tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post8116131573627491125..comments2024-03-27T11:16:36.951-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: Cosmic Evolution: It's Just a Going Through a FaceGagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-63970395325584934452012-06-26T13:59:50.878-07:002012-06-26T13:59:50.878-07:00"In fact, liberals attempt to subvert this in..."In fact, liberals attempt to subvert this individual centration by forcing people to identify with race, class, ethnicity, gender, and what have you, but this is the very essence of "regressivism," as it recalls a time in human history prior to the emergence of the free and autonomous person."<br /><br />In a word: ProRegressivism.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-74907518578843256802012-06-26T12:08:19.842-07:002012-06-26T12:08:19.842-07:00JP said "I'm going to continue to operate...JP said "I'm going to continue to operate under the man=rare hypothesis rather than the man=only on earth hypothesis..."<br /><br />I don't want to limit myself with either. I operate under the 'man=only one known' reality. <br /><br />That way, reality & me can stay on good terms no matter how things develop.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-44149191150397342322012-06-26T09:08:27.063-07:002012-06-26T09:08:27.063-07:00I'm a fan of the multiverse theory.
Of course...I'm a fan of the multiverse theory.<br /><br />Of course, I would expect to find God---->Spirit---->Mind---->Life---->Matter in any universe. <br /><br />This would get us back to the entire Adam Kadmon space-time geometry issue.<br /><br />Anyhow, I'm going to continue to operate under the man=rare hypothesis rather than the man=only on earth hypothesis if only because it feels intuitively true and because I've got a good "best guess" on where to look first. I can narrow the search down to a specific type of star system in this galaxy. I may get around to it someday. <br /><br />I'm a cosmology hobbyist.JPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11126071014909954387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-15267783345864914222012-06-26T09:06:01.853-07:002012-06-26T09:06:01.853-07:00And even with FTL travel we'll never really kn...And even with FTL travel we'll never really know for sure, since without time travel much of spacetime will remain forever outside of our grasp or even, sight!Ephrem Antony Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00032465992619034619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-20412310291950710612012-06-26T07:54:03.013-07:002012-06-26T07:54:03.013-07:00Yep - could be that it simply takes an entire univ...Yep - could be that it simply takes an entire universe to get one little planet with the right conditions to support humanness. Or maybe "just" a galaxy, but if the average is one living planet per galaxy, odds are we'll never know unless someone develops genuine faster-than-light travel.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-48022233039696318612012-06-26T07:48:18.277-07:002012-06-26T07:48:18.277-07:00JP said "It just seems like a waste of galaxi...JP said "It just seems like a waste of galaxies if people are only going to arise in one of them."<br /><br />Ever taken note of the sperm & egg count that goes into getting to one pregnancy?Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-75777444222746433442012-06-26T07:23:38.285-07:002012-06-26T07:23:38.285-07:00Seems like a lot of liberality to make so many gal...Seems like a lot of liberality to make so many galaxies for just one set of sentiences! <br /><br />Even so, the multiverse theory would seem... wanton.<br /><br />There are likely plenty of planets that have already come and gone before any eye could see them and take note of them. So much hidden beauty!Ephrem Antony Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00032465992619034619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-56554713608514063902012-06-25T16:55:15.782-07:002012-06-25T16:55:15.782-07:00While there is one person it is not a waste.While there is one person it is not a waste.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13720790978632771716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-85400248050229880842012-06-25T16:38:39.585-07:002012-06-25T16:38:39.585-07:00"As I've mentioned before, one reason I a..."As I've mentioned before, one reason I am skeptical of finding "intelligent life" on other planets is because of the extreme unlikelihood that we would ever find persons. A person is the apex of cosmic intelligence, but it turns out -- or so we have heard from the wise -- that the "center" represented by the person actually extends all the way down."<br /><br />It just seems like a waste of galaxies if people are only going to arise in one of them.JPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11126071014909954387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-62646517648186113432012-06-25T15:19:26.666-07:002012-06-25T15:19:26.666-07:00" In other words, it is not as if the cosmos ..." In other words, it is not as if the cosmos evolves to a certain point, and then there appears this inexplicable thing called a person, like the frosting on a cake. Rather, there is a kind of "centration" that is present everywhere and everywhen, only in more or less attenuated forms."<br /><br />Yep. I think the center is there, whole, and it is the various stages of complexification that manage to facilitate more and more of its depth.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-61239481050204684202012-06-25T14:03:51.905-07:002012-06-25T14:03:51.905-07:00Riv said,
