Benjamin Zander|TED2008 (ted.com)
Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it — and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.
(With thanks to Bruce King)
The object of this book is to present a radical novel conception of the ontological categories, their nature and epistemic importance. A conception that constitutes a challenge to the prevailing tenets, if not paradigms, of ontology today. The arguments and observations are given without addressing nor directly contesting the current theories on the subject. However, its author emphasises some of the main conclusions that entail from the new perspective, in particular regarding the role of philosophy among the sciences. Departing from the novelty of considering distinctions to be the subject matter of thought and language -that is, of reference and meaning- it is observed that there are certain concepts, encompassed under the notion of “Being”, that are each “all” comprising categories. It is explained that these categories are conformed by certain ontological relations, which seem to stand for the structure of reality in-itself, and cannot be, in any manner, denied cognitive content nor objective existence in any possible world. Following this, it is argued that they constitute the primary premises of judgment and ultimate explanatory resources, and, thus, the fundaments of logic and mathematics. Moreover, language is shown to be structured according to them, and it is likewise explained that, as primary premises of all our judgments, they cannot be but determined a priori, standing for aspects of mind objective reality of a non-sensible nature, which are essential elements of cognition. It is shown, that it is they that enable to bridge the gap between the mind and the world, but set a limit to our possible knowledge of reality, which forces to presuppose the existence of higher or hyper-orders of reality. The importance of this work is, that from a naturalist stance, its observations and arguments constitute a strong case against established and well-rooted tenets in contemporary philosophy, while point to the need of focussing the field of the discipline to the study of the cognitive content of our innately determined a priori concepts.
(via Suzanne Deakins, H.W., M. and Goodreads.com)
by Robert Lanza, Bob Berman (With)
Biocentrism shocked the world with a radical rethinking of the nature of reality.
But that was just the beginning.
In Beyond Biocentrism, acclaimed biologist Robert Lanza, one of TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in 2014,” and leading astronomer Bob Berman, take the reader on an intellectual thrill-ride as they re-examine everything we thought we knew about life, death, the universe, and the nature of reality itself.
The first step is acknowledging that our existing model of reality is looking increasingly creaky in the face of recent scientific discoveries. Science tells us with some precision that the universe is 26.8 percent dark matter, 68.3 percent dark energy, and only 4.9 percent ordinary matter, but must confess that it doesn’t really know what dark matter is and knows even less about dark energy. Science is increasingly pointing toward an infinite universe but has no ability to explain what that really means. Concepts such as time, space, and even causality are increasingly being demonstrated as meaningless.
All of science is based on information passing through our consciousness but science hasn’t the foggiest idea what consciousness is, and it can’t explain the linkage between subatomic states and observation by conscious observers. Science describes life as an random occurrence in a dead universe but has no real understanding of how life began or why the universe appears to be exquisitely designed for the emergence of life.
The biocentrism theory isn’t a rejection of science. Quite the opposite. Biocentrism challenges us to fully accept the implications of the latest scientific findings in fields ranging from plant biology and cosmology to quantum entanglement and consciousness.
By listening to what the science is telling us, it becomes increasingly clear that life and consciousness are fundamental to any true understanding of the universe. This forces a fundamental rethinking of everything we thought we knew about life, death, and our place in the universe.
