Quoted here before, probably in another translation....
Let the boy toughened by military service
learn how to make bitterest hardship his friend,
and as a horseman, with fearful lance,
go to vex the insolent Parthians,
spending his life in the open, in the heart
of dangerous action. And seeing him, from
the enemy's walls, let the warring
tyrant's wife, and her grown-up daughter, sigh:
'Ah, don't let the inexperienced lover
provoke the lion that's dangerous to touch,
whom a desire for blood sends raging
so swiftly through the core of destruction.'
It's sweet and fitting to die for one's country.
Yet death chases after the soldier who runs,
and it won't spare the cowardly back
or the limbs, of peace-loving young men.
Virtue, that's ignorant of sordid defeat,
shines out with its honour unstained, and never
takes up the axes or puts them down
at the request of a changeable mob.
Virtue, that opens the heavens for those who
did not deserve to die, takes a road denied
to others, and scorns the vulgar crowd
and the bloodied earth, on ascending wings.
And there's a true reward for loyal silence:
I forbid the man who divulged those secret
rites of Ceres, to exist beneath
the same roof as I, or untie with me
the fragile boat: often careless Jupiter
included the innocent with the guilty,
but lame-footed Punishment rarely
forgets the wicked man, despite his start.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Thursday, October 30, 2014
set and match
What is being played out in Queer is communication not of a disease –
homosexual desire – but as a disease. The will to communicate occludes
human agency in a solipsistic continuous circuit, a circuit sabotaged
methodologically in Burroughs' cut-up texts through feedback, a '' self-
feeding system seeking its own catastrophe.'' In The Ticket That
Exploded, which begins by rewriting Lee's relationship with Allerton as
a chess match subject to a cut-up queering – '' I took his queen in the
first few minutes of play by making completely random moves '' –
Burroughs could not be more explicit ; '' Communication must become
total and conscious before we can stop it.'' Are the Nova Criminals ''
ghosts ? phantoms ? '' : '' Not at all – very definite organisms indeed
... Can you see a virus ? ''
homosexual desire – but as a disease. The will to communicate occludes
human agency in a solipsistic continuous circuit, a circuit sabotaged
methodologically in Burroughs' cut-up texts through feedback, a '' self-
feeding system seeking its own catastrophe.'' In The Ticket That
Exploded, which begins by rewriting Lee's relationship with Allerton as
a chess match subject to a cut-up queering – '' I took his queen in the
first few minutes of play by making completely random moves '' –
Burroughs could not be more explicit ; '' Communication must become
total and conscious before we can stop it.'' Are the Nova Criminals ''
ghosts ? phantoms ? '' : '' Not at all – very definite organisms indeed
... Can you see a virus ? ''
Friday, October 24, 2014
sing
«Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought
countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying
down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures,
for so was the will of Zeus fulfilled from the day on which the son of
Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one
another. And which of the gods was it that set them on to quarrel? It
was the son of Zeus and Leto; for he was angry with the king and sent a
pestilence upon the host to plague the people, because the son of Atreus
had dishonored Chryses his priest. Now Chryses had come to the ships of
the Achaeans to free his daughter, and had brought with him a great
ransom: moreover he bore in his hand the scepter of Apollo wreathed with
a suppliant's wreath and he besought the Achaeans, but most of all the
two sons of Atreus, who were their chiefs. "Sons of Atreus," he cried,
"and all other Achaeans, may the gods who dwell in Olympus grant you to
sack the city of Priam, and to reach your homes in safety; but free my
daughter, and accept a ransom for her, in reverence to Apollo, son of
Zeus."» - Samuel Butler, 1898
countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying
down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures,
for so was the will of Zeus fulfilled from the day on which the son of
Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one
another. And which of the gods was it that set them on to quarrel? It
was the son of Zeus and Leto; for he was angry with the king and sent a
pestilence upon the host to plague the people, because the son of Atreus
had dishonored Chryses his priest. Now Chryses had come to the ships of
the Achaeans to free his daughter, and had brought with him a great
ransom: moreover he bore in his hand the scepter of Apollo wreathed with
a suppliant's wreath and he besought the Achaeans, but most of all the
two sons of Atreus, who were their chiefs. "Sons of Atreus," he cried,
"and all other Achaeans, may the gods who dwell in Olympus grant you to
sack the city of Priam, and to reach your homes in safety; but free my
daughter, and accept a ransom for her, in reverence to Apollo, son of
Zeus."» - Samuel Butler, 1898
unsung heroes
«German film director Werner Herzog claims to have an affinity with
the work of Longinus, in a talk entitled "On the Absolute, the Sublime
and Ecstatic Truth", presented in Milan. Herzog says that he thinks of
Longinus as a good friend and considers that Longinus's notions of
illumination has a parallel in some moments in his films. He quotes
from Longinus: "For our soul is raised out of nature through the truly
sublime, sways with high spirits, and is filled with proud joy, as if
itself had created what it hears."»
the work of Longinus, in a talk entitled "On the Absolute, the Sublime
and Ecstatic Truth", presented in Milan. Herzog says that he thinks of
Longinus as a good friend and considers that Longinus's notions of
illumination has a parallel in some moments in his films. He quotes
from Longinus: "For our soul is raised out of nature through the truly
sublime, sways with high spirits, and is filled with proud joy, as if
itself had created what it hears."»
rustica
This defence against insects presents nicotiana with something of a
predicament, because it doesn't seem to be very good at keeping the
nicotine out of its nectar, or at least not completely. Thus, although
nicotiana nectar does contain less nicotine than the rest of the plant,
the two levels are still related; species with lots of nicotine in their
leaves also have relatively high levels in their nectar – high enough to
deter most pollinators.