"...to fashion things that have mea...Riv said,<br />"...to fashion things that have meaning <i>to</i> them."<br /><br />(emphasis added)<br /><br />Perhaps explains the tattoo craze (injected meaning).Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13720790978632771716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-21741777462449586842012-06-25T11:59:12.977-07:002012-06-25T11:59:12.977-07:00Face is also the place of the 'heinous facade&...Face is also the place of the 'heinous facade' - as I think, one Orthodox monastic put it. It is at once a mask because it can be molded, but it is also an instrument of nearly infinite precision for the communication of expression. As a mask it is simply a tool of the ego, of the self made up in or by the world - that noisy narrative - but as an instrument it can be where we meet God face to face, even if not as directly as did twelve men from the province of Palestine in Rome some twenty centuries ago.<br /><br />It would seem the expressability - the infinity in a finite space - is an aspect of the Imago Dei, but its usage not for egoic projection but for the communication of the center of our being - the heart in our tradition - makes it an aspect of the Likeness of God. But to peel away the masks from one's own self! It is the question which plagues nearly every young person I know (save a few more down-to-earth folks) and they are busy often trying on a bunch of world-suggested masks or fashioning their own after that likeness. <br /><br />The nature of scientific discourse in our day doesn't help them, telling them that for instance the world is absurd and meaningless, which drives them into their own heads (not hearts, mind you) to fashion things that have meaning to them. <br /><br />About individuals, I think it is most important to note that no individual is truly autonomous - but rather, I think it is more false unities that create trouble than true ones. Race is a false unity, but humanity is a true one. Granted, the feeling of solidarity is what is at stake and given the average penchant for misanthropy - one is unlikely to actually have love for 'all mankind' - meaning not merely for a concept of mankind but for all possible curios which occupy the set. <br /><br />Identity politics is truly a modern phenomena, since it preys on the man unmoored from a meaningful understanding of the world, even if he is religious (though much religion these days is modern and thus mostly powerless to moor meaning in experience other than subjectively) he becomes lured with the promise of a false union, having rejected perhaps truer unions. This is just to say that a man is more unified with his house which is inert and senseless than he is with someone who holds the same politics as he in Washington D.C... he cannot hope but to find a new mask for himself while his heart rots.<br /><br />Which reminds me much of the trope of body-stealers in pop culture - usually they continually die and must steal a new body to keep living, though by doing so they are effectively immortal. This is usually shown by them rotting like a corpse long before they are dead, and when it reaches a certain point they have to seek a new 'host'. I guess you could apply the trope as an idea going both ways - both for the ideology and the persons picking up the ideology.<br /><br />It's worth noting that these characters are never redeemed/restored to life in any story I've read. Even if they are good characters.Ephrem Antony Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00032465992619034619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-6147861231308334922012-06-25T11:17:00.597-07:002012-06-25T11:17:00.597-07:00More like 86 billion neurons per brain?
http://ww...More like 86 billion neurons per brain?<br /><br />http://www.mendeley.com/research/equal-numbers-of-neuronal-and-nonneuronal-cells-make-the-human-brain-an-isometrically-scaledup-primate-brain/#<br /><br />At any rate, without coffee, none of this synaptic computational power would amount to a hill of beans.Tonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00987042455512485699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-44117011430533722392012-06-25T09:59:01.525-07:002012-06-25T09:59:01.525-07:00As to the centrality of the face, I was thinking o...As to the centrality of the face, I was thinking of that space between mother and child this morning, and how important it is to feed that developing personhood specifically with eye contact and expression. Some of the boy's favorite games right now revolve around covering and revealing faces. <br /><br />Interesting, too, is watching him try to interact with other kids; at this age, all he knows to do is try to make eye contact to instigate play, which works great with older kids, but I've noticed the majority of small kids are too lost in their own entertainment to reply in kind. They literally don't see his face, and so don't see him.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-10189281587559676812012-06-25T09:50:20.915-07:002012-06-25T09:50:20.915-07:00As we can see, Obama's whole campaign revolves...<i>As we can see, Obama's whole campaign revolves around the attempt to cobble together a plurality by pandering to various groups via the re-definition of marriage, amnesty for illegal Democrats, a war on men, and so on. Conversely, conservatism embodies arguments that can only be made by persons to persons, irrespective of such accidents as race, class, and gender. </i><br /><br />Yes. You and <a href="http://blogodidact.blogspot.com/2012/06/welcome-to-historys-interesting-times.html" rel="nofollow">Van</a> must have been surfing the same wavelength this morning. Quoting Sallust, he writes:<br /><br /><i>"Whilst he was giving Money to many, or paying their Debts; becoming Security for some, and even assisting and rescuing others by downright Violence; whilst he was continually proposing popular Schemes, popular Projects, and popular Largesses; it never entered into their credulous Heads, that a Benefactor, so infinitely liberal and zealous, could possibly intend them any Harm, much less Misery and Chains. Yet it was obvious to common Sense, that either Manlius, or the Government, must fall..."</i><br /><br />As to the pluralization of individuals, to the point of the post the effect is indeed a <i>defacement</i>.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.com