(via Suzanne Deakins, H.W., M. and Goodreads.com)
By Barbara Marx Hubbard (studylib.net)
Over the past 40 years I have been developing certain social “templates” or patterns to facilitate the next stage of our evolution. All of them spring from an evolutionary perspective and a metaphor to describe our current situation. The metaphor is: “Our crisis is the birth of a universal humanity, capable of co-evolving with nature and cocreating with spirit.”This “birth” is dangerous, yet natural. The tendency in evolution at times of such crises is to develop evolutionary drivers that pressure us toward more consciousness, more freedom, and more life through more synergistic order. This is what we see happening now.In this paper I will place two of these key evolutionary social patterns in the context of evolutionary potential and describe them briefly so that those who are choosing to apply them in a variety of ways will know where they come from, and will help develop whatever their greater potential may be.These new patterns for social evolution come forth out of the recent revelation of the Process of Creation –cosmogenesis –understood as our own story, our own “birth narrative, from the origin of creation to us at the point of self-destruction or more conscious evolution.This Process is seen as an evolutionary spiral, proceeding quantum jump by quantum jump from pre-life to life, from single cell to animal, from animal to human, and now, possibly, from human to a more universal, cocreative, compassionate humanity.The spiral is experienced as directional, animated from within by an “implicate order,” a tendency, a universal intelligence or Consciousness Force leading to ever higher consciousness and greater freedom through more complex, synergistic order, as mentioned above.The “Core” of the spiral can be visualized as the designing universal intelligence animating every atom, molecule and cell, now becoming conscious within us as our own motivation to grow, to love more, to participate more fully in the process of creating a world equal to our aspiration and potential.From this perspective it appears that the universe is not neutral. It seems to be ‘coded’ with a prime directive: Create More Conscious Life. Transform Matter into Life. In this context the evolution of Earth Life including ourselves is understood as a vital stage in a universal developmental path toward a conscious universe. As James Gardner puts it: “The universe is coming to life,” We are a natural part of that life.When we place our current condition within the evolutionary spiral as the next turn, we realize that quantum changes are nature’s tradition; that crises precede transformation; and that nature takes jumps through greater synergy –separate parts coming together to form a whole system greater than and different from the sum of its parts. Intuitively we can imagine this greater whole pulling us forward to realize it.Revelation of higher states of being and creating are experienced as the next stage of evolution being born through us, in our midst.In the planetary developmental path we are at the stage of beginning to coordinate ourselves as a whole planetary body in order to survive. None of our current institutions or structures is designed for social synergy.We see that a vital key to our conscious evolution now is to create new forms of SOCIAL SYNERGY capable ofincreasing connectivity, communication and cooperation among diverse functions, groups, people, races, faiths forming a new whole system greater than and different from the sum of our parts.The theological definition of synergism is when human will and divine will join for the regeneration of the human race. In this sense social synergy is a way for us to tap into the deeper patterns of creation and align our individual motivation with that tendency in evolution toward higher, more harmonious order. We find that the “Big Bang”and the fourteen billion years of evolutionary transformation are alive and well within us as our own unique expression of the continuing creation. We are the face of evolution.From this perspective we see ourselves struggling to coordinate ourselves as a whole system, running out of non-renewable resources, over-populating, polluting, over-shooting our environmental base, in danger of collapse.This is the precise set of crises of birth of the next stage of our evolution that we are given which are in fact activating our new capacities and pressuring us toward social synergy in order to survive and thrive at the next stage of our unfolding.We also see that we are in need of longer-range evolutionary goals, an evolutionary agenda thatcan solve our problems in the light of the emergence of our extraordinary new capacities –spiritual, social and scientific/technological.In order to precede we now place our selves in the broadest context . We take the “overview perspective,” as the astronauts did, experiencing our t as the people of the Earth now entering the process of natural synergistic cocreation . If nature could take jumps through greater synergy and cooperation for billions of years with no guide book, then certainly, we can too!It’s innate. It the nature of nature. It’s the intention of creation. It’s not inevitable, but it is potential.The SYNCON process and the Wheel of Cocreation were both designed as processes to foster greater social synergy.The SYNCON PROCESS stands for synergistic convergence. It brings together diverse groups and interests to seek common goals and match needs with resources in the light of the growing potential of the whole system. It was tested 25 times in the 1970’s in venues as diverse as the gangs of Los Angeles, a rural group in the nation of Jamaica, Washington DC, the Generation Federation of Women’s Clubs and Huntsville Alabama. (More comprehensive description of the SYNCON Process is available).SYNCON was born out of this need to foster