What, Why & How do we Know ?
I’ve been interacting with Jaap van Till for the last year or two, mainly on Twitter. His blog is The Connectivist. He recently made a reference to, and separately blogged about, Ann-Marie Slaughter’s “The Chess Board and the Web“ in a comment to me. And my response was to liken the sound of her “Chessboard” … Continue reading “The Connectivist”
Had this Aeon piece by Philip Ball on my desktop for a day or two, and had it brought to my attention today by Robin. Firstly I’m already a believer that the wave-particle duality and collapse of the wave function driven by the observer are fudges, as is the idea that many superpositioned states represent … Continue reading “Quantum Weirdness Ain’t So Weird”
I’m exploring available theories of consciousness that tie themselves in open-minded ways to fundamental physics, that is they don’t automatically exclude themselves from physical explanation by overly reductionist reliance on objects already (accepted as being) defined by physics. Yesterday, I summarised what I heard from Robert Kuhn’s Physics of Consciousness / Closer to Truth resources. … Continue reading “Integrated Information Theory”
I’ve been sitting on this Physics of Consciousness link for a while, without so far watching the video interviews, because of both the topic and the participants. I’m a bit sceptical I’ll hear anything newly convincing, but I will take a look. (Also worth linking because of the overall range of material on Robert Lawrence Kuhn’s “Closer … Continue reading “Physics of Consciousness”
I have many times left hanging the idea that causation is seriously weird, if you get down to looking closely at what we really mean or try to explain how it works. “… important assumptions about time and causality at base — seriously weird concepts when you research beyond common sense — a recurring issue … Continue reading “Unpicking Confused Causation with Massimo Pigliucci”
Sad to hear of yesterday’s passing of Bob Pirsig, aged 88, at home after a period of failing health. Thoughts are with Wendy and the family. Bob was my seed-crystal – the catalyst that triggered all manner of connections between the super-saturated collection of issues and thoughts that already had me on my “What, why & … Continue reading “RIP Robert Pirsig (6 Sep 1928 – 24 Apr 2017)”
Andy Martin has written another great piece for The Independent. Topical – as in Piers Morgan and the usual opinionated #Celebs / #Trump / #Brexit / #Corbyn bollocks that fills all our bandwidth – but spot on with the underlying subtlety of what is really going on. We’ve lost perspective of real truth, we’ve got … Continue reading “Without Hypocrisy All is Tautology”
That information and communication are fundamental properties and behaviours of the universe, human and cosmic, has kinda been part of my worldview since I started this blogging project, but it’s one of those “facts” that becomes ever more clearly defined. And I don’t believe it’s just the self-reinforcement of echo-chamber and confirmation-bias. If anything, it’s … Continue reading “Information & Communication are Fundamental”
Interesting. Reading Henry Stapp’s Mindful Universe – too early to review, but it is excellent so far. Scientism based on 300 years of engrained classical physics has simply not learned the the role of human consciousness in quantum mechanics – to the detriment of of all human endeavours, not just science generally and science of … Continue reading “Stapp & Mersini-Houghton”
Henry Stapp’s words quoted by Brian Josephson, were one of the first occasions I was turned on to considering that (eastern) mysticism might have something real to add to science. Both serious physicists, the latter a Nobel prizewinner, both interestingly, present at the 2003 Science of Consciousness event in Tucson. At the time (noted in … Continue reading “Henry Stapp”