Google [Nature’s recourse: How plants and animals fight back] to see how plants and animals fight back when mutual arrangements between them go sour. Here’s a short excerpt… Nature has a shifty side. Bees cheat flowers. Flowers cheat bees. Fish cheat other fish, and so on. The more biologists look, the more skullduggery turns up. […]
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What Shapes How You Think?
Google [Does Your Language Shape How You Think?] for research that speaks to my recent post Thinking Clouds Consciousness (p.119). This offers interesting details underlying this question, although, in my view this is a no-brainer. Clearly, language and thinking are inextricably linked… It takes one to do the other. If you can, flip off the […]
Continue reading…Tao As Emergent Property
Generally, emergence occurs when something has a trait that its parts don’t have individually. The emergent property exists only when its parts interact in a combined whole. In a Taoist version of this, the ‘simple’ forms the basis upon which the ‘complex’ emerges. Here, I see each layer of existence as an emergent property modeled […]
Continue reading…Balancing Difference With Similarity
Noticing differences greatly assists survival… up to the point of diminishing returns, especially for a thinking animal like us. Even so, the naïve acceptance of difference as a true portrayal of reality would not have been a problem for our hunter-gatherer ancestors, given their truly down to earth circumstances. Conversely, our naive acceptance of difference […]
Continue reading…Thinking clouds consciousness
I sat looking out over the ocean this crisp morning. I had finished my morning routine of yoga, calligraphy in the sand and tai chi, so I could just sit in the sand and let my mind think on itself. What stood out today was how deeply consciousness is separate from thinking. This may be […]
Continue reading…Where Is Freedom?
I bought a finch in Japan in the early 70’s. I took it home and left the cage door open so it could fly around if it wished, but it wouldn’t. It just stayed contentedly in its cage. Months passed before it ventured out. I left the window open too, and soon it would go […]
Continue reading…Decisions Decisions
Harvard Decision Science Laboratory held a fascinating interview. For a transcript, Google[Decisions, Decisions – CBS News]. Here is a short excerpt: Here is a short excerpt: It may not sound rational, but experts say emotions and gut feelings are more important than intellect in making choices. “We’ve never succeeded, never, in having people recognize the […]
Continue reading…Poor Thais And Rich Swedes
I had a little bakery on the Thai-Cambodian border in the early 60’s. It was little more than a shack, but big enough for me and my common law Thai wife (photo right), her mother, brother, and sister (1). Most of the customers were Thai peasants who would stop by for some sponge cake on […]
Continue reading…Time’s Arrow
John Wheeler was a visionary physicist and teacher who helped invent the theory of nuclear fission, gave black holes their name and argued about the nature of reality with Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. This quote from him about language and time shows he must have been a natural ‘taoist’, so to speak. Perhaps he […]
Continue reading…Desire and Contentment
Chapter 46 puts forward a curious dilemma. According to that chapter, when the way prevails in the empire, fleet-footed horses are relegated to plowing the fields; when the way does not prevail in the empire, war-horses breed on the border. However, chapter 34 holds that, The way is broad, reaching left as well as right. […]
Continue reading…Learning What You Know
In recent years, I’ve realized there is more to meet the eye when it comes to learning, understanding, and knowing. Perhaps, as chapter 14 says, These three cannot be fathomed, and so they are confused and looked upon as one. A few days ago, I was having a discussion with my wife and our son […]
Continue reading…We’re Not So Different After All
Google [Chimps may be aware of others’ deaths and Neanderthal genome yields evidence of interbreeding with humans] for research that challenges the prevalent myths of human uniqueness. The Judeo-Christian myth, “Man was created in God’s image”, obviously proclaims this uniqueness. This need to pin down our origins is universal, going back into prehistory. The advent […]
Continue reading…Chairs: One of Our Big Mistakes
The use of chairs in the West is ubiquitous. One of the most important life style changes I ever made was giving up my use of the chair fifty years ago. Chairs and sit down toilets are good examples of my motto, short-term pleasure invites long-term pain; short-term pain invites long-term pleasure. The physical ease […]
Continue reading…Gossip, Hysteria, News
It is easy to notice gossip or hysteria in the news sometimes. This brings me to wonder how much of the news is actually gossip and hysteria. Since gossip and news closely correlate (p.572) they are definitely equivalent, at least in the grand scheme of things. We think of news as a serious attempt to […]
Continue reading…The Family Purse
The money in our family is family money… really. It is one big pot that each takes from as needed. This is radically different from the independent model my parents used to raise me. I did chores for which I got a salary. I suppose the idea here is to prepare their child for the […]
Continue reading…Swarm Savvy
Google [Swarm Savvy: How animals avoid dumb decisions] for insight into the dynamics all social animals share… including humans. I’ve always been in awe by how well people manage the logistics of living in a civilization composed of millions of individuals. Sure, I realize how supply and demand plays a role in this. Still, it deeply […]
Continue reading…SETI… Quixotic SETI
An article in Science News, Can you hear me now?, explored issues around the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI) program. I see a Taoist twist on this, but first here is the editor’s take on this: An intelligent ET would probably just stay home. Apart from jokes about how hard it is to find intelligent […]
Continue reading…Odds Are, It’s Wrong
Google [Odds Are, It’s Wrong] for a look into how science fails to face the shortcomings of statistics. It reminds me of chapter 71’s, Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. The patient search for truth pales next to our hunger for the answer, or any answer. Science is […]
Continue reading…Bathtub Tai Chi
I finally realized multitasking was a waste of time. Taking this shortcut fooled me into feeling I could really accomplish more. Paradoxically not so, as chapter 48 hints, One does less and less until one does nothing at all, and when one does nothing at all there is nothing that is undone. More importantly, the […]
Continue reading…How the Hoodwink Hooks
Chapter 65 begins with, Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them. Initially, I thought of old referred to people, e.g., parents, politicians, preachers, gurus. On the other hand, these people are often?… usually?… always?… hoodwinked by their own set […]
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