social synergy and to examine long-range evolutionary goals that have the potential of radically transforming the human condition for the good. It is a social acting out of the vision so many of us hold of a world wherein each person is free to do and be their best within the emergent whole system.It is a harbinger of a more “synergistic democracy,” a form of self-governance that is designed to foster cocreativity rather than. Synergy is the way nature evolves. When we create synergistic social structures, the evolutionary tendency in nature is supported by us and the genius of self-organization is facilitated naturally, because in fact it is natural.Here is a brief description of how the SYNCON worked. It can form an inclusive, coherent, evolutionary context upon which many advanced processes can be added.THE SYNCON takes place in a wheel -shaped environment representing vital functions of the social body, such as health, education, environment, governance, media, science and technology, etc. The Wheel symbolizes the whole, at the local, regional, organizational, or global levels depending on where and how it is used.DIAGRAMIn a more complex SYNCON it is desirable to have task forces at the growing edge of the Wheel representing evolutionary potentials not usually included in the social body, such as the biological evolution, space development, the psychologies of growth, the information evolution, etc.)The arts are also invited to symbolize, celebrate, and help the social body imagine and feel itself as a whole.A Coordinating Hub is composed of people from various sectors of the Wheel …
More at: https://studylib.net/doc/6775385/context-and-lineage-of-the-syncon-and-the-wheel-of
(Submitted by Sara Walker)
Posted by D&D Resources | December 24th, 2008 (ncdd.rg)
The SYNCON process was originally developed by the Committee for the Future under the direction of Barbara Marx Hubbard, a social architect and futurist, and Air Force Lt. Col. John J. Whiteside in Washington D.C. in the 1970s. This process was born out of an awareness that attempts to solve problems in a piecemeal fashion usually lead to distrust, further alienation and fragmentation. The intent of the SYNCON process and its supportive technologies is to understand problems and issues in the context of a whole system and to discover cooperative solutions which provide for the improvement of life for all participants.
SYNCON is a process that brings together all stakeholders, all people who have an interest in the future of their community, by functional areas of concern – health, business, economics, education, government, environment, science and technology, arts and media, etc., to discover common goals, to identify community needs and to match those needs with known and required resources. This is a process which invites full participation, where we assume that those who live in their communities know best what they need and want and that they also have many resources to support turning their dreams into reality. A SYNCON is not just a one time face-to-face event, but it uses many different forms of technology to offer virtual participation for those who cannot be brought together. By training local community participants as facilitators, this process can be used to support ongoing community building activities beyond an initial event.
Syncons have been held in different parts of the world, with gang leaders and city officials in Los Angeles to the seacoast of Jamaica and in Washington DC. Using the Syncon process, polarization is overcome and opposition shifts into cooperation. A new type of leadership emerges, which connects people who might feel separate from each other, and different levels of government, community organizations and community groups get involved in creating a new future for their community. By bringing separate parts of the community together, a profound transformation occurs. Participants discover that the whole of the community is far greater than the sum of its parts and that when we come together in this way, a definite increase in hope, enthusiasm and commitment arises, energizing the community with new life.
What is a SYNCON?
The SYNCON process was originally developed by the Committee for the Future under the direction of Barbara Marx Hubbard, a social architect and futurist, and Air Force Lt. Col. John J. Whiteside in Washington D.C. in the 1970s. SYNCONS were held in 25 widely differing venues from University campuses to hotels, from Washington, D.C. to the rural areas of Jamaica and with gang leaders and civic officials in Los Angeles. The process and the technologies supporting it have been used extensively by many different groups since then.
This process was born out of an awareness that attempts to solve problems in a piecemeal fashion usually lead to distrust, further alienation and fragmentation. The intent of the SYNCON process and its supportive technologies is to understand problems and issues in the context of a whole system and to discover cooperative solutions which provide for the improvement of life for all participants.
SYNCON stands for Synergistic Convergence. Synergistic Convergence literally means ‘coming together to work at the same level.’ What that means in the context of our work is that, by bringing together individuals who feel passionately about what is happening in specific areas of life and community and utilizing a small group process, we can discover common needs and potentials resources far beyond that which any one of them would be capable of knowing or accessing on their own. This synergistic process creates passion, excitement and a touch of magic.
In order to accomplish its objectives, SYNCONS convene a wide variety of people – experts and non-experts, young and old, people who are part of the establishment and those who have felt disenfranchised, to deal with problems from every conceivable angle.
