"Content curation is the natural evolution of our globally networked consciousness. This sounds like a bunch of hippie drivel, but we really are creating a global brain, of sorts, by encoding human knowledge and tracking human activity. Using the human nodes of this network to strengthen some of these connections while weakening others (by choosing either to pass along i.e., ‘curate’ information or not to pass it along) helps this global brain function better as a system, which in turn increases its power whenever any of us need to tap into it. As luck would have it, our cultural products themselves have been mirroring this technological evolution; movies are largely sequels or ‘inspired by’ previous works; music is increasingly reliant on sampling, DJing and repackaging styles of the past; and the DVR allows us to produce our own sequence of entertainment, rather than relying on network programmers, to name a few examples of this. When we curate, for whatever reason and in whatever form, we are enhancing a connection in the global neural network we are inadvertently creating."

Curation: How the Global Brain Evolves | Underwire | Wired.com (via myserendipities)

(via wildcat2030)

"In one experiment, just telling a man he would be observed by a female was enough to hurt his psychological performance."

Why Interacting w/a Woman Can Leave Men “Cognitively Impaired” | Scientific American (via kateoplis)

I lived a couple hours from here, for a time →

goldenidol:

from The New York Times, 

“For End of the World, a French Peak Holds Allure”

I went into a cave that, for centuries, was thought to be the mouth of Hell.  The mountains had ancient, mystical significance, and my guide knew all the stories.  

The peak of Bugarach has long been called “the sacred mountain”; geologists say that soon after the mountain was formed, it exploded and the top landed upside-down. The mountain is also said to have inspired French authors like Jules Verne in “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” and American filmmakers like Steven Spielberg in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

I like that the article manages to pull through the tone of disdain particular to villages that become, in some way, too touristique.  

"The fact that there was any debate over whether to call in experts on such a matter should tell you something about the integrity of Congress. It’d be one thing if legitimate technical questions directed at the bill’s supporters weren’t met with either silence or veiled accusations that the other side was sympathetic to piracy. Yet here we are with a group of elected officials openly supporting a bill they can’t explain, and having the temerity to suggest there’s no need to “bring in the nerds” to suss out what’s actually on it… The chilling takeaway of this whole debacle was the irrefutable air of anti-intellectualism; that inescapable absurdity that we have members of Congress voting on a technical bill who do not posses any technical knowledge on the subject and do not find it imperative to recognize those who do.

This used to be funny, but now it’s really just terrifying. We’re dealing with legislation that will completely change the face of the internet and free speech for years to come. Yet here we are, still at the mercy of underachieving Congressional know-nothings that have more in common with the slacker students sitting in the back of math class than elected representatives. The fact that some of the people charged with representing us must be dragged kicking and screaming out of their complacency on such matters is no longer endearing — it’s just pathetic and sad."

Joshua Kopstein, Dear Congress, It’s No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works (via drinkyourjuice)

This friends, is the most important article you’ll read today.  (via shortformblog)

(via mudwerks)

CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER

In order to understand contemplation and the contemplative mind, we need to talk about the “True Self,” who you are in God from all eternity. This is the only self that has ever existed. It’s the only self that exists right now. The trouble is that most people don’t know it or even know about it! The work of religion is to get you to know your True Self, “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3) as Paul puts it.

You came from God. Your deepest DNA is divine. You’re already spiritual beings, and the daily concern and question is “How do I become human?” I believe that’s why Jesus came as a human being. He didn’t come to teach us how to go to heaven but how to be a human being here on this earth—which is heaven now.

Richard Rohr:   Adapted from CAC Foundation Set: Gospel Call to Compassionate Action
(Bias from the Bottom) and Contemplative Prayer
(CD, DVD, MP3)

Handheld Time Machines

“There is no harbor here, but there are fountains. Some of them run red. I don’t know why.”

Photo captured by Slit-Scan for iOS.

“There is the smell of curry. The smell of koftas. A man with a loud voice compares cigarettes to hamsters.”