Some species have decided to tolerate this limitation to their defensive
armoury and have relatively low levels of nicotine. But others have
really gone to town on the nicotine, avoiding the risk of poisoning
their pollinators by evolving self-pollination. No longer reliant on
pollinators, such species can have as much nicotine in their leaves as
they like – in practice, about 15 times more than the species that still
depend on pollinators. Nicotiana rustica, whose leaves can be up to nine
per cent nicotine, has gone down this route.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/10173025/The-toxic-charms-of-nicotiana.html
predicament, because it doesn't seem to be very good at keeping the
nicotine out of its nectar, or at least not completely. Thus, although
nicotiana nectar does contain less nicotine than the rest of the plant,
the two levels are still related; species with lots of nicotine in their
leaves also have relatively high levels in their nectar – high enough to
deter most pollinators.
Some species have decided to tolerate this limitation to their defensive
armoury and have relatively low levels of nicotine. But others have
really gone to town on the nicotine, avoiding the risk of poisoning
their pollinators by evolving self-pollination. No longer reliant on
pollinators, such species can have as much nicotine in their leaves as
they like – in practice, about 15 times more than the species that still
depend on pollinators. Nicotiana rustica, whose leaves can be up to nine
per cent nicotine, has gone down this route.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/10173025/The-toxic-charms-of-nicotiana.html
Thursday, October 23, 2014
third pheasant of the season
Here's a quick culinary adventure story for your literary delectation.
But maybe not right before lunch!
Yesterday when I was on my way to therapy, just before the last turn, I
encountered -- what shall we call it -- the corpse a large male
pheasant, nearly intact in the middle of a busy road. Pronounced dead
at the scene whilst more or less still intact is my usual criterion for
taking these things home, for strict hygiene reasons. And dining on
roadkill is itself a highly economical way to maintain a connection to
my rustic origins, in the style of Waushara county resident Francis
Hamerstrom.
The previous two birds I collected this year were females, a bit smaller
but in better condition. I let them "faisander" (i.e. hang around for a
while, in the lingo of the backwater gourmand) before cleaning them up.
Yesterday's cock pheasant had been hit harder, as I realised when I
returned to my roadside cache and noticed that the liver and a few other
bits and bobs had been put through its back. I tied it on my bicycle
rack with a few flexible willow whips, and brought it home, where I
immediately started to take it apart, and realised that it was in fact
still warm. One does not always think about the warm-bloodedness of
birds.
There's a useful video on YouTube about how to do these preparations,
which are mildly disgusting, but still I think worth knowing about. In
the end, I quartered it and broiled it, and ate the legs with peas,
sauteed mushrooms, and black pepper potato chips, while watching the
second half of "The Holy Mountain" by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
There is a moral to the story, which is to be careful when you're out
there on the road!
But maybe not right before lunch!
Yesterday when I was on my way to therapy, just before the last turn, I
encountered -- what shall we call it -- the corpse a large male
pheasant, nearly intact in the middle of a busy road. Pronounced dead
at the scene whilst more or less still intact is my usual criterion for
taking these things home, for strict hygiene reasons. And dining on
roadkill is itself a highly economical way to maintain a connection to
my rustic origins, in the style of Waushara county resident Francis
Hamerstrom.
The previous two birds I collected this year were females, a bit smaller
but in better condition. I let them "faisander" (i.e. hang around for a
while, in the lingo of the backwater gourmand) before cleaning them up.
Yesterday's cock pheasant had been hit harder, as I realised when I
returned to my roadside cache and noticed that the liver and a few other
bits and bobs had been put through its back. I tied it on my bicycle
rack with a few flexible willow whips, and brought it home, where I
immediately started to take it apart, and realised that it was in fact
still warm. One does not always think about the warm-bloodedness of
birds.
There's a useful video on YouTube about how to do these preparations,
which are mildly disgusting, but still I think worth knowing about. In
the end, I quartered it and broiled it, and ate the legs with peas,
sauteed mushrooms, and black pepper potato chips, while watching the
second half of "The Holy Mountain" by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
There is a moral to the story, which is to be careful when you're out
there on the road!
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
british library no. 3
"After all, the cultivated person's first duty is to be always prepared to rewrite the encyclopedia." - p. 28
«The discussion of emergence has grown out of the successes and the failusers of the scientific quest for reduction. Emergence theories presuppose that the once-popular project of complete explanatory reduction -- that is, explaining all phenomena in the natural world in terms of the objects and laws of physics -- is finally impossible. See, among many others, Austen Clark 1990, Hans Primas 1983, Evandro Agazzi 1991, and Terrance Brown and Leslie Smith 2003. Also helpful is Carl Gillet and Barry Loewer 2001, e.g. Jaegwon Kim's article, `Mental Causation and Consciousness: The Two Mind-body problems for the physicalist.»
