June 2011
36 posts
3 tags
“ “If by eternity is understood not endless temporal duration but...”
– Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian philosopher, mathematician, logician, who held the professorship in philosophy at the University of Cambridge (1889-1951), Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 5.4311, Cosimo, Inc., 2007, p. 106.
2 tags
“ “Logic takes care of itself; all we have to do is to look and see how it...”
– Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian philosopher, mathematician, logician, who held the professorship in philosophy at the University of Cambridge (1889-1951) See also: Jorinde Voigt’s illustrations
2 tags
“ “There are only two ways we know of to make extremely complicated things,...”
– Danny Hillis, American inventor, entrepreneur, and author. He co-founded Thinking Machines Corporation, a company that developed the Connection Machine, a parallel supercomputer designed by Hillis at MIT, cited in Kevin Kelly, Out of Control The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the...
1 tag
“Gretel Ehrlich on wildness and life
“Gretel Ehrlich writes in her lyrical...”
– Gretel Ehrlich, American travel writer, poet, and essayist, cited in Kevin Kelly, Out of Control The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World, (2004), Illustrated Edition 2008, p. 98.
2 tags
“ “The old computing is about what computers can do, the new computing is...”
– Ben Shneiderman, American computer scientist, and professor for Computer Science at the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland
3 tags
“Freeman Dyson: ‘It appears to me that the tendency of mind to infiltrate...”
– Freeman Dyson, British-born American theoretical physicist and mathematician, famous for his work in quantum field theory, solid-state physics, astronomy and nuclear engineering, Infinite in All Directions, cited in Kevin Kelly, Out of Control The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the...
3 tags
“ “It is very likely that intelligence, at bottom, is a probabilistic or...”
– Kevin Kelly, writer, the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and a former editor/publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog, Out of Control The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World, (2004), Illustrated Edition 2008, p. 43.
4 tags
“Daniel Dennett: ‘The thing about brains is that when you look in them, you...”
– Daniel Dennett, American philosopher, writer and cognitive scientist, cited in Kevin Kelly, Out of Control The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World, (2004), Illustrated Edition 2008, p. 42-43. See also: Daniel Dennett on consciousness
2 tags
“ “I am now convinced that theoretical physics is actually philosophy.” ”
– Max Born, German-born physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics, Nobel Prize laureate in Physics (1882-1970) cited in Pim Van Lommel, Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience, (tnx johnsparker)
7 tags
“The Neurobiology of “We”. Relationship is the flow of energy and information...”
– Patty de Llosa, author, ☞ The Neurobiology of “We”, Parabola Magazine, 2011, Daniel Siegel, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine, co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center.
5 tags
“Kevin Kelly: ‘We are moving from the culture of the book to the culture of...”
– Kevin Kelly, writer, the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and a former editor/publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog, Post-Artifact Booking, The Technium, 19 June 2011
2 tags
“ “Love requires the activation of neural circuits that facilitate...”
– Semir Zeki, professor of neuroesthetics at University College London, 2007, source See also: ☞ Andreas Bartels and Semir Zeki, The neural basis of romantic love (pdf) ☞ The neural correlates of maternal and romantic love (pdf), Department of Cognitive Neurology, University College London
2 tags
“ “All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients.” ”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, American lecturer, essayist and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century (1803-1882)
1 tag
“‘Disobedience was man’s Original Virtue’
“Every fact of...”
– Robert Anton Wilson, American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, futurist, civil libertarian (1932-2007)
6 tags
“‘We stand on the shoulders of cultural giants’
“In even the...”
– Razib Khan, We stand on the shoulders of cultural giants, Discover Magazine, June 21st, 2011 ☞ See also: The Kaleidoscopic Discovery Engine. ‘All scientific discoveries are in principle ‘multiples’’
1 tag
“ “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is...”
– Peter Drucker, writer, management consultant, and self-described “social ecologist.” (1909-2005)
8 tags
“‘We are information experiencing information. Human are anti-entropic...”
– Kevin Kelly, the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and a former editor/publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog, cited in Jason Silva, We are information experiencing information: an experimental essay in “Intertwingularity”, Big Think, June 4, 2011.
2 tags
“ “Our brains have just one scale, and we resize our experiences to...”
– Mouse-over text at xkcd, 22 June 2011
4 tags
“William Deresiewicz: ‘We live at a time when friendship has become both...”
