Conversations on Consciousness

Of course the most famous example of
that is the split brain studied by Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga,
where there really is no direct communication between the two hemispheres.
I would argue that the evidence is all in favour of there being
two consciousnesses in those patients: both hemispheres can, for example,
answer questions; both of them can report perceptual experiences
that are uniquely routed to those particular hemispheres; both
have control over the hands and the fingers on the opposite side of
the body. And so it would seem that both of them meet the criteria
that we normally use for consciousness. - Bernard Baars

και η συνέχεια από την Sue!!

It’s fascinating to think about this split brain question; people have
given so many different answers to the question of whether there are
two consciousnesses, one consciousness, many, none, whatever. But if
you’re going to take the view, as you do, that there are two consciousnesses
in a split-brain patient, wouldn’t it seem a small step to say that,
because in an ordinary integrated person there is all sorts of activity
going on in separate areas that’s not necessarily connected to other
areas, there are multiple consciousnesses in an ordinary person?

Alan Watts

"Atheism in the name of God is an abandonment of all religious beliefs . . . giving up the attempt to make sense of the world in terms of any fixed idea or intellectual system. It is becoming again as a child and laying oneself open to reality as it is actually and directly felt, experiencing it without trying to categorize, identify or name it." -Alan Watts

Επίκουρος

physics4u

Αυτό συνέλαβε ο κλασικά σκεπτόμενος Αϊνστάιν. Είναι σαν να λέμε ότι μια μπάλα του μπιλιάρδου που κατευθύνεται προς εσάς είναι είτε κόκκινη είτε γαλάζια, αλλά δεν ξέρετε το χρώμα της μέχρι να τη δείτε. Αυτό είναι εντελώς διαφορετικό από το ότι η μπάλα του μπιλιάρδου δεν είναι ΟΥΤΕ κόκκινη ΟΥΤΕ γαλάζια μέχρι να την κοιτάξουμε, οπότε λαμβάνει το ένα ή το άλλο χρώμα τη στιγμή ακριβώς που τη βλέπουμε. David Lindley (από το περιοδικό Quantum)

free your mind

...,,and we'll have a beautiful night





Flying away on a bed of skies
Lost in dynamites of heaven
Spring is in the air tonight and the lakes
Between the paradise and the Earth
Hard to forget were all humans
When we fly in this burst of laughter
When we feel what we love
And love what we do
Nothing can stop us
When the weakest smile is a giant rainbow
In the onsets of heaven
When a drop of rain is nothing
But a short moment in a child's heart

When the skies around us are just reminders
Of our own God-like presence
And we are truly connected with The One
At the top of the ocean
With the crest of a wave
So much of our heart beats desire
And the truth of our own destiny
When we feel what we love
And love what we do
Nothing can stop us
Endless skies await our destiny
Clusters of helping hands are all around us
Life is pounding to our own rhythm
Wishes are served on a silver plate

Dare to dream
get carried away
By the sound of your own inner magic
We will be there
The Gods of your presence
When you feel what you love
And love what you do
For life is made for you to mould it
And love is life to be lived
And love is life to be lived

And the skies running in the night
Do you feel the magic?
Would you alter the world
All is One
Were here to conquer whatever you want
Free your mind
and we'll have a beautiful night
Free your mind
and we'll have a beautiful night
Free your mind

Quotes

Έχεις το πινέλο και τα χρώματα σου, ζωγράφισε τον παράδεισο και μπες μέσα. ΚΑΖΑΝΤΖΑΚΗΣ

Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think. Κινέζικη παροιμία

Καμιά τροφή δεν δίνει τόση ευχαρίστηση, όση το κομμάτι του ψωμιού που κερδίζεται με την εργασία. ΕΠΙΚΟΥΡΟΣ

Η πραγματικότητα είναι μια ψευδαίσθηση αν και πολύ επίμονη. EINSTEIN

Η ύπαρξη είναι μια ψευδαίσθηση. Η υπαρξιακή αγωνία είναι χάσιμο χρόνου. ΖΕΝ

Να μαθαίνεις έτσι σαν να πρόκειται να ζήσεις αιώνια. Να ζεις έτσι σαν να πρόκειται να πεθάνεις αύριο. ΜΠΙΣΜΑΡΚ

Μη φοβάσαι να προχωράς αργά. Να φοβάσαι όταν ακόμη στέκεσαι. ΚΙΝΕΖΙΚΗ ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑ

Κανένας νικητής δεν πιστεύει στο τυχαίο. ΝΙΤΣΕ

Ο ανώτερος άνθρωπος δεν ανησυχεί για πράγματα που είναι εκτός του έλεγχου του. ΤΣΕΝΓΚ ΤΣΟΥ

Το να πηγαίνεις πολύ μακριά είναι ίδιο όπως το να μην πηγαίνεις αρκετά μακριά. ΚΟΜΦΟΥΚΙΟΣ

Καλύτερα να χτυπούν τα δόντια μου από το κρύο παρά να λατρεύω είδωλα. ΝΙΤΣΕ

Το μυστικό του πνεύματος είναι να μην ανέχεται δίπλα του την ύπαρξη κανενός παραμυθιού. ΝΙΤΣΕ

