mindfulness

Quote from Wikipedia: In  philosophy ,  systems theory ,  science , and  art ,  emergence  occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors which emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole. Emergence plays a central role in theories of  integrative levels  and of  complex systems . For instance, the phenomenon of  life  as studied in  biology  is an emergent property of  chemistry , and many  psychological  phenomena are known to emerge from underlying  neurobiological  processes. The fractal patterns in a  snowflake can be an example in physical system.                                                     Photo by Nathan-Myhrvold How about consciousness? Well philosophers doesn't agree, a...

 David Hume, the 18-century Philosopher and historian from Scotland, is admired by many.  He was an agnostic or maybe an atheist (depends on the readers view).  Anyway he believed that people could be warmhearted and good to each other. And that was because of feelings of empathy.  The importance of feelings was in the foreground for him He meant that reason is dependent on feelings.  Hume himself, is said to be a friendly man and nice to have a conversation with because of his humor and wit.  why? Maybe because he didn't spend so much time to ponder about metaphysical things: He wrote that if he did that to long he had to go to the inn, drink some wine and have a chat with people there and then the pondering was gone.  Instead he liked to study human minds.  He was one first in the west to say that we have no self. What we have is series of impressions that the brain tries to interpret.   This is also what modern philosophy and Buddhism...

 Is there ambiguity in science? Yes there is.  especially in quantum physics. We don't now how it works, but it works. Some say that's enough - we don't exactly have to know what happens  (Niels Bohr was one of them).  In Einsteins theory time goes faster for one person in a valley than for another person on a mountain  (because of gravitation).  Quantum physics looks in a way like art or human relations. In these areas we we for sure know that there are ambiguity included.  In relation we often are not sure of how much we Love each other or how long the relation will last. The question "are we really together now" may put the relation in a more clear light (or maybe ens it). That is ecactly what happens when someone makes a mesaurment in quantum physics. The mesaurment ends the ambiguity.  In modern art different spectators can, or should have, different interpretations.   The spectator interact with the art. Of course the artist has hi...

 A person guided by moral constructivism, doesn't look for for a moral code in nature or in heaven or in books like the Bible or in any other book.  Moral guidelines is being based by subjective judgments and beliefs.  Though a moral constructivist  can claim that he is right, his or hers moral is not arbitrary, even though his ethical system is invented by humans.  As David Hume argued, we have no objective guidelines to distinguish right from wrong. We are, according to Hume more guided by passion than by reason, even in out moral decisions. And passion and desires are grounded in our genes and our upbringing.  Moral exists only insofar as we make it so. Its like art and the rules in football. And we all know that players often will have warnings or try too act as they are wounded - though most often they respect the rules even if they are man made. (but what happen if there were no penalties?) So will not this lead to anarchy and crime: "I feel that I ha...

 The title comes from a talk by Martin Rees, the English astronomer, in Stockholm, some years ago. What he means is that we now can change the world a lot. Because of our interaction with high tech we can evolve much faster than evolution. I guess that includes AI. The sun will shine for many years ahead and future human will look very different from now. Its in the end of this long lecture that Rees speaks about the future of the Earth.  Before that he speaks about the emergence of more and more complexity in the life on Earth.  Let us at least hope that we can use these abilities to fight climate change and the sixth mass extinction.  We will  in the future for sure have abilities to do that.  We need politicians that are not afraid of being unpopular.  And we need a new story than the one of new-liberalism.  Adam Curtis shows in a a documentary that new-liberalism is a way to cool down the masses by consumerism. That seems to be the way many co...

 This is not astrology, stars doesn't decide our destiny.  But stars gave us the elements for life because of their lifecycle.  Dying stars gave us carbon. Carbon was not there from the beginning.  And exploding supernovas gave us other elements, that now has created complex life on earth - and us too.  This is remarkable, as if the universe had a plan.  So this may give us hope for the future, maybe there is more to come...  Even our own sun will create carbon in the end of its lifecycle.  Right now it creates helium out of hydrogen.  That's the light that shines on us. And without that light, no life...  The universe is growing, is expanding and is still creative.  We should not fear old age and death, out of that will new things grow.  I sure humankind is evolving too.  Earlier generations gave us knowledge - also by their mistakes.  There is more democratic, or quite democratic states now than ever before.  D...

 What gives us hope? It depends of, hope for whom?  For you or for humankind Or maybe for the earth Or maybe for the universe as a whole... Right now it seems that humankind is in a dangerous situation, Lauri Anderson puts it this way; " Humankind has not lived on this Earth for ever, so we cannot take for granted that we will in the future. Its not hard to imagine the Earth without humans". So, if we have a non-anthropocentric view, we can wish for the Earth to have a healthy life, with or without humans.  This can be seen as sad view if we are a human being, but if we are wolf or a tiger or an elephant it would be an event to celebrate.  Is it possible to have  non-anthropocentric view? Maybe not totally... But as Laurie Anderson (a Buddhist practitioner) says;  I think its possible to image the Earth without humankind. It has been like that before... But first of all it would be reasonable to hope for a future where humankind could cooperate with the res...