Thursday, September 18, 2008

In reaction to a statement in a psychology journal article that, though it pertains to consciousness from an adaptationist point of view, is still absurd; "No one yet knows what the function of consciousness is" (Haselton & Funder, 2004):

Consciousness is a prerequisite to human emotion, belief, and understanding: consciousness, essentially, is the ability to discern, and the foundation for accessing everything that is worthwhile. While the article doesn't explicitly question the importance of consciousness, it seems a blaspheme to bring into question the utility of something we know to be central to our lives: it marks the difference between merely existing, and living. Scientific validity versus human experience...it reminds me of the light in which religion was shown in the movie Contact.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The vacuum-like environment created by self-referential evidence (by the author) within a body of text is tantamount to intellectual incest...
Advances in technology, which allow for increased real-time communication and value thereof, actually select against quality of input from each contributor within the communication...likewise, real-time communication has caused us to recalibrate our expectations regarding stimulation (reward) in the direction of shortened capacity for patience; basically, we may end up an ADHD society as well as an HDTV one- an ADHDTV society if you will. God, there must be some correlation merit there beyond the pun...