These are: Clark: Psychological Models and Neural Mechanisms: An examination of reductionism in psychology -- Primas: Chemistry, Quantum Mechanics and Reductionism: Perspectives in Theoretical Chemistry -- Agazzi: The problem of Reductionisim in Science -- Brown and Smith: Reductionism and the Development of Knowledge -- Gillet and Loewer: Physicalism and its discontents
«By embracing an active externalism, we allow a more natural explanation of all sorts of actions. One can explain my choice of words in Scrabble, for example, as the outcome of an extended cognitive process involving the rearrangement of tiles on my tray. Of course, one could always try to explain my action in terms of internal processes and a long series of "inputs" and "actions," but this explanation would be needlessly complex. If an isomorphic process were going on in the head, we would feel no urge to characterize it in this cumbersome way. In a very real sense, the re-arrangement of tiles on the tray is not part of action; it is part of thought.»
Rather similar to Gilbert Ryle on the "Concept of Mind" and a way around "Ryle's regress."
Regarding the idea of levels -- Ruesch and Bateson deal with Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, one-to-many, many-to-one, space binding messages of many-to-many, and time-binding messages of many-to-many (Table on p. 277).
They make the interesting claim that «At the cultural level, the temporal and spatial limits of the network are not perceptible to the participants, who also are incapable of perceiving its topologoy. Therefore, for the participants, predictability is minimal and excessively difficult for the scientific observer.»
Does the universe exist? They refer to Rosenblueth, Wiener, and Bigelow, "Behavior, Purpose, and Teleology", J. Philos. Sc. 10:18-24, 1943.
I definitely would like a copy of "Structure and process in social relations" Psychiatry 12:105-124, 1949, which I had ahold of last week...
Entirely analogous to what Andy Clark was getting at: «Figure 2 represents the case in which the organism includes within the self various objects and events outside his skin but intimately connected with him, while he labels as parts of the environment certain of his own body parts or functions of which he is perhaps dimly aware or over which he feels that he has no control.»
«It was argued that the study of knowing or, as we call it, the study of "information," is inseparable from the study of communication, codification, purpose, and values. We have thus modified the study of epistemology towards the inclusion of a specific range of external phenomena, and at the same time have shifted the subject in our handling of it somewhat away from philosophical abstractions and toward scientific generalization.» p. 228
«If, for example, it were effective to tell the patient about normality, the language of psychiatry would surely have developed a rich terminology for this type of educational therapy. That it has not done so is due to a variety of circumstances -- not merely the impossibility of "telling the patient," but also a belief on the part of the pyschiatrists that the healthy state toward which patient A might progress is certain to be unique for him, and that of patients B, C, and D, each will have his own unique possibilities for growth and development. Language can only deal with recurring phenomena; never can it specify the unique, and especially the uniquely personal developments and complex growth which are still in the future.»
How's that for a Nietzschean sentence... And an invitation to 'pataphysics...
«Another Freudian states: "Neurosis is the expression of a tendency to repeat the experience and master the stimulus by repetition. If the child is capable of accepting the conditions and mastering traumatic events by repetition, then he is normal.»
Which of course connects directly to the lingistic comment above.
«A Jungian similarly shifts emphasis away from the clinical entity, but where the Freudians stress etiology, he stresses prognosis. "I look at the psychiatric aspects of the case -- but see them not as a diagnosis -- rather as prognosis. It is not a case history but a talk: and on the basis of his demands I see whether I think I can help.»
«I would not start with the person who is 'at fault' but with the persons who define what is a fault. We should ask, 'why does who call it a crime?'»
«We may introduce the discussion of reality by quoting the words of a Freudian lecturer, replying to a question from the floor. He said: "Yes. In fact, I wanted to come to that. In fact, ... I have to modify again everything I said." The concept "reality" is slippery because, always, truth is relative to context, and context is determined by the questions which we ask of events.» - p. 238
«The discussion of emergence has grown out of the successes and the failusers of the scientific quest for reduction. Emergence theories presuppose that the once-popular project of complete explanatory reduction -- that is, explaining all phenomena in the natural world in terms of the objects and laws of physics -- is finally impossible. See, among many others, Austen Clark 1990, Hans Primas 1983, Evandro Agazzi 1991, and Terrance Brown and Leslie Smith 2003. Also helpful is Carl Gillet and Barry Loewer 2001, e.g. Jaegwon Kim's article, `Mental Causation and Consciousness: The Two Mind-body problems for the physicalist.»
These are: Clark: Psychological Models and Neural Mechanisms: An examination of reductionism in psychology -- Primas: Chemistry, Quantum Mechanics and Reductionism: Perspectives in Theoretical Chemistry -- Agazzi: The problem of Reductionisim in Science -- Brown and Smith: Reductionism and the Development of Knowledge -- Gillet and Loewer: Physicalism and its discontents
«By embracing an active externalism, we allow a more natural explanation of all sorts of actions. One can explain my choice of words in Scrabble, for example, as the outcome of an extended cognitive process involving the rearrangement of tiles on my tray. Of course, one could always try to explain my action in terms of internal processes and a long series of "inputs" and "actions," but this explanation would be needlessly complex. If an isomorphic process were going on in the head, we would feel no urge to characterize it in this cumbersome way. In a very real sense, the re-arrangement of tiles on the tray is not part of action; it is part of thought.»
Rather similar to Gilbert Ryle on the "Concept of Mind" and a way around "Ryle's regress."
Regarding the idea of levels -- Ruesch and Bateson deal with Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, one-to-many, many-to-one, space binding messages of many-to-many, and time-binding messages of many-to-many (Table on p. 277).
