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The central mystery of human consciousness

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Hope you are all well!

Found this interesting article about a James Gleick book.

The article title is:

"James Gleick on How Our Cultural Fascination with Time Travel Illuminates Memory, the Nature of Time, and the Central Mystery of Human Consciousness"

You can find it at the brain pickings site which is my latest obsession -

How those time travel fantasies originated, what technological and cultural developments fomented this distinctly modern impulse of the collective imagination, and how it illuminates our greatest anxieties is what science historian and writer extraordinaire James Gleick explores in Time Travel: A History (public library) — a grand thought experiment, using physics and philosophy as the active agents, and literature as the catalyst. Embedded in the book is a bibliography for the Babel of time — a most exquisitely annotated compendium of the body of time literature. What emerges is an inquiry, the most elegant since Borges, into why we think about time, why its directionality troubles us so, and what asking these questions at all reveals about the deepest mysteries of human consciousness and about what Gleick so beguilingly calls “the fast-expanding tapestry of interwoven ideas and facts that we call our culture.”

Gleick, who examined the origin of our modern anxiety about time with remarkable prescience nearly two decades ago, traces the invention of the notion of time travel to H.G. Wells’s 1895 masterpiece The Time Machine. Although Wells — like Gleick, like any reputable physicist — knew that time travel was a scientific impossibility, he created an aesthetic of thought which never previously existed and which has since shaped the modern consciousness. Gleick argues that the art this aesthetic produced — an entire canon of time travel literature and film — not only permeated popular culture but even influenced some of the greatest scientific minds of the past century, including Stephen Hawking, who once cleverly hosted a party for time travelers and when no one showed up considered the impossibility of time travel proven, and John Archibald Wheeler, who popularized the term “black hole” and coined “wormhole,” both key tropes of time travel literature.

Oooops I almost forgot 2 include the link though I am sure most of you - or the few who actually read this far - are clever enough to use the world's favourite search engine ...

James Gleick on How Our Cultural Fascination with Time Travel Illuminates Memory, the Nature of Time, and the Central Mystery of Human Consciousness

Enjoy!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Mystery? What mystery?? Neurons, that is all it is.

I find it highly mysterious - a lump of grey-matter and billions of cells and somehow produces thoughts & feelings and ideas & compassion & curiosity ... stop-me-if-I-go-too-far ...

Not to even mention the changes that take place in the brains of long-term meditators ...

Cheers!
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Mystery? What mystery?? Neurons, that is all it is.
You beat me to it.

It's exactly like arguing the mysteries of 'seeing' since we have eyes or the mysteries of 'hearing' since we have ears.

Might as well throw in the mysteries of 'tasting' since I have a tongue and a mouth. Now what ingredient was that in that last stellar dish I had? Can't quite put a finger on it. It befuddles me. Now that would be a mystery for me. =O)
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I find it highly mysterious - a lump of grey-matter and billions of cells and somehow produces thoughts & feelings and ideas & compassion & curiosity ... stop-me-if-I-go-too-far ...

Not to even mention the changes that take place in the brains of long-term meditators ...

Cheers!

It'll pass. You can probably take a long-term meditator , put some electrodes and wires and make him cluck like a chicken forgetting all about that meditation stuff.
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
I find it highly mysterious - a lump of grey-matter and billions of cells and somehow produces thoughts & feelings and ideas & compassion & curiosity ... stop-me-if-I-go-too-far ..
No, no. Please carry on. :D
The cells do many other amazing things in other parts of the body. Need to perk up and cells increase the supply of this hormone or the other.
As an example, see how brain makes sense of an inverted image on the retina.
Nowhere Man, you beat me with respect to eyes, and the chicken is a masterpiece, very well done. :D
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
No, no. Please carry on. :D
The cells do many other amazing things in other parts of the body. Need to perk up and cells increase the supply of this hormone or the other.
As an example, see how brain makes sense of an inverted image on the retina.
Nowhere Man, you beat me with respect to eyes, and the chicken is a masterpiece, very well done. :D

You have only got yourself to blame saying Please carry on! -

Here's a few words/experiences that I like to contemplate maybe more often than is healthy? - I have the list in my little notebook I usually carry around just-to-remind-me ...

