consciousness
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Conversation with a TreeI ask the tree,“I know that my binaries are spectra,and every name’s a judgment.Any walls I have ever built worked both ways.But how far can I extend?And If I start, can I stop?”It says,“I grow upward because there is no limit;If I began from a height and extended downward,I would have fixed…
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In the Buzzing of DragonfliesThere’s a manlike activity in the buzzing of dragonflies:Their darting and zipping,their pausing to evaluate, then flitting away toward gain.There’s economy, intention, drive.But our highest calling is not like this at all, but ratherthat through our eyes the Lord may view again His Garden;And by us stroll through His creationto find…
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Recently I was in Maine. I stood in the woods and really appreciated the weight of my own philosophy, my recovery from mental illness, and all that I have come to learn and unlearn. I used an app to check whether the trees I was looking at were yews or firs (they were balsam firs).…
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Here’s a quick post demystifying the process by which we’re scientifically bootstrapping our way out of our minds’ and brains’ black boxes into better and better self-knowledge. 1. We identify types of human cognition that are of interest to us. For example, analogical reasoning. Once you’ve learned about it, it’s shocking how analogy underlies almost…
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One thing we can know is that we are questioning As we question the nature of reality, we have very little that is unassailable upon which to build answers. One thing that we can be sure of, though, is our own questioning. What, if anything, can the fact of our questioning itself tell us about…
