12 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Pursuit of Truth Puts One in Contact With the Infinite
The fascination of any search after truth lies not in the attainment, which at best is found to be very relative, but in the pursuit, where all the powers of the mind and character are brought into play and are absorbed by the task. One feels oneself in contact with something that is infinite and one finds joy that is beyond expression in sounding the abyss of science and the secrets of the infinite mind. 1 
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notesFlorence Bascom quoted.
03 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Vernor Vinges' Zones
You could study your whole life, and not know. How long must a fish study to understand human motivation? It’s not a good analogy, but it’s the only safe one; we are like dumb animals to the Powers of the Transcend. Think of all the different things people do to animals—ingenious, sadistic, charitable, genocidal—each has a million elaborations in the Transcend. The Zones are a natural protection; without them, human-equivalent intelligence would probably not exist.” She waved at the... 1 notes
notesWe are like fish in an aquarium attempting to understand the godlike intelligences in the Transcend, whose motives are beyond us and whose perspective on us is impossible to fathom.
16 DEC 2011 by ideonexus
The Rhythms of Nature
Nature vibrates with rhythms, climatic and diastrophic, those finding stratigraphic expression ranging in period from the rapid oscillation of surface waters, recorded in ripple-mark, to those long-deferred stirrings of the deep imprisoned titans which have divided earth history into periods and eras. The flight of time is measured by the weaving of composite rhythms- day and night, calm and storm, summer and winter, birth and death such as these are sensed in the brief life of man. But the c...
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3 We experience oscillations of all sorts in our lifetime, but the Universe has much larger waves hidden in geologic time.
17 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
People Should not be Prevented from Using Common Sense
If the people could comprehend the abyss in which this ignorance casts them, they would doubtless throw off the yoke of these venal minds, since it is impossible for Reason to act without immediately discovering the Truth. It is to prevent the good effects that would certainly follow, that they depict it as a monster incapable of inspiring any good sentiment, and however we may censure in general those who are not reasonable, we must nevertheless be persuaded that Truth is quite perverted. Th... 1 notes
notesThe abyss in which ignorance casts people and the idea that truth is perversion among the faithful.
29 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
The Personhood Associated with the Word "God"
In his Spiritual Exercises, the Greek novelist Nikos Kazantzakis writes:
We have seen the highest circle of spiraling powers. We have named this circle God. We might have given it any other name we wished: Abyss, Mystery, Absolute Darkness, Absolute Light, Matter, Spirit, Ultimate Hope, Ultimate Despair, Silence. But we have named it God because only this name, for primordial reasons, can stir the heart profoundly. And this deeply felt emotion is indispensable if we are to touch, body with...While deists and others use it to mean a spiritual force, the word is so infused with the idea of a consciousness similar to human beings that it seems irretrievably corrupted for use by spiritual naturalists.
28 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
The Thrill of Landing on a New Planet
To ANYONE who has been in space and experienced its changelessness, the real excitement of space flight comes when it is time to land on a new planet. The ground speeds backward under you as you catch glimpses of land and water, of geometrical areas and lines that might represent fields and roads. You become aware of the green of growing things, the gray of concrete, the brown of bare ground, the white of snow. Most of all, there is the excitement of populated conglomerates; cities which, on ...Folksonomies: space travel adventuring
Folksonomies: space travel adventuring
Each planet has its own distinct characteristics that are a welcome sight after spending a long time in the abyss of space.