[From Handheld Time Machines - The Morning News]

What Can We Know About Consciousness?

Sam Harris thinks deeply about our most fundamental enigma:

It is surely a sign of our intellectual progress that a discussion of

 

consciousness no longer has to begin with a debate about its existence. To say that consciousness may only seem to exist is to admit its existence in full—for if things seem any way at all, that is consciousness.

Even if I happen to be a brain in a vat at this moment—all my memories are false; all my perceptions are of a world that does not exist—the fact that I am having an experience is indisputable (to me, at least).  This is all that is required for me (or any other conscious being) to fully establish the reality of consciousness.

Consciousness is the one thing in this universe that cannot be an illusion.⁠

(Photo: Self-portrait of a crested black macaque)

What Can We Know About Consciousness? - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast

Of course the Dalai Lama's a Marxist →

sharanam:

The very idea of self-help in Buddhism is an oxymoron – relief of suffering can only come from the realisation that pleasing ourselves doesn’t bring happiness – instead we must try to work skilfully and compassionately with others, as part of interwoven systems of connectivity that bind us together. A “western Buddhism” that prioritises solipsistic focus on the individual is so great a misconception as to be unworthy of the name – or at the least the Buddhism part – as anyone who pays it more than passing attention knows. It’s also largely a media invention – many western Buddhists are serious, deeply committed practitioners. That commitment means choosing to follow a path that leads against the stream of materialism and selfishness. Of course, we don’t always manage it, but that’s why it’s called a path of practice.

Buddhism goes way beyond the confines of the personal – realising the truth of interdependence implies taking up the challenge of engaging with others in the wider world. This isn’t missionary zeal – proselytising is hardly the Buddhist way – but it does mean social action that embodies dharmic principles, and western sanghas are increasingly prioritising community involvement. As they do so, Buddhism may start to look less like some nice bit of calm and relaxation and more like a radical, uncompromising critique of the status quo.

—Ed Halliwell in “Of course the Dalai Lama’s a Marxist”

(via dukkha)

See also: http://sharanam.tumblr.com/post/7769874018/and-the-capacity-to-be-present-with-your-own-pain

Microcosmic Orbit Meditation →

heartmindspirit:

“What is Microcosmic Orbit Meditation?” you might ask.

According to Mantak Chia’s Awaken Healing Energy through the Tao, “The Microcosmic Orbit practice is the beginning of the process of the integration of mind and body in Taoist esoteric practice. The circulation of the Life Force or Chi in the Microcosmic Orbit is the first form of circulation in the developing foetus. This energy flow continues, normally unnoticed, throughout life. Much of modern living consists of unnatural diet, stressful work patterns, poor posture and sedentary enertainment resulting in the gradual accumulation of blockages to the natural circulation of Qi. The opening of the Orbit is the beginning of the reversal of this process. It is an important and tangible form of self-healing.”

“By learning to tap the natural energies of the Sun, Moon, Earth, Stars and environmental forces around us, the practitioner attains the ability to develop and nurture a solid spiritual body. The ultimate goal of Taoist practice is to transcend physical boundaries through the development of the soul and the spirit within man.”   -Mantak Chia, Taoist Qigong Master

(Source: heartbloodspirit)

Lives

The Letting Go

By SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE

It had rained heavily the night before. The steep stone steps of the ghat are slick and slippery, and when my father pulls me onto the boat, the water feels more stable than the ground. The boatman rows out toward the open river, and the city of Varanasi swings into full view.

photo by Melinda Josie

On the bank, wrestlers are performing calisthenics; a vendor is selling marigolds; a man is throwing birdseed at pigeons. The river moves sluggishly at first — but then a current forces the boat around the bend, and we are floating silently by the Manikarnika ghat, where the dead are burned.

from NYTimes: “Lives - The Letting Go”

Vladimir Vernadsky on “Geochemistry, a New Science for the Twentieth Century”

Posted: 27 Aug 2011

We live in a critical epoch of the history of humanity.  I am not speaking of the political and social upheaval which takes place before our eyes and appears to be just the beginning.  Much more serious and profound events are unfolding in the domain of human thought.