Synergistic Convergence is the coming together of individuals in a relationship that works toward the betterment of all. By bringing together divergent perspectives and disciplines in this holistic conferencing process, synergy is created. The process is designed to stimulate creativity by asking people what they want to create, what they need to get it done, and what resources they have to share with others. Synergy occurs out of enlightened self-interest as separate and often opposing people find a better way to realize their own purpose through discovering common goals and matching needs and resources rather than by opposition. Social empathy and trust is fostered.
The SYNCON works because the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts.
For billions of years nature has been responding to crises by creating more comprehensive and complex whole systems. Humanity is now facing an interrelated set of crises that cannot be resolved by doing more of the same. We are confronting whole system crises for which we need to develop whole system responses. SYNCON is one such whole system response process.
It moves away from polarization, win/lose, either/or models, to foster the discovery of how best to get what each group or individual wants by connecting and cooperating within the context of the emerging whole system. The SYNCON model restructures the environment into a circular wheel shape with sectors representing the basic functions of any community, large or small, such as environment, health, governance, business, etc. It gives people a chance to participate within a new process that empowers vision, cooperation and co-creativity. It is continually seeking and amplifying What Works. It is possibility oriented rather than problem oriented.
Information from each SYNCON will be channeled to further research and /or analysis and for dissemination to appropriate institutions, organizations and to the public. The SYNCON process is not about adopting resolutions, but to gather the best information possible about the needs, resources and new possibilities in a particular community and to discover cooperative ways to fulfill these needs and aspirations.
The Objectives of SYNCON
SYNCON is a natural social process that:
Creates a safe environment in which diverse groups and individuals can come to a new understanding of each other’s attitudes and open up to a new level of communication among themselves. People discover that their apparent adversaries share the same long-range goals and aspirations. This discovery helps solve the part of the problem which has been based on a general lack of understanding.
Can assist diverse groups in achieving consensus on goals and means of reaching them. Since the adversary mode is wasteful to human energy, once agreement has been reached, there is new energy available to act rapidly in achieving a common goal.
Offers participants the opportunity to come up with win-win solutions that draw on the growing edge of capacities in the sciences, growth psychology and the arts.
Serves as a training ground for self-selected synergistic leaders in all functions, who can then return to their organizations and institutions to help them change constructively.
Is a model for synergistic democratic decision-making which may serve communities and organizations around the globe – as a new level of county fair/town hall wherein citizens can meet to resolve conflicts, showcase new successes and make decisions with an awareness of the impact of those decisions upon the whole community.
Creates a format through which self-selected members in all functional areas can come together to provide a continuous examination of ‘where we are and where we are going – and, most importantly, how to get there.
How Syncon Works
SYNCON is a process through which diverse groups and individuals can identify commonalities in their long-range goals and work toward solutions in the light of the total capacity of the whole organization or community.
Just as ‘Roberts’ Rules of Order’ gave us a format to ensure that individuals with conflicting ideas could meet without killing one another, SYNCON offers a ‘Synergistic Rules of Order’ to facilitate cooperation and an all-win approach.
SYNCON brings people together in a physically constructed wheel environment. (See accompanying diagram). Participants gather in separate task forces or working groups according to their interest or function, rather than by organization and proceed to lay out what their goals, needs and resources are. Each group meets in its own section of the wheel which is separated from the others by a removable wall.
SYNCON is a tool to examine future options. It begins with the small groups, merges into larger composite groups and, finally, into one total group. This process takes place inside this pre-designed wheel environment, highlighting our present fragmented society. Small groups merge to larger composite groups to one total group
The Sectors of the ‘Wheel’ Represent Functional Areas of Our Society such as:
– Art & Culture
Creative expression, sports, ethnicity and the diversity of human societies.
– Environment & Infrastructure
Natural ecosystems, human habitats, and the innate interplay of these core aspects of human-earth existence.
– Healing & Wellness
From the leading edge of Western medicine to the ancient wisdom of indigenous healing practices, contributing to the fulfillment of a healthy, balanced mind-body-spirit relationship.
