19 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
Religion Prevented Immortality
The other way was if you do various kinds of mumbo-jumbo then this great agent in the sky will come down and give you eternal life, in which case you could have an infinite number of sports cars. And so Pascal’s wager: either you believe in God or you don’t; if there is no God it can’t do any harm to believe in him because he’s not going to punish you because he doesn’t exist; on the other hand if you don’t believe in him and there is one then he’ll be mad at you and you won’t get eternal lif... 1 
notes
notesFrom Marvin Minsky'S "Why Freud Was the First Good AI Theorist"
19 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
The Hybronaut
I have developed a concept that attempts to emphasize, cross, and further blur the borders of technology and the human. My artistic research work experiments with a networked human, whose body and environment are characteristically techno-organic. This concept developed as the techno-organic figure, what I call “the Hybronaut.” The Hybronaut proposes an “action” state of a human, whose existence and identity are deeply intertwined with its networked hybrid environment. It is understood as an ...Folksonomies: perspective transhumanism
Folksonomies: perspective transhumanism
1 notes
notes02 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Knowledge Requires Interaction with the Material World
Where do correct ideas come from? Do they drop from the skies? No. Are they innate in the mind? No. They come from social practice, and from it alone; they come from three kinds of social practice, the struggle for production, the class struggle and scientific experiment.
Where Do Correct Ideas Come from? (May 1963), 1st pocket ed., p. 1.
It is man's social being that determines his thinking. Once the correct ideas characteristic of the advanced class are grasped by the masses, these ideas... 1 notes
notesWe have no other way of knowing things.
20 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
The Explosion of Sub-Cults
The techno-societies, far from being drab and homogenized, are honeycombed with just
such colorful groupings—hippies and hot rodders, theosophists and flying saucer fans, skindivers
and skydivers, homosexuals, computerniks, vegetarians, bodybuilders and Black
Muslims.
Today the hammerblows of the super-industrial revolution are literally splintering the
society. We are multiplying these social enclaves, tribes and minicults among us almost as
fast as we are multiplying automotive options. Th... 1 notes
notesWe can see this phenomenon in online cultures, but I like how this passage ties it into the issue of personal identity. The cults/fandoms we choose are also a choice about how we are defining ourselves.
29 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
When Memes and Genes Conflict
Memes and genes may often reinforce each other, but they sometimes
come into opposition. For example, the habit of celibacy is presumably
not inherited genetically. A gene for celibacy is doomed to failure in the
gene pool, except under very special circumstances such as we find in
the social insects. But still, a meme for celibacy can be successful in the
meme pool. For example, suppose the success of a meme depends
critically on how much time people spend in actively transmitting it to
othe... 1 notes
notesMemes can override genes, which means a meme like 'celibacy' can prevent the genes from reproducing.
20 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Evolutionary Unit of Measurement
The starting point of Darwin's theory of evolution is precisely the existence of those differences between individual members of a race or species which morphologists for the most part rightly neglect. The first condition necessary, in order that any process of Natural Selection may begin among a race, or species, is the existence of differences among its members; and the first step in an enquiry into the possible effect of a selective process upon any character of a race must be an estimate ... 1 notes
notesIs the species, not individuals within the species.
09 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Earth Speaks
The Earth Speaks, clearly, distinctly, and, in many of the realms of Nature, loudly, to William Jennings Bryan, but he fails to hear a single sound. The earth speaks from the remotest periods in its wonderful life history in the Archaeozoic Age, when it reveals only a few tissues of its primitive plants. Fifty million years ago it begins to speak as "the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life." In successive eons of time the various kinds of animals leave their rema... 1 notes
notesThe evidence is there, but biblicalists refuse to see the it.
18 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Torture Methods Used on Those Accused of Witchcraft
One might glance at some of the special tortures at Bamberg,
for example, such as the forcible feeding of the accused on
herrings cooked in salt, followed by denial of water - a
sophisticated method which went side by side with immersion
of the accused in baths of scalding water to which lime had
been added. Other ways with witches included the wooden
horse, various kinds of racks, the heated iron chair, leg vises
[Spanish boots], and large boots of leather or metal into
which (with the feet ...Folksonomies: witch hunt injustice
Folksonomies: witch hunt injustice
1 notes
notesA small subset of the injustices wrought on innocents.
