:>> Forget about absolute truth.
:
:>True.;-) Truth is relative. Some guy named Einstein demonstrated
:>this in a book called "Relativity". Should be on the reading list if
:>it's not already.
:
:What Einstein demonstrated was that the physical universe is a little more
:complicated than people had previously thought. He is revered not because
:he demonstrated that life was an incomprehensible mystery like
:transubstantiation...but, conversely, because he was able to create a
:conceptaul framework explaining formerly mysterious results. Einstein is a
:genius of de-mystification, integration, prediction, understanding, and
:manipulation. He was a scientist, a reductionist, and a pragmatist.
I agree that Albert was a cool guy with crazy hair.
:>>Science DIFFERS from religion and mysticism in that it is a proven
:>>functional and predictive process for manipulating ones environment.
:>
:>Religion and mysticism differ from science in that they deal with
:>qualitative and subjective experience and expression. These too, by
:>the way, are powerful tools for manipulating ones environment.
:
:Science can be qualitative as well as quantitative...we aren't all
:physicists. In fact, that very dichotomy of observation is usually taught
:to people in a science class. I, myself, am a pretty qualitative
:person...chemisrtry is a science and art of appropriate generalization.
I was stretching for a little more than creative chemistry.
:>> Modern life is circumscribed by our technical achievements.
:
:>Modern life is also circumscribed by our passion, insainity, cruelity,
:>and bad sit-coms.
:
:Ah, but how are they communicated? expressed? No argument from me but
:"the medium is the message" is still a more or less true statement.
I'm not putting down intellect (pretty girls have that job), I'm binding intellect and emotion.
They can't be separated.
:>>I can only report that I have been unable to move dimes by mental >power,
:
:>Try advertising. Use sex in your commercials.
:
:This made me laugh. Very good. You get my point though?
:
:>>I have been unable to teleport to distant lands,
:
:>Try the internet.
:
:As above. VR isn't a reality yet. Still, I agree that technical advances
:have made seemingly impossible feats common. But when we can travel the
:seas we dream of the Moon. Travel to the Moon and we dream of the planets
:and the stars. Travel the galaxy and is there any doubt we will want to
:see the other side of the universe...maybe just to see if their Slurpees
:have better consistency? There is always a frontier...and you can either
:dream about the next step, or get down in the trenches and create it...I
:try to do a little of both, keeps me (in)sane/happy.
Great paragraph. It is not our intellect that invents, but our desire to become gods.
:>From what I can tell of you by reading your posting, your failures at
:>this are because you're too literal. An artist can use shades of blue
:>to represent happiness, freedom, mystery, pain, loneliness, and so on.
:>To use the tools you've mentioned you must use them with the eye of an
:>artist, not a thinker. When you've done this you will learn to ask
:>the right questions. From then on, predicting the future is easy.
:
:On one level, sure, "act as if ye had faith, look a little harder into the
:mystery" blah blah blah. On another, bullshit, you recognize my meaning.
:I'm not a robot, but I'm not a grasshopper, either.
I was not refering to faith or mystery, but what strippers call "Reading The Bar." People emit
enormous amounts of information without speaking a word. The skill of reading this information is
the same skill used when reading tarot cards, goats inards, or whatever. A single line drawn on a
blank page can have an infinite number of meanings. How shall we interpret it?
David Leeper
Homo Deus