A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.
— Arthur Schopenhauer
Free will does not and cannot imply without cause, randomness or unpredictability. All those qualities, although present in complex systems, would contradict the notion of willful intent. What we want, and therefore do, must be based on reasonable ground....
If a group of beings from another planet were to land on Earth — beings who considered themselves as superior to you as you feel yourself to be to other animals — would you concede them the rights over you that you assume over other animals?
— George Bernard Shaw
Imagine a being so vast and powerful that its theory of mind of other...
If only one language was spoken on earth,
there would still be miscommunication and dogma,
the nature of words is to name everything nameable.
Recall the language that has no words, the one you were born speaking.
written by: Alex Bodnar
How important are 'the latest news'? What would it mean to ignore most news and to concentrate on our present goals?
These days many people are following an enormous amount of news sources. I myself notice how skimming through my Google Reader items is increasingly time-consuming.
Is there maybe more to it than just curiosity and...
How much does the average person know about how one of our simplest tools work, the knife?
What does it mean to cut something? What does the act of cutting accomplish? How does it work?
We all know how to use this particular tool. We think it is obvious, thus we do not contemplate it any further. But most of us have no idea what actually...
R15K
For 2-6 Players – AGES 10+
R U L E S O F P L A Y
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INTRODUCTION
You are about to play a variation of the most unusual game that has appeared in many years. It is not difficult, but because it is so different you will find it worthwhile to read the rules completely through before starting play. No attempt has been made...
Why choose the future over the present? A reason to do so is if we perceive the present not to be worthy and thus try to change it. Always picking the future over the present could be defined as making the journey the reward.
People who read and participate in lesswrong.com and overcomingbias.com seem to care most about the fate of a possible...
The mind is the joker of any deck,
yet the joker is not in full play
but merely a replacement
for the misplaced.
Yet the misplaced is ever close.
uncover the misplaced,
and the joker is of no use,
yet one will keep it just in case
another is misplaced.
written by: Alex Bodnar
Math is often misunderstood by the laymen.
One contains infinity.
All other numerical concepts
are mere subdivisions of one.
Zero does not exist,
divide one by infinity and there is no zero to be found.
Why then do people think that when the body dies
our being disappears into nothing, a flat zero?
written by: Alex Bodnar
My face changes, my body transforms,
my echo trails, I set the course unknowing,
feeding me alone by my own feed,
seeing me alone with my own eyes,
being me alone I can be many.
written by: Alex Bodnar
Yellow can turn blue into green and vise versa,
yet the green has always lived in both.
your true nature is green.
We go on seeing ourselves as yellows and blues.
In perpetual search for the right mixture of yellow
or blue to feel complete within ourselves.
We forget that the green is what we already are.
We were born green and then...
NotMarie:” I am overwhelmed 3V, I am plagued and besieged by impressions, ever since our last conversation, I keep on getting lost in my thoughts and sensations..
3V:” why is that?
NotMarie:” ..I am not sure really, it is as if in our last conversation a kind of imaginary carpet has been ripped from under my mind.. Suddenly I have...
NotMarie:” 3V, what on earth are ambiguous virtualities?
3V:” how do you know about ambiguous virtualities?
NotMarie:” it was on my holoscreen this morning when I logged in, just the words, no link, and no reference.. I am sure it came from you.. so what is it?
3V:” well, it was supposed to be a surprise, a linguistic concoction I...
This weekend I experienced a snowcrash; a moment where the seemingly disparate pieces of information floating in my head came together. A synapse fired, a new connection was made, and I was brought to a new level of consciousness, a new way of seeing the world. In reading this over, it almost sounds obvious, but it took me a while to get here. I...
You and I are not curators. We ”just sort through rubbish“. We are ”just a makeshift step before a more advanced algorithm is invented.“ If the term ”curator is devalued cheapened“ ... ”then museums could lose all respect as cultural bastions.“
“When an old culture is dying, the new culture is created by those people who...
Good morning, Infosphere!
Over the past few months, I've been wanting to set up "Metathink Mondays." Essentially, once a week, post an insight or a question that we can all ponder and reflect upon, in the service of making us smarter. Then, I'll collect all the feedback, assemble it into another post or ebook that would be like an...
not an author and a reader … a collision of co-creators
not reading or watching … playing and procreating
not a product … a process
not a tidy straight line … a mosaic
… a pattern that you can view from any perspective
not a beginning and an end … the end of the beginning, middle and end
not a frozen narrative … a collective...