In the previous Blog entry (“New” Consciousnesses) I wrote some thoughts engendered by reading the book “Emergence”. I put in a link to an exerpt from the book. That excerpt has given me an idea for a program that I think catches some of the “bottom up” intelligence discussed in the book. I have put…

I have re-started reading “Emergence”, a book by Steven Johnson, about “bottom up” intelligence – one example being an ant colony. The full title of the book is “Emergence – The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software. Click here for an excerpt from this book. This triggered a thought today that perhaps “death”…

More about the Flat World. The new world order into which we are entering, the new social fabric that is emerging, seems to me to be most different, most new, in the opportunities it gives to individuals. Before now, it seems to me, only very rare individuals could have a big impact. These were leaders…

I read the first chapter of “The World is Flat” tonight (by Thomas L. Friedman, here is the Amazon.com link). I want to write my thoughts down before I read any more. I’ve been mulling over some thoughts for several weeks and this book is so strongly related that I want to write down my…

One of my favorite sayings is “To a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” I find that this provides a lot of insight in a wide variety of situations. I use that quote several times a week most weeks. Last week I said it to someone and they replied “Did you ever think that to…

For me the absolute big question is “why, or how, does anything exist at all”. Once something exists it can evolve. My best guess is that our universe evolved from something like a big bang… though it may be cyclical… but how did it ever start? I assume that an answer to that is beyond…

Here is my current view of our reality. I think of it as based on what I have read about current scientific knowledge of this area. It seems to me that we are in the middle of a kind of unfolding of our universe. It apparently started off with a very simple, almost pure, substance.…

In a recent dialog with a friend, Rick Randall, I have found myself trying to state clearly some perspectives that have become important to me over the last 30 years or so in relation to truth, faith, and the possible benevolence of the universe. In particular I want to write up the “truth path” I…

I don’t believe in beliefs. I define beliefs rather narrowly for this.. but that’s OK. There is something I don’t like and I need to give it a working label. “Beliefs” is close enough..and I’ll let the readers make the distinctions needed. I distinguish between “beliefs” and “assumptions”, as the terms are used here. There…

I found an article by Stewart Brand, entitled “Environmental Heresies” very thought provoking. The introduction said: ‘The founder of “The Whole Earth Catalog” believes the environmental movement will soon reverse itself on four core issues.’ The Web address for the article is: http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/05/issue/feature_earth.asp?p=1