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We are “seduced” by the charm of appearances, only to realize that there is nothing beyond appearances and that our own best maneuver is to practice surface manipulation ourselves, to seduce in turn some portion of the system by becoming so much like it, so perfect a clone, that it is forced to change or to reveal some new facet in order to maintain its authority over us.
We are becoming like cats, slyly parasitic, enjoying an indifferent domesticity. Nice and snug in the social, our historic passions have withdrawn into the glow of an artificial coziness, and our half-closed eyes now seek little other than the peaceful parade of television pictures.
any thoughts
anyone dare to think it..
it has to be influenced by drugs!
I'm just trying to get some answers to some of my questions from a group of people who are obviously intelligent
What surrounds me
Is my understanding
Not what surrounds me
Literally
Take soap operas, a life on screen has more value and more impact than that of a real life. The value I place is that of consequence.
more fitting a description of Hollywood than I have ever read.
I'm talking about the world that surround's you right now. It is the dream we dream together. To see thing's nicer than they truely are. All of the language and cultural thought's you inherit form the way your eyes percieve the world.
what is red to a child who know's nothing of colours, it doesn't exist, nor does the BMW you strive for it is but a visual representation of stature.
A symbol
Kinda like designing in Flash...a symbol is merely an instance of the original...while it inherits it's "nature" from the original it can metamorphose into anything it needs to be to fill the void in the current scene.
How do we go about changing this 'agreed perception'?
Desert of Discourse?
Has it been entrusted to us as the bearers of the shadows on the wall? Are we the newfound creators of the voyeurs delight?
Then again, what is red to the person that knows of color? Nothing more than electrical impulses fed to the mind that creates the reality we are so familiar with. Your red may be quite different than mine, so too your reality.
When we look in the mirror we still only see a reflection of the person we create for other people to see. Reality is subjective, so too the art that we create to reflect our reality, or in some cases, project reality. We become so skilled in creating our facades that it becomes difficult, sometimes painful to dig beneath the facade and see what is left of "reality".
>>i think you must establish why it exists in the first instance.
First I think you would have to establish that it does exist, and in what state. Social constructs only "exist" in the form of allegiance to an idea, established order, in effect, only what we've written on what was once tabula rasa. We decide which "reality" to enforce and to which reality we will place our faith in. The will to change that reality, if communicated and acted upon would come to nothing more than today's revolutionaries becoming tomorrow's conservatives.
>>There is more focus on the realm of un-real, than that of the current and now
That's the reality that you write :) You haven't bothered to define 'reality' yet so I'm quite interested in hearing about those things that are un-real. In essence, if we can think of it, it exists.
Each of us
A cell of awareness
Imperfect and incomplete.
Genetic blends
With uncertain ends
On a fortune hunt that's far too fleet.
Rush
We are “seduced” by the charm of appearances, only to realize that there is nothing beyond appearances and that our own best maneuver is to practice surface manipulation ourselves, to seduce in turn some portion of the system by becoming so much like it, so perfect a clone, that it is forced to change or to reveal some new facet in order to maintain its authority over us.
Cybernetics - dictionary.com
The theoretical study of communication and control processes in biological, mechanical, and electronic systems, especially the comparison of these processes in biological and artificial systems.From Greek to govern
you don't want to read about biological regulation then ;) Not much different from the idea of the matrix, just processes, actions, reactions. Doesn't mean that sometimes they don't go wrong.
Even if humans were cloned, the environment we live in changes the way we are and live, so until we live in something like the Truman show (which is controlled by a human anyway), something like the Matrix would be damn hard to maintain over the years.
>colour/reality
touchy subject, anyone got a black and white TV ;)
...but such questions have been debated since antiquity, so I don't think modern society/technology/entertainment is the cause of your feelings of unreality.
Same here. As simple as that.
But I will give it a second thought if my parachute wont open someday, and in the meantime, avoid skydiving.
If any of you have any recommended reading I would be more than happy to hear your recomendations.
Where do you go when you need info, go to the guys(you lot) who are building the largest resource of information known to man the net.
Thanks
Johnor
:Þ
If any of you have any recommended reading I would be more than happy to hear your recomendations.
I don't know about these being philosophical in nature, but you sound like someone who'd like reading something with a bit of a mind-wrap.
Sci-fi..new author, Ivan Cat. first book, "Eyes of Light and Darkness" is just a thrill to read because it was his first book and he nailed it. You want philosophy-- observe a humans' first few successes. It'll do all sorts of things for you! It's really good sci-fi.
His second book, I can't put a title out there for you, but sure you can find it by author name. Here, the hook is how he builds on the culture of his characters.
Another place to go when feeling philosophical-- the past. Or odder yet, modern representations of the past. I'd hit Colleen McCoullough's "First Man in Rome". Historical fiction for people who don't really care for fiction.
(Might try various spellings of her name if searching online)
If you do check out First Man in Rome, be sure start at the glossary. Interesting to see how we've mis-used terms like "decimate" for so many years...
Have fun!
Dian :)
If any of you have any recommended reading I would be more than happy to hear your recomendations.
Metaphysics by Peter van Inwagen
Mortal Questions by Thomas Nagel
Anarchy State and Utopia by Robert Nozick
From a Logical Point of View by W.V.O.Quine
How are we to live? by Peter Singer
