| Swinging Together |
[28 Jun 2009|05:13pm] |
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Ennio Morricone |
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According to a recent article in Forbes, "research suggests that the brain considers tools to be extensions of the body."
That statement seems somewhat obvious, but it's good to have it backed by some research.
After reading this article it dawned on me that whatever device inside our heads that causes the mind's eye to change the shape of an arm or hand holding a tool must also change our shape when we're involved in a group activity.
Take for instance playing an instrument in a band. Recent studies have shown that the people playing guitar together become mentally synchronized.
Now it's obvious that brains 'swinging together' is a little different than physical contact with a coffee cup, however I still can't help but think that there is a definite similarity between the two.
Basically I'm getting down to two points:
The first point is that this research backs up my Ghost in the Earth hypothesis, but changes it in order to incorporate smaller ghosts.
In order to accept that the Internet is a conscious being, I would also have to accept that so are, orchestras, sports teams, and parades.
The second point is that a key to world peace relies on this very research. It seems like a grand thing to say, but I think it's true. Unlike other cure-all's such as, creating a giant cosmic enemy for us to unify against, this idea would simply take hard work and discipline.
A singularity where each of us can play our own instrument but retain our individuality.
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| "Stop or Keep Going" |
[17 Jun 2009|03:34pm] |
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Here is my latest editing and producing effort, the Kev Hannibal hip-hop video, "Stop or Keep Going" directed by NYC Fifth Column member Kevin A. Lopez.
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| Words |
[14 Jun 2009|10:02pm] |
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It's all over now baby blue |
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The Zen disciple sits for long hours silent and motionless, with his eyes closed. Presently he enters a state of impassivity, free from all ideas and all thoughts. He departs from the self and enters the realm of nothingness. This is not the nothingness or the emptiness of the West. It is rather the reverse, a universe of the spirit in which everything communicates freely with everything, transcending bounds, limitless. ... The disciple must, however, always be lord of his own thoughts, and must attain enlightenment through his own efforts. And the emphasis is less upon reason and argument than upon intuition, immediate feeling. Enlightenment comes not from teaching but through the eye awakened inwardly. Truth is in "the discarding of words", it lies "outside words". -Yasunari Kawabata
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_hypothesis
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| Economic Crisis as reflected by IMDB |
[09 Jun 2009|11:09am] |
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Nobuo Uematsu |
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IMDB polls are typically obvious market research, and I suppose this one is no different, except for how it unwittingly took a snapshot of where a good number of unemployed insomniacs spend their time.
( Read more... )
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| The Delivery of Nawaz Sharif Zardari |
[03 Jun 2009|12:15pm] |
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Yumi Matsutōya |
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This morning I read an article about how Long Island convenience storekeeper, Mohammad Sohail, used compassion and a shotgun to change a "would-be criminal's mind -- and apparently his religion."
The whole story in a nutshell is that Mohammad Sohail was closing up shop when the criminal entered demanding money, at which point Mohammad pulled out a shotgun causing our now would-be criminal to cry. Mohammad felt compassion for the man and gave him $40 and a loaf of bread. The man reacted with an interest in being Muslim. Mohammad wasted no time, converted the man, and gave him a new name.
What I wonder, and what my mind has been toying with since this morning, is what if the storekeeper had a completely different set of beliefs.
Say the storekeeper was a Scientologist or a Trekkie, would the criminal have been so impressed that he would have wanted to become a member of Starfleet or a Jedi?
Or what if Mohammad was a greyhound enthusiast. Would the night have ended with the would-be robber adopting a dog?
I think so. Under those conditions, a desperate and impressionable mind met with compassion would have accepted whichever formula brought about that reaction.
The storekeeper could have been a really fat guy and he could have given the criminal a box of twinkies and explained to him the benefits of high-fructose corn syrup.
However, the story ends with the would-be robber running out of the store as Mohammad turned around to get him some milk (or in the case of my imagination, chocolate milk). I'm not sure what this means. It could mean that the robber was just placating Mohammad until he could get away, but I doubt it.
I wonder if he remembers his new name.
“Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” -Oscar Wilde
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| Blame |
[18 May 2009|02:40pm] |
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exercising free will |
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Monkey Gone to Heaven |
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Whenever someone makes an outrageous claim such as the infamous, "McDonald's made me fat," the knee-jerk response is to list for this person all the actual reasons they have acquired a less than desirable mountain climbing physique, because you can clearly see the lack of willpower and unwillingness to exercise and eat healthy, and why can't they?
Certainly I have once again been thinking about free will/choice, the human mind, and the automatic calculations it makes on a daily basis that somehow result in something as unreasonable as Vanilla Ice jumping a fence on a yellow motorcycle (I know, it sounds like I'm just stringing words together).
At one time, an orange jacket and splotchy colorful shorts were a wardrobe combo worthy of praise. In hindsight we have a good laugh and blame it on the bizarre logic system established in the 90's. But in reality no outfit is safe from time.