Ας θεωρούμε χαμένη για μας τη μέρα που δεν χορέψαμε καθόλου! Κι ας είναι ψεύτικη για μας κάθε σοφία που δεν μας έκανε να γελάσουμε. ΝΙΤΣΕ

Ζήλεψε τα πιο άγρια και τα πιο θαραλλέα ζώα και όλες τις αρετές τους και τις λήστεψε: μόνο έτσι έγινε άνθρωπος. ΝΙΤΣΕ

Αλλά εμείς σίγουρα δεν θέλουμε να εισέλθουμε σ’ αυτό το βασίλειο των ουρανών: Εμείς φερόμαστε σαν άντρες, για αυτό και θέλουμε το βασίλειο της γης. ΝΙΤΣΕ

“Ήταν ζωή αυτή;” θα πω στον θάνατο. “Πολύ ωραία! Πάλι από την αρχή”. ΝΙΤΣΕ

Η “πίστη” είναι το να θέλει να αγνοεί κανείς αυτό που είναι αληθινό. ΝΙΤΣΕ

Το να αντιληφθούμε τα σύνορα της λογικής, αυτό αποτελεί την μόνη πραγματική φιλοσοφία. ΝΙΤΣΕ

Πρέπει να φυλαχτούμε από την πίστη ότι σύμπαν είναι μια μηχανή. Είναι βέβαιο ότι το σύμπαν δεν έχει κατασκευαστεί για κάποιο σκοπό και το τιμούμε υπερβολικά όταν το αποκαλούμε “μηχανή”. ΝΙΤΣΕ

Ο συνολικός χαρακτήρας του κόσμου είναι και θα είναι αιώνια χάος. ΝΙΤΣΕ

Αληθινό λάθος είναι να κάνεις λάθος και να μην το διορθώσεις. ΚΟΜΦΟΥΚΙΟΣ

Εκείνο στο οποίο ο Ανώτερος άνθρωπος είναι απαράμμιλος είναι απλώς αυτό: Πετυχαίνει πράγματα που οι άλλοι δεν αντιλαμβάνονται. ΚΟΜΦΟΥΚΙΟΣ

Η έλλειψη υπομονής στα μικρά πράγματα οδηγεί στην κατάρευση των μεγάλων σχεδίων. ΚΟΜΦΟΥΚΙΟΣ

Ο Ανώτερος άνθρωπος υποφέρει από την έλλειψη δυνατοτήτων σε αυτόν και όχι από την έλλειψη αναγνώρισης από τους άλλους. ΚΟΜΦΟΥΚΙΟΣ

Εκείνος που ξεκινάει ένα μεγάλο εγχείρημα, δεν ασχολείται με τα ασήμαντα. Εκείνος που φθάνει σε μεγάλη επιτυχία, δεν φθάνει σε μικρές. ΚΙΝΕΖΙΚΗ ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑ

Μόνο όταν αντιληφθείς ότι η ζωή είναι στην πραγματικότητα πλάνη και ο θάνατος είναι στην πραγματικότητα εξέλιξη μόνο τότε μπορείς να αρχίσεις να μαθαίνεις κάτι από μένα. ΛΙΕ ΤΣΕ

Ο Ανώτερος άνθρωπος μπορεί τα πάντα να τα βρίσκει μέσα του, ενώ ο κατώτερος τα ζητάει από τους άλλους. ΚΟΜΦΟΥΚΙΟΣ

Ο Ανώτερος άνθρωπος είναι ταπεινός στα λόγια αλλά εξαίσιος στη δράση. ΚΟΜΦΟΥΚΙΟΣ

Ποτέ δεν έχω γνωρίσει κάποιον που να αγαπά την αρετή όσο αγαπά το σεξ. ΚΟΜΦΟΥΚΙΟΣ

- Όταν ήμουν νέος νόμιζα ότι το χρήμα είναι το παν στον κόσμο. Τώρα που μεγάλωσα το επιβεβαίωσα. ΟΣΚΑΡ ΟΥΑΙΛΝΤ

- Δεν είμαι τόσο νέος ώστε να ξέρω τα πάντα. ΟΣΚΑΡ ΟΥΑΙΛΝΤ

- Η πεμπτουσία της ζωής μας είναι η αβεβαιότητα. ΟΣΚΑΡ ΟΥΑΙΛΝΤ

Aliis laetus, sibi sapiens.Για τους άλλους χαρούμενος, για τον εαυτό του σοφός.

Ο Σοφός προσέχει τα λόγια του σαν να επρόκειτο να παρερμηνευθούν. ΛΑΟ ΤΖΙ

Το ανθρώπινο το γένος δεν την αντέχει την πολλή την πραγματικότητα.Τ.Σ. ΕΛΛΙΟΤ

Αν ο κόσμος είχε ένα στόχο, αποκλείεται να μην τον είχε πετύχει ακόμα. ΝΙΤΣΕ

George Carlin 1937-2008

If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little. George Carlin

Nassim Nicholas Taleb - The Black Swan

(The black swan) illustrates a severe limitation to our learning from observations or experience and the fragility of our knowledge. One single observation can invalidate a general statement derived from millennia of confirmatory sightings of millions of white swans. All you need is one single black bird.