– William Deresiewicz, formerly an associate professor of English at Yale University, is a widely published literary critic, ☞ William Deresiewicz on the meaning of friendship in our time See also: ☞ Dunbar’s Number: Why We Can’t Have More Than 150 Friends
3 tags
“ “Physics is a form of insight, and as such, it’s a form of...”
– David Bohm, American-born British quantum physicist who made contributions in the fields of theoretical physics, philosophy and neuropsychology, and to the Manhattan Project (1917-1992) cited in Image and Insight:The Integration of Art and Physics
5 tags
“For man loves knowledge, and the beams of Truth
More welcome touch his...”
– Mark Akenside, English poet and physician (1720-1771), The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744) (excerpt) cited in The Poems Of Mark Akenside, London: W. Bowyer and J. Nichols, 1772. Reprint Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Full-Text Database: Cambridge, 1992, Bk. II, ll. 97-120, p. 50-1.
6 tags
‘Cybernetics are the stuff of which the world is made. Matter is simply frozen information’ — Timothy Leary, American psychologist and writer (1920-1996), Pataphysics Magazine (1990), ☞ See also: Timothy Leary on cybernetics and a new global culture
3 tags
“ “Has it ever struck you… that life is all memory, except for the one present...”
– Tennessee Williams, American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater (1911-1983), The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore cited in Michael Chorost, World Wide Mind (tnx johnsparker)
5 tags
“Nicholas Humphrey on consciousness
“We have been seeking evidence of how,...”
– Nicholas Humphrey, English psychologist, former professor at the London School of Economics, Soul Dust: The Magic of Consciousness , Princeton University Press, 2011 (tnx johnsparker)
1 tag
“ “I knew this would happen to me.” ”
– George Bernard Shaw’s epitaph on his grave, Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics (1856-1950), cited in Vlatko Vedral, Decoding Reality: the universe as quantum information, Oxford University Press, 2010
7 tags
“Vlatko Vedral on Information, Universe and natural laws
“Everything in our...”
– Vlatko Vedral, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and CQT (Centre for Quantum Technologies) at the National University of Singapore, ☞ Vlatko Vedral: Decoding Reality: the universe as quantum information, Oxford University Press, 2010, p. 23, 211-218.
2 tags
“ “It was the greatest sensation of existence: not to trust but to...”
– Ayn Rand, Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter (1905-1982), Atlas Shrugged, Random House, 1957
6 tags
“Ayn Rand on individualism and productive life
“Productiveness is your...”
– Ayn Rand, Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter (1905-1982), Atlas Shrugged, Random House, 1957
3 tags
“ “Rationality is the recognition of the fact that nothing can alter the...”
– Ayn Rand, Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter (1905-1982), Atlas Shrugged, Random House, 1957
3 tags
“ “Those who conquered all science and letters,
And shone as beacons among...”
– Omar Khayyám, Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher and poet (1048–1131) cited in Vlatko Vedral, Decoding Reality: the universe as quantum information, Oxford University Press, 2010, p. 23.
4 tags
“Vincent Dethier on the natural curiosity of humans
“One of the...”
– Vincent Dethier, American physiologist and entomologist (1915-1993), To Know a Fly, San Francisco: Holden-Day, 1962, p. 118-119 cited in Michael Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2002, p.23.
3 tags
“Richard Feynman on curiosity
“I’ve been caught, so to speak—like...”
– Richard Feynman, American physicist (1918-1988), What Do You Care What Other People Think? New York: Norton, 1988, p. 16, cited in Michael Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2002, p. 23.
1 tag
“ “Individuals find a real name for themselves, rather, only through the harshest...”
– Gilles Deleuze, French philosopher (1925-1995), Letter to a Harsh Critic, p. 6, cited in WildCat, Some will be Gangsters of Poetry, Some will be Pan-Symbolists, Polytopia, May 30, 2011.
3 tags
“ “Brains only detect nerve impulses. And they don’t perceive even...”
– David Deutsch, Israeli-British physicist at the University of Oxford, David Deutsch: A new way to explain explanation, TED.com
3 tags
“ “All over the world people are taking notes as a way of postponing,...”
– Geoff Dyer, British author and novelist, Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D. H. Lawrence, Picador, 2009
1 tag
“ “The deep, strategic rewards will come from making tools and machines...”
– K. Eric Drexler, American engineer best known for popularizing the potential of molecular nanotechnology (MNT), PhD at MIT, The Technology Tree, 18 Dec 2008 