Excerpts
from my discussions on the SSE forum
Since late May 2006 I have been participating in discussions on the forum of the Society for Scientific Explroation.
They are an organisation with the intention "to provide a professional forum for presentations, criticism, and debate concerning topics which are for various reasons ignored or studied inadequately within mainstream science."
Below is a list of selected excerpts from my own comments in the discussion - I do not include the full discussions because they took place in a closed forum for SSE members. I have also reduced all names to their initials.
Bold entries are of more interest, in my opinion.
(#1207) Paradigms, Consciousness and
Non-Duality
A discussion on paradigms and 'normality';
then consciousness; and then describes a non-dualistic
conceptualisation of consciousness and reality.
(#1215) Higher Level Evolution - Second
Cambrian Explosion
A discussion on civilisation as a
higher level organism that is evolving.
(#1221) Growth and Decay of
Civilisation
Through organisation and technology the
civilisational organism grows. When this societal metabolic process
breaks down the organism dies.
(#1228) Informal/Formal Structures and
Organic/Mechanistic Perspectives
The power play between
informal and formal structures, also ways of conceptualising the
situation as an organism or a machine.
(#1229) Transitional Phases are Unbalanced
- with awareness we may participate
As the system evolves it
will undergo radical changes. We have adequate awareness to
participate in the process and guide it to some extent.
(#1230) Judicial Reasoning - Bluring
symbols and reality
We experience reality, form ideas then
words - then we confuse the word, idea and experience with the
reality which remains ultimately unknowable.
(#1240) Can human civilization be
recreated?
It would be very different next time - the
conditions would force inner development over outer development.
(#1250) Civilizational cycles and the
direction of the process
Do civilisations evolve in cycles?
What is the general direction of evolution?
(#1258) Approaching the future
How
do we conceive of and approach the future? How to achieve a holistic
understanding?
(#1273) Comments prior to the
Meta-Analysis on Skepticism and Cynicism
An argument arose and
I stepped in, which led to the meta-analysis of Skepticism and
Cynicism.
(#1279) Underlying Context for the
Discussion on Civilisation
Making explicit the complex
underlying context beneath all 'real-world' issues in an attempt to
get beyond shallow symbolic word games.
(#1305) Introducing Meta-Analysis:
Skepticism and Cynicism
Introduction and some overall comments
on the document Meta-Analysis: Skepticism and Cynicism.
Meta-Analysis: Skepticism and
Cynicism
An analysis of cynical tactics - exploring the
difference between skepticism and cynicism and common cynical tactics
that are used to stifle debate and avoid issues whilst seemingly
scoring political points.
(#1318) Sustainability and Balance of
Power
Discussion of informal and formal approaches to
organisation and their appropriate balance for global sustainability.
(#1367) Process Metaphysics and
Computational Paradigm
There are no 'continuously acting
processes', reality is event driven and computational in nature.
(#1406) Computational
Metaphysics
Discussion of some general principles of
metaphysics from a computational perspective.
(#1415) SMN, Free Will and Unification
of Paradigms
Discussion of some general principles of SMN,
free will and the unification of conceptual frameworks.
(#1418) SMN, Computational Metaphysics,
Free Will and Duality
Discussion of some more general
principles of SMN, computational metaphysics, free will and duality.
(#1427) Labels, Essence, Awareness,
Computation, SMN
Discussion about labels or symbols,
cosmic essence, nature of awareness, computational analogy and the
role of SMN in all of this.
(#1428) Free Will, Attitude, Awareness,
Self Control, Causality, Karma, Cosmic Will, Computation and
Consciousness
Discussion about free will, inner attitude,
causality, self control, karma, the cosmic balance, and some comments
on computation, consciousness and SMN.
(#1430) Metaphysics of Virtual
Reality
If a computer creates a virtual reality within
which artificially intelligent beings contemplate their situation,
how would such a world seem to them? What metaphysical concepts would
they arive at? What would it be like to be an AI being in a virtual
world?
