thinks. On reflection...it's a crock of shit. What makes it work is our minds. The Placebo effect. But the stuff itself is a scam. Quantum water, quantum bracelets, tachyon thingummies that you stick on your cellphone to protect you from... what? Excuse me...WTF is a tachyon? If the dudes who invented the term are still struggling to figure out what it MAY be, how exactly is some idiot able to produce a sticker for your cellphone that protects you from those particles? I assume he has done the truly formidable maths, has the years of particle physics study under his belt, and is so far ahead of the incredibly dedicated people (who HAVE done the maths) who are researching quantum effects that he can actually produce a sticker that counteracts an as yet unproven particle that does what? Whooo, we all need to be protected from that particle....
And people buy this shit. ...and I'm taken on for not being Christian, or New Age or whatever. For my money, Christians have been taken to the cleaners... I would call them stupid, except that I think that there is a loophole in our brains for a meme called religion. We're susceptible. You can catch religion, just like you can catch the common cold, or the plague. With similar results. Useless to the rest of humanity. Ok, thats off my chest.
There I was doing deep analysis of esoteric wing sections...and... how long does it take to get over true love, and how do we handle the possibility that it won't come round again? WTF is true love anyway? Why are we victims of our bodies, and where does the awesome smoothness come from when we're in tune with our bodies? I contacted my subconscious in the shower this morning. She gave me an ultimatum, without demanding anything. A Statement. Be with me, or Be without me. Perhaps we're not victims of our bodies, Our bodies are victims of us. Geez civilization is a heady veneer.
I got asked today, what do I think of homeopathy...I said, I think it works, but not for the reasons everyone thinks. On reflection...it's a crock of shit. What makes it work is our minds. The Placebo effect. But the stuff itself is a scam. Quantum water, quantum bracelets, tachyon thingummies that you stick on your cellphone to protect you from... what? Excuse me...WTF is a tachyon? If the dudes who invented the term are still struggling to figure out what it MAY be, how exactly is some idiot able to produce a sticker for your cellphone that protects you from those particles? I assume he has done the truly formidable maths, has the years of particle physics study under his belt, and is so far ahead of the incredibly dedicated people (who HAVE done the maths) who are researching quantum effects that he can actually produce a sticker that counteracts an as yet unproven particle that does what? Whooo, we all need to be protected from that particle....
And people buy this shit. ...and I'm taken on for not being Christian, or New Age or whatever. For my money, Christians have been taken to the cleaners... I would call them stupid, except that I think that there is a loophole in our brains for a meme called religion. We're susceptible. You can catch religion, just like you can catch the common cold, or the plague. With similar results. Useless to the rest of humanity. Ok, thats off my chest.
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