Potential

Kindness

Forgivemess

Enthusiasm

Serenity

Control

Doubt

Fact

Mind - should be top-of-list?? :)

Joyful

Character

Personality

Healthy habits

Acceptance

Contentment

Advice

Wonder

Anticipation

Challenges

Awareness

Humility

Creativity

Introspection

Discipline

Knowlege

Attitude

Laughter

Encouragement

Language

Experience

Optimism

Frustration

Patience

Generosity

Prayer

Imagination

Solitude

I could go on & on but that is probly enough for you to digest at this moment :)
 

atanu

Member
Premium Member
Hope you are all well!

Found this interesting article about a James Gleick book.

The article title is:

"James Gleick on How Our Cultural Fascination with Time Travel Illuminates Memory, the Nature of Time, and the Central Mystery of Human Consciousness"

You can find it at the brain pickings site which is my latest obsession -

How those time travel fantasies originated, what technological and cultural developments fomented this distinctly modern impulse of the collective imagination, and how it illuminates our greatest anxieties is what science historian and writer extraordinaire James Gleick explores in Time Travel: A History (public library) — a grand thought experiment, using physics and philosophy as the active agents, and literature as the catalyst. Embedded in the book is a bibliography for the Babel of time — a most exquisitely annotated compendium of the body of time literature. What emerges is an inquiry, the most elegant since Borges, into why we think about time, why its directionality troubles us so, and what asking these questions at all reveals about the deepest mysteries of human consciousness and about what Gleick so beguilingly calls “the fast-expanding tapestry of interwoven ideas and facts that we call our culture.”

Gleick, who examined the origin of our modern anxiety about time with remarkable prescience nearly two decades ago, traces the invention of the notion of time travel to H.G. Wells’s 1895 masterpiece The Time Machine. Although Wells — like Gleick, like any reputable physicist — knew that time travel was a scientific impossibility, he created an aesthetic of thought which never previously existed and which has since shaped the modern consciousness. Gleick argues that the art this aesthetic produced — an entire canon of time travel literature and film — not only permeated popular culture but even influenced some of the greatest scientific minds of the past century, including Stephen Hawking, who once cleverly hosted a party for time travelers and when no one showed up considered the impossibility of time travel proven, and John Archibald Wheeler, who popularized the term “black hole” and coined “wormhole,” both key tropes of time travel literature.

Oooops I almost forgot 2 include the link though I am sure most of you - or the few who actually read this far - are clever enough to use the world's favourite search engine ...

James Gleick on How Our Cultural Fascination with Time Travel Illuminates Memory, the Nature of Time, and the Central Mystery of Human Consciousness

Enjoy!

Probably, the author does not know the time travel and parallel world stories of Yoga Vashista.
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
No context, no meaning. Words have meaning only with context. Carry on. My digestion is good, thanks for your concern. :D

Words have whatever meaning & significance you attribute to them. For example this thread & forum are meaningless if you are not an English-speaking human :)

By contemplating virtuous characteristics you improve your chance of developing them in your life.

Here's an interesting article all about nurturing positive character traits -

20 Good Character Traits (List Of Positive Character Traits We All Need)

Wishing yo all the best!

:)
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
The words you mention or those which are in the link are validated or invalidated by context. Don't ask us to love Pakistani Army or terrorist that they send in (or for that matter the Taliban in Afghanistan for US of A). To kill them is 'dharma'.
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
The words you mention or those which are in the link are validated or invalidated by context. Don't ask us to love Pakistani Army or terrorist that they send in (or for that matter the Taliban in Afghanistan for US of A). To kill them is 'dharma'.