Eh, but I'm getting myself a little off topic here... What I was trying to point out was the general use of blame and praise in an attempt to make one's life better.
What I mean by that is how we as a species use this tagging system in order to create our own working models of reality.
The fat person blames McDonald's for being fat, and in a sense this might work for them, providing they stop eating there because it is what they believe to be the source of their unhappiness (we can presume them to be unhappy because they are not praising McDonald's for their current condition).
What we see that they don't are the boundaries they have placed on what I refer to as "blame proximity."
They only extend it as far as McDonald's, probably in an effort to avoid any real work.
However, if the boundaries of blame proximity were extended too far we could end up blaming Emperor Charlemagne.
I believe this is how black cats end up with such poor reputations.
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| Destiny's Kismet |
[13 May 2009|03:30pm] |
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Baishō Chieko |
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A long time ago Destiny took a day off.
No one really knows for what.
Upon returning to work Destiny noticed that nothing had changed.
Fates remained tangled and providence sustained its reputation as being utterly indifferent.
Everything was moving along the same, without manipulation.
So, she left again.
Destiny hasn't been back to work since.
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| The Intentions of the Confused |
[11 May 2009|11:21pm] |
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not good |
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Masato Nakamura |
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Have you noticed how some ideas will lend themselves more easily to certain people?
We've established in a previous entry that words are placeholders for thoughts.
"I can has cheezburger," and "Good sir, might I request from you a hamburger with a slice of cheese on it," communicate the same request and are both equally absurd when used in a public forum.
Words find themselves divided amongst certain groups.
A film critic does not sound like a fanboy, a sailor does not sound like a school girl, and Christopher Walken does not sound like a lolcat.
Words are very good at assembling and displaying for us the impossible:
Red is blue.
Kangaroos are brilliant cooks.
Pickles grow in space and when they are ripe they fall from the heavens into a field just outside of Linlithgow where they are collected by black dogs who only speak Esperanto, and if you ask them you'll find out that pickles are also blue.
Statements like these are known as lies.
The average human can pick up on a lie by applying their senses and experiences to whatever statement was made in order to determine whether or not that statement is dependable.
This is sometimes referred to as, common sense.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/us/21faith.html?_r=3&hp=&pagewanted=all
I don't think the intentions of the parents were malicious.
Chances are they believed they were doing the right thing.
"Le malheur est que, parfois, des souhaits s'accomplissent, afin que se perpétue le supplice de l'espérance." -Marguerite Yourcenar
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| Chevron Lives Again! |
[06 May 2009|11:42pm] |
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accomplished |
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The Horrors |
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Spent most of the day dodging real work and messing around with the projector instead.
This has yielded positive results... in the sense that it is now working, not in the sense that I've dedicated an entire day to an obsolete medium.
( Nevertheless... )
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| Internet Anthropology |
[04 May 2009|11:38am] |
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Argent |
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Lately I've obsessed myself with attempts at getting a better hold on what the Internet is thinking.
One of the more amusing attempts came from a google screenshot someone showed me displaying the search results for the phrase "Chinese people are..."
Taking it a step further I made my own collection of screenshots from google involving the intimate and unprincipled relationships of human dichotomy.
Three of my favorites so far:
Men are like waffles women are like spaghetti
Young people are no longer interested in buying newspapers or magazines in print format...
Fat people are harder to kidnap
( The rest are here )
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| Self;Aware |
[20 Apr 2009|12:49am] |
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キャンディーズ |
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Do you remember when you became self aware?
I understand most people ask this question with, "What is your earliest memory?"
Perhaps they're different questions.
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| Stephen Colbert and the Whale |
[14 Apr 2009|03:19pm] |
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intrigued |
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Yumi Matsutōya |
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Stephen Colbert has threatened to become "space's evil tyrant overlord" if NASA refuses to name ISS Node 3 after him.
If you have been following this story you understand why this is not an entirely unreasonable demand.
NASA's mistake was asking the Internets to vote on the name.
Clearly they learned nothing from Mister Splashy Pants.
Or perhaps they did.
In my post on 2009-04-05, "Ghost In The Earth," I suggested that we may have unwittingly created a consciousness with the Internet. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) costumenut made an insightful and amusing comment suggesting the mentality of the Internet would be the equivalent of a teenage boy.
What I think we're seeing here are the actions of a group of persons who think the same thing.
It makes sense that an accidental consciousness wouldn't escape the attention of a band of rocket scientists.
If NASA was paying attention during Greenpeace's struggle to ditch the name Mister Splashy Pants they would have observed how the Internet likes its silly names (google, twitter, dipity), is a possible fan of Joss Whedon, and doesn't change its mind, it only comes back at full force.
My bet is that NASA will "break down" and name it Colbert.
SUPPLEMENT - http://www.pcworld.com/article/163292/colbert_loses_throne_gains_treadmill.html
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