– Relationships & Empowerment
Families, couples, children and youth, counseling and coaching for healthy communication and clear direction and opportunities in one’s life.
– Energy, Food, & Water
Attending to the basic life-support needs of humanity and the resources of the Earth.
– Economics & Business
Trade, commerce, and the exchange of goods and services within and among cultures and as a global community.
– Science & Technology
Understanding the workings of nature and applying this knowledge in developing innovations that improve the life-conditions of humanity.
– Communications & Media
The Internet, television, radio, books, magazines, satellites, PDAs, etc: how (and what) we communicate across town and around the world.
– Governance & Law
Policies and legal structures that guide the pursuit of humanity’s quest towards equitable social solutions.
– Social Justice & Security
Human rights, peacekeeping, appropriate defense, emergency relief: bringing balance and safety to society.
– Learning & Education
From pre-school to graduate school, and beyond to life-long learning.
– Spirituality & Religion
The many facets of our metaphysical being and experience and how we celebrate that, as humans in a living cosmos.
Whole System Design
Also included is the center category called Whole System Design. This is where the synthesis of all sectors comes into an integral, comprehensive wholeness. It is included as the ‘one’ in the center since its purpose is to engender social synergy by maximizing the interrelatedness of all of the parts into a new level of understanding and whole system design.
The wheel represents both the whole, and within the whole, the functional areas of any culture, as well as areas of new potential such as Science, Information Technology and any unexplained phenomena – things not yet readily understood by our current scientific methodologies.
Each sector has a steward who is knowledgeable about the key issues of that sector, in the context of the local community. The steward will offer a brief presentation at the outset, which provides a rational framework for identifying goals, needs and resources. Each sector also has a coordinator/facilitator to facilitate the group’s communication flow.
Initially, sectors are separated by removable physical walls, artistically designed panels or other ways to create discreet sections that provide some parameters for each group’s area of focus. Each section’s discussions are videotaped and, through a process of creating the news of the day from within each section, common issues and needs are identified and, beginning on the second day, walls come down between traditionally antagonistic areas, or areas of potential conflict, to allow for joint issues exploration and resources identification. The television component is designed to pick up new agreements and breakthroughs and is played back to the participants as the ‘new’ news. People see themselves as newsmakers, rather than observers. They are featured when they are creative and cooperative, and these videos can be broadcast on local TV reaching thousands of citizens.
On the third day all of the walls come down, joint summaries are presented, and the total group examines impacts and matches the goals, needs and resources of the total body.
There are generally six categories of results from the SYNCON process, which creates:
1. Individual and institutional linkages
2. Serious comprehensive education
3. Positive multi-facetted images of the future for positive motivation
4. Policy development
5. Projects – outward manifestations of the value shifts resulting from this process
6. Overcoming polarization and supporting greater citizen participation, thereby enhancing democracy.
Technology Applications
With the technology currently available, participation in SYNCONS can be through both a physical presence as well as through virtual participation. Although there is no replacement for the energetic field that is created by having participants together in the same locale, other forms of participation can offer invaluable input into the process. This can be through a wide variety of virtual participation methods ranging from sophisticated video conferencing technologies, simple cameras broadcasting through portable computers in sectors, smart swarm technologies, instant messaging, SMS, fax messages, text messaging through cell phones and others. The ultimate objective is to ensure that the widest range of issues and options are being shared and considered.
In the advanced SYNCON, every sector of the wheel is linked by video to the coordinating hub. Monitors are in every sector and a hub coordinator is in simultaneous communication with those sections on a central console – open to all. As a result, a hub coordinator can help solve problems by signaling information to a specific section. The system also increases selective interaction among sections that need one another, but might not be aware of it. Thus, a rudimentary self-consciousness and nervous system of a social organization is generated. We are currently in the process of creating the components of this system for the SYNCON process.
This potential for instant two-way communication increases vital interactions and fosters the ability to make decisions based on an awareness of the whole. Along with this, at the end of every day, the video newscasts can synthesize actual SYNCON events and breakthroughs with world news, assisting participants in recognizing that everyone makes news daily. There are no observers on planet Earth. We shape history by our every act.