The foundations of our conceptions on the universe, on nature—the unique entity—on everything, of which one heard so much in the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries, is transforming before our very eyes with an extraordinary speed rare in the history of thought.

We are studying a very small space—but inseparably linked to an immensity of the cosmos—in establishing laws and regularities in the history of the chemical elements of our planet.  Profound analogies—and even more than analogies—exist within.
– Vladimir Vernadsky in his text _La Géochimie_ (“Geochemistry“) (1924). Cited by Paul R. Samson, David Pitt, in _The Biosphere and Noosphere Reader: Global environment, society, and change_, (Psychology Press, 1999), ISBN: 0415166446, ISBN: 9780415166447, p. 26.

[from Entersection]

Of course the Dalai Lama's a Marxist | Ed Halliwell | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk →

fuckyeahdukkha:

The very idea of self-help in Buddhism is an oxymoron – relief of suffering can only come from the realisation that pleasing ourselves doesn’t bring happiness – instead we must try to work skilfully and compassionately with others, as part of interwoven systems of connectivity that bind us together. A “western Buddhism” that prioritises solipsistic focus on the individual is so great a misconception as to be unworthy of the name – or at the least the Buddhism part – as anyone who pays it more than passing attention knows. It’s also largely a media invention – many western Buddhists are serious, deeply committed practitioners. That commitment means choosing to follow a path that leads against the stream of materialism and selfishness. Of course, we don’t always manage it, but that’s why it’s called a path of practice.

Buddhism goes way beyond the confines of the personal – realising the truth of interdependence implies taking up the challenge of engaging with others in the wider world. This isn’t missionary zeal – proselytising is hardly the Buddhist way – but it does mean social action that embodies dharmic principles, and western sanghas are increasingly prioritising community involvement. As they do so, Buddhism may start to look less like some nice bit of calm and relaxation and more like a radical, uncompromising critique of the status quo.

"

David Eagleman on how we constructs reality

“The conscious mind (…) it’s like a stowaway on a transatlantic steamship, that’s taking credit for the journey, without acknowledging all the engineering underfoot. (…)

When Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter and realized that, in fact, we’re not at the center of things, but instead we’re way out on a distant edge. That’s essentially the same situation we’re in, where we’ve fallen from the center of ourselves. (…)

The first thing to do is to recognize that what you’re seeing out there is not actually reality. You’re not sort of opening your eyes, and voila, there’s the world. Instead, your brain constructs the world. Your brain is trapped in darkness inside of your skull, and all it ever sees are electrical and chemical signals. So all the colors you see, and so on, that doesn’t really exist; that’s an interpretation by your brain. (…)

All we’re actually doing is seeing an internal model of the world; we’re not seeing what’s out there, we’re seeing just our internal model of it. And that’s why, when you move your eyes around, all you’re doing is updating that model. (…) We don’t even need our eyes to see. When you are asleep and dreaming, your eyes are closed, but you’re having full, rich visual experience —because it’s the same process of running your visual cortex, and then you believe that you are seeing. (…)

Some thoughts aren’t thinkable, because of the way that thoughts are constrained by our biology. (…) What we call visible light is just one ten-billionth of that spectrum. So, we’re only seeing a very tiny sliver of that, because we have biological receptors that are tuned to that little part of the spectrum. But radio signals, and cell phone signals, and television signals, all that stuff is going right through your body, because you happen not to have biological receptors for that part of the spectrum. (…)

Mother Nature chronically reinvents things all the time—accidentally. Just by mutation, there are always new ways to do things, like detect motion, or control muscles, or whatever it is that it’s trying to do—pick up on new energy sources, and so on. And as a result, what you have are multiple ways of solving problems in real biological creatures. (…) Mother Nature probably came up with about three or four different ways to detect motion. And all of these act like parties in the neural parliament. They all sort of think that they know how to detect motion best, and they battle it out with the other parties. (…)

