Comments | monkeyparts: 1s and 0s

monkeyparts

1s and 0s

Apr 02, 2006 16:54

"There was nothing either above or below him- and I knew it. He had kicked himself loose of the earth. Confound the man! he had kicked the very earth to pieces. He was alone- and I before him did not know whether I stood on the ground or floated in the air." - Joseph Conrad- Yesterday I found myself staring into space, rather like the sailor in ( Read more... )

Comments 9

leclowne April 3 2006, 05:58:36 UTC

Ben, I am disturbed. I looked at your journal and realized that I had a strong urge to print it out at the library, staple it, and take a highlighter to it. And take notes.

Disturbed.

leclowne April 3 2006, 06:06:38 UTC

PS - constructive criticism: specific examples, if you have room for it. Names of companies, names of scientists, names of products. Examples of alternatives. And, minor tinkering with your phraseology - simply, less repetition.

monkeyparts April 3 2006, 19:20:08 UTC

- You got it. I'll put in the saga of Earl Gray (his real name) and the Rats That Wouldn't Lose Their Genetalia.

monkeyparts April 3 2006, 19:20:51 UTC

- Gosh, thanks. I think.

cocotopia April 3 2006, 14:05:50 UTC

Right on, right on, right on! You have gone over an edge, alright: you climbed up and over the edge of a cliff above the clouds, where the daylight reaches and visibility is vast.

I went to Findhorn in about 1980, after having read about it in '75 or 6. By 1980 it was already becomming more sociologically planning-focused than strictly spiritual, as it began. Very practical outcome. It's an extended community now, not just of hoo-hoos, but of very savvy cultural creatives.

Two people come to mind to put you onto here, if they are not already familiar. One is Kevin Philips, whose recent book American Theocracy : The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury has quite a lot to say about science being co-opted by politico-religious forces these days.

The second is one of my greatest heroes: Rupert Sheldrake. He must be one of Terry Pratchett's heroes too, because his theory of Morphic Resonance turns up frequently in Discworld physics explanations. If i can predict anything ( ... )

A direct link... cocotopia April 3 2006, 14:29:57 UTC

... to a salient interview with Sheldrake, this entitled Science is a Method, not a Position

monkeyparts April 3 2006, 19:18:51 UTC

- I've heard of Sheldrake, but I haven't read much of his stuff. I read the articles you sent me and a couple others on his site, and I'm sorry to say that I'm still not convinced. It seems that his notion of morphic resonance can be adequately explained using conventional science ( ... )

cocotopia April 3 2006, 20:44:14 UTC

Thanks for pointing me towards Goldsmith & Dissanayake. I will try to delve into those interesting titles.

Don't worry about pursuing Philips, he's mostly talking about the power orgy being had by American politics, religion, high finance,& oil. Here's a brief mention, in an article from yesterday in the Washington Post, of his side point about science (hardly a new observtion, but since he guided the rise of the GOP 30 or so years ago, he will be heard in circles where others won't):

"...Besides providing critical support for invading Iraq -- widely anathematized by preachers as a second Babylon -- the Republican coalition has also seeded half a dozen controversies in the realm of science. These include Bible-based disbelief in Darwinian theories of evolution, dismissal of global warming, disagreement with geological explanations of fossil-fuel depletion, religious rejection of global population planning, derogation of women's rights and opposition to stem cell research. This suggests that U.S. society and politics may again be ( ... )

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