The documentation of discussion content as well as findings and recommendations in a format that can be readily shared is also critical for effective follow-up action to occur. The ability to match people based on interests, organizations, skills and needs is very important. We must also create effective ways to disseminate the SYNCON summaries.
Sharing What We Learn
The Committee for the Future held demonstration SYNCONS in a variety of different venues. Over the years, we have learned that the SYNCON process can be ongoing, both at the local community level and through a wide range of communication linkages. Ideally, each SYNCON will feed into an information system where the results, breakthroughs, goals, and discovering What Works can by recorded, mapped, connected, and communicated. In this way, each event builds on what has gone on before and contributes to the whole.
Excerpted and adapted from “A Proposal for Rebuilding Communities in the Gulf Coast Using the Syncon Process” by John Zwerver (jzwer@aol.com), at www.evolve.org/pub/doc/chrysalis05_johnsyncon.html
(Contributed by Sara Walker)
The Libra Full Moon places an emphasis on the need for balance and equality in a number of areas of life. It may be especially obvious in a relationship where someone’s needs are not being fairly addressed. Sometimes this can happen without an obvious good reason, while at other times it is clearer — practical issues such as needing to attend to illness may be a good example. Either way, though, any sense of imbalance can still have an impact at a deep level, particularly where one party’s needs consistently go unmet. This may lead to an emotional buildup of frustration, even a sense of being overlooked or invisible. In other words, there may be emotional and psychological impacts that merit acknowledgement and possible action to bring about more balance.
Venus conjoins the Sun in Aries and is also sandwiched between Chiron and Ceres, indicating an opportunity for healing around the issue of nurturing either physical resources or relationship. Venus is considered “awkward” in Aries, according to traditional astrology. This placement can emphasize impatience, jostling towards the front, or someone being preoccupied with surface details. At the most basic level, one person may be focusing on me/I, whilst the other is thinking in terms of us/we, so that plans are not quite on the same or parallel tracks.
The focus on Chiron suggests that there is room for healing, if we understand problems from a different angle, since polarized positions can mean that we see things through only one set of filters. The Moon in Libra — an air sign — suggests that a lightness and logic can be applied to help a situation. This is supported through applying trines to both Saturn and Mars. The challenge here could be to rise above a conflict that seems to have a batting back and forth pattern, and to take out the sting and exhaustion that go with it. It could equal the difference between one-upmanship — or vying for a single, winning position — and finding easy solutions that somehow manage to suit everyone.
It all adds up to an air grand trine with Mars conjunct the Moon’s North Node — a clue that we need to choose a new attitude, approach, or action. It could be interesting to see both how simple the solution is and how hard it may be to implement, given that trines represent ease and the North Node frequently shows where we struggle to change behaviours and make progress. But maybe it really is time to walk the path less traveled.
Since the Moon links us to our true needs, there may be an increasing need at this time for sharing and connection, whilst also wishing for peace. Sometimes these situations can be at cross-purposes because, no matter how much we wish to extend ourselves kindly, room for misunderstandings still exists. And we cannot always match our specific resources and willingness to be generous with what is needed or wanted by the other party. Therefore, such situations may require diplomacy and allowing for differences, as well as acknowledging the desire to reach across a bridge in order to connect.
The Moon in Libra opposite the lineup of Sun, Chiron, Venus, and Ceres in Aries also reflects a desire to be equal with others; not needing to compete, nor judging ourselves as less than others. Can we just let the inner and outer pressures go for a while, and be fine with it all being rather middle-of-the-road?
This article is from the Mountain Astrologer, written by Diana Collis.
“I screamed!”