The analogy of a young monarch who takes the throne of his country, and takes credit for the glory of the country without thinking about the thousands of workers who are making it all work. And that’s essentially the situation we’re in.” "

David Eagleman, neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine, where he directs the Laboratory for Perception and Action and the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law, ☞ David Eagleman on how we constructs reality, time perception, and The Secret Lives of the Brain (Illustration source: David Plunkert for TIME)
See also: David Eagleman on the conscious mind (via amiquote)

Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen →

crashinglybeautiful:

“This informal black-and-white portrait of Leonard Cohen shows him at age 30 on a visit to his hometown of Montreal, where the poet, novelist and songwriter comes “to renew his neurotic affiliations.” He reads his poetry to an enthusiastic crowd, strolls the streets of the city, relaxes in this three-dollar-a-night hotel room and even takes a bath.”

—NFB

At 8:40 Leonard Cohen says: “When I get up in the morning… my real concern is to discover whether I’m in a state of grace. And if I make that investigation, and I discover that I am not in a state of grace, I try to go [back] to bed. A state of grace is that kind of balance with which you ride the chaos that you find around you. It’s not a matter of resolving the chaos — because there’s something arrogant and warlike about putting the world in order — but having a kind of escape ski down over a hill, just going through the contours of the hill. Interviewer interjects: Oh, you have lost me! Irving Layton explains: What Cohen is trying to do right now is to preserve the self; that’s his real concern, and I think that is the concern for every poet: to preserve the self in a world that is rapidly steamrollering the selves out of existence, and establishing a uniform world.”

"Q: So if industrial civilization is collapsing, why shouldn’t we just hunker down and make our lifeboats and protect our own, and basically take care of our own precious little asses? A: I would contrast the narcissism and cowardice of this attitude with that expressed by Henning von Tresckow, one of the members of the German resistance to Hitler in World War II. When the Allies invaded France in 1944, anybody paying any attention at all knew that the Nazis were going to lose: it was just a matter of time. So some members of the resistance suggested that they stop working to take down the Nazis, and instead just protect themselves until the war was over, basically hunker down and make their lifeboats and protect their own. Henning von Tresckow responded that every day the Nazis were killing 16,000 innocent civilians, so basically every day sooner they could bring down the Nazis would save 16,000 innocent civilians. There is more courage and wisdom and integrity in that statement than in all the statements of all the craven lifeboatists put together. Between 150 and 200 species went extinct today. They were my brothers and sisters. It is not sufficient to merely hunker down and wait for the horrors to stop. Salmon won’t survive that long. Sturgeon won’t survive that long. Delta smelt won’t survive that long. Here’s another way to say all this. I would contrast the narcissism and cowardice of the lifeboatists with the attitude expressed by my dear friend, and the person who really got me started in environmentalism, John Osborn. He has devoted his life to saving as much of the wild as he can, through organized political resistance. When asked why he does this work, he always says, “We cannot predict the future. But as things become increasingly chaotic, I want to make sure that some doors remain open.” What he means by that is that if grizzly bears are around in 30 years they may be around in fifty. If they are gone in 30 they are gone forever. If he can keep this or that valley of old growth standing, it may be standing in 50 years. If it’s gone now, it will be gone for a long, long time, maybe forever. As you said, Mickey Z, we are living at a time when we have perhaps more leverage than at many previous times. Any destructive activity we can halt now may protect that area until the collapse: people couldn’t realistically say that in the 1920s. I believe it was David Brower who said that every environmental victory was temporary while every loss was permanent. I think we are quickly reaching the point where every victory can be permanent. One final thing: the single most effective recruiting tool for the French Resistance in WWII was D-Day, because the French realized once and for all that the Germans weren’t invincible. Knowing that this culture is collapsing should not lead us into narcissism and cowardice, but should give us courage, and should lead us to defend the victims of this culture."

Press Action ::: ‘We Need to Stop This Culture Before It Kills the Planet’ (via guerrillamamamedicine)

(via catherinewillis)