They make the interesting claim that «At the cultural level, the temporal and spatial limits of the network are not perceptible to the participants, who also are incapable of perceiving its topologoy. Therefore, for the participants, predictability is minimal and excessively difficult for the scientific observer.»
Does the universe exist? They refer to Rosenblueth, Wiener, and Bigelow, "Behavior, Purpose, and Teleology", J. Philos. Sc. 10:18-24, 1943.
I definitely would like a copy of "Structure and process in social relations" Psychiatry 12:105-124, 1949, which I had ahold of last week...
Entirely analogous to what Andy Clark was getting at: «Figure 2 represents the case in which the organism includes within the self various objects and events outside his skin but intimately connected with him, while he labels as parts of the environment certain of his own body parts or functions of which he is perhaps dimly aware or over which he feels that he has no control.»
«It was argued that the study of knowing or, as we call it, the study of "information," is inseparable from the study of communication, codification, purpose, and values. We have thus modified the study of epistemology towards the inclusion of a specific range of external phenomena, and at the same time have shifted the subject in our handling of it somewhat away from philosophical abstractions and toward scientific generalization.» p. 228
«If, for example, it were effective to tell the patient about normality, the language of psychiatry would surely have developed a rich terminology for this type of educational therapy. That it has not done so is due to a variety of circumstances -- not merely the impossibility of "telling the patient," but also a belief on the part of the pyschiatrists that the healthy state toward which patient A might progress is certain to be unique for him, and that of patients B, C, and D, each will have his own unique possibilities for growth and development. Language can only deal with recurring phenomena; never can it specify the unique, and especially the uniquely personal developments and complex growth which are still in the future.»
How's that for a Nietzschean sentence... And an invitation to 'pataphysics...
«Another Freudian states: "Neurosis is the expression of a tendency to repeat the experience and master the stimulus by repetition. If the child is capable of accepting the conditions and mastering traumatic events by repetition, then he is normal.»
Which of course connects directly to the lingistic comment above.
«A Jungian similarly shifts emphasis away from the clinical entity, but where the Freudians stress etiology, he stresses prognosis. "I look at the psychiatric aspects of the case -- but see them not as a diagnosis -- rather as prognosis. It is not a case history but a talk: and on the basis of his demands I see whether I think I can help.»
«I would not start with the person who is 'at fault' but with the persons who define what is a fault. We should ask, 'why does who call it a crime?'»
«We may introduce the discussion of reality by quoting the words of a Freudian lecturer, replying to a question from the floor. He said: "Yes. In fact, I wanted to come to that. In fact, ... I have to modify again everything I said." The concept "reality" is slippery because, always, truth is relative to context, and context is determined by the questions which we ask of events.» - p. 238
Sunday, October 12, 2014
british library no. 2
There are oppositions that are incapable of synthesis, and coexist despite being mutually exclusive. ix
Distortion, Sigmund Freud, "Moses and Monotheism" - the displacement is very similar to Kafka's "Amerika".
"Ultimately it is not the unconscious that decides the fate of humans,
what truly counts is the incognito that conceals the origin of the dominant ideas." 17
Luhmann, Mann, Borkenau, Debray, Hegel, Boris Groys.
=====
Suppose a person is engaged in some well practiced activity. What determines what that person does, on a moment-by-moment basis, as he or she engages in that activity? What resources does the person draw upon, and why? What shapes the choices the person makes? What accounts for the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of that person's efforts?
Schoenfeld, preface.
Wow, this is very similar to the Peeragogy questions from Howard.
Images at http://www-gse.berkeley.edu/faculty/AHSchoenfeld/AHSchoenfeld.html or http://www.routledge.com/9780415878654
«Knowledge base - just what mathematics do they know? problem-solving strategies, aka heuristics -- what tools or techniques do they have in order to make progress on problems they don't know how to solve monitoring and self-regulation -- aspects of metacognition concerned with how well individuals "manage" the problem-solving resources, including time, at their disposal beliefs -- individuals' sense of mathematics, of themselves, of the context and more, all of which shape what they perceive and what they choose to do.»
This sounds somewhat similar to Stafford Beer, to be honest.
"What I couldn't account for was how and why the problem solvers drew on particular knowledge or strategies, or how and why they made the decisions they did. That's the focus of this book."
"A logical step in my research program was to study situations that were socially dynamic but not reflecting the full-blown complexity of the mathematics classroom. Thus, I moved to studies of one-on-one mathematics tutoring."
"If you can understand (a) the teacher's agenda and the rountine ways in which the teacher tries to meet the goals that are implicit or explicit in that agenda, and (b) the factors that shape the teacher's prioritizing and goal setting when potentially consequential unforseen events arise, then you can explain how and why teachers make the moment-by-moment choices they make as they teach."
p. 19 - having breakfast. This is quite different from the way Tim Ingold has breakfast.
"I now have subgoals of toasting English muffins, making the poached eggs, making the bacon, and making the latte. Each of these involves some complexities..."
It all comes down to Goals, Resources (esp. Knowledge) and Orientation. Isn't there something called BDI that deals with just this combination?
Book includes transcripts of classroom dialogues.
=====
Kockelman: John Lucy, Nick Enfield, Michael Silverstein
Mead's version: "the I is the response of the organism to the attitudes of others and the me is the organized set of attitudes of others which one himself assumes." (1934, p. 175).