(#1433) Introducing Mathematics of
Intention
Introduces the document 'Mathematics of Intension'
and discusses the permutation space and the mystic world view.
Mathematics of
Intension
This discussion explores the mathematics of
influences applied to probability distributions. I develop a
mathematical model of will power, which describes the action of
intentional influence or the use of will power to influence the state
of a system. The model describes detailed relations between the
quantities focus, force, will, will power, influence and effect. The
model gives rise to quantifiable and testable predictions regarding
the degree of effect on systems in different scenarios. These could
be experimentally tested using REG machines or other such
experiments. In this way I propose a possible method for the
scientific analysis of will power and intentional influence.
(#1437) The Chinese Room, Experience,
Knowledge and Communication
Discusses the issues of what
is experience, how does a system experience itself, what is
participation in a context, what is knowledge, how does a system know
itself, what is communication and then the Chinese Room thought
experiment showing that it is not a refutation of the possibility for
AI.
(#1443) The Chinese Room, Turing Test
and Communication
Discusses the Chinese Room thought
experiment, the Turing Test, communication ability and sentience.
(#1459 & 1467) Introducing an Argument
that Reality is a Computational Process
This introduces a
mathematical and conceptual proof that reality can be thought of as a
computational process.
Computational
Processes
This is a mathematical and conceptual proof that
reality can be thought of as a computational process and that the
class of general computational processes is broader than algorithmic
processes. It also gives an argument indicating that a computational
reality does not imply simple pre-determinism but rather
'self-determinism'.
(#1470) Religion/Spirituality,
Energy/Information and the Unification of Material and Spiritual
Science
Discusses the relationship between religion and
spirituality, the underlying energy/information dynamics that
produces the material world, some Chinese research, my own work and
the unification of Material and Spiritual Science.
(#1495) Relative/Absolute Reality,
Empirical/Transcendent, Experience/Knowledge, Unification of Material
and Spiritual Sciences and the Coming Paradigm Shift
Discusses
the relationship between relative and absolute reality, between
experience and knowledge, between wisdom and reality, religion and
personal spiritual experience, material and spiritual sciences, and
the coming paradigm shift.
(#1570) The World is my Guru and my
Sustenance, Attaining Transcendent Experience, Aspects of the Model
of Intention
Discusses my own experiences of growing
understanding and the principles for attaining transcendent
experience. Then discusses some aspects of the model of intentional
influence upon a system.
(#1638) Trusting the flow, the Cosmic
Dance, the natural holistic process (#1638)
The cosmic dance,
the flow, is not separate from oneself and participating in the flow
isn't about pursuing some project and distrusting the surrounding
world. Each part of the universe has its role to play.
(#1639) Breaking the Code of Secrecy,
the Cosmic Dance includes Light and Dark, the Process of Awakening,
the Human Collective Paradigm Shift, plus some comments from the I
Ching (#1639)
Sacred knowledge, once kept secret is
flowing into the collective consciousness for a reason, the light of
wisdom is moving to confront the darkness of ignorance. This is a
natural part of the times and is beyond human control. There is a
paradigm shift happening. The I Ching shares its wisdom regarding
this process.
(#1640) Paradigm Shifts and the
Changing Nature of what is 'Fact' (#1640)
Discusses the
difficulty in 'keeping to the facts' when negotiating a paradigm
shift. In regards to metaphysics, the confusion of myth with fact
traps us in old paradigms. A 'fact' is the result of ignorance and
power struggle. Ultimately there are only experiences of an
underlying reality, ideas arising from those experiences and
mythologies that weave these ideas into coherent world views - that
is a paradigm.
(#1663) System Theoretic Metaphysics
and the Unification of the Transcendent and Empirical
Sciences
Discusses the ramifications of adopting general
system theory as one's metaphysical foundation. This helps to situate
both the materialist and spiritualist paradigms within a single
system theoretic paradigm and thereby unify the two.