Well you got me there - I had NO idea I was promoting violence at all. I am totally appalled by violence but as long as millions of clueless individuals insist on reproducing then violence will never cease.

Violence is only possible when you have completely lost the plot. Just as psychiatry is ONLY necessary when society-at-large has totally lost the plot.

So you see - I am far from perfect myself. I should focus on the ONLY thing I can change which is my own character.

Thanks for listening!
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
I am totally appalled by violence ..
No need to be appalled by violence. It is part of life. Most food also is violence (even if we do not count the vegetation - the story of 'Dharmavyadha', the pious butcher). But it should not be for hate or envy. It should be a necessity at that stage.

"atha cet tvam imaṁ dharmyaṁ, saṅgrāmaṁ na kariṣyasi;
tataḥ sva-dharmaṁ kīrtiṁ ca, hitvā pāpam avāpsyasi."
BhagawadGitas 2.33

If, however, you do not perform your duty, then you will certainly incur sins for neglecting your duties and thus also lose your reputation as a fighter.

"yoga-sthaḥ kuru karmāṇi, saṅgaṁ tyaktvā dhanañ-jaya;
siddhy-asiddhyoḥ samo bhūtvā, samatvaṁ yoga ucyate."
BhagawadGitas 2.48

Perform your duty equipoised, O Arjuna, abandoning all attachment to success or failure. Such is called the yoga of unattachment.

(Anasakti Yoga of Mahastma Gandhi. He wanted Indians to help the Allies in the WWII, because it was a necessity of that time).

Edit: The response also should be 'measured', not more than what is required. If the opponenet surrunder, then we should go by Geneva convention and not try to kill all. Last;y, a dead soldier should be given all respect and interred according to their belief. These are rules of the civilized people and we observe them to the letter.
 
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Howard Is

Lucky Mud
No need to be appalled by violence. It is part of life. Most food also is violence (even if we do not count the vegetation - the story of 'Dharmavyadha', the pious butcher). But it should not be for hate or envy. It should be a necessity at that stage.

"atha cet tvam imaṁ dharmyaṁ, saṅgrāmaṁ na kariṣyasi;
tataḥ sva-dharmaṁ kīrtiṁ ca, hitvā pāpam avāpsyasi."
BhagawadGitas 2.33

If, however, you do not perform your duty, then you will certainly incur sins for neglecting your duties and thus also lose your reputation as a fighter.

"yoga-sthaḥ kuru karmāṇi, saṅgaṁ tyaktvā dhanañ-jaya;
siddhy-asiddhyoḥ samo bhūtvā, samatvaṁ yoga ucyate."
BhagawadGitas 2.48

Perform your duty equipoised, O Arjuna, abandoning all attachment to success or failure. Such is called the yoga of unattachment.
(Anasakti Yoga of Mahastma Gandhi. He wanted Indians to help the Allies in the WWII, because it was a necessity of that time).

So you are ready to take up arms against the corrupt elites, which is what Krsna was telling Arjuna was his duty ?

And if you are not Kshatriya, then everyone with surname Singh ?
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
Yeah, we are doing that. Three from the former ruling combine are in jail for their economic offenses, including a former Finance Minister of India who has a prosecution against him of getting 43 million USD in bribe.
One does not need to be a Kshatriya or has to have Singh in his name. India has gone beyond that. Everyone, irrespective of their caste or religion, are eligible to serve in the army. We have had Zoroastrians (Field Marshal Manekshaw of Bangladesh fame), Sikhs (Marshal of the Airforce, Arjun Singh), Christians (Denis Anthony La Fontaine) and Muslims (Lt. General Syed Ata Hasnain) in the highest echelons of Indian forces. People are selected for their capability and not because of caste. Caste discrimination is a punishable crime in India. Of course, the lower castes get the benefit of Constitutional Affirmative Action in all services except Army.
 
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