"The Me is the self as appropriating, having taken into account others' attitudes toward (or interpretants of) its mental states and social statuses (or kinds more generally); and the I is the self as effecting, enacting roles (or expressing indices) that change others' attitudes (and often others' kinds)." - p. 90
=====
Perception, evaluation, expression
input, central function, and output
«In the section entitled "Communication, Social System, and Culture", the reader will find a description of the social field, or the context, in which a message exchange takes place. The social field determines the parameters of the system that are significant for both the scientific observer and the particpants. For the scientist, the social setting provides the more time-enduring structure in which an exchange takes place; for the participant, it provides the instructions necessary for coding and decoding the messages. This has been described as meta-communication.» -p. 13
This reminds me of Deleuze's discusssion of Galois theory. Maybe that's the appropriate way to develop mu-calculus.
Structure and process in social relations
«Have human relations ever become the subject of scientific investigation, and, if not, can the processes of daily living become a focus of scientific endeavors? This is the question discussed in this paper. Social science is the study of human relations. Thus, sociology, economics, anthropology, and psychology are collections of generalizations about human behavior. However, in these disciplines there exists a tendency to ignore unique or divergent events, while, in contrast, psychiatry and psychoanalysis are characterized by the neglect of convergent events; that is, of statistical and mass phenomena.»
Wow - maybe this right here is the dilemma that faces us in thinking about lambda and mu functions.
====
«Examples like AM and Racter force one to ask "At what point does the seemingly innocent act of selection by a human turn into direction of the program?"»
Which seems to get into Kockleman territory, no? Example of Huff's escher-like drawings. And putting the shoe on the other foot:
«Suppose someone showed you a brilliant essay on humor and told you it had been "written by a computer". If subsequently you found out that it had been plucked whole from Arthur Koestler's book The Act Of Creation, you would surely feel defrauded. It would make little difference if you were further informed that Koestler's entire book, along with a hundred million other books on all sorts of topics, had been stored inside the computer, and that a program had selected this particular book and from it this particular passage, and printed it out.»
"But what if Koestler's original piece were chopped into ever-shorter segments? What if they were just two or three words long? At what point would we slide from being bored to being amazed at the computer's ability to create prose? When, in short, would we be forced to conclude that ideas, not mere formal tokens, were entering the picture?" - p. 481
This is similar to Deleuze's dx in a way, since the smaller things get the more like a manifold they are.
In 1977, I began my new career as a professor of computer science, aiming to specialize in the field of artificial intelligence. My goals were modest, at least in number: first, to uncover the secrets of creativity, and second, to uncover the secrets of consciousness, by modeling both phenomena on a computer. Good goals. Not easy.
«Much like the mathematical concepts just cited, our ordinary concepts are also structrued in a sphere-like manner, with the most primary examples forming the core and with less typical examples forming the outre layers. Such sphericity imes any concept with an implicit sense of what its stronger and weaker instaces are. But in addition to slowly building up richly layered spheres around concepts (a process that stretches out over years), we also quickly build spheres around events or situations that we experience or hear about (this can happen in a second or two, even a fraction of a second). ... surrrounding every event on an unconscious level is what I have referred to elsewhere as a commonsense halo or an implicit counterfactual sphere, so called because it consist of many related, usually counterfactual, variants of the event.» p. 71
=====
"Languages are not primarily used for what is today called the passing on of information, but serve to form communicating group-bodies."
=====
Zadig:
«une sagacit\'e qui lui d\'ecouvrait mille diff\'erences o\`u les autres hommes ne voient rien que d'uniform»
Hamlet:
«... un exp\'erimentateur qui met en une situation en abyme (une pi\`ece das la pi\`ece) das laquelle il pourra observer les r\'eactions de son oncle pour trouver la preuve de son innocence ou de sa culpabilit\'e. Comme le signale Merton, cette reconstruction n'est pas loin de la m\'ethod de l'ex\'erimentateur dals le domaine scientifique.»
Bolzano, "Epistemology", attempt of an extensive and largely new presentation of logic with a constant review of the researchers of it till now, 1837
Pour sortir de cette aporie, l'introduction d'un \'el\'ement nouveau ou inconnu (une observation ou une id\'ee surprenante) s'av\`ere n\'ecessaire, ainsi que l'ont soulign\'e C.S. Peirces, R.K. Merton et U. Eco. p. 44
D. A. Schum, Species of abductive reasoning in fact investigation in law, cardozo law reviwe vol 22, july 2001.
===
My question was the kind of questions someone who has grown up in a context that gives rise to intellectual property law would ask. My question was about Asarsing as something in its own right, with certain chemical attributes that make it `valuable' to Reite people. But the explanation I was given was not of that kind at all. It placed the plant in a narrative, and as part of a complex of myth, rituals, and kinship. It is this `position' that means it has the effect of making babies grow for Nekgini speaking people. p. 164
... the `knowledge' indigenous people have is routniely subsumed by a form of knowing that undermines its worth. p. 168
Distortion, Sigmund Freud, "Moses and Monotheism" - the displacement is very similar to Kafka's "Amerika".
"Ultimately it is not the unconscious that decides the fate of humans,
what truly counts is the incognito that conceals the origin of the dominant ideas." 17
Luhmann, Mann, Borkenau, Debray, Hegel, Boris Groys.
=====
Suppose a person is engaged in some well practiced activity. What determines what that person does, on a moment-by-moment basis, as he or she engages in that activity? What resources does the person draw upon, and why? What shapes the choices the person makes? What accounts for the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of that person's efforts?