–Mike Zonta, BB editor
Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal July 30, 2020 Donald Hoffman a cognitive psychologist and Professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. The interviewer is Curt Jaimungal, who has a background in mathematical physics, making this an eminently scholarly and technical talk (relative to what exists with Donald Hoffman). Familiarize yourself with the fundamentals of his theory before watching this in order to be maximally edified. Patreon for conversations on Theories of Everything, Consciousness, Free Will, and God: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal Help support conversations like this via PayPal: https://bit.ly/2EOR0M4 Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast… Pandora: https://pdora.co/33b9lfP Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b9… Google Podcasts: https://play.google.com/music/listen?… 0:00 Introduction 0:35 Hoffman’s thought on the state of the country during COVID and what it entails about his theories 2:51 Why he meditates for 3 hours daily, and what type of practice it is 7:26 Hoffman’s diet and health habits 9:52 On computational psychology (Hoffman’s initial background) 13:05 Outlining (technically) the conscious agent model, and the motive force behind the lettering 16:41 Consciousness as primary to Being, as the impediment for rationalists 26:50 Why neural correlates aren’t *just* correlates, but instead can play causal role (playing devil’s advocate) and the limits of the “virtual reality” metaphor 38:44 Nima Armani Hamed’s amplituhedron, and consciousness 40:23 Local hidden variables / realism may be saved, via loopholes in Bell’s theorem 47:46 The assumption of uniform probability of fitness functions on cyclic groups, etc. is a problem for a theory that says our perceptions are non-veridical (ie. that they don’t match “reality”) 1:01:44 Evolution entails that we don’t see the truth / reality as it is 1:05:10 On the over simplification of evolutionary models (outputting down to the Real Line of dimension 1 without further structure) 1:09:17 The intensity of meditation, and fear of letting go / fear of the unknown 1:15:25 “Illusions are failures to guide adaptive behavior.” 1:16:41 The various philosophical theories on truth (correspondence, pragmatic, deflationary, etc.) 1:27:20 Spacetime as a data compression tool for conscious agents 1:32:39 On the nature of causality 1:37:50 How is reality objective, when in Hoffman’s model it’s predicated exclusively on subjective agents 1:40:00 What is “you”? What is “identity”? What is the “self”? (Eastern religions vs Western religions) 1:50:15 How does Free Will fit into a stochastic model? 1:58:59 Douglas Hofstadter’s “strange loop” model of consciousness & Tononi’s Integrated information theory vs. Donald Hoffman’s 2:14:37 Where God fits into all of this, as well as Hoffman’s definition of God 2:21:22 What happens when you die? 2:28:38 Gödel’s incompleteness theorem’s implications for Hoffman’s model 2:34:35 John Vervaeke’s other forms of knowledge which aren’t “propositional” 2:37:45 Landauer’s limit (fastidious critiques) 2:41:29 On the moon not existing when you don’t look at it 2:48:06 Do you see the same color red that I see? (and other experiences / qualia) 2:51:31 The paradox of pursuing truth, though truth is inimical (relative to fitness) 2:56:44 Where does Deepak Chopra take Hoffman’s message too far + what Jesus meant by “I am the truth / the way / the life” * * * I’m producing an imminent documentary Better Left Unsaid http://betterleftunsaidfilm.com on the topic of “when does the left go too far?” Visit that site if you’d like to contribute to getting the film distributed (in 2021) and seeing more conversations like this.
Join Braver Angels National Ambassador, John Wood, Jr., to discuss how we can bridge the partisan divide and co-create community online.
EVENT BY Center for Humane Technology….It’s Online through Air Meet (not Zoom)– (tip: best to use Google Chrome, not Firefox)
April 2, 2021
START TIME
Register and create your profile with Center for Humane Technology prior to Friday, April 2 (see link below), to receive your log-in codes/access.
A Tip: Enter the platform a bit before this event starts, if you want to sign up to be in one of the discussion groups following this talk. Some groups are more for the techie, some groups more for educators, etc. They can get filled up.
I hope you’ll join in next Friday.
Sara Walker
Beyond Belief collects fifteen celebrated, broadly ranging essays (including Religious Evolution) in which Robert Bellah interprets the interplay of religion and society in concrete contexts from Japan to the Middle East to the United States. First published in 1970, Beyond Belief is a classic in the field of sociology of religion.
(Goodreads.com)
― John Stuart Mill, An Essay on Samuel Taylor Coleridge
John Stuart Mill (May 20, 1806 – May 7, 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament, and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to social theory, political theory, and political economy. Wikipedia