Conventional wisdom is inapplicable to our modern, complex, and increasingly recursive environment. Recursive here means that the world in which we live has an increasing number of feedback loops, causing events to be the cause of more events (say, people buy a book BECAUSE other people bought it), thus generating snowballs and arbitrary and unpredictable planet-wide winner-take-all effects. We live in an environment where information flows too rapidly, accelerating such epidemics.

Later, upon replaying the wartime events in my memory as i formulated my ideas on the perception of random events, i developed the governing impression that our minds are wonderful explanation machines, capable of making sense out of almost anything,capable of mounting explanations for all manner of phenomena, and generally incapable of accepting the idea of unpredictability. These events were unexplainable, but intelligent people thought they were capable of providing convincing explanations for them-after the fact. Furthermore, the more intelligent the person, the better sounding the explanation. What's more worrisome is that all these beliefs and accounts appeared to be logically coherent and devoid of inconsistencies.

Two different types of randomness:
[linear view] "Mediocristan" : When your sample is large, no single instance will significantly change the aggregate or the total [height, weight etc]
[nonlinear view] "Extremistan" : Inequalities are such that one single observation can disproportionately impact the aggregate or the total [wealth, books sold etc]

Mistaking a naive observation of the past as something definitive or representative of the future is the one and only cause of our inability to understand the Black Swan

We are the empirical decision makers who hold that uncertainty is our discipline, and that understanding how to act under conditions of incomplete information is the highest and most urgent human pursuit.

But Popper's biggest idea was his insight concerning the fundamental, severe, and incurable unpredictability of the world.

Another difference between the hemispheres is that the right brain deals with novelty. It tends to see the gestalt (the general, or the forest), in a parallel mode, while the left brain is concerned with the trees, in a serial mode.

If you zap people's left hemispheres, they become more realistic-they can draw better and with more verisimilitude. Their minds becoming better at seeing the objects themselves, cleared of theories, narratives, and prejudice.

The idea that perception of causation has a biological foundation

There are two internal mechanisms behind our blindness to Black Swans, the confirmation bias and the narrative fallacy.
[They also caused the blindness for the nonlinear texture of the world]
[Narrative fallacy is the zip function of our brains to deal with the complexity, as we transform the information coming into our awareness to a more light, more handy and less costly form. Just like the zip at the pc]
[Confirmation bias is our natural tendency to look only for corroboration, we are deeply and intuitively searching for the things that proves us right and not wrong. This is, as we see from Popper's falsification the wrong way of dealing with uncertainty.]

pale blue dot

Αυτό θα έπρεπε να προβάλεται σε κάθε σχολείο

Pale blue dot from Carl Sagan





On February 14, 1990, NASA commanded the Voyager 1 spacecraft, having completed its primary mission, to turn around to photograph the planets it had visited. One image Voyager returned was of Earth, 4 billion miles distant, showing up as a tiny dot.

"The spacecraft was a long way from home. I thought it would be a good idea, just after Saturn, to have them take one last glance homeward. From Saturn, the Earth would appear too small for Voyager to make out any detail. Our planet would be just a point of light, a lonely pixel hardly distinguishable from the other points of light Voyager would see: nearby planets, far off suns. But precisely because of the obscurity of our world thus revealed, such a picture might be worth having."

"It had been well understood by the scientists and philosophers of classical antiquity that the Earth was a mere point in a vast, encompassing cosmos -- but no one had ever seen it as such. Here was our first chance, and perhaps also our last."

"So, here they are: a mosaic of squares laid down on top of the planets in a background smattering of more distant stars. Because of the reflection of sunlight off the spacecraft, the Earth seems to be sitting in a beam of light, as if there were some special significance to this small world; but it's just an accident of geometry and optics. There is no sign of humans in this picture: not our reworking of the Earth's surface; not our machines; not ourselves. From this vantage point, our obsession with nationalism is nowhere in evidence. We are too small. On the scale of worlds, humans are inconsequential: a thin film of life on an obscure and solitary lump of rock and metal."

"Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you've ever heard of, every human being who ever was lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings; thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines; every hunter and forager; every hero and coward; every creator and destroyer of civilizations; every king and peasant, every young couple in love; every mother and father; every hopeful child; every inventor and explorer; every teacher of morals; every corrupt politician; every supreme leader; every superstar; every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there -- on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings; how eager they are to kill one another; how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light."

"Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand."

"It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the only home we've ever known: the pale blue dot."

states of the mind and coincidences

Think for yourself, question authorities!

Through human history, as our species has faced the frightening terrorized FACT that we do not know who we are or where we are going in this ocean of chaos;
it's been the Authorities, the political, the religious, the educational authorities;
who attempted to comfort us, by giving us order, rules, regulations;
informing, forming our minds their view of reality

Think for yourself, question authorities!
Think for yourself, question authorities!

testing

testing for the start of the probabilistic randomness blog of a lucky trader