Schoenfeld, preface.
Wow, this is very similar to the Peeragogy questions from Howard.
Images at http://www-gse.berkeley.edu/faculty/AHSchoenfeld/AHSchoenfeld.html or http://www.routledge.com/9780415878654
«Knowledge base - just what mathematics do they know? problem-solving strategies, aka heuristics -- what tools or techniques do they have in order to make progress on problems they don't know how to solve monitoring and self-regulation -- aspects of metacognition concerned with how well individuals "manage" the problem-solving resources, including time, at their disposal beliefs -- individuals' sense of mathematics, of themselves, of the context and more, all of which shape what they perceive and what they choose to do.»
This sounds somewhat similar to Stafford Beer, to be honest.
"What I couldn't account for was how and why the problem solvers drew on particular knowledge or strategies, or how and why they made the decisions they did. That's the focus of this book."
"A logical step in my research program was to study situations that were socially dynamic but not reflecting the full-blown complexity of the mathematics classroom. Thus, I moved to studies of one-on-one mathematics tutoring."
"If you can understand (a) the teacher's agenda and the rountine ways in which the teacher tries to meet the goals that are implicit or explicit in that agenda, and (b) the factors that shape the teacher's prioritizing and goal setting when potentially consequential unforseen events arise, then you can explain how and why teachers make the moment-by-moment choices they make as they teach."
p. 19 - having breakfast. This is quite different from the way Tim Ingold has breakfast.
"I now have subgoals of toasting English muffins, making the poached eggs, making the bacon, and making the latte. Each of these involves some complexities..."
It all comes down to Goals, Resources (esp. Knowledge) and Orientation. Isn't there something called BDI that deals with just this combination?
Book includes transcripts of classroom dialogues.
=====
Kockelman: John Lucy, Nick Enfield, Michael Silverstein
Mead's version: "the I is the response of the organism to the attitudes of others and the me is the organized set of attitudes of others which one himself assumes." (1934, p. 175).
"The Me is the self as appropriating, having taken into account others' attitudes toward (or interpretants of) its mental states and social statuses (or kinds more generally); and the I is the self as effecting, enacting roles (or expressing indices) that change others' attitudes (and often others' kinds)." - p. 90
=====
Perception, evaluation, expression
input, central function, and output
«In the section entitled "Communication, Social System, and Culture", the reader will find a description of the social field, or the context, in which a message exchange takes place. The social field determines the parameters of the system that are significant for both the scientific observer and the particpants. For the scientist, the social setting provides the more time-enduring structure in which an exchange takes place; for the participant, it provides the instructions necessary for coding and decoding the messages. This has been described as meta-communication.» -p. 13
This reminds me of Deleuze's discusssion of Galois theory. Maybe that's the appropriate way to develop mu-calculus.
Structure and process in social relations
«Have human relations ever become the subject of scientific investigation, and, if not, can the processes of daily living become a focus of scientific endeavors? This is the question discussed in this paper. Social science is the study of human relations. Thus, sociology, economics, anthropology, and psychology are collections of generalizations about human behavior. However, in these disciplines there exists a tendency to ignore unique or divergent events, while, in contrast, psychiatry and psychoanalysis are characterized by the neglect of convergent events; that is, of statistical and mass phenomena.»
Wow - maybe this right here is the dilemma that faces us in thinking about lambda and mu functions.
====
«Examples like AM and Racter force one to ask "At what point does the seemingly innocent act of selection by a human turn into direction of the program?"»
Which seems to get into Kockleman territory, no? Example of Huff's escher-like drawings. And putting the shoe on the other foot:
«Suppose someone showed you a brilliant essay on humor and told you it had been "written by a computer". If subsequently you found out that it had been plucked whole from Arthur Koestler's book The Act Of Creation, you would surely feel defrauded. It would make little difference if you were further informed that Koestler's entire book, along with a hundred million other books on all sorts of topics, had been stored inside the computer, and that a program had selected this particular book and from it this particular passage, and printed it out.»
"But what if Koestler's original piece were chopped into ever-shorter segments? What if they were just two or three words long? At what point would we slide from being bored to being amazed at the computer's ability to create prose? When, in short, would we be forced to conclude that ideas, not mere formal tokens, were entering the picture?" - p. 481
This is similar to Deleuze's dx in a way, since the smaller things get the more like a manifold they are.
In 1977, I began my new career as a professor of computer science, aiming to specialize in the field of artificial intelligence. My goals were modest, at least in number: first, to uncover the secrets of creativity, and second, to uncover the secrets of consciousness, by modeling both phenomena on a computer. Good goals. Not easy.
«Much like the mathematical concepts just cited, our ordinary concepts are also structrued in a sphere-like manner, with the most primary examples forming the core and with less typical examples forming the outre layers. Such sphericity imes any concept with an implicit sense of what its stronger and weaker instaces are. But in addition to slowly building up richly layered spheres around concepts (a process that stretches out over years), we also quickly build spheres around events or situations that we experience or hear about (this can happen in a second or two, even a fraction of a second). ... surrrounding every event on an unconscious level is what I have referred to elsewhere as a commonsense halo or an implicit counterfactual sphere, so called because it consist of many related, usually counterfactual, variants of the event.» p. 71
=====
"Languages are not primarily used for what is today called the passing on of information, but serve to form communicating group-bodies."
