16 Jul 23
@mike69 saidI don't think I agree. Instead, I think your "little tanks" metaphor is a bit dehumanizing, for want of a gentler word, as is - if I recall your use of the term a few months ago - your reference to a potentially diversity-annihilating "collective consciousness".
Some tanks may be bigger and nicer but overall the things you mention between interactions and on are formed and nurtured in each of our little tanks comparably. Agree or disagree?
Could some people understand and appreciate one another more? Sure. And that would be a good thing. But I can't take exhortations to promote this too seriously when there's the rather fatuous "personal goldfish bowls" analogy sloshing around in the heart of a conversation that deserves better rhetoric.
@ghost-of-a-duke saidIf they stay in one place too long, they become inedible (to us, anyway). Not that any doughnuts in your vicinity ever stayed around that long ...
I always notice the doughnuts.
(And they rarely move of their own volition).
Just sayin'.
😆
@moonbus saidTodays topic of discussion (or not)
If they stay in one place too long, they become inedible (to us, anyway). Not that any doughnuts in your vicinity ever stayed around that long ...
Just sayin'.
😆
Doughnuts: prey or predator ?
Always check to see if your doughnuts have teeth. No one wants to bite into a doughnut that bites back.
01 Aug 23
2 edits
@kilroy70 saidInteresting question.
Are we truly cognizant of the world around us, or do we just think we are.
I would like to quote from Susan Blackmore’s excellent book: Zen and the Art of Consciousness.
“Am I conscious now?
Of course I am. Yes, I am conscious now.
Am I conscious now?
Of course I am. Yes, I am conscious now.
But something odd happened. When I asked myself the question it was as though I became conscious at that moment. Was I not conscious before? It felt as though I was waking up - coming to consciousness when I asked the question - because I asked the question.
What is going on? Am I conscious now?
I can remember what was going on just before I asked the question, so it seems someone must have been conscious. Was someone else conscious a moment before - as though the waking up is a change in who is conscious?
Another possibility is that I wasn’t really conscious before I asked the question. This is deeply troubling.”
There follow deeply perceptive tangents upon the meanings of the words “I”, “conscious”, “now”. Dr Susan Blackmore is a neuroscientist and philosopher whose perceptive take on consciousness is directly linked to Zen Buddhist. She is not a Zen Buddhist, or affiliated to any quasi religion, but her findings are riveting.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the ‘problem’ of what constitutes consciousness.
@Pianoman1
"Are we truly cognizant of the world around us, or do we just think we are"
Only a mind, aware of both itself and the world outside of itself, could ask this question.
So imo the question answers itself.
04 Aug 23
@kellyjay saidI agree that "now" is infinitesimally small.
Another thing to keep in mind we live and have our being in a little sliver of time, in the moment now. Now is so small it is unquantifiable we can’t cut it down into any fraction, our past grows with each moment while the future is always just beyond our reach.
And our awareness of what is happening always lags behind. What we see (or hear) happening "now" is actually our perception of a past event.
04 Aug 23
@kilroy70 saidWhen we see things that are dependent upon each other existing, we know what made that possible had to transcend time. Since they can’t have come into being independently in some sequence of events without both being there simultaneously.
I agree that "now" is infinitesimally small.
And our awareness of what is happening always lags behind. What we see (or hear) happening "now" is actually our perception of a past event.
04 Aug 23
@kilroy70 said👍
@Pianoman1
"Are we truly cognizant of the world around us, or do we just think we are"
Only a mind, aware of both itself and the world outside of itself, could ask this question.
So imo the question answers itself.
