- I know I’m a “living system” because…….
- I am a dynamic being that has a history of never-ending transformation. I am dependent on my environment to nurture and change my existence. The chemical and spiritual components of me are made up of the same building blocks of our planet earth. In the Tree of Knowledge, living beings are characterized as being continually self producing. If that is the case, machines with artificial intelligence are not far off from being able to reproducing themselves. It gets tricky to think of advanced machines as being living beings. But do machines have souls? What makes a living being worthy of a soul?
- Post a comment on one of this evening's discussions
- In my group, we discussed the article on brain to brain interfaces. There have been experiments conducted to connect the brains of monkeys and rats in order to improve their problem solving skills as a team versus alone. It is argued that this could be a significant advancement towards enabling disabled people to improve their motor skills and to live a better life. To me the question of ethics comes to mind. The power of this technology would obviously be abused if placed in the wrong hands like governing agencies for example. The risk is more costly than the pay off.
- Newton’s Three Laws and me
- When I think of Newton's three laws of motion I remember the image of him sitting under the tree and a red apple knocking him in the head. That image will be forever cemented in my mind, however I haven't thought much about the laws since. Newton's first law, also known as the law of inertia, states that an object remains at rest until compelled to move by a force. Therefore the state of motion would change based on an influential force. Newton's second law, addresses the cause and effect relationship between force and motion in the equation F = ma. Lastly, the third law is for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Metaphysically I can relate to his laws since their ideas influence me on how I try to live my life. I feel that the reason I want to practice Chinese medicine to is to help make a positive difference in my community, that which I am compelled by a spiritual force inside of me.
- Our “Energy Efficient” Culture
- Today more than ever, there is weighted pressure to develop more sustainable methods of energy as our world's resources become depleted by the minute. In thermodynamics, the first law states that the total energy content of the Universe remains constant, never being created nor destroyed but only transformed. This idea becomes hard to grasp when our current energetic resources are becoming scarce. It could be that we need to change our methods for powering our societies. I think that we also need to look at how we waste energy. If we modified our consumption then we wouldn't be in this predicament so soon. American culture promotes abundance and therefore waste. There needs to be a cultural shift towards energy efficiency in order to see some change.
- Descartes has a lot to answer for!
- It makes me wonder how it would be like to travel back in time and meet Descartes himself and have a meal together. Our opposing views and opinions would definitely make an interesting conversation! I wonder how he came to the conclusion that we are separate from nature. It would be hilarious to take him on a camping trip to Big Sur. Maybe he would be so moved by the beauty of our California coast that he would begin to think otherwise ;).
- “Ordered chaos” – does this sound familiar?
- When I think of "ordered chaos" I am reminded of the time I rode my bike through a busy intersection in Hanoi, Vietnam. There were seemingly hundreds of motorbikes breezing past me, coming from all sort of directions. When I hesitated, afraid I would crash into someone or something, I inadvertently disrupted the chaotic flow and almost caused a crash! It wasn't until I surrendered with trust, focused only on my path that I managed to make my way through unharmed. Eventually I found my rhythm with the chaos.
- Fractals as patterns of complex systems
- Thinking about fractals brought up my curiosity about snowflakes and how much they are based on fractal geometry. Snowflakes are formed from falling through highly humid cold air. The formation process of snowflakes aren't exactly fractal based and the structure themselves aren't perfectly symmetrical. What is interesting is that fractals can closely approximate real snowflakes, like 95%-99% close! This relationship is very interesting yet unknown as to why there is such a similarity.
- Consciousness out of chaos?
- What I discovered through my experience biking in Hanoi was that surrendering to the chaos was much less disruptive that going against it or moving with hesitation and doubt. Perhaps that is part of spiritual awareness that we can discover from chaos theory. Somethings although undesired are bound to happen. Although it is unpleasant to think of forest fires as a necessary outcome in order to allow for more space for growth.
- Conduct one of these "cool experiments" and write up your conclusions in your blog
- I performed the "rubber pencil" experiment and was underwhelmed unfortunately. There was suppose to be a strobe light effect cause the pencil to look curved versus straight. I did see a slight curve but it wasn't as obvious when done in front of a desktop monitor.