=====
Zadig:
«une sagacit\'e qui lui d\'ecouvrait mille diff\'erences o\`u les autres hommes ne voient rien que d'uniform»
Hamlet:
«... un exp\'erimentateur qui met en une situation en abyme (une pi\`ece das la pi\`ece) das laquelle il pourra observer les r\'eactions de son oncle pour trouver la preuve de son innocence ou de sa culpabilit\'e. Comme le signale Merton, cette reconstruction n'est pas loin de la m\'ethod de l'ex\'erimentateur dals le domaine scientifique.»
Bolzano, "Epistemology", attempt of an extensive and largely new presentation of logic with a constant review of the researchers of it till now, 1837
Pour sortir de cette aporie, l'introduction d'un \'el\'ement nouveau ou inconnu (une observation ou une id\'ee surprenante) s'av\`ere n\'ecessaire, ainsi que l'ont soulign\'e C.S. Peirces, R.K. Merton et U. Eco. p. 44
D. A. Schum, Species of abductive reasoning in fact investigation in law, cardozo law reviwe vol 22, july 2001.
===
My question was the kind of questions someone who has grown up in a context that gives rise to intellectual property law would ask. My question was about Asarsing as something in its own right, with certain chemical attributes that make it `valuable' to Reite people. But the explanation I was given was not of that kind at all. It placed the plant in a narrative, and as part of a complex of myth, rituals, and kinship. It is this `position' that means it has the effect of making babies grow for Nekgini speaking people. p. 164
... the `knowledge' indigenous people have is routniely subsumed by a form of knowing that undermines its worth. p. 168
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
the origins of (metal)
http://youtu.be/AX2y51ixsu8 - Rondellus, "Verres Militares" (3'27")
Now, Memmius,
How nature of iron discovered was, thou mayst
Of thine own self divine. Man's ancient arms
Were hands, and nails and teeth, stones too and boughs-
Breakage of forest trees- and flame and fire,
As soon as known. Thereafter force of iron
And copper discovered was; and copper's use
Was known ere iron's, since more tractable
Its nature is and its abundance more.
With copper men to work the soil began,
With copper to rouse the hurly waves of war,
To straw the monstrous wounds, and seize away
Another's flocks and fields. For unto them,
Thus armed, all things naked of defence
Readily yielded. Then by slow degrees
The sword of iron succeeded, and the shape
Of brazen sickle into scorn was turned:
With iron to cleave the soil of earth they 'gan,
And the contentions of uncertain war
Were rendered equal.
And, lo, man was wont
Armed to mount upon the ribs of horse
And guide him with the rein, and play about
With right hand free, oft times before he tried
Perils of war in yoked chariot;
And yoked pairs abreast came earlier
Than yokes of four, or scythed chariots
Whereinto clomb the men-at-arms. And next
The Punic folk did train the elephants-
Those curst Lucanian oxen, hideous,
The serpent-handed, with turrets on their bulks-
To dure the wounds of war and panic-strike
The mighty troops of Mars. Thus Discord sad
Begat the one Thing after other, to be
The terror of the nations under arms,
And day by day to horrors of old war
She added an increase.
Bulls, too, they tried
In war's grim business; and essayed to send
Outrageous boars against the foes. And some
Sent on before their ranks puissant lions
With armed trainers and with masters fierce
To guide and hold in chains- and yet in vain,
Since fleshed with pell-mell slaughter, fierce they flew,
And blindly through the squadrons havoc wrought,
Shaking the frightful crests upon their heads,
Now here, now there. Nor could the horsemen calm
Their horses, panic-breasted at the roar,
And rein them round to front the foe. With spring
The infuriate she-lions would up-leap
Now here, now there; and whoso came apace
Against them, these they'd rend across the face;
And others unwitting from behind they'd tear
Down from their mounts, and twining round them, bring
Tumbling to earth, o'ermastered by the wound,
And with those powerful fangs and hooked claws
Fasten upon them. Bulls would toss their friends,
And trample under foot, and from beneath
Rip flanks and bellies of horses with their horns,
And with a threat'ning forehead jam the sod;
And boars would gore with stout tusks their allies,
Splashing in fury their own blood on spears
Splintered in their own bodies, and would fell
In rout and ruin infantry and horse.
For there the beasts-of-saddle tried to scape
The savage thrusts of tusk by shying off,
Or rearing up with hoofs a-paw in air.
In vain- since there thou mightest see them sink,
Their sinews severed, and with heavy fall
Bestrew the ground. And such of these as men
Supposed well-trained long ago at home,
Were in the thick of action seen to foam
In fury, from the wounds, the shrieks, the flight,
The panic, and the tumult; nor could men
Aught of their numbers rally. For each breed
And various of the wild beasts fled apart
Hither or thither, as often in wars to-day
Flee those Lucanian oxen, by the steel
Grievously mangled, after they have wrought
Upon their friends so many a dreadful doom.
(If 'twas, indeed, that thus they did at all:
But scarcely I'll believe that men could not
With mind foreknow and see, as sure to come,
Such foul and general disaster.- This
We, then, may hold as true in the great All,
In divers worlds on divers plan create,-
Somewhere afar more likely than upon
One certain earth.) But men chose this to do
Less in the hope of conquering than to give
Their enemies a goodly cause of woe,
Even though thereby they perished themselves,
Since weak in numbers and since wanting arms.
-- Lucretius, "De Rerum Natura", 5.1281-5.1349,
trans. William Ellery Leonard, 1916.
Now, Memmius,
How nature of iron discovered was, thou mayst
Of thine own self divine. Man's ancient arms
Were hands, and nails and teeth, stones too and boughs-
Breakage of forest trees- and flame and fire,
As soon as known. Thereafter force of iron
And copper discovered was; and copper's use
Was known ere iron's, since more tractable
Its nature is and its abundance more.
With copper men to work the soil began,
With copper to rouse the hurly waves of war,
To straw the monstrous wounds, and seize away
Another's flocks and fields. For unto them,
Thus armed, all things naked of defence
Readily yielded. Then by slow degrees
The sword of iron succeeded, and the shape
Of brazen sickle into scorn was turned:
With iron to cleave the soil of earth they 'gan,
And the contentions of uncertain war
Were rendered equal.
And, lo, man was wont
Armed to mount upon the ribs of horse
And guide him with the rein, and play about
With right hand free, oft times before he tried
Perils of war in yoked chariot;
And yoked pairs abreast came earlier
Than yokes of four, or scythed chariots
Whereinto clomb the men-at-arms. And next
The Punic folk did train the elephants-
Those curst Lucanian oxen, hideous,
The serpent-handed, with turrets on their bulks-
To dure the wounds of war and panic-strike
The mighty troops of Mars. Thus Discord sad
Begat the one Thing after other, to be
The terror of the nations under arms,
And day by day to horrors of old war
She added an increase.
Bulls, too, they tried
In war's grim business; and essayed to send
Outrageous boars against the foes. And some
Sent on before their ranks puissant lions
With armed trainers and with masters fierce
To guide and hold in chains- and yet in vain,
Since fleshed with pell-mell slaughter, fierce they flew,
And blindly through the squadrons havoc wrought,
Shaking the frightful crests upon their heads,
Now here, now there. Nor could the horsemen calm
Their horses, panic-breasted at the roar,
And rein them round to front the foe. With spring
The infuriate she-lions would up-leap
Now here, now there; and whoso came apace
Against them, these they'd rend across the face;
And others unwitting from behind they'd tear
Down from their mounts, and twining round them, bring
Tumbling to earth, o'ermastered by the wound,
And with those powerful fangs and hooked claws
Fasten upon them. Bulls would toss their friends,
And trample under foot, and from beneath
Rip flanks and bellies of horses with their horns,
And with a threat'ning forehead jam the sod;
And boars would gore with stout tusks their allies,
Splashing in fury their own blood on spears
Splintered in their own bodies, and would fell
In rout and ruin infantry and horse.
For there the beasts-of-saddle tried to scape
The savage thrusts of tusk by shying off,
Or rearing up with hoofs a-paw in air.
In vain- since there thou mightest see them sink,
Their sinews severed, and with heavy fall
Bestrew the ground. And such of these as men
Supposed well-trained long ago at home,
Were in the thick of action seen to foam
In fury, from the wounds, the shrieks, the flight,
The panic, and the tumult; nor could men
Aught of their numbers rally. For each breed
And various of the wild beasts fled apart
Hither or thither, as often in wars to-day
Flee those Lucanian oxen, by the steel
Grievously mangled, after they have wrought
Upon their friends so many a dreadful doom.
(If 'twas, indeed, that thus they did at all:
But scarcely I'll believe that men could not
With mind foreknow and see, as sure to come,
Such foul and general disaster.- This
We, then, may hold as true in the great All,
In divers worlds on divers plan create,-
Somewhere afar more likely than upon
One certain earth.) But men chose this to do
Less in the hope of conquering than to give
Their enemies a goodly cause of woe,
Even though thereby they perished themselves,
Since weak in numbers and since wanting arms.
-- Lucretius, "De Rerum Natura", 5.1281-5.1349,
trans. William Ellery Leonard, 1916.
Friday, October 3, 2014
Chop wood, carry water
Image: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/x4vctmsx3xw/maxresdefault.jpg
Sound: http://youtu.be/pZ28stet7-E
"Now, boys, you won't see this operation performed very often and
there's a reason for that…. You see it has absolutely no medical
value. No one knows what the purpose of it originally was or if it had
a purpose at all. Personally I think it was a pure artistic creation
from the beginning."
- http://realitystudio.org/texts/naked-lunch/benway-operates/
"The best laid plans of mice and men and Henry Bemis, the small man in
the glasses who wanted nothing but time. Henry Bemis, now just a part
of a smashed landscape, just a piece of the rubble, just a fragment of
what man has deeded to himself. Mr. Henry Bemis in the Twilight Zone."
- http://jdsarmiento.com/blog/?p=1125
Sound: http://youtu.be/pZ28stet7-E
"Now, boys, you won't see this operation performed very often and
there's a reason for that…. You see it has absolutely no medical
value. No one knows what the purpose of it originally was or if it had
a purpose at all. Personally I think it was a pure artistic creation
from the beginning."
- http://realitystudio.org/texts/naked-lunch/benway-operates/
"The best laid plans of mice and men and Henry Bemis, the small man in
the glasses who wanted nothing but time. Henry Bemis, now just a part
of a smashed landscape, just a piece of the rubble, just a fragment of
what man has deeded to himself. Mr. Henry Bemis in the Twilight Zone."
- http://jdsarmiento.com